“The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one’s grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible,” said E.A. Bucchianeri. Indeed, we share the same feeling and we cannot believe that it is already the end of the term and our adventure is reaching an end.

What?

During these past few months we’ve had great experiences, met wonderful people and experienced a roller coaster of emotions. We were lucky enough to have met people from the Gambier Island Sea Ranch (GISR) community and to have had the chance to learn more about their culture and their apple tree heritage.

A couple of weeks ago we organized a meeting with Dr. David MacArthur where we finally got to graft the GISR community’s trees. We were planning to graft around 20 root stocks, but unfortunately we were able to graft only 10 as it seemed like there was an issue with the root stock order. Additionally, we had troubles finding good branches to use for grafting because most of the branches that we brought back from the island were either too old, sick or did not meet the size requirement. This was an unexpected set back for us as we were not aware of these issues beforehand.

Thankfully, our last last lecture and tutorial session was after that deceiving grafting experience and we therefore had the opportunity to set our next step goals to our project and we reflect on our last moments of significance.

In fact, during the last lecture and tutorial session we learned a couple of tips on how to end our CBEL project well. We also had the opportunity to share with the other LFS 350 students in our tutorial group about our reflections on where we were at in our projects and what are we are planning to do next. We were all glad that we got to hear about their experiences as well, and receive feedback from the other groups. This gave us the opportunity to guide ourselves to a better understanding on what to do next in terms of writing our final report and how to have an effective final communication with our community partner.

So What:

While grafting the trees we were all disappointed that we were not able to provide our community partner with the 20 root stocks that we promised them and that the branches that we brought back with us were in a poor shape. It can be challenging sometimes to inform someone relying on us that the chances of the grafts being a success is not high, but it is also important that we acknowledge that as students we do not have the resources to guarantee a success, because of our lack of expertise in the subject. However, we were still able to find 10 healthy branches that were grafted, which was in turn a moment of significance for our group.

Although we were expecting to graft 20 root stocks and to have healthy branches, our main goal was to graft healthy branches and we succeeded in doing that. This made us all feel better and more confident about our project success. Below is a picture of  one of  the root stocks that we grafted.

Picture Credits: Meghan Bonnell

Another moment of significance that our group experienced during these past weeks is during our last tutorial session. During this session we were able to discuss our project and receive feedback about it from other groups. In fact, we were reassured about our outcomes and progress as it turns out that other groups had similar issues in their projects. This reminded us that we were all in the same boat and success cannot be achieved without encountering some challenges.

At the end of the day we were really happy that we got to work with the GISR community and to have had such a great collaborative partner. We are still trying to think about how to communicate with our partner on the unexpected root stocks number, but overall the community seemed to be very positive and cooperative, therefore we are sure they will be understanding.

Our group members are also satisfied that we are progressing in our project at a good pace, by succeeding in allocating the work to individual members and also working together as a whole on the final project.

We had troubles in determining on how we are going to officially end the project with our community partners, which worries us in some ways, but after the tutorial session we had a better idea on how to finish the project with the GISR community well.

Moreover, during one of the lecture session we studied in depth a paper written by Miewald et al. (2014) that gave a great example of how to represent a food system issue in a more scientific way.

We’ve also had a couple moments of significance in the past that were discussed in previous articles, where our main challenge in our proposal crafting was that we had troubles differentiating between our project’s purpose and objective and how to develop efficient research questions. Thankfully, the paper written by Miewald et al. (2014), studied in one of our lecture sessions, definitely gave us a better insight on how to approach these majors points, but it wasn’t until reading the article written by Karg et al. (2015), where were confident enough on how to approach our challenges and start writing the report.

Now What:

As mentioned above, the reading of articles that we studied in class helped us have a better understanding on how to craft our final report and how to end our project efficiently. We gathered up as team and set clear goals for our next steps, which helped us have a better picture on what to do now. We decided that we will email our community partner with details and pictures of the grafting, where we will inform her about the troubles we had and hopefully officially end the project in good terms. We decided to create our inquiry questions as a group, then try to answer them individually in our assigned section in the report. Once the report is written we can then edit it as whole, just to make sure that we have one unique goal and objective throughout the report and our thoughts are not all over the place.

