Chickaloon to build 4-season greenhouse

CHICKALOON -- The Chickaloon Village Environmental Department has received a grant to build a greenhouse to provide fresh organic produce to Chickaloon residents year-round.

The ecologically-designed, renewable-energy powered greenhouse is part of Chickaloon's sustainable foods initiative, which focuses on growing local sustainable foods in the sub-arctic region.

"What we eat has an impact not only on our bodies but also on our land," said Kim Sollien, the sustainable development coordinator for Chickaloon. The greenhouse, which will be built this summer, will provide residents an opportunity to buy produce other than non-organic, industrial food, Sollien said.

The First Nation Development Institute granted the department $78,000 to develop the greenhouse. The department received the grant in February, and will use the funds to pay for labor, construction costs and materials. They have hired an ecological builder from California to help with the design and construction of the project. The goal, Sollien said, is to use local materials to build the greenhouse, namely locally harvested logs and straw. The department will offer an ecological building construction class in either June or July. Students will help build the greenhouse in exchange for learning ecological building techniques. Once the building is complete, Chickaloon will hold regular tours of the greenhouse, which will be powered by bio-diesel, a fuel made from recycled vegetable oil.

"We hope the building will become a teacher," Sollien said.

Once built, Chickaloon will hire a gardener who will grow organic starts in the summer and leafy greens in the winter. Residents will be able to purchase the starts to use in their own gardens during summer months, and will be able to purchase the full-grown vegetables for consumption during the winter. The money made from selling the vegetables will support the greenhouse once the grant money runs out, Sollien said.

The greenhouse is only the first phase in Chickaloon's sustainable food initiative; the ultimate vision of the initiative is to also build an ecological community center with a commercial kitchen and caf/.

"This is the learning phase; what we learn now will carry onto additional phases we want to include," Sollien said.

For more information on the Chickaloon greenhouse or the ecological building construction class, contact Sollien at 745-0737.

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.