Spring Leaves, Harvest Wheat, and "Soup for Somalia"

The gym did not hold much allure this week as we harvested from our plot in the school garden (check out the photo of our abundance!), chopped veggies in the school kitchen, and played outdoors in the rink with ripsticks and inline skates.

The two soups we made (one with a tomato base and the other with miso) were delicious and even more so shared as a group, with organic bread from the local market.

After lunch, we made our way to the Community Garden to harvest our organic Canadian red fife wheat, a much loved annual tradition of ours. After the wheat dries, we'll thresh it, grind it, and make the most delicious pizzas in the world from it. The Kikuchi family brought their treadle thresher yesterday, as David Ohnona (Lauren and Matthew's dad) was there to film our "old-time harvest." (He and mom Joanne Green are making the Pender Community Transition's Youth & Elder DVD, “Old-Time Living Well on Pender." With dad Arthur Kikuchi's wealth of knowledge about sustainable agriculture (check out the family's Sustainable Cooking Recipes here), Joanne and David are wondering if the movie project should be about wisdom keepers of all ages, not just elders.)

What a fun afternoon it was, especially watching the joy on the faces of our newest Green Leaves, Erin and Matthew H.!!

The leftover soup (augmented somewhat after Nigel and Kenta had a contest to see who could eat the most!) made it to the community "Soup for Somalia" fundraising event, so thanks, kids, for donating to the "vegetable medley" soup, which everyone enjoyed. We made almost $500, which was donated to the Humanitarian Coalition and will be matched by the Canadian government.

Thanks, everyone, for a very full and fulfilling — not to mention delicious — day!