Carcross/Tagish First Nation buys some 'prime farmland'

The Carcross/Tagish First Nation isexpanding its farming enterprises.

At the beginning of August, the First Nation signed papers to purchase what some people know as the old Branigan farm. The sale is now complete, and the First Nation is talking about its plans.

"It's a little over 150 acres of prime farmland,"saidAndy Carvill, the chief of Carcross/Tagish.

The land is a few kilometres from Carcross, down the Tagish Road.

The First Nation started farming on a small scale this past summer on other locations in the community, with vegetable gardens, chickens for meat and eggs, and bees for honey.

"The honey that we've been able to produce, it quite surprised me,"saidCarvill, "as to the taste of it, and the consistencyit's really good honey."

Next year will be "start-up year" at the Branigan property,says Carvill. The First Nationalready ploughed the fields this fall, and will start planting first thing in the spring, in the hopes of having a good growing year.

The community is deciding together how touse the land, Carvill says. One idea is for the land to act as a treatment centre for people addicted to alcohol or drugs.

Skills and self-reliance

Another idea is for people to come to the farm to learn skills and not just members of the First Nation, says Carvill.

That's already been happening, withstudents working in the community gardens, says Carvill.

"I've had the pleasure of meeting with those fine young minds,"Carvill said.He says the students take skills learned in the garden back to the classroom, or to use in day-to-day life.

The whole idea around farming is to make the First Nation more self-reliant, and to find a way to bring people back to the land, says Carvill.

Carcross is about a 45 minute drive fromWhitehorse. It doesn't have a local grocery store.

"A lot of times in the winter, when I go into Whitehorse to purchase vegetables, a lot of it comes out of the States, or Mexico, or Chile, or places like that," saidCarvill.

With more than 60 hectaresof land to work with, Carvillhopes First Nation members canhave locally-grown food on their tables, year-round.

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