Salida Transition

Creating an Edible Food Forest Workshop

2010-03-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Creating an Edible Food Forest

April 17 and May 1 9AM-1PM, May 15 9AM-11AM

Cost: GARNA Members: $70 Non-members: $85

Pre-registration is required

To register contact: http://garna.org/seminars.htm

In this three session workshop we will learn:
§ Permaculture principles and strategies

§ Planning a food forest

§ Implementation and field trip

Design and create your home-scale edible food forest using permaculture design tools.

Permaculture involves consciously designing landscapes, which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature while yielding an abundance of food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, “farmaceuticals" and fun. Learn how to create self-renewing, self-fertilizing, self-managing and very low maintenance, perennial gardens.

This workshop will offer an overview of forest ecology, site analysis and assessment, the design process, and introduction to some lesser known plants that can comprise ‘perennial polycultures’. There will be interactive lectures and group work, as well as hands-on experiential learning.
For more class information, contact: Merry: 539-1198 Denise: 539-2906

BONUS: An Introduction To Permaculture: Sandy Cruz

Friday, April 23, 2010, 6:30PM Salida Library NO CHARGE

Care for the Earth Care for the People Fair Share
arkvalleypermaculture@gmail.com

To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates

2009-10-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country.

An estimated 25 percent of the emissions produced by people in industrialized nations can be traced to the food they eat, according to recent research here. And foods vary enormously in the emissions released in their production.

Read all about it in the New York Times.

Zero waste efforts move mainstream

2009-10-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

An antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants and corporations. Read the NYT article here.

Potluck with a Purpose--worm composting Oct 22 4:30PM

2009-10-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Join us for some learning and a hearty potluck.

WORM COMPOSTING is a great way to recycle your kitchen waste! And we'll explain how to do it successfully on Thursday, October 22. What most people have to compost is kitchen waste, and having worms do the work makes it easy! Master Composter Trish Cullinan will explain how to build and maintain a healthy worm bin, harvest the castings, and do her best to answer any questions you have.

Throughout the evening, you'll see 4 different bin types in action, 3 homemade, 1 commercial. If you're interested in reading a bit before the BIG DAY, here are come good websites:

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm
http://www.greenamericatoday.org/pubs/realgreen/articles/worms.cfm

We'll meet at Paula and Ed Berg's house, 1408 K Street at 4:30 then carpool it over to Trisha's house in Pinon Hills.

Directions to Trisha's:
10095 Piute Drive 81201
On the Northern city limits of Salida, heading NW out of town on CO 291 (a.k.a First Street): cross the Arkansas River, and turn north on CR156, at the Scanga Meat sign. Cross the railroad tracks, continue for about a mile or so. Turn right at the TEE intersection and head east.. Once in Pinon Hills, take the second left, Piute Drive. House is about 9 or 10 houses down on the left, just after a yellow house with green trim. Mailbox with house numbers is on the right, but the house is on the left, and there is lots of parking. Brown house, Brown roof. Come on in the garage door.

James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss

2009-09-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss

How You Can Green Your Home and Cash in on Stimulus Money

2009-09-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science Monitor
Posted on February 24, 2009, Printed on September 29, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/

Hampton Falls, N.H. -- Energy-saving systems for the attic, basement, and in between have effectively gone on sale, courtesy of the United States Congress.

But whether shoppers will take advantage -- or even notice available discounts -- remains an open question.

Tax incentives to encourage investments in energy efficiency took effect last week when President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. That means homeowners with drafty windows, old heating systems, or other root causes of high energy bills can be rewarded in tax season if they make improvements in 2009 or 2010.

"This is by far the most the federal government has done in the past several decades" to reward energy-efficiency investments, says Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. "In many cases, this will make the high-efficiency product cheaper than the low-efficiency product. [For consumers], this is pretty lucrative, and I'd be surprised if it gets extended into 2011."

New incentives increase the size of tax credits for homeowners who buy qualifying products. For instance, those who invest in highly-rated insulation, replacement windows, duct seals, or high-efficiency heating and cooling systems can now receive a tax credit worth 30 percent of the upgrade cost (maximum credit value: $1,500).

Previously, homeowners could get a tax credit worth just 10 percent of an upgrade cost, up to a maximum of $500. Now, taxpayers who spend $800 on an efficient water heater, $1,000 on insulation, and $2,000 on windows could lop $1,140 off their federal tax bill.

