Greetings all,
Below is an amazing collection of
upcoming permaculture and sustainability events in the central Virginia
bioregion, including information on an awesome Edible Forest Gardening workshop
in October and an open house and festival tomorrow. If you know anyone else that would like to sign up for this
newsletter, they can sign up here.
If you have an announcement, email us at blueridgepermaculture@gmail.com for
the next monthly e-newsletter. Click here to
view this email as a webpage. Happy fall!
1.
Edible Forest Gardening Workshop
October 25-27, 2013 near Charlottesville, Virginia
The Blue Ridge
Permaculture Network is excited to announce an Edible Forest Gardening weekend
workshop on Friday, October 25th - Sunday October 27th, 2013 at Fiddlehead Farm
near Charlottesville, Virginia. This course will include an overview of edible
forest gardening, permaculture design, and profiles of perennial polyculture
plants. The workshop will feature interactive lectures and group work, as well
as hands-on experiential learning through installation of a demonstration
Edible Forest Garden. Class size is limited; to encourage early registration a
discount is offered.
The
workshop features a high student-to-teacher ratio with key teachers of the Blue
Ridge Permaculture Network, and will prepare you to design and plant an Edible
Forest Garden in your backyard or community. The workshop fee is a sliding
scale of $275 - $350 before October 1st, and $300 – $350 after October 1st.
Lunch will be provided for all three days, as well as a primitive camping
option (with many other lodging options nearby). Limited work trade positions
are available.
2.
Learn about the
biology, ecology, and low-tech outdoor cultivation of several gourmet and
medicinal woodland mushrooms including shiitake, oyster, and reishi.
Hands-on activities and demonstrations include simple methods for mushroom
cultivation on logs and woodchips. Discussions will include post-harvest
handling, cooking, medicine making and marketing of mushrooms.
Angel will prepare
three seasonal dishes, each featuring one of our farm fresh gourmet mushrooms
and other garden goodies. In addition to a tasty lunch, you’ll learn
nutritional basics about mushrooms and leave with some culinary
inspiration. Cost is $30 with a $5 discount if you attend the Growing
Mushroom Workshop.
Learn about the
biology, ecology, and cultivation of several gourmet and medicinal mushrooms
you can grow in the city including shiitake, oyster, reishi, and others.
Hands-on activities and demonstrations include simple low-tech methods to
incorporate mushrooms in your garden or urban farm on logs, sticks, wood chips,
and urban waste, such as coffee grinds, cardboard, etc. Discussions will
include post-harvest handling, cooking, medicine making and marketing of
mushrooms.
Growing
Mushroom Workshops
Offered through Virginia State
University and Virginia Cooperative Extension Service
Suffolk, VA, Wednesday,
November 20th
Goochland, VA Thursday December 5th
Powhatan, VA
Thursday December 12th
3.
Young Farmer’s Mixer in Louisa County
On October 19th, local
heirloom seed savers and worker-owned co-operative Southern Exposure Seed
Exchange will be hosting a Young Farmer's Mixer to facilitate an enriching
community building experience, provide networking opportunities and have
fun. We want to provide young farmers and young farmer recruits with
access to examples of financially viable business models for new farms,
homesteading resources and land link organizations. We also want to facilitate
connections between landowners who want their land in cultivation and land-less
farmers. There will be opportunity to link farmers with food justice
organizations and illustrate how food justice activism can play into a small
farm business.
The event will begin with a tour of Southern Exposure's seed and trial
gardens and a demonstrative seed-saving workshop. Then there
will be a time for folks to visit the various organizations' booths and mingle
over a potluck dinner. The day will end with our second annual Fall
Festival complete with dancing, home-grown music, apple folk tales, food, drink
and good spirit.
4.
Permaculture Farming Work-Exchange/Room with Optional Employment
Opportunities
SilverSage Farm-House-Studios: Center
for Transformational Studies,
a
1991 classic-styled Victorian house
located in Charlottesville, VA, has its first level’s private furnished studio
apartment available immediately. Terms
are for a partial rent/farming work-exchange agreement for this cozy apartment,
offering the full monthly rent of $600 that can be reduced optionally within a
range to as low as $300 a month for 1- 5 hours of work-exchange per week on its
surrounding property and vegetable gardens.
Should you choose the work-exchange option, you would be working with
our team of homeowners and garden managers by collaborating, crop-sharing, and
implementing ideas for making the Silver Sage Farm-House-Studios a more
regenerative place to live and learn.
At present, our
permaculture farm and garden design plans are at the beginning stages that
consist of a ¼ acre garden plot surrounded by the start of a food forest with
about a dozen 1-year old fruit trees. A
solar array is being installed to power the property, as is a rainwater system
to supply the garden's water needs.
