You are warmly invited to a hands-on Sustainable Living Arts School Learning Party….

The Nutritious Nettle Learning Party!

….with nettle-gatherer and home medicine-maker Keira McPhee

Wednesday, April 7^th, 1-2:30 pm

I love plants, but I don’t know my nettles very well. They like to live in sunny, wet places, and the sun can be scarce in Lynn Valley. It’s time for a trek over into the wilds of Burnaby to learn about and harvest some nettles! I’m eager to collect and learn about the uses of these delicious and nutritious plants. We will share our tips and tricks for harvesting and preparing nettles. Tricia

Children are welcome!

Our guide for the day: Keira McPhee

“I am a non-denominational kitchen witch kind of herbalist who is most devoted to my nourishing weeds- those plants that provide abundant food and medicine right outside my door.  These past couple of years I’ve grown and prepared enough teas to last me throughout the year from my urban garden and from foraging. My son and I drink a LOT of tea. (My partner less so but he digs the herbal ice teas in summer.)

I learn first and foremost from the plants that grow abundantly about me, in my garden, in my neighbourhood and in the forests close to the city, as well as from the  herbalists and plant freaks I encounter through learning parties.  But nettles first  came to me in a book I’ve been rereading and consulting for 15 years,  Susun Weed’s “Healing Wise” (google her, she’s got a mammoth and very helpful shaggy garden of a website.)   Nettles called, and I started buying them in bulk. Nettle and raspberry leaf tea was my everyday drink while I was pregnant and nursing.  Now I forage for nettles every spring and because I am an insane gardener, even grow them in my backyard. They are my favourite all-round spring nourishing food/medicine and I look forward to sharing them with you.”

Location: Near Burnaby Lake. Address will be emailed to registered participants 3 days before the learning party.

Cost: $10. 

Register: http://nettlelearningparty.eventbrite.com/

Thanks to Tree Brewing Co., (and Michelle!) the Homebrew Learning Party will be a tasting party too. Tree has   generously donated some mixed flats of beer to try out as we learn to brew ourselves.   John, our guide for the night will help us match some of our favourite types of beer to various recipes,  that can all be sourced at Dan’s Homebrewing.  While I’m eager to add brewing to my fermenting repertoire  I know I will be  patronizing BC’s microbreweries (and Czech pilsners) in the future too.

I won’t hazard a guess at how many batches it will take before I feel ready to take the next step: brewing with herbs I grow. It just feels like a good idea to begin with what I know I like- hops, barley malt, water & yeast as laid down in the Bavarian Purity Laws of 1516.  But rules about what to eat, drink or medicate annoy me and instantly provoke my inner 15 year old hoser-punk. So I’m already pondering beer recipes that rebel and dreaming about future learning parties.

I know this is an interest of Mary and Steve, our homebrew party hosts as well. It just seems to follow from growing food in a gentle way- you produce an abundance of stuff you intended and an abundance that just shows up. It’s amazing how many of the uninvited plants are nourishing in some way- especially if fermented!

Beermaking is definitely a tradition I want to be inducted into by a knowledgeable guide and in good company. I’m glad to know that I’ll have Mary and Steve and potentially some folks from the learning party to compare notes with afterwards.  Sometimes a 2 minute conversation or a targeted question to a friendly person can bolster my confidence to just try stuff out.  So I’m excited to see familiar names registered for the learning party, including folks from past learning parties, from friends I didn’t know were yearning to brew, and from folks I’ve just met in other contexts (like the Potato Salad crew- our new potato growing co-op, also loosely affiliated with the hodge-podge of grassroots projects that is the Sustainable Living Arts School.)

There are still a few spots available for this learning party which starts next Monday, March 29 and continues on Monday, April 12 for bottling. Come join the learning crew if you can- we’d love to have you!

Register at http://slashomebrew.eventbrite.com/

Free Beer Tomorrow Neon Sign shared CC by Lori Spindler

You are warmly invited to another hands-on Sustainable Living Arts School Learning Party….

The Home-brew Learning Party!

….with beermeister John Margetts

This is a 2-part learning party.

