Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Upcoming events

Greetings all,
 
Below is a great collection of upcoming permaculture and sustainability events in the central Virginia bioregion, including information on Cider Week and a talk on Home and Farm Resiliency Tuesday night with Ben Falk. 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.  Stay warm!

Best,
Christine, Terry and the BRPN team
www.blueridgepermaculture.net  


Check out the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/blueridgepermaculturenetwork/


1.
Home and Farm Resiliency: As Prices Rise and the Climate Shifts
An Evening Talk by Ben Falk

Sponsored by the Blue Ridge Permaculture Network
Tuesday November 19, 2013 6-7:30 pm
at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative
209 Monticello Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22902

Small farmer, designer, and author Ben Falk overviews the strategies used on his Vermont hill farm - and by his firm - Whole Systems Design - for dealing with rapid changes, including: drought and flood-proofing the home and farm, heating a home on a single cord of wood, growing potent plant medicines, integrating grazing with fruit and nut production and much more. Ben's talks are attracting diverse large audiences around the Northeastern US - come see him on this rare visit to Virginia. For more on the topics covered, please see his book:


2.
2013 Farm to Table Conference

“Healthy Food and Vibrant Farms for the Common Wealth and Common Good”
Wednesday, December 4 and Thursday, December 5, 2013
Blue Ridge Community College Plecker Workforce Center, Weyers Cave, VA.

This conference agenda fosters collaboration, conservation and community by strengthening local and regional community food systems. Producers, buyers, school and university officials, community and agricultural development officers, legislators, administrators, and other key food system stakeholders should attend.
The two day conference includes speakers, panel discussions, and networking opportunities organized to address critical challenges surrounding a sustainable food system. The Buy Fresh Buy Local Mixer and Chefs’ Challenge on Wednesday afternoon and evening is a festive event to encourage networking among Virginia producers and buyers while celebrating locally grown Virginia foods prepared by area chefs.
As a member of the Farm to Table Conference Planning Committee, the Virginia Food System Council encourages registration and participation in this annual event.


3.
On March 8th – 15th, Mason Sustainability Initiative will be hosting a 72-Hour Permaculture Design Certificate Course, taught by Wayne Weiseman of the Permaculture Project LLC.  This course will be open to community leaders as well as Mason students. No prior experience necessary. The course will cover such topics as Plant Propagation, Seed Saving, Healthy Use of Animals in Permaculture Systems, Aquaponics, Renewable Energy and many more. Participants will earn a certificate in Permaculture Design, as well as Continuing Education units if requested at the start of class.
This intensive course will take place from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm with breaks for lunch, with some additional evening activities with served dinner. Catered lunch and dinners from Everlasting Life Café will be provided, and a light breakfast fare with snacks will also be available. The total cost for this course is $1,000 with an early-bird special of $900 before January 31st.
 More information on the instructor, Wayne Weiseman, go to:  http://www.permacultureproject.com/. More information on the course can be found here: http://msi.gmu.edu/pdc.html.  You can register here: https://www.regonline.com/permaculturedesigncertification2014

4.
Saturday, Nov. 16th for Deeply.Be's presentation of Expand the Possible: Exploring Your Inner Landscape through Music Evoked Imagery. This will be an opportunity to reconnect with your inner workings, to explore your mind, and to expand your horizons.  This event will incorporate all the goodness of what you know and love of Deeply.Be events- beautiful location, amazing lunch, great company, tranquil nature - and on top of all that we will be traversing the mind while using music as our guide.



5.
HIRING ANNOUNCEMENT: WEST VIRGINIA FOOD & FARM COALITION SEEKS PROGRAM COORDINATOR

The West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition seeks a dynamic and committed individual to help build and support West Virginia’s rapidly growing local food system.  Since 2010, the Coalition has supported a statewide network of West Virginians working to grow food and farm businesses while improving access to healthy local food.  The position of Program Coordinator requires a special individual who is willing to work hard, think outside the box, be an advocate for farmers and consumers, and build partnerships outside of traditional “silos” in order to continue the Coalition’s success in promoting food and agriculture as a critical part of West Virginia’s economy and well-being.  The West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition is currently located in Fayette County, WV, in the heart of Appalachia and site of the New River Gorge.

The full job description, including this announcement, can be downloaded here.

6.
Please join us at this special Hill and Holler celebration of Cider Week to benefit the UVa Food Collaborative. 

Where: Merriweather Springs Vineyard
When: Sunday, November 17, 5pm to 9pm
Cost: $65 per guest

Chef Amalia Scatena of Pippin Hill and her crew will create an array of small plates, passed dim sum style on the patio overlooking the vineyard.  Enjoy a casual atmosphere and the freedom to enjoy the local bounty alongside ciders from Foggy Ridge, Albemarle Ciderworks, Castle Hill, Blue Bee, and Potter's Craft. 



