Sprouting Chefs

My watering companion at Edmonds this morning. An American Goldan Finch is still with me for the past 15 mins or so.

Attracted by the dying sunflowers and the seed heads. Only here now because of this school garden. Sunflowers keep growing back after seeds drop into the soil thanks to these birds.

Gardens build Community and Biodiversity too!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Email [email protected] for the link to register for after school cooking classes at Forest Grove Elementary.

Lots of fun delicious recipes to look forward to creating this Fall inspired by the season, the garden and what kids love to make 🥰

Great Big Thank You to our friends at BODEGA ON MAIN for hosting our teen campers for not just an awesome lunch, but also a fantastic informative financial literacy presentation by co owner, and great friend, Natalie Rivas !

Teens learned about budgeting, savings, credit cards and debt management as well as a lot of other great info as they lunched on an awesome variety of favorites from La Bodega.

The Future is Bright! Our first ever Teen Leadership Wellness and Cooking Camp is 2 days in and I am feeling especially hope filled with our group of future leaders.

Two days in and we have already covered a ton including:

Defining traits of a great leader and what real success is
Deeper learning into holistic wellness via defining what areas of our life need a bit more loving attention with a Wellness Wheel
Creating leadership bracelets each teen will need to earn over the week
Creating new dishes via a variety of ingredients
Learning how it takes a team to run our camps and that everyone helping to do the hard tasks makes things so much easier
Deeply listening to one of our Alumni and his experience in University where the main thing most have in common at Harvard University is ambition
Amazing group discussions on ethics, values and leadership where each teen contributed to the conversation and really respected each other

Sigh...So proud of them and the week has just begun!

Next up, a field trip to a long standing restaurant, La Bodega tomorrow, Spa Day and Self Love Day and a Celebratory Feast on Friday.

August Camp Week 2026 has come to a close!

Highlights include:
Yoga and Intention Setting in the morning with Ms. Miri from Vancouver’s Mobile Kids / family Yoga Nonprofit
Creating all kinds of meals for lunch
Crafting and games in the afternoon
And a fantastic Dream Team of staff and volunteer alumni from previous programs!

Week 1 of our Summer Wellness and Cooking Camps done and dusted!

Highlights include our spa day featuring Buddha bowls which has been a camper favorite with a special guest this year, Cheryl Thelaide from Scentsational Creations, breaking the plank challenge where campers had curve the line to fit 19 kids in plus they held formation for 35 seconds this year thanks to Vancouver’s Mobile Kids / family Yoga Nonprofit 🎉 , creating a new small garden at St. Timothy's Church to leave something behind🦋, making hollaindaise for eggs benny and lots of games of poker for balance!

Special thanks to my crew of former students and camper who now are staff/volunteers as well as Ms Cat, Assistant extraordinaire! Couldn't have done it without y'all! 🥰🙏

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

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!❤️😎🎉🌞