Awards for switching to renewable energy sources have become especially generous. Congress this month did away with caps on 30 percent tax credits for homeowners who install solar panels, geothermal heat pumps, or windmills. Now a $24,000 investment to make a home solar-powered would generate a federal tax credit worth $7,200. (Before the stimulus, credits were capped at $2,000 for geothermal and solar; $4,000 for wind).

These tax code revisions have altered the affordability ballgame, says Craig Perkins, executive director of the Energy Coalition, a nonprofit in Irvine, Calif., that helps consumers become more energy-efficient. He estimates more than 1 in 4 Californians can now borrow to install solar panels and immediately be paying less out-of-pocket per month (including payments on solar panels) than if he or she were to keep getting power from conventional sources. Others, he says, will often recoup the costs of adding solar or high-efficiency air conditioning over a few years.

One key to maximizing savings, Perkins says, is to choose projects that qualify for a rebate from one's state or utility and are also eligible for a federal tax credit. Such "piggybacking" is both permissible and encouraged. The challenge: getting consumers to research options and take action.

"The problem we find constantly is that [navigating incentives] can be extremely confusing," Mr. Perkins says. "People don't want to become wonks about what's eligible and what isn't.… It's the nuts and bolts of making it happen that really stops a lot people."

Merchandisers are already moving to educate consumers about new tax benefits. At Home & Hearth, a heating stove dealer in Hampton Falls, N.H., manager Bob King was talking up tax credits with every customer hours after Congress passed the stimulus bill. Brochure in hand, Jim Marshall of Exeter, N.H., liked hearing from Mr. King in the store's parking lot that a new wood pellet stove would qualify. He'd like to make a switch and stop spending more than $300 per month for oil heat.

Burning pellets made from sawdust and other wood byproducts "doesn't hurt the environment," Mr. Marshall says. "You're just using something that would be thrown away. And if they'll give me a tax credit for one of these stoves, I'll look at doing it sooner."

Home energy experts often recommend people first invest in eliminating wasted energy. That includes tightening a building's shell with attic insulation and other sealing measures before investing in new mechanical equipment.

Mr. Nadel suggests consumers with questions about priorities contact a contractor trained by the federal Home Performance with Energy Star program. He or she will analyze, sometimes at no cost, how to align a particular home's needs with available tax incentive and rebate programs.

In these tough economic times, consumers shouldn't necessarily cling to conventional wisdom. Since contractors need work, homeowners might find that well-priced labor will catapult a systems upgrade to the top of a home-improvement priority list, according to Alan Meier, associate director of the Energy Efficiency Center at the University of California, Davis. What's more, he says, the new federal push for renewable energy could affect a homeowner's calculus, especially in states with aggressive incentives of their own.

"The federal government wants you to invest in solar and other renewables," Mr. Meier says. "Given all the tax credits, it may in fact make solar panels more cost-effective for the consumer than energy conservation," such as adding insulation or highly rated windows.

Outside the home, hybrid vehicle owners have new reason to soup up their rigs. Plug-in conversion kits, which replace existing batteries with larger ones that plug into electrical outlets, now generate tax credits worth 10 percent of the kit's cost (maximum credit value: $4,000). Congress this month also increased the number of new hybrid plug-in vehicles, expected to debut in showrooms later this year, which will qualify for tax credits worth anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500, depending on battery size.

No matter which investments consumers choose, the process of claiming benefits may require perseverance. King, the heating stove dealer, says he's received calls this year from accountants who had mistakenly challenged their clients for wanting to claim tax credits on stove purchases. Other accountants note consumers aren't always sufficiently organized or diligent to claim what's due to them.

"This is a very unique and narrow bunch of credits," says Mark Steben, vice president of tax resources at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. "You're going to see a large group of people who qualify but don't take advantage of it."

© 2009 Christian Science Monitor All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/

2009-08-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Beyond Consuming

2009-06-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Cute video, worth a look and a link:

The Powerdown Show - Transition Towns and Energy Descent Pathways

2009-06-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

Energy Decent Action Planning (EDAP) demonstrate workable partnerships between the community, key stakeholders and local government's commitment to finding solutions to climate change and peak oil and is a way to build resilient and robust communities.

The Powerdown Show - Transition Towns and Energy Descent Pathways from Rob Carr on Vimeo.

Great talk on seeds and plants

2009-06-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

In this brief talk from TED U 2009, Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity -- one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.

