Victoria Compost Education Centre
1216 North Park St V8T 1C9 Victoria, BC, Canada

The Pacific Horticulture College is seeking an instructor to coordinate and teach Introduction to Permaculture classes for approximately 20 Landscape Horticulture Certificate Program students. This position involves, but is not limited to, the following: - Course preparation and organization of learning activities based on course objectives - Classroom instruction in the subject area... - Organizing and leading relevant field trips - Assessing students’ knowledge through quizzes, assignments, and other relevant evaluation methods - Communicating with students and staff by email and in person - Coordination with the HCP Head Gardener and staff to accomplish on-site work in the HCP Permaculture Garden Please send us a message if you would like a copy of the full job posting.

Crocuses in bloom in our welcome garden. Swipe for a springtime meme Just a reminder that our gardens are open to the public Wednesday-Saturday from 10-4

The CEC Schools Program is booking for 2021, offering inquiry-based education to youth of all ages on composting, soil ecology, and environmental sustainability. We've got worms that need homes, soil that needs exploring, and resources for the classroom, all we need now is our students! Get in touch with our Education Team to discuss the best option for your class, our health and safety protocols, and when you'd like a workshop!

NEW for 2021! We are thrilled to announce that West Coast Refill and Metchosin Farm (online seed store) will now be partnering with us to offer a 10% discount for all Compost Education Centre members. To purchase or renew your CEC membership, visit our website: https://compost.bc.ca//compost-education-centre-membership/

Since this weekend's Sheet Mulching workshop will now be online, we've opened many additional spaces, and it's free! Sign up to receive log in details. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/free-workshop-sheet-mulching-no

"Seagrasses have survived, not just as species, but often as individual clones, for thousands of years. Scientists studying Posidonia oceanica meadows in the Mediterranean Sea estimate that the largest clone, which stretches more than nine miles, has been around, sending out slow-growing rhizomes, for tens of thousands of years, and possibly as many as 200,000 years. It could be the oldest-known organism on Earth."

Join us tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 20th) at 10:00am for a free, all-ages, online workshop all about COMPOST! Presented in partnership with the Greater Victoria Public Libraries. You can access the workshop on our Facebook page, or by following this link: https://www.gvpl.ca/gvpl-programs/

Dancing with Birds

Will you be at the Good Food Summit on Dec. 3rd-4th? Zoe-Blue will be there! She'll be presenting as part of the Youth Stream to launch a brand new video and teaching guide to accompany our zine, Bio-Diversity. To register for the Good Food Summit, follow this link: https://crfair.tickit.ca/events/10525 There are flexible admission prices available to make this event accessible to anyone who'd like to attend.

Join Kayla for a virtual site tour! Check out York Region Food Network for more details

With the weather turning wetter this week, we will be offering produce harvesting upon request. Come grab some produce and take a walk in our ever changing demonstration gardens #organicgardening #bioremediation

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new factsheet: Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners, written by soil toxicologist and HCS program creator Danielle Stevenson, as part of our Healing City Soils project! This factsheet is an introduction to beginner-level phyto (plant) remediation in soils that are contaminated with low to moderate levels of heavy metals. By working with native and non-native plants phyto-remediation is a process that slowly extracts heavy metal co...ntaminants from soil. The factsheet is available for free online at our website: https://compost.bc.ca//2/09/19-Bioremediation_no-image.pdf Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners is the third factsheet in the CEC's factsheet series all about soil health and best practices if higher-than-normal levels of heavy metals are detected in your soil. If you're interested in diving in, we recommend that you start with factsheets #11 and #12, which introduce you to soil contamination and best practices for growing food in urban spaces. The beautiful image pictured below is snip of our Hyperaccumulator poster created by local artist Natassia Davies (@ natassiaashley on Instagram), which will soon be available for sale at the CEC- stay tuned!

Solnit writes: "Listen, my loves, I know most of you are heartsore and weary, and the past four years have been a long rough road, and those of us in the west can find dismay just by looking out the window today, but don't stop now. The election matters, what we do matters, including for climate change, and we can do some things to address the many layers of suffering around us, and if we can we must. Without ignoring that grief, while taking time to replenish, but still....... I think of people in far grimmer, longer circumstances than our own, those of us who are not direct targets of the administration and are not financially wrecked or displaced by fire. We have more to do, and doing it is itself a way to assuage despair, misery, fear. Hope is a discipline, Mariame Kaba said, and it matters most when it's hardest. Right now it doesn't mean envisioning rosy futures; it means knowing that the worst case scenarios are not inevitable, and every day we are choosing together what direction we head in. And yeah, someone posted this image, so I'm sharing it. More soon."

We've still got two spots for our Herbs for Winter Wellness workshop happening at the Compost Education Centre. Register below!

