Transition Whatcom

A collection of past informative info from Shannon's emails: Garden E-News.
Please add your past favorites to this group thread for others to enjoy.

Request Shannon to put you on her personal email list for Garden E-News if you aren't already on it.

I think I'll go outside now and organize my weeds into the compost pile

Views: 10

Replies to This Discussion

Garden E-News-Shannon - July 30 Aug 10 2009

The Abundance Handbook - A guide to Urban Fruit Harvesting
(Learning from our experiences of harvesting in Sheffield, England)
Published by Grow Sheffield, 2009 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Abundance harvests trees across the city on industrial waste sites, roadsides, the grounds of mansions and back yards. We harvest a range of soft fruit, top fruit and nuts. Over fifty volunteers of all ages and from many different backgrounds harvest and process the fruit. Fruit is distributed to Surestarts, community groups, community cafes and individuals across Sheffield.
We receive tip-offs by word of mouth, text and email as to where to find ripe fruit trees. The greatest journey any fruit travels from tree to mouth is five miles often by bike and trailer. We have found at least fifty varieties of apples and more than twenty varieties of pears. We give away hundreds of fruits and lots of freshly pressed juice. Tree owners are offered the first share of fresh fruit.
[Read more →http://www.cityfarmer.info/the-abundance-handbook-a-guide-to-urban-...]
__________
Bountiful Gardens newsletter
Lots of garden info... like what to plant for Fall and Winter Harvest, DVD on Cover Crops, etc.
http://hosted.vresp.com/218973/f4c7850390/306000568/a6c7b3e49c/
____________________________________________
Saving the Planet, One Block, One Small Project at a Time
by Mary Rothschild, Seattle Times
SCALLOPS, Sustainable Communities All Over Puget Sound, is a loose-knit alliance of about 60 neighborhood groups in Washington state seeking to organize grass-roots efforts to live on the Earth more lightly. The groups take on small, practical projects ranging from garden-sharing to light bulb replacements in an effort to promote energy conservation and local/organic food while discouraging waste, among other things....From Bellingham to Olympia, from Burien to Ballard, neighbors are organizing low-budget programs designed to grow food in their backyards, get people out of their automobiles, switch to low-energy light bulbs — anything that encourages energy conservation and discourages oil consumption. ...Fueled by such optimism, community groups have begun to trade ideas via yet another new grass-roots organization with the acronym SCALLOPS, for Sustainable Communities All Over Puget Sound. Like its constituent groups, SCALLOPS has no paid staff, no office, virtually no budget and no political authority. Still, it's now more than 60 groups strong, organizing with volunteers around kitchen tables and on the Internet.
______________________________________________
Harvesting, Threshing, Winnowing your Grain video -
u-Tube w/ our very own Walter Haugen F. A. Farms, Ferndale.
http://suburbansurvival-community.blogspot.com/2009/07/find-your-farmerfa-farm.html
___________________________________________________
EVENT:
Second Annual Washington State Permaculture Convergence,September 18-20, 2009 to be held at Sahale Learning Center near Belfair, Washington - on the north shore of beautiful Hood Canal. We will feature a weekend of networking, workshops and conversations with friends and peers among Washington state's permaculture community. Interested members of the public are also warmly welcome to attend. Together we will share information, solutions, inspirations, and insights!
The convergence is a way to strengthen information flow and cooperation between permaculturists in the state of Washington - and beyond. We will be working on a vision of how permaculture can better serve the land and people of our Evergreen State. How can more permaculturists make their living organizing, teaching and designing? The convergence will have some aspects of an organizational meeting for the permacultural community at large.
The gathering will also be an educational event offering workshops on such diverse subjects as biochar creation and usage, Ecovillage development, local currency systems, forest garden systems, large-scale installations, Brown's gas, water catchment, green roofs, the Transition Town and Anastasia movements, and other topics of interest for seasoned practitioners and newcomers alike. We expect there will be advanced as well as basic level workshops; the final format of the event will be influenced by those members who offer topics up to the last minute!

Attendance fees are $100-$70 on a sliding scale, this includes camping and delicious home-cooked meals. To keep costs down we are again asking participants to bring food (hopefully from their own gardens) to contribute to the communal kitchen. There are work/trade opportunities available for those with limited funds - we want our event to be open to all, regardless of income level. Limited private and dorm-style accommodations are available; please call 360-820-8586 or e-mail permaculture@earthlink.net for current availability. Carpooling is highly encouraged: check out our website at http://www.washingtonstatepermaculture.org. Registration form is found at www.washingtonstatepermaculture.org/images/Registration_Convergence2009.pdf
___________________________________________________
FOOD BANK IS GLEANING URBAN GARDENS AND FRUIT TREES, well as farms...
If you have excess fruit, or veggies call the numbers below. Please leave a few days lead time prior to harvest date for them to organize a crew!
****
Small Potatoes Gleaning Project is Ready to Harvest - Aug 2009
Visits to Whatcom County Food Banks have increased by close to 40% over the past two years. Small Potatoes Gleaning Project is helping to meet the growing need by rescuing or gleaning vegetables and fruit from local farms and home owners’ fruit trees. Small Potatoes, now in its ninth season, works with local farmers and home owners to harvest produce that would otherwise rot or be plowed back into the ground. Small Potatoes delivers the harvested food to more than two dozen food banks or feeding programs around Whatcom County.
Small Potatoes recently hired a new coordinator, Max Morange, and VISTA volunteer, Dorothy Mitchell, to manage the program. Small Potatoes, a program of Bellingham Food Bank, hopes to rescue and distribute more than 70,000 pounds of food in 2009. “Due to the long lines at area food banks, this program is more important than ever” says Mike Cohen, Bellingham Food Bank Executive Director. “Without Small Potatoes many low-income families would not be able to access the great food that is grown here in Whatcom County.” Small Potatoes currently has more than 90 volunteers and is eager to involve more community members in its efforts.
Homeowners with fruit trees or extra garden produce can call Small Potatoes and arrange for volunteers come harvest the surplus. Hungry people in Whatcom County will benefit, and homeowners can avoid the trouble of dropped fruit and insect pests.
Homeowners interested in sharing their fruit trees and those interested in volunteering should call Dorothy Mitchell at 367-1655 or Max Morange at 739-5274.
Dorothy Mitchell Small Potatoes Gleaning Project VISTA Bellingham Food Bank
1824 Ellis St. Bellingham, WA 98225 (360) 367-1655 dorothym@bellinghamfoodbank.org
_________________________________________________
Bronwyn's Kale Muffins- Too much kale?? make muffins......
Bronwyn picks some Russian kale leaves at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden and walks us through the steps to make her unique muffins. She created this recipe last summer while working on an organic farm where there was nothing to eat but kale.
http://www.cityfarmer.info/bronwyns-kale-muffins/#more-1864
__________________________________________
Quote of Note:
"Farming offers flexibility no other sector offers other than services ----- and the advantage of farming over services is value is made from the earth and not dependent on thriving economy as is services. This is why I feel local production needs to match cost of outside sources, because in the hard times that we all know are coming people will not have money to buy higher cost produce. "
(thanks, Dr. Richard H.)

RSS

© 2024   Created by David MacLeod.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service