Sailing into a Reality.

" if someone dreams alone it is just a dream but a dream shared together, it is a start of a new reality"

The sun rises alongside the west shore of Kootenay Lake where the crews of the four boats spent the first evening of the 2.5-day journey.

Four sailboats started sailing from Nelson along the Kootenay lake, British Columbia. A popular pastime in Nelson but on March the 5th 2009 it became a lot more than just another sail trip to sailor David Oosthuizen and his crew. David and few other sailors volunteered to transport grains from Creston to Nelson for the members the local Grain CSA using sailboats. This maiden voyage intended to reduce dependency of local food on fossil fuels was documented on board by radio host, journalist and fellow food lover Jon Steinman from Deconstructing Dinner for full story in Audio.

Jon Steinman (right) records the journey on board the boat of David Oosthuizen.

Grain CSA is an experiment started when Matt Lowe of West Kootenay Ecosociety during a Local Food challenge for a month realized there wasn't any grain grown locally. Following the model of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) an experiment was launched to create a local grain market in the middle of the mountains of BC.


Matt teamed up with Brenda Bruns from Wildsight, Creston and gathered number of farmers, processors, bakers and eaters, to see if it was possible. Creston area farmers commit to growing five types of grain and 200 member shares issued between the residents of Nelson and Creston each of 80 pounds value for the first year.

Next came the idea of making the process less dependent on fossil fuel and in came the local Kootenays sailing club members to transport the grain from the nearest harbour from Creston farms. The team along with Jon on board sail away into 56 hour journey to get grains for their community. Their confidence had a fragrance of flowers yet to bloom. Their journey was a journey into the past due to absence of power engines yet not guided by the stars or mercy of nature. The team kept in touch with mobile phones, computers and used GPS for navigation. Many lessons were learnt along the way when grain bags while loading almost went down to the depths of Kootenay lake.

Bags of grain at Kuskanook harbour and Farmer Drew Gailius standing at Kuskanook harbour alongside grain grown at Full Circle Farm.

Result was way more than expected their were proud local farmers with their produce alongside excited community members eager to participate. People all around the world are looking for freshest, tastiest and most nutritious product available. As one of the farmers involved in the project put to words we all are looking for clear evidence of value they can connect with.

A chain of enthusiastic volunteers help unload grain from the sailboats docked in Nelson.

Matt Lowe carries grain from the dock in Nelson.

Photo Source: Deconstructing Dinner.