The Sustainable Living Art School and the Living Medicine Project introduce the Living Medicine Series…

Monthly learning parties dedicated to the study and art of herbal medicine.

These hands-on, half-day intensives will include Plant Identification, Gathering and Medicine Making. These 3 simple pieces are the tools required to know how, when and which plants can be gathered from gardens, parks and lawns to become food and medicines to keep our families and friends healthy.

Join us for the 1st in this series…

Healing with Spring Herbs:   Nettles, Noxious or Nutritious??

Sunday April 5th

11am-2pm

Burnaby Lake Area  (carpooling will be coordinated where possible)

Read more about our teacher, Garliq.

**This is a family friendly event. Feel free to bring your kids. They’re much more likely to take the medicines that they help make.

Suggested donation: $40 (Pay As You  Feel).

Space is limited, please contact Garliq early to register… LivingMedicine@riseup.net

Details will be emailed to registrants by April 3rd, 2009

The Garden Institute is coordinating a day trip to the BC Farm Machinery Museum in Ft. Langley next Friday April 3. “We will visit the equipment for planting, threshing, cleaning, harvesting seed and grain through a diversity of scale of field size needs.”

It’s $4/person payable to the museum.

“I need an email if someone’s joining us and it’s a great chance to have an introduction to what types of equipment one needs to consider when growing grain from the small plot to the field. A fellow interested in applying bicycle power to the equipment is joining us during the visit.”

Email: Sharon L. Rempel email: slrempel@shaw

http://www.grassrootsolutions.com
Author of Demeter’s Wheats. Growing Local Food and Community using Traditional Wisdom and Heritage Wheat. President of The Garden Institute of BC http://www.tgibc.org

Remember: links are for clicking!

share water and food

This whole day workshop is directed towards the new or expanding food producer who wishes to produce more, or focus their production more efficiently.  Topics will include post harvest handling, water management, the SPIN gardening method, microclimating, resources, marketing, discussion on farmers markets and more.

Sustainable Microfarm Forum – April 19, 2009

10:00 – 4:30 at Rolling Earth, Robert’s Creek, BC

$85 includes lunch and beverages. Carpooling encouraged. Register by emailing Robin at info@ediblelandscapes.ca or calling (604) 885-4505.

More info on the Sustainable Living Arts School in Robert’s Creek, BC.

If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed,
If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.
If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people.
- Kuan Tzu

Gaiacraft : Temple Permaculture

Permaculture Design Certification Course

Permaculture is a whole systems approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world in a new light with a focus on sustainability, low impact living, organic gardening and healthy community development. Using a series of principles, techniques and technologies, permaculture empowers people with the skills to evolve their relationship to themselves, each other, the land upon which they live and the planet.

Bill Mollison, the founder of permaculture, defines the world as such:

Permaculture (”Perm”anent “agri”culture and “Perma”nent “culture”) is a sustainable design system stressing the harmonious interrelationship of humans, plants, animals and the Earth.

Permaculture principles focus on thoughtful designs for small-scale intensive systems which are labor efficient and which use biological resources instead of fossil fuels. Designs stress ecological connections and closed energy and material loops. The core of permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections between all things. Each component in a system performs multiple functions, and each function is supported by many elements. Key to efficient design is observation and replication of natural ecosystems, where designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress efficient energy planning for houses and settlement, using and accelerating natural plant succession, and increasing the highly productive “edge-zones” within the system.

Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.

Join us for an adventure in learning. With the 72 + hour core curriculum we will learn together how to map and design our land and our lives, to plan for emergency, grow food organically and work together to build a more sustainable future. With the certification you will be empowered to use the word permaculture in your business and consider yourself a permaculture designer able to hire yourself out for permaculture consultations and teach permaculture workshops with confidence. Not only is this a course about learning how to practice permaculture, it is also about how to teach permaculture.

Course Topics include:

* design methods * understanding patterns in nature * climatic factors * water * soils * earthworks and their use in earth repair * techniques and design strategies for both urban and rural applications * the temperate climates * dry lands * cold climates * humid cool climates * humid tropics * trees and their energy transactions * aquaculture * waste management * energy efficient architecture * legal strategies and trusts * effective working groups * right livelihood * money and finance * ethical investment * bio-regional organisation * effective aid and much much more

The details:

• There are 13 classes, one a moon for a full year. All classes are required for completion of the course.
• Normally these courses cost $800 - $2000 but here in Roberts Creek at this time the course costs only $20 - $40 per class depending upon class size. The maximum class size is 8 to ensure an intimate learning environment. We will move around to different locations for each class, students have the option to host a class on their land if they wish.

Register now to hold your space with

Delvin Solkinson delvin@crystalandspore.com

www.heartgardens.com

www.gaiacraft.com

The Sustainable Living Arts School is gladly hosting another hands-on learning party…

Upcoming:

• Join the Great Farm Trek to Save the UBC Farm Tuesday, April 7
• Alastair Heseltine is teaching a Willow beginner weaver’s weekend intensive on Bowen Island March 21/21.
• Have you wondered about buying land either to homestead or run a small farm? Visit 4 farms and learn practical lessons from those who have done it at the Sustainable Living Arts School’s Bush Weekend April 25/26 on the Sunshine Coast.
• Grégoire Lamoureux of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute will be teaching a permaculture design course in the Kootenays May 31 to June 13, 2009.

