iCreate, NM

PEW Campaign on Human Health & Industrial Farming

2012-03-01T10:35:00.001-08:00

Surely relevant to #iCreate's #CommunityGarden, #FarmersMarkets, #locavore & #sustainability interests. In lieu of hunting down meeting notes, badgering officers for grant updates, research a piece on music outreach or the role music in childhood development, today I'm going for low hanging fruit on the road of least-resistance. Tomorrow perhaps Off-Center (our ABQ partner, even though they never mention us either on website or in newsletter) and local iCreate updates. Now, back to Occupy Colleges' March 1 Day of Action and the virtual sit-in

The Pew Charitable Trusts

Welcome to the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming!

If you have not taken action yet on the Change.org petition, FDA: Take Measures to Preserve Effectiveness of Cephalosporins, please do so now. We are urging the FDA to finalize a rule that will limit the use of a class of antibiotics in food animal production. This restriction is a victory for human health as it will help ensure that cephalosporins continue to work to treat life-threatening infections today and in the future.

However, there is still more that needs to be done to curtail the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. To keep you up-to-date, we will send you a monthly newsletter with breaking news and other important information on this issue. Be sure to look out for your first edition soon! Additionally, there are other ways to stay involved with our campaign:

Join Moms for Antibiotic Awareness, a project of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, which is working for more judicious use of antibiotics in food animal production. Since our launch in May 2011, more than 23,000 mothers, fathers, grandparents, and others concerned about their family's health have joined. We are trying to reach 75,000 by our year anniversary – please consider joining today!
Like us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Visit SaveAntibiotics.org for regular updates.

Thank you again for taking a stand against the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in food animal production. We look forward to your continued support!

Forward to a friend

The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming is working to save antibiotics by phasing out the overuse of the drugs in food animal production. We work with public health and food industry leaders, veterinarians, agricultural interests, academics and citizens groups who share our objective of preserving the integrity of antibiotics as a means of protecting human and animal health.

Renewable Energy: Solar

2012-02-20T11:19:00.000-08:00


nmsuaces video: Renewable Energy: Solar Panel System Components Using a demonstration model, NMSU Professor Thomas Jenkins describes the different components of a home photovoltaic system that also includes battery storage. More

Step By Step Aquaponic Greenhouse Trickle System.

2012-02-19T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is a unique, attractive aquaponic system, designed and built by miotch007. The Step By Step Aquaponic Greenhouse Trickle System is unique because the grow bed is a greenhouse/aquaponic bed all in one. Watch the video on YouTube.

Fighting for Scraps

2012-02-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

... illustrates why we cannot let the "market rule" or ourselves become too busy, self-preoccupied or ambitious to forget ~ cooperation, communication, outreach, human solidarity ~ and let survival, in Primo Levi's words, become a defining "Gray Zone" ~ or, for that matter, tolerate a social system that encourages it. Levi's concern remains real: what has happened once (somewhere else), can happen again (anywhere). It is also why we must remember and tell the stories: the "saved" mus speak for the "drowned." Pankaj Mishra in The New York Times writes about lives reduced to Fighting for Scraps:

In The Drowned and the Saved, Primo Levi describes an experience that fatally undermined many of his fellow condemned at Auschwitz. Entering the death camp, he had hoped, he wrote, "at least for the solidarity of one’s companions in misfortune." Instead, there were "a thousand sealed-off monads, and between them a desperate covert and continuous struggle." This was what Levi called the "Gray Zone," where the "network of human relationships" "could not be reduced to the two blocs of victims and persecutors," and where "the enemy was all around but also inside."

It may seem grotesquely inappropriate to recall Levi's struggles for survival in a Nazi camp while thinking of the apparently self-reliant individualists of a slum called Annawadi near Mumbai's airport, the setting of Katherine Boo's extraordinary first book, which describes a few months in the life of a young garbage trader, Abdul, and his friends and family. After all, these plucky "slumdogs" may be ~ in at least one recent fantasy ~ India's next millionaires, part of the lucky 1 percent able to savor the five-star hotels that loom over Annawadi. Certainly, as noted by Boo, a staff writer at The New Yorker who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2000, when she was a journalist at The Washington Post "they are not considered poor" by "official" Indian benchmarks; they are "among roughly 100 million Indians freed from poverty since 1991," when the central government "embraced economic liberalization," "part of one of the most stirring success narratives in the modern history of global market capitalism," in which a self-propelling economic system is geared to reward motivated and resourceful individuals with personal wealth.

More here

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden meeting

2012-02-10T15:50:00.001-08:00

Sat Feb11, 10am, Alpine Alley

Visit and "like" the Mountainair Community Garden on Facebook

To Discuss:

What will we be planting next year?
Medicinal garden
Starts for resale
Adopt-a-plot progress and future

Other?

Contact Addie Draper, addiemdraper@wildblue.net.com, for information or to add items to agenda.

(x-posted to Mountainair Announcements and iCreate, NM)

Video: A Community Garden for Refugees in Atlanta

2012-02-08T11:29:00.001-08:00

When traveling through Atlanta, The Perennial Plate stopped at a very diverse community garden called the Jolly Avenue Community Garden run by the Friends of Refugees. The collaborative garden allows refugee members to grow their own food and till their own land. You'll find vegetable patches of Iraqis, Burmese, Nepalese and many others, including a lovely Bhutanese family that shared their story and a home cooked meal with us.

by Daniel Klein, at Serious Eats, February 7, 2012. For more videos and recipes visit www.theperennialplate.com

#Mountainair Music: iCreate violin & guitar lessons & more

2012-02-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

iCreate violin & guitar lessons return to the Shaffer Hotel Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-5 pm. Unfamiliar with the music outreach program? Simple: music for everyone. Lessons are free (donations welcomed) for local students of all ages, loan instruments available. Earn a certificate and instrument or music paraphernalia by completing a course, learning pieces, creating one of your own and performing at an iCreate recital.

Mountainair Arts: #Mountainair Music: iCreate violin & guitar lessons & more

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Winter #gardening to do list & tips

2012-02-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

#Mountainair gardeners are getting ready for spring. So are the Community Garden and Farm & Garden Market. Both have scheduled February meetings with the community garden scheduled for February 11, 10 am, at Alpine Alley and MFGM for February 25, 4 pm, at Mountain Arts on Broadway.

In the meantime, here are some tips and information for the winter gardener dreaming of spring ~ and a source worth bookmarking for future reference.

It's dark, it's cold, but that doesn't mean you can't work in the garden! GardenWise Online provides you with a to-do list to get you started on your garden for the new year.

FOOD GARDEN, GREENHOUSE/SEEDS, COMPOST, TREES, FRUIT TREES, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS

Start creating your garden for 2012. Beds should run north-south for best exposure; a little planning for what you will grow and where increases yields and you won’t be running around in May shoe-horning plants willy-nilly!

To get the most out of your space, think about how much zucchini you will use and what vegetables and fruits you and your family actually eat. How much time will you spend growing food? A few things for you to ponder:

Now read about GREENHOUSE/SEEDS, COMPOST, TREES, FRUIT TREES, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS and the rest of the January garden to-do list: Winter gardening tips from GardenWise

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Gardening Videos

2012-01-29T10:46:00.001-08:00

Getting Headstarts on Garden Plants!

Jan 29, 2012

Ready for a good "olde fashioned" how-to video? I will show you how to harvest, prep and dry your peppers to produce viable strong healthy seeds with higher germination rates. Having problems with leaves wilting, drying out or dropping like flies? I included a closeup demo for dealing with mildew, early blight and himidity problems.

So when is the best time to plant your veggies for spring? How about RIGHT NOW? Yes that's right. Tune in and I'll show you how I plan to harvest peppers and even tomatoes months earlier than usual this year.

This is the year to take a gardening journey into the Twilight Zone! I'll be your guide. It's going to be fun, a bit new and definitely a whole lot of fun! Ok enough rambling. Let's GROW SOMETHING! More

More Gardening videos at Dance in the Sunshine, Praxxus' YouTube Channel. Related videos. Many Community Garden and high desert gardening videos too.

Local Food and The Farm Bill

2012-01-23T04:06:00.000-08:00

Good news for #Mountainair #CommunityGarden, our #farmersmarket & #localfood (central to iCreate's local sustainability) movements across the country from the Environmental Working Group Ag Mag

For too long, funding provided by the United States’ most far-reaching food and farm legislation has primarily benefited agri-business and large scale industrial-scale commodity farms that aren’t growing food. Instead, they’re growing ingredients for animal feed, fuel and highly processed food — at a high cost to our nation’s health, environment and rural communities.

With the 2012 Farm Bill fast upon us, Congress has an opportunity to make smart, timely changes to help fix our broken food and farm system by embracing a package of policy reforms outlined in the Local Farms, Food and Jobs bill. This legislation was recently introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and is co-sponsored by 63 representatives in the House and 9 in the Senate.

The Pingree-Brown bill includes a comprehensive package of cost-effective policy reforms that would boost farmers’ and ranchers’ incomes by helping them meet the growing demand for local and regional food. The legislation also aims to make fresh, healthy and affordable food-especially fruits and vegetables- more accessible to consumers.

Local Food and The Farm Bill: Small Investments, Big Returns | Environmental Working Group

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Updates, news & a call to action

2012-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

Catch the quick iCreate update just published on Mountainair Arts (for being of broad community interest): recital (a hit), exciting news about our future and a call to action.

Monday, Lenora and Kay return to Santa Fe to bundle the iCreate Capital Outlay request with one on behalf of the Town of Mountainair for the community park and safe playground equipment.

