Tea Creek Site Development Plans

In the above images you can see the current site layout of Tea Creek, the planned structures and features, as well as zones and areas of focus for future development. 

Support More Cold Storage for Crops and Food

Currently the lack of cold storage is a serious bottleneck at Tea Creek. The amount of food we can grow, or accept, or prepare is very limited by our current small cold storage and lack of any root cellars. Our current cold storage is a renovated, very small chicken coop!

With root cellars - we are hoping for at least 3 - we could plant more crops, harvest more, and distribute more food to the community.

The cost for a new root cellar ranges greatly based on size and construction type.

We envision large root cellars that we could put 'lifts' of veggies and food into with pallet forks. As an example, our potato storage is currently a maximum of 4,000lb total, a volume that was gifted into the community in only 1 day in 2022! We can grow over 40,000lb in our current fields, but with storage so limited, we limit our growing as well. Currently we store 4,000lb, grow 10-15,000lb, and donate the balance immediately without storing it. 

With cold storage we could:

• Grow and store more potatoes, keeping them for up to a full year, and distributing them as needed
• Grow and store far more veggies such as carrots, cabbage, turnips, beets, beans, corn, and more
• Grow more greens such as lettuce, which with proper storage can keep up to two months before being distributed! This means we could grow outdoors up to end of October, and store fresh lettuce until end of January!

Support our land-based, Indigenous-led, culturally-safe programming with the creation of Indigenous-led curriculum and learning content. Examples of what is needed include:

• Program outlines that include Indigenous content
• Culturally-safe outlines and learning content
• Teaching/ instructional videos created with Indigenous people leading and learning 

The ways this can be supported include:

• Hiring an Indigenous curriculum writer
• Training and hiring an Indigenous media crew to record and edit lessons
• Working with an Indigenous online curator to create and maintain online learning assets

Examples of learning videos include:

• https://www.facebook.com/jwbeaton/videos/10158463451276043/ 
• https://www.facebook.com/teacreekfarm/videos/1096367664254978/
  
• https://www.facebook.com/jwbeaton/videos/606711147777959/ 
  
• https://www.facebook.com/jwbeaton/videos/10159100904831043/ 
  

Priorities for curriculum development are for our most requested training and programs:

• Indigenous Ag/ Horticulture 
• H.E.O
• Carpentry 
• Cannabis
• Indigenous Pro Cook
• Implementation of the Tea Creek Model in communities/ Nations

Local Accommodation Options for Out-of-Region Trainees and Guests

• Support the accommodation costs for out-of-region Trainees to attend Tea Creek's training.
• Directly support the development of our existing accommodation property to add RVs (in the short term) and guest cabins (in the longer term). The site is 3 acres. We can add 'camp' style accommodations such as trailers or RVs in the short-term. 
• Support a local Indigenous entrepreneur to create their own B&B, and we could refer guests to them.
• Support an Indigenous Carpentry cohort to build a Cabin(s) or Tiny Home(s) over 12 weeks, including all costs. This would also include sponsoring trainees as ITA BC Carpentry apprentices.
• Support the larger vision for accommodations, affordable housing, and incubators for Indigenous farmers and entrepreneurs! Click here to view the design brief.

Help us build our Longhouse Food Hub!

Images for inspiration only

Tea Creek already has over 1,200 Indigenous guests per year, hosts community visits weekly in the busy season, and distributes tonnes of food per year into Indigenous families and communities. We are lacking facilities for our food hub. The Hereditary Chief of the territory we live on requested that we build a longhouse at Tea Creek. Since then we've been presenting the concept of a central Longhouse Food Hub at Tea Creek.

Provisionally, the Longhouse Food Hub would feature:

• Commercial Kitchen(s)
• Food processing facilities
• Cold storage, root cellar, and freezer
• Multi-purpose space for food distribution, education, and cultural food and medicine activities
• Composting facility nearby
• Elders parking
• Located centrally near fresh food and medicines

The cost to create the Longhouse Food Hub centre would cost $1,500,00 - $2,500,000 depending on scope and scale. 

Support Barns, Shelters, and Roof Space

Tea Creek currently lacks a functioning agricultural Barn, as well as shelters for trainees. In general, Tea Creek lacks roof space. Adding roof space around the training farm will enable: 

• Seed saving 
• More all-weather training
• Shelters for elders, youth, and people with disabilities during community visits and events
• Weather protection for tools and equipment

The cost for barn-building tends to be $30-$100/ sq ft, depending on the scope of the building or shelter.

Help Reclaim Farmland

In our valley, over 600 acres were once in active food production, and all of it has become overgrown. 

The most efficient way to reclaim foodland is through forestry mulching. The mulcher, if large enough, and chip entire trees and mix the chip into the soil up to 2". When left to rest, the mulched brush and trees compost and we can then start re-establishing food production on this land.

Other crucial tools include brush mowers, plows, roto-tillers, and rock-pickers to prepare fields

Some Ideas

• A forestry mulching unit could be loaned or donated to Tea Creek
• A brush mowing deck for a skid steer costs about $20,000
• A mulching head for a a skid steer costs about $45,000
• A rock-picker costs $35,000
• Plows and Roto-tillers cost $1,000 - $7,000
• A new top-of-the line compact track loader with mulching head costs around $250,000

You can support Indigenous Youth participation at Tea Creek!

Funding for youth can be challenging for us to access. Youth respond very well to our land-based, culturally-safe training and many find careers and passions along with higher self-esteem and mental health after attending Tea Creek.

Ideally in the future we'd have full time youth programming through the year.

Some Ideas:

• Support Indigenous school visit or community day - $3,500
• Support 12 weeks of wages for a youth (15-30) to attend Tea Creek and gain work experience and training: $10,000
• Support a youth (18-30) to attend a Tea Creek 6 week training intensive including accommodation and meals: $15,000
• Support a whole Indigenous youth cohort for 8 weeks including meals: $120,000