Lawns to Loaves Kick off

2012 Lawns to Loaves is off to an exciting start!

Last weekend’s workshop was attended by grain enthusiasts from across the Lower Mainland. Everyone left with wheat to plant in small neighborhood plots. Plans are to pool this wheat in a fall community celebrations, process and eat it!

Our Lawns to Loaves in-school workshops are as popular as ever. So much so, that teachers are on a waiting list to host this unique workshop series in their classroom. The Lawns to Loaves workshops explore grains as they tie into human civilization, and an eye-opening look at grains today. Most students have never even seen a shaft of wheat, even though they eat wheat every day. We plant wheat, and also some really unique ancient grains like emmer and amaranth.

A number of bakeries are also proudly displaying some beautiful planter boxes supplied by Lawns to Loaves. These boxes are planted with unique grains, allowing even us city dwellers to get in touch with the plants that we eat so often.

Lawns to Loaves is an educational community initiative to support dialogue around our food system… while having fun! It’s amazing what comes up when you get a room full of people threshing wheat. Being able to see, touch, taste, and experience the grains that have shaped us as people is at the heart of Lawns to Loaves.

Wheat traditions

The tradition of planting a small pot of grain indoors is one my grandma’s been following for as long as I can remember. This was the first year, however, that she grew a pot of indoor wheat-grass from seed I had grown. Very statisfying. My grandma says she doesn’t know exactly where the tradition came from, but that it’s a way of remembering the green that’s about to come with spring. Having grown up in rural Manitoba just the memory that winter will in fact end (despite much snow which seems to state otherwise) is a tradition worth following.

One of my favourite things about Lawns to Loaves are the stories that people bring. Whether it’s remembering the smell of wheat at harvest time, or swaping favourite muffin recipes, food has a way of drawing people together in community.

There’s still spaces available to join in this year. Contact lawnstoloaves@gmail.com to learn more.

An indoor pot with fresh urban wheat. Check out the paska in the background, a traditional Easter bread. Yum.