Cortes Island

Live it while you learn it!

Gaia Collge Food Growing Course on Cortes Island

Immerse yourself in sustainable living while learning to grow your own great organic food. Channel Rock, on Cortes Island is a splendid spot to learn to grow! Located on a spectacular 140-acre conservancy of mature forest and mossy bluffs along a long expanse of breathtaking coastline, Channel Rock is a living example of sustainability. It is completely off the grid and relies primarily on solar power. During your “out of classroom” hours you will find lots to do. Hike the trails around Channel Rock and find a wilderness of giant trees growing from a moss- and fern-carpeted forest floor. Hop in a kayak to experience the clear green and blue waters and tiny islands dotting the shore of our 140 acres of breathtaking coastal conservancy. Sea lions,Orca, dolphins, eagles and a myriad of aquatic birds are common to our waters. Alternatively you can sit and read a book in front of the fireplace while absorbing the beautiful view. This location is truly special.

Outdoor classes will be held in the large heritage Permaculture Garden and indoor classes will be held in one of the fantastic handcrafted buildings. During classes we will be exploring the practical aspects of growing great organic food. We will start by introducing different possibilities for things to grow, and then work into a planning session so that your garden is well thought out, and focuses on what you and your family want and need to grow. We will talk about crop rotation, composting and soil building, and managing water in your garden. We will build a compost pile, build a garden bed or two, build some trellising and crop shelters, set up a simple irrigation system, brew some compost tea and other beneficial garden brews, and propagate some plants. We will explore and discover some wild edibles and the possibilities of growing food indoors. We will do a class on food preservation, and will celebrate with lots of good food grown at Channel Rock’s own fabulous organic gardens. The price of this course includes your accommodations, as well as food, and I can confidently say that the food is some of the best you will ever encounter.

I will be your teacher for this course, and my story in Horticulture is a long on. I have grown, or helped to grow a lot of my own food since I was a child. I want back to school to study Horticulture in the early eighties with the idea of starting a market garden, and then found myself teaching Horticulture at Vancouver Island University for twenty years. I started teaching for Gaia College 5 years ago and I thoroughly enjoy teaching the cutting edge organic information in their courses. I have sold salad greens to restaurants, sold plants and food at farmer’s markets, grown most of my own vegetables for quite a few years now, and most recently grown food for up to thirty people daily at a retreat centre on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

This course is open to everyone, no matter what your level of knowledge about gardening, and I guarantee you will learn something in this course no matter how long you have been a gardener.

I sincerely hope that you can join us!

Connie Kuramoto

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