7,
Drink this with that – at Early Mountain Vineyards – Nov. 15

Join Sommelier Michelle Gueydan and Chef Jenn Crovato as they kick off 2013 Virginia Cider Week. Indulge yourself in food and cider pairing stations set up throughout our tasting room, as well as live local music starting at 6pm, featuring Travis Elliott & Friends. Participating vendors include: Foggy Ridge Cider, Potter’s Craft Cider, Albemarle CiderWorks, Madison Rainbow Trout and Everona Dairy. Tickets are $25pp inclusive and $20pp for Early Mountain Charter and Club Members.
Participating VA Cideries include: Foggy Ridge, Potter’s Craft, Albemarle CiderWorks, as well as a surprise cider from a region outside of the State.



8.
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.

For more information, please contact: Linda Capacchione (434) 296-1338 or linda@naturewellnessprograms.com


9.
Permaculture Design Course –
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community near Charles Town, WV. Class and Lodging will be held at the Retreat House located on a 1400-acre wilderness preserve.  More info at  www.rollingridge.net
Schedule:
A 10-Day Intensive: February 10th-20th 2014
Arrive for registration & dinner on the 10th and depart on the afternoon of the 20th.

Tuition: We offer a unique, dynamic tuition structure. The cost for this course ranges from $794 to $1220 based upon the number of students in the class (and room options). See below for more info on our tuition structure.

Course Content: This class covers the essential concepts that are the heart of the permaculture design system. Students will be immersed in basic observation and design techniques. Our goal is to empower students to develop an intuitive understanding of natural patterns and processes, and to utilize these in the design of the human environment.

To register, Email Lindsay@rollingridge.net or Call at 304-724-1069


10.
Permaculture through the Heart
1 - 29 February 2014 in Bali, Indonesia

Facilitators: Stephanie Garvin and Margret Rueffler.
This innovative program blends the core principles of Permaculture gardening and design with Self exploration from a transpersonal psychological perspective.  "Experiencing Permaculture through the Heart" presents unique opportunities to combine classroom permaculture learning with "hands-on" experience, complementing the active physical engagement with the soil with an inner attitude of loving alignment with the earth.  The program is the first of its kind. More...

Lagu Damai Foundation and PsychoPolitical Peace Institute are offering regulars seminars at Jiwa Damai garden and retreat center in Br Bindu Bali, Indonesia, on subjects relating to permaculture, meditation, finding inner and outer peace, unfolding the qualities of the heart and cross-cultural dialogues and more.

Contributions from our educational programs  are returned to the community through projects and programs by Lagu Damai Foundation.


11.
Monday-Saturday, January 16-21, 2014
This is a 6 day course at Wolf Gulch in Southern Oregon

Social Forestry connects villages and communities to their forested water catchment basin.  Here in a developed industrial empire, the forests are lonely.  We have lost our sense of living with forests as friends.  This Social Forestry course will explore reconnecting with forests through ecological knowledge, the use of hand tools and woodscrafts, seasonal festivals and work cycles, childrens’ stories, pilgrimages and stewardship covenants.  We will learn ecological assessment, carbon sequestration methods, restoration forestry and the crafts and products that can be enjoyed while we are re-establishing our heart space and wonder in the woods.  This is the third year we are offering this fabulous winter experience.  You can read student reviews on the website.

Winter/Spring 2014, 6 Weekends Starting February 1st
12 day course held at Jackson Wellsprings, Ashland, Oregon
Lead instructor is Tom Ward with co-teachers Melanie Mindlin and Karen Taylor

The world famous PDC introduces an array of solutions, tools & strategies for moving into a home centered, resilient way of living sustainably on the only planet we have.  This is the full certificate course covering the permaculture curriculum set out by Bill Mollison, along with lots of local knowledge and applications.  Participants will learn to apply regenerative permaculture principles and patterns to design integrated homesteads, energy and water systems, animals, gardens, appropriate technology, forestry and healthy communities.  Gather practical skills and learn whole systems design principles for living in ecological balance with the earth.  Join us for this high-powered, visionary look at the possibilities for a positive future.


12.
VA Tech
Graduate Research Assistantship

GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP
STUDYING Appalachian Community Food Security in Virginia

Please forward this announcement to prospective Masters or Ph.D. students interested in community food security.  We are seeking a high quality applicant beginning in January 2014 for a Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) on a community-based research project on community food security in Appalachia Virginia.  Awards are available beginning in January 2014 spring semester.  Funding is available for 4 semesters; it includes a stipend and tuition remission.

Please send a letter of interest with a resume or curriculum vita to Susan Clark (sfclark@vt.edu) by December 1, 2013.  The review process will begin shortly thereafter and successful applications will be notified.   Please contact Nikki D'Adamo-Damery (nikki11@vt.edu) or Susan Clark (sfclark@vt.edu) or for more information about the project. 

Please see our AFP website (www.appalachianfoodshedproject.org) for more information about the project.   


To be considered for the GRA students need to be accepted into the Graduate School; graduate school applications are due by January 1st.  For more information about applying to graduate school visit http://graduateschool.vt.edu/admissions/applying/index.html.