Growing hibiscus in northern Ontario: how a Sudbury researcher is looking to diversify local food

When you visit the agriculture department at Collège Boréal in Sudbury, Ont., you'll be met with produce you may not typically see growing in the region.

Johnny Kashama, the department's agricultural manager and researcher, is working to redefine how people think of growing local food. He's currently researching how to grow ethnic vegetables in the region.

"Ethnic vegetables are not normally consumed on a regular basis in Canada," he explained.

"These are most of the vegetables which are consumed by immigrant populations coming from all parts of the world."

Some of those vegetables include okra, hibiscus, long yard beans, bitter melon and bitter leaves.

"Look at what happened four months ago, what happened with the lettuce because something happened in California," he said.

"We have been in a shortage of lettuce, "Kashama said. "Producing local doesn't only mean those that I'm used to eating, but lets me also try these new ones and see how it is cooked."

The Salinas Valley in California — one of the most productive agricultural areas in the U.S. and where most of Canada's lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes are grown — was drenched with rain almost every day between the end of 2022 and mid-January. 

Before that, in September, California's crops were struck by drought. Disease then followed, leaving crops wilted in the fields. Those events drove supply and consequently drove up prices for shoppers. 

Kashama started the ethnic vegetable project in 2021, by first by growing the vegetables in a greenhouse and then the next year, growing outside.

"Now we're going to optimize some parameters," he said. "For instance, the distance between each plant in the row. For the amaranth, we're going to focus on mostly the impact of the cutting time, so the harvest."

'We can grow stuff and we should grow stuff'

Rachelle Rocha, one of the organizers of the upcoming Seedy Sudbury event, is also encouraging people to think and grow local.

She said it's easy to go to a generic grocery store or hardware store to purchase seeds, but there are benefits to getting local seeds.

"If you really want to get the unusual stuff, the really tasty stuff and the really colourful stuff, you need to get into the people who are saving seeds at a more local level," she said.

"We want to have a very strong local food system. We need to learn the skills around saving our own seeds. The other thing is if we save seeds that we grow here year after year, we have some sort of choice in the selection process."

She also said saving local seeds and growing more options in the region help the area become more self-sufficient.

"It is important to recognize that we're very dependent in northern Ontario and in many northern climates," she said.

"We don't think we can grow stuff. And the truth is, we can grow stuff and we should grow stuff. It gives us a better choice, better flavour, better health and nutritional value out of our food if it's grown very close to where we live."

The Seedy Sunday event will take place in Sudbury on Feb. 26 at Science North. People can bring their own seeds to swap and some free seeds will be available.

The event also features educational activities and talks, including information on seed saving, the importance of seed biodiversity and milkweed.

For those who can't attend, the presentations will also be offered virtually through a livestream and posted on YouTube.