Make a Pollinator Garden Activity

Make a pollinator garden full of bee friendly flowers to attract bees to your garden or help support the gardens and farms in your neighborhood. 

You Will Need:

• a plant pot or any container you have on hand (a yogurt container, or used milk jug work well also). Click here for a tutorial on turning a recycled container into a plant pot. 

• soil

• a packet of wildflower or bee friendly seeds

Instructions:

• Research what flowers attract bees in your area. Wildflowers or local flowers are best for local bees. Blue, purple, white and yellow flowers are very attractive to bees.

• find your seeds 

• find a container or a place outside to plant your seeds

• plant your seeds according to the directions on the packet

• watch your flowers grow and the bees buzz by

• plant flowers from spring to fall so the bees have a consistent supply of nectar

What is pollination?

Pollination is when pollen is transferred from one flower to another or within one flower. When a flower is pollinated the plant can make seeds and fruit/vegetables. Bees are one way that plants pollinate. When bees land on a flower to drink its nectar, pollen from the flower sticks to the bee’s legs, the bee carries the pollen and spreads to the next flower. 

Some plants like beans and peas are self-pollinating that is why you can grow them inside on your windowsill. Other vegetables like squash and some types of cucumber need to be pollinated to produce fruit and vegetables.

Pollinator questions to ponder or research:

• What are some other pollinators besides bees?

• What else can you put in a pollinator garden to help the pollinators? Hint...sometimes bees get thirsty! 

• What would happen if we didn’t have any bees?

Make a Garden Planter Out of a Recycled Container

You don’t need anything complicated to grow a container garden at home. In this activity you turn a recycled container into a planter pot. Watch the video below or simply follow the instructions to make your own planter.

You Will Need:

• a used milk, juice or yogurt container (or any container you have on hand)

• a small amount of soil (about 6 cups)

• a packet of seeds (we planted wildflower seeds)

• sharp scissors

• a pen to poke drainage holes

• a tray or larger container to catch drainage water (if you like)

 Instructions:

• clean your recycled container so that it is free of food residue

• decide what side of your container you want to be the top and what side will be the bottom

• ask an adult to help poke about six drainage holes in the bottom of your container

• ask an adult to help cut a rectangular opening in the top of the planter (skip this step if you are using a container with an open top)

• fill your container about ¾ full with soil

• plant your seeds according to the package directions

• find a tray or larger container to put under your container (to catch any water that might drain out) 

• water gently, place in a sunny location and wait for your seeds to grow

What other recycled items can you grow a garden in? Let us know your creative ideas!

The Coolest Way to Eat Your Greens! Frozen Greensicles

These Greensicles get their vibrant green color from spinach. Including spinach in a popsicle (or smoothie) adds vitamins A and C as well as potassium and magnesium. Making this easy recipe along with kids is fun and will help get them comfortable cooking with and eating greens. For extra fun make up your own name for the greensicles (hulksicles, grasshoppersicles, greenmonstersicles). 

Frozen Greensicles Recipe

Yield: This recipe makes 4 greensicles
Prep time: 5 minutes
Freeze time: 5 hours (or a bit longer depending on your freezer)

Ingredients:
½ cup spinach or other greens
½ cup pineapple (frozen, canned or fresh)
½ cup milk (dairy or dairy free)
½  cup yogurt (dairy or dairy free)
1 banana (frozen or fresh)

Tools:
Blender*
Popsicle molds**

 Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend mixture until it is smooth and creamy and there are no large chunks of spinach left. If your smoothie is too thick add some extra milk, yogurt or water and blend some more. Ask an adult to assist when working with a bender and food processor.

2. Pour mixture into popsicle molds

3. Freeze for 5 hours or until frozen

4. Release popsicles from the molds and enjoy 

Modifications: 
You can add any fruit you have on hand to your greensicle recipe. Some fruits like blueberries will taste great and also change the color of your greensicle. Have fun experimenting with different flavor and color combos.

*If you don’t have a blender you can use a food processor or put all the ingredients in a zipper bag and smush the mixture with your hands (chop the spinach a fine as possible if you are using this method).

**If you don't have popsicle molds you can freeze this mixture in an empty yogurt container and eat it with a spoon like ice cream or “icegreen”.

Victoria Program Update

Hello Growing Chefs! community,

We want to bring you up to speed on some island-based happenings we have been working on, and introduce you to some of our friends and collaborators.

Springing into Action!

This spring, we had an amazing group of over 25 volunteers excited and ready to share their knowledge in Victoria classrooms. We were geared up for one of our biggest years yet, expanding our reach with 5 new teachers and 2 new schools to offer the Growing Chefs! program to over 100 kids. Unfortunately, we did not get the opportunity to connect in schools, but we found new ways to reach even more kids and families online!

