By Alison Colwell|2018-05-30T13:43:35-07:00July 30th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments
Gather in our Hall kitchen to learn a tasty recipe that puts those veggies in your storeroom to good use. We’ll be making soup, pasta sauce and other yummy treats. Come cook, have supper, and take home food for your freezer.
Class costs $10-$20 sliding scale. Register at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-30T13:37:52-07:00June 30th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments
Learn how to make homemade applesauce or Pear Butter that is much tastier than store bought, perfect for school lunches or serving with latkes. Please bring 4 x 250ml jars and any apples (from your own apple trees only please).Fingers crossed we will be using apples or pears from the Gleaning program.
Sliding Scale of $10 -15. Register at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-30T13:34:54-07:00June 30th, 2013|Categories: Workshops|0 Comments
More summer in a jar! We’ll be making jam the old-fashioned way. Long boil style, with the wrinkle test and thermometers, and canning it using a boiling water bath. Alison will demonstrate jelly-making, and we’ll put up one kind of marmalade. There will be a discussion on the various pectin levels of different fruits at different times of the year.
Sliding Scale of $15-25, includes a copy of Galiano Island Preserves
Register at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:46:45-07:00June 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments
Pickled foods offer intense flavours to enhance your winter diet. By preserving local crops now when they are at the height of freshness, you can capture their best flavour and nutrition.
Come learn some new skills, and join us for a fun evening of pickling. We’ll put up whatever’s ready—probably beans and beets—using the boiling water bath method. Beginners and experienced picklers welcome. Please bring at least four 500ml canning jars.
Class costs $10-$20 sliding scale. Register at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:45:17-07:00June 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments
Galiano summers yield an amazing variety of tree fruits and berries, available from our farmers, through our Gleaning program and in your own backyard. Making jam is a great way to capture the taste of summer in a jar to brighten up those dark winter days.
Making jam can be daunting if you’ve never tried it. But there are different methods, and some are very easy. In this class we will be using commercial pectin and the only skills needed are the ability to measure a few cups of fruit, and the ability to time a boil—skills everyone has. That’s it. No thermometers, no wrinkle tests. Using some commercial pectins also gives you the freedom to use honey or skip the sugar all together—things not possible with traditional long boil jams.
Class costs $15-$25 sliding scale. Cost includes a copy of “Galiano Island Preserves” Register at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2022-03-15T23:55:47-07:00June 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments
As an experiment, last year I acquired seeds for ten varieties of wheat and four of barley from Salt Spring Seeds and other sources and planted a small test row of each variety in my garden. After initial watering no further water was provided to the growing grain other than rainfall. Germination rates varied among the varieties but all produced grain, which was harvested in late September. In addition to the amount of grain produced, I wanted to see how susceptible the different varieties were to “lodging”, i.e. falling over in wind or rain due to height and top-heaviness of the seed head. Wheat breeders for many decades have selected for shorter, sturdier plants, and more recently for hull-less and bristle-less seed heads to make threshing easier.
Wheat varieties tested included Emmer, an ancient Near Eastern wheat, and Kamut, another ancient wheat with high protein content. Also grown were Ethiopian, Egyptian, Brazilian, and Mexican wheats. A trio of Canadian heirloom wheat varieties was also grown, including Red Fife (originating in 1885), Marquis (1910), and Thatcher (1935), which made up 70% of the Canadian prairie wheat crop in the 1950s. As expected, yields of the ancient wheats were lower than the more modern (century old) varieties. For example, Red Fife grain produced in my test plot would have yielded almost 3000 pounds of grain per acre if scaled up. (Once milled, that would be enough flour to bake 5000 loaves of bread.)
Wheat and other grains were being grown on the Saanich Peninsula and the Gulf Islands in the late 1880s, but the availability of mass-production prairie-grown grain put an end to the practice. There has recently been a mini-revival of grain growing on Vancouver Island, and The Roost bakery and cafe on East Saanich Road sells bread made from locally grown wheat. Who knows, we may see a grain-growing revival on Galiano too!
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:33:03-07:00May 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Workshops|0 Comments
Get set to plant all kinds of hardy vegetable seeds this summer to keep you in fresh food all winter—no greenhouse required! Root vegetables will keep in the soil until you’re ready to eat them, and with some simple protection measures you can pick salad greens all winter.
We’ll have seeds and starts of winter-hardy varieties available for sale, a planting chart, and the knowledge and confidence to grow your own beets, turnips and carrots, winter broccoli and cauliflower, kale, chard, spinach, lettuce and other hardy greens.
9:30am – 2pm at the South Hall: Bring bagged lunch – light lunch provided
Sliding Scale: $18-25 – Pre-registration is a must.
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:28:55-07:00April 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments
Sunday May 5th from 10 to 12am.
Barry New will be leading a workshop on Greenhouse Growing. Everything will be provided using the resource of the School Greenhouse. The focus will be on Soil Improvement and Plant Propagation.
The main Benefits of a Greenhouse:
Teaching Aids and good links to further your skills in the Garden.
Cost for participating $15 and we will have giveaways.
Contact Barry New at galianofoodprograms@gmail.com
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:26:49-07:00April 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program|0 Comments
The Food Program is will be making a field trip to Mayne Island to visit Deacon Vale Farm on Wednesday, May 22. This will be an opportunity to see a working model of a certified organic farm that maintains a ‘closed cycle’ – no fertilizers are brought in, no waste is produced that needs to go off-site.
We’ll tour the farm, and then stop by their Farm Gate Store for a bit of a shopping trip – they offer their own organic meats and vegetables, as well as their canned goods (such as tomato products) and eggs. We’ll also try to get in a visit to the Japanese garden.
By Alison Colwell|2018-05-20T19:22:11-07:00April 20th, 2013|Categories: Food Program, Growing (Garlic Co-op, Greenhouse, Gleaning Project)|0 Comments
Sunday’s work party went very well – we weeded, made squash mounds, sprayed compost tea, and covered paths and borders with cardboard. The garlic looks great, the phacelia is doing well, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for the rye.
If any of you have our potted artichokes, now is the time to divide them and pot them up to a 4″ pot so they have room to breathe. You can start hardening them off and get them outside at this point. We’ll be planting them in June.
We have quite a bit to do in May: We’ll be harvesting scapes (yay!), as well as planting squash, making beds for the artichokes, and hopefully digging in the rye.
So, the next work party will be from 5:00pm-7:00pm on Thursday, May 23. Please come at whatever time works best for you and plan to stay for at least 90 minutes if you can.
As always, please bring any organic material you can contribute: seaweed, compost, nettle stalks, leaves, compost tea, ash, lime, manures, grass clippings, cardboard, newspaper, etc. are all welcome!
Next time you’re at GIRR, please say a big Thank You to Lisa, who has been personally delivering our great stash of cardboard to the site.
