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.

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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

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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.

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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!

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Cooking Something New in the Kitchen: A Recipe for Learning

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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!

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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.




 

Lettuce Explore! A Lettuce Taste Test

In this activity, kids (and adults) can explore the flavours, textures, and appearance of lettuce and greens. Taking some time to appreciate the qualities of the simple foods we grow and eat can be a great sensory and learning experience. You might even be surprised to find out how much beauty and flavour can be packed into a humble lettuce leaf! 

You Will Need:

  • Three or four varieties of lettuce or salad greens (from your garden, farmers market or grocery store)

  • White paper, pencil, and felts/crayons/coloured pencils

Instructions:

1. Select 3 or 4 varieties of lettuce.

2. Wash and arrange a few leaves of each lettuce on a plate.

3. Ask all tasters to wash their hands.

4. Pick one variety of lettuce to start. 

5. Use your sense of sight to observe what the lettuce looks like. Look at the back, front, and side of the leaf. Draw or trace the lettuce leaf on a piece of paper, add details and colour if you like.

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6. Taste the lettuce. As you chew the lettuce think about the texture of the lettuce in your mouth. Add some words that describe the texture to your drawing. Next, think about how the lettuce tastes. Add some descriptive words to your drawing. Do all the parts of the lettuce have the same taste and texture? If you need help thinking of descriptive words we have included a few in a list below.  

7. Draw and taste the other varieties of lettuce.

8. Vote on the lettuce you like the best.

Taste & Texture Descriptive Words

Lettuce Fun Facts:

  • Historians believe lettuce was first cultivated in ancient Egypt.

  • Lettuce is often eaten raw but it is also delicious to eat steamed, in a stir fry or grilled on the barbecue. Have you ever tried barbecued lettuce?

  • In 2015, the astronauts on the International Space Station grew and ate red romaine lettuce called “Outredgeous” lettuce.

  • Lettuce is part of the Asteraceae family. This family also includes the daisy and sunflower. 

  • There are four main types of Lettuce: butterhead, crisphead, loose leaf, and romaine.

Getting to know your food - Vegetable Biographies

This week, we are learning all about food systems. What is a food system? It’s the journey that food takes from being planted as a seed all the way to being eaten by you.

We’ve got two simple creative writing activities to help get kids thinking about where their food comes from and how their food choices have an impact.

In some cases, like the beans and peas from your windowsill vegetable garden, that journey is very short. You plant the seed, care for the seedling, transplant to a bigger pot if needed, harvest it once it’s full grown, wash it, cook it, compost any scraps, and eat it. 

In other cases, the journey can be quite long with a number of different steps, including growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, selling, eating, and composting. Some foods travel really far before they’re eaten. Now that many fruits and vegetables are grown on big farms all year round in warm climates, we get them at any time of year here too, even if they’re not “in season”—meaning growing naturally that time of year. 

Think of something that you like to eat that doesn’t grow nearby. For example, here in Vancouver, lemons don’t grow well. It’s not warm enough. So the lemons we see at the grocery store are likely grown somewhere much warmer and far away, like India, Brazil, California, and Mexico.

We’re going to do a fun creative writing project to think about the different journeys that food can take to get to your plate. First, you’ll make a pros and cons list and second you’ll write a biography for two different vegetables. 

Activity One: Pros/Cons

What’s a pro/con list? This is a list where you think up all the positive or good things about something--these are the pros--and all the negative or bad things--these are the cons. For example--let’s make a pro/con list about peanut butter. The pros I can think of are: 

  • it’s delicious 

  • for some people, it’s healthy

The cons are that:

  • it sticks to the roof of your mouth 

  • some people are very allergic to it 

Let’s make a list of the pros and cons about food that comes from far away. Can you think about all the positive things about food that comes from far away? Can you think about all the negative things? 

Can’t think of anything? Click here for some sample answers. 

Activity Two: Vegetable Biographies 

Now that we’ve thought of all the pros and cons of food that is grown far away, let’s come up with a story about two different fruits or vegetables and the story of how they ended up on your plate. 

What’s a biography? It’s the story of someone's life written by someone else. In this case, it’s the story of the life of two vegetables written by you. 

For the first story, think about a fruit or vegetable that grows locally. For the second story, think of one that grows far away. You can choose whatever kind of fruit or vegetable you like. 

With your grown-up, you can research:

  • How it’s grown

  • How it’s picked or harvested

  • Where it grows 

  • How to cook with it

To create your stories, you can:

  1. Draw a picture of the two different journeys.

  2. Say the story out loud to your grown up and ask them to write it down on the worksheet. 

  3. Write it down yourself on your worksheet. 

The Vegetable Biography worksheets have some questions to get you started on your story. 