As you may have seen, our team had a lot of fun finding creative ways to bring our Spring Classroom Gardening and Cooking program online, with Growing Chefs! at Home. We could not have done this without the help of our amazing volunteers who helped us continue to serve our mission by sharing their knowledge and expertise via video.

Growing Together From a Distance

Growing Chefs! is proud to have joined Growing Together as a key collaborator to form an island-based initiative of food literacy organizations and growers to support our communities in these unprecedented times. We look forward to curating educational materials and resource listings, as well as promoting opportunities for mentorship and volunteerism.

This website is the hub for the Growing Together initiative. Stay tuned! You can also check out this Growing Together video to learn more about our mission.

Want to support food literacy initiatives in Victoria? Head to the Growing Together Volunteer Form to sign up!

Make sure to check out and follow along with the Growing Together social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.

Feature Spotlight from our Victoria Growing Chefs! Community

Indecent Risotto

Chef Andrew brought the Growing Chefs! Program to the island in collaboration with the Island Chefs Collaborative (ICC) in 2014. Chef Andrew and his partner Shannon have been major supporters of the program, volunteering in the classroom and participating in our Eat. Give. Grow. fundraising campaign. Together as local food champions, they run Indecent Risotto. We dig what they are up to! *Virtually passes the mic*:

Here at Indecent Risotto we believe that in order to cook great food you need to start with the best ingredients. From day one on our food truck we have always bought as many local ingredients as possible. From working with local farms for all of our produce, to local producers of meats, seafood and cheeses, we attain more than 80% local ingredients during the peak summer months.

The best part about doing things this way are the relationships that we have formed with our amazing suppliers. It is our way of building up our communities and truly understanding what it takes to create a local food economy. We feel honoured to be able to go directly to the farm 10 minutes down the road from us and see the changes the seasons bring. Being able to look at a crop and know in two weeks there will be a fantastic new ingredient ready for us to use is the best!

Andrew Paumier and Shannon Moriarty
Indecent Risotto Food Truck

Check out Indecent Risotto online at their website, or on Instagram or Facebook.

Make a Salad Bar Activity

Growing up in the 80’s my absolute favourite restaurant had an all-you-can-eat salad bar. I loved to pick from all the options and toppings and then add on one of the many dressings (I always went for Thousand Island). Then, I would hit up the soft serve ice cream bar! Kids today still really enjoy the variety and choice that a salad bar style presentation offers, set one up at home to relive your childhood and introduce your kids to a super fun way to eat greens. 

You Will Need:

• Lettuce, any type(s).

• Toppings (list of ideas below)

• Dressing, either homemade (use our “Choose your Own Adventure recipe guide to easily create your own) or store-bought

• Pencil and paper

Instructions:

1. Talk with kids about what a salad bar is.

2. Look at the list of salad ingredients below and pick a few that you would like to offer at your in-house salad bar (or brainstorm your own ingredients). You only need a few toppings and they don’t have to be fancy, so use what you have around the house (we made our croutons out of some stale bread).

3. Draw a diagram of how your salad bar will be set-up (generally starting with lettuce at one end and ending with dressing at the other end).

4. If you are feeling crafty, create a name and logo for your salad bar. We called ours Soopa Salad.

5. Get your ingredients, wash and prepare them and set-up your salad bar.

6. Enjoy experimenting with new toppings and flavour combinations.

7. The best part about a salad bar is that you can go back for a second helping!

Ideas for Components of Your Salad Bar:

Growing Chefs! Programs Went Virtual

This year our Spring Classroom Gardening and Cooking Program, like so many things this year, looked a little different.

In early March, we were all set to bring our program to 54 classrooms across the Lower Mainland and in Victoria with a team of nearly 200 volunteers who were ready and eager to get into schools and teach kids about growing and cooking healthy food. Over the spring break, we made the difficult decision to postpone the start date of our programming due to concerns related to the coronavirus, but as April came closer, it became clear that our spring classroom program was not going to happen at all this year.

As schools were closed and learning moved to an online, distanced format, we wondered if and how we could still bring hands-on food literacy education to students at home. We chatted with some of the teachers who had signed up for our spring program, asked our volunteers if they’d be interested in helping us to develop some online learning materials, and were able to create Growing Chefs! at Home; a twelve-part video series bringing many of our regular program components to students and families at home.

Just as with our regular classroom program, our virtual program began with some instructional videos to get kids and families growing their own home gardens. It was exciting to see how many different gardens students planted at home. Some had a few pots, some got creative repurposing containers into pots for growing, some had full windowsill gardens, while others had large gardens in their backyard… all showing the many ways we can grow food in an urban setting!