Ark Valley Voice: Transition is Steadily Gaining Traction by Sterling R. Quinton

2009-05-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

Great coverage of the last Transition meeting at the Ark Valley Voice:

Consider this: The year is 2030 and the globe is beset with difficulties unimagined by previous generations. Many communities across the Nation are struggling to deal with changes in their standard-of-living and the issues generally associated with second-world economies.

Chaffee County’s modest municipality of Salida, however, has become a Mecca for academics and community planners. Developments which are creating havoc across the country: protracted fuel shortages, empty grocery shelves, widespread joblessness, rising ocean tides, and enduring wars, caused a group of idealistic, action-oriented Salidans to plan for and preempt such eventualities back in 2009.

Read on!

World at Gunpoint by Derrick Jensen in Orion

2009-05-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

Check out this article Merry found in Orion:

The point is that worldwide ecological collapse is not some external and unpredictable threat—or gun barrel—down which we face. That’s not to say we aren’t staring down the barrel of a gun; it would just be nice if we identified it properly. If we means the salmon, the sturgeon, the Columbia River, the migratory songbirds, the amphibians, then the gun is industrial civilization.
[...]
Those who come after, who inherit whatever’s left of the world once this culture has been stopped—whether through peak oil, economic collapse, ecological collapse, or the efforts of brave women and men fighting in alliance with the natural world—are not going to care how you or I lived our lives. They’re not going to care how hard we tried. They’re not going to care whether we were nice people. They’re not going to care whether we were nonviolent or violent. They’re not going to care whether we grieved the murder of the planet. They’re not going to care whether we were enlightened or not enlightened. They’re not going to care what sorts of excuses we had to not act (e.g., “I’m too stressed to think about it” or “It’s too big and scary” or “I’m too busy” or any of the thousand other excuses we’ve all heard too many times). They’re not going to care how simply we lived. They’re not going to care how pure we were in thought or action. They’re not going to care if we became the change we wished to see.
They’re not going to care whether we voted Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or not at all. They’re not going to care if we wrote really big books about it. They’re not going to care whether we had “compassion” for the CEOs and politicians running this deathly economy. They’re going to care whether they can breathe the air and drink the water. They’re going to care whether the land is healthy enough to support them.

Read the whole thing; then let's get going.

Tips for a Green Kitchen from Clotilde at Chocolate and Zucchini

2009-05-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

In the second part of her green-your-kitchen contest, Clotilde's readers submitted more tips:

1. Buy Local and Seasonal
2. Reduce Food Waste
3. Reduce Packaging Waste
4. Reuse Packaging and Containers
5. Eat Fewer Animal Products
6. Grow Your Own
7. Compost
8. Avoid Using Disposable Paper and Plastic Products
9. Bring Your Own
10. Save Energy
11. Conserve Water
12. Use Natural Cleaning Products
13. Share

Here are the results from part I of the challenge.

What tips can YOU share?

The Story of Stuff

2009-05-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns (click to download the movie). The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."

Here's an excerpt:

Tour of potential backyard CSA locations

2009-05-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family of the Salida Backyard CSA,

We are getting more offers of land all the time, which is very exciting. I feel it will be very easy for us to bump up to eight gardens in our second season when we have our funding online. For this season, we are trying to decide on two sites that will be the easiest to build and maintain, and be good representatives of what we're up to. It think the best long-term plan is to cluster sites around downtown Salida as much as possible. This is why some sites which might have great gardening attributes, like Lum Pennington's, are not on this short list.

I've gone to most of the sites that I have gotten contact info for, and narrowed them to five potentials, which are of bike-able distance apart (an important long-term consideration of what sites we choose.)

So we will start closer to the river and work our way west, here's the tour starting at 9 am Saturday the 9th (tomorrow!):

301 Scott St. Steve Duhane

(from the 1st and F stoplight, head east down First until it turns the corner and becomes Oak. Take a left pretty quick on Dodge, and the next right onto Scott. The property is on the right near the end of the street. We will distribute maps of the tour here.

