Summer Solstice Celebrations

Today we had an opportunity to host the Summer Solstice celebration at the Orchard Garden. Even though it was cloudy, it did not rain! We arrived at 8:30am to set up the food and stations for the event. As soon as we put up the tent, we started off with setting up the food. We had a wonderful team of people preparing a lot of delicious food for the event: Tathali made two bowel of tasty guacamole; Mathew helped with making the yummy cookies and gluten-free brownies; Chantelle did a great job in making the potato salad. The vegetables of the garden salad were harvested from the Roots on the Roof garden yesterday. Therefore, the vegetables were very fresh. Last but not least, we had a lot of organic bread donated by the bakery - A Bread Affair. Since the store donated so much bread to the Orchard Garden, many of the guests brought at least a loaf of bread home. 

Besides setting up the food, we also had several stations to set up. These stations included potato stamp making, flower pounding, rope making, bucket chair making, lima bean necklace and storytelling. Soon after the set up, our guests began to arrive. The first ones to arrive were our faculty advisors, followed by our practicum coordinator, faculty members, UBC students as well as the Dean of Land and Food Systems, Dr. Rickey Yada. Late in the morning, children from Acadia Daycare Center and Hummingbird Child Care Center also arrived. They rotated around to different stations. Most of the children had a chance to harvest carrots from the ground, and once they harvested and cleaned the carrots, all of them ate their carrots! Some were very interested in carving the potato with a toothpick for potato stamp, and other children were very fascinated about transferring the plant dyes onto a piece of paper by pounding the plant with a mallet.

Making Lima Bean Necklace

Storytelling

Flowering Pounding

One of the highlights of the day was the Ghanaian dance led by Kofi. After lunch, the children and a group of adults went to the back of the garden to learn about the Ghanaian harvest dance. The children were very fascinated about some of the dance movements especially the parts where the dance imitated the harvesting of food. After the dance, several children still kept on dancing while waiting for their teachers to pack up! Overall, the event was a success, and it would not have been possible without the support of the Orchard Garden team!