Every Tuesday from March 31st until June 26th, we released a new lesson video and at-home lesson outline on our blog that included art projects, at-home science experiments, scavenger hunts, activity worksheets, movement activities, writing exercises, story readings, and of course, recipes.

Growing Chefs! staff and volunteers invited students, teachers, and families into their home kitchens, living rooms, backyards, and home gardens through a series of videos that explored our connections to food throughout the whole food cycle. In these videos, staff and volunteers brought their skills, knowledge, and passion to each lesson, sharing all of this and more with students just as they would in the classroom. They led lessons on how plants grow, why soil and compost are important, exploring new foods through our senses, why eating healthy is important, how food makes us feel, some basic at home cooking lessons, and more.

The teachers that were going to be a part of our in-school program joined us, sending out each weekly lesson to their students as part of their online learning content. In addition to the classrooms that we would normally be reaching, we had thousands of views, likes, and shares as we shared all of this content through our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.

We could not have made this shift so quickly and successfully if it weren’t for our amazing program team, the passionate teachers who were eager to incorporate food literacy into their online lesson plans and help us develop the most effective ways to do so, and of course, the incredible volunteers who were more than eager to still share their knowledge, passion, and skills with kids and families.

We have all missed being in schools and working in classrooms this year, but we have been so excited to see how many have been following along with our lessons at home and interacting with us online. Thank you to all the teachers, parents, and students who have shared videos and photos of what you’ve been up to with Growing Chefs! at Home. It has warmed our hearts to hear from you and see your amazing gardens and meals you’ve prepared following along with the lessons.

If you missed any of our Growing Chefs! at Home lessons or are looking to take part in these lessons at home, here is a complete list (with links to content) of all the lessons and activities we created this spring:

1. Introduction to Growing Chefs! At Home

2. Lesson 1- Planting our garden

3. Lesson 2 - Vegetable Exploration

4. Lesson 3 - What Vegetables do for us

5. Lesson 4 - Mindful Eating

6. Lesson 5 - Foods and Emotions

7. Lesson 6 - Parts of a Plant & How Plants Grow

8. Lesson 7 - Exploring Soil & Compost

9. Lesson 8 - Making a healthy salad and salad dressing

10. Lesson 9 - Where food comes from, exploring food systems

11. Lesson 10 - Let’s Make a Stir Fry

12. Growing Chefs! at Home Program Wrap-up and Review

While our virtual spring program wraps up with the end of the school year, over the summer we will continue to share ideas and outlines for fun at-home learning activities and recipes on our social media channels. We hope that you will continue to interact with us online!

Donor Profile: Mission Hill Family Estate

Connecting over a delicious meal and favourite beverage is something all of us have in common. We use this to offer comfort, make friends, celebrate special occasions, and show appreciation, gratitude and love. Food is more than just nourishment; it allows us to create memories and express our creativity. Through this experience we are able to go on a journey, connecting with different cultures, traditions and stories.

Pairing wine and food is deeply embedded in our culture, and is a way to not only enhance one’s dining experience, but tune in with your mood and the meal you are eating. Thanks to the continued support from Mission Hill Family Estate, we are able to deepen the relationships with our community members and celebrate the joy of connecting over local food and wine.

Thank you Mission Hill Family Estate for your wine sponsorship, and thank you Executive Chef Patrick Gayler for taking the time to introduce yourself to Growing Chefs!

How long have you been working at Mission Hill Family Estate?
7 years

As Executive Chef, what do you do?
I help the sous chefs source ingredients, make menus, and train new cooks in the restaurant. I also host culinary classes and dinners too.

What makes Mission Hill different from other B.C. wineries?
Our commitment to quality and the Okanagan.

What is the most exciting part of working at Mission Hill?
Being able to focus on putting together great ingredients and wine is always exciting.

What makes you proud to work for Mission Hill?
Seeing guests from all over the world enjoying our unique winery and valley .

What is your favourite vegetable?
Onion or potato. I could never pick just one.

What’s your favourite food memory?
Turkey dinner at my grandma’s house.

CLICK HERE to learn more about experiences offered at Mission Hill Family Estate.

Growing Chefs! at Home: Wrap-up and Final Review

With the end of the school year comes the end of our spring Growing Chefs! at Home program. Thank you so much to everyone who has been following along: teachers, students, parents, and families. we hope you had fun and learned a few things along the way.

We’re going to be taking a little break but before we do, have put together a fun review lesson in the form of a trivia game for you all!

Join Jaydeen as she tests your knowledge with ten fun trivia questions, one from each lesson!

Congratulations on completing the Growing Chefs! program! We even have a certificate confirming that you are now a Growing Chef that you can print and display to your friends and family.

Be sure to check back to our blog for more fun at-home activities over the summer and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to be sure you don’t miss any of them. And please, share with us any photos or videos of what you’ve been up to in the garden and in the kitchen at home.

