Month: June 2015

As is tradition, we end the school gardening year with a celebration of our work and a salad feast, harvesting the fruits of our labour. Harvesting food that the students planted themselves is an empowering action and important for the youth to see the value in their garden work. Without concrete results, most students would loose interest so it is very rewarding when a student gets excited seeing the seeds they planted grow into food.

This year’s salad contained lamb’s quarter, chickweed, radish,collard, chard, kale, lettuce, mint, peas, strawberries, nasturtium and kale flowers, and a a few store-bought tomatoes, and cucumbers. A chive (yes from our garden) vinaigrette dressing topped it off making a very delicious salad.

A big thanks to the Environmental Youth Alliance and Growing Kids for their support this year. We worked with 4 classes monthly in the garden.

The Biology 12 class made a wonderful thank you card.

Like last year, another class blessed us with a release of butterflies they they raised in their classroom.

All in all a really great ending to a great school gardening year.

Please help save Cottonwood Garden.  The City is holding consultations on the future of the False Creek Flats, the area that includes Cottonwood.

The plan to widen Malkin Ave into a major road is still on the table, and this would pave over a significant part of Cottonwood (Cottonwood’s south border is Malkin Ave, and widening Malkin would eliminate a significant part of the garden).

Cottonwood is a unique community-built oasis that is green city, food security, biodiversity, inclusive community, and real partnership with the earth.

Please help us save Cottonwood.

What you can do!

q  Please go to the City’s public consultation/workshop Thursday, June 18, 5:30-8pm, 701 National Ave on “Food for Thought: leveraging existing assets to define excellence in a sustainable urban food system”.  Widening Malkin and the future of Cottonwood will be part of this discussion.  Please speak for the protection of Cottonwood and let the planners know that widening Malkin Avenue and paving over one of Canada’s oldest community gardens, a thriving, well-loved oasis in the east end, is not what you want to see in the future for False Creek Flats.

q  If you can’t make the workshop this Thursday, please try to go to a different public consultation/workshop Wednesday, June 248, 5:30-8pm, 701 National Ave on “Creating Great Places, natural systems, amenities, and the public realm”.  This is also an excellent place to speak for the protection of Cottonwood, one of Vancouver’s really great places, a community-built natural system and beautiful public space designed and maintained entirely by volunteers – let the planners know that widening Malkin Avenue and paving over one of Canada’s oldest community gardens, a thriving, well-loved oasis in the east end, is not what you want to see in the future for False Creek Flats.

q  Fill in the online survey https://falsecreekflats.metroquest.ca/

q  Let other people know about this issue and what they can do to help

Background info

Please take a look at Oliver Kellhammer’s article “Cottonwood Community Gardens: oasis in peril”  http://www.vancouverobserver.com/city/cottonwood-community-gardens-oasis-peril )

Save Cottonwood’ Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/SaveCottonwoodCommunityGarden

Since 2010 SOYL has mentored secondary students to learn about, grow, cook, and share healthy food with the communities at Britannia and Van Tech. We’ve seen amazing results, from youth finding new passions and pursuing education and careers in food and environmental fields to gorgeous school gardens producing food throughout the summer and into the school year.

SOYL offers a fantastic opportunity for youth to gain confidence, communication and leadership skills, develop healthy habits, build a resume and earn volunteer hours. If you know any youth who would benefit from this experience, please share with them!

Are you a secondary student who is interested in delicious food, spending your summer outside, and making a difference in your community? Apply to be a SOYL intern for summer 2015! SOYL interns make healthy food accessible in our community by growing, cooking, selling, eating, and teaching others about good food. Earn volunteer hours! Share the best 6 weeks of your summer with SOYL! Last day to sign up is Friday, June 19, 9am . For more information or to sign up click here!

Attached are photos of young sockeye salmon on the Fraser migration route off Campbell River in the Discovery islands. These were taken on Saturday of last week.

Alexandra Morton

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You will find a letter Premier Christy Clark with the logos of 10 Indigenous governments along the Fraser and Thompson rivers informing her the Province of BC must not expand existing fish farms, offer new leases of occupation or renew fish farm leases without our collective consent.  Aggressive expansion of fish farms on migration routes must be halted as an immediate step to prevent a serious demise of our endangered wild salmon.  The Norwegian ocean fish farms decimated their wild salmon stocks in their country and their aquaculture industry is currently facing very serious out of control  sea lice problems.  We must prevent this from happening in Canada.

We invite you to add your strength to this effort to rid fish farms from migration routes of wild salmon.  There are alternatives that we can support, such as sustainable land-based aquaculture.  Dr. Alexandra Morton, a marine biologist living on Vancouver Island, is willing to be the secretary to add the logo to this letter, along with your respective chiefs names at the bottom.

Should you have any questions regarding this, please don’t hesitate to contact either myself or Alexandra Morton.

Yours in solidarity,

Eddie Gardner
604-792-0867
singingbear@telus.net
www.farmed-salmon-boycott.com

Do you want to know what it is like gardening with Grade 3s?

Well, it is a delight and in this podcast you will see why I enjoy working with this age group so much. They are curious, smart, excited about gardening, and just a lot of fun with a very positive attitude.

Check us out at 100 in 1 Day

BRITANNIA SCHOOL GARDEN SALAD PICNIC

We would like people to experience the magic of eating fresh healthy food picked straight from the garden.

The Britannia School Garden Salad Picnic invites community residents to enjoy the simplicity of eating a freshly picked salad together. The site is a beautiful school garden abundant with fresh greens. We will pick veggies for our salad, prepare a healthy salad dressing and savor the taste of eating a fresh salad. In the meantime we will meet wonderful people passionate about urban sustainability.