CFE Workshop - Story Stones and Botanical Brews

TODAY IS WORK SHOP DAY!!! After working hard all week the CFE students were ready to take over the orchard gardens monthly work shop. 

We kept the structure similar to most workshops with 2 activities and of course a big lunch. The workshop had many lovely guests who were vary eager to participate and engage with our learning garden.

Activity one, Story Stones, was run by Rylie, Rob and Evelyn. They helped everyone learn the story of the orchard garden and other gardens on campus. We then got to share our own garden stories, then creatively transfer them on to bricks with paint. Some even used natural paint applicator they could find in the garden. Many story’s were told, here are a few:

Listening closes to the story of the orchard garden.

As a child they believed there was only the honey bee; after spending time at the orchard garden this proved to be untrue. The orchard garden itself is home to so many different  types of bees.

One was about the growth see in the garden over the course of the last 3 weeks of CFE and how the garden has literally blossomed before our eyes. 

Another about how no mater how small the orchard garden if forced to get, it still thrives. 

And finally of course how much we as a group have learned during CFE from the gardens care takers.

Sharing the stories of their stones 

Once everyone was done, we all wondered the garden and found a place to ‘plant’ our stones. 

Next we moved onto our second activity, botanical brews. Led by Alexa, Anoop, and Aman, this activity got the participants exploring the garden looking and learning about the herds found in the garden. These herbs included lemon balm, mint, sage, fennel, rosemary, and dandelion. We all learned about how to find the herbs and medicinal properties of them all. 

Herbs picked and ready for brewing

We picked a small amount of each of these, as well as some kale and headed for lunch. First we brewed teas from each of the herbs for a taste test. Then we paired up and helped to create a big group lunch.  

Five Herb teas ready for tasting 

Today’s recipes for lunch included Hummus, Salsa, Smoky Salmorejo soup, and Quinoa Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale from our garden & Pesto Vinaigrette.

Fresh made humus and bread from The Bread Affair! 

Everyone seated and ready for a well deserved meal!

The CFE experience at the orchard garden has allowed the Teacher Candidates to learn about many different aspects of gardening. We learned about what a teaching and learning garden is, the many forms it takes, and how to create one at your school. The teacher candidates through this workshop were  even able to try their hand at using the garden as a learning space.

The planing and work that went into creating this workshop was well worth it as everyone was engaged and happy to be outdoors. Much like the TCs felt on their first days the change of venue from offices and classrooms is very refreshing and seems to allow brains to rejuvenate and be ready for playing and learning. This will be a great tool to bring back to the classroom. We have all learned the value of having time outdoors and how to use this time to our advantage as teachers across many subject areas.

Pre-Workshop Meeting and Reflection

After a week spent planning for the garden workshop, our two groups reconvened to discuss some of the logistics of the upcoming event. The workshop is coming up fast and we are all excited to implement the outdoor learning experiences that we have designed. It was great to hear how Evelyn, Riley, and Rob have adapted the story stones activity to be more practical. Likewise, Aman, Alexa-Rae and I were able to fill them in on the learning experience that we have designed.

In addition to discussing the activities, we tried to finalize the menu that we will be serving to the workshop attendees. After much debate (yes, you can add mint into a salsa), we agreed on a soup, a salad, and an appetizer dish to serve.

After a week apart, it was nice to reconvene as a team one final time before the workshop. The relationships we have formed and the time that we have spent together have made this 3-week learning experience one to remember!

The secondary Orchard Garden team!

May 7th

After our meeting yesterday to discuss our activity for the Saturday workshop, Evelyn, Rob, and I spent today researching various aspects of the UBC Orchard Garden’s history. In addition to delving into the garden’s rich history, we also spent time today looking into cheap materials for our activity at the workshop. I’ve also been trying out a few of the recipes we decided on for the workshop, and I can say that they will be absolutely delicious!

This research has helped me realize that there is a significant amount of history to be found in any garden, or any aspect of our lives that we usually ignore. For instance, there are personal garden’s in almost every one of the homes located on my residential street, and each owner has put large amounts of time and effort into their maintenance. Additionally, the residents of my neighborhood have set up telescopes centered on an eagle nest in a nearby clump of trees. They let passerby peer through the lens, observing bald eagles sitting still in their nests. This research has helped me recognize that there are opportunities to learn about our local history all around us, and taking the time to do so may allow us to develop a better understanding of those around us.

