Summer Fun with Food Security - Cheyenne Garden, TEAM Jam Session, Community Kitchen

July 25th Cheyenne Ave. Community Garden Workparty

TEAM (Teens Educating Against Misuse) Strawberry and Blueberry Jam Making Workshop

July 28th Community Kitchen

Menu:

Gazpacho

Pappardelle (bow tie pasta) with zucchini in a creamy yogurt sauce

Quinoa and black bean salad with a cumin lime dressing

Asian coleslaw

Watermelon

Corn on the cob (not shown)

Ice cream with frozen peaches (not shown)

Thanks Barry!

Even after second and third helpings, we still had leftovers.

Parsley and chives harvested for community kitchen.

Sunflowers sunbathing in the rooftop.

Busy honeybees in the oregano flowers.

Home Canning with a Side of Humour.

A recipe that calls for "6 cups of crushed strawberries" is telling you to crush the strawberries FIRST, then measure out six cups. The reverse order of operations leads to widespread puzzlement in the kitchen, and the odd sense that your recipe book has lied to you. Lessons learned.


You can wash, sort, and prepare (e.g. hulling or peeling if needed) fruit at its peak freshness and freeze it in sturdy containers or freezer bags. If you plan on making jam with your fruit, you can thaw it out in the refrigerator, or use a homemade bain-marie. Here, we placed a metal bowl over a large pot of simmering water to defrost the berries with gentle steam.


Or you could make your friends and family smash the frozen berries, which is apparently much more fun.


Headspace: It's important to leave a small amount of empty space at the top of the jar. The space will be specified in your recipe, and a canning ruler (like the one in the picture) is a helpful visual aid.

Upcoming Gardening Workshops with Grant Watson.

Until recently, Grant Watson was a resident of Renfrew-Collingwood, and has been helping out with the new Horley St. Orchard and Cheyenne Avenue Garden. He will be leading two gardening workshops at School of Chalk in Strathcona on July 25. For more details on workshop contents, see www.gourmetgardens.ca

Winter Gardening

Location: 593 E Georgia St, Vancouver
Date/Time: 25-July, 10am - noon

Overview
Learn how to start a winter vegetable garden, when, and what to grow. We will cover the options for extending the season of various food plants, and what varieties have been bred specifically for frost tolerance and longer storage life.

Soil Fertility and Plant Health
Location: 593 E Georgia St, Vancouver
Date/Time: 25-July, 1 - 4 pm

Overview
An extremely important topic in organic gardening is soil health and fertility. Healthy soil is a vibrant community. Learn how to be an ally, not an enemy of your soil. We'll also cover some key techniques for promoting and protecting your annual and perennial food plants, as well as the ones that just look pretty, from disease and pests.

--

Grant Watson
Grant's Gourmet Gardens
778 869 4060
www.gourmetgardens.ca

Food Security Snapshots

Annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, part of the Collingwood Days community festival.

One of the mason bee houses on the Rooftop Garden. We had a total of 17 plugged holes at the Rooftop and also 17 plugged holes in the mason bee condo at the Collingwood Community Gardens. To learn more about the blue orchard mason bee and the importance of pollinators, visit Mason Bee Vancouver.


Everybody say "MOO!" We teamed up with CNH Settlement Services and the Seniors Wellness program for a local food adventure at Avalon Dairy.


Avalon is a family business that is right in our neighbourhood. It's the oldest continuously operating Dairy in BC. In the background you can see the original Crowley family farmhouse that was built in 1908.


Our guide answers questions outside the bottling room. We weren't able to enter the processing building due to health regulations.


A glimpse inside the bottling room. Avalon is known for their glass bottles. Glass containers have had a resurgence in popularity in recent years. This is partially due to health concerns over harmful compounds in food-grade plastics (especially Bisphenol A, or BPA). A summary of concerns about BPA can be found in this brochure released by the US Bureau of Environmental Health in 2009. The Canadian Government amended the Hazardous Products Act in March 2010 in response to growing research on the harm of BPAs. More information about these changes can be found here.