All Mountainair ~ town, arts council, other local service organizations, schools, the entire community ~ has a part to play too. Call, email, fax state legislators urging their support. Tell your friends and family to do the same.

Here are legislator names and basic contact information:

Speaker of the House, Ben Lujan. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4782; home phone,(505) 455-3354; e-mail, ben.lujan@nmlegis.gov
Senator Pete Campos. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4311, office phone, (505) 454-2501; home phone, (505) 425-0508; e-mail: petecampos@newmexico.com
Representative Rhonda King. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4438; Office Phone, (505) 832-5050; home phone, (505) 832-4603
Senator Phil Griego. Capitol Phone, (505) 986-4861, office phone, (505) 469-9470; home phone, (575) 421-2863; e-mail: senatorgriego@yahoo.com
Representative Larry Larrañaga. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4215; home phone,(505) 821-4948; e-mail, larry@larranaga.com

Ask them to welcome Lenora and Kay and support the Capital Outlay requests they will be delivering on behalf of iCreate and all Mountainair

We've been busy. In addition to our new iCreate Facebook page ~ please visit, like and leave a message ~ we just started publishing a weekly newsletter, iCreate Weekly, on Paper.li that will cover various aspects of the iCreate mission: creativity. music, arts, education, sustainability, environment, community service and more.

next #Mountainair iCreate recital & meeting

2012-01-20T06:19:00.001-08:00

Update from Kay Stillion, who writes,

Our next Mountainair recital is all violin students, Estrella Griego, Samantha Torrez and Jaiden Martinez, who will perform Saturday January 21, 2:30 pm at Pack's Cafe at the Shaffer. Interested in our community based music outreach program and trying out violin or guitar lessons yourself? Call 847-2301 for more information. iCreate welcomes guests at meetings and activities. If you have a guitar or violin not being used, we can always use more musical instruments too as well as volunteer instructors.

The next iCreate returns to the 4th Saturday schedule interrupted by holidays and will be January 28, 2:30 pm at Lenora Romero's. We hope to be announcing exciting news about iCreate funding and development very soon. Look for our finding a new home and expanding music outreach, youth programs, community garden/sustainability mission, and developing new educational and creative projects.

STOP SOPA: #SOPASTRIKE Jan18

2012-01-18T07:28:00.001-08:00

My favorire "stop sopa" page is Zachary Johnson's shadowbox with the moving light (just move your cursor) on Zachstronaut. Adding this one to my feed reader... tomorrow. Today .....

Sites are striking in all different ways, but they are united by this: do the biggest thing you possibly can and drive contacts to Congress. *Put the source code for this page your site* ~ it's my main page at Mountainair Online (the web page). I have no control over blog policies. I'm not really up to tinker with source code to show a black out page on my blogs. So I am settling for posting information and exhortations (like this one). Except for following #sopastrike on Twitter and @fightfortheftr) and Reddit, I'm staying off public pages today. No Facebook or

Personal blackouts seem to be running either 24 hours (midnight to midnight) or 8AM EST to 8PM EST. Major supporting sites like Wikipedia, WordPress, Google, Internet Archive (+ Wayback Machine), Electronic Frontier Foundation, Tucows and many, many more are striking for 24 hours. Looked like a major slow down on Facebook when I checked (before 8 am).

What can you do to support the strike if you don't have a blog or web page, can't blog and RT #sopastrike stories? Make a call; sign the petition; learn more; the action of the hour is to speak out. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, opposing the bills. Contact local news stations and let them know that this is an issue worth covering. And there is still email, what they could be coming after next...

Today's Google search page:

Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!

Xeriscape & Water Conservation Conference 2012

2012-01-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

The conference seems pricey considering our modest projects and even more modest budget, but at least one conference attendee could bring back information for many. On the other hand, Expo is free: 200+ vendors demos, exhibits and ongoing free seminars.

Xeriscape & Water Conservation Conference 2012

Collaborations for New Solutions is this year's theme for the Water Conservation and Xeriscape Conference and EXPO. Speakers lined up for this year were chosen to provide lively talks and discussion; the group is varied and includes conservation advocates, water professionals and other interesting presenters.

Dates for the 2012 Conference are February 23-24 and for the Expo the 25-26. We are holding the conference at the Crown Plaza Albuquerque (formally the Albuquerque Hilton) and the EXPO at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds.

Thanks and see you in February! The Xeriscape Council of New Mexico

OffCenter Community Arts Calendar

2012-01-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

from iCreate #Mountainair's ABQ Music Outreach partner... and perhaps a few ideas local artists and Mountain Arts on Broadway art center program committee might find interesting.

Call for artists and art!

"Movable Masterpieces"
Ongoing Community Art-Making
Exhibit & FUN!draiser
Starts Friday, Jan. 6th, 5 - 8 pm
OFFCenter's emerging and established artists together with your family and friends can move from "masterpiece" to "masterpiece" on Friday night, (Jan., 6th) as you paint artwork together. Make an offer on any painting you like at any stage until the last brushstroke on Jan. 18th. All proceeds benefit OFFCenter Community Arts - a safe place for everyone to make art free of charge.

FREE Re:Envision Recycled Art Workshop

Shrines from the Glass Graveyard
Found Object Workshop with Lindy Hirst
Thur., Jan. 12, 2012, 6 - 8 pm

Free but call 247-1172 or email: studio808@qwestoffice.net to register

Lindy will bring her personal collection of melted glass bottles and trinkets dug up from Albuquerque’s famous Glass Graveyard for you to explore shrine making with these antique relics.

Lindy Hirst, founder of THE STUDIO and teacher of many of its classes and workshops, is a long-time New Mexico resident. She received her MFA from the University of New Mexico and has spent many years sharing her extensive knowledge with students from all over the state.

This series of workshops and open studio time are brought free to the public in part thanks to funding from The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation, New Mexico Arts and Bernalillo County.

If you sign up for a workshop, please inform us at least 24 hours in advance if you're unable to attend, so we can have time to notify those on the waiting list.

Cards for the Troops!

Help Make Valentine's Day Cards to Send to the Troops!
January 12th, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
FREE

Join local greeting card artist Kathleen Schweizer and her team of card-makers along with OFFCenter's card-making team, for an afternoon of "Valentine's Day" card-making for the troops!! The goal is to create 100 cards that will be sent to American soldiers stationed abroad.. This session is part of the Blue Star Mothers effort to thank and support the men and women of our armed forces who are away from home. Please feel free to bring any arts/crafts supplies you would like to donate either to the project or to OFFCenter. The cards must be delivered to the Blue Star Mothers by January 14th in order for the APO/FPO package to arrive overseas in time for Valentine's Day.

Calligraphy Workshops - 4 Part Series

illustration by andrew fitzsimon

Calligraphy: Fridays, 1 - 3 pm
Jan. 20th, Jan. 27th, Feb. 3rd and Feb. 10th

This 4-Part Series of Calligraphy Workshops is FREE but please register by emailing: studio808@qwestoffice.net or calling 247-1172.
Space is in high demand. Please only register if you can attend all four workshops. Thank you.

Beth House, Escribente Calligraphy Guild Member and Professional Calligrapher will lead you in a 4-Part Series of "Fundamentals in Calligraphy" Workshops - which will meet once a week for four weeks. You will learn about basic letter forms and a variety of techniques and lettering styles.

If you sign up for a workshop, please inform us at least 24 hours in advance if you're unable to attend, so we can have time to notify those on the waiting list.

Studio Exhibit - "Away!" Mountains, Rivers & CanyonsOpening Reception January 20th 5-8pm; runs through January 31st

“Looking to the Trees” by Dave Blecha

This exhibit was inspired by the rivers, canyons and mountains of the Jemez Canyon. The artists are part of a group of emerging and established artists who meet informally on Tuesday afternoons at OFFCenter to paint, draw, play, talk shop and support each other in their current projects with the guidance of artist/teacher Dave Blecha.

Nature of Happiness - Linocut Printmaking Workshop

"Ceremonious" Linocut by Deborah A. Jojola

Saturday, Jan. 21st from 11 am - 2 pm
$5 per person
Call 247-1172 or email: studio808@qwestoffice.net to register/pay in advance. (Scholarships available)

Deborah Jojola will lead participants through a fun and simple introduction to relief printmaking using soft-surface "EZcut" blocks. You will learn basic techniques of relief printmaking, how to achieve various textures, multiple prints and small editions. We will use AKUA professional-grade non-toxic inks, allowing each artist to explore color, inking blends with archival quality. You will learn how to both hand-burnish your prints as well as the safe use of a printing press. All materials are included in the cost of the workshop, but you're welcome to bring a 5" x 7" sketch from which to work.

Deborah A. Jojola has an AFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe) and an MFA from UNM in printmaking. She has also studied non-toxic printmaking methods with Keith Howard, has done Disability Intervention at Very Special Arts of NM (Abq.) and has over 20 years of teaching experience in multiple levels and with diverse art mediums from printmaking, drawing, painting, clay work, bookmaking, etc. She loves art and loves teaching!

The Nature of Happiness workshops are brought to the public for free or low-cost thanks to a grant from the Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Foundation.

If you sign up for a workshop, please inform us at least 24 hours in advance if you're unable to attend, so we can have time to notify those on the waiting list.

Submit your art - Non-juried, no-fee exhibits!

"Dump Site Grotto" Recycled Art Exhibit
Opens Friday, Feb. 3rd, 2012, 5-8pm

Dump Site Grotto will feature works from OFFCenter's ReEnVision series of recycled art workshops as well as other emerging artists who are cleverly reinventing new uses for discarded items.