In terms of future recommendations to upcoming groups we highly recommend that they focus a bit more on providing information on how to take care of the trees, before attempting to graft them, which will hopefully increase the chances of having a successful graft. This is essential, because our main obstacle in our project was not being able to find healthy branches.

We are glad that we worked with the GISR community through our visit to the island, which helped us have a better perception on how small communities work and helped us realize why it is important for the community to conserve their orchard tree heritage.

Moreover, by working with community we developed a better vision of how food literature can affect a small scale community, which made us have a better understanding on how food literature can affect larger communities. This recalls a Ted Talk given by Carolyn Steels (2009), that we studied in one of our lecture sessions, where she states that by having a more focused small scaled understanding of a food system issue, we will have a better idea on how to tackle bigger issues that might affect the world.

Overall, by giving us hands on experience our CBEL project will hopefully help us in the future to deal with larger situations by challenging our critical thinking in order to observe large scales Food Systems.

Picture Credits: Meghan Bonnell

References:

Karg, Akoto-Dansi, & Dreshel.2015. Examining Food Sources in the City of Tamale, Ghana

Miewald, C., & Ostry, A. (2014). A Warm Meal and a Bed: Intersections of Housing and Food Security in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Housing Studies, 29(6), 709-729.

Steel. (2009). How food shapes our cities. Ted Global.

Check Out our Project’s Executive Summary Below:

A Community Based Experiential Learning (CBEL) project was carried out by five UBC students enrolled in LFS 350 with an objective to preserve certain 100-year-old heritage apple trees growing on Gambier Island (GI), which is located off the coast of British Columbia. These apple trees once contributed to the GI community’s food security when the trees were maintained by apple orchardists dating back to the early 1900’s, but have since been neglected and are at risk of fungal decay. To help meet the required objective, specific questions of concern helped guide the success of the project including, “what varieties of apples were better suited for the local microclimate on GI, what form of media as to the maintenance of the newly grafted seedlings will be best received by the residents, and in using an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, what are the resources and assets available to the GI residents?” The objective was successfully carried out by using grafting techniques on individual apple trees that were most valued by the Gambier Island Sea Ranch (GISR) residents with a total of 10 scions being grafted onto vigorous M9 rootstocks. Upon conducting personal interviews with GISR residents it was decided that presenting the maintenance and care instructions in the form of an informative document would be best received by the residents. However, the specific varieties of the apple trees that were grafted were inconclusive due to the lack of available information with the exception of one known banana apple tree and one known crab apple tree. Important and useful assets were determined to be the heightened sense of community and the commitment to preserving the heritage apple trees. Additionally, the GISR residents are organized and have the willingness to take on the extra responsibility of maintaining the newly grafted trees. This project addresses issues of food literacy among GISR residents by increasing their knowledge of proper maintenance of apple trees, which assists them in securing a healthy food source. Furthermore, worldwide academics have expressed their concern of the adverse effects monoculture orchards are imposing on the resiliency of the apple species to adapt to climate change. This project addresses this issue of food security by maintaining the lineage of the heritage apple trees through grafting, ultimately contributing to the apple species’ gene pool and finally adding to the resiliency of the apple species as a whole. Overall, our project was successfully completed by accomplishing project’s aims and objectives. Lastly, we suggested some recommendations to enhance the preservation of the historical values of Gambier Island and to improve food systems of the community by connecting with BC’s food system.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”   – Socrates

Weekly Objectives and Achievements

View of the ocean standing on Gambier Island

Each week throughout this project our group has made sure to communicate with each other on our progress. As week six was a holiday our main objective’s for week seven and eight were to one, meet with Dr. McArthur in order to learn what to look for in a scion and two, to actually make our trip to Gambier Island. During week seven our group met with Dr. McArthur and he taught us some valuable information in regards to apple tree grafting that we would need to know before embarking on our trip to the Island. On the weekend of February 27th our group met with our community partners David and Rosalie and from there we began our adventure to Gambier Island. We caught a little boat named the “Bowen Arrow” early Saturday morning and made a couple stops along the way until we reached Gambier Island. The whole ferry ride to the Island took approximately thirty-five minutes.

