Summer 2015

Came to Vancouver at the end of May and spent the summer here... it's been so long since I've had a summer where I can be outside and enjoy the weather. Makes me not want to work in a office anymore and do something where I can be outdoors.

 above photos: flowers along the road in front of peoples houses (June)
below: the path that I run along

 below: I was walking along and saw this stretch of wild flowers, I just thought the colours are so pretty!

 below: Summer Fireworks Festival - this night it was Brazil's fireworks

 above left: world famous gelato - won the award for world's best gelato in 2012 in Italy

above middle: strange looking squash - I bought one and grandma cooked it

above right: Dinosaurs at Science World

below: Outdoor movie at Lansdowne - watching Big Hero 6, it was good!

 above: hiking is great in Vancouver, there are loads of trails and the majority are in forests so there's plenty of shade from the heat. The trees are all SUPER TALL.

One of the reasons why I came to Vancouver was because I had an idea to learn farming. It's been something that I've wanted to do for a while but in Hong Kong there's just no space to do it, even a small garden or little container pots. Or if you have the space inside your home, you don't have the right conditions - like SUNLIGHT!

 below: first day at Sharing Farm, our task list          below : cucumber trellis that we helped with

 above: herb garden - chives, lemongrass, basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, various mints, fennel, rosemary, lavender etc.

below: the red barn - a place where we have snack and get out of the sun

 above: apple vines that we pruned

below: fresh veggies from Sharing Farm - I have to pay for them, but I'm ok with that because the money goes towards helping the farm run. The cucumber was so sweet and fresh! Salad mix was really good, and the blueberries were all BIG AND SWEET! Plus, everything is organic so I don't have to take too much time to clean them before eating.

 below left: Tomatillos - these are tomatoes that grow inside the "lantern" casing, I'm going to try to grow the next spring

below right: Dahlias, so pretty, we cut them off at the farm to force more to grow and open

I started volunteering on the Sharing Farm in June and we do everything from weeding, planting, watering, ridding plants of pests, cleaning vegetables after harvesting to peeling garlic for roasting. Sharing Farm grows all their vegetables and fruits for the food bank, community kitchens and for low-income families so that they can have fresh fruits and vegetables.

 above: a concentric circle of Sunflowers, you can walk around in the circle and be surrounded by sunflowers

below: harvesting honey! We scraped off the top layer of wax and then put it into the metal spinner to spin all the honey out

 below left: sticky fingers from removing wax

 

 

 above: prepping garlic for the Garlic Festival

below left: Garlic Festival day - we had some bunnies on the farm for children to play with - and they can adopt them too

below right: GARLIC ICE CREAM! - tastes just like what you think garlic ice cream would taste like. :D

 above left: arts & craft booth for kids that I ran        above right: tie-dyed t-shirts

below: the honey that we harvested! So pretty in jars and with all the flowers

 above: roasted garlic made from the garlic that I peeled

below: different taster plates from local chefs at the Garlic Festival

 Autumn is Here!!! See all the pumpkins and squashes we harvested? 

The leaves are also starting to change colour.

After a few weeks working on the Sharing Farm, I took home a small basil plant because they had sown more seeds and had tiny plants left over after we transplanted them into the ground. That little Basil plant has grown and I have also bought some seeds to grow my own vegetables. By the time I felt ready to try growing them it was already August, so I planted some lettuce to see how it goes, cuz they will grow before winter comes.

right: the little basil plant

 above: other cuttings that I am trying to grow roots so that I can plant them

below left: lettuce seeds       middle: wild arugula           right: fast & furious blend of lettuces (love the name!)

 Ta-da!   My garden

 above: after about 4-5 days, you start to see the tiny sprout leaves - lettuces

below left: baby lettuce leaves - Yeah! they are growing!        right: arugula is coming out too

above left: basil plant doing very well - two types of basil here: Genovese & Dolly Basil

above right: cut basil, before I cook with/freeze them

I'm glad things are going well, I've harvested some basil leaves a few times already - making pesto, basil panna cotta, freezing some for use over winter; and the lettuce are probably ready for harvesting, so I'll do that this weekend and eat them all before I leave to go to Japan next week.

above: That's my garden!

Left & top rectangle containers are lettuce growing (there's supposed to be a lettuce type called corn salad growing in the second half of the container but I think the seeds somehow moved to the fast & furious lettuces so they are all mixed at one end of the container)

Bottom orange square container are arugula, next to it is a pot of mint

the large container on the far right are my basils

Being here I've started to cook again, which is a good thing - I get to enjoy my food and the vegetables and fruits that I grow.

 above left: made my own granola / trail mix     above right: egg and avocado salad

below: fresh salad with ingredients from Sharing Farm - cucumber, blueberries, salad mix, edible flowers, with Maple syrup & Mustard dressing

 above left: fresh figs, strawberries, flax seed and yoghurt

above right: fruit water - blueberries, clementine peel, mint, rosemary

below left: breakfast bagel with berries yoghurt drink

below right: new potato salad

 above left: made my own tomato soup - first recipe with my own home-grown, first-harvest of basil!

above right: home-made meatballs with my tomato soup used as a sauce

below left & right: making an apple tart after watching MasterChef Australia Season 7

 below photos: Most recent harvest of Basil, made a bunch of things with it - pesto, basil panna cotta, freeze some for later, this below is pesto pasta with roast chicken, the one under, I used the pesto as a sauce/paste in a sandwich (lightly) and it gave a great flavour to the left over porkchop that I turned into a porkchop sandwich.

 below: making the raspberry coulis for the basil panna cotta - too much sugar this time! I only used half the amount of raspberry.... wasn't paying attention to the recipe..... :P

 above: getting ready to fill the moulds

below: set Basil Panna Cottas, with garnish of raspberry coulis, fresh raspberry and mint leaf