Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that we have two events happening this week at the museum.
Canada Day Celebration
July 1st 11am-4pm
Enjoy the music of the Kindred Spirits at noon. Have fun with crafts and games for kids and free cake all day! Try out our railway handcar and see our unique velocipede. Take your photo as a railway engineer on our 1921 railcar.
Celebration of the Anniversary of the First Passenger Train
July 4th & 5th 11am-4pm
Try out our handcar, send a telegram* and see our model train display. Kids can play a train car in our miniature railroad, create their own train craft or try to find the Golden Spike in our scavenger hunt.
*Unfortunately the telegraphers we had scheduled to help us cannot make it. Please contact me if you know anyone who knows telegraphs and Morse Code and would be willing to demonstrate them for the public. We have our own telegraph sets they can use.
_____________________________
Rebecca Clarke
Programs & Events Coordinator
t 604-939-1648
f 604-939-1647
Our education programs are designed to be interactive hands-on experiences for youth and adults.
Join the Port Moody Station Museum on Easter Sunday for their Annual Easter Egg Hunt. Kids of all ages hunt for marbles on the Museum grounds, and redeem them for a bag of chocolate Easter Eggs. Concession, Face Painting and more! Drop in, rain or shine!!!
The Port Moody Station Museum invites all educators to a night of appreciation. School teachers, ESL teachers, pre school teachers, home schooling parents and educators from all fields are welcome. Guests can learn about our new education programs for all ages and explore our new displays. Programs are designed to provide a fun outing for students as well as compliment the Social Studies and Art curriculum objectives for Kindergarten to Grade 10 and provide community heritage appreciation for adult ESL students.
Rebecca Clarke is a Florida native who came to Vancouver in 1998 to complete a Masters degree in Educational Studies at UBC. In addition to a background in education research, Rebecca has worked with youth in pre-school and tutoring settings. She began her career as Educational Director at the Oxford Learning Centre, Richmond where she spent four years designing and delivering academic programs for children. She then worked at the Vancouver Museum as Programs Coordinator developing and delivering programs for all ages. She ahs also been a board member of the Westcoast Child Care Resource centre.
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
The Open House launches the Port Moody Station Museum’s partnership with Reel 2 Real in providing the Animating History program to local grade 4-8 classes. In this program students create a 1-2min. animated piece of historical fiction about the building of the transcontinental railway.
Year of the Potato
(image to right Russian Blue Potato - images courtesy Tom Galanis*)
(image to right Caribe Potato - images courtesy Tom Galanis*)
Carlton (4) - Medium yielding variety; wide adaptability as first early tablestock. Tubers size early to very early across the Canadian Prairies; vines maturity is midseason to late; smooth conformation if harvested early but if left to plant maturity, tubers frequently become oversized and rough with growth cracks or hollow heart. Weak to medium storability; low to medium specific gravity. Oval shape, creamy white flesh, buff skin. This potato is good for boiling - it is not a good keeper and sadly our specimens have deteriorated somewhat. 
Caribe (4) - Caribe is a high yielding oblong potato. Excellent storage qualities and great for boiling. High yielding variety; attractive appearance; widely adapted; easily topkilled; grades well with few culls; stores well. High total solids. Utilization: good for boiling, fair for baking, and excellent for chipping. This potato is most interesting - the skin colour is violet but the flesh is white. It grew well in our garden. 
Pacific Russett (9) - has a russet skin with white flesh, very shallow eyes. Good yield uniform size. Great boiled or baked. Rated very high in Ontario industry trials for yield and uniformity. High yielding variety of attractive appearance; good resistance to internal and external defects; medium specific gravity. Utilization: mealy texture; low after cooking discolouration and low boiling sloughing; excellent for boiling, baking and frying. The Pacific Russett was a disappointment to grow. It did develop good sized tubers, but they tended to rot quickly and it is not a good keeper in storage. 
Satina (23) - Satina is a new variety developed in response to organic potato growers request for a scab resistant variety potato. Satina is an early, very high yielding fresh market potato variety with high numbers of short oval tubers per plant. The tubers have a smooth yellow skin and yellow flesh color. Satina has long storage capabilities and when cooked or peeled has a high resistance to discoloration. It was a major disappointment in that nearly 50% of the seed potatoes just did not grow. However, those that did grow gave an excellent yield, with a nice uniform size potato. 
Agria (8) - Light yellow skin, dark yellow flesh, shallow eyes. High yielding variety, large tubers. Excellent baker good boiled or fried. Very high yield variety. Large to very large tubers, attractive appearance, only slightly susceptible to internal bruising. Fairly high dry matter content. Long dormancy. Utilization: relatively firm to floury flesh; free from discolouration after cooking; excellent for baking, good for boiling and frying. Apparently, can take a lot of sour cream when baked and still be quite dry to eat. Was very successful in our garden. 
Carola (5) - Carola is a sunny yellow potato from Germany that boasts a smooth, creamy texture and exceptional flavor. It is suitable for baking or frying. Carola has a lovely, sunny yellow flesh with a nice creamy texture making this potato a smooth one for frying or in German-style potato salad. Was successful in our garden. 
Chieftan (4) - Oval to oblong tubers with bright red skin. Shallow eyes with white flesh. Great boiled and for home fries. High yielding variety, attractive appearance, widely adapted. Undersizing can be a problem if soil moisture becomes limiting. Well suited for washing at maturity. Good storability. Medium specific gravity. Utilization: good to excellent for boiling, good for chipping at harvest, excellent for french frying; not suitable for processing. Was very successful in our garden. 