View salida backyard csa options in a larger map

104 Wood St. Angela Damman
246 Blake Arden Trewartha and Read McCulloch
146 E. 6th Laurie Newman
638 I St. Rhiannon Larsen

Please give a quick reply to this email if you're planning to come.
call me with any questions, last-minute issues: 207-0069

Thanks,
Eric

Grants available for New Energy Communities

2009-05-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, while on the way to somewhere else, I stumbled upon this info:

The Department of Local Affairs partnered with the Governor's Energy Office (GEO) to offer a new program in 2008 designed to:

Maximize energy efficiency and conservation;
Enhance community livability;
Promote economic development in downtowns; and
Address climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

The New Energy Communities Initiative rewarded local governments working collaboratively to position their communities at the forefront of the state's New Energy Economy. The program directed approximately $10 million in Energy Impact Assistance funds to (maximum of $2 million per project) striving to create integrated, vibrant and sustainable communities. By bundling existing GEO energy efficiency and conservation programs and offering them in a packaged format with DOLA financial and technical assistance programs, the initiative created a comprehensive strategy for promoting local sustainable community development efforts.

The program has three areas of focus:
Greening Public Facilities –

Assist county and municipal governments to upgrade, retrofit or develop energy efficient public facilities such as county courthouses, city halls, public works facilities, libraries, judicial facilities and community centers.

Greening Downtowns –

Provide technical and financial resources for energy efficient upgrades/retrofits, streetscape improvements and downtown revitalization.
Greening Homes –

Provide the necessary technical resources to aid local governments in both educating homeowners on programs to incorporate energy efficient upgrades/retrofits and adopting model building codes to ensure that new housing stock meets higher energy efficiency standards.

A program like this could help convince our local elected officials that now is the time to make bold green statements... More info here.

Small things are the roots of vast and powerful ones

2009-05-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

By Merry Cox

Whether or not you’re struggling for anything worthwhile, life is always a challenge. People have to choose what they are going to struggle for. Resilience is worth the struggle.

The future depends on a whole lot of little things.

When you do it piece by piece, a little at a time, it turns out that the big struggle for a resilient town isn’t really such a day-to-day struggle at all. Small things are the roots of vast and powerful ones.

It is easy to forget how important the “little stuff” is - easy to think that your little garden doesn’t matter very much. But we should also remember the exponential power of saying “no” and doing for ourselves. The corollary of the fact that every calorie of food takes 10 of fossil fuels is that every stir-fry or salad you eat from your garden saves 10 times the oil as the calories contained within it. The fact that almost every packaged ingredient uses 7 times as much energy to create that packaging means that your choice to buy bulk oatmeal just saved 7 times as much energy as the package contains.

In 1944, American Victory Gardens grew as much produce as did every vegetable farm in the country - fully half of all US produce came from home gardens. And while no one was self sufficient, together they created an enormous impact. Every bite of food you grow, every bite you preserve, every bit of waste you reduce is a contribution to a larger project - keeping everyone fed. Every bit of compost you add to your soil, every bit of organic matter, every tree you plant is a contributor to a larger project - storing some of our emissions in soil, so we can have a future.
Every seed you plant multiplies and produces a hundred, or a thousand more seeds for next year (not to mention the food). Every time you point out that you are storing food and preparing for a different future, even if people don’t get it, a seed is planted somewhere in the back of their minds, where they realize…people kind of like me think about this stuff. (We need a seed savers class and a seed exchange.)

Plant Something: A seed, a transplant, a tree, a bulb, some mushroom spores - could be in the earth or in a container, but the point is to green the world a little more, and plant useful plants everywhere you can.

Things to plant now: Peas, carrots, radishes, beets, onions, chard, kale, spinach, lemon balm, sage, thyme, French tarragon, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, pansies, Johnny jump ups, California poppies, regular poppies, yarrow, chamomile, butterfly weed…

Harvest Something: It could be something you planted, something growing wild or something you glean from someone else’s fields, but the idea is to try and make the best use of the food around you.

Preserve something: We have a long season where not too much is growing. That’s when preserved food steps in to fill the empty spots, so you can still eat locally and sustainably without relying on the industrial food system. You could be canning raspberry jam or hanging up bunches of wild thyme to dry. (We need to do a solar food dryer class, and a class about root cellaring.) You might be putting potatoes and carrots in a cold place, or braiding garlic to hang in your kitchen. Everything you do to make yourself food secure is one less thing you need to rely on corporations for. Saves money too.

