It's Back! From Farms to Forks Year 12!

For Immediate Release
Vancouver + Victoria, BC:

Growing Chefs’ From Farms to Forks is returning for its 12th year this October! Like our palates, this event has evolved over the years and has grown from a one-night event into a series of events that are accessible across Vancouver and Victoria-- and virtually for those across B.C. and Canada! 

This series of events is a celebration of local chefs, restaurants, and food producers while highlighting the importance of community and connection surrounding food. For the safety of all including chefs, restaurants, and guests, From Farms to Forks will remain online this year but each online event will be jam-packed with energy, education, and eats!

The aim is to raise $65,000 for Growing Chefs edible education programming and initiatives throughout the upcoming school year supporting B.C. kids and their families. This is an opportunity for foodies around the province to show their love for the Industry while supporting the next generation of food lovers. 

With five online events plus an online auction and 50/50 raffle there are multiple ways for food lovers around B.C. and Canada to get involved throughout the five-week fundraising event. The online auction and 50/50 raffle will run from Friday, October 1, 2021 until Sunday, November 7, 2021 that is open to everyone. 

Tickets for the five-week event go on sale on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 9am. Tickets are limited.

The 2021 Lineup of Events are: 

• Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 8:00PM - Culinary Kick-Off & Secret Menu takeout dinner*
  Join us for the kick-off party and enjoy menus from a small selection (shhh it’s a secret) of Vancouver and Victoria restaurants with special guests popping into the event to say hello! Part of the series pass only.

• Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 7:30PM - Four Season Foraging*
  Spend the evening with Robin Kort of Swallow Tail Tours and other foraging experts and educators to learn the ins and outs of foraging safely, ethically, and sustainably year round! Part of the series pass or individually priced.

• Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 6:00PM - Catching Fillings - For the Love of Dumplings (Cooking Class)*
  How do dumplings connect to us, our cuisines, and our cultures? Let Chefs Karima Chellouf, Matthew Murtagh-Wu and more guide you through a dumpling-folding class as they share their techniques, their stories, and their love of dumplings! Part of the series pass or individually priced.

• Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 8:00PM - Trivial Charcutes Local Food Trivia*
  You’ll be served up 12 courses of delicious local food trivia  hosted by Growing Chefs’ own trivia buff and Program Director Amanda Adams! Halloween costumes are encouraged and there will be lots of treats to win! Part of the series pass or individually priced.

• Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 10:00AM - Choose Your Own Brunch Adventure (Family Cooking Class)*
  Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but Brunch is an event with this Family Cooking Class which allows the kids in your life to get their hands dirty and start their day with food, fun, and family! Part of the series pass or individually priced.

*Please note these events may include a drop-off or pick-up of partial ingredients/beverages from a central location in either Vancouver or Victoria.

Passes for access to all five events of the Food Series are $250 per person or $450 per couple (and include a $200 or $400 charitable tax receipt, respectively). The Secret Menu takeout dinner for October 3rd is an added $50 per ticket which goes directly to the restaurant. All pass holders will receive a Culinary Cache filled with tasty treats and products with a focus on preventing food waste and food preservation from local food producers and businesses. The Culinary Cache is limited to the first 100 pass holders- so get your tickets early! 

Prices for individual events vary. Individual event tickets range from $20 (for virtual access only) to $75 (includes ingredients and/or beverages).

Tickets and additional information will be available on www.growingchefs.ca. 

We’re grape-ful to have Mission Hill Family Estate Winery back this year as our wine sponsor. 

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For additional information please contact:

Media Contact
Kathleen Beveridge
kmhbeveridge at gmail.com
604.999.1934

Development & Communications Director, Growing Chefs
Jaydeen Williams
jaydeen at growingchefs.ca
604.710.1677

Seedlings for Sandown

This spring, Growing Chefs partnered with Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture for a new way to get elementary school classrooms growing. Our new Seedlings for Sandown project meant kids got their hands in the soil, planted seeds and shared in the joy of the growing season, while learning about how food is grown and engaging with their community in a healthy way.

