We Harvest Together
For the whole week ahead of the 18th of August, the weather was unpredictable. It had been gloomy and rainy for several days. Would it rain on the 18th when we were going to have our Garden Party? We had planned for it for a while and food and snacks were already ordered. Cancelling it would be more work! How would we tell each person to come, or not to come?
We decided to go ahead rain or shine and tried with all our might to borrow some more canopies to put above people’s head. It rained and rained but stopped miraculously just a few hours before the party begins! Good gracious and how lucky! Many volunteers came to help setting up tents, tables, chairs, and in no time with the amazing collective effort, a public space for a party emerged!
Everybody who showed up said that it was a beautiful day since it was not too hot or too sunny for an outdoor party in August! 90% of those who signed up had showed up and there were also many drop-ins for the fun. Eventually 115 gardeners, neighbours, and community members of all ages had attended. That was a great turn out of families and intergenerational groups. City councillors Bill McNulty and Michael Wolfe also came to show their support to the social gatherings of the community.
We started our party with a full program of performance and also a cup of special freshly made local kernel corn procured from the Steveston Country Farm. Eric Lui, a Tai Chi Master, took the stage and demonstrated a concerted series of Tai Chi moves, inviting everyone to join him to have a feel of this traditional “martial arts” exercise. Around the globe, Tai Chi has been widely promoted as it is believed to bring health and calm to the body and mind. The second performer is Nori who is a Japanese Taiko drummer, a multi-instrumentalist, and a song writer. He performed a song with a Japanese 3-stringed instrument called “Sanshin” from Okinawa Islands in Japan and a Japanese bamboo flute “Shinobue”. He also played the Taiko drum, which was so powerful. Everyone was asking for more! The last of our performers was young William playing accordion attracting rounds of applauds from the audience, who some of us knew him from performing last year and had asked for his return.
The food rounds were marvellous, with our signature wide-variety multi-ethnical snacks ranging from Turtle Chips, speciality Pretz, Nougat, to French pastries and local veggie sticks in addition to loads of sandwiches, wraps and pizzas. But the most marvellous is the interactions of gardeners and community members as they toured together from garden plot to garden plot learning the special crops and admiring the results of the hard work of the community. New friendships were forged, and old acquaintances were reinforced. It was a great party and will be remembered for a long time. Like life – it turned out bright and happy!
