Jasper celebrated Locavore Week from March 7 to 10, with a host of information sessions and some great discussions on local food with the Jasper Local Food Society (JLFS) and guests.

Hosted at the Habitat for the Arts, Locavore Week featured a community dinner; a gardening tips information session with local gardening gurus, including Gord Ruddy and Quinto and Rita Odorizzi, a presentation from the Robson Valley Growers and discussion about this summer’s farmers’ market; a chance to learn more about local food initiatives in Jasper; and this year’s community gardens.

Ursula Winkler, JLFS board member, spoke at the last Locavore Week session, introducing the first community garden meeting of the year.

“We [the JLFS] want to promote food security and the joy of gardening and attract new youth to the skill,” she said of the gardens. “Our mission is to provide Jasperites with access to land so they can plant and grow and we also want to increase local food security awareness and reduce our footprint.”

Winkler outlined the start-up year of the JLFS, starting with trial plots at Jasper Elementary School and École Desrochers (that they hope the schools will take on this year).

The JLFS also started the community gardens behind the library last year, where 23 people were provided with space to grow their bounty.

“People took a lot of food home from their eight by four boxes,” said Winkler. “They had great soil, few weeds and though we had hurdles with the weather, everything recovered.”

The year ahead may pose challenges for the community gardens, with the library expansions forcing the JLFS garden plots to a new location.

Winkler said that the Anglican church has donated a portion of their property this year, but the JLFS will continue to work with the town to secure a permanent space for the gardens.

The JLFS plans to give plots back to the people that participated last year and want to continue this year and with the new space at the church, they hope to expand to 50 plots for the 2011 growing season.

“We are a not-for profit organization,” said Winkler. “We are trying to keep it [the community gardens] truly grassroots and community owned. It is a community initiative that we need everyone to feed into so we are trying to raise interest early.”

The JLFS has been offered a spot in the industrial park and they are definitely considering it, but Winkler said that part of the society’s mandate is that the community gardens have to be visible, easy and convenient to access and have access to water. The church site will allow for rainwater catching.

The JLFS is currently taking names for the list of people that would like a garden and interested gardeners should contact the JLFS by the end of March. Membership to the society secures plots for returning members and are required to get on the list for a plot. To have a community garden, residents must also sign up to help with at least two work bees.

In the year ahead, the JLFS will participate in a number of other initiatives including the garden share program, information sessions and the farmers’ markets, which will once again be held at the Jasper Legion in the summer.

The JLFS began the market last year with the Robson Valley Growers.

“They are land rich,” said Winkler. “And the partnership with them fused really well. We also partnered with the Legion to have the market there and that worked out beautifully, and featured local artisans as well.”

The Robson Valley Growers will be back for the markets this year, under the notion of the make it, bake it, or grow it concept of the farmers’ market. The JLFS is looking for volunteers and local vendors, and are also looking for a person to co-ordinate the Garden Share program for May and June. The group invites knowledgeable green thumbs to participate in information sessions this year.

The group will have another meeting in two weeks to formally elect their board members, location and time to be announced, and interested community members are welcomed to attend and purchase memberships or they can drop by More Than Mail to sign up.

Read more about the farmers’ market on page 18 of the Fitzhugh. Check out the group’s blog at jasperlocalfood.wordpress.com, visit their Facebook page or email jasperlocalfood@gmail.com