Check out these beautiful door prizes that will be available to attendees at our upcoming Annual General Meeting! It will be happening on Wed. Sept. 16th from 6:00-7:00pm via Zoom. To register, check out our Event page. Prizes pictured: -Food Justice poster by local artist Sarah Jim -Pacific Northwest Plant Knowledge cards from Strong Nations... -2 year family membership to the CEC, which includes 4 free workshops and lots of great discounts. We hope you can join us at the AGM!

"The goal is not to find a single superfood within the perennial vegetable list, says Leisner. Rather, she adds, we should take a more holistic view focusing on highly nutritious crops that are resilient to shifting temperatures, those able to grow on marginal lands or as part of agroforestry. Leisner adds that it puts a lot of emphasis on a small number of plant families, but that more research is needed into orphan cropsthose species that receive little to no attention from researchersto mitigate climate change and support our growing population."

Please share widely! A webinar: Consent Based Harvest and Wild Rose Medicine, facilitated by Beangka Elliott. Tickets can be purchased through eventbrite, link ...below. 1. Indigenous, Inuit and Metis FREE ticket (limited quantity) 2. $25 ticket 3. $40 ticket 4. Donation ticket of any amount All proceeds will go towards the purchase of native seeds, and plants for the Tsartlip Pollinator Meadow, a Project Reclaim initiative. It is year two of the pollinator, and camas meadow and is in need of maintenance from grazing deer, invasive grasses and clover. Over the last two years, this meadow has been maintained through volunteer efforts. Support a local Indigenous led food sovereignty project by purchasing a ticket or making a cash donation and learn in the process! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/consent-based-harvest-and-wild See more

Our Annual General Meeting will be hosted online via Zoom this year! This event is open to the general public, as well as registered members of the CEC. We really value community input in shaping the future of our organization! Please be sure to sign up for the event via Eventbrite (link on the event page) so that you receive an email invite to the Zoom meeting. At the AGM, we'll present our Annual Report as a review of all the incredible work that the CEC has accomplished this year, and members will have an opportunity to vote for our new Board of Directors. There will also be door prizes available for attendees! If you're interested in registering as a member of the CEC, please do so on our website.

Introducing... Biodiversity: The Faces of Ecological Stewardship. This new zine, created by Zoe-Blue, our amazing education assistant, tells the stories of BIPOC folks who have made enormous contributions to the fields of ecological stewardship and sustainable agriculture. Biodiversity is available for FREE! How can you get your hands on a copy? -Stop by the CEC (1216 North Park St. in Fernwood) and pick one up Wed-Sat. -A limited number of copies are available for mail order..., with priority given to folks who are immuno-compromised or have mobility limitations. Please email [email protected] to order. -We are working on creating an online PDF version- stay tuned. See more

Come work with our awesome team as a member of our Board of Directors! The positions we are looking to fill include Chair, Secretary, and Vice Chair. Relevant experience considered an asset to the CECs Board of Directors can look like (but is not limited to) the following: Previous work with not-for-profit organizations... Prior membership on a Board of Directors Knowledge of the CEC and its programming Fundraising, networking, human resources, team building Background in waste management, conservation, biology or environmental science Familiarity with the call for equity in the food & environmental justice movements, including knowledge of the intersections between food/environment and race, decolonization, ethnicity, ability, class, gender or sexuality See more

"As Vickerson has learned, black soldier flies can be farmed extremely efficiently. Enterra pioneered and patented some of these techniques. But at the heart of their operation is a very low-maintenance livestock. You dont have to hunt, fish, or grow anything to feed them. They dont require fresh water. As larvae, theyre happy eating all manner of food waste that would have ordinarily gone to compost or the dump. Black soldier fly grubs, Vickerson explains, can recycle the...se nutrients back into the food chain because, unlike many other insects, they can consume a wide variety of foods. In the larval stage, they are packed with protein and are high in fat, including the omega fatty acids highly prized by the aquaculture industry and consumers alike. Native to the Americas, black soldier flies now range throughout the warmer parts of the world, although they do not naturally occur in Canada." See more

There is still space available in our Herbs for Winter Wellness workshop happening on Saturday, Sept. 12th! At this workshop, we'll explore some of the most helpful herbs we can employ for lung and sinus support, and discover how we can incorporate herbs, plants and foods to support our general wellness. We will learn how to make herbal syrups and fire cider. Then we'll do some hands-on medicine making and each participant will go away with some homemade fire cider. This wor...kshop will be taught by Lindsay, who is a professional member of the Canadian Herbalist Association of BC, an Organic Master Gardener (Gaia College), and is a faculty member at Pacific Rim College. To register, visit our Eventbrite page through the link provided in the workshop description.

All this shows the complexity of the knowledge that kept thousands of years of people well-fed and nourished, said Turner."

"My favourite hardy lettuce is Winter Density , because it is small enough to sit under a dome cloche and does well in pots on patios. If you have space, Marvel Of Four Seasons or Arctic King are ideal, as both are bred for cold weather. These old varieties are large lettuces they need 30cm in each direction between plants to stand the worst of the winter weather. Its down to root mass and the resources that come from an extensive system: if you cram your plants in, youll get a small root mass and a less resilient plant."