Art & Culture of Kimchee

Saturday, March 28

2:00pm to 3:30pm

Vancouver, Near Thurlow & Robson

Fermenting food is a sustainable practice that is ideal for all of us that live in small spaces.  Join us for this hands-on learning party where we will be introduced to the art and culture of making kimchee, the traditional Korean fermented condiment made with cabbage, garlic, ginger and hot peppers. It’s spicy, delicious and very, very good for you!

You’re warmly invited to share your thoughts and questions  on fermentation and kimchee before we meet. You can add recipes, links, family stories and personal experiences in the comments to this post so we can share our knowledge.  Let’s get this learning party rolling online!

Our hosts for the day live in a small apartment on the second floor of a building with no elevator-stairs only. Please check in with us first if you want to bring the kids.

About our teacher: Inga Min is a kimchee devotee and the the founder of the Shin Myung Korean Drum Group. The group was created to build a community of drummers interested in learning the traditional form of Korean drumming. Watch Inga in action on Living Vancouver.

To register: There are limited spaces to allow for hands-on practice and conversation. Learning parties fill up quickly! Please register with Mona at monaATslas.ca

By Donation: You can’t put a price on a learning party. That said, we want to honour the time and experience that goes into learning valuable skills and sharing them with others. The suggested donation is $25. Donate what gives you joy! If you can afford more, we’ll put it towards making more learning parties happen. If you can afford less, come on down and share your learning with us anyway. All are welcome!

Please bring:

• $5 to cover the cost of vegetables we’ll be transforming into kimchee.
• A jar or other small container so you can tend your first batch of kimchee at home.
• A knife and cutting board for chopping vegetables

We will send out an email with final details (address etc.) to registered participants by Thursday, March 19th. Thanks and looking forward to seeing you there!

This from Andrew Rushmere who has curated a great  Sustainable Living Arts School learning party series and who has been on the front lines of the Save the UBC Farm Campaign over the last year. Please distribute this far and wide to all your Vancouver friends:

Save the Farm: Join the Trek!

We can’t wait to see you there!

A quick plug for Alastair’s workshop on Bowen Island (10 min from Horseshoe Bay) March 21/22, right before our now full learning party on Monday(!) March 23. That went fast. I tell you I may never organize another learning party on a weekend again.

But obviously the fine folk on the Sustainable Living Arts School mailing list appreciate profound beauty when they see it. If you haven’t yet taken some time to peruse Alastair Heseltine’s website featuring his his willow work, I highly recommend it.

You can register for the workshop on Bowen with Susan at the Purple Door Gallery- details below.

The Sustainable Living Arts School is gladly hosting another hands-on learning party…

Upcoming:

• Robin Wheeler will be giving a free talk on food security this Saturday, March 14th in Vancouver.
  
• Alastair Heseltine is teaching a Willow beginner weaver’s weekend intensive on Bowen Island March 21/21.
  
• Have you wondered about buying land either to homestead or run a small farm (or just curious for the stories)? Practical lessons from those who have done it will be shared at the Bush Weekend April 25/26 on the Sunshine Coast.

Weaving with Living Willow

on

Monday, March 23

near Clark and Broadway

1:00pm to 2:30pm

Join us for this hands-on learning party where we will be introduced to the art of weaving live willow. Living willow can be woven for furniture, fences, garden panels and more.

Parents, you are welcome to bring children along. The learning party will be outside so there is room to run and opportunities to participate with grown-up help.

About our teacher: Alastair Heseltine is a sculptor who works with mixed media relating to the environment. “Imagery is guided by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play. I also draw from the full spectrum of routines and activities that support my practice:  Design, craft production, farming and rural life.” For more on Alastair and to see some extraordinary images of his work visit  http://www.alastairheseltine.com/

Registration: There are limited spaces to allow for hands-on practice and conversation. Learning parties fill up quickly!  Please register with Keira keiraATslas.ca

By Donation: You can’t put a price on a learning party.  That said, we want to honour the time and experience that goes into learning valuable skills and sharing them with others. The suggested donation is $25. Donate what gives you joy! If you can afford more, we’ll put it towards making more learning parties happen. If you can afford less, come on down and share your learning with us anyway. All are welcome!

We will send out an email with final details (address etc.) to registered people by Thursday, March 19th.

Robin will be in town teaching edible landscape workshops, organized by the fine folk at Village Vancouver, and a Design the Garibaldi School Garden learning party, organized by the Sustainable Living Arts School and the fine folk of the Garibaldi PAC. But you can still learn from Robin:

Food Security for the Faint of Heart

Saturday, March 14, 2009
2:00 – 4:00 pm

Robin will discuss issues around food security, such as stockpiling, gleaning, cooking with few resources, triage for a thawing freezer, and more. Robin has been experimenting with and writing about sustainability issues for many years. She runs the Sustainable Living Arts School in Roberts Creek, BC, with her permaculture plant nursery (Edible Landscapes) and medicinal herb gardens as part of the design. She is also the author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart as well as Gardening for the Faint of Heart.

Suggested donation $2 - $5
Location: This event will be held at SPEC (Society Promoting Environmental Conservation), located at 2150 Maple Street in Kitsilano. This event is sponsored by Light House Sustainable Building Centre and SPEC.