Category — Uncategorized

2010 Sustainable Living Arts School
Permaculture Design Certification
and Food Cycles Program

Join Delvin Solkinson and Robin Wheeler for a dynamic year round adventure in education. We offer a full Permaculture Design Certificate with a complete Food Cycles Program to create an integrated system of both design concepts and functional living skills.

Permaculture is a holistic approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world with a focus on sustainability, low impact living and healthy community development.

The Food Cycles course promotes seasonal awareness with practical activities to do at every time of year.

Learn the role of native plants, tips for organic gardening, growth cycles, propagation, seed saving, harvesting, food preservation, water wisdom, medicine making, integrated composting and so much more as part of practical and relevant Timely Actions in the Garden. Other course topics include design methods, patterns in nature, climatic factors, water, soils, earthworks, design strategies for urban and rural applications, practical living for all climates on the planet, trees, aquaculture, waste management, sustainable architecture, ethical business practices and economics, bio-regional organization, and effective aid.

From dormant earth to finished season, the Food Cycles program will occur in conjunction with the Permaculture Design classes to round out and ground in the new permaculture practitioner’s certificate.

13 spaces only
register now to hold your space

Class will begin March, on every other Monday and last for 15 months.
Location: Edible Landscapes, Robert’s Creek BC

Contact
Robin Wheeler : info@ediblelandscapes.ca (604) 885-4505
or Delvin Solkinson : delvin@illuminated.com
for more details

Some of us are figuring that RIGHT NOW, OVER THE COMING WEEK is a very, very good time to write a letter requesting that our BC government exempt small farmers from the imposed meat regulations. We think a focused push, hopefully with hundreds of letters, might show how we have not gone away, that there are in fact even more of us, and that we want change.

Please ask that farmers be permitted to sell healthy animals from their farm gates, without trauma, fossil fuels, time and extra cost, and without the increased threat of contamination that a visit to a government inspected facility can bring.

Please write to our Premier. He has the power to lift the meat regulations as other provinces have.

Hon. Gordon Campbell   premier@gov.bc.ca
or Room 156, Parliament Buildings, Victoria BC V8V 1X4

or Ida Chong, who is holding the meat regulation potato right now:
Hon. Ida Chong
Minister of Healthy Living and Sport
P.O. Box 9062 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
250-387-3504
HLS.Minister@gov.bc.ca

or our Agriculture man, Hon. Steve Thomson
Minister of Agriculture and Lands
P.O. Box 9043 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
250-387-1023
steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca

Thanks, everybody. A gathered effort cannot hurt and must be done. Please forward this to friends, farmers, consumer groups, Facebook groups, etc for maximum exposure. And please see http://www.farmfoodfreedomfighters.ca for free downloads of bumper stickers, buttons and more.

Tuesday, Sept  29th

Concepts in Year Round Gardening 9:45-11:45 am
Grