Kristie (preferably called KeeKee) has been gardening and growing food since the late 1990’s. Coming from 18 generations of European farmers and food growers, an interest in working with the Land comes naturally to her. She is also an autodidact however, having learned and taught herself a great deal of what she knows through trial, error, reading and experience while her and her family lived on .9 of an acre in rural Alberta for 7 years.
Initiating, encouraging and maintaining gardening/food growing projects has definitely been a hobby for KeeKee.
In 2006, she designed and created an urban food garden for her neighbors on a block of townhouses in South Edmonton. This urban food garden still lives on.
KeeKee also holds her Master Composter/Recycler certificate from the mid 2000’s. This contained approximately 6 weeks of education on composting, vermicomposting and recycling from the city of Edmonton.
While in rural Alberta, she founded and operated a community garden with other community members for a couple of years. KeeKee also grew and tended to all of the houseplants in a K-12 public school that her children attended for approximately a year.
At the request of the local Communities in Bloom committee, she created curriculum and taught the very first workshops of approximately 35 students each on gardening and food growing.
This was, in part, where ideas for Growing Empowered emerged from years later.
Empowering People through knowledge sharing on gardening and growing food is one of her greatest passions. This is where her life’s work – Growing Empowered – came into being.
Growing Empowered is a multi-component project that KeeKee has been working on in her spare time for the past 4 years. The workshops are comprised of need-to -know information from soil to food on the table/in the pantry/root cellar. The manuscript which is still being written, covers the in-depth knowledge that would equip anyone to apply and teach the workshops to others.
KeeKee enjoys asking People questions like,”What’s your favorite food to grow?… What’s your legacy?… Tell me about your passions…”
She also has her passport and enjoys travelling to other Lands and hopes to do this someday soon with Growing Empowered in tow.
Even though, KeeKee currently calls no Lands “Home”, you would find her happiest while playing in the dirt and picking strawberries with her two sons Joseph and Mason.
