Pickling is connecting. It extends the life force and flavour of freshly grown vegetables and fruit. It ties together the past and the present. It brings together culture and hospitality. It unites our differences. The soil to the fork. The effort to the laughter. Worry to celebration. Seed to pantry. Craft to survival. Generation to generation.
This is a project that connects classes at Don Mills C.I. A collaboration of explorations between our Green Industries, Hospitality & Tourism, and World History classes. Learning that is experiential, land based, and authentic at all levels. A fulsome approach and naturally reflective.
Experiential, land-based learning is a deeply embedded approach at Don Mills C.I. We create urban opportunities that investigate and improve approaches to historical and innovative agriculture, food production, preservation techniques, food security, cultural connections and community wellness. Our urban farm is an ongoing work in progress that allows our students to actualize these approaches. The Technological Design students design and build, the Green Industries students collect seed, plant and raise the produce, the Hospitality & Tourism classes reap the benefits, harvest and produce outstanding culinary farm-to-table delights. The farm and its many components, has been lovingly worked on by these students for 15 years. It is a glorious gift that allows them to explore artisanal approaches to craft and tradition, ingenuity, entrepreneurship and an abundance of harvest that can be shared with others.
From the beginning of our Grade 12 World History course, the students expressed an interest in learning about people; their individual experiences, daily lives, and responses to the grand narratives of history. What better way to learn about the daily lives and experiences of people than through food? What better way to understand the grand narratives of history than through learning about one of the key sustaining features of long distance travel; pickles. Our class learned about the origins of various foods, how they moved around the world, and then, the origins and uses of pickles. Through the process of this learning, students not only came to better understand the role of food and pickles in history, they came to a better understanding of themselves, their families and their own cultural connections to pickling. In collaboration with Mr. Kunanec’s class we selected several kinds of pickles to make - focusing on using produce that was grown on site in our Urban Farm by Mr. Kunanec’s classes.
We are grateful for all of the support of our school community, and in particular to the TDSB’s Community Connected Experiential Learning Grant for providing funding for the pickling equipment for this project.