Onion Lake's no-till garden grew more than 1,300 kilograms of food

A no-till garden on Onion Lake Cree Nation produced more than 1,300 kilograms of vegetables this year. CBC News reported on October 7, 2026, that the food went to community members and to local organizations, including two food banks. The harvest included potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, and cauliflower. Onion Lake is about 280 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, near the Alberta border.

Dietitians Ashley DeBusschere and Alicia Oliver had a smaller teaching garden by the high school. This year the lands manager asked them to take on a larger plot aimed at root vegetables. Older gardens had been hard to keep up, between tilling, watering, and weeds such as quack grass. Oliver took a two-hour online course from the University of Saskatchewan on no-till gardening and argued for switching. DeBusschere said the new beds held water, needed hardly any watering, and were grown without fertilizers or pesticides.

Students from Sakāskohc High School spent an afternoon digging potatoes. Commercial cooking teacher Marly Chocan said they worked as a team, logged volunteer hours, and each took a bag of potatoes home. Clients at Ekweskeet Healing Lodge also helped and, staff said, liked telling people they had grown the food. The figure is this year's harvest. CBC did not report a plan's worth of next year's yield, only that people on the garden want another season.