This month, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® is closing out another successful growing season in its 2-acre, naturally grown Winyan Toka Win (“Leading Lady”) garden. Despite a few challenges, the garden is continuing to thrive and expand, thanks to a South Dakota Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant, a Native Agriculture and Food Systems grant, additional garden grants from Honor the Earth, Running Strong for American Indian Youth, the Wellmark Foundation and the J.R. Albert Foundation, and generous contributions from a variety of individual supporters.
In 2015, CRYP harvested thousands of pounds of crops that staff members can incorporate into daily youth meals and snacks, regular and specialty menu items in the Keya Cafe & Coffeehouse, and dried and canned food items for sale through the Keya Gift Shop. The 27-year-old youth project also has been able to hold its weekly Leading Lady Farmers Market throughout the summer and fall seasons, and it recently hosted more than 60 community members at its annual Harvest Festival dinner.
This year’s growing season started in April, when staff and volunteers planted carrots and beets, finished laying down drip irrigation lines, and worked on a low-voltage system for automation. Then the rains came.
“Early and late spring rains flooded more than half our garden between April and July,” recalled Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “Our garden has a unique challenge, in that it sits in an area originally designed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1967 to be a grass storm water filter for two Eagle Butte housing areas.”
Fortunately, setbacks never stop this intrepid grassroots youth organization. Despite the flooding, CRYP staff was able to put in all drip lines and hook up all electrical lines this year, and staff and volunteers planted more than 1.5 acres. They sowed 400 tomato plants, more than 300 peppers in various varieties, different types of squash and gourds, three varieties of potatoes, Swiss chard, onions, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, a second harvest of beets, and flowers for increased bee activity.
“We weren’t able to get into the north side of the garden until after July 4, so our corn was started late,” Garreau said. “Then we had limited success due to an ongoing pest problem. We consulted with a crop advisor and ultimately decided to let this land go fallow for the year.”
CRYP focused its attention on the tomato and pepper crop, which proved to the be the largest in Winyan Toka Win’s 16-year history at more than 10,000 pounds. Garreau said the organization will begin a larger crop rotation in 2016, and it’s planning introduce a 63-day harvest corn that is more pest-resistant.
“If weather allows, we may be able to grow two crops per season with this variety rather than with the 93-day variety,” she explained. “It will help us maximize our growing period.”
CRYP also is looking at sectioning the garden into two micro operations. The south side will feature corn and fast-turnaround crops with companion crops like watermelon and cantaloupe, while the north side will focus on three to four crops for maximum production. “The are the items we most need for our kids,” Garreau said, “like salsa vegetables, squash and gourds. And on the far west side, we’ll plant root crops like onions, carrots and beets.”
Also in the new year, CRYP will continue addressing Winyan Toka Win’s soil issues through its developing mulch program, as testing revealed stress due to deficiencies in certain micronutrients such as calcium and zinc. The youth project will complete its garden shed, which adds much-needed space for garden equipment; it will install a weeping system for storm-water control in the shed area; and it will continue to work on plans to rebuild its green house.
“This is a project that will be several years in the making,” Garreau advised.
When it’s done, the Winyan Toka Win greenhouse will have an all-weather hard top, irrigation lines run into the building (the seventh water zone is already in place in anticipation of the rebuild), plumbing for a water heating system that will keep the greenhouse at 55 degrees or higher in winter, a vent system for controlling high temperatures, and a fan system to control fungi and unwanted moisture evaporation.
“We’re deeply grateful to the many partners and friends around the country who have supported us as we’ve worked to create food sovereignty, security and safety here on the Cheyenne River reservation,” Garreau said. “Without their contributions, and those of esteemed granting organizations like the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Honor the Earth, we couldn’t develop, maintain and expand a thriving community garden that provides nutritious locally grown foods and reconnects native people with their heritage and with the earth.”
To stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, follow the youth project on Facebook (/LakotaYouth), Twitter (@LakotaYouth) and Instagram (@waniyetuwowapi).
The Cheyenne River Youth Project, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.