If you missed any of our Growing Chefs! at Home lessons or are looking for a past one here is a complete list of all the lessons and activities we created this spring:

1. Introduction to Growing Chefs! At Home

2. Lesson 1- Planting our garden

3. Lesson 2 - Vegetable Exploration

4. Lesson 3 - What Vegetables do for us

5. Lesson 4 - Mindful Eating

6. Lesson 5 - Foods and Emotions

7. Lesson 6 - Parts of a Plant & How Plants Grow

8. Lesson 7 - Exploring Soil & Compost

9. Lesson 8 - Making a healthy salad and salad dressing

10. Lesson 9 - Where food comes from, exploring food systems

11. Lesson 10 - Let’s Make a Stir Fry

We hope your gardens bring you a beautiful harvest this summer. Keep growing and cooking and trying new foods as we will see you all again real soon!

Cooking Something New in the Kitchen: A Recipe for Learning

If you are like me, you have a few things you regularly cook with your kids. For our family, it is a trusted recipe for double chocolate muffins with banana and zucchini. The recipe is easy, reasonably healthy, and everyone likes it, so we make it often. When I think of cooking with kids I almost always think of things I am familiar with and that also produce a sweet and tasty result (like my chocolate zucchini muffins). 

This year, I have been challenging myself to move away from my comfort zone and try cooking some new things with my kid that aren't so familiar. Things that are new to us both. We have made cranberry sauce, beet hummus, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, and homemade tomato soup to name a few. All things that I have never made before. The results have been predictable; some failures, some success, and plenty of learning. In many cases the cooking process and technique was so much different from the things we usually cook that we couldn’t help but learn (A LOT) along the way. We did research, learned how to use a kitchen scale, tried to understand fermentation and asked friends and family for advice. During this process it occurred to me that the skills required to learn to cook something new (researching, problem solving, resourcefulness) will be pretty useful for my kid as she grows up (probably more useful than the ability to make one recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins). With this in mind over the summer we are planning to continue to cook some new things...and probably some more chocolate zucchini muffins (because they are really very tasty). Next up is fresh pasta…wish us luck!

Want to Cook Something New Together? Here are some tips: 

Decide what you will make together:

• Look in magazines or online for inspiration 

• Pick an item from your heritage and call a family member to ask for the recipe

• Think of what you might order-in and find a similar recipe that you can make at home. 

Research, explore, and prepare together:

• Watch some videos together (we watched someone make sourdough on Youtube about 6 times before we felt ready to try it)

• Ask friends and family for tips (you probably know someone that knows how to cook what you are cooking)

• Explore any concepts that are new to you both, this might be the origin of the dish, cooking techniques or terms

Take some notes:

• Write out the recipe to make sure you all understand the steps

• Take some notes for next time you make the recipe (ie. turn down oven temperature, too dry,  yummy)

Anticipate some bumps:

• It might come out perfect the first time….and it might not. Be prepared to fail(ish) and try again if you like

Have fun cooking something new! 

Growing Chefs! at Home: Lesson 10

We have a special guest for lesson 10!

Executive Chef Ben Mattman from the Vancouver Marriott shows you how to cook a tasty stir fry at home.

He shares what he likes in his stir fry, and even explains a chef’s mise en place, a French term that means having all your ingredients prepared and organized before you begin cooking. We hope you can imagine how good the stir fry smells and tastes while you watch the video. Think about what you would put in your own stir fry!

Related Activities:

Draw Your Stir Fry: Watch the video of chef Ben making a stir fry and then draw the ingredients that you would add to your own stir fry on this fun plate worksheet. The best part about drawing a stir fry is that you have all the ingredients that you can imagine, and everything is in season. Make sure you add some bright beautiful vegetables! 

What's in your stir fry?

What's in your stir fry? Growing Chefs! volunteers and staff tell us what they like in their stir fry. We hope this video will give you some ideas of all the different things that can go in a stir fry. 

Write Your Own Recipe for Stir Fry and Stir Fry Sauce:

You get to be the chef! This template will help you pick ingredients and write a recipe for your very own stir fry and stir fry sauce.

Explore your kitchen:
We’ve prepared a fun scavenger hunt activity to explore the colours, fragrances, and flavours right in your own kitchen.

Lettuce Taste Test:

Did you know there are hundreds of different types of leafy greens that we can eat? Explore more flavours in the kitchen by following along with our Lettuce Taste Test activity.

Explore our Growing Gardens:

We may be in the kitchen this week but every week there are new and exciting things happening in the garden! Explore the changes you see happening with a fun game of Garden BINGO!

Thank you for joining us this week!

Please join us again next week for the final lesson of our 2020 Growing Chefs! at Home Spring Program.