Library in the Garden!

Last Saturday we had Larissa from the Calgary Public Library join us for story time. She brought books that could be signed out by the kids, and shared information about the public library's 2015 Summer Reading Challenge. This is a great opportunity to enjoy reading while you discover amazing new books and you can even win prizes! She did a great job engaging kids in reading and inspired many of them to practice often so one day they too can read tons of books on their own. It was so fun to have you Larissa! Thank you!

Our other activities were more hands-on. The kids got their hands dirty with weeding and watering the garden. They are doing an amazing job at identifying weeds and plants and understanding what is helpful and harmful to our garden. Even adults were interested to learn that some plants which look beautiful with flowers are actually weeds and could be harmful to our vegetables or herbs that we want to grow. It takes a lot of water to harvest a healthy crop and we don't need anything else sucking it all up!

Our time was now coming to an end but we always are ready for some fun games! This weekend we played Four Corners which is always a lot of fun and you can try at home too! You can use a marker item to name a corner or just remember what you call each of the four corners. Say we have ours named Lettuce corner, Caterpillar corner, Water Can corner, and Sunshine corner then the person in the middle closes their eyes and counts to ten while everyone very quietly races to a corner. Without peaking the person in the centre calls out "Caterpillar corner!" and everyone in that corner has to come join them in the middle. The kids had a lot of fun and plenty to talk about in sharing circle when we shared our favourite moments!

A big thank you to everyone!

Worms Love Leftovers!

This past Saturday morning welcomed in some beautiful summer weather. We started the day off with some weeding and watering of the Kids Grow plot as well as neighbouring plots with "Please Water Me" signs. After a week of almost non-stop sunshine and scorching weather, the plants definitely needed a long drink! 

After finishing up with our gardening maintenance, the kids and their parents were thrilled to welcome Amy Sparks of Green Calgary, as she came to teach us all about worms in the garden, and what they like and don't like to eat! We were very interested to learn about worm anatomy (do you know which end of the worm their head is?!) with the help of her big (fake) worm friend, Squirmy Wormy! She also taught us how to tell apart baby, teenager and adult worms from each other. 

We then sorted food and other items into "yummy", "yucky" or "maybe" piles trying to decide what we thought the worms would like to eat. Amy helped all the kids through this activity and explained that worms like a lot of the same things we like to eat, except for any meat, citrus-y or acidic foods, dairy and milk, salty foods, and garbage. Interesting!

After that, Amy brought out her (real, live!) worm friends for everyone to observe under magnifying glasses or hold (gently!). It was really incredible to see the kids were at first quite nervous and hesitant to actually touch and hold the worms but became quite comfortable and confident handling them. Most of the parents were too "grossed out" to hold them, but the kids held nothing back. They were able to pick out body parts of the worms that they had just learned about, and to see if a worm was a baby, teenager or adult (and even to see if they were pregnant based on how swollen their "clitellum" was!). The kids also loved seeing how worms would clump up into a big wriggly ball together as a "squirm of worms". 

With Amy's time at the Kids Grow! garden up, everyone was eager for story time in the orchard. After story time, we enjoyed a snack of mandarin oranges (which the kids were quick to point out that, being a citrus fruit, the worms wouldn't like the peels!) and green grapes. Although it was scorching outside and very sunny, everyone was itching to play a game. First up was 'The Longest Worm', where we hid sparkly worm "pieces" (bits of pipecleaner or ribbon) all around the orchard. The kids were split into two teams: Team Worm and Team Squirmy Wormy. The teams had to try to find pieces of the worm and string them together to make "the longest worm". Amazingly, both team's worms ended up being the EXACT same length!! A tie!

After that, some of the older kids wanted to play "Farmer", where there are 2-3 "farmers" on one side of a rope/line with their "crops" (seed packages or plastic fruit) spread out on their "plot" that they have to protect. All of the other kids are "garden pests/animals" who stand on the other side of the rope. They have to capture as much of the farmer's crop as they can without being tagged. If they are tagged in the farmers plot, they have to freeze wait for an animal friend to unfreeze them by running under their arm. The kids played several rounds of this and finally it was time for sharing circle, where we all reflected on what learned and loved from the days activities and what Amy Spark had taught us about worms in the garden. 