Call for art - Everyone is invited to submit artwork that contains an element of re-cycled/re-purposed/upcycled or found art objects in any medium. Limit 2 pieces per artist. Drop off artwork from Friday, Jan. 27th through Wed., Feb. 1st during our regular open studio hours.

3rd Friday ARTSCrawl Coffee House Musical Performance with Mala Maña - Feb. 17th, 5-8pm

"Portals - Transformations & Transitions"
Celebrating Women & Creativity Month
Opens Friday, March 2nd, 2012, 5 - 8 pm
Women Artists throughout the OFFCenter community are invited to submit work that fits the 2012 theme of Women & Creativity Month: Portals - Transformations & Transitions. Exhibit will be listed on the Women & Creativity website as well as distributed through the Albuquerque Visitors Convention Bureau, so plan your artwork now! Special skill-building workshops will be offered by women artists at OFFCenter through the month, as well.

Artwork in any medium will be accepted from Friday, Feb. 24th through Wed., Feb. 29th during our regular open studio hours. Limit 2 pieces per artist. Artists of the female persuasion only, please.

You can always access our schedule of events/workshops at our online calendar:

http://www.offcenterarts.org/calendar.htm

Questions/Comments: studio808@qwestoffice.net or (505) 247-1172

ON-GOING CREATIVITY WORKGROUPS (FREE): just drop in!

Hands-On! Sewing/Knitting Circle Wed: 2-3 pm and Sat: 11am-Noon

Writing Group with Mandy Gardner - Wednesdays: 3-4pm

Painting and Drawing with Dave Blecha - Thursdays: 1-3pm

Card Making with Karen Turner - Thursdays: 3-5pm

Basic Guitar with Kay Stillion - Fridays: 2:30-3:30pm

Yeah for Gardening!

2012-01-06T17:12:00.001-08:00

British town grows all of its own vegetables, witnesses improved civic life and reduced crime as a result

Todmorden Harvest Festival

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News

When the small British mill town of Todmorden, tucked in between Yorkshire and Lancashire, first began installing fruit and vegetable gardens all around the area as part of the Incredible Edible program, it likely had no idea that the novel, yet simple, concept would make the town a foremost inspirational and self-sustaining model of the future.

Fresh herbs, succulent greens, and tasty fruits can be found growing near civic buildings, college campuses, supermarket parking lots, and various other places. Small garden plots, raised planting beds, and even small soil strips in these areas can be found brimming with fresh produce, all of which are free to anyone who want it, and at any time.

It is all part of a program called Incredible Edible, which was founded by Mary Clear, a local grandmother of ten, and Pam Warhurst, former owner of a local restaurant in town known as Bear Cafe. The duo had a shared goal of making Todmorden the first town in the UK to become completely self-sufficient in food -- and their endeavors have been successful, at least as far as keeping up with demand for produce from locals who want it.

The program so far utilizes 70 large planting beds located all around the town to plant raspberries, apricots, apples, blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries, beans, peas, cherries, mint, rosemary, thyme, fennel, potatoes, kale, carrots, lettuce, onions, vegetables, and herbs. Not only did locals quickly catch on and begin taking the produce, but they also generally respect the system and do not take advantage of it.

"If you take a grass verge that was used as a litter bin and a dog toilet and turn it into a place full of herbs and fruit trees, people won't vandalize it. I think we are hard-wired not to damage food," said Warhurst, concerning the notion that offering free fruit and vegetables might lead to abuse or other crimes. She noted, in fact, that quite the opposite has occurred -- the Incredible Edible program has improved community relations, and reduced crime by an incrementally higher amount every single year since it first started.

The program has been so successful, in fact, that many other communities both in the UK and abroad are now interested in starting their own public garden programs as well. Besides improving the sense of community and reducing crime, Incredible Edible has renewed a new sense of appreciation for food and how it is grown, as well as renewed interest in actually growing it among the next generation, which is the envy of many progressive communities around the world.

Sources include:

how to organize #communitygarden for a food pantry

2012-01-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

The #Mountainair Community Garden, a joint custody project (for lack of a better term but equally colorful designation) of iCreate, community gardeners not affiliated with iCreate, is in the process of applying for a New Mexico Centennial Garden Program grant. Supporting local food security programs is just one of the garden goals presented in the grant proposal due January 13.

Food banks and pantries today can be a lot more than a place to hash out donated – and often leftover, unwanted – food to the hungry. Right in tune with the current ecological-minded climate from “green buildings to green bodies,” they often infuse teaching the hungry how to grow their own nutritious food, how to cook it and sometimes spark careers in food.

Follow the link to read the rest of "How to organize a Community Garden for a Food Pantry" by Mary Jasch. DIG IT! mag online is a worthy and recommended gardening resource to add to your reader, bookmark file or link list. Subscribe to email newsletter on the website.

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Music Outreach Program

2011-12-05T06:24:00.001-08:00

Lenora Romero with violin students, photo by Tomas Wolff

"Music Lessons for Everyone," a MountainView Telegraph article by Laurie Clark on iCreate, its mission, Music Outreach, and free violin and guitar lessons in Mountainair.

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden Fall Report

2011-12-05T03:11:00.001-08:00

Garden Manager Joan Embree writes,

Addie, Joan and Rebecca completed the official close-down of the 2011 "instant" Community Garden on Oct. 29. We emptied our donated containers of their dirt, putting the dirt into our three existing beds, pulled the remaining plants, put them into the composting pile and saved some seeds to see if they will be viable next season. Then we re-dug the central bed, adding spoiled straw and cured goat manure with the soil from the pots and planted garlic in the central bed and covered it with straw. Straw bales on site were placed to buffer the bed from southwest winds, with three rosemary plants left in the bed to see if they could survive the winter. Addie took the remainder to her hoop house to winter them over.

Prepping for the 2012 season included making tentative plans for the location of 4' by 4' and 8' by 4' plots that will be available to individuals, families, community groups, and businesses. We encourage those who "adopt-a-plot" to grow healthy food for themselves and their families, to sell at the Mountainair Farm and Garden Market, or to donate to local food banks. The Community Garden will provide water, manure, and gardening advice to those who sign up.

Our "adopt-a-plot campaign is designed to encourage greater community involvement. After making announcements at the Chamber of Commerce meetings, the Community Garden committee presented the campaign to the December 1 Rotary Club meeting and will make a presentation to the Mountainair Town Council on December 6. A more detailed flyer that can be produced in bulk will be kept in supply at locations around town where people are most likely to see them and also posted on line for convenient downloading. These will include a map of the plots that will be available and the phone numbers and/or e-mails of people to contact.

Three plots were adopted out during the recent Christmas Crafts Fair, where we had flyers and the garden map available. We encourage everyone involved with or interested in the community garden to talk to others who might be interested in growing with us next season. Clubs, churches, and businesses might be willing to sponsor one or more beds and donate the food to those who need it most.

Information on the Community Garden is available from Addie Draper, Carla Cope or Joan Embree 847-2539.

Captain Planet Foundation Grants

2011-12-01T12:21:00.001-08:00

FD0760_NOFA_FY2012[1].doc Download this file

FYI ~ community based environmental education emphasis but not limited to school programs. Right up the iCreate and community garden mission alley but could also be fit for other environmentally conscious community groups with 501/3c status and an education mission

Captain Planet Grant Program

The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) provides grants to schools, as well as community-based environmental and educational organizations — no grants are made to individuals or businesses.

Grants from the Captain Planet Foundation are intended to:

serve as a catalyst to getting environmental activities in schools and communities.
inspire youth to participate in community service through environmental stewardship activities.

The Captain Planet Foundation primarily makes grants to U.S.-based schools and organizations with an annual operating budget of less than $3 million. CPF will fund unique and innovative projects that do not precisely match the grant guidelines but otherwise promote the foundation’s mission of hands-on environmental activities. Applications that are outside of this description or do not meet the grant guidelines will not be considered.

Grant Guidelines

The Captain Planet Foundation provides grants that support:

environmental projects that give children and young adults the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities in their local community, as such these projects should:

o promote understanding of environmental issues.

o provide participants with the opportunity to be actively involved in learning projects that benefit the local environment.

o involve young people in ways that develop their planning, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

o encourage cooperation among the participants and the community.

education projects that are:

o related to teaching environmental content and skills.

ongoing projects that will be sustained over time and as such:

o actively involve community organizations, parents, businesses and others who may provide long-term assistance and who will help to sustain the project over time.

o have the potential for funding from sources in addition to CPF, such as individuals, local businesses, corporations and community organizations.

Captain Planet Foundation’s grants are limited to $2,500. Preferential consideration is given to smaller grants as seed funding and to applicants who have secured at least 50% matching ^[1] or in-kind funding for their projects. (Projects with matching funds or in-kind support are given priority because external funding is a good indicator of the potential for long-term sustainability of the activities.)

Conditions for Eligibility

The Captain Planet Foundation only awards grants to schools and organizations that are exempt from federal taxation under Internal Revenue Code Section 501—this includes most schools, as well as non-profit organizations determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be exempt under section 501 (c)(3). (Organizations with 501 (c)(3) status must submit a copy of their determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service.)

Grant awards are conditional upon the Project Leader/Director being employed at the same school or organization for the duration of the proposed project. Exceptions to this rule will be made at the sole discretion of the Captain Planet Foundation upon receipt of a written request from the school’s administrator or organization’s executive. (CPF will request confirmation of this information, in the Grant Agreement, prior to disbursing funds.)

