Thomas Trauttmansdorff, a canoe guide from Ucluelet, B.C., who grew up on a farm in Ontario, tocks up on seeds and soil at a garden centre in Tofino. <\/p>\n
Photography by Melissa Renwick\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n
After growing up on a farm in Jerseyville, Ont., Thomas Trauttmansdorff still has vague memories of running around the cow barns as a child.<\/p>\n
As soon as he was old enough to push hay bails around, Mr. Trauttmansdorffs father, Fritz, put him to work the way his own father had done.<\/p>\n
Working with family always has its ups and downs, said Mr. Trauttmansdorff, who later wandered in a different direction to pursue his passion for snowboarding. The 35-year-old moved to the West Coast in 2010, eventually landing in Ucluelet, B.C., after finding his niche as a kayak-turned-canoe guide.<\/p>\n
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But as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 230 in British Columbia this week, his life has come full circle. Self-sufficiency has been brought back to the forefront of his mind.<\/p>\n
Were out here at the end of the road where our supply chain is a little more vulnerable than a lot of big cities, he said from his Vancouver Island community. We are very dependent on these supply chains, and just taking a few little steps toward self-reliance is never a bad idea.<\/p>\n
At OCN Garden Centre in Tofino, seed packets are flying off the shelves. Mr. Trauttmansdorff gets some advice from Trina Mattson, the owner, on how to plant them.<\/p>\n
At home, Mr. Trauttmansdorff writes labels to make sure he gives each vegetable seed the proper care. 'Taking a few little steps toward self-reliance is never a bad idea,' he says of his community.<\/p>\n
With his newfound motivation and the extra time off work to put those steps into action, Mr. Trauttmansdorff got the ball rolling by planting kale, tomatoes, carrots and a variety of other vegetables that he nurses from his dining room.<\/p>\n
Needing somewhere to keep the seeds growing, it puts a little pressure on myself to follow through on building a greenhouse, he said.<\/p>\n
Leah Austin, co-ordinator for the Tofino Community Food Initiative, also on B.C.'s Vancouver Island, said that with widespread pandemics such as COVID-19, people are starting to think differently about where their food comes from.<\/p>\n
Weve grown within this society where we dont have the space and time to have a garden, she said.<\/p>\n
Recently, Ms. Austin introduced a tower garden to her living room, which has 52 holes for plants to grow from.<\/p>\n
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Leah Austin, co-ordinator for the The Tofino Community Food Initiative, and her nine-year-old daughter, Gemma, water the tower garden inside their home in Tofino.<\/p>\n
While businesses within Ucluelet and Tofino are shutting down, Trina Mattson has kept the OCN Garden Centre in Tofino open. She said that it was a difficult decision, but community members asked her to stay open. People are able to call in their orders, which are later passed through the gate so there is no person-to-person contact involved. <\/p>\n
Many people retreat to their gardens to reduce stress, she said, and as anxiety around COVID-19 rises, the last thing we wanted to do was take away any type of normalcy, she said.<\/p>\n
While Mr. Trauttmansdorff may not yield a harvest like the ones he used to grow on his fathers farm, its a minor step toward being able to provide for yourself if worst comes to worst, he said.<\/p>\n
Ive always felt that kind of gap of not farming in my life since I moved off the family farm, he said. Theres something very satisfying about seeing your years worth of work come off the field as a nice big crop and know that [its] going to feed people.\"<\/p>\n
Mr. Trauttmansdorff organizes some seeds for planting.<\/p>\n
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In the time of coronavirus, Vancouver Islands gardeners grow resilient - The Globe and Mail<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thomas Trauttmansdorff, a canoe guide from Ucluelet, B.C., who grew up on a farm in Ontario, tocks up on seeds and soil at a garden centre in Tofino. Continue reading