View of Gambier Island when docking the boat

Once arriving on the Island we could immediately feel their great sense of community as the head of the Gambier Island Sea Ranch Farm greeted us with big smiles and took our supplies in a tractor to our final destination. This kind courtesy allowed us to enjoy our walk on the Island without carrying heavy bags. We were then took on a tour of the Island and learned a lot about their history. We were also able to meet other residents on the Island get a good understanding of how their community is run. Our main goal of our trip, to collect scions from the Gambier Island historical apple orchard, was completed in the afternoon. Our team worked together very efficiently. Some of us climbed the huge ladder to snip off the scions and some of us labeled the trees and specimens and prepared them to be taken back to UBC for storage. We were able to take 5 – 7 scions from seven different trees. The first four trees were the trees our community partners specifically wanted us to preserve and the others were taken from tress that seemed to have healthy scions. Our trip was a great success and we are all excited to begin the grafting process once the root stocks arrive. In the mean time our group is continuing to develop an information package on how to care for the apple orchard and new trees that we will be sending to our community partners. Additionally, we are each working on our own individual assignment.

Reflection of our Group’s Moment of Significant Change Workshop from Session 9

Meghan enjoying the farm on Gambier Island

WHAT?

During session nine’s tutorial our group participated in a workshop that allowed us to identify our feelings and emotions throughout our project and acknowledge our moments of significant change. We then summarized what we discussed in our group into a graphical presentation which is shown below. In our feeling vs. time graph each different colour represents each individual group members feelings (excited, neutral or discouraged) throughout our project thus far and shows where we are hoping to end up once the project is complete. It is interesting to note that our lines were slightly different, however the overall pattern for each of us was very similar. Moreover, we all have a common goal for our final destination shown on the graph. We all hope to finish this project with positive feelings and have a sense that our work was a success in terms of student learning, as well as our community partners happiness. Ultimately, we all would feel great content and success to be able to help preserve this great community’s historic apple orchard.

Gambier Island apple orchard trees that are in need of a little love!

SO WHAT?

This workshop was significant as it allowed us to identify our significant moments during the project, express our feelings and make goals for the end point of our project. One of our significant moments of change displayed on our graph was identified to be our most discouraging moment. This was during the time when we received feedback for our project proposal report. We all worked on the report very hard and wrote multiple drafts for it. When we received our mark and got our feedback it was not what we were expecting. We did not do as well as we hoped and our initial goals needed to be altered. Although we were all feeling discouraged and confused on how to please our community partners, teaching staff and ourselves, we were able to bounce back and become excited for the project once again. We re-wrote our proposal report taking all aspects into consideration and were happy with our changes (see our proposal report in our previous blog post). Our whole mind set continued to increase for the better through our other significant moment of change when we actually visited Gambier Island. Our community partners were great and gave us a fantastic tour of the island and taught us a lot about their community and the history behind everything on the Island. A specific moment of significance during our trip was seeing the apple orchard that we are collaboratively trying to preserve. The trees looked more sick and unhealthy then we had expected, it was surprising that some of them were still standing up. Having this visual really helped to increase our motivation as we all really want our tree grafts to be a success in order to regenerate these amazing historical apple trees. Overall, our group as a whole had a very positive experience during our day long adventure to Gambier Island and our motivation level and excited feelings increased greatly.

NOW WHAT?

Currently, our positive feelings are slightly decreasing as we are feeling the time pressure to complete all of our goals, but we are all optimistic of a positive and exciting finish. Now that we had the opportunity to come together as a group and discuss how we are feeling about our CBEL project we can better identify what we need to do in order to have a strong finish to this project. We all believe that if we keep up our good team work skills and put in the hard work that we will finish the project off excited and satisfied with our outcomes.

Group 24’s graph of significant change throughout our CBEL project.