Submission and Deadlines for Receipt of Applications

One complete, printed copy of an application must be submitted to:

Captain Planet Foundation

133 Luckie Street, 2nd Floor

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Please be sure to plan well in advance of the proposed starting date for your project. If your project is season dependent, be sure to submit your application taking into account the schedule below. (CPF is not able to “rush” the consideration of applications or the distribution of funds.)

Applications must be postmarked no later than the dates indicated below to be considered by the Captain Planet Foundation.

Deadlines for Mailing of Applications	Notification of Successful Grantees	Notes About Dates
May 31^st	June 30th	Will be considered at CPF’s June board meeting. Most appropriate for projects starting in fall or winter.
September 30^th	December 31^st	Will be considered at CPF’s December board meeting. Most appropriate for projects starting in spring or summer.
January 15^th	March 31^st	Will be considered at CPF’s March board meeting. Most appropriate for projects starting in late summer or fall.

^[1] Matching or in-kind funding represents money or other resources that will be provided for the project from either the applying organization or another grantmaking entity, community organization, or business.

November Peak Moment Newsletter

2011-11-29T03:00:00.001-08:00

I've been posting occasional Peak Moment videos relevant to the iCreate mission, mostly sustainability. Who couldn't relate to "locally reliant living for challenging times"? Here's the November Newsletter.

Watch for: Community Garden Report from Joan Embree, iCreate updates including but not limited to music outreach update (mostly pictures from Tomas Wolff); Christmas Land performances by Kay, Pegeen and Lenora, meeting rescheduling, overdue report from last meeting.

click to view complete newsletter online

November 2011 news

We're exercising our self-reliance muscles to build infrastructure in the winter encampment site for Little House, our RV home. We're dragging water pipes through the forested hillsides and building solar panel racks. Our work is accompanied by thrilling calls of circling red-shouldered hawks and curious cackling ravens.

This peaceful place and slower pace feels in stark contrast to the quickly moving events swirling around the Occupy Movement, as it draws attention to the egregious wrongdoings on Wall Street at the expense of the many. We valued Bill Moyers' look back to How Wall Street Occupied America, and Richard Heinberg's big picture Memo to the #Occupy Movement, in which he reminds: "Given the finite nature of our planet and its resources, the recent trend of global economic expansion was destined to end."

Legalize Local Investing. Sign a petition supporting HR 2930, which will legalize investment in small local businesses. It's advocated by Michael Shuman author of Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity, and Peak Moment episode 44: The Slow-Mart Revolution.

Archived Radio Interviews with Janaia: "Resilience and Transition for a Changing World" on Sustainability Now Radio from Penn State. On Healing Times Radio with Dr. Emmett Miller.

Janaia's Journal

At Home in Our Winter Encampment describes this season's home on our land, complete with pictures of us building our solar panel racks.

The Economy's Oily Warning System: if you'd like notes from Chris Martenson's two local presentations, e-mail Janaia. Chris is the author of The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Energy, Economy and the Environment.

Notes from Derrick Jensen's Earth at Risk 2011 Conference with Arundhati Roy, Thomas Linzey Stephanie McMillan, Waziyatwin, Aric McBay, and Lierre Keith. My favorite quote was "Waz" quoting native American author Vine Deloria, Jr. in God is Red:

"The future of humankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things. Who will listen to the trees, the animals and birds, the voices of the places of the land?"

Latest programs

...with Treehugger reviews by Sami Grover:

Soccer Moms Can Be Survivalists Too (episode 203)
Why Energy Scarcity Makes Economic "Recovery" Impossible (episode 204)

Soccer Mom Prepares for the Unexpected: "I have a ball preserving food with my friends!" And at the same time Kathy Harrison is making sure her kids can eat if storms knock out power or roads. The author of Just in Case: How to Be Self Sufficient when The Unexpected Happens gives practical tips on storing food without getting overwhelmed. She looks at dehydrating, canning, and root cellaring; finding and preserving local food, and buying food at discount. For Kathy, preparedness is an empowering, community activity (episode 203).

Oil Puts the Squeeze on the Economy: This turbulent, troubled global economy is precisely what Chris Martenson predicted in early 2010, When Exponential Meets Reality (episode 166). He asserts that we can no longer look at the economy without factoring in the terminal decline of its master resource — oil. The author of The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy and Environment believes that, as "the generation that gets to deal with hitting up to resource limits," we first need a new cultural story to inspire appropriate action (episode 204).

Undriving™ — Changing the Way We Think
Be the first in your group to get your Undrive License™ — it's great fun! You pledge to reduce automobile use — yours or others'. Seattle founder Julia Field's creative project is sparking imaginations and creativity by changing how people think about getting around — be it skateboards, sailboats, or just plain skipping the trip! Undrivers of all ages are jumping on the bandwagon, changing assumptions, and telling their empowered stories. (Janaia's outrageous Undriver License™ goes wherever her bike goes) (episode 205).

Get RSS notification when each video is online.

Peak Moment TV on Facebook, follow on Twitter, and Transition in Action

Peak Moment TV is produced by Robyn Mallgren and Janaia Donaldson

Yuba Gals Independent Media, 15504 Lone Bobcat Way, Nevada City, CA 95959

530-265-4244 info@peakmoment.tv

Ideas for Sustainable Living: Undriving

2011-11-17T03:11:00.001-08:00

A PeakMoment video: applying it here would call for additional considerations. We'd need better roads and bike paths here. How would golf carts count? Waivers? A point system with bonus points for walking and super humongous penalties for flying? What about trips to Albuquerque? Car pooling with a community ride share system?

Undriving - Changing the Way We Think

Peak Moment 205: Be the first in your group to get your Undriver License ? it's great fun! You pledge to reduce automobile use ? yours or others'. Seattle founder Julia Field's creative project is sparking imaginations and creativity by changing how people think about getting around ? be it skateboards, sailboats, or just plain skipping the trip! Undrivers of all ages are jumping on the bandwagon, changing assumptions, and telling their empowered stories. (Janaia's outrageous Undriver License goes wherever her bike goes). [http://www.undriving.org]

Join the Peak Moment community - subscribe to email newsletter at http://www.peakmoment.tv on the right side. More

Eat Your Greens, or Your Gut Gets It

2011-11-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

Another good article on healthy eating, community gardens, growing your own and more leafy green vegetables from Tom Philpott at MoJo (Mother Jones online). This, along with gardening tips, other community gardens, growing your own, locavore and other "green" topics have become regular features. "Eat Healthy" or "Eat Healthy because..." seems like a good name for this one.

While Big Food rams its Tater Tots and frozen pizza school lunch agenda through Congress, we're learning more about the effects of diets high in starchy foods and low in green vegetables. And it's not pretty.

[MoJo columnist, Tom Philpott] pointed yesterday to a vast recent Harvard study finding that heavy consumption of potatoes—even in non-fried forms—leads to unhealthy weight gain. Now, from UK scientists, comes a study (press release here; abstract here) suggesting that green vegetables may have even more dietary importance than we previously thought. (Hat tip Atlantic Life.) The researchers subjected mice to a diet stripped of vegetables, and found that after just three weeks, the mice lost 70 to 80 percent of a kind of white blood cell called intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs), which, the press release states, "play a critical role in monitoring the large number of micro-organisms present in the intestine, keeping infections at bay and maintaining a healthy gut."

The researchers posit that a substance known as indole-3-carbinol, prominent in leafy greens, is responsible for maintaining these white blood cells. Take it out of the diet, apparently, and the cells die. Here's a graphical depiction of their findings:

Image: Babraham Institute

One of the researchers, Marc Veldhoen, remarked that, "since the new diet contained all other known essential ingredients such as minerals and vitamins,” the results surprised him. But .... [f]oodstuffs are complex .... Whole foods interact with our bodies in ways we are only beginning to understand.

Read the rest of Tom Philpott's Eat Your Greens, or Your Gut Gets It and follow his column at MoJo (Mother Jones online)

Announcing the #NMCentennial #Gardens Program

2011-11-04T10:25:00.001-07:00

Something for #Mountainair #CommunityGarden or perhaps the Manzano Mountain Art Council (partnering with MPS) to consider. Please note that "priority will be given to both limited-resource communities and to projects that demonstrate strong collaborations and community support."

Centennial Gardens - Call for Proposals





The New Mexico Centennial Gardens Program is an initiative of the New Mexico Centennial Foundation, working in partnership with state agencies and private partners. Thanks to the generosity of the Coca-Cola Foundation, the NM Centennial Foundation is able to provide grants to support school and community garden projects in New Mexico in 2012. Grants will be available at levels of $2,500, $5,000 and $10,000. To be eligible for a Centennial Garden grant, applicants must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or nonprofit K-12 school that is developing or currently maintaining a garden project that will help communities engage with fresh fruits and vegetables. Garden projects may be at any stage of development; planning, construction or operation. In selecting grant recipients, priority will be given to both limited-resource communities and to projects that demonstrate strong collaborations and community support. Relationships with food banks or other outlets to distribute food to New Mexicans in need are a plus. To download the guidelines and application please visit the NM Centennial website or call 505-984-2012. The application deadline is January 13, 2012.

The #gardening Daily, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011

2011-10-31T07:51:00.001-07:00

In this issue, Dirt Lovers Diary and Manure Tea articles look particularly interesting ~ or maybe that is just my taste for unusual titles. Seriously though, the first (DLD) links to an article, "Wintering Plants for Next Season," relevant to current gardening concerns.

