Hummingbird garden Party will Go Today Rain or Shine!

Even with a thunderstorm predicted with afternoon we can still have our garden party, even if it is under the cozy cover of the Mobery Community Centre! Please join us whatever the skies provide!

I spent last night sewing the finishing touches on my costume. Don't forget to wear red!

Join at us the Moberly Cultural Herb Garden for a garden party celebrating the healing power of plants and gardens. 

There will be tea and treats and garden tours with Madame Beespeaker.

 Erin Udal from the Environmental Youth Alliance will discuss the programs the EYA have been creating to help the bees in our city and how you can help. 

Herbalist Lori Snyder will talk about local herbs you can find to boost your health. Some of the medicines you need might be the ones right under your feet! 

Meet the new Moberly artist in residence

 Melanie Schambach and artist/gardener Holly Schmidt.

Where: Behind the Moberly Community Arts Centre, 7646 Prince Albert Street, one block east of Fraser and 60th

When: Sunday August 11, 2-4 pm.

Dress-up Theme: Dress like a hummingbird flower: wear red!!!!!!!

FREE and all ages are welcome.

Vancouver Kids Respond to Oregon Bumble Bee Tragedy

 On Monday I lead a session at the Creative Remix Summer Camp at Moberly. The theme was health, so we studied three plants and their relationships to birds or bugs: yarrow for ladybugs, lavender for bees, and nasturtiums for hummingbirds. We made lemon balm and lavender lemonade sweetened with honey, fashioned head bands out of yarrow, and mixed chopped nasturtiams into cream cheese to make a healthy snack. We put lavender and plantain in our shoes to give ourselves a spa treatment.

When I gave my little talk about what keeps bees and hummingbirds healthy, I focused on the need for clean water and clean flowers. I told the tragic story of  what happened in a parking lot in Oregon when the linden trees were sprayed with neonicotinoids. (The number of bees thought to be killed are doubled since the article was written.) People were horrified to find thousands of dead bumble bees on the ground, some of them still clinging to the linden blossom they were pollinating when the pesticides were sprayed. All this carnage because people don't want honey dew from aphids on their cars.

 

 I explained how aphids are a natural part of our ecosystem. I told them how last week the artichokes in the herb garden were covered with aphids, but I saw a finch feeding off them in the early morning sun. Ladybugs were laying their eggs on the leaves of the artichoke. This week the aphids are completely gone.

The children were somber and silent. I apologized for telling them such a sad story and encouraged them to write messages for the bees. They practiced drawing the parts of the bees and then it was time for me to leave. I felt badly all the rest of the day, the darkness of the story seeping into my mind and souring my day. Moberly artist in residence Melanie Schambach gathered the materials for the campers to make these fabulous wooden messages to hang on the trees around the garden.

 I came back today to take photographs of the messages. They touched my heart and filled me with hope. These kids expressed the anger and frustration I feel when I think about all those dead bees and the many millions of native bees we have most likely lost due to pesticide use that didn't make the media.

So there you go. Get to know the bees in your back yard. Give them clean water and organic flowers. Tell the government to stop the use of neonics. Make your own messages sing out loud and clear.

The People's Potluck Performance at Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre

Hi Folks,

I am passing on a message from Maggie Winston:

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

I am excited to invite you to the final event of Something Collective's Two-Year Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre Residency.

"The People's Picnic Potluck Performance"

Event Date: Friday, June 28th 6pm
Preparation Workshops: June 24th-27th
Where: Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre
7646 Prince Albert St @ 60th Avenue. In the Incubator Studio.

What is The People’s Potluck Picnic Performance?

Imagine a potluck unlike any other... As creative members of this community we invite you to participate in making a food and art sharing event where the dinner is the performance! You can join a team that will be responsible for creating the atmosphere of the event. Teams will prepare for the event during the Preparation Workshops which will occur during the week prior to the event.

Prep Teams Schedule:
Mon. June 24 6-9pm- Art Deco Workshop Maggie Winston
Tues. June 25 7-9pm- Music Making Workshop with Laura Barron
Wed. June 26- 6-8pm- Serving Choreography Workshop with Natalie TY Gan
Thurs. June 27- 6-8pm- Storytelling Workshop with Maggie Winston

All workshops will take place at the Incubator Studio at Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre.

