Lifecycles and the City of Victoria have teamed up to grow and give away thousands of seedlings to students and their families throughout the Greater Victoria School District. If your family needs soil, planters, tools and/or help planting your plants,  folks from the "Get FED" project can come to your home to help you!

Option #1: You can reserve and pick up plants and instructions from Shoreline Middle School out of the four types of plants we have had delivered to our garden cage!  ​

Still available:
Delicata Squash
Chard - Eldorado
Chard - Rainbow
Kale - Red Russian
Kale - Siberian
Basil - Sweet Genovese
​Lettuce Mix 
​
These were available but have already been reserved:
Cucumber: Blue Sticks
"Sweetie" Tomatoes: Purple Sticks
Black Cherry Tomatoes: no sticks
Zucchini: no sticks

Option 2: You can pick out your own plants at certain times and certain places: ​

The plants available at these sites may include the following:
Cucumber
Zucchini
Delicata Squash
Chard - Eldorado
Chard - Rainbow
Kale - Red Russian
Kale - Siberian
Basil - Sweet Genovese
Tomatoes - Sweetie Cherry
Tomatoes - Black Cherry
Tomatoes - Elfin Cherry
Tomatoes - Stupice
Parsley - Italian
Lettuce Mix 

To reserve plants to pick up from Shoreline, please email [email protected], by Sunday June 7 at 7pm, with the name and number of the plants you would like, as well as your name, phone number, and whether you will pick up your plant(s) on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Any reserved plants not picked up by 5pm on Wednesday will be available for anyone to pick up on Thursday, June 11. Unreserved plants will be available throughout next week.

For more info on these plants: https://lifecyclesproject.ca/get-growing/

Click here for how-to videos and kid-friendly instructions
Are you not sure which plants you want or are able to grow at your place?
Click on "read more" below to see CARE GUIDELINES for each type of plant.

My family and I went for a bike ride the other day, our only destination in mind to meander along the Galloping Goose trail to see what kind of options are available for food these days. Bored with our own cooking and out of groceries, we picked up takeout (in compostable packaging) and then biked to Portage Park to enjoy the beach - using our physical distancing skills of course! A little dog named "Zuma" was not so respectful and came to check out our food, then moved on to something small and silver lying on the sand.

It was a herring! We looked more closely at the surface of the water and realized that many of these small fish were flipping and skipping in and out of the waves.

Have you ever seen or eaten Herring? Although it hasn't been a part of my regular diet, I have fond memories of eating them with Mr. Wilson. We have eaten herring eggs on kelp up in Prince Rupert among his Tsimshian family  at his grandma's settlement feast, and pickled herring is a feature course at the annual Seafood Feast with his Hwlitsum family on Galiano Island every April. ​Herring are a key food source for many humans, chinook salmon, orcas and other species around the world!

Here is an amazing video about the place many of you call home... but do you know it is called "Lekwungen" which means the "Place to Smoke Herring"? Find out why by learning from the relatives of many of Shoreline's students, such as Cheryl Bryce and Butch Dick: https://vimeo.com/275788251

​My challenge for you this week is to watch this video, then see if a parent / guardian / other adult will bike, scooter or walk with you to one or some of the places shown in this video to look for herring. Send me an email, photo or video if you can! 
​
Bonus points if you can tell me why herring are critical to the survival of resident KELL̵OLEMEĆEN (killer whales / orca / blackfish) and / or whether the First Nations "spawn on kelp" method of harvesting herring eggs is more sustainable than the roe herring fishery designed for export. Email [email protected] for school credit!
Həyšxʷq̓ə,
​Ms. Menzies

This week Shoreline teachers have to prepare for a professional development day so the experiential teachers agreed we wouldn't focus on making a new post  - there is just so much to do! However, I though some of you might enjoy checking out someone else's blog - the Fresh Five by Fresh Roots.

Click on "read more" below to learn how to identify edible flowers, press flowers, find flower friends (bees), dissect a flower or roast cauliFLOWER to eat.

I have reposted Kat's neat content here because Gladys and I enjoyed making pressed flower cards for all her grandmothers for Mother's day last week and thought you might as well. May lines up with PENAWEN, the moon of the camas (KLO,EL) harvest in the WSANEC calendar. If you want to press a camas flower, make sure you only pick up one that someone else has stepped on - we need to respect and care for the few remaining endangered camas meadows. Leave harvesting to the First Nations meadow keepers who have the right and responsibility to do so.  

Alternatively, if you decide to become a flower "ninja" this week (drop off a basket of flowers on someone's doorstep, as per Kat's instructions in her Fresh Five blog when you click on "read more" below), please email me a picture of your present for a friend or neighbour. 

Or you can check out my new website: www.restorativeducation.com and email me what you think of it! I'd love to hear from you if you have ever done any of the Sustainability activities - you'll get school credit for it!

All the best to you and yours,
Miz Menzies

My family and I have been enjoying physically distant walks to gather our own groceries - but the first step is learning how to identify edible plants. If your family has a good data plan or has access to plants in an area with free wifi, see if they will try out the seek app by iNaturalist on a phone to find out which plants live around you, and whether they are safe or dangerous to touch and eat.

I have found 17 species so far and earned 4 badges - can you beat me?!
A fun new place to explore with your family is the Wark St. Commons Garden - just don't touch the playground. Happy hunting!