Partnering with Langara College Continuing Studies on some full day workshops as part of the Healthy and Sustainable Living Series has been a delight.  We’re able to slow down, practice skills and traditions together and share stories of our own discoveries and family traditions. So much of what we’re learning as part of this school community are traditions that are barely lost- our grandparents or maybe great grandparents knew how to cook without waste, how to grow and preserve food, no matter how small the space, and how to heal their kids with simple plant remedies.

Our next three full-day workshops will give us a chance to tap into our shared wisdom with the guidance of some warm, articulate and good humoured teachers. But what really makes these days sing is your participation, stories and wisdom.  Join us!

Healing Children with Herbal Plant Medicines

With Garliq on Saturday, September 20 10am to 4pm

Sustainable Cookery

With Andrea Potter and Jill Broadway on Saturday, October 18, 2008 10am to 4pm

Practical Permaculture Design for the Home Garden

Saturday, November 15, 2008 10am to 4pm

Location: Unitarian Centre- 949 W 49th Ave. near Oak Street.

Cost: $85 includes a delicious lunch with local and seasonal goodies

Register: In person or by phone 604-323-5322 with Langara College Continuing Studies.

Read on past the jump for detailed course outlines and some more about our teachers for these days.

[Read more →]

If we’ve hung out this year I may have foisted some sauerkraut on you. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since I took my first workshop with Andrea Potter (follow that and you’ll get a link to a CBC interview with Andrea) and became a fermentation fetishist. It’s super-easy, delicious and really, really good for you- maybe even critical for our health in these times where we wage war on micro-organisims on the one hand, and shell out the big bucks for probiotic supplements on the other.

…one of the fascinating things about fermentation is the end results are more than the sum of their parts. The combination of cabbage and salt becomes an entirely new food, vinegary and rich in B vitamins produced from thriving microbes.” Andrea quoted in a recent Globe and Mail article “Their Fetish is Fermentation”

Andrea started her workshop last year by pouring shots of kombucha tea and getting us chopping up fresh peaches from Robin’s tree for fruit salsa. It was glorious! Come to the Introduction to our Fermentation day with Andrea and David Rothzstain in Vancouver and learn how to make sauerkraut, fruit salsa brine pickles and simple cheeses at home.

Here’s the details:
$85 includes a delicious lunch featuring local and seasonal food.
For more info visit: http://slas.wikispaces.com/#fermentation or email me at keira@slas.ca or give me a ring at 604-707-0337
Teachers: Andrea Potter and David Rothzstain
Location: Unitarian Centre
Register with Langara College Continuing Studies
In person or by phone 604-323-5322

Traditionally every culture has incorporated fermented foods into their diet. From health benefits to social change, preserving foods at home is a sustainable practice. In this hands-on course, we will discuss the benefits of tapping into this ancient wisdom and prepare traditional sauerkraut, brine pickles and fruit salsa, as well as get introduced to fermenting dairy with kefir culture.

To Register: In person with Langara College Continuing Studies or by phone 604-323-5322.

Garden Now for Fresh Food Year Round: A Winter Garden Course
with Heather Johnstone Saturday, June 7, 2008 10am- 4pm
Register with Langara Course code: CDVL1091 Course Registration # 60645

Healing with Herbs: Growing and Foraging in the City
with Sharon Kravitz and Jill Stieler Saturday July 5, 2008 10am-4pm

Introduction to Food Preservation by Fermentation
with Andrea Potter and David Rothzstain Saturday, August 2, 2008 10am-4pm

Cost : $85 for each course includes a delicious lunch featuring local and seasonal food, and a maximum of 15 students to allow for lots of questions and discussion.

Garden Now for Fresh Food Year round: A winter garden course

with Heather Johnstone
Saturday, June 7, 2008 10am-4pm

Now is the time to start your first winter garden for fresh home-grown food all year round. With just a little gardening experience you can learn how to extend the growing season by using simple designs for home-made cloches and greenhouses and learn what, when and how to plant appropriate varieties. We’ll also share the joy of sprouting and wild food harvesting.

Schedule

10-11:30: Introduction. Designing and building inexpensive do-it-yourself cloches, cold frames and greenhouses.

11:30-12:30 Catered Lunch featuring local, seasonal food

12:30-2:00 Selecting varieties for your winter garden. This section will look at winter-hardy plant species, and we will have the opportunity to delve into the seed catalogues to select the very best varieties to get you through the winter. We will discuss the special care and demo the techniques required to maintain a garden through the winter on the west coast.

