SP0135: Macdonald Campus Druids

Status: COMPLETED 

Macdonald Campus Druids is a project which expands the capacity of MSEG's (Macdonald's Student-run Ecological Garden) fields to grow spices and herbs for production of a variety of retail plants and food products. Locally grown, pre-packaged dry spices/herbs, teas, and the plants used to make them will be available to buy in bulk at campus markets, along with a booklet and workshops that educate the student community on their properties and medicinal uses.

Read the full project description

There is a demand for high quality, fresh herbs and teas in the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue area of Montréal and the MSEG's (Macdonald Student-run Ecological Garden) Campus Druids are taking on the challenge! The Macdonald campus has long been a site of agricultural excellence in Montréal, and this project has its students bringing Permaculture - a design system for ecological and sustainable living, integrating plants, animals, buildings, people, and communities - to the forefront of design for efficiency and sustainability in the production of a MSEG teas and spices.

Along with a line of commercial products, education plays a major role in this project. Workshops held from spring to fall involve are aimed at involving as many people as possible in the development and maintenance of the garden. Participants will work with the permaculture classes at Mac Campus to gain hands-on practice planting spiral herb gardens, working the dehydrator and understanding the medicinal properties of the herbs.

To wrap up the project, a final booklet will describe the plants, their properties, and how to grow them as well as fiscal matters such as MSEG's marketing strategies and results. Pre-packaged herbs and teas along with the plants used to make them will be available for sale on campus and at designated markets.

MSEG team leaders Rébecca and Lorine have lots of experience and passion for farming. Lorine is already deeply invested in permaculture projects, having co-initiated the Permaculture class Project at Macdonald Campus, and with her help this latest venture aims to be financially viable by 2015. Particular attention will be placed on preparing plants for the winter so that they can be used the following season and future generations will be able to pick up the project where it left off.

Classes are held from January 2014 to April, on alternate Saturdays in the Ceilidh of the Macdonald campus (Sainte Anne de Bellevue) from 10AM to 1PM

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