Part 1 Brewing: Monday, March 29 from 7-9:30

Part 2 Bottling: Monday, April 12 from 7-9:30

This one gives me great delight. As a dedicated and nearly life long beer enthusiast (my mom tells me I liked the taste right away) I am very excited to add this craft to my repertoire of the sustainable living arts. This 2-part learning party series will give us all the basics to brew our first batch of beer at home. Please come with your favourite snack to share with beer. Samples of beer provided! Looking forward to seeing you there, Keira

Our guide for the day: John Margetts
“I first pitched some yeast into a beer kit a little more than twenty years ago but I really started making beer about 11 years ago. That was when I first met Dan (of Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies) and he taught me how to use a mash tun and the value of using fresh hops.”

There are so many reasons to brew your own beer: it’s cheaper, it’s tastier, it’s often better for you (unfiltered, unpasteurized) and has real food value, it’s less predictable (i.e., more interesting), it’s educational and empowering to do it yourself. It’s one step in the right direction- avoiding mindless consumerism. The old saying about chopping your own firewood applies: it warms you twice, and it’s fun.

Teachers provide some guidance, but the real learning comes from the student her/himself and their experiences. I think the best way to learn how to do something is by working with someone with experience and then just doing it and learning from your successes and failures both.” John Margetts

Register: http://slashomebrew.eventbrite.com

Location: - Close to Main and 23rd. Address will be emailed to registered participants 3 days before the learning party.

Cost: $40 You’ll go home with approx. 2 litres of our homebrew after the bottling party.

A huge thank-you to our sponsor for this learning party- Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies! We highly recommend Dan’s for all your homebrew supplies. Find them at 692 East Hastings.

You are warmly invited to another hands-on Sustainable Living Arts School Learning Party….

Bee Appreciation

….with master beekeeper Brian Campbell

Saturday, June 27 at 10am-noon.

Join us afterwards for a picnic in Clinton Park if you like.  Bring the kids!

This learning party will happen in the Hastings-Sunrise Neighbourhood.  Address will be emailed to the folks who register 3 days before the learning party.

Bee’s are the life’s blood of the environment. They connect plant life to animal life making abundance and creating a healthy ecology. For bees the city is the place to be. We provide a wonderful habitat of flowering plants and soil profiles that supports Canada’s greatest diversity of pollinators.

But all is not well. Bees and other pollinators are in decline around the world  so our privilege of bee diversity is also our responsibility to protect and conserve. Because of development our bee populations are divided up and separated from each other. By connecting these population pockets we help to make bees more resilient and better able to help the stresses we throw at them.

In this learning party we’ll explore a backyard habitat and then make a bee’s journey through the neighbourhood helping to make bee corridors. Come learn about how to plant for bees, make bee condos and help make one neighbourhood more bee-friendly.

Our guide for the day: Brian Campbell
Brian Campbell is a certified beemaster and beekeeper, heavily involved in food security issues in Richmond and beyond. A member of the BC Association of Master Gardeners, Brian spent three years as seed manager for West Coast Seeds. Brian guest lectures for Gaia College’s Growing Food in the City certificate program, operates pocket markets in Richmond and teaches young people about honey bees as well as native types. He offers classes in grafting fruit trees, food preserving and other farm skills.

Register: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/369963571

Location: Hastings-Sunrise- details will be emailed to registered participants 2 days before the learning party.

By Donation: Suggested donation is $25. Pay what you feel.  Sustainable Living Arts School learning parties are 100% participant supported. Thank-you for your generous donations.

Children are very welcome with their grown-ups.

The Sustainable Living Arts School and the Living Medicine Project introduce the Living Medicine Series…

monthly Learning Parties dedicated to the study and art of herbal medicine.

These hands-on, half-day intensives will include Plant Identification, Gathering and Medicine Making.  These 3 simple pieces are the tools required to know how, when and which plants can be gathered from gardens, parks and lawns to become food and medicines to keep our families and friends healthy.

Join us for the 2nd in this Series…

Dandelion Delight

Monday May 18th (Victoria Day)

11am-3pm

Commercial Drive Area  (carpooling will be coordinated where possible)

Register here! http://www.eventbrite.com/event/343913655

Suggested donation: $40 Pay As You Feel. Donations will be split between SLAS, LMP and the teachers. Donations to SLAS go to a slush fund to pay teachers, web costs and a tithe to our rural partner SLAS, Robert’s Creek.

