Month: May 2017

Britannia School Gardening – Spring 2017

Great day gardening with the Britannia students. Worked with Outreach Alternative at the carving pavilion garden transplanting Coastal Strawberries,  which have spread like wildfire, to a new area in the garden. Talking about fire, we have a thick growth of Fireweed, which is fascinating how it naturally appeared as if to heal the disturbed soil after the carving pavilion construction. Later worked with the Biology 11 class who brought down microscopes to the garden to have a closer look at earthworms. Funny how even grade 11s are all freaked out and fascinated by earthworms.

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Stone Soup Festival 2017

Once again with the skies, after weeks and months of cold wet weather  cleared up and the sun shone for our 23rd Stone Soup Festival.

Now 23 years old, the Stone Soup Festival is Britannia’s much loved festival drawing a few thousand people, along with music and vendors of many types to Britannia Community centre to all celebrate our love for food and community. A big thank you to the many volunteers who help make it a success as well as the Carnival Band, Katari Taiko, Rio Samaya, Dansi-Metis Dancers, Vancouver Fiddle Club, and all the vendors and community groups Who made it a resounding success!
Check out the photos below by Ann Der and Ian Marcuse

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McSpadden County Fair – Go Fund Me

East Van’s newest tradition needs your help!  As a 100% volunteer run and funded event, we rely on the generosity of our community to make the magic happen. Every dollar we receive, goes directly to pay for permits, insurance, entertainers,  and supplies.  EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!!
https://www.gofundme.com/McSpaddenCountyFair?pc=em_db_co2876_v1&rcid=9c45fcced8194d8893fc5aa734b16566

A little about the fair if you missed it last year.

This fall marks the second annual McSpadden County Fair, to be held at McSpadden Park (located along Victoria Drive between 3rd and 6th Ave) September 10, 2017.  The Fair’s first year was a booming success.  A wide range of local experts and members of the business community were given opportunities to participate. What resulted were information booths on sustainable urban agriculture practices like beekeeping, gardening, greening your home, food reclamation, and fermenting.  Physical fitness was featured as well, as was the work of several talented local artisans selling breathtaking pottery, clothing, and jewellery.

Like all county fairs there was food- pie contests, canning contests, and a community garden basket competition where the food was to redistributed to a community in need. A spectacular raffle with prizes donated by local businesses was very popular, and helped greatly with funding the event.

The Fair’s biggest draw however, was the wildly successful East Van ZUCCHINI RACES.   With over 60 registered racers making history down our custom 28’ track, the community came together in raucous cheering and the sounds of epic crash sympathies.

Live music, a spontaneous community square dance, loads of activities for families of all abilities, a kid zone, and delicious food trucks filled out the experience.  An estimated 500 attendees enjoyed the beautiful day with their neighbors, and the feedback we have received was nothing short of encouraging an annual tradition had just begun.

For 2017, we hope to maintain the feel of last year’s event, but expand to represent more local businesses and organizations, showcase more of what the Drive has to offer in our raffle, and add  even more family activities.  We also strive to make this community event free to all who wish to participate.

Check out photos from last year on our Facebook page,  https://www.facebook.com/mcspaddencountyfair/
And please contact us if you wish to volunteer or are a business looking to sponsor the event.

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Grade 3 Potato Planting

Each year the Grandview Woodland Food Connection plants potato with the grade 3’s. This is one of our most enjoyable activities with the students super keen and excited about growing food….or is it the prospect of eating french fries. Either way, the students are so much fun to work with and will get to dig up the spuds and eat them when they return to school in the fall.

Working with younger students is helping to build a strong school food culture, teaching the kids where there food comes from. As the young ones reach high school they are already familiar with the school garden program. Having said this, the truth is these grade 3’s are so much more aware about healthy eating and  growing their own food than what one might think. Certainly there appears to be a generational change happening around food literacy among children.

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Britannia Sukkot: The Festival of Ingathering – Artist Call Out

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The Jewish Museum and Archives of BC along with the Grandview Woodland Food Connection are pleased to present the inaugural Britannia Sukkot Festival in October 2017.

Sukkot is the Jewish harvest festival, held each autumn to celebrate the bounty of nature and the giving of the Torah by God to the Jewish people. To commemorate this holiday, Jewish families build temporary outdoor shelters (sukkahs), where they dine with family and friends each evening for a week. These temporary shelters remind us of the impermanence of our possessions and harken back to the 40 years the Jewish people wandered through the desert following their emancipation from slavery in Egypt.

Sukkot expresses universal themes of harvest celebration, cultural identity, human vulnerability, and community building. The Britannia Sukkot Festival will bring together diverse community members from all backgrounds to feast and share in both a Jewish Sukkot and Coast Salish led ceremonies in the spirit of cross cultural sharing, learning, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and as part of the city wide Sustenance Festival 2007 (http://sustenancefestival.ca/)

INVITATION TO ARTIST COLLABORATION

At the heart of these festivities will be a community feast, along with a sukkah designed to welcome and provide a respite from city life.

Designers, artists, and architects of all cultures are invited to submit designs to build this sukkah. Submissions will be accepted from both teams and individuals, with special consideration given to submissions by Coast Salish designers and artists.

Sukkot Artist Call For Proposals

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