Fighting food insecurity with Vancouver farmers markets and local farmers!!
Heirloom tomatoes from the Mt Pleasant Farmers Market Donation and cucumber extravaganza from the Riley Park Farmers Market Donation! What a great August haul ~
Produce placed in the Community Fridge @ LMNHS.
#mountpleasant #rileyparkfarmersmarket #vancouver #vancouverfarmersmarket #foodsovereignty #fooddignity #foodjustice #lmnh #community #communityfridge
We started the day off by looking for pollinator - plant relationships in the south pollinator garden. There were many bees on the beebalm (specifically Monarda puntata) and hoverflies over umbelliferous flower heads like fennel. Hover flies aren’t hairy and have two sets of wings while bees only have one set of wings. We generally think of charismatic pollinators such as honey bees but we can’t discount hoverflies (1) and other pollinators that can be just as if not more effective! There were some spent flowers (like the butterfly bush and daisies) that we deadheaded.
We spent some time plating our lettuce starts in the winter veggie bed. There were also lots of beans and blueberries to be picked. So much of the foragable veg purslane, we harvested some to take home and left some in the free library for passers by to take home!
Jan
Thinking about fall plantings, we got some alliums into the ground. Alliums (think onions, leeks, etc.) are generally quite cold hardy, just remember to give them water after transplanting!
For fall planting, the idea is to get seedlings in at the end of summer to get a good start. Then later in the fall they’ll do the most of their growing with many fall veggies liking an optimum 10 - 15 degrees celsius. Brassicas like kale and overwintering cauliflowers are good. For some more options see Linda Gilkeson’s blog (1, 2)!
It was quite hot, so we set up a tent over the rows to be weeded.
Beans and blueberries galore! There were so many harvested, after distributing to all the gardeners there were still lots left over for the community fridge at Main and King Edward. There was also lots of kale and arugula!
We ended the day with some relaxing, socializing, and snacking! Tasty soft cookies and ice cream washed down with some apple cider.
Jan
http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening-pdf/Winter%20Gardening%202022%20-%20July%2023.pdf
http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening-pdf/Winter%20Gardening%202022%20-%20July%208.pdf
How does our body know to grow a head and not an arm? How are humans and bananas related? What makes a living rabbit different from a rock that’s not alive? It’s all in the DNA!
These were some of the questions we asked and discussed in the garden. In thinking about the deep origins of DNA, we discussed the hydrothermal vent theory (1). It’s crazy to think that there may not have been “life” as we know it on the planet before that! We also talked about how our genes control our body plan (2) and how they can be very similar or different to create the variation of living things in the world.
Our young scientists then went on to explore what it meant to be told knowledge vs. experimenting to see knowledge for our own eyes. To SEE DNA, we did a DNA extraction on strawberries in the garden (3). We thought about how crazy it is that this goopy white DNA is life’s instruction book! A fun activity you can do at home too ~
Jan
Some heated scientific discussions amongst our future knowledge makers ~~~
Our budding scientists with their DNA extractions!
https://www.genome.gov/Pages/Education/Modules/StrawberryExtractionInstructions.pdf
It’s time to get ready for fall veg! We cleaned out the calendula flowers from our veg bed and put in some seedlings of Ethiopian Kale, Red Sails Looseleaf Lettuce, and Rouge d'Hiver Lettuce. Red Sails and Rouge d'Hiver are quite cold hardy. Alex mentioned that Ethiopian Kale can be quite a good producer even in cold weather, so we’re going to try and overwinter this variety! The calendula flower heads were harvested by Emily to make calendula tea, yum.
We also got another round of wood chips delivered and started spreading that around the edible food forest paths. We also went around and harvested some seeds from Arugula and Fireweed. We could tell that the Arugula seeds were ready when we gently shook the seed pods and heard a rattling sound.
The blueberries were still going so we were still picking! The crows also had a go at some of the blueberries.
With compost turned and bountiful blueberries harvested, we took a rest at the end of the day with some chips and salsa! Alex brought over some coriander, and had bits of their seed heads with the salsa. What a delicious and complex flavor.
Jan
Collecting seeds into paper bags
Calendula at the different stages of flowering!
Turning compost
Harvesting blueberries!
Planting our fall leafy greens
50 E 30th Ave
Vancouver, BC V5V 2T9
Riley Park Community Garden is a food security project of Little Mountain Neighbourhood House (102-1193 Kingsway)
We acknowledge that the land on which we garden and gather is the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories belonging to the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Charity Registration Number: 107629925RR0001
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