Invite family, friends, neighbours to attend the free potluck and experience the feast that was artfully created during the week of preparation.

Together we will enjoy a shared experience celebrating each other and our community!

An initiative of Something Collective, Artists-in-Residence at MACC/Sunset CC and sponsored by the Neighbourhood Small Grants Program (Vancouver Foundation)
Note: This is a potluck, so you are expected to bring a dish. Please indicate on a small note the ingredients in your dish. And if you purchase food please keep your receipts and I can reimburse you the expense. Also bring your own plate, cutlery, and cup so we may reduce our waste as much as possible.

Please send me a message indicated which workshop you can attend!
Contact Maggie Winston at puppetmaggie(at)gmail(dot)com

For more details check out
www.somethingcollective.ca
--
Maggie Winston

Artistic Director of Lost & Found Puppet Co.

www.lostandfoundpuppetco.com

Kale Blossom Mango Lassis at Moberly Community Arts Centre

 Yesterday was a cold and wet Vancouver day, so the only bees out were the bravest bumble bees. This bee was drinking from this tiny snow berry blossom with incredible focus and it was shaking--almost as though shivering. I think the shape of this blossom protects the nectar from being watered down.

These nodding onions buds are just starting to open.

You can see why some varieties of this kind of lavender is called "butterfly lavender."

 So let's go into the kitchen! I demonstrated my way of making kale chips. Preheat the oven and pans to 350 degrees F. Masage kale with olive oil and salt. Turn off the oven. Put one layer of kale on the heated pans. Try not to let the leaves overlap. You will hear a slight sizzle. Put the pans in the oven for about 20 minutes or until crispy.

 I passed around the chips and then crumbled the rest to make the gomashio in The Book of Kale by Sharon Hanna. I coudn't find seaweed flakes, so my friend Lori Snyder cut some nori into strips. We served this on top of avocado on brown rice crackers. This is one of my favorite snacks.

 We used the gomashio to season naked pumpkin seed and kale blossom  pesto. The arugula is really spicy at this time of the year, so I mix it with the kale blossoms to mediate the heat.

 I hadn't used a blender to make pesto before, and had to add extra oil to make it work. I reccomend using a food processor so you can use less oil. Sometimes when you do workshops, you have to work with what's available!

 So I forgot the yogurt to make the mango smoothies, but I went with the flow and made vegan smoothies. This one is decorated with edible flowers from the Moberly Community Herb garden: calendula, borage, lavender, and cat nip.

Madame Beespeaker's Kale Blossom Lassis

For 1 big serving or 2 small servings:

1 large ripe mango

1 handful kale blossoms

3 tbs low fat yogurt

1 cup coconut water

1/2 tsp grated fresh turmeric

2 ice cubes

Garnish:

1/4 tsp freshly ground green cardamom seeds

Cut as much flesh from the mango as you can and put aside. Put the coconut water in the blender first, followed by the other ingredients. Pulse and blend until smooth. Add more yogurt or coconut water to your taste. If you want to keep this vegan, you could use coconut milk, coconut yogurt, or add more coconut water. If you want to keep the recipe more local, use dairy milk or your own nut milk instead of coconut water and substitute some of your canned or frozen peaches (if you're lucky have any left at this time of the year). Garnish with the cardamom and edible flowers. Enjoy!

 

 The little Labrador tea plant in the garden is blooming. Lori says it can be used to make a hangover remedy. I'll put that in my files!

 The shade garden at Moberly looks fantastic in the rain.

Oh poor sodden bee, hanging on to wallflowers waiting for the sun to come out. I know how you feel.

Snacking on Kale Blossoms

 I am happy to announce that Madame Beespeaker is diversifying her portfolio! This year I will be doing projects about hummingbird awareness and will be performing hummingbird interventions--growing plants that attract hummers to community gardens. The first planting day was this week with a class at Simon Fraser Elementary in their school plots at the Mount Pleasant Community Garden. While we planted scarlet runner beans and nasturtiums for the hummingbirds, we snacked on kale  and brussel sprout blossoms.