Thank you Amy and Green Calgary!

Neighbour Day!

This past Saturday, June 20th, we celebrated Neighbour Day! This is a very special day in Calgary because it celebrates the anniversary of the Calgary Floods two years ago as we remember and reflect on the support of the community and kind acts of our neighbours to get the city back in working order.

In the community garden, plot owners will put a 'Please Water Me' sign in their garden if they will be away and are relying on a friendly neighbour to help water the garden. With the scorching heat, these friendly acts of kindness are necessary as many vegetable, flower and other edible plants are sensitive to the heat and cannot survive drought-like conditions. The kids took the time to weed and water our garden and then headed over to other plots to water their garden's as well.

We tried to distract some of the father's that had shown up for the day's events to make a special Father's Day Craft. Each child had the chance to make their very own garden. They planted a variety of different crops including beans, corn and flowers. We also saw an abundance of wildlife in their gardens. Butterflies, dragonflies and ladybugs galore!

Next up was snack time! We had a delightful rainbow of colours on the table with red, green and yellow bell peppers from Community Natural Foods. We also harvested some thyme, sage and chives from our garden to make some herbed cream cheese on crackers. Yum! Check out the recipe:

Ingredients

Softened Cream Cheese

Fresh Sage

Fresh Chives

Fresh Thyme

Harlic 

Directions

1. Place cream cheese in a bowl and let it sit a room temperature for a few minutes to soften

2. Collect herbs from garden, the above herbs are suggestions, add to taste, you can also used dried herbs

3. wash and cut herbs into small pieces and add to cream cheese 

4. finely grate garlic to taste and add to mixture

5. mix well and enjoy on crackers, toast, as a dip for vegetables! (for an intensified flavour, put the mixture in the fridge and let it sit overnight before consuming)

The day ended with a very fun game of hide and seek and we shared our favourites moments of the day together :)

Next week, we'll be learning all about worms!

Helpers and Pests of the Garden

Since it had rained heavily the day before, there was no need to water the garden so we decided to weed the community orchard for our opening activity of the day! We learned about why we engage in the task of weeding and how to do it properly in order to ensure the health of our fruit trees, strawberry patch and other plants in the beautiful orchard.

We collected half a garbage bag full of weeds!

One of the volunteers sneakily hid an assortment of felt and pipe cleaner animals and critters around the community garden and orchard for the kids to find. After the scavenging around to find all of them, we came together to talk about which ones are pests, which ones are helpers and why we want to naturally attract and deter animals and critters from our garden.

We then went on a walk around the garden and orchard to find evidence of pest damage on the plants. The red bumps on the currant plants indicate a aphid infestation and the holes on the potato plants and presence of many potato beetles told us that they were enjoying their feast a little too much.

Planting a variety of crops in our garden already makes it resistant to pest infestation. We also made a natural pesticide to ward off those pesky critters.

Natural Pesticide Recipe

Ingredients

5 cups water

Pinch of cayenne (chili powder)

Skins from one onion

Skins from one garlic bulb

Directions

1. Peel garlic and onion and place the skins in a glass pitcher

2. Boil water and pour over garlic and onion skins, add pinch of cayenne and stir

3. Let the concoction sit overnight, strain and pour into spray bottle

4. Spray on the leaves of plants every few days

5. Pesticide will last for several areas in a cool area

6. Leftover skins can buried into the soil of the garden nearby plants 

Aphids eating the currant plant!

Can you spot the potato beetle?

                             
After our educational journey in pests vs helpers, we read a story about a bumblebee named 'Buzz' and played a classic game of 'Capture the Crops'. Our day ended with a sharing circle about our favourite and most cherished parts of the day.

Kids Grow Returns!

We're excited to announce that Kids Grow will be returning for another season in Sunnyside! Unfortunately, due to a lack of resources and low turnout of participants, we are unable to continue programming at the Silver Springs Edible Garden. We want to warmly thank the Silver Springs community for openly welcoming us into their space and supporting the program in many ways.


We would like to invite you to join us for our first program on Saturday, June 6th from 10am-12pm at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Garden. 