Do you have tips for wintering plants in the New Mexico high desert or know a local gardening wizard experienced with local gardening conditions? Please share them with us. Besides blogging them, iCreate could assemble a collection local gardening lore to publish on line and make available to all.

The #gardening Daily

Monday, Oct. 31, 2011

HEADLINE

Win a Sampler Pack of Manure Tea

For our October 2011 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, Washington Gardener Magazine is giving away a Sampler Pack of Manure Tea, which includes one each Cow, Horse, and Alfalfa manure tea bags fr...

WDCGardener

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

	WDCGardener		thriftyandgreen

	yums_ville		GoHomeMARKet

TABLE OF CONTENT

221 articles, 9 photos and 1 videos by 112 contributors

Stories	44
Leisure	41
Technology	9
Environment	6
Education	5
Health	4
#green	20
#garden	20

OTHER HEADLINES OF INTEREST TODAY

Dirt Lovers Diary: Wintering Plants for Next Season

Published on Lawn Science Lawn Care

thriftyandgreen

Weapons of Marketing - How to Pitch to the WWW

Published on Green #Advertising Daily

GreenhostIt

Sat Oct 29, Music in Mountainair: iCreate Recital

2011-10-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

Pueblo Art-Deco Ceiling, Shaffer Hotel Dining Room, Packs Cafe

RMJ Photography 2008, on Flickriver

iCreate's Music Outreach program will hold its first #Mountainair recital Saturday October 29, 4 pm at Packs Cafe in the Shaffer Hotel. Performing in public is the final program completion requirement. Performances by students completing certificates include a solo by Wyatt Greene and a trio of five songs by students from the adult class. Depending on yesterday afternoon's lesson, additional students may join the recital playbill.

iCreate thanks Alita Garcia at Pete's Carpet Thrift Story on Broadway for donating lesson space and would like to recommend supporting this new business (or rebirth of an old one made over ~ Pete's Carpets + Thrift Store) to our iCreate friends and supports. Shop local and support Music Outreach's program and free guitar and violin lessons in Mountainair

Kay working with a Music Outreach student at Off-Center

(cross-posted to Mountainair Announcements and iCreate NM)

A Guitar Lesson

2011-10-21T16:01:00.001-07:00

Via Stephen Downes' OLDaily, a very different part of my life from the #Mountainair NM community blogging part. #change11 and other #MOOC/s are experimental, innovative mind stretching online learning experiences. Worlds do intersect. Techies and Luddites find common cause. Serendipity and synergy happen upon us unawares. Only unawares and unanticipated.

This fits the music outreach side of iCreate that tends to get short end of blogging... thereby recalling me not just back to music but other creative projects. Another experimental course, #CMC11, Creativity & Multicultural Communication comes to mind.

Guitar Lesson 5

Dean Shareski, Ideas and Thoughts, October 18, 2011

Stephen comments,

Dean Shareski and some of his students are trying to learn things and documenting the results. His guitar lessons are interesting, and I quite like his students' non-traditional learning:

Cole...learning Japanese
Nicole...learning crochet
Hillary...learning meditation
Edgar...learning Assassin's Creed
Courtney...learning to draw

It's interesting that it doesn't matter what they are learning - by documenting their progress, they are not only improving their learning, they are - over time - learning how to learn. And I like what Shareski is doing, modelling the process, and not just talking about it.

[Tags: Project Based Learning, Online Learning, Ontologies]

#NMSU ACES Master Gardener Project

2011-10-19T15:56:00.001-07:00


For the #Mountainair #CommunityGarden and local gardeners: nmsuaces just uploaded a video. I'm waiting on garden pictures from our master gardener but won't let that keep me from posting in the meantime. seed 2 need master gardener project More

Preparing for the Unexpected

2011-10-18T21:24:00.001-07:00

Another food security and sustainability video from peakmoment

Soccer Mom Prepares for the Unexpected

Peak Moment 203: "I have a ball preserving food with my friends!" And at the same time Kathy Harrison is making sure her kids can eat if storms knock out power or roads. The author of "Just in Case: How to Be Self Sufficient when The Unexpected Happens" gives practical tips on storing food without getting overwhelmed. She looks at dehydrating, canning, and root cellaring; finding and preserving local food, and buying food at discount. For Kathy, preparedness is an empowering, community activity. More

#CommunityGarden Field (literally) Trip

2011-10-17T14:41:00.001-07:00

#Mountainair Community Garden Manager Joan Embree writes about scheduling a gardening field trip. Although addressing garden volunteers, local gardeners and prospective volunteers are also invited.

Sunflowers from the Southern Fields

Greetings, all,

We talked about making a road trip to see how the "big girls" do community gardening at the Rio Grande Community Farm. I have finally been successful in talking to someone there and found out that the garden is open for volunteer work Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m., so the coordinater would be there to show us around.

Do we want to schedule a visit to the farm to see what goes on there and how it's done? If so, when would we like to make the trip? Oct. 29? (That's the same day as the Cibola Halloween Party.) Nov. 5? (Art Center Community show?) Nov. 12? (Tuesdays are all booked on my calender.)

Let me know what would work for you.

Joan Embree

⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘

Here's a food blog~ or close enough ~a day late for Blog Action Day 2011. This is Mountainair: what's a day or so among friends. Besides, we've been blogging #BAD11 topics regularly and will continue to.

Blog Action Day 2011

2011-10-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

Find a food pantry

2011-10-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

... if not for food, then to help feed the hungry by donating, volunteering or, preferably, both.

The application Findafoodpantry.org is still in beta. If you spot a problem, please tell them about it. The database currently contains information about 10183 food pantries across the nation. Whether looking for help or a place to volunteer or donate, it has never been easier to find a food pantry in your community.

Both St Vincent de Paul and the Nazarene Church in Mountainair run local food banks for emergency assistance. Are they listed? If not, should they be. Whether or not listed, you know about them: so support them. The Promised Land, Danielle Clarke Director, sponsors the RoadRunner's mobile pantry stop in Mountainair. I haven't checked up recently and should, so add that to the list.

Tentative community garden plans for 2012, as yet unconfirmed include something resembling "plant a row to feed the hungry." How's that for doubling up on ambiguity? A good idea that need not be limited to the community garden ~ one for any gardener in the community with room for an extra row.

'via Blog this'

Autumn Gardening

2011-10-07T09:07:00.001-07:00

Praxxus55712 just uploaded a video:

EZ Autumn Composting with Leaves!

Autumn isn't the end of gardening season. The gardening adventure never end and never ceases to be FREE, educational and just plain FUN! Join me in the backyard for a fantastic day in the sunshine. I have a bag of leaves and a very cool idea on how to easily improve your garden soil. Leaf compost attracts worms like a super magnet. Worms in your garden will mean crazy good soil for your next growing season.

ps: How is your autumn going so far? Are the leaves turning or have they already fallen? More

iCreate Music Lessons Relocates

2011-10-03T19:20:00.001-07:00

Free lessons for all ages through iCreate's Music Outreach Program, now at Pete's Carpet Thrift Store, 118 West Broadway. Practice instruments available, donations accepted. Everyone welcome

Schedule:

Tuesdays, 3-4pm, guitar lessons

Contact:

Kay Stillion, 847-0448

Lenora Romero, 847-2419

Cross posted to iCreateNM & Mountainair Announcements

Fall Gardening...

2011-09-30T15:41:00.001-07:00

Want ideas on when to do what in your garden, now that it's Fall? The Common Ground community garden website (arid if not as much so as NM but same latitude and still Southwest) provides three different ways of learning, all under "Garden Tips for Los Angeles County":

Monthly discussion – Why each month is the best time to do all the different things that need doing. Each month's information is separated into Edibles, Ornamentals, and General.
Monthly Checklist – Specific activities and listing of which plants that apply
Six-month Overview – Outline by topics such as soil, irrigation, composting; also includes the monthly checklists at the end.

Manager and Master Gardener Yvonne Savio also writes about and photographs her Pasadena garden for an every-other-Thursday Southern California Coastal and Inland Valleys Regional Report for the National Gardening Association. You can subscribe by going to the website and clicking on "Free Newsletters" in the upper left corner.

Children of the Corn: Tuscarora Indian Reservation

2011-09-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

A story about heirloom seeds and heritage agriculture well worth reading....

"This corn...has been grown by the Tuscarora since they lived in what was not yet the Carolinas, and for who knows how long before that. During the four-year Tuscarora war ~ which killed more than a thousand American Indians and settlers before its end in 1715 ~ the corn traveled with the Tuscarora in their episodic exodus from the South, through Pennsylvania, and into New York, where the tribe was adopted as one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois [the oldest living participatory democracy on earth] in 1722.

Tuscarora corn flourished until the boom in highly mechanized industrial agriculture that began in the 1950s and then, like so many breeds and crop varieties across the country, it dwindled until only a few families were still growing it in the traditional way."

Natural selection Strings of Tuscarora corn,

40 and 50 ears to a braid, hung from rafters,

"The way to assess Tuscarora corn is not to gauge its difference from the genetically engineered corn being grown in fields a few miles from the Tuscarora Nation. Gauge its difference instead from the species — or species plural — from which maize originated as long ago as the oldest bristlecone pine. It is a long way, geographically and temporally, from the tiny ancestral ears of Mesoamerican corn to Tuscarora corn. Embedded in the ear I was holding was not only the tremendous adaptability of Zea mays but also the will and the needs of a people, expressed family by family."

T: STYLE | September 21, 2011
T Magazine: Children of the Corn By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
An Iroquois tribe's heritage seed survives the ages.