1. What country do I grow in? 

2. What’s the weather like? 

3. How am I harvested? 

4. How do I get from the farm to the table?

5. Who are the people that your fruit or vegetable meet? Do they meet any of the people described from this week’s earlier lessons about food systems?

We’ve included two examples of a biographies of local habanero peppers and biographies of one that grows from far away. 

By Greta, Age 9, Austin, Texas

Food Biography - Local 

Once upon a time a habanero chile was growing in Texas. It is a very hot chile if you eat it, and it likes to grow in hot weather like we have in Texas. Because its seeds are so hot most animals don’t eat them but birds can’t feel the burn.

Food Biography - Far Away 

One spring day, a sandhill crane ate a habanero and began its annual migration and flew to Vancouver. There, it pooped. And the poop, which contained a few undigested habanero seeds, landed in a pot of dirt on a balcony in False Creek. Then, as usual in Vancouver, it rained. And the seeds sprouted. Fortunately, the pot (and balcony) belonged to a family with relatives in Texas who knew what it was, and how deliciously spicy it could be.

DA END

By Nico, age 4, Vancouver, BC 

Food Biography - Local (Habanero) 

His name is Hot Dog. He lives in our garden. He lives in Vancouver

Food Biography - Far Away (Habanero) 

This is Lemon. He grows next to the lettuce. He lives on Mars. 

Drawings by Nico’s mom

Drawings by Nico’s mom

We hope you enjoy this activity about food systems! We can’t wait to see or read your vegetable biographies. We hope you share them with us.  

For our full Where Food Comes From: Food Systems Lesson and more activities click here to explore all of Lesson 9 of Growing Chefs! at Home.

Growing Chefs! at Home: Lesson 9

This week we are diving in to look a little bit closer at our food systems, exploring where our food comes from and those that are involved in all the steps of our food system. Amanda is joining us this week to check in with some of your gardens at home and to talk a little about urban agriculture and get us thinking about what it means to support a local food system.


We also have some very special guests from Vancouver Island, Farmer Mich and Chef Patrick show us an example of how they eat very local food as they invite us to visit them our their farm and in their kitchen to teach us how to make a delicious frittata!

Related Activities:

Food Systems Matching Worksheet - Print this fun worksheet and see if you can match the people and places to the part of the food system they are involved in. (Answer key included).

Thank a Local Food Systems Hero - Our volunteers have come together to share their appreciation for their food heroes. Watch the video of their thank you’s and use our letter template to draft your own thank you, or maybe make a video of your own to share, or draw a picture. If you know the mailing address or social media account of your food hero be sure to share your appreciation with them directly!

Food Systems Hero Art & Colouring Sheet - Who is your food systems hero? Are they a farmer, a chef, a farmer, maybe a beekeeper? Design your own food systems superhero! Thank you to our friends at Daiya Foods for sharing their wonderful hero artwork!

Getting to Know Your Food: Write a Vegetable Biography - Sometimes we have the option to chose local food, sometimes we don’t and that’s ok. The more we know about where our food comes from the more informed decisions we can make to help build and maintain healthy food systems for all. Get to know your food’s story with our fun vegetable biography creative writing activity. 

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There's No Room for Racism in a Just Food System (or a Just Society)

This year has been challenging for many reasons. It has also become a year about shining a light on many of the issues and injustices in our society. 2020 has therefore also become about challenging ourselves and our current systems to do better, to be better, and to move forward--not backward--as individuals, as communities, as a whole. 

Across the United States and Canada people have come out to demonstrate in response to the continued police brutality towards Black Americans after the murder of George Floyd last week. 

Racism, and specifically Anti-Black racism, is just as prevalent in Canada as in other countries. According to Statistics Canada, one percent of the population of B.C. and 3.5 percent of Canadians identify as Black. This population, as well as Indigenous populations, are often disproportionately targeted by police. 

Black households are 3.6 times more likely to be food insecure than White households and 36.6% of Black children live in food insecure households. A ten year study released in 2019 found that overall, nearly half of First Nations families struggle to put food on the table.

Growing Chefs’ vision is a world with healthy, just, sustainable food practices. We believe we aren’t effectively enacting this vision if we don’t actively contribute to the work to bring down the injustices and inequities in our society. 

We acknowledge that healthy, just food systems cannot exist without economic, social, and political justice on a societal level. Growing Chefs! intends to do the work to become better allies and vocal anti-racists, not just for today and this week, but on an ongoing and continuous basis. 