Kennebec (20) - High yielding fast growing variety, widely adapted. Requires close planting (15 to 20 cm between plants) and vine killing to avoid producing oversized and rough tubers. Excellent storage quality. Long dormancy period. High total solids. Utilization: good to excellent for boiling, baking. This is a high producing potato with yellow skin and white flesh. It shores extremely well and is great boiled or baked. It is very popular with growers as there is a high yield per acre for this potato, not so popular with snack makers as it tends to produce dark coloured chips / fries. 
Sangre (4) - Oval to oblong tubers, dark red skin, shallow eyes, with white flesh. Has a very low incidence of internal defects such as hollow heart and is rated as high in Vitamin C. A good storage potato that is suitable for boiling and baking. High yielding variety. Medium to long dormancy period. Medium specific gravity. Good storability, good retention of red skin color. Adequate warming of seed (at least 7 to 10 days) prior to planting is essential to obtain uniform emergence. Relatively close seed spacing will help optimize yield and tuber size. Slow emergence but grows rapidly. Tuberization occurs early and tubers bulk at a rapid rate early in the season. Resistant to second growth; rarely exhibits hollow heart, internal discoloration or blackspot. Adapted to irrigated areas of the west. Moderately tolerant to drought. Tubers tend to develop excessive netting under dry soil conditions resulting in a brownish and unattractive appearance. Utilization: excellent for boiling and baking; ranks high in taste tests; no after cooking discoloration. High level of vitamin C. 
Yukon Gold (9) - Oval, slightly flattened tubers, yellow, skin light yellow flesh. Tubers can grow quite large and store well. Good for boiling baking and frying. Medium to high yielding variety of attractive appearance. Large tubers are slightly susceptible to hollow heart. Excellent storability; long dormancy period. High specific gravity. Utilization: very good for boiling, baking, and french frying; unsuitable for chipping; retains its yellow flesh color when cooked. Was fairly successful in our garden. There was some problem with rotting. 
All Red (13) - Round tubers that are rated as medium to late maturity. This potato has a good yield with red skinned and distinctive red flesh tubers that maintain their color after cooking. It has an excellent flavor and a moist texture. This one is considered a "specialty potato", or perhaps a novelty potato. It was not a success in our garden, although we did get some potatoes from the plants. The tubers were small, and rather than being a solid pink colour, the flesh was more white with streaks of pink/red in it. An excellent choice for potato salad or boiling. 
Banana (15) - A late maturing variety with generally, small banana shaped tubers, covered with light yellow skin containing pale yellow flesh. The waxy texture holds the tuber together for fabulous potato for salads. Very high set can be expected. Moderately resistant to common scab. Yellow fleshed fingerling type potato with a high tuber set of 15 to 20 small tubers per plant. Low yielding variety; medium dormancy period; good storability; medium specific gravity. Interestingly, this potato has been grown in British Columbia for about 100 years. It is in demand on the "gourmet" market. Utilization: semi-mealy texture; very good for boiling, baking and frying; excellent salad potato. Another specialty potato that did not work out very well for us - nearly half the crop succumbed to rot. 
Bellisle (4) - High yielding variety of attractive appearance; performs well under organic production practices; highly resistant to bruising and skinning; good storability; high specific gravity. Utilization: excellent for boiling and baking; good for french frying; very suitable for small package trade. Was very successful in our garden. Is another very dry potato that can "suck" up a lot of sour cream or butter. 
Bintje (20) - Pale yellow skin on a long oval tuber with a yellow flesh. Heavy setting, the thick skin makes this a good storage potato. Excellent all purpose potato with fairly dry texture. High yielding, widely adapted, suffers very little from magnesium deficiency. Tubers keep fairly well (do not sprout early), have low starch content, are not subject to blackening of the flesh or second growth. Utilization: excellent for boiling, baking, and french frying; good for chipping. Was a major disappointment in our garden as nearly 70% of the seed potato did not grow. What did grow gave good yield however. 
French Fingerling (17) - Late maturing oblong tubers with a red skin and light yellow flesh. It has the waxy texture characteristic of most fingerling varieties. It grows well and sets fairly heavy. Another specialty potato, and it was a major disappointment in our garden. Nearly half the crop rotted away before maturity. 
Green Mountain (4) - All round fantastic potato for home gardeners. Perfect for french fries, baking and boiling. High yielding variety; stores well; well suited for washing after two months storage; grows well in light soil. Utilization: excellent for boiling, baking, and french frying; unacceptable for chipping. 
Russet Burbank (4) - Also known as the Netted Gem. Medium to high yielding variety, attractive appearance, washes well at maturity. Long dormancy period, stores well. Requires a uniform moisture supply and long growing season to produce maximum quality tubers and to prevent knobbiness and second growth. To produce large tubers, plants must be spaced 30 to 45 cm apart. High total solids. (Netted Gem) Long cylindrical tubers with white flesh, heavy netted russet skin. Very good storage, good all purpose potato. 
Russian Blue (13) - This late maturing, dark blue skin and dark blue flesh variety has round to oblong tubers. A very heavy setting, large plant that should be spaced at 12 inches or more in an effort to get it to maturity by fall. The flavor is remarkably normal for such a distinctively visual variety. An interesting potato to grow - when digging it up , one must sift carefully through the soil as it difficult to see the tubers - they are so dark they don't show up in the soil. This one was a disappointment in the garden as nearly half the crop succumbed to rot. What did grow gave us excellent sized tubers. 
Halloween at the Boooo-seum!!!
spooky crafts, ghost hunting and creepy treats all at the Museum! Create and take home your own personal scary button! Complementary hot Chocolate.
(image to left of 2008 Summer Students and Museum Curator)
(image to right of Mr. Frank Tree - last Station Master in Port Moody)
2734 Murray Street Port Moody, BC, Canada
(604) 939-1648