- 1216 North Park St, Victoria, BC V8T 1C9
- Wed-Sat, 10:00am-4:00pm - 250,386, WORM(9676)
Join us for a series that explores 3 key ways to preserve food!
Whether you are brand new to food preservation or have experimented with some of these methods of food preservation, you’ll get the complete accurate and safe run down from PreserveSafe Trained teacher Kayla on how to dehydrate, ferment and hot water bath can your favourite seasonal vegetables and fruits.
This series features three 2-hour long workshops between September and October, with samples of dried, fermented and canned goods, demonstrations and hands on activities preparing foods for preservation, and you’ll even get to take home some sauerkraut to ferment in your kitchen!
Ticket cost includes a $15 materials fee.
Series Outline:
Preserve the Bounty #1: Dehydrating – September 9 (1:00PM-3:00PM Pacific Time)
Summary: In this first of a 3 part series, come learn the science and the practicalities behind food dehydration in a solar dryer and in an electric dehydrator.
Workshop Description: Come learn the basics of how to preserve the autumn abundance by solar and electric dehydration! We’ll cover food preservation basics, then launch into the science of dehydration. We’ll inspect and experience the Compost Education Centre’s Solar food dehydrators (an Appalachian solar dryer and a portable food dryer in action). You can borrow the food dryer from the CEC for free! Preserving foods is not only a delicious way to taste summer in the dark rainy days of winter, but it is also an act of sustainability and creates more security in the food system.
Preserve the Bounty #2: Fermented vegetables – September 16 (1:00PM-3:00PM Pacific Time)
Summary: In this second of a 3-part series, come learn the practical steps involved in preserving vegetables using fermenting
Workshop Description: The most delicious food preservation method of all – fermenting! Come learn the basics of fermenting vegetables. We’ll cover the basic science of fermenting, and how by harvesting yeasts and bacteria’s we can make healthy nutritious foods that will support gut health! Together we’ll make a simple sauerkraut for you to take home. Kayla will also do a demo of preparing fermented salsa, and we’ll even get to taste some delicious, prepared ferments.
Bring to this workshop a 500mL wide mouth jar with lid for you to take home your sauerkraut in.
Preserve the Bounty #3: Hot Water Bath Canning – October 21 (1:00PM-3:00PM Pacific Time)
Summary: In this third of a 3-part series, come learn the safe steps to successfully make home canned goods using the hot water bath method.
Workshop Description: Ever wonder what to do with all those tomatoes? How about the epic number of beets your neighbor just gifted you? Or just want to Do-It-Yourself and make your own berry jam to enjoy in the dark days of winter? In this workshop we will talk about the basics of safe produce preservation using the hot water bath method of preservation. You’ll get to taste some yummy home canned goodies, and we’ll make a batch of home canned jam together. You will come away with a knowledge needed to can the season’s abundance safely and have a list of resources to consult for further learning.
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Instructor Bio: Kayla Siefried (she/her) is a settler in Lekwungen Territory and grew up in Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. Kayla is the steward of the Compost Education Centre demonstration gardens and the curator and main educator of the Adult Education Program. She can be found growing seedlings for plant sales, working with volunteers to keep gardens healthy, flipping hot compost, arranging expert instructors to teach workshops, or out in the community teaching about soil health, organic gardening, and Do-It-Yourself tasks that increase our climate resilience.
Kayla holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, and she continued on with practical hands-on permaculture training, gardening and farming internships in various places on Turtle Island and beyond. Kayla is passionate about sharing her knowledge with people young and old through formal and informal education. She’s facilitated youth programs for sustainability all across Canada, Guatemala, and Cambodia, and has a zest for travel and adventure.
Kayla sees the act of growing food and stewarding the soil as one that can heal on many levels. A keen sustainability activist, Kayla finds meaning in advocating for and living an environmentally sustainable life that involves bicycles, healthy food systems, and a good amount of outdoor dancing!
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You must pre-register for this event.
Customers can request a refund within 30 days of ticket purchase. After 30 days refunds and workshop exchanges are not permitted due to administrative staffing capacity. Please be in touch if you are no longer able to attend but hold a ticket so we can make your space available to someone else.
You can also register for the event by calling our office at 250 386 9676 or via email by contacting office@compost.bc.ca
If you identify as BIPOC or are someone who experiences significant financial barriers to being involved in our programming, please get in touch about a reduced ticket cost. The Compost Education Centre is continually in the process of examining the ways in which our program accessibility can be improved for all members of our community. This ticket gesture is by no means a fulsome examination of the systems of oppression that exist for people inside and outside of our community. We welcome your ideas and feedback.
If you are a member and would like to redeem your workshop discounts for this series, please email office@compost.bc.ca.
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Accessibility info: The Compost Education Centre site has paths made of stone gravel (20%), and wood chips (80%). Mobility devices with wheels (such as wheelchairs, walkers etc.) are sometimes difficult to use on site, especially on the gravel paths. The strawbale learning classroom is accessed via a wooden ramp and has a wide double door and a ramp leading up to it. Once inside everything is flat.
There is a single-stall gender neutral washroom on site. The washroom is not wheelchair accessible and has a small step up from the gravel pathway, and another small step up from the washroom boardwalk.
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The Compost Education Centre is located on unceeded and occupied Indigenous territories, specifically the land of the Lekwungen people— specifically the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa’wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.