Briefly Updated + Edible Education [video]

2011-09-24T07:37:00.001-07:00

Meeting changes:

Today's Community Garden Workday and Fall Planning session at Mountain Arts on Broadway site has been postponed to October, but Joan E, Kristine and Addie will be at the garden around 10am to do some tidying up and planning extended beds. Volunteers and visitors, as ever, are welcome. Today might be a good day to drop by and ask questions.

Due to the Shaffer Hotel closing Thursday (no more Packs Family at the helm), the iCreate board will meet at Lenora's. Since the meeting is not being held in a public location, this one will not, as per usual policy, be open to the public. If you have questions about iCreate or wish to suggest items for the agenda, call Kay Stillion at 847-2301. Agenda items include: music outreach donations and thank you notes, new location for Mountainair classes; grant plans and deadlines, community garden and SEEDS project

Associated Links: I embed links just in case anyone reading is interested in following them. Today's links added to the video notice strike me as being of particular interest. The Edible Schoolyard is a lovely site, definitely worth a visit, and certainly related to SEEDS, the community outreach and sustainability components of the iCreate mission. Joan Embree will certainly be familiar with Chez Panisse and its foundation.

UCBerkeley

Edible Education: The Politics of Food

Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, Paulette Goddard Professor in Dept. of Nutrition at NYU

Sponsored by The EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD PROJECT with support from Stephen Silberstein and the KNIGHT FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM Live Stream and sponsored by BON APPETIT Management Company Instructors MICHAEL POLLAN and NIKKI HENDERSON (People's Grocery).... More

KGI News: a global community cultivating change

2011-09-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

High school teacher Adam Guerrero of Memphis, TN has been cited for his front yard kitchen garden. Please help send a message to local officials there that Adam and his garden are not the problem, but part of the solution.

Act Now

Follow On Twitter

Join Us On Facebook

Earthworms, bees, eggplants, oh my!

If it seems like just last month that a kitchen gardener was facing legal woes for planting a subversive plot in a front yard, it wasn't: it was two months ago! Last time around, it was a mother of four from Michigan who was facing a possible 93 day jail sentence for her tidy raised bed garden. This time it's Adam Guerrero, a high school math teacher from Memphis, Tennessee, who's feeding himself from his front yard, keeping bees and worm composting bins in his back yard and using it all to teach teenagers in his community about healthy eating and living. Read his story and show your solidarity here»

Dear Kitchen Gardener:

Ten days ago, I gave a TEDx talk in Portland, Maine called a "A Subversive Plot" about why and how the kitchen garden revolution needs to be taken to the next level if we're going to meet the health, environmental and economic challenges we face. It was a very inspiring event to be a part of and I'll share the video of my talk as soon as it's ready.

One of the action points from my talk is that we need to decriminalize kitchen gardening. Audience members were surprised to hear that in our age of global warming, peak oil, and peak obesity that there are still people in the US who can't grow healthy food on their own property where the sun shines the strongest and longest. The sad truth is that public policy has not yet caught up with the public and our understanding of the issues shaping our lives, our communities and our planet.

The happier truth is that together we can pull public policymakers - kicking and screaming, if needed - into the 21st century. How do I know it? Well, because we've done it before. The KGI community played a leading role in showing solidarity for Oak Park, Michigan gardener, Julie Bass, when she was cited for her frontyard garden earlier this summer.We began blogging, tweeting and posting it on our facebook group on July 5th and just a couple days later the story was broken wide open by TreeHugger.com and other news outlets. And just a few weeks after that, Oak Park officials dropped charges against Julie citing the numerous phone calls and emails they received from gardeners across the country.

It's once again time for us kitchen gardeners to stand together in solidarity. When one person wins the right to garden, we all win.

Thanks for being part of the KGI community and for growing a better world, Roger

New Look!

Over the course of the coming weeks, we're going to be rolling out a new look, new website for KGI and new url (KGI.org) and you can think of this newsletter as a sort of visual appetizer for that larger feast. If you're interested in volunteering to test the site and help improve it before launch, please us know here. I've said before and I'll say it again: there's no Kitchen Gardeners International without the support and involvement of kitchen gardeners. Thanks.

New KGI Tumblr Blog

Pop quiz: what blogging platform has the most blogs? If you answered "Wordpress" you've stumbled or, I should say, tumbled into my trap. It's actually Tumblr with over 20 million blogs built on it. As part of our ongoing efforts to take our healthy kitchen garden message to new places and new people, we have a new Tumblr blog where we'll be sharing our best stuff. If you're using Tumblr, please follow us here.

News You Can Use

KGI in the News:
Bangor Daily News
Mother Nature Network

Upcoming Events

World Food Day
Food Day (USA)

Blog with KGI!

Are you garden writer, blogger, or teacher with access to a digital camera? Do you have a unique geographic perspective or area of expertise that you'd like to share with thousands of other gardeners? If so, we'd love to have you blog with us. All you need to do is join our site (or log in, if you've already joined) and click on this link to add a blog post of your own.

Agroforestry and fighting poverty with trees - The BusyTrees Campaign | Permaculture Magazine

2011-09-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

This article from #Permaculture Magazine caught my eye. iCreate is about both creativity and sustainability. This idea is both. The article is also about desert agriculture and issues the community garden has had to deal with: water and shading young plants from strong sun. We could use a few Faidherbia albida trees too. I wonder how these members of the acacia family handle altitude?

"Jessie Bernard describes how agroforestry can make a big difference, relieving poverty and increasing food security in countries in Africa and other parts of the 'developing' world. By improving nutrition, agroforestry can also save lives..."

Bumper harvests

"Mixing the right trees with complimentary crops can boost yields and enhance incomes in poor regions such as Africa. Maize farmers In Malawi, for example, have doubled and even tripled their harvests by introducing the fertiliser tree Faidherbia albida onto their plots.

"Faidherbia is a nitrogen-fixing acacia that improves the soil while providing good shade for poor farmers' young maize seedlings early in their growth when they need it most," explains Paul Stapleton from the World Agroforestry Centre. "But the tree sheds its leaves in the rainy season, which means that maize crops grown with Faidherbia get the maximum sunlight when they mature – just when they need."

And that's not the only benefit of this particular species. Because it has a very deep tap root, Faidherbia is drought resistant, and doesn't compete with shallow-rooted maize crops for water. Plus, the nitrogen-rich leaves are a fantastic fertiliser for poor farmers who can't afford pricey and environmentally risky chemicals."

Agroforestry and fighting poverty with trees - The BusyTrees Campaign

'via Blog this'

Agriculture Changes Deserts From The Ground Up

2011-09-10T15:02:00.001-07:00

No doubt New Mexico gardeners will relate better to desert agriculture than to Canadian horticulture (a word that always makes me think of of Dorothy Parker for reasons that have nothing to do with gardening). Egypt and Hungary may seem too distant to be of interest but the conclusions should not be. For all its challenges, notably water, desert agriculture also presents unique potential for resistant, diverse soil bacteria and carbon capture

Agriculture Changes Deserts From The Ground Up, a Science 2.0 article by Caitlin Knight, September 9, 2011 (short URL http://tinyurl.com/3ljhvlr)

As human population numbers worldwide continue to increase, we are having to be increasingly clever about finding ways to produce enough food for all consumers. One potential technique is converting deserts into agricultural landscapes. Anyone who knows their history will be aware that this practice is by no means new, but modern technology allows desert farming on much larger scales--not only creating larger agricultural areas, but also producing greater quantities of food.

There have been several studies investigating the feasibility of large-scale desert farming, but one variable that has not received much attention is bacteria--specifically, the type and function of bacteria that are present in desert soils. One thing that is known is that deserts have much more bountiful and diverse bacterial communities than once thought. This is impressive given that these creatures have to tolerate extreme temperatures, the threat of desiccation, high soil salinity, low nutrient levels, high summer UV radiation levels, and physical instability caused by wind. But how will they fare against the introduction of agricultural crops? If they form partnerships with plants (by living in or near plant roots), might they have beneficial effects on crops by buffering them from soil pathogens?

Collaborating scientists from Austria's Graz University of Technology and Egypt's SEKEM and Heliopolis University collected soil samples from in and around desert agricultural fields used to grow German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.), pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.), and Solanum distichum Schumach&Thonn. (an African herb in the nightshade family). By subjecting the samples to different types of DNA analyses and culturing techniques, they were able to compare bacterial communities between farm and desert soil, identify particular species groups and individual species present at the two types of site, and investigate the potential anti-fungal capabilities of different soil
species.

Desert agriculture has the potential to have many positive effects, including generating more food in poor regions, producing renewable crops for industrial application, and capturing/restoring carbon dioxide in the soil. One of the known drawbacks of this method is the amount of water required for irrigation; for example, approximately 5 billion cubic meters of water is thought to be necessary for the 40% growth of desert farmland forecast for Egypt over the next 6 years. On top of this, the current study indicates that farming will also alter soil bacterial composition; however, while some of the more extreme-habitat-loving bacteria disappeared from agricultural soils, the overall diversity of the bacterial community was actually higher in farm sites. Read the complete article online.

Cited: Kerl, M., Mler, H., Ramadan, E.M., and Berg, G. Desert farming benefits from microbial potential in arid soils and promotes diversity and plant health. 2011. PLoS ONE 6(9):e24452

Additional Desert Agriculture links

ADASR - exploring, researching and reviving ancient desert agriculture systems
UC Desert Research and Extension Center

#CommunityGarden Coffee & Conversation, Thu Sep8

2011-09-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

A Mountainainair announcement x-posted to Mountainair Announcements and listed on the Community Calendar. Community Garden Manager Joan Embree writes to invite community gardeners and supporters of the Mountainair Community Garden

Gardeners and friends of the community garden: We will gather Thursday at 10 am at Alpine Alley to talk about this gardening season and next. Bring ideas.