 

It was fun to see the look of surprise on the children's faces as they tasted a brassica flower for the first time. "It's really good! I didn't expect to like it, but it's better than broccoli! Can I have some more? What else can I eat? Can I eat this sunflower? I can't stop eating these kale flowers. I'm addicted!" The bees love them too, and we have been surrounded by bumble bees, honey bees and mason bees sipping nectar and collecting pollen as we garden. This project has been sponsored by a Vancouver Foundation Small Neighborhood Grant. Many Thanks!

 Today I tried to get some more folks hooked on kale blossoms at the community kitchen at the Moberly Community Arts Centre. Mohinder gave them a try for the first time. . . .

 The verdict? A very cheeky smile tells me she likes them too.

 We drank chai, ate kale blossoms and sweets and chatted about kale, scarlet runner beans and nasturtiums--a trifecta of healthy foods that are easy to grow in your garden. All three plants have beautiful edible flowers and the hummingbirds love the scarlet bean flowers and the nasturtiums as well. The ladies also wanted some perennials, so I bought them some Monarda didyma plants at the UBC Botanical Garden sale. I put some in the Moberly Herb Garden so we can make tea when the plants are established. Monarda is a trifecta pollinator plant. It is a food plant for some lepidoptera (including some that feed exclusively on Monarda species) as well as forage for bumble bees and hummingbirds. It is an atypical bee plant, in that it is red, which is a color bees see as black. Bumble bees also love scarlet runner beans, and they are also atypical bee plants. Scarlet runner beans, unlike common beans, need to be" tripped" by pollinators, even though they self pollinate.

 I gave tips on planting these hummingbird attractors and also taught them how to protect their garden from slugs, which was a big hit! This project is made possible by The Moberly Community Arts Centre. I look forward to more afternoons in the Moberly Community herb garden with these lovely ladies.

New Bee Habitat Workshop

One of my favorite gigs is working with the Creative Remix Summer Camp at The Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre. This year we created bee habitat scuptures for the kids to take home and put on their balcony or garden. This is a brand new workshop!

It's such a great time of the year to work with the herb garden, which has been filling in nicely.

Rules to live by: No negative language!

It was pajama day--thus the pjs and slippers.

The bee experts say you can help native bees by leaving out bundles of hollow stems and twigs. I thought we'd experiment using bamboo at various angles to see which orientation the bees prefer. After all, stems naturally grow vertically.

We also explored the structure of flowers, looking closely at how the bees reach the pollen and nectar in different herbs.

I like to get the students to explore the herbs with all their senses and draw the details in the leaves, stems, and flowers.

 

 

Turns out honey bees love butterfly bushes too! The nectaries must be full enough that this girl can reach it the liquid using her tongue's capillary action.

Warming, Cooling, and Fuzzy Herbs

This week I worked with kids at the Moberly Community Arts Centre summer camp. The herb garden is looking lush and whimsical with its new willow fences and arches created by Sharon Kallis and David Gowman. Apparently, during the weaving workshops one child suggested they make a small arch just for kids, and it makes the garden very enchanted. The kids love swooping through the little arch which is entwined with heritage sweet peas. The garden is so abundant at this time of the year that I can let the kids cut generous samples of their favorite herbs.

It's lovely the way the weaving integrates the marguerites right into the structure.

The garden is filling in nicely and the nepeta is thrumming with bees.

There are three colors of yarrow in the garden and I find it odd that the kids automatically thought they were three different kinds of flowers. I guess I was a real geeky kid, pouring over seed catalogs and wildflower books in my spare time.

There are rustic informative signs in the garden, which are really helpful (when they're in the right place). They like to wander around the garden when no one's looking.






When I teach kids about herbs, we talk about how important they are for the bees and we inevitably end up making messages for the bees. I have a punch that makes tiny envelopes and they really appeal to girls who are about 8 or 9 years old.

I love this little drawing of the marguerite blossom. One little girl made three labels: warming, cooling, and fuzzy for the three categories of the herbs she was drying. I think that's a great idea.

Here are all the herb triangles hung up until the kids can take them home at the end of the day.



The girls who loved envelopes made secret messages for the bees and decided to hide them all around the garden. I'm happy this captured their imaginations.