Furthermore, there will be much more opportunity to expand creative
sustainability. Our permaculture team’s vision is to include more gardening and
farming plots that will require managing food preparation, preservation, and
production, as well as raising chickens and grazing goats within a food co-op
for training purposes.
Located in the
foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Silver Sage Farm-House- Studios offers a
true respite from the pressures of “everyday” life, with the possibility of
offering healthy lifestyle trainings in yoga, meditation, martial arts,
creative arts within its spacious workshop studio. Our strong primary goal is to implement
sustainable living with healthy food production and create an intergenerational
model that can serve as an educational center for our local community. Therefore, our
design plan could offer additional employment opportunities that may include
groups, tours, classes, and workshops.
Please contact: Linda Capacchione (434) 296-1338 or linda@naturewellnessprograms.com
5.
Three Day Intensive Introduction to Urban Agriculture
October 4-6, 2013
ECO City Farms and Prince George’s Community College are offering an
intensive three day certificate course in urban agriculture. This 22 hour
hands-on course will provide the sustainable strategies to plan and design an
intensive food production system, based on your needs, goals, and growing
situation. PGCC will award a continuing education certificate upon
completion of all three days. Cost is $550, includes lunch, snacks and
materials. Location is ECO City Farms, 4913 Crittenden Street, Edmonston, Md.
20781. For more information and to register, visit: http://www.ecoffshoots.org/front-page/education/pgcc/
Celebrate Food Day at ECO City Farms!
October 26, 2013,
1-4pm
Food Day is a nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy,
affordable, and sustainable food. Visit ECO City Farms in Edmonston, Md. to
experience where food comes from, find out who is producing local, affordable
produce, and learn about healthy eating and active living. We’ll have music,
food, farm tours, activities for kids, cooking demonstrations and our famous
smoothie bike. For more info, visit: www.ecocityfarms.org.
This event is free. Location is ECO City Farms, 4913 Crittenden Street,
Edmonston, Md. 20781
6.
Project GROWS and the Staunton Music Guild will be joined by Mike
Berenstain from the Berenstain Bears at the first-ever Harvest Party and Open
Farm event on Saturday, October 5, 2013 in Verona, Virginia.
VERONA, Va. (September 3, 2013) – Project GROWS, a non-profit educational
farm located in Augusta County, announced today that it will host its inaugural
Harvest Party and Open Farm event on Saturday, October 5, 2013 from 11:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m. at the Project GROWS farm site in Verona. Co-hosting the event
will be Staunton Music Guild (SMG), which will celebrate its fourth year of
promoting local music events, music education, music outreach and music-related
businesses.
Free to the public, this family-friendly event will feature an afternoon
of live music, garden tours, and a fresh, locally grown meal. Mike Berenstain
of the Bereanstain bears will attend the event, signing copies of the newly
released book, the Berenstain Bears Go Green.
Project GROWS is funded
through a grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth and a multi-year
grant from the Augusta Health Foundation. Project GROWS is a host organization
of the Allegheny Mountain School Phase II fellowship and was awarded two
fellows for the 2013 year. For more information contact Project GROWS (540) 480-0371
or visit online www.ProjectGROWS.org and https://www.facebook.com/ProjectGrows.
7.
Open house at the Allegheny Mountain School
Please join us at the Allegheny
Mountain School for our final open house of the year on Saturday,
September 28 from 1-5 pm. Come meet the 2013 fellows, tour
the farm, and experience what the fellows have been learning and growing this
season. Light snacks and beverages featuring fresh, AMS-grown produce will be
provided. For directions, please visit our website at www.alleghenymountainschool.org or contact Trevor
Piersol at 540-468-3389.
What is Allegheny
Mountain School?
Launched in 2011, AMS is an experiential fellowship program designed to
serve our communities in developing a more secure food system. AMS
attracts young adults from around the nation, providing them six months of
hands-on training in sustainable food production, nutrition and social issues
around access to food. And then, in the year following their study, they
are placed as staff in regional non-profit organizations to work on local food
security projects. Applications are
being accepted for next year’s cohort currently; see www.alleghenymountainschool.org for more
information.
8.
The Elderberry, a new herb store set
to open early November in Charlottesville, is sponsoring a Walk in the Woods to support the work of United Plant Savers (UPS),
an organization whose mission is to protect native medicinal plants of the
United States and Canada and their native habitat while ensuring an abundant
renewable supply of medicinal plants for generations to come. The focus will be
on identifying local trees, shrubs and plants including their medicinal
uses! It will take place on Saturday October 12 at Walnut Creek Park in
Albemarle County from 11:00 - 1:00 PM. Our guide for this entertaining and
informative stroll will be Shirlea Pemberton. Shirlea has formerly worked
for the U.S.Forest Service and is completing the three year Community Herbalist
Training Program at Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville. Free
herbal tea will be available (hot or cold depending on the weather). A
$5.00 donation is requested and will go to support the work of UPS. We
will meet at the first parking lot in the park. Please join us for a fun
and educational experience! For more information, check our website:
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9.