Country Clip Art graphics

Among the questions we might discuss is whether or not to have a booth at this year's Arts and Crafts Fair in November. Last year we had LOTS of green tomatoes to deal with. This year, not. What could we make and sell while we're talking up the community garden effort?

Hope to see you Thursday ~ Joan Embree

☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼

And finally, a few gardening links to tide you over until Thursday's meeting:

The #gardening Daily Newsletter featuring links to articles on homegrown herbs, broccoli rabe, preserving and canning, composting, beekeeping, soil and water management, post Labor Day home and garden ideas, gardening tips, videos, ideas, news and more. Subscribe by email.
Kitchen Gardeners International, a global community cultivating change and home of World Kitchen Garden Day: gardening articles, recipes, blogs, seed ordering advice, a YouTube channel and more. Subscribe to email newsletter.
NMSU Extension "ACES" YouTube Channel featuring how-to videos for NM gardening

Ed. Note: this is all the agenda available for this meeting, Presumably a de facto agenda would also include: garden update; financia report (account balance, disbursements and projected expenses); informal recap of this season's gardening and the experimental "instant garden;" discussion and tentative decision-making about the garden's location and plans for the next growing season; off-season and fall/winter gardening plans

A Community Garden video

2011-08-31T14:48:00.001-07:00

Given what that iCreate and local community garden updates can get thin on the ground and even I tire of emailing reminders, I am always happy to see notice from Yvonne Savio, Common Ground Garden Program Manager, UC Cooperative Extension. There's something in the mail from iCreate's 'burque pardner, to cover the rest of update obligations. So extra thanks Yvonne from this weary blogger for sharing and thanks to original sharer, LA County community gardener Melissa Hauck, who writes...

I'm a gardener at of one of the newest LA County Community Gardens here in Azusa which has just opened in April of this year.

Underdog Mural Program at Sierra High School, Azusa.

Elaine Stricklin, Art Teacher.

Rohit Kumar (of Local Blu & The Growing Home in Diamond Bar) interviewed local gardeners this past Sunday and made a short video of our own garden and gardeners which is the featured post on Local Blu right now. I thought other community gardeners would enjoy seeing what we've got growing on here in Azusa in such a short amount of time, and that we still have some plots available for rent. The video can be viewed online. Please visit the Azusa Community Garden webiste too. Thanks! Melissa Hauck

Must-Try Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2011-08-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Too much zucchini in the garden? Neighbors bring back the zucchini you leave on their porches in the middle the night? Tired of zucchini bread and frittatas? Try this. Everything goes better with chocolate....

Must-Try Chocolate Zucchini Cake

You have heard of carrot cake, but have you ever tasted zucchini cake? Fresh shreds of zucchini are mixed in a chocolate cake batter for a delicious and light dessert. You can pour the batter into a bundt cake mold or a cupcake pan for individual portions. I like to top mine with a chocolate glaze but it is also yummy with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. This zucchini cake is a sweet way to eat your veggies.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups organic unbleached flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup best quality unsweetened premium cocoa powder (i like scharffen berger)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups cold water

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons pure balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups finely shredded zucchini (I use a box grater)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt cake pan using extra virgin olive oil. add the first 6 ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix. add rest of ingredients and stir, using the paddle attachment, until just incorporated. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake 45 min to 1 hour.

Test for doneness by sticking a skewer, chopstick or knife into center of cake. If your tester is clean when you remove, the cake is ready. Rest on a rack for 30 minutes. Invert onto cake plate and allow to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Why Can’t We Recycle All Plastics Together?

2011-08-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

iCreate's sustainability mission takes in more than food sovereignty and community gardening. Blogging about recycling combines "sustainability" and "education," another important mission. Watch for regular reycling features ~ from compost to plastics and beyond. Additionally, creating art, whether functional, wearable or for arts sake, from recycleables connects both sustainability with the creativity mission inscribed in our very name. Recycling, reusing, upcycling, repurposing .... economic and environmental virtues by any name.

Dear EarthTalk: Why can’t plastics of all types, instead of being initially sorted, simply be melted together to be separated later? It must be a monumental and error-prone task to separate truckloads of plastics.
The reason plastics aren’t typically melted together and then separated later is a matter of both physics and economics. When any of the seven common types of plastic resins are melted together, they tend to separate and then set in layers. The resulting blended plastic is structurally weak and difficult to manipulate. While the layered plastic could in theory be melted again and separated into its constituent resins, the energy inputs required to do so would make such a process cost prohibitive.
As a result, recycling facilities sort their plastics first and then melt them down only with other items made of the same type of resin. While this process is labor-intensive, the recycling numbers on the bottom of many plastic items make for quicker sorting. Many recycling operations are not only reducing sizable amounts of waste from going into landfills but are also profitable if managed correctly.... (See What do recycling numbers mean)

But even though recycling operations have developed relatively efficient systems for generating reclaimed resins, many environmentalists recommend that consumers still avoid plastics as much as possible....Along these lines, products (or packaging) made out of reusable metal, glass or even wood are preferable to equivalent items made from plastic. For starters, an item of metal, glass or wood can be re-used by someone else or recycled much more efficiently than plastic when it does reach the end of its useful life to you. Wood products and other items crafted out of plant material—even so-called “polylactic acid (PLA) plastic” made from plant-based agricultural wastes—can be composted along with your yard waste and food scraps, either in your backyard or, if your town or city offers it, through your municipal collection system. Happy reducing, reusing and recycling!
Read the whole article at Why Can’t We Recycle All Plastics Together?
CONTACTS: Earth911, www.earth911.com; EcoCycle, www.ecocycle.org.
EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com
You may also enjoy:

Can You Recycle Plastic Sandwich Bags?

EarthTalk: On Leaching Plastics For Food Storage.

EarthTalk: Is #5 Plastic Safe?

How And Where To Recycle An Old Mattress.

Help! My Town Doesn’t Recycle Plastic!

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden: Sustainable Gardening & Agriculture Links

2011-08-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

Selected links from Yvonne Savio's community gardening mailing list. The first is an international magazine published from the UK. The article on mobile gardening looks especially interesting. Others open doors onto community gardening around the world. As obvious from the titles, the next two are domestic. The American Community Garden newsletter lists many practical, how-to articles and gardening tips.

Soiled and Seeded: Issue 4

Contributors represent an interdisciplinary group of writers, artists, educators, scientists and photographers - from around the world.

California Agriculture! View entire contents and subscribe online.

e-newsletter from the American Community Gardening Association

OFFCenter Community Arts , August 5-12

2011-08-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

iCreate's Albuquerque music outreach partner offers art and folk art history exhibits, workshops, classes, music and more ....

LAST CHANCE TO SUBMIT ARTWORK FOR AUGUST EXHIBIT....

"It's About Time…" Visual Exhibit of Time and Clock Art
Submit your artistic notions of time from seconds to epochs or put your spin on your own clock.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Wed., July 27 through Wed., Aug 3rd

Drop off art during our regular open studio hours. Limit 2 pieces per artist, any medium. Artists are encouraged to submit artist statements or statements about their work, preferably typewritten.

OPENS -- Fri., Aug. 5th, 5 - 8 pm

CoffeeHouse FREE Musical Performance

Friday, Aug. 19th, 5 - 8 pm

Come enjoy the "It's About Time" exhibit of clock art and visual notions of time and then jive to the passing beat with a special "Pass the Hat" Coffee House musical performance by the homegrown New Mexican rhythm and blues sounds of Sherri and The Impalas.

Donate funky, artsy, unique items to our Fundraising White Elephant Yard Sale

Bring in your items to OFFCenter...(or buy cool things with 100% proceeds going to support OFFCenter).

Sale going on now at OFFCenter up through the Folk Art Festival on Sept. 11th.

Exhibit at the Main Public Library - History of the Folk Art Festival

Opens Friday, August 5th - during regular Main Public Library Hours - 1st and 2nd floor cases.

(Free parking with library validation at the 5th and Tijeras Public Parking Lot)

Thanks to the Main Public Library for hosting an exhibit of Folk Art Festival Memorabilia to help OFFCenter get out the word about Emerging & Folk Artists and the work that OFFCenter does to support them. Check out the giant puppets, past flyers, photos of past years' events, vendors and activities and samples of some of the artwork you can expect to see.

Upcoming Workshop -- One Million Bones

Friday, August 12th, 1 - 3 pm at OFFCenter Community Arts

$5 suggested donation - Please call to sign-up (247-1172)

Come join us for a fun and meaningful afternoon of bone making from clay - tibulas, ribs, femurs, skulls, etc. for an artistic project that supports the ONE MILLION BONES PROJECT -- a social arts practice working toward raising awareness of the genocides in Sudan, Burma, and the Congo. Bones created in this workshop will be part of the 1,000,000 bones to be delivered to Washington D.C. as a visual protest against genocide. (Brought to you by Naomi Natale of the Cradle Project)

Access our schedule of events/workshops at our online calendar:

ON-GOING, FREE CREATIVITY WORKGROUPS

Hands-On! Sewing/Knitting Circle Wed: 2-3 pm and Sat: 11am-Noon
Writing Group with Mandy Gardner - Wednesdays: 3-4pm
Painting and Drawing with Dave Blecha - Thursdays: 1-3pm
Card Making with Karen Turner - Thursdays: 3-5pm
Basic Guitar with Kay Stillion - Fridays: 2:30-3:30pm
Printmaking/Book Arts with Adabel Allen and guest artists -- 3rd Tuesday of Month, 5 - 7:30 pm and 3rd Saturday of the Month, 12 - 2 pm - Aug through Nov. 2011

a community garden success story

2011-07-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

AmeriCorps workers, veterans plant #communitygarden, When two AmeriCorps VISTA workers first talked about planting a garden at Independence Hall, a residence for homeless veterans in the Heights, Director Billy Holder figured they were planning a fairly small garden plot.

