OUR Eco Village

O.U.R.

ECOVILLAGE had the amazing privilege to participate in the “Cowichan Food Innovation Program” within the pilot for the program! All the secret sauce of the workings of the program came from the amazing ability to….work locally and think about creating within circular economy principles. The diversity of food and beverage businesses, organizations, and farmers really makes the Cowichan unique when we all work together and the Economic Development Department of the CVRD really gave us all the lift-off to fly! The pandemic really has shifted so many farmers, foodies, and educators focus - but for O.U.R. team it gave us the chance to pair everything we have been up to into one offering AND now to work with as many other local businesses, farmers, and cooperatives as we can ‘permaculturalize’ into the weekly schedule. 2021 saw the ‘Community Supported Agriculture - CSA Food Box’ membership project (which we had kept humbly small before) expand and begin bringing together lots of great contributions of product/services from other locals. CSA’s are about purchasing ahead of a season and sharing the risk with a farmer so adding in other

OUR Eco Village

businesses just makes great sense as a way to simply support a number of local businesses at the same time. In O.U.R. case we even add in ‘Educational Programming’ with a whole online community portal of videos, recipes, and even ‘Introduction to Permaculture’ classes! All this and then add on onland programming with ‘petting and picking’ days where you can bring the family and work with O.U.R. livestock/poultry or even jump in to berry and fruit picking. Multiple days per month your membership includes the opportunity to jump into the amazing art & culture extravaganza of “AWAKENING the Dragon” where we sculpt (with earthen/cob materials), mosaic, and craft an amazing climate change adaptation hero’s journey and befriend the dragon. And now….. with 2022 the “Educational CSA Food Box Program” has already began taken on more partners, businesses and farms. The offerings for educational programming provides great tools for families (especially homeschoolers!) and teachers are even more abundant and if there is something you would like to see added or want to contribute please let the team know. 2022 is looking like a brave new year - stay tuned for the full permitting of O.U.R. Zero Mile Meal Eatery and new outdoor patio spaces on the farm.

We are all looking forward to seeing you in person, especially at O.U.R. ‘Slow Food DriveThru’ (no fastfood drive-thru here!) - and online in the member portal to co-create the magic….

www.ourecovillage. org or info@ ourecovillage. org or office: 250-888-7798

locally grown, organic and delicious Ol’ MacDonald Farm

Happy New Year from Ol’ MacDonald Farm. Need eggs or garlic? Give us a call! Otherwise see you at the market in March!