2-2:15 Break

2:15-3:45: In the dark of winter, when the potatoes and leeks are dwindling, and spring still seems a long way off, sprouting is a perfect way to bring green live food back into your diet. This course will include hands-on sprouting exercises. We will discuss different techniques for storing food through the winter (drying/canning/freezing/fermenting), and will look at what wild foods can be harvested in the region.

3:45- 4: Wrap-up

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:
• apply techniques for feeding themselves fresh food throughout the year
• select appropriate plant varieties for winter planting,
• identify plants for winter wildcrafting
• sprout various seeds and beans for fresh eating (students will leave with a sprouting jar and seeds)

Instructor

Heather Johnstone is the coordinator of the Edible Garden Project on Vancouver’s North Shore www.ediblegardenproject.ca . She has spent years planting and learning with organic farmers on the west coast and is a graduate of the Linnaea Farm Ecological Gardening Program. She now works with home-scale urban gardeners to help them grow fruits and vegetables.

Healing with Herbs: Growing and Foraging in the City

with Sharon Kravitz and Jill Stieler
Saturday, July 5, 2008 10am-4pm

Learn how wild and cultivated herbs can support our health. In this beginner course we will identify local plants and helpful weeds on foraging walks, practice respectful wildcrafting, prepare herbal medicines and explore the medicinal value of the food in our kitchens. We will illustrate and record our experiences in a journal (provided) and leave ready to safely continue exploring herbs.

10-11:30 -Introductions, overview of the day, assessing needs. Herb Walk, plant identification, ethical collection, drying and storing herbs, common applications.

11:30-12:30 -Lunch with herbal and wild plant delicacies

12:30-2:00. -Making medicines: uses, applications and dosage.

2-2:15 -Break with tea and sweet herbal treat

2:15-3:45 -Handy herbs to have in your garden- food as medicine- Aryurvedic taste exercises

3:45- 4 -Wrap-up/closure

Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
• Identify a group of local herbs that are particularly useful in the summer (bee stings!).
• Discuss the value of food as medicine.
• Gather herbs safely and respectfully.
• Prepare simple medicines for home use.

Instructor

Jill Stieler has been a practicing herbalist since 1993. Her studies began with Don Ollsin’s Herbal Healing Journey (who later coordinated Langara College herbal program). Over the years she has run a small business selling herbal medicines. Today she focuses on healing her friends, family and community with the medicines she makes.

Sharon Kravitz is a healer, artist and long-time activist in the downtown eastside. She is a graduate of Langara College’s Herbal Medicine Program. Healing with herbs is an intimate part of all the work she does in the world.

Introduction to Food Preservation by Fermentation

With Andrea Potter and David Rothzstain
Saturday, August 2 10am-4pm

Traditionally every culture has incorporated fermented foods into their diet. From health benefits to social change, preserving foods at home is a sustainable practice. In this hands-on course, we will discuss the benefits of tapping into this ancient wisdom and prepare traditional sauerkraut, brine pickles and fruit salsa, as well as get introduced to fermenting dairy with kefir culture.

Schedule

10:00-11:30 -Introductions
-Discussion about the benefits of preparing and eating fermented foods including health information and the importance of keeping food traditions alive in these changing times.

-Information on food safety and on the process that lactic-acid ferments undergo.

-Discussion of how social and environmental change can be brought about by preparing food at home.

-Hands-on preparation of traditional sauerkraut.

11:30-12:30 -lunch (including samples of some pickles and other fermented foods.)

12:30-2:00 -Hands on preparation of brined pickles and fermented fruit salsa.

2:00-2:15 -Break

2:15-3:45 -Introduction to cheesemaking with kefir culture. Care and feeding of kefir, showing milk at different stages of enculturation

3:45- 4 -wrap-up and closing.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• articulate how foods are transformed and preserved by fermentation.
• explain the health benefits of fermented foods.
• compare the benefits of fermentation to other methods of food preservation
• start fermenting sauerkraut, pickles, salsa and cheese at home.

Instructors

Andrea Potter is a Certified Chef and has been cooking professionally for 7 years. She is currently the restaurant chef at Radha Yoga and Eatery in Vancouver, where she creates seasonal menus based on whole foods, using local ingredients. She is also a student at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. She is passionate about food culture.

David Rothzstain is our "well-cultured" expert and an urban farmer/philosopher. He’s been making cheeses on his own and at local organic farms for years. He is currently a student of Linnaea Farm Ecological Gardening Program