Now, looking at a 70-by-50-foot garden teeming with vegetables, herbs and fruit trees and realizing it’s going to produce much more food than the 20 men living in Independence Hall will be able to eat, Holder admits, “They’ll use a lot, but they won’t be able to use it all."

But that’s OK: excess food will go to low-income senior citizens, homeless people and residents of the Women’s and Family Shelter. It’s all part of the mission of the Billings Metro VISTA Project run by the city’s Community Development Division in conjunction with the Mayor’s Committee on Homelessness. Its goal is to create or expand community-based projects and services that prevent homelessness or provide help to the homeless.

AmeriCorps workers Hanna Noel and Jill Bunge have been working on the project for the past year, and it was they who approached Independence Hall about planting a garden. They worked with the residents of the hall to install, plant and maintain the garden. Individuals, groups and businesses from all over the community helped.

Read the rest of the story in the Billings Gazette

How Many Community Gardens?

2011-07-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Deciding how to lay out the "instant garden" against backdrop of art center's mural in progress

How many? #Mountainair's community gardeners are still working on the challenge of just one garden. After starting with a single crop (garlic) in a less than idea local, relocating to idyllic garden space at Mojave Rose and now creating (necessity can be a real mother) an experimental "instant garden" courtesy of the Manzano Mountain Art Council's gracious offer of space at its new art center space, Mountain Arts on Broadway, we may probably put more mileage on our community garden than the norm. We're still here...

It may not be too soon to think of multiple community gardens, but no more than just thinking when we can't be sure where this one will be next year. In the meantime, we can keep learning, attending Claunch-Pinto SWCD/ County NMSU Extension workshops, weaving a network of local gardeners, supporting the new local farmers market, Mountainair Farm & Garden Market and encouraging local growers, producers, processors and artisans

How Many Community Gardens?

Peak Moment 198: Having learned "How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House?" (Peak Moment 72), Judy Alexander kept right on going. As chair of the Local 2020 Food Resiliency Action Group in Port Townsend, WA, she helped initiate 25 community gardens in her county within four years. Sitting in her own neighborhood's garden, she talks about the power of cooperative gardens compared with individual plots. Thereapos;s something for people of all ages and skills to do (even non-gardeners), while enjoying learning from one another, and building closer neighbors and a more secure community. More

Peak Moment #198: How Many Community Gardens? Listen to Audio. Download video on iTunes. Watch the video »

Video Break: orange seedlings, raised beds, post-petro man

2011-07-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

Praxxus55712 just uploaded a video:

Viewer Requested Updates!

A couple of updates requested most by viewers along with a very easy to follow way to sprout an orange seed and get it growing fast.

For your viewing pleasure, Buddy will break dance and the lovely Datura will spill her pollen. A 600 year old guest makes a cameo appearance! You won't want to miss this episode! :) More

Portable raised beds, compost tea and Pineapple flowers!

Help Center | Email Options

peakmoment just uploaded a video:

Arrival of the Post-Petroleum Human

Peak Moment 196: "Petroleum Man is dead. Infinite Growth Man is dead. Post Petroleum Human is alive," announced Michael C. Ruppert on May 22, 2011. Members of this emerging "species" know they must live in balance with the Earth, while remembering the lessons of industrial civilization. The star and subject of the documentary "Collapse", Mike founded CollapseNet.org in 2010 to empower people to connect and relocalize.More

Art of homeless to be displayed at museum | Riverside | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

2011-07-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

Not all creative outreach is music. The story below is an example of art outreach. iCreate's Albuquerque partner, Off-Center Community Arts, offers creative outreach classes in art, crafts and writing as well as sponsoring iCreate music outreach

Could iCreate and the Manzano Mountain Arts Council do something comparable in Mountainair? Why not?

"Some of the people temporarily living in the Path of Life Ministries homeless shelter in Riverside thought they'd never do art again. At least that is what they told Riverside Art Museum ArtReach instructor Lydia Theon Ware i.

She and fellow instructor Laura Ryan came in to the shelter several times from May 2010 to April 30, 2011 and guided the residents in creating paintings, poetry, journals and other projects. The resulting artwork will be on display today at 6 p.m. at the museum during Riverside's monthly Arts Walk.

The idea for ArtReach came to MJ Abraham, executive director of the Riverside Art Museum, when she visited one of the shelters last year and saw the stark, uninviting walls.

Abraham thought she could donate pieces of the museum's collections in order to brighten it up, but on second thought, giving the shelter's residents the opportunity to create their own art for display sounded more appealing."

Art of homeless to be displayed at museum | Riverside, California

Guitar Heroism: Veterans Fight PTSD With Music

2011-07-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

More Music Outreach...

"An alternative treatment for veterans suffering the effects of PTSD and traumatic brain injury is growing in popularity, as is its wait list. The program, started by a Vietnam veteran, uses the soothing sounds of the guitar to help heal the vivid memory of bomb blasts, gunfire and other lingering symptoms of combat. Erin Toner of WUWM reports."

Download or listen to the story, Guitar Heroism: Veterans Fight PTSD With Music : NPR

More....

Music Therapy Helps Vets Control Symptoms of PTSD

Music therapy for traumatic brain injury

Charity Workers ARRESTED for Feeding the Homeless

2011-07-02T11:32:00.001-07:00

The mayor of Orlando is calling the activists “food terrorists” and says the activists are seeking attention more than wanting to feed people. So what if they are? Why would anyone want to demonize people who are feeding the homeless? I sense another pristine park for the “right kinds of people” issue here

via sloppyunruh.com

How to grow chillies

2011-06-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another entry for the Community Garden "instant garden" and container gardening enthusiasts ~ even for the house bound and indoor gardener. Don't cop an attitude about the advice coming from a UK not an NM grower. Life on the Balcony, a great container gardening site, is about urban gardening but the tips and how to instructions will work here too,

They're a great crop for a busy life. Just follow a few simple rules and you could be harvesting chillies until Christmas.

Joanna Plumb is an expert chilli grower and owner of Edible Ornamentals, growing thousands of chillies every year for everyone from supermarkets to Fortnum & Mason. She's convinced that these hot fruits are a great crop for the style of growing most of us can manage in modern life: chillies are perfectly content in a pot on a sunny windowsill or patio, with fruits that can be picked over a long period and easily stored for the following year.

It's too late to grow chillies from seed this year, but now's the perfect time to buy a couple of plants: if you pick the right variety, you should be harvesting until Christmas. The best ones for growing on windowsills and patios are compact and bushy

How to grow chillies | Life and style | The Guardian

iCreate, NM

PEW Campaign on Human Health & Industrial Farming

Renewable Energy: Solar

Step By Step Aquaponic Greenhouse Trickle System.

Fighting for Scraps

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden meeting

Video: A Community Garden for Refugees in Atlanta

#Mountainair Music: iCreate violin & guitar lessons & more

Winter #gardening to do list & tips

Gardening Videos

Local Food and The Farm Bill

Updates, news & a call to action

next #Mountainair iCreate recital & meeting

STOP SOPA: #SOPASTRIKE Jan18

Xeriscape & Water Conservation Conference 2012

OffCenter Community Arts Calendar

Yeah for Gardening!

how to organize #communitygarden for a food pantry

Music Outreach Program

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden Fall Report

Captain Planet Foundation Grants

Conditions for Eligibility

Submission and Deadlines for Receipt of Applications

November Peak Moment Newsletter

Janaia's Journal

Latest programs

Ideas for Sustainable Living: Undriving

Eat Your Greens, or Your Gut Gets It

Announcing the #NMCentennial #Gardens Program

Centennial Gardens - Call for Proposals

The #gardening Daily, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011

Win a Sampler Pack of Manure Tea

Sat Oct 29, Music in Mountainair: iCreate Recital

A Guitar Lesson

#NMSU ACES Master Gardener Project

Preparing for the Unexpected

#CommunityGarden Field (literally) Trip

Blog Action Day 2011

Find a food pantry

Autumn Gardening

iCreate Music Lessons Relocates

Fall Gardening...

Children of the Corn: Tuscarora Indian Reservation

Briefly Updated + Edible Education [video]

KGI News: a global community cultivating change

Earthworms, bees, eggplants, oh my!

Dear Kitchen Gardener:

New Look!

New KGI Tumblr Blog

News You Can Use

Upcoming Events

Blog with KGI!

Agroforestry and fighting poverty with trees - The BusyTrees Campaign | Permaculture Magazine

Agriculture Changes Deserts From The Ground Up

#CommunityGarden Coffee & Conversation, Thu Sep8

A Community Garden video

Must-Try Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Why Can’t We Recycle All Plastics Together?

#Mountainair #CommunityGarden: Sustainable Gardening & Agriculture Links

OFFCenter Community Arts , August 5-12

a community garden success story

How Many Community Gardens?

Video Break: orange seedlings, raised beds, post-petro man

Art of homeless to be displayed at museum | Riverside | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Guitar Heroism: Veterans Fight PTSD With Music

Charity Workers ARRESTED for Feeding the Homeless

How to grow chillies