We are grateful for all of the support from our community for our work to teach kids where food comes from and support increasing access to healthy food. At this time, we encourage people to direct their energy and support toward organizations that are working to dismantle systems of Anti-Black racism and support the Black community.

Here is a list of organizations to consider. If you have others to suggest, please let us know.

Additionally, this is a list of local Black owned restaurants and food related businesses to support in Metro Vancouver. Again, if you know of more (and as more are established), please share them with us! We will happily keep this list updated.

We will continue to share learning resources both internally and externally and encourage you to share with us. Here are some useful resources we have been reading and following this week:

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Getting Back to our Roots with Food Traditions: Part 4

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We hope you enjoy this food tradition from the home of Amanda, our Program Manager.

Every year for the past 5 years, during the first week of January, my partner and I have hosted a large Ukrainian Christmas Dinner for as many of our friends as we are physically able to fit in our little home. It has become quite the event, not just for us but for those of our guests who look forward to it and come each year. We spend two days preparing everything using the knowledge and skills my Mom and my Grandma taught me and from my exploring of a cookbook I have inherited from my Grandma with traditional Ukranian recipes, in which she has of course, added her own notes and corrections in the margins. There is only one rule for guests that are attending this feast, no one is allowed to bring anything but their appetites- it is a full meal prepared and cooked by us for them and there is no shortage of food or drink to go around. 

The menu keeps expanding as I explore more traditional Ukrainian foods and recipes but every year the meal always includes:

Kutia - a sweet wheat dish that is central to a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner

Borsch - a bright red beet soup 

Varenyky (pierogies) - a Ukrainian dumpling filled with either potato, cottage cheese, plum, sauerkraut, poppy seeds, berries, or raisins (we typically make a cheese, caramelized onion and potato filling)

Holubtsi (cabbage rolls) - Boiled cabbage leaves filled with rice or beans, mushrooms, and onions. My family usually added ground beef or pork when I was growing up but traditionally these were vegetarian at least for Christmas Eve dinner when no meat was to be eaten.

Nalysnyky - a sweet crepe filled with cottage cheese and dill ( and one of my favourite dishes!)

Kolach - a beautiful braided sweet bread with a crispy crust

Pickled vegetables

Sauerkraut

This is a new tradition that we have started and made as our own. It’s been a way for me to explore more of my Ukrainian heritage through food and hosting the meal really comes from the tradition I grew up with of feeding others and, of course, a love and appreciation of handmade, from-scratch Ukrainian food. Growing up, pierogies and cabbage rolls were always an inclusion at every holiday dinner. Christmas. Easter. Thanksgiving. It didn’t matter if there was a turkey or a ham (or both), it didn't matter how many sides were a part of the meal, there were always pierogies and cabbage rolls somewhere on the table and it was usually one of the first dishes of the meal that was eaten.  

There is something very special about feeding others and it was always something my family was always happy to do. My Grandma always had a fresh made pot of borsch for me whenever I visited. It was about a six hour drive to where she lived and no matter what time I got in at, there was always food that she had made just for me waiting. As soon as I got in the door I could smell the sweet beet aroma from the pot on the stove and after hugs and general greetings she would usher me to the table (usually commenting I was too skinny and needed to eat more) and put a full steaming hot bowl of her borsch down in front of me. This feeding others and hosting friends was a tradition in my home growing up as well. My sister and I were always able to invite friends to join for dinners, especially during holidays when I was in university and many of my friends were far from their own families. They were always invited and welcome at our table.   

Hosting a gathering of our friends and providing them with a hearty meal is how I have chosen to carry on these traditions and making it entirely out of those Ukrainian dishes I grew up with is my own way of exploring and staying connected to my family’s heritage. It isn’t necessarily difficult food to make, but it is time and labour-intensive with many steps involved, and the making of pierogies and cabbage rolls in particular is always a collaborative effort. I still like to help my mom fill and roll the cabbage leaves whenever I am home and she is making them. 

For me, food is meant to be shared with others, including the experience of making it. This is a tradition my partner and I carry on as we set aside a weekend to spend together preparing these dishes to host our annual dinner, stock our freezer, or prepare the dishes to deliver to friends. Even after a few years of making them, we continue to refine our pierogi pinching and cabbage rolling skills, I still do not know how my Grandma got her cabbage rolls so neatly and tightly wrapped. We like to play around a little with the filling recipes, but I definitely stick pretty close to the recipes from my Grandma, as being able to make these foods helps me continue to feel connected to her since her passing.