Gardening Above the Arctic Circle - Inuvik Community Greenhouse

Photo: Marg and Homer. Gnomes from the Inuvik Greenhouse Fall Fair gnome decorating contest.

People love to read about food gardening in the Canadian Arctic. We put up a web page for the Inuvik Community Greenhouse when it first went into operation back in 1998 and it is still a well-visited page. In 2002, coordinator Carrie Young wrote me to say, “I should tell you that I’ve had a lot of feedback from your site. Many people have found out about our project through it and contacted me.”

And the project continues to attract attention. The following Reuters’ story, ‘Raising vegetables under Canada’s midnight sun’ by Allan Dowd, September 4, 2008, paints the picture yet again.

INUVIK, Northwest Territories (Reuters) - Amanda Joynt reached down and picked a fresh tomato from the vine. That’s no small feat when you are living 200 km (120 miles) above the Arctic Circle in Canada’s Far North.

Joynt, a resident of Inuvik is a member of the town’s community greenhouse, a former ice hockey arena that has been converted into an oasis of vegetables and flowers on the permafrost.

See complete Reuters’ story and photos here.

Photo: The greenhouse in an ice hockey arena.

Link to City Farmer’s web page about the Inuvik Greenhouse project here.

Link to Inuvik Community Greenhouse Website here.