Greenhorn to (almost) Green Thumb

Delicious daikon - from garden to table

Gardens are welcoming places full of life. Yet they can be intimidating as well, for those who have little knowledge or experience with gardening. This described my situation as I began my practicum at the Orchard garden; I was definitely more of a greenhorn than a green thumb.

But in the past few days, I have learned so much just by being in the garden and assisting with the various stages of agriculture. From seeding to weeding to harvesting to composting- I experienced many different aspects of gardening.

The Orchard Garden from the Perspective of two B.Ed students

Beauty. Peacefulness. Tranquility. Colour. Diversity. Abundance. All these words described our first impression of the Orchard Garden. What is this place in the middle of the hustle and bustle of campus life? A place of such freshness, where biodiversity can be seen, heard, felt, and smelled—all five minutes by foot from Scarfe!

Our time in the Orchard Garden has been filled with exploration and learning, in a sense a great mirror of the education process itself. We began our time by investigating the many facets of the garden, using the informative workshop series documents created by the Orchard Garden team. These followed the entire food cycle: from prepping the garden beds, to growth, to harvest, to preparing and eating a meal, and finally returning the end products to the compost bin—so they could become soil anew.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is in full bloom at the Orchard Garden. It's such a beautiful time. Plants are young and fledgling, and promise a bountiful summer!

This garlic was planted last October. Look at it go!

Yet, the green onions are looking rather sad. You can admire the minimal weeds though...

The gai lan is coming along nicely. This fast-growing crop will be ready to eat soon. 

Green onions are seeded!

Spring is slowly on its way: the crocuses blooming and the daffodils are up! And the field teams at the Orchard Garden have started green onions and leeks inside. The allium family, which includes, green onions, leeks, and storage onions, grow very slowly and mould from excessive moisture. In our climate, starting them early and inside is essential to make sure they mature in time. 

Sybil and Kate celebrating at the greenhouse!

SFU SEEDS PDP Module visit to Musqueam and the UBC Orchard Garden

Last week, I took up a wonderful offer to accompany faculty member Mark Fettes and faculty associate Bill Hood and their SFU SEEDS teacher education group on a visit to Musqueam, and to bring the group on a visit to the UBC Orchard Garden. They later visited the Camosun Bog near Imperial Drive on the edge of campus.

 At Musqueam, Elder Larry Grant took time to tell us about the history of Musqueam and about his own experiences, with his typical generosity, kindness, candour and humour. Everyone in the group was at times both shocked and moved by these stories, and learned a great deal -- there were lots of questions. Elder Grant took us on a tour of the beautiful new Musqueam Cultural and Community Centre buildings, and at my request, we also saw the site of one of the Chinese market gardens at Musqueam, Hong Kong Farms, where Burnaby MLA Richard T. Lee's family farmed for many years.

Elder Grant commented that, although UBC is very closely affiliated with Musqueam, the SFU group was the first group of teacher candidates to request a visit and talk at Musqueam! I was astounded to hear this, and assured him that we would make that situation right as soon as possible. I had not known how to approach the Musqueam First Nation to organize such a visit (through correct protocols, etc.), but a simple phone call to the Band Office is enough to get things started.

The SFU group loved the Orchard Garden and were keen to get involved, especially since the Garden is now under imminent threat of being bulldozed as soon as a year from now if Campus and Community Planning goes ahead with building a 12-storey tower on the site without design consultation. There may be plans in the works for this PDP Module group to come back to the Orchard Garden to perform a drama piece about community gardens on our Arts in the Garden day April 6, 2013 -- watch this space for more details!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and yours! It seemed welcoming the new year is appropriate with the freshness of a flower, and the introduction of the Peony, as it will be growing in the Chinese Market Garden this season.

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.

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. 

Developing the Chinese Market Garden/Native Plant Garden

The first bok choi at the Chinese Market Garden.  

 About 2 years ago, the Chinese Market Garden and Native Plant Garden was developed. It is a living experiment in teaching and learning about the largely untold shared history of Chinese migrant communities and Musqueam First Nations people here on the banks of the Fraser River, on unceded traditional Musqueam territory.

