School of Horticulture
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LEPS volunteers pick fruit from Kwantlen (Langley campus) fruit trees.
The 100 year old fruit trees at Langley campus that Kwantlen Horticulture students have help prune are still bearing fruit.This fruit is being donated to the Langley Food Bank.
Rachel Strivelli has been hired by LEPS (Langley Environmental Partners Society) to coordinate the harvesting of fruit trees for the Langley Food Bank. The program is called "Seed to Plate" and involves organizing volunteers who donate time to pick fruit trees that owners have made available. Do you have a fruit tree on your property that you cannot or don't want to pick? Phone Rachel and she will pick all the fruit and divide it this way: 1/3 goes to the owner, 1/3 to the volunteer pickers, and 1/3 to the Langley Food Bank.
Contact information if you have trees or want to pick them:
Rachel Strivelli, MSc
Seed to Plate Coordinator
Langley Environmental Partners Society
T 604.533.6090 ex. 1354 | F 604.534.6593 www.leps.bc.ca
2010 -2011 Scholarship Applications
There are a few exciting scholarship opportunities outside of Kwantlen which you should know about:
- Sports Turf Association Scholarship ($1,000)
- The Canadian Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust is accepting applications for their 2011 program. Applications are due by April 30, 2010. Three scholarships of $15,000 each are available for 2011.
The proof of the pudding
HORT 2490, 'Organic Greenhouse Production', recently decended on the Surrey campus and carried out a simple 'taste panel'. The objective was to get a broad sense of whether people could tell the difference in taste between organic and conventionally grown produce. 'Tastees' were offered 'blind' samples of bananas, peppers, apples, cucumbers and carrots, each purchased as 'organically certified' or not. Respondants were simply asked which they preferred. 63 of the choices opted for the organic option compared to 33 for conventional produce (while 5 people expressed no preference for the samples they tasted). So, next time we're there, drop by and see if you can tell the difference.WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT OUR APPRENTICE PROGRAM?
The best place to star is to fallow the "PROGRAMS" link on the top left side of the navigation menu. When you get to the "Apprenticeship" page you will find tons of information about the program and what it could offer. You will find all the necessary facts from "Timetableing", "Application Process", to "How to prepare for your first day " . Links to industry websites will also be at your fingertips (e.g. ITA, HortEdBC, Service Canada). Give it a chance try it out and learn more about the Practical Apprenticeship Program!
Kwantlen Greenhouse Class gets to bottom of Valentine’s weekend…
Students in the Greenhouse Diploma visited a couple of great growers on the Saturday of Valentine’s weekend to find out how BC’s own fresh freesias and other cut flowers are grown. Albion Nursery of Maple Ridge is an ‘all-year-round’ freesia business. A staple of almost all bouquets presented to lucky ladies this weekend, freesias are anything but easy to produce, explaining why only a handful of producers grow this amazing flower in BC. Albion’s owner Roger Duyvesteyn and Greenhouse Manager Markus Czech described the production process in detail, clearly both loving their jobs! Later in the morning, the group visited Blue Magic Greenhouses in Pitt Meadows. Owner Leo Capetein described the production process and how he has learned over many years how best to use mobile glasshouses to produce top quality products (lilies, viburnum and hydrangea, all as cut flowers) through out the whole year through the United Flower Growers Auction.
Horticulture Students Installing Green Rooftop
Students gained valuable industry experience and shared much appreciated community service at the Salvation Army’s new ‘Gateway of Hope’ building in Langley City. Installing a new 260 square metre green roof introduced students to this leading edge green building technology. Students were enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in all the stages of the installation of this green roof from roof preparation to placement of the green roof plant material. The green roof will provide a number of benefits most notably extending the life of the roofing membrane, moderating storm-water runoff, increasing building energy efficiency, and improving the rooftop view for residents. The students have also planted native species in the adjacent riparian zone to re-establish biodiversity and suppress invasive plants. This unique opportunity is the result of collaboration between Kwantlen’s School of Horticulture, Bill Evans (building architect), the Salvation Army, Matt Degan (Dominion Contracting), and Rod Nataros and Michael Campbell (N.A.T.S. Nursery).
