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Seniors Plant Seeds of
History
You won't find much corn in the Pylypow House garden at the
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. That's because Iwan and Maria
Pylypow came from the Carpathian village of Nebyliw and, like other
Ukrainian pioneers, brought with them the planting customs of their
home region. Corn wasn't in the Pylypows' gardening heritage
because the land in Nebyliw was too poor. But you will find plenty
of beets in the Pylypow heritage garden, because Maria loved her
beet soup.
These are the kinds of historic details that help interpretive
staff at the village authentically recreate the gardens of Alberta's
Ukrainian pioneers. Iwan Pylypow visited Canada on a fact-finding
journey in 1891 and became one of the key figures in the mass
immigration of Ukrainians to Canada just before the turn of the
century. The Pylypow garden is one of seven heritage gardens at the
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. Like the Pylypow House, the
garden is interpreted as it would have been in 1927, when the family
had achieved financial prosperity.
"We try to keep the gardens planted as they were
historically," says Lesia Petriw, a senior interpreter at the
village. "We want them to be as close as possible to the way
they would have been at the time we're interpreting."
Researchers scour a variety of sources for clues, from seed
offerings in old Eaton's catalogues to pioneers still living in
the area.
As a result of their sleuthing, staff add new flowers, vegetables
and legumes to the heritage gardens each season. This summer, watch
for watermelon along with other new additions. "We discovered
that the Grekul family from near Smoky Lake grew watermelons,"
Petriw explains.
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