Sprouting Chefs

Heading into Day 3 of our Wellness and Cooking Camp Week 1 with a majority of returning campers!

Featured here are mostly photos of creativity and practicing patience as campers made their own pasta ans focaccia yesterday as well as mindful crafts in both afternoons.

Teddy Bear 🌻
Zinnias, my new favorite that bushes out and keeps coming back after you pick them
A pumpkin from the compost at Burnaby Mtn Secondary greenhouse (thanks Maria!)
Purple beans
Ladybug 🐞
And bumblebees 🐝

Summer in the gardens

Bundling lavendar to bid farewell and "YOU GOT THIS!" for the Gr. 7s at Forest Grove. ✨️

Maybe I'll see them in the halls of Burnaby Mtn...don't be strangers, as you're always welcome back in the garden ✨️🙏🫛🌞

The heart of our programs is that awesome quote from former Principal of Forest Grove and Chair of Sprouting Chefs is that "Gardens build community." The proof of this are these awesome Sprouted Chefs, various alumni who have now gathered twice to share stories of their high school and university experiences.

I'm so blessed and grateful to know so many great kids because of our programs who continue to inspire me and give me tremendous hope for the future. 🙏✨️

About 15 of them came together today on the last day of high school. Some from Garden Club, a few from cooking classes who are also staff with me at camp now all in one room, together. ❤️

So fun to show them the new garden at Forest Grove and hear about their various adventures while inspiring each other too!

Full Heart and best way to kick off the summer!❤️😎🎉🌞

Welcome to the Fores Grove School Garden which now has a variety of zones. Check the photo comments for more. Not shown are the poppies growing on the hill in front of the classrooms. Bursts of red and blush pink are blooming

This past Monday, Sprouting Chefs Cooking Class and Garden Club students helped create a lunch to appreciate their teachers. It wasn't a big crew of kids but they were all very focused, responsible team players who spent most of the day preparing, serving and then cleaning up after the event.

On the menu:
Pasta with a fresh tomato sauce
Caprese salad with basil and soft mozzarella and basil (a student offered olive oil and balsamic drizzled on top)
Lentil Salad (that was a huge hit) made with a veg stock and fresh thyme and a dressing made with chive flower vinegar, maple syrup and more fresh thyme as we had a box donated from the Food Bank
And for dessert...
An awesome vanilla cake with lemon curd and fresh local strawberry filling iced with buttercream!

We hope the teachers felt as appreciated as they truly are at this special Community School of Edmonds 🥰✨️🙏

How it started with Jeremy who's now in Gr. 11 to how it's going today with Oliver at age 3!

Still Space in our Wellness and Cooking Summer Camps!

What makes our camps special is how many of our campers return each year and also become volunteers and staff with us. We have a majority of campers, about 70% who are returning from previous years, some doing their 4th year!
This creates a family atmosphere with all of us working together to keep the space clean, create awesome meals together, and have fun! This is also why we have created our Teen Week as many campers want to become future volunteers and staff, they love our camp so much!

The Teen Leadership week is new and is shaping up to be a ton of fun while developing a variety of life skills, leadership, and learning wellness tools for the future. Several of our volunteers and staff say they are still using the skills and mental health tools in their university years!

What parents are saying:
"My child looks forward to this camp all year!" - parent of a child who has come multiple times for multiple weeks

"Our boys made dinners multiple times this week thanks to your camp!" - parent of a set of siblings who have come for the past 3 years

"I am sending photos of my son making every recipe for his family this past weekend. He was so proud of himself as were we" - parent of a child who was very shy at camp but still cooked at home for his extended family

There is still space in our July 27th week as well as our August 10th week. Register today at sproutingchefs.com/camp

Time flies when you're working solo!

Moving the compost bins one at a time to bring things closer...slowly. Will be waiting till Friday when the Garden Club crew can work together to move the rest. Whew!

Had to pause and take in the cuteness of the art from Friday 🥰

Watered, cut back the kale, planted some more beans, fixed a hoophouse for the watermelons and made sure comfrey is still growing around the compost bins which we can chop up to add when it gets bigger to accelerate decomposition. (Only took 3 pieces of comfrey roots from Windsor Elementary a few years ago and now have a few bushes at Forest Grove, Edmonds and Burnaby Mtn)

Started at 8 am, left around 11 am with Dad's wise quote: "Know when to stop..."

Time flies when you're in the garden! 🤪