In April, Growing Chefs provided 230 students in 12 Greater Victoria Area classrooms with windowsill gardening kits. Each kit included sunflower and popcorn seeds from Metchosin Farm - a local farm and seed producer on the island - as well as a classroom gardening resource guide with information on the plants they are growing, and interactive activity guides for teachers to incorporate the gardens into their teaching. Students had the opportunity to plant seeds and nurture them into seedlings, while learning about the parts and life cycle of a plant, how they grow, soil, and our food system.

“Our corn seeds started to sprout this week ….. Yeah! The students are very excited and eagerly visit them first thing every morning! We talk to our plants and give them kindness to make them grow fast and healthy! We just planted our sunflower seeds yesterday so we are anxiously waiting for them to sprout soon.”

— Teacher, Quadra Elementary

In June, over 250 seedlings were transported from these participating elementary schools to the Sandown Centre’s new 83-acre regenerative farm site, where they were transplanted by a group of students from the nearby Parkland Secondary School. The Parkland Secondary class then had the opportunity to get their hands in the dirt while learning about regenerative agriculture. They heard from a few of Sandown’s farmpreneurs to learn about their start in a career in regenerative agriculture. The seedlings will grow to maturity at the Sandown Centre’s regenerative agriculture site - helping to break ground, regenerate the soil, and brighten this new community space!

2020/2021 Program Update

As the school year comes to a close, so does another year of edible education and food literacy programming at Growing Chefs. And what a year it has been! Despite not being able to visit elementary schools in person, our programming did not miss a beet. This past school year, we were still able to reach 87 classrooms and over 2,500 kids. Here’s a look at what we got up to!

By the end of the 2019/2020 school year, we missed seeing our learners in person. So during the summer of 2020, our team worked on developing ways we could interact directly with learners to continue to create meaningful connections between students and those working in the local food system. We may not have been able to bring chefs and farmers into school classrooms, but we found ways to connect them to classrooms digitally, and brought the classroom to our local food systems for a highly interactive, virtual behind-the-scenes look.

With pre-recorded on-site videos, live interactive activities, printable worksheets, and a live Q&A with local food experts our new Virtual Field Trips allowed students to explore their local food system in a completely new way. Each unique session provided students with the opportunity to interact with local food producers, chefs, and other food experts, see unique locations related to our food systems, and encourage them to think critically about these systems all while staying in the comfort and safety of their classroom or their home.

Engaging 28 classrooms in this new program we visited:

• Fresh Roots Farm to showcase the full growth cycle of a plant and learn about urban agriculture on a schoolyard farm, and

• Cheakamus Centre near Squamish, to learn from Chef Wade and Cultural Educator Aura about the science behind maple syrup making and to take a look at maple trees from an Indigenous perspective.

• At the end of the school year, we also began to pilot a virtual field trip to the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, exploring natural connections and the importance of these connections to farming and food production.

"The programming was thoughtful, engaging, and informative. The presenters were equipped with a wealth of knowledge and professional experience. They even brought along physical items that were used to share and present concepts over Zoom. My students found this useful for understanding from afar. Importantly, we were given the opportunity to work, not only with Chef Wade from the Cheakamus Centre, but also Indigenous knowledge keeper Aura, who provided historical and traditional stories and information to ground us in the land and cultural traditions of the area. This was very special. I will absolutely be booking with Growing Chefs again in the future!"

- Whitney Wiliams, Grade 2 teacher at South Island Distance Education School, Vancouver Island

In the fall, Growing Chefs piloted a program that would allow chefs and food experts to directly connect with kids in the classroom, even if they couldn’t join the classrooms in person this year. Through our digital pen-pal program we called Vegeta-pals, 12 classrooms across the province were paired with food experts and chefs to engage one another in exploring our food systems. Vegeta-pals exchanged video messages, artwork, and letters, engaged in learning activities, and some even had live interactive video chats continuing to build connections with kids and where their food comes from.

“We are having a great time with Chef Patrick and Mich from the Vegeta-pal program.  Our students are LOVING IT. Our class is so jazzed to be part of the Growing Chefs program, in this virtual sense.  It is amazing, how creative we are getting during these times. Our class is full of energy, enthusiasm and joy.”

