Chinese Market Garden: Featured Vegetable #2

Napa Cabbage, or 大白菜, is a very widely used cabbage in Chinese cooking, as it originates in Beijing, but is used in many other Asian countries today. In Korea, it is the main ingredient in the condiment, kimchi. Napa cabbage is used in stirfrys, spring rolls and potstickers. For a great spring roll recipe, click here.

Napa Cabbage ~ 大白菜, whole and sliced in half.
 Photo credit: Two Eat Philly, 2012. 

Interestingly, napa cabbage symbolizes prosperity in China to the extend that its image often fashioned into glass and porcelain figures.

Children's garden position at UBC Farm

Children's Garden Education Assistant Job Posting
The UBC Farm and the Intergenerational Landed Learning Project are accepting applications for a Children's Garden Education Assistant. This individual will be responsible for a wide range of maintenance and support tasks in the Children’s Learning Garden and work closely with the Faculty of Education’s Intergenerational Landed Learning Project. The application deadline is January 4th; see job posting (PDF) for full position and application details. 

Chinese Market Garden: Featured Vegetable #1

Perilla. It's quite a pretty name, and one I hadn't heard before. The name on its own reminds me of periwinkle and dancing.

Perilla ~ 紫苏 
Photo credit: Wikipedia 2012. 

At our last meeting, Chinese Market Garden committee discussed planting Perilla this season in the Chinese Market Garden. In Chinese, it is pronounced 'zisu', or 紫苏. It is part of the mint family, so it tastes and smells like a mixture of mint and fennel. Perilla is used as a common herb, usually fried with garlic and ginger to spice up any dish. It is also used in traditional Chinese medicine as an immune system stimulator and is said to ease cold symptoms. 

Children & School Gardening: MA thesis

Congratulations, Djamila!

In September, Djamila Moore, our previous Orchard Garden coordinator, moved to Portland to work as a school garden coordinator. This Friday, she returns to defend her MA thesis. Here's the information (see below), if you would like to attend. If you miss the defense and would like to read the thesis, it will be posted (likely in a couple of weeks) online at the UBC Library cIRcle repository.

Hurray!!!

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You are invited to
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

(Science Education)

Djamila Moore BFA, University of North Carolina, School of the Arts, June 2002

Friday, December 7, 2012, 2:00 pm
SCARFE  1209

“A Discursive Exploration of Children’s School Garden Experiences, Perspectives, and Developing Ecological Literacies”

EXAMINING & Supervisory Committee:

Supervisor: Dr. Samson Nashon

Co-Supervisor: Dr. Sandra Scott

Committee: Dr. Tracy Friedel

ABSTRACT

Research has largely neglected ways to explore how school gardens are used, the quality of the children’s garden experiences, and the educational possibilities including the process of supporting children’s ecological literacy. The purpose of this study was to better understand the possibilities for discourses in and around current garden-based education and ecological literacy while making space for an emergent and narrative research design. This qualitative study draws upon phenomenological and narrative methods to understand children’s garden experiences and is synthesized and analyzed through ecological place-based framework and the notion of crystallization. Findings provide an enriched understanding of children’s school garden experiences and perspectives while supporting their developing ecological literacies.

Workshop Series #3: Garden Ecosystems and Soil Health!

The third session of the Workshop Series took place on December 1st 2012. This session mainly focused on understanding garden ecosystems and the concept of soil health. We started the session with discussing the connections between all the elements in a garden ecosystem. We also had a conversation about the cultural significance of soil.

Web of life activity, using Julia's threat that was made from the flax grown in the Orchard Garden