Virginia Biological Farming Conference
Jan 31 - Feb 1, 2014
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•
Multiple Hands-On Sessions - New this Year! - including
Vegetable Plant Grafting Techniques, Soil Blocks, Tractor-Method Rolling of
Landscape Fabric for End-of-Season Storage, and Simple Farm Structure
Construction.
•
Women in Agriculture Panel
•
Postharvest Handling of Vegetables and Berries
•
Brewers, Bakers, and Farmers: Successful Collaborations between Growers
and Artisans
•
Raw Milk and Herdshares
•
The Homestead Art of Fermentation
•
Practical Tools for Small Growers
•
How your Smartphone Can Increase your Farm Profitability and Efficiency
•
Farmer Experiences in Profiting from Social Media
•
Experiences with Meat Goat Production and Marketing
•
Increasing Farm Profits through Food Hub Participation
VABF will also offer two separate day-long intensives on January
30, 2014, at the Doubletree
by Hilton Hotel (same location as Conference), as we did in
2013. These day-long workshops will be a separate registration from the
Conference and have a limited number of spaces available. Registration for both
will begin soon. Information will be updated on the conference
page of our website.
10.
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Allegheny Mountain School
Fellowships for 2014
Allegheny Mountain School is
seeking seven to nine inspiring individuals to participate in the fourth
cohort of our 18 month fully-funded fellowship program.
Applications are available on our website, www.alleghenymountainschool.org.
The deadline to submit your application is December 15, 2013.
Interviews begin January, 2014.
Allegheny Mountain School (AMS)
was founded in 2011 as a not-for-profit experiential fellowship program
designed to serve communities in developing a more secure food system.
The fiscal agent for AMS is The Highland Center (THC), a non-profit
organization located in Monterey, Virginia.
Our intention at AMS is to assemble a cohort of highly curious,
hardworking individuals, with complementary skills and experiences, in order
to create a cohesive and cooperative team for living, working and
studying. Our goal is to build skills to help communities create a
vibrant and accessible local food economy.
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11.
IMAP (Meso-American Institute of Permaculture) is happy to announce our Permaculture
Design Certification course (PDC) which will be offered in Lake Atitlan,
Guatemala, from December 1st - 15th, 2013.
This is an excellent way to immerse yourself in a design paradigm that
nurtures nature and provides for all. It is being taught by Rony Lec of IMAP
and Shad Qudsi of Atitlan Organics. I should note here that IMAP is the only
internationally recognized Permaculture Certifying Organization in Guatemala, which
makes this the only truly recognized certification course in the country.
We think this course
is extra special, because not only will all of the core permaculture principals
be covered, but we will also focus on Mayan Cosmovision and how it influences
our work with plants, soil, and animals. It will also deal with how to
actually make a comfortable living from a sustainable, land-based, natural
business.
For a full list of
what will be covered, Click Here.
12.
Introduction to Western Energetic
Herbalism Certificate Course
A 6-week
certificate webinar series with Kathleen Maier, AHG. PA.
Live Classes,
October 8th to November 12th, 2013, Tuesdays 6-8pm EST.
_______________
Ritual Use of Plants - Sacred
Plants for Sacred Times
Weekend Workshop with
internationally respected herbalist David Winston
November 1 - 3, 2013
Please welcome
David to the Charlottesville area with us as we are excited to have this
revered teacher in our midst for the first time. When David taught for us at
our former school, Dreamtime Center, I was amazed at his generous spirit as
well as his encyclopedic knowledge of the plant and medicine realms. This will
be a weekend of varied topics so it will be a sampling, if you will, of his
favorite classes as well as some of the most important topics for these times..
13.
From our friends at Transition Cville
Thursday 9/26 to Sunday 10/6
Carnival de Resistance
A band of roaming holy fools are planting
down in Charlottesville! The Carnival de Resistance is a travelling arts
carnival, a village demonstration project, and a movement toward cultural
transformation, focused on the intersections of environmental justice, art and
spirituality. Four unique theatrical productions fill the weekends, each
focusing on the sacredness of one of the four elements – Earth (Sept 28th), Air
(Sept 29th), Water (Oct 4th), Fire (Oct 5th). Before each production, there
will be a Carnival Midway where visitors can get crafty at the creation station
or check out clever twists on old Carnival games, get their face painted, and
enjoy storytellers, roving musicians, performers, and much more. All Carnival
productions happen on the lot beside Sojourners United Church of Christ (1017
Elliot Ave). The Midway opens at 6 pm, the performance begins at 7:30 pm. All
are welcome! It’s FREE. More information: http://carnivalderesistance.com/
*******************
Saturday 9/28 Charlottesville
Vegetarian Fest
11am-5pm at Lee Park, Market St. & 2nd
St. NE
Virginia’s premier Vegetarian Festival with
music and entertainment, speakers, cooking demonstrations, and lots of
delicious vegetarian & vegan food vendors. This year the Veggie Fest will be
the first "Zero Waste Festival" in Central Virginia! If you would
like to volunteer and help make the festival a success, please call Sharon at
434-361-1904 or visit the Volunteer page at cvillevegfest.org
*******************
Saturday 9/28 100 Thousand Poets
for Change
4pm-6pm at Writer House, 508 Dale Ave.