Strategy for Successful Project Completion – The Graceful Dismount

While there have been fluctuating up’s and down’s throughout the semester, our group has maintained a steady commitment to achieve the best possible outcome, and ultimate success of our final project report. Success can be defined in many different ways to many different people. For this project, our group as a whole measures success based upon student learning of the Gambier Island Sea Ranch community and techniques involved in apple tree grafting. In addition to student learning, it is imperative for our group to maintain a respectful relationship with our community partners. And finally, our group believes that ultimate success in this project will be measured on the successful growth of the apple trees. To achieve this success our group plans to fulfill the following objectives:

Objectives:

• Continuing to meet and collaborate with our team members each week to ensure our success factors are being met.
• Maintaining a bi-weekly interaction with our community partners to ensure their expectations are being met.
• Expressing our individual concerns and problems in our community Facebook page and finding appropriate solutions.
• Working collaboratively with Dr. McArthur to ensure the apple tree grafts are growing successfully.

In order to ensure our group finishes strong we have reviewed academic literature on the characteristics of effective writing. This will ultimately provide the utmost high quality final report (Karg et. al 2015, and Fallick & Henderson 2009)

Photo Gallery from our Trip to Gambier Island

References:

Karg, Akoto-Dansi, & Dreshel, 2015. Examining Food Source sin the City of Tamale, Ghana.

Mullinix, Fallick, & Henderson, 2009. Beyond Food Security: Urban agriculture as a form of resilience in Vancouver, Canada.

Click on the link to view:   LFS 350 – Proposal Report: Gambier Island (Group 24)

As we approach the middle of the semester, our group has achieved many goals and objectives that we had set up each week. At this point in the semester we took the opportunity to look back and reflect on a significant moment in learning. We did this by looking at what we had experienced, what we discovered and by the actions we took. Lastly, we created a timeline for the rest of the semester in order to keep up with our goals in a timely and respectful manner.

Weekly objectives and Achievements

Our weekly objectives are to meet at least once a week to discuss how we are going to complete our weekly assignments and fairly distribute and divide our tasks. We have achieved our work by updating each other about the progress on our project and assignments, as well as helping each other out when needed. We have been communicating and discussing the progress of the project and assignments efficiently through emails, Facebook, Skype and Google Documents.

Thus far we have used our time efficiently and achieved many goals. During session one, our group was able to meet each other for the first time and share each of our interests with the rest of the group. After our group discussion we found some common interests that contributed to choosing our community based experiential learning project topic. We also learned that although each one of us came from different faculties or cultures, the diversity was actually beneficial for the project as it allowed us to all contribute useful ideas from our different perspectives.

In session two, our topic was chosen, Gambier Island: Row, Row, Row Your Apples, Part 2. During this session we had the opportunity to go over various components of this project such as the project summary, organization of information, project description and expected outcomes.

During flexible learning in session three, one of our group members managed to set up a Skype meeting with the members of the Gambier Island Farm Committee to discuss the questions that we had previously organized and issues or concerns that the community had. During the Skype meeting, we were able to find out some useful information that enhanced our project plan. Additionally, our group also was able to create our blog and complete the first blog post within that week.

In session four, our group divided up our tasks according to the instructions shown on the UBC LFS 350 website and completed the first draft of our proposal. During the week, we constantly communicated with each other and checked the progress of our work using Google Documents and Facebook.

In session five, we were able to meet our TA, discuss our proposal report and get helpful feedback. After the meeting, we edited each group member’s part based on the instructions of the proposal report and feedback from our TA. Finally, we were able to submit it as a finalized report on the due date.

Reflection on a moment of significance 

We used Rolfe et al.’s (2001) model in this section.

What

In the beginning of our preparation for our proposal report our group was initially confused about what we were expected to do, especially for the Gambier Island community. None of the group members have been to Gambier Island, so it was hard to estimate or predict what kind of environment they had and what kind of goals the community possessed. Those were the factors that might not appear on the internet or in books and had to be researched through communication. Although our project objectives explained what we needed to accomplish, we were not certain on what the community specifically wanted to get out of our partnership. According to the paper written by Mathie and Cunningham (2003), it emphasized that the core of Asset-based Community Development (ABCD) approach focuses on social relationships. By bonding and bridging social capital, it is helpful to generate opportunities for the community’s development (Mathie & Cunningham, 2003). This article also suggested some methods such as collecting stories of community successes, analyzing reasons and problems and building relationships among local assets in order to focus more on community (Mathie & Cunningham, 2003). As a result of trying to follow the ABCD approach, we worked towards developing clear objectives and aims to accomplish during this project by using effective communication and trying to develop the resources and positives found on Gambier Island.