Address and other info will be sent to registrants on May 15.

**This is a family friendly event.  Feel free to bring your kids. They’re much more likely to take the medicines that they help make.

Read more about our teacher, Garliq. Questions? Contact Garliq  LivingMedicine@riseup.net

When I told my mom I was curating a learning party on how to make kimchee, she laughed and asked why we don’t just go to the store. I reminded her how many hours our family spent making kimchee together in the kitchen, and how I loved being fed kimchee paste wrapped in freshly fermented cabbage by my father’s hand. He would never let me touch it because it was too spicy for my hands, but not my stomach. I also told her I thought it was important to preserve and share our cooking traditions with others who wanted to learn. She didn’t buy any of it, but she understood when I told her it would cost half the price for me to make my own kimchee at home.

I singularly consume at least a gallon of kimchee a month. I can’t believe I’m admitting this publicly, but it’s the truth. As a condo living spinster (the first sentence in this paragraph could explain why), I never considered making kimchee for myself at home because I didn’t think I had space and I thought it would be too difficult. Now that I know how simple and economical it is to make a fresh batch in a small space, I want to make it a monthly cooking ritual.

As a Korean-Canadian gal who learned how to make kimchee with my parents, I was never allowed to participate in the mixing of the kimchee paste or the stuffing of the paste into the cabbage because my “skin was too delicate”. I never understood how hazardous the kimchee mix was until I watched Rob–the only person tall enough to reach into the cooler and mix our kimchee paste—mix the batch of chilis, garlic, ginger and other goodies up and get blinded by the intensity of the mix. He was told by Inga and Yunsil that he put a lot of “soul” into his mixing and that the mix would be good.

Click To Play

The kimchee is great, and I think there was a lot of “soul” put into the kimchee by all participants of the learning party. As Yunsil said to Inga who translated to me “Don’t stuff the cabbage with the mix, massage the mix into the cabbage.” She was right; you could see the reaction in the cabbage immediately. I think this was the best tip of the day, love the cabbage.

Without a doubt, there was a lot of cabbage loving going on at the kimchee learning party. There were 8 working participants, 7 ‘helpers’, husbands, dishwashers, pot grabbers, mixers, one girl and one toddler. Altogether, 15 people made 40 lbs of kimchee in 90 minutes! There was about 2 hours of prep work including cleaning, brining and washing the cabbage before the party.

This was my first experience curating a party for SLAS, and I really enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed the process of learning how to curate a party with Keira, and working wtih Inga and Yunsil. It was special for me because I got to share it with Elaine and Rob, the hosts, who I became friends with in Korea. I also thought it was great to see Heesoon and her daughter, Serenne, work side by side making kimchee. Inga, our instructor, and Yunsil, her assistant, also had a wonderful experience working with us and are eager to do it again. Inga’s husband also tried kimchee for the first time, and it was a genuinely touching moment.

Stay tuned for another kimchee learning party in May.

The Sustainable Living Art School and the Living Medicine Project introduce the Living Medicine Series…

Monthly learning parties dedicated to the study and art of herbal medicine.

These hands-on, half-day intensives will include Plant Identification, Gathering and Medicine Making. These 3 simple pieces are the tools required to know how, when and which plants can be gathered from gardens, parks and lawns to become food and medicines to keep our families and friends healthy.

Join us for the 1st in this series…

Healing with Spring Herbs:   Nettles, Noxious or Nutritious??

Sunday April 5th

11am-2pm

Burnaby Lake Area  (carpooling will be coordinated where possible)

Read more about our teacher, Garliq.

**This is a family friendly event. Feel free to bring your kids. They’re much more likely to take the medicines that they help make.

Suggested donation: $40 (Pay As You  Feel).

Space is limited, please contact Garliq early to register… LivingMedicine@riseup.net

Details will be emailed to registrants by April 3rd, 2009

The Sustainable Living Arts School is gladly hosting another hands-on learning party…

Upcoming:

• Join the Great Farm Trek to Save the UBC Farm Tuesday, April 7
• Alastair Heseltine is teaching a Willow beginner weaver’s weekend intensive on Bowen Island March 21/21.
• Have you wondered about buying land either to homestead or run a small farm? Visit 4 farms and learn practical lessons from those who have done it at the Sustainable Living Arts School’s Bush Weekend April 25/26 on the Sunshine Coast.
• Grégoire Lamoureux of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute will be teaching a permaculture design course in the Kootenays May 31 to June 13, 2009.