Reduce Waste: We throw stuff away, but where is away? We cannot be independent from energy companies and supermarkets if we don’t make the best possible use of what we have. We waste more than 25% of the food we purchase. We waste even more packaging and energy. And every time we do that, we take fuel that future generations will need and throw it away. We warm the planet, fill up landfills and add pollution to our environment. Living sustainably means making sure that we keep waste to an absolute minimum - that we find ways to make sure that everything we possibly can gets used wisely and well. Try to buy things with less packaging, and make sure you are composting all our food waste, or feeding it to some creature - worms, chickens, etc.

Learn a New Skill: For a long time, we’ve been able to simply throw things away, not thinking about the ecological, economic and personal costs of this way of life, but no more. The ability to make our own, fix our own, build our own, mend our own, tend our own and grow our own may be essential as we face an economic, energy and climate crisis. Get a skill. Share a skill. Trade your skills for someone else's skills. So many of the things people used to know how to do for themselves have gotten lost over the years, as corporations have taken over the production of everything. It is time to relearn how to darn a sock, build a raised bed, make a quilt or fix your own clogged pipes; how to stretch a meal for 4 to feed 6, how recognize a medical emergency and how to sing on key. Anyone out there willing to offer a classes in knitting, basic electrical repair, weatherizing homes,etc?

Work on Community Food Security: None of us can be secure if our neighbors are going hungry, either morally or practically. So we work together on making our communities more secure - this could be as simple as talking to a neighbor, family member or co-worker about why we store food and how to get started. It might mean making donations of money or goods to local food pantries, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens, or helping out a neighbor in need directly. We could be supportive of our community garden, or help a friend start her garden, recruiting members for a new local CSA or Co-op. Donate food that you grow to Caring and Sharing. Help Tony Madone (207-2737) with his Farm To Table project. Give over your backyard to Eric Belsey’ Backyard CSA (207-0069).

Regenerate What Is Lost: We’ve stripped the earth, and stripped the social and communal structures of our lives that support us, and support our future. Thus, we can’t just do less damage - we have to do more repair. To give our society a future, each day we need to put a little back into the system, making it a little richer than before.

What does that mean? It means that we make sure we’re adding organic matter to our soil even as we’re growing vegetables. It means we don’t just plant a tree for each one we harvest - we plant an extra one as well. It means we let some areas of our yard grow native plants to make space for native pollinators. (See NY Times article on natives plants.) How about planting the strips of land between the sidewalks and the streets with native plants? It means we reach out and tend a little space that belongs to no one; protect land that is already wild. It means we try a little harder to enable a decent, humane and just future.

Small things are the roots of vast and powerful ones.

Backyard CSA update from Eric

2009-05-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

If you are new to our idea: we are planning to use backyards and other unused spaces in Salida to create a Community Supported Agriculture multi-site farm.

Our first meeting was a great success. Thanks to Tia, Dave Bowers, Matthew Clark and Lawton for your help, and to everyone who came and shared your ideas, reactions and singing voices. (Yes, this is a singing movement, refer to the inspiring 2007 documentary Pete Seeger: the Power of Song for what this means. Happy 90th birthday May 3rd Pete!)

The next step is to tour the properties we have on our short list so we can choose the first two demonstration gardens we are going to do this summer. We are deliberately starting small to get our feet on the ground, and because we are starting late in terms of the real farming season. The properties not chosen will be first in line for consideration next season.

I will collate all the sites and map them this week, and then I would like to ask anyone who is interested to join a tour of them this Saturday, May 9th at 9:00 am. It would be nice to do this tour by bike; the distances on the map will determine if this is feasible. I would like to be done with this tour by 11:30-12:00 at the latest. Please let me know if you're planning to come.

In selecting sites, it's important that the homeowner or landlord envisions being there for at least three, preferably five years to make our energy and money investment in infrastructure pay off. Of course, life is unpredictable and things change, but most people should be able to guess if they're about to move or if they're settled for a while.

In the inspiration category, here's the website for the similar Boulder effort, Community Roots Farm. They've been at it 3 1/2 years and now have 13 sites. I'm trying to arrange a consulting meeting with their lead organizer Kipp Nash to shorten our learning curve. Also, there is a term for what we're planning, it's called SPIN farming.

Please be in touch,
thanks,
Eric
207-0069

Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus

2009-05-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

I love research like this--the kind that helps us understand where changes in terminology and focus can significantly improve our effectiveness; read on:

To build support for legislation, environmental marketers are literally changing the terms of the climate debate.

By JOHN M. BRODER, New York Times
The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.”
[...]

The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. “Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.”

“Another key finding: remember to speak in aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology,” said the e-mail account of the group’s study.