So What

Our group decided to contact one of the members of the Gambier Island Farm Committee to discuss what their goals and concerns were so that we could get a better idea of what we should accomplish and how we could cooperate with the community in a respectful manner. During the Skype meeting, we were able to recognize some issues that we could have missed. For example, two of the committee members, Rosalie and David, told us that they were having a problem with deer because they disrupte their orchards by eating fruits. Additionally, they asked us to give them an overview of what we were planning to do and a timeline for our project so that they would know what to expect and how to prepare for this project (Boulter and Darvill, Personal Communication). In week three’s TED Talk, Ernesto talked about the importance of listening and understanding a culture or a community even before designing research or community projects. It would be challenging for both the community and groups that were planning for projects if needs and supports did not match (Ernesto, 2012). Through the experience, our group learned that it was significant to listen and understand what they actually needed so that we were able to find out more valuable components that were linked to support them and plan out our project.

Now What

Through this experience, our group was able to learn how important communication was. Without this approach of communication we would have neglected issues that the community was truly concerned with. In order to achieve a successful outcome, we learned that it is significantly important to communicate with the community directly and discuss certain issues that our group or the community has instead of simply assuming or following expected outcomes that may limit our abilities. In that way, along with utilizing as ABCD approach, we can expand our ideas and achieve more goals in a positive manner.

Furthermore, initially our group was worried about many aspects that were associated with this project, such as grafting techniques, uncertainty of the island and unclear objectives of the project. However, according to week 4’s Ted Talk, it was said that messy problems can inspire creativity and adding randomness to make even messier can solve the problem better (Harford, 2016). It was also recommended to gain appreciation for unexpected advantages of having to cope with the mess (Harford, 2016). Also according to the Podcast, we should not be afraid of facing challenges and failures and rather experience failure quickly (Cohn, 2014). The reason for this is that through the failures, we can create more possible ways to solve the problem efficiently and create more possible outcomes. Therefore, although we have been expecting some failures and challenges throughout the term, we will learn from them and think of those experiences as small steps that may lead to a successful outcome.

Identify upcoming objectives and strategies to achieve them

February 22: Lesson with Dr. McArthur about proper grafting techniques.

February 27: Ferry ride to Gambier Island to collect apple tree scions. All scions should be the proper size (same diameter as rootstock), labelled accordingly, and properly stored for ease of transport and to ensure they are protected and well hydrated (To be stored at UBC in a 4-degree Celsius fridge provided by Dr. McArthur).

March 14: Greenhouse: Grafting of the scions onto appropriate standard rootstocks and potted accordingly with ¼ sand and ¾ potting soil, water with fertilized water. Apple seedlings will be stored in the greenhouse and watered once a week until they are ready to be shipped to GI and planted.

Mid March – April 1: Curate information of the grafting processes, tree maintenance, and other resources requested by GISR & make it available to GISR residents in order to increase food literacy (Incl. tools needed, tree maintenance, what to expect, things that can go wrong)

April 8: Final project presentation

April 11: Final project report due

References:

Cohn, Gretta. (2014, June 5). Failure is Your Friend: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/failure-is-your-friend-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Ernesto, Sirolli. (2012). Want to help someone? Shut up and Listen! [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM

Harford, Tim. (2016). How messy problems can inspire creativity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_j_kw_jZQ

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 477-486.

Pattantyus, Andy. (2013, March 21). Lean Goals [digital image]. Retrieved from http://strategicmodularity.com/2013/03/lean-goals/

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical
reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

In the future, if 100 year old you was able to cut off an arm and grow a completely new, young and rejuvenated you to roam the Earth for another 100 years would you choose to do it? I know I would! Unfortunately, human somatic cells do not have the inherent ability to de-differentiate and re-differentiate in order to produce a whole new human being. However, most plants can undergo this process and an entirely new plant can be grown from just a small fraction of its predecessor. The propagated plant would hold the same genetic makeup, be an exact clone of the original, and retain all of its original heritable traits! In this context, a plant could technically live forever given the right conditions and management.

