Gardeners in Timmins are reaping the harvest of a great growing season this summer. With that in mind, our local history feature the next few weeks will examine gardening in the past.
Timmins Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann says the first mention of a garden comes from August, 1912. A man named Reilly had tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and squash in a small plot in Porcupine.
“All of the mining men that were coming through were having a look at this thing and everyone was freaked out,” she says, “because they thought ‘Oh my god, you can grow stuff in this area, even though it’s all rocky and that’s what we’re focussed on, apparently you can grow things’.”
“Actually, he (Reilly) ended up as a feature in the Toronto Globe newspaper about ‘look at the wonderful things that are happening in that Porcupine area. Aside from mining, you can actually grow things.’”
In the weeks to come: how the mining companies got in on the act; and as other gardeners found success, they started selling their produce.
