Growing tasties with Sooke students

Matthew Kemshaw has spent his summer tending to libraries. They take a lot of maintenance—he even had four students enrolled in a work experience program, and two volunteers. They’re not really libraries, though. He likens himself to a lab technician, but they aren’t precisely laboratories either. 

They’re gardens. But don’t picture your standard second-graders growing peas in styrofoam cups.

Kemshaw’s gardens have flax, quinoa, tea, lemongrass, gooseberries, catnip, pink popcorn, tomatillos, quince and persimmon. He has strawberries, blueberries and currants, potatoes—pink, purple and standard browns—herbs, carrots, tomatoes, leeks, squash, wheat, sunflowers, olive trees and citrus. 

While he toured me through the garden in the back field of Edward Milne Community School in Sooke, a student occasionally called out with a question, and he would leave me watching a hummingbird suck on a hibiscus flower. 

The work-experience students and passionate volunteers had helped maintain the gardens over the summer so they’re ready for learning in the fall. They weeded, harvested, let some plants go to seed, sold produce at their market stand and planted seeds. 

One student had pulled out a long sorrel root with nodes every few inches where new leaves sprouted. Kemshaw was impressed with her weeding skills, her ability to get the whole two feet, unbroken. They investigated, holding the long, thin root, and he identified parts of the plant’s anatomy.

Kemshaw is hired by the Edward Milne Community School Society as a garden coordinator. He works with teachers to integrate food systems into their curriculum, rotating through classes at the garden, much like a librarian or lab teacher might.

He’s passionate about getting students engaged in food systems and agriculture. “The goal is to get them interested in addressing some challenges of the global food system. Industrial food systems are killing our planet,” he said.

Students have been very interested in food as medicine, so they’re growing chamomile, mint and more. They’re learning about pollinator plants, and plants to support the local fauna. They’re using plants for technology, like flax for fabric. They like making their own tea, one surprising reason they have catnip in the garden. And he wants them to have an idea of how much work goes into food, which is one reason they have a small plot of quinoa, a food that takes several steps to be ready for eating.

The garden at Edward Milne Community School started years ago with hefty support from locals, and now with Kemshaw at the helm it could develop into a meaningful producer of food for the school. Production will be balanced with learning, Kemshaw said. Part of the garden will always be set aside as a demonstration of what and how food happens.