Gambier Island, a beautiful off the grid island just shy of the B.C. coast is home to several 100 year old heritage apple trees that were once part of a healthy, fruitful, and functioning apple orchard. The apple orchard dates back to the early 1800’s when apples were grown by farmers for commercial use, contributing to food security for the residents of the island by offering a source of food and income (Sea Ranch History, n.d.). Today, most inhabitants on the island are seasonal, part-time residents with the 330-acre apple orchard having been partitioned among 66 lots. Of these lots, 300 acres are shared among the Gambier Island Sea Ranch (GISR), a Strata community situated on an ocean-front acreage consisting of shared orchards, gardens, and livestock. In collaboration with members of the GISR and the Land and Food Systems faculty, five students in LFS 350 have the pleasure to engage in a Community Based Experiential Learning (CBEL) project with a focus on Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and play a part in helping to rejuvenate this historical apple orchard. Our aim, as a collaborative team, is to propagate and graft the already existing apple tree scions (young branches) onto a healthy rootstock and plant these grafted seedlings in designated spots throughout the island. We will also document the grafting and planting process, making it available to all residents of the island as a means to offer knowledge for them to perform the tasks themselves in the near or distant future. Information as to the maintenance of the apple seedlings (fertilization, watering, weed and deer control) will be researched and also provided to residents to ensure well-rounded information is available in order to maintain a successful and sustainable apple orchard. If we are successful in grafting the seedlings and with the continued involvement of the GISR community, the heritage apple trees will continue to thrive and produce apples for many more years to come!

Rosalie Boulter and David Darvill are members of the GISR with a vision to enhance this multigenerational island community and are dedicated to preserving the heritage orchard. We LFS 350 students share this vision and, with the aid of both Rosalie and David, we aim to help develop and rejuvenate the apple orchard by offering our collective skills and knowledge as students from UBC with a focus on building upon what assets the island and its community already possess. Working alongside members of this community we aim to shadow their values of thoughtful stewardship while at the same time respecting their cultural diversity and being accountable and responsible for our own actions.

In a Ted Talk titled “Shut Up & Listen,” Ernesto Sirolli speaks of certain successes and failures throughout his ongoing career as a stakeholder in many NGO projects aimed to help communities around the globe. He states that the main factor that distinguished success strategies from failure was simply listening to the people who were a part of the community and not simply trying to implement change. It is the members of the GISR community that know what’s best and by taking an Asset Based Community Development approach we will thrive to focus on what they already know, build on what they already have by developing on their assets. By following these guidelines we aim for this project to be a success!

Rosalie and David already have a vision to enhance the beautiful apple orchard on Gambier Island and we are very pleased to offer our collaborative skills to help build upon what this passionate, dedicated, and culturally diverse community has envisioned for themselves. By the end of this project, our team of LFS 350 students will have gained great knowledge in the science behind grafting apple trees with the help of UBC professor Dr. McArthur, a talented horticulturalist and wine connoisseur. We also aim to have increased food literacy among the GISR community members by passing on this knowledge for future generations. This will allow them to perform the same tasks and be able to maintain a healthy apple orchard further enhancing their food security.

We have only just passed the starting line of this project, but after doing some research about the GISR and talking with both Rosalie and David we are all very excited and look forward to working within the community and engaging in this community based experiential learning project! Please join us on our journey and keep an eye out for our next blog post coming out February 12, 2016.

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References

Mathie, A., & Cunningham, G. (2003). From clients to citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a strategy for community-driven development. Development in Practice, 13(5), 474–486.

Sirolli, E. (2012) Ted Talk: Shut Up and Listen. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/chXsLtHqfdM

Sea Ranch history: About. (n.d.). Retrieved from Gambier Island Sea Ranch website: http://searanch.ca/about/