- Kimberly Baker, Grade 3/4 teacher at Maywood Community School, Burnaby

This spring, Growing Chefs provided 47 classrooms with the materials needed to get growing in the classroom. We provided planters, seeds from our friends at West Coast Seeds, soil, a classroom gardening resource guide developed by Growing Chefs with our friends from the Vancouver Master Gardeners. With online support for teachers, we were able to continue getting students’ hands in the soil and engage kids in the concept of how food grows.

In the Greater Victoria area, these classroom gardens extended beyond the walls of the school through our new Seedlings for Sandown program. 12 Victoria classrooms grew carefully selected seed varieties from Metchosin Farm and nurtured seedlings that would later be transplanted into a special area at the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture. Over 250 corn and sunflower seedlings were delivered to Sandown’s new 83-acre farm site where students from Parkland Secondary, visited the farm to help transplant the seedlings while learning about regenerative agriculture from Sandown’s Farmpreneurs. 

Our corn seeds started to sprout this week ..... yeah! The students are very excited and eagerly visit them first thing every morning! We talk to our plants and give them kindness to make them grow fast and healthy!

- Jeanette De Biase, Grade 1 teacher at Ecole Quadra Elementary

With many families at home and looking for things to do during Spring Break this year, Growing Chefs put together a series of fun, interactive online experiences for elementary school-aged kids. These events provided kids and their families the opportunity to explore their local food system, meet local food champions and continue their learning of growing and cooking healthy food.

From storytime with celebrity Chef Bruno Feldeisen, to garden planning tips with the Vancouver Master Gardeners, to a choose-your-own-adventure-style cooking class with Chef Linda Olson from Truffle Fine Foods and more! The six-event series engaged all ages from families across the province providing something for everyone.

Reaching an entirely new audience of learners this year, we connected with home learning and distance education groups to provide students, and families, with curated food literacy learning opportunities. Growing Chefs’ Virtual Home Learning Program connected with over 300 students from across Canada who were learning from home, in school, or participating in a hybrid program.

Students in our virtual home learning program attended live virtual field trips and interacted with weekly themed lessons which included videos, worksheets, recipes, and hands-on food literacy activities to do at home. Students learned about growing food, food systems, urban agriculture, healthy eating, how to read and create their own recipes as well as other culinary skills, and more.

“We have had lots of learning and fun, such as our online field trip and learning about the six parts of a plant (stem, roots, leaves, seeds, fruits, and the flowers). Some other things we learned are planting in an urban environment is called Urban Agriculture. Urban Agriculture is important because we can’t always rely on imported food. A good way to help is to plant seeds on your balcony backyard, or somewhere else.”

- Brendan, age 10

While our programming this year has perhaps looked a little different, our goals have remained the same. We continue to adapt and teach kids about healthy food and healthy food systems through connecting them with food experts and engaging them in hands-on interactive learning thanks to the help of our supporters and community partners. We are excited to integrate this new programming with our regular Classroom Gardening and Cooking Program next year and beyond. We look forward to enriching and deepening the learning and experiences Growing Chefs brings to classrooms and families.

We are incredibly grateful to all those who helped us to shift our programming and create new, innovative ways to continue teaching kids and families about healthy food and healthy food systems from a distance. If you are looking for ways to get involved, check out the volunteer and donate pages of our website!

Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho

Join us for our ‘Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho’ with Chef Morgan and learn how to make a cooling, delicious summer soup.

Chef Morgan has planned a fun and exciting “choose your own adventure” style gazpacho recipe and live cooking class for kids and families (grown-up supervision recommended). Join us as we learn how to make a delicious and nutritious cold summer soup that you can easily customize to your family’s personal tastes. Learn about seasonal fruits and vegetables and find out what the difference is between a baton and a batonnet. There will be plenty of hands-on opportunities to learn and practice kid-friendly kitchen skills during this event.

Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho

In support of Growing Chefs. Where kids’ connections to food take root.
$25 | July 28, 2021 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM PST

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Knives for little hands!

Looking for a beginner-friendly knife? Check out the Kussi Kids Knife from House of Knives. 

"The Kussi Kids Chef Knife was designed for kids with the help of kids and is great for all beginners in the kitchen, no matter their age! Crafted from German quality steel for great edge retention, the blade shape and length are just right. The blade is wide enough to allow for some knuckle clearance—perfect for learning the basic rock and cross chop techniques. Designed with safety in mind, the rubberized handle ensures a non-slip grip, even when wet! The rounded blade tip and safety choil make sure that little fingers don’t slip onto the blade." - House of Knives

Use promo code GROWINGCHEFS when shopping at houseofknives.ca and 10% will be donated to Growing Chefs!

Get your kids and grownups into the kitchen! Can’t wait. Hope to see you there.

Introducing Mungy and Christie!

We are so excited to welcome UBC Teacher Candidates Mungy and Christie who will be working with us for their three-week Community Field Experience course. Here’s a little more about them!

Mandip Dhaliwal (Mungy)

Hello friends! My name is Mandip Dhaliwal, but you can call me “Mungy”. I am a proud father of two beautiful boys Midas (3.5) and Maxis (1.5), both of whom love to raid the family fridge. I’m currently wrapping up my Teacher Education Program at UBC and I am so very grateful joining the Growing Chefs team to gain some valuable community field experience. Food is such an important part of my culture and an excellent way to learn about other cultures from across the world. 

Before applying to the Education Program, I was a cook/chef for over 10 years. I was very fortunate to work in the culinary world which allowed me to travel across this beautiful country. I have worked in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and many parts of Vancouver Island. However, no matter where I work, I have always been connected to giving back to the community. I’ve had the opportunity to work with local chefs and food distribution companies, to organize charitable events in and around my community. Food Insecurity is a global issue that we can all help combat by reducing waste, improving agricultural yields, and working towards defeating climate change. 

A few fun facts about me are that I love ketchup. Ever since I was little it has always been Heinz for me. The history of the condiment and its revolutionary conception have always fascinated me. One of my bucket list items would be to visit the Heinz factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Christie Ou Yang

Hello everyone! My name is Christie Ou Yang and I am currently an elementary Teacher Candidate from UBC completing my 3-week Community Field Experience (CFE) with Growing Chefs! I am so lucky to have this opportunity as the whole world is trying to navigate through online learning. Food has been a huge part of my life and my culture! I am very passionate about sharing knowledge and skills about cooking healthy, eating healthy, and living healthy!

Food is a big part of Asian culture. We not only eat for nourishing purposes, we also eat to celebrate the big and little moments in life. Coming from a Taiwanese background, I grew up eating a variety of Chinese and Asian dishes from other regions in Asia. I am very proud of the varieties and complexities Asian cuisine has to offer and have transferred this passion into a mini Asian Food Map project during my practicum.

However, to be quite frank, as much as I have tried various dishes in my life, I didn't really know where food on my plate came from. After moving to Vancouver, I started to learn more about different kinds of produce of each season and the local food systems. I enjoy shopping at local markets or farmer’s markets to get fresh produce straight from the farmers and local providers. I love cooking at home and creating healthier versions of the dishes I love. I am also passionate about sharing healthy living tips and experiences with people to build positive relationships between food and the self.

Family Food Challenge

Growing Chefs is happy to share the Family Food Challenge with Whole Foods Market and Healthy Family Living Vancouver in support of Growing Chefs. 

From June 12th-19th, join the Family Food Challenge and qualify to win over $3,000 in prizes, including a Springfree Trampoline for your family! Registration is FREE and open to all BC families starting June 1st! The first 100 families who register receive a $10 Whole Foods Market gift card.

And for every single family who registers, Whole Foods Market, Nature’s Path EnviroKidz, and Que Pasa will donate $25 to Growing Chefs (up to a maximum of $6,000).

