About The Garlick Press By Diane Parker – Co-founder and Publisher In April 2010, after many years of creative incubation 15,000 copies of the first issue of THE GARLICK PRESS, were distributed throughout the Thompson Okanagan region of British Columbia. With 16 pages of quality content our little newsprint magazine was determined to provide a unique reading experience to urban gardeners and do-it- yourselfers. We knew that entry into an industry dominated by “The Big Boys ” would take more than a little grit. Tough competition can easily cause grassroots newcomers, like us, to fold like paper napkins at a Sunday picnic. But what we didn’t expect was to be overwhelmed by the positive feedback of our audience. As it was handed from friend to friend, and from mother to son we received emails, letters and phone calls from across the province encouraging us to continue producing our thought provoking information that was valued and appreciated. THE FOUNDERS I came from a long line of European agriculturalists; dairy farmers on my mother’s side and tough Ukrainian agriculturalists on my father’s. Gardening meant one thing, producing, eating and preserving the harvest of one’s efforts. Those efforts both sustained us and empowered us with self reliance and perseverance; they created bonds between family and friends and remained at the core of my identity. That connection to food and my interest in knowing where it came from and how it was produced pushed me along a path that provided 30 years of experience as an organic gardener, cook, researcher, geographer and writer. My partner in life and crime, literally provided everything I did not have –but needed—to get THE GARLICK PRESS off the ground. Armed with a passion for a sustainable lifestyle, and more skills in more areas than anyone else I know, Trevor contributed the technical, mechanical, building and artistic skills to develop the magazine’s structure and our ½ acre property that provides the stomping ground for our own sustainable journey. Without Trevor THE GARLICK PRESS would never have seen the light of day.  OUR CONTENT All life requires an appropriate and sustainable source of energy. In the case of humanity our energy happens to come from food, which accounts for our focus. However, the content of THE GARLICK PRESS goes beyond perishables. Consumers who question the quality and production of their food are also those most likely to question the social and environmental impacts of what they do and what they buy. And, many of them are becoming empowered by re-claiming the life skills that have been lost in the busyness of a modern society.  Farmer, Wendell Berry shed a little sunlight on the situation when he said that the way you eat determines how the world is used. THE GARLICK PRESS attempts to address many of those issues in our world and to invite others to consider their own journey towards a more sustainable and self-sufficient life.  OUR READERS  Many of our readers have taken the time to contact us and offer insight into who they are and what they think.  The majority of them have some post-secondary education, are 35 years of age or older and are tired of being seduced by the glossy facades, claims and buzz words that can lay no more claim to being green, healthy or sustainable than mouldy ham. They want their lives to have more meaning than an accumulation of “stuff” and they want their living to be conscious. We might be the  little guys with the big ideas, but then we chose The Garlick Press—a play on words—to represent who we are and what we do; produce down-to-earth, journalistic material with a powerful message.