Art & Culture of Kimchee

Saturday, March 28

2:00pm to 3:30pm

Vancouver, Near Thurlow & Robson

Fermenting food is a sustainable practice that is ideal for all of us that live in small spaces.  Join us for this hands-on learning party where we will be introduced to the art and culture of making kimchee, the traditional Korean fermented condiment made with cabbage, garlic, ginger and hot peppers. It’s spicy, delicious and very, very good for you!

You’re warmly invited to share your thoughts and questions  on fermentation and kimchee before we meet. You can add recipes, links, family stories and personal experiences in the comments to this post so we can share our knowledge.  Let’s get this learning party rolling online!

Our hosts for the day live in a small apartment on the second floor of a building with no elevator-stairs only. Please check in with us first if you want to bring the kids.

About our teacher: Inga Min is a kimchee devotee and the the founder of the Shin Myung Korean Drum Group. The group was created to build a community of drummers interested in learning the traditional form of Korean drumming. Watch Inga in action on Living Vancouver.

To register: There are limited spaces to allow for hands-on practice and conversation. Learning parties fill up quickly! Please register with Mona at monaATslas.ca

By Donation: You can’t put a price on a learning party. That said, we want to honour the time and experience that goes into learning valuable skills and sharing them with others. The suggested donation is $25. Donate what gives you joy! If you can afford more, we’ll put it towards making more learning parties happen. If you can afford less, come on down and share your learning with us anyway. All are welcome!

Please bring:

• $5 to cover the cost of vegetables we’ll be transforming into kimchee.
• A jar or other small container so you can tend your first batch of kimchee at home.
• A knife and cutting board for chopping vegetables

We will send out an email with final details (address etc.) to registered participants by Thursday, March 19th. Thanks and looking forward to seeing you there!

The Sustainable Living Arts School is gladly hosting another hands-on learning party…

Upcoming:

• Robin Wheeler will be giving a free talk on food security this Saturday, March 14th in Vancouver.
  
• Alastair Heseltine is teaching a Willow beginner weaver’s weekend intensive on Bowen Island March 21/21.
  
• Have you wondered about buying land either to homestead or run a small farm (or just curious for the stories)? Practical lessons from those who have done it will be shared at the Bush Weekend April 25/26 on the Sunshine Coast.

Weaving with Living Willow

on

Monday, March 23

near Clark and Broadway

1:00pm to 2:30pm

Join us for this hands-on learning party where we will be introduced to the art of weaving live willow. Living willow can be woven for furniture, fences, garden panels and more.

Parents, you are welcome to bring children along. The learning party will be outside so there is room to run and opportunities to participate with grown-up help.

About our teacher: Alastair Heseltine is a sculptor who works with mixed media relating to the environment. “Imagery is guided by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play. I also draw from the full spectrum of routines and activities that support my practice:  Design, craft production, farming and rural life.” For more on Alastair and to see some extraordinary images of his work visit  http://www.alastairheseltine.com/

Registration: There are limited spaces to allow for hands-on practice and conversation. Learning parties fill up quickly!  Please register with Keira keiraATslas.ca

By Donation: You can’t put a price on a learning party.  That said, we want to honour the time and experience that goes into learning valuable skills and sharing them with others. The suggested donation is $25. Donate what gives you joy! If you can afford more, we’ll put it towards making more learning parties happen. If you can afford less, come on down and share your learning with us anyway. All are welcome!

We will send out an email with final details (address etc.) to registered people by Thursday, March 19th.

Our hosts for the upcoming root cellar learning party on November 1st (email:mcollATcommonroutes.com) chose this plan for us to work from.

Although I dream of a root cellar big enough to accommodate crocks of sauerkraut as well as crisp apples and crunchy carrots, this looks doable for the city. I’ll be coming with my questions about what to store where- don’t apples release some kind of gas? How tightly can you pack stuff?

Apparently my grandparents use to store vegetables in a pit lined with straw through the winter and the snow acted as insulator. I’m guessing that the challenging element for Vancouver will be site selection and that all important drainage ditch.