How to Participate:

1. Register for FREE here.

2. Complete up to 8 simple challenges over 8 days, and post your photos in Healthy Family Living Vancouver's Facebook Event for your chance to win big! Do the challenges at your own pace – all in one day or spread them out, it’s up to you!

The more challenges you complete, the more prizes you’ll qualify to win, and the more entries you’ll earn for the Grand Prize Draw that includes a Springfree Trampoline to help keep your family active all summer long!

Registration Perks:

• $10 Whole Foods Market gift card (for the first 100 families who register);

• Coupon for $10 off your next purchase of $50+ at Whole Foods Market;

• Chance to win over $3,000 in prizes, including a Springfree Trampoline, and healthy treats from awesome brands available at Whole Foods Market stores, including Once Upon a Farm, Patience Fruit & Co, Nature’s Path EnviroKidz, Que Pasa, siggi’s, Stonyfield Organic, and Nora’s Plant-Based,

• Choose Your Own Adventure E-Cookbook For Kids (PDF) from Healthy Family Living Vancouver;

• Complimentary access to a Growing Chefs online cooking class for the whole family!

We would like to send a big thank you to Healthy Family Living Vancouver and Whole Foods Market for putting together this fun event. And to Once Upon a Farm, Patience Fruit & Co, Nature’s Path EnviroKidz, Que Pasa, siggi’s, Stonyfield Organic, and Nora’s Plant-Based for sponsoring the event.

We cannot wait to participate and to see the photos of your families having fun with the healthy challenges.

Once Upon a Thyme - Food Trivia

Looking for a fun way to support Growing Chefs’ spring edible education programming? Check out our Once Upon a Thyme - Food Trivia event next Tuesday, April 27th at 7:00 pm PST.

Once Upon a Thyme will be an exciting, interactive, virtual food trivia game designed for adults. This trivia night's theme will be the story behind food (On the Origin of Pea Seeds, if you will). At this event, you can learn more about where food comes from, plus, top players will be eligible to win some great prizes from our favourite local producers! Zoom-only tickets are $15 each, and tickets that include a 4-pack/6-pack of local beer are $28. Those who purchase Trivia + Beer Tickets will be required to pick up their 4-pack/6-pack of beer from select local breweries before the event.

Participating breweries include Bridge Brewing Company in North Vancouver, The Parkside Brewery in Port Moody, and Strange Fellows Brewing in Vancouver.

Prize sponsors include Lonetree Cider, Lonsdale BridgeDeck, Mogiana Coffee, RISE Kombucha, Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, and Whistler Brewing Co.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Simon Rao is a Graphic Design student at LaSalle College Vancouver. Growing Chefs is lucky to benefit from Simon's creativity and dedication in the marketing designs for this event. Thank you, Simon!

Happy National Volunteer Week!

Although we try to celebrate our volunteers year-round, this is an official week when we highlight and celebrate the many volunteers that contribute to Growing Chefs. Volunteers bring a wealth of skills, experiences, and perspectives to our organization and keep us growing and thriving. There would be no Growing Chefs without volunteers! We are particularly impressed by and grateful for the many ways that volunteers have continued to show-up, adapt, persevere, and grow during this truly challenging last year.

All month we are spotlighting volunteers on our social media and their stories are just a sample of the many volunteers who have shaped Growing Chefs and continue to work along with us. Here are just some of the ways that volunteers have contributed to Growing Chefs this past year:

•  Prepared and delivered meals for LunchLAB: Chefs for Families.

• Taught and hosted virtual learning events, cooking classes, and fundraisers.

• Provided video content, recipes, and more for our virtual Growing Chefs at Home lessons.

• Taught a local classroom about food systems as a virtual Vegeta-pal.

• Consulted and contributed in specialized roles like human resources, graphic design, and photography.

• Welcomed Growing Chefs and our students to their places of work for Growing Chefs Virtual Field Trips.

• Contributed expertise, guidance, and governance as our Board of Directors.

We are deeply grateful for all of you that lift us up in so many different ways, and we can’t wait until we can see your smiles in person again. 