May 6, 2019

This week we had time to plan for our May 11th workshop. After dividing up into two groups,

Anoop, Alexa-Rae and I planned our activity. Without giving too much away, participants will

have the chance to explore the garden and test their knowledge on different herbs. They will

get a chance to touch, smell, and taste the different herbs to figure out which ones are which,

while also learning some interesting facts about them. The TC’s also discussed the delicious

food that is planned for the lunch. Participants of the workshop will get a chance to eat some

food from the Orchard Garden. Today’s planning led to much anticipation on what will be a

great workshop!

Planning for the May 11th Workshop!

Week 2 day 5 - botanical garden

Today started with a trip to the botanical garden. UBC has had a botanical garden since 1916 and now has over 30,000 plants from 5,000 taxa. The CFE students explored the gardens for the morning and talked about the importance of having these spaces and passing on knowledge about the plants in our areas and others.

 Entering the garden

Moving through to the other side

A view of the garden

We also visited the botanicals food garden, seeing many of the things found in the orchard garden and other vegetables that we could potentially grow in our school gardens. After the vegetable garden we moved on to the physic garden. This garden has a collections of plants that have or were thought to have medicinal properties. These plants include mint, rosemary and chives. While some are now understood to be toxic many are still used today to help naturally relieve different symptoms in the body.

 Wild strawberries 

 The botanical gardens food garden

Exploring the physic garden

Today’s visit allowed us to explore another large professional garden. What we learned from this is how important visiting other gardens can be for the mind, inspiration and gaining new knowledge. Also that by visiting others we can learn more about what we might want to experiment with in our own gardens. I feel that bringing students on these types of trips might also be useful to help inspire them to find out what they might be interested in trying in the school garden.

Finally we ended the day by planning an exciting work shop for next Saturdays workshop. Stay tuned  for more detailed!

In the planning stages

CFE Week 2 Day 2: May Day, Nitobe Garden, and Spring Cleaning

May the first brought us CFE students to a local elementary school to help celebrate May Day. As the students entered the school for their morning classes they were met not only by us but by two Morris Dancing groups; all of us dressed in various brightly colored vests and floral hats; two accordions playing; singing and dancing and brightly colored handkerchiefs flourishing in the sun.

Hobby Horse

Flourishing kerchiefs and accordion music to warm up

Getting ready to perform

CFE students in their Spring flair

  Once the students gathered around they were told about the tradition of Morris dancing; the May Queen, Green Man, maypole, and hobby horse; and the tradition of celebrating the new season. Then us CFE students helped sing a song and we all gathered on the field to spin around the maypole.

Getting ready to dance around the maypole

Later that morning we reassembled at the Nitobe Japanese garden on campus. We were given a guided tour through the garden and learned a lot more about Inazo Nitobe and how Japanese gardens cultivate metaphors for the journey through life as well as they do beautiful cherry blossoms and koi fish. 

To finish the day we went back to the Orchard Garden for some spring cleaning. We helped empty, clean, and reorganize the tool shed which is an important part of maintaining a garden (or anything). We also met a cute friend.

Our new friend!

Someone's gotta sharpen those tools

And someone's gotta sort through some junk

Sharing some wisdom about apples I found in a bucket

Overall, it was a pretty busy day filled with lots of fun. It was great to see the students excited about something traditional that connected them back to the Earth and the sun and something fun. As an English teacher I was thrilled to learn about the metaphorical structure of the Japanese garden. And as a chaotic person it was relieving to at least sort out someone's mess for once.

Visit to North Surrey Secondary School Garden

Today, we were invited by Drew Landry to visit and work on the beautiful school garden he has started at North Surrey Secondary school. The garden was beautiful, composed of 33 garden beds with a variety of vegetables, fruit, and flowers growing as well as several benches and tables for people to sit. After a tour and some stories about the garden's origin, the team and I got to work, performing some maintenance work in the garden. Though it was a lot of work, we were proud of the work we put into improving the garden.

Susan and Evelyn working hard!

Hearing Drew talk about the garden was inspiring. He frequently referred to the space as a "classroom," as his hope for the space was to have teachers bring their classes outside to use the space as an alternative learning environment, similar to how teachers may bring their classes to a computer lab. While we were working, a Humanities class came to the space to take part in an outdoor poetry slam. I love this idea of using the space as an alternative learning environment! The space that Drew has created is large enough to seat an entire classroom comfortably around the many tables in the area. Even though the class was not using the plants directly, I have no doubt that the change in environment had an effect on the students' learning experience. 

A flower boat!

This visit to the garden was invaluable. Not only did we get to see a secondary school garden in action, we were also made aware of the difficulties in starting and maintaining a school garden. Drew put years of ground work into creating this space, fighting for his vision of an outdoor classroom. His efforts have created spaces where valuable and meaningful learning can take place, not only in his school but also in schools across the district. I hope to continue the work that Drew has done in my own school one day.