This week, well be sharing some staff favourite podcast episodes, all focused on topics of food justice! With a different episode every day, we'll explore how culture and identity intersect with food security and farming. Episodes will be posted to our story on facebook and instagram. As an organization that promotes sustainable agriculture and ecological stewardship, we think it's crucial to engage in these conversations. We need to better understand the unequal barriers that folks of different identities experience when working towards food security and sovereignty for our communities. Tune in, and please share your thoughts with us if you have the chance to listen to any of the episodes!

"A record low sockeye run is estimated for this year, with about 283,000 fish or fewer making it from the ocean to their Fraser River spawning grounds. First Nations groups in B.C. are calling on the federal fisheries minister to issue an emergency order to close all sockeye fisheries on the Fraser River."

The Get Growing, Victoria free seedling distribution is back Lee will have the LifeCycles van at the James Bay Community School from 10:00am - 4:00pm on T...hursday, August 27th. 10 vegetable and herb starts will be available - including lettuce, chard, kale, mustard greens, peas, kohlrabi, purple sprouting broccoli and green onions. This program is run by the City of Victoria is partnership with over 30+ organizations that are hosting neighbourhood plant pick ups in our communities. The priority support is for people who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and want to grow food at home but may be facing barriers to access food plants and garden materials or are facing barriers to access fresh, locally grown food. This includes but is not limited to those who have experienced loss of work, people who are immunocompromised, people with disabilities, seniors, at-risk youth, families in need, and/or people who self-identify as food insecure. More info can be found at: Growing Together https://lifecyclesproject.ca/get-growing/ https://www.victoria.ca//re/parks/growing-in-the-city.html

We have kale & cabbage seedlings for free or by donation today! Stop by 1216 North Park in Fernwood and find them on our farm stand. While youre here, were happy to help you out with any questions you may have about gardening or composting, and we can connect you to other community resources to help reduce any barriers youre facing to growing your own food. #composteducation #organicgardening #growyourownfood #circulareconomy #yyj #pnw #communitycare #fernwood #northpark

Weve been glad to still be able to offer physically-distanced site tours this summer, for small groups of 10 students or less. Heading into the fall, we will continue to offer site tours with updated COVID-19 protocols. Please contact our education coordinator for further details, or to book a tour for your group (link in bio, see Schools Program) Stay safe, and keep composting!

Heres a sneak peek at some of the school programming that we have developed over the summer. During this pandemic, the CEC wants to ensure that our community still feels able to learn about soil ecology and ecological stewardship while staying healthy and safe.

Microbes in a gut environment that are starved of contact with environmental microbiota might be hijacking neural pathways between the brain and gut to drive nature-seeking behavior, first author Jake Robinson, an ecologist and planetary health researcher at Sheffield University, tells Mental Floss. In other words, your gut microbes are yearning for their outdoor counterpartsand telling your brain to go find them."

"The CRD is developing a management plan for East Sooke Regional Park and a joint management plan for Roche Cove and Matheson Lake Regional Parks. As a part of initial engagement, the public is invited to fill out a survey related to the management plans. The surveys will be available until September 18. They can be accessed from the management plan webpages: East Sooke Regional Park survey www.crd.bc.ca/eastsooke-plan... Roche Cove and Matheson Lake Regional Parks survey www.crd.bc.ca/roche-matheson-plan"

Our seedlings are now for sale at half price! These beautiful babies want to get in the ground ASAP. We have lots of kale (5 different varieties) and cabbage remaining- perfect for fall & winter growing. Kale 6-packs are now $3 3-inch pots (cabbage, chard) are now $2 ... Seedlings are also available by donation if this price point is a barrier for you. Happy growing, friends! #organicgardening #yearroundharvest #growityourself #localfood #composteducation #pnw #yyj #fernwood #getgrowing

Introduction to Seed Saving w/ Q and A, Online!

"But more importantly, the farm will run a lending library for area growers to check out seeds, so they can continually grow, adapt and even flourish under changing local climate conditions. Its kind of cool that we put these seeds in the vaults just in case there is Armageddon, Schick said. But as we've discovered with this pandemic, you have to live through Armageddon. But seeds locked up in a vault dont evolve, he stressed.... So, seed libraries combine preserving seeds and meeting the momentous changes that the climate is going through right now, Schick said. Seeds that are grown out every single year by gardeners are adapting. And that's part of the process. The seed library also jibes nicely with Linnaea Farms mandate of public education around sustainable farming practices, Schick said. So, seed libraries combine preserving seeds and meeting the momentous changes that the climate is going through right now, organic farmer Adam Schick on ways to keep seeds in the public domain and improve resiliency to global warming."

Articles promoting year round veggie gardening/local food security continued!