For those who are new to Kids Grow. We are a collaborative, community based program run by volunteers. The goal of Kids Grow is to involve children in community gardening, to increase gardening and food production knowledge, to promote healthy and sustainable food choices, build environmental awareness and create a sense of community.

Every week, we take care of our garden, take part in an exciting workshop, enjoy a delicious healthy snack and then participate in some fun crafts, games and activities! All ages welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Programming this year runs every Saturday from June 6th to August 29th. 

We are going to encourage registration this year to better estimate participant numbers. Please register for our weekly events here below!

And the Season Ends with Worms!

We had our very last event of the season this past Saturday. To make the event an extra special day filled with exciting new information and experiences, we invited the hilarious and wise Mike Dorion of Living Soil Solutions to spend the day with us. He facilitated a vermiculture workshop and shared his knowledge about the idea living conditions of a worm, their eating habits, the differences between dirt and soil and even uncovered and disapproved some common worm myths! The children were especially excited to go on a hunt for worm cocoons. Did you know that worms lay cocoons and not eggs?  Together, we learned about composting with worms and the benefits of practicing vermiculture in a community garden. 

Harvesting was one of the main activities on the agenda as we had delicious kale, beans, peas, beets, carrots, swiss chard, spinach, pumpkins and various other types of squash to pick and take home! The children and their families learned about how to best harvest the fresh produce for optimal plant growth and we shared recipe ideas for all the goods that they were to bring home.

   

Kids Grow programming is now finished for the 2014 season. We appreciate the support, monetary and in-kind donations and attendance from all those involved!

Thank you to our Community Garden Partners: Hillhurst/Sunnyside Community Garden, Richard Smith, Christy Schaefer and the Silver Springs Edible Garden, Kay Wilford.

A big round of applause also goes out to all of our wonderful workshop facilitators who donated their time, supplies and expertise!

Dr. Kate Appleton, ND

Larissa Johnston and Courtney Novotny, Calgary Public Library

Sharon McCormick, Poppy Innovations

Mike Dorion, Living Soil Solutions 

And lastly, thank you to all of our participants for your interest and enthusiasm in our program and your efforts in helping to build a healthy community!

Healing Herbs, Tasteful Tonics and Ravishing Recipes

Children's health is one of the most important topics of conversation especially now that obesity rates are on the rise and health problems that were once thought to only affect adults are being diagnosed in young children. Dr. Kate Appleton, ND, facilitated a wonderful workshop at Kids Grow to uncover myths about children's diets, claiming that they love to eat healthfully and that living a healthy lifestyle as a family is definitely plausible in today's processed, industrialized and newly-shaped food market. Yes, sometimes you will have to make use of sheer creativity or sneakiness to add the specific herbs, roots and tonics to your favourite recipes, but the benefits can go a long way. She shared some delicious alternative recipes for common household favourites that will be sure to meet nutritional requirements without having your children spit it out, push away plates or make funny faces.

Pretty in Pink Lemonade

1/4 cup liquid sweetener (pure maple syrup or honey)
1 Tbsp freshly chopped ginger
1 cup boiled water
2-4 thin slices raw beets
2.5 cups cold water
minced fresh peppermint leaves
1/2 cup lemon juice

Directions: Place the sweetener and ginger in a 1 litre glass jar. Pour in the just boiled water and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the beet slices. Add the water, peppermint and lemon juice.

Fruit Balls

1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried prunes
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions: Slowly grind all ingredients except the coconut in a blender or food processor. Add a little water as needed to form a sticky dough. Form into 2-inch balls and roll in the coconut.


At Silver Springs, we harvested our potatoes. The children and families engaged in an afternoon of hard work pulling out the withering away potato plants and then digging deep into the rich soil to uncover hidden edible gems! The children each got one to take home in appreciation of their hard work that day and the rest, totalling to 37 pounds were donated to the Calgary Food Bank.We held a discussion about the importance of giving back to the community. Those who visit the food bank are often greeted with an abundance of packaged, processed and non-perishable goods. By making a donation of fresh, local and organic produce, we are making a statement about the right of every Calgarian citizen no matter what situation they are in, where they live or what they look like to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Potatoes are also a staple in diets around the world regardless of  place, culture and age and they can be prepared and consumed in so many different ways!