One highlight was the herbal tea session, where participants enjoyed soothing tea made from garden-grown lemon balm and peppermint—perfect for calming the stomach and uplifting the spirit. Lemon balm and peppermint grows wild, you probably have some in your backyard and don’t even know it,
We also organized a preservation presentation featuring dehydrated apple chips, thanks to the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project, they harvested apples from neighbours backyards and relocate them to where needed. I think it’s time to make apple pies!
Volunteers demonstrated how to transform local backyard apples into delicious snacks. They demonstrated how to slice it and place them in a dehydrator and learning not just about dehydrating apples but just about any other vegetable on the planet can be dehydrated, anything from potatoes, mushroom, corn and kale too!
Another engaging presentation focused on honey production by Alvéole, where children had the opportunity to sample this sweet honey treat, fostering a wonderful learning experience. Bees are amazing and hard workers, I will never look at them in the same way again. So much appreciation, without them this planet would be devasted!
Additionally, we rescued vegetables through our food recovery program. Volunteers chopped these vegetables on a weekly basis and offered them to families in the park.
The ongoing care for our community garden involved children planting seeds and eagerly watching as they grew, bringing joy and surprises to our weekly visits. Did you know green beans are great to munch on freshly harvested out of the garden?
This week, we will present kale smoothies, have discussions on how to grow it, eat it, smooth it and preserve it, and even make kale chips. Each week, we’ve joyfully given away the fresh kale from our garden to the community planted in spring. Goodness has it grown!
King of
Vegetables!
GOODNESS!!!
Thank you for
always being
there♥
One of our memorable workshops was led by Brenda, an indigenous knowledge keeper, who taught us about harvesting sweet grass and its traditional medicinal uses. We just couldn’t get enough of the sweet vanilla smell. We began the workshop by smudging which regulated us, calmed our spirit down and we listened to her stories and then the braiding began. Always treat sweetgrass like you would your grandmothers hair. Mother Earth is so good to us and has always been there for us and still is. Always has, always will be.
As we wrap up the last two months of July and August, we’re excited to celebrate our activities including our family and children program called Frogs in the Park with a Harvest Festival on August 21. This event will bring the community together for a vegetable contest, with veggie judges ( a very hard thing to do), local musicians Shawn Bullshield, children’s show by Monica Lee, art activities, and our partners/stakeholders resources. Attendees can enjoy a vegetable exchange, seed giveaway, entertainment from the one and only Carnival Band, bubbles, face painting, along with the community fire truck!
The Harvest Festival promises to be the highlight of the summer, serving as a wonderful finale to a season filled with uplifting experiences. It truly is the cherry on top of our vibrant community gatherings! Here’s a video from last year’s event to give you a little inside of what to expect! Hope to see you there!
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BAnWKgyRw/?mibextid=wwXIfr