Please check-out our volunteer spotlights this month on social media (give them a whole lot of likes) and enjoy the below volunteer spotlight of two super innovative volunteers, Farmer Miche and Chef Patrick.

Volunteer Spotlight:

Names: “Farmer Miche & Chef Patrick”

Day Jobs: “Miche is a farmer at an organic family farm in the Cowichan Valley, as well as a full time student (horticulture trades & biology). Patrick is a full time Chef Extraordinaire for a locally owned deli / grocer called "Urban Grocer" in Victoria.”

Favorite Vegetables: “Patrick's favorite is broccoli, and Miche can't pick just one… but if she had to, it would be the always-versatile potato.”

Why do you volunteer with Growing Chefs? “We LOVE volunteering with Growing Chefs for many reasons! Both of us love connecting people to food, and teaching people where their food comes from. We love the energy and excitement of the children, and believe we need to nurture and nourish our future foodies / farmers / environmentalists, etc. The students and teachers we have been virtually sharing Growing Chefs experiences with have been so amazing and inspirational, and very much something we looked forward to on each communication.”

What has it been like to be a virtual volunteer? “It has been a positive experience for us. In these uncertain times, we have all had to navigate through some challenges with schedules and daily life, but the staff at Growing Chefs have been incredibly supportive, flexible, and open with their communications.”

Is there a story about volunteering that you would like to share? “In a virtual setting, it can be challenging to see if we, as volunteers, were making any impact on the students we were sharing with, especially since it is not a typical face to face scenario that we are (pre-covid) used to. That was, until we made a video for our Vegeta-pals on "healthy pizzas". As part of the program Q&A, we had answered what each of our favorite fruits, veggies, and comfort foods were. We each mentioned different things, and when we received our response from our Vegeta-pals, it was evident that either; 1) They had incredibly similar tastes as we did, or, 2) They were actually listening to what we had said, based on their curiously similar responses :) It was so special for us, and we truly appreciate the experience this has offered us!”

Food Scrap Dyed Eggs

Click here for printable activity instructions.

It’s officially spring, and in our house, that means that we are looking forward to Easter (and dying Easter eggs). This year we thought we would try something different and dye our eggs using food scraps instead of the food colouring we usually use. The idea of a homemade dye appealed to us for a few reasons:

• We don’t need to buy a kit or food colouring.

• Simmering our own dye mixture is a chance for us to be creative and learn about the science of making and applying dye.

• Making our own dye adds some intrigue – we won’t know what colour our eggs will be until we are done! 

For our egg dye, we decided to make two dye baths using yellow onion skins and beet trimmings.

You may be wondering what colours these food scraps will make - and the answer is more surprising than you may think! Each of these food scraps have the potential to make several different colour results - depending on a few factors:

1. What egg you apply the dye (white eggs vs. brown eggs).

2. Mordants - This is what binds the dye to an object and can greatly alter the colour result. An example of a mordant is vinegar or salt. Read more on the science of mordants below.

To make our dye bath we combined 1 cup of vegetable scraps with 1 cup of water. We grated the beet scraps to get maximum effect and simply broke the onion skins into large pieces. We put our vegetable scraps and water on the stove to simmer for about 30 minutes with the lid on, stirring regularly. After the dye was sufficiently simmered, we drained out the vegetable pieces and had an interesting conversation about what to do with the boiled food scraps, we decided to keep the bits of beet to add to a soup and compost the onion skins.  We transferred the remaining liquid (our dye) to a smaller container and added a mordant – we chose vinegar. Then we waited for our dye bath to cool. 

Then it was time to dye our eggs! We opted to dip our eggs several times to get the desired shades. Our eggs turned really nice shades of yellow and pink. We learned a great deal about how dye is made – and even watched a YouTube video about pigments. We are very proud of our eggs and plan to refrigerate them until their big reveal on Easter morning – when we will eat them for breakfast, along with loads of chocolate!

