All donations are meaningful and appreciated — and those made in memoriam are especially poignant. Recently, a generous gift was made towards Protect Little Lakes Area from Aggregate Mining in memory of Blanche Pownall Garrett. We’ve shared her family’s inspiring tribute below.
A generous donation has been made by the Garrett Family, in memory of Blanche Pownall Garrett, to help protect the Ball’s Bridge & Little Lakes area from destructive and unnecessary below water table open pit gravel mining.
Blanche Pownall Garrett (1914-1983) was a writer, poet and naturalist. An expert on Indigenous medicinal and edible flora, she became well known for her writing and expertise in identification, foraging, and cooking with wild plants.
From an early age her poems and short stories were published in various periodicals such as Chatelaine, Canadian Poetry Magazine, Canadian Home Journal and Saturday Night Magazine. Her poems were included in anthologies such as Poems for the Interim (1946), and she wrote the lyrics of two songs: “The Torchbearers” (Western Music, 1948) and “To a Girl on Her Birthday” (Western Music, 1949).
Her books include From the Fruits of the Earth (Highway Book Shop); A Taste of the Wild (James Lorimer / Forman Press); and Canadian Country Preserves and Wines (James Lorimer / Forman Press). She was a contributing editor of a column in Outdoor Canada magazine for many years.
Blanche Pownall Garrett took inspiration and sustenance from the natural world of the Maitland Valley outside her door, with its rolling hills, abundant fields and richly varied ecosystem.
