Many Cochranites have found their green thumb this year and spent their spring and summer growing delicious, fresh food right here in town. What if you did not have to put growing and gardening on the backburner through the long, snowy winters here in Cochrane? That is where Cultivate Cochrane comes in.

Cultivate Cochrane is a non-profit organization that hopes to not only set up a passive solar designed greenhouse to grow sustainable food year-round in Cochrane but also become a hub for learning and social gatherings.

 Jackie Skrypnek, President of Cultivate Cochrane says teaching someone how to grow their own food can go a long way. “it's about learning and learning how to feed ourselves more in our climate, you know. Yeah, and then extending that out into other sorts of sustainable lifestyle skills but really one of the big focuses is around food and how do we produce more of our food and feed ourselves in this climate.”

Skyrypnek explains how by using a special type of greenhouse we could be growing food in Cochrane well into the winter months.” A passive solar greenhouse is a really sustainable design for this part of the world. It doesn't necessarily involve solar panels or anything it's just a design that is a really well-insulated greenhouse that holds the heat but really retains the heat that comes in from the sun during the day.

“With the greenhouse, we would probably be able to do some Mediterranean, you know perennials in there. We'll probably do tomatoes and all of that stuff as well but we could experiment right with figs and olives and even citrus.”

The location for the solar passive design here in Cochrane is currently undecided. Cochranties are invited to join Cultivate Cochrane with a $25 membership.