This international initiative currently
includes over 500 events in more than 100 countries.
Locally, Writer
House is hosting an open mic reading, so bring poems or songs, yours or
those that inspire you to be the change. Reading isn’t a requirement.
Your presence will be an honor and a joy. Interested in reading or
assisting with the event? Polly@PollyLazaron.com
*******************
Saturday 9/28 & Sunday 9/29
Workshop: Bale Raising
9am-5pm at Acorn Community, 1259 Indian Creek
Rd., Mineral, VA
Learn a natural, beautiful, energy-efficient
way of building at a two day workshop led by local green building luminary,
Fred Oesch. Gain valuable hands-on experience in notching, sewing bales,
earthen and lime plaster, and plumbing and electrical basics for straw bale.
$125 suggested donation. To register email darla@acorncommunity.org or call
540-894-0595.
*******************
Saturday 9/28 Casa Alma food
donation needed
Casa Alma is asking for help to provide lunch
for 10 volunteers from the Building Goodness Foundation, who are replacing the
roof on one of the houses of hospitality. If you could donate some food,
please contact cvillecw@gmail.com or
call 202-2221.
*******************
Monday 9/30 TEDxCharlottesville
Open Mic Night
6:30pm-9pm at the Jefferson Theater, 110 East
Main Street
TEDxCharlottesville is a local event that
invites leading thinkers and doers to give short talks accompanied by visuals
about their world-changing ideas. TEDxCharlottesville will be held at the
Paramount Theater on November 15, 2013. Free. More info. at
tedxcharlottesville.com.
*******************
Wednesday 10/02-10/16 Seed
Freedom Fortnight of Action
*******************
Saturday 10/5 Introduction to
Construction Workshop for Women
9am-5pm at Living Energy Farm, 1022 Bibb
Store Road, Louisa
Back by popular demand! Lunch will be
potluck style, so please bring some food to share. We ask for a $25
donation in exchange for attending our workshops, although donations of labor,
tools or other goods are also gladly accepted. No one will be turned away for
lack of funds.
*******************
Sunday 10/6 Community Tree
Planting
8am at Pen Park
Earth Week is organizing a tree-planting day,
so bring your shovel and come help out. If you have questions, contact
Eric Murphy at ewmurphy74@gmail.com.
*******************
Tuesday 10/8 Volunteer Work Day
at Edible Landscaping
9am-3pm, 361 Spirit Ridge Lane, Afton
Have fun working at the nursery and
receive credit of $10.00 hour. Type of labor to be determined. You will need to
bring pruners and don't forget your gardening gloves, and make sure you dress
for the weather. No one under 18. Please bring a bag lunch. YOU MUST
PRE-REGISTER, space is limited. Call (434)361-9134 or email info@ediblelandscaping.com
*******************
Saturday 10/12 Mini Maker
Faire
10am-4pm Monticello High School
Charlottesville and the surrounding Jefferson
Area has been a quiet hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, but no more! It’s
time to make some noise, bring out our maker and crafter projects, battle some
‘bots, and have some raucous family fun. The first Mini Maker Faire in Central
Virginia will celebrate invention, innovation, and curiosity. If you are
a maker, crafter, inventor, tinkerer, hacker or DIYer, come show of your stuff.
Maker Faire is the Greatest
Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity
and resourcefulness. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters
to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers, and are of all ages and
backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow
this community.
*******************
Monday 10/14 Skill Share:
Wilderness First Aid
7-8:30pm at the Bridge PAI, 209 Monticello
Ave.
Matt Rosefsky of SOLO Wilderness First Aid
will share how to properly splint broken bones in an emergency when you're far
from professional medical help.
14.
Are you experienced in permaculture design? Liberty University is looking for garden design assistance
and guidance. Having just started our very own garden, we have about an
acre of land that we would love to design into a network of raised beds,
swales, keyhole beds, you name it! The site is situated on a slope and
has very poor soil. Would be an awesome opportunity to engage students
and create community connections.
Alicia Cripe '09
Campus Garden Manager
Campus Recreation
(434) 592-5636