Read the whole article here.

Details about our next Transition Initiative meeting

2009-05-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

This meeting is at the library at 6:30PM, May 7th; come and help us create our sustainable Salida vision.

Imagine... It’s 2030.
Salida has successfully transitioned to a lower energy, more localized economy. As such, we have become the model for all other Colorado towns engaged in their own transition processes. People come from far and wide to be inspired by our achievement.

Your job is to act as their tour guide.

Your designated group (i.e. food, energy, building, waste) will have twenty minutes to design a ten minute walking tour to introduce the rest of the group to the fantastic developments the have made Salida so resilient to climate change, peak oil and economic instability.

We will divide up into groups at 6:40PM. PLEASE, OH PLEASE be on time so we can get going on designing our tours!

Tools needed: paper and pencil (as well as your prompt presence)

Backyard Community Supported Agriculture biz in Salida

2009-04-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

We want to start a Community Supported Agriculture business in Salida, using people's backyards or other unused spaces to grow food, create jobs and local self-reliance in the face of serious challenges to the national economy. This idea is not new, it's being done in cities across the country. We can do it here in Salida as well.

MyFarm from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.
(MyFarm is a decentralized urban farm which grows vegetables in backyard gardens throughout the city of San Francisco. For more info go to http://www.myfarmsf.com)

For the folks who are already on board, it seems like a good way to go is to spend this upcoming season getting two gardens going as demonstration sites that we can take our angel investors to that look great. We have serious offers of space from three people, and a lot of interest from potential farmers, and we have barely begun our networking and marketing. My experience of talking about this idea so far has been like selling umbrellas in a thunderstorm. Many people have an intuitive sense that we are needing to move ahead as fast as we can on local food, and that we have that capability right here in Salida. Next season (2010) we will hopefully have our first 8 partner farmers and our first eight sites ready to go early in spring.

Tia Pleiman has generously offered her space at the Creative Playhouse for the meeting (thanks Tia, thanks Lawton!). It is at 230 E. 1st St. (between D & E). The meeting will start at 7:00 on Thursday April 30th. I can stay until 8:30 when I rehearse with the Groove Farmers, but if other folks are interested in continuing, don't let me stop you. Gina or anyone else: you know there's nothing quite like fresh baked goods to spruce up a meeting... ;-)

Call me 207-0069 or email with questions.

Thanks,
your backyard farmer,
Eric Belsey

Fruit, fermentation, beekeeping and backyard CSAs

2009-04-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

If anyone has a fruit tree that could be cloned or grafted, please pass info along to one of us, Aaron Mendelkorn or me. We would love to get an inventory of such trees. We can plant potentially hundreds of new fruit trees simply using the trees already here.

If anyone is interested in learning about fermented foods, aka Nourishing Traditions style, with lactofermentation, we are forming a group to meet to try new recipes. Lactofermentation is an ancient process using lactobacilli bacteria that produce lactic acid, which is a natural preservative. This method of preservation also enhances the quality of nutrition with food, creating healthy enzymes (something seriously missing in the western diet), vitamins and minerals, benefical bacteria, and and for example can make a tasty fizzy refreshing drink all combined into one. This can also be used to preserve many foods for months without going bad in the fridge, requires no canning and thereby reduces energy usage by letting the bacteria do all the work.

Remember there is the Crestone beekeeping course this Monday, April 27th. Several of us will be going. Let me or Denise Ackert know if you are interested to carpool. We have at least 7 going at this point. I can forward the info via email.

Also, if anyone is interested in Eric Belsey's backyard CSA idea, you may contact Eric at 719-207-0069, or egbelsey@yahoo.com

See everyone at the next meeting, May 7th, 6:30pm at the Library.

Dave Bowers
namaste@organicfool.com
720-732-9125

Ark Valley Voice covers Tour de Coop

2009-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

"On Saturday, April 25, Salida residents hit the streets in mass for the first Tour De Coop. 12-15 bicyclists made their way through the city streets..." Click here to read the entire article.

Salida Transition

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By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science MonitorPosted on February 24, 2009, Printed on September 29, 2009http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/

© 2009 Christian Science Monitor All rights reserved.View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/

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Fruit, fermentation, beekeeping and backyard CSAs

Ark Valley Voice covers Tour de Coop

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science Monitor
Posted on February 24, 2009, Printed on September 29, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/

© 2009 Christian Science Monitor All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/128617/