Community kitchen participants hulling strawberries for dessert.


Grating carrots for salad.


Strawberry monkey!


Sharing food skills during community kitchen.


The Renfrew Collingwood Aboriginal Youth Canoe Club hosted the 2010 Pulling Together Journey from July 1-July 9. The Pulling Together Journey brings law enforcement officers and government representatives (including municipal police, RCMP, and Border Services, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans) together with Aboriginal Youth for a nine day canoe and camping journey. Along the way, the participants are welcomed into the different Aboriginal territories by local community members, and learn about protocol and culture. Here, Canoe Club members paddle The Spirit of the Salmon from Dead Man's Island in Stanley Park to Ambleside.


A small group Food Security people helped to prepare the big dinner feast in Semiahmoo on the final day of the journey. We learned about indigenous food traditions, cultural celebrations, and got to share in a bountiful feast. Here, food security volunteer Barry enjoys the scent of smoking salmon.


We shucked a lot of fresh Dungeness crab! The feast also included bannock, clam chowder, and smoked salmon, as well as fresh berries for dessert.


Square foot gardening at the Collingwood Community Gardens.


Supplies for a peach salsa and tomato canning workshop.


Peeling blanched peaches for the salsa. We used the peach salsa recipe from Bernardin's Guide to Home Preserving. Be sure to use tested recipes from reputable sources for home canning, especially for low-acid foods like vegetables and fish.


After a long 45 minutes of waiting for our hot-packed tomatoes to come out of their boiling water bath. Processing times differ for different jar sizes and different methods (e.g. whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes all have different processing times), so always consult a reliable recipe when canning at home.


WOW!! Home canning!


Garlic scapes on the Rooftop Garden. We were affected by Garlic Rust Fungus, so the bulbs we harvested were quite small this year.


Practicum student Chanel with freshly harvested garlic scapes and bulbs.


Plump peas grown on the roof.


Blueberries growing on the roof.

Cheyenne Street Garden Update & Summer Canning Workshops

Yay! The first piece of sod has been removed! ...only 250m2 left to go.

A million thanks go out to all the wonderful volunteers who came out this weekend to move gravel (mistakenly delivered to the incorrect address! Oh dear), cut and remove sod, saw wood, and build raised garden bed frames. Thanks also to the many positive and supportive neighbours who jumped in to help with the build, as well as those who brought us snacks and cold drinks.

Dates for the next building phase will be announced soon; the City has kindly offered to level the soon-to-be wheelchair accessible area and we'll be able to continue building once leveling is complete. To get involved with the build, or to inquire about available plots, please contact Jason.

More photos of this weekend's build will be posted shortly, as well as photos of our recent field trip to Avalon Dairy, exploring indigenous food traditions in Semiahmoo, and the canning workshop series.

Here's the schedule for this summer's canning and cooking workshop series. Space is limited and demand is high; please register by contacting Stephanie. We are now accepting donations of clean, gently-used mason jars. Mason jars are produced by companies such as Bernardin, Ball, and Kerr. They are also used by some commercial pasta and jam producers (all mason jars are marked directly on the jar). For your safety, please note that not all glass jars can be reused for safe home canning.

Wednesday July 14, 1-4pm - canned tomatoes and peach salsa
Wednesday July 21, 1-4pm - seasonal fruit jam
Wednesday July 28, 5-8pm - community kitchen dinner
Wednesday August 11, 1-4pm - pickled cucumbers and beans
Wednesday August 18, 1-4pm - blackberry jam
Wednesday August 25, 5-8pm - community kitchen dinner
Wednesday September 1, 1-4pm - chicken or vegetable soup
Wednesday September 15, 1-4pm - pasta sauce
Wednesday September 29, 5-8pm - community kitchen dinner


Students from Windermere and Van Tech building garden beds.