Student teachers in the fall garden - 2 recent classes

Friday: First fall rains
"Taking classes outside, even in the rain, teaches differently than if we're just 'fair weather' teachers," Cynthia Nicol encouraged her Problem-Based Learning cohort of student teachers.

And maybe some of us needed encouragement. After months of sunshine, Friday's class in the garden was our first truly fall day of soaking rains.

Beginning with an indoor exploration of mathematics in traditional weaving techniques and a brief trip to the blue whale at the Beaty Biodiversity museum, these elementary math education students were exploring mathematics in the garden - with their boots & umbrellas.

Groups of students spread throughout the garden, searching for 10 plant parts that could reveal mathematical concepts such as geometry, pattern, symmetry, relationship, line, etc. "At first, I couldn't see anything in the garden. It was like I was blind. But now I see these shapes everywhere!"

Monday: Crisp kohlrabi, corn & rain coming
"I had never thought about how many different ways there are to have a garden," one student said as we stood at native plant garden area of The Orchard Garden, talking about the relationship between First Nations people, Chinese Market Gardens, and the myriad ways to experience relationships with the land (including fear & hard work, a couple people reminded us: fear of worms, spiders, and memories of hard, hard work...).

Marny Point's student teachers from the NITEP program came to the garden to learn how to connect gardens to their teaching. Everywhere we moved in the garden, the stories were deeply layered. How are the stories of corn, the three sisters, cover crops, and compost, connected to our classrooms? What can Indigenous languages teach us about our relationships with plants?

"I remember my gran coming to my Grade 5 class. We went out to harvest fiddle heads and then we cooked them. I didn't eat them, though."

"You need to remember that teaching," Marny responded.

Ideas for developing and critiquing and growing both our Native plant garden & Chinese market garden are always very welcome. For more inspiration, watch Cedar & Bamboo.

Thank you, PBL and NITEP program students and instructors. Your sparkling, fresh faces, curiosity, and contagious sense of wonder reminded me - once again - about why I love The Orchard Garden and the work we do. We hope you come again and again. Please contact theorchardgarden.educ@gmail.com to arrange a class visit or find out more about our workshop series starting Oct 27, 2012.

CEDAR Summer Camp

Today we had a wonderful group of students participating in the CEDAR Summer Camp program visit The Orchard Garden and participate in a number of garden-based activities. Luckily the rain stopped just in time for their visit!

The snacks the campers made!

During their visit the campers added more plants to our native plant garden (which they helped start last year), helped paint a wooden raven scarecrow, painted signs for the garden, and whipped up a tasty snack of veggies and yogurt herb dip.

Chopping carrots.

The garden in full production!

We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to having the CEDAR Summer Camp next year!

stir fry at dusk

The Saltwater City Youth Camp (sponsored by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society) made its second visit to the garden on Wednesday evening.  The young campers harvested veggies they planted 3 weeks ago (mustard greens, bok choi, and gai lan) which we stir fried with fresh garlic and ginger under the guidance of one of the camp staffers.  We dragged an extension cord out to the garden to plug in our rice cookers and tea kettles and at sundown we enjoyed a candlelit feast of barbecued pork, duck, chicken, pickled radishes, rice & veggies in ceramic blue & white rice bowls.

The campers also painted signs (in English and Chinese) to label the veggies for future groups.  The discussion for the night centered around the ways in which gardens, farms, and food can connect us to our cultural histories.  Although all of the youth are of Chinese ancestry, many of them spoke of a desire to learn "how to cook Chinese food- my family eats a lot of pasta and bread..."  Hopefully our time spent in the garden inspired an interest to continue discovering the ways in which our many cultures grow and share food.

All of the photos in this post were taken by one young camper who clearly has a passion for photography. Someone get this girl a camera!  Such talent here!

harvesting bok choi

harvesting siu choi

7:30pm

fields of buckwheat

gai lan flowers

sunset

learning plant names

harvest!

our dining room

fresh veggies

preparing gai lan

chopping ginger

learning Chinese characters

painting signs

cleaning greens

outdoor cooking station

stir fry!

setting the table

"it's like camping!"

filling our bowls

a feast