The Science of Mordants and Experiments with Mordants:

Mordants are what fixes or binds colour to an object through a chemical reaction. Dying is simply a fixation of colour to a mordanted material. Some dyes have natural mordants, but others don’t - these would visibly create colour, but not attach to the medium you are trying to dye. Through this process of reactions, you can also modify the colour that natural dye ingredients provide by using different mordants. For example, see the picture below for an example of the different colours that can come from the same original dye bath of yellow onion skins on fabric, depending on the mordant added.

Image Source: Cedar Dell Designs

 Natural Mordants:

• Vinegar - 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 cup of water

• Salt - 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 cup of water

• Lemon Juice - 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per 1 cup of water

• Cream of Tartar - 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar per 1 cup of water

• Baking Soda - 1 tablespoon baking soda per 1 cup of water

 Formula to Experiment with Dye Baths:

• Create your dye bath → 1 cup of food scrap, per 1 cup of water (use just one type of food scrap per dye bath)

• Boil for 30 minutes to 1 hour

• Strain your dye and pour into smaller containers and add a different mordant into each smaller dye batch while still hot

• Let cool

• Dip your eggs into the different dye baths to see if you notice any changes in colour from using different mordants

  More things to try:

• Try dipping multiple times for increased colour take-up

• Try layering different colours

• Experiment with leaving the egg in for different lengths of time

Family Cooking Class on March 18th - Let's Meet the Chef!

This Spring Break, we’ve planned super fun, interactive online experiences for elementary school-aged kids between March 15th and March 26th. These activities will provide kids with the opportunity to explore their local food system, meet local food champions, and continue learning about growing and cooking. One of these upcoming events is a virtual cooking class for the whole family with our good friend and long-time Growing Chefs volunteer Chef Linda Olson!

SOUP-RISE COOKING CLASS
(ages 5-13)
THURSDAY, MARCH 18TH
5:00-6:30PM PST

Chef Linda has planned a fun and exciting “choose your own adventure” style recipe and live cooking class for kids and families (adult supervision recommended). Join us as we learn how to make a delicious and nutritious vegetable soup that you can easily customize to your family’s personal tastes. Learn about seasonal vegetables and find out what mirepoix is and how to make one. There will be plenty of hands-on opportunities to learn and practice kid-friendly kitchen skills during this event.

We’re incredibly grateful and excited to have Chef Linda join us for this event and we’d love for you to get to know her as well!

How did you get into cooking? 

I discovered my passion for food and flavours while working at the Stock Market on Granville Island. At the same time, I met my future husband who loved cooking and encouraged me to pursue a career in food.

Why do you think it's important to get kids involved in the kitchen? 

I believe that when kids take an active role in growing and preparing food, they are more likely to try new things and give healthier foods a chance. 

Why you support Growing Chefs? 

I think a lot of people have lost touch with the true value of food and local food systems. I believe that understanding where your food comes from is important for people of all ages, but the earlier you learn it, the better! The growing aspect of Growing Chefs is just as important as the cooking aspect in my opinion.

What's your favourite local food this time of year?

It’s a tough time of year for local food! Lots of squashes and root vegetables that have made it through the winter. I also grow tomatoes in an indoor hydroponic garden  so I’m loving having fresh extremely local tomatoes for dinner!

Chef Linda is the Kitchen Manager at Truffles Fine Foods. Started in 2005 by owner Nin Rai, Truffles Fine Foods honed its excellent reputation by catering for the film industry in the Greater Vancouver area. Based out of South Vancouver, Truffles quickly grew its reputation as being able to meet the most demanding requirements of sets and film starts – from one-day shoots to full-length feature films, with all of the necessary equipment to provide delicious food, snacks, and beverage service. It didn’t take long to notice that the skills, experience, and equipment in the film catering industry could easily transition to providing the same high-quality service to non-film clients. After working in the high-pressure environment of film catering, it was a simple evolution to offer catering for other types of events, big or small.

Participation in this event is $10. If this cost is a barrier to participating for you and your learner(s) please reach out to us at admin@growingchefs.ca. We will make sure that everyone who wants to participate in our online learning events is able to. Please note this ticket price does not include the cost of ingredients, you will be sent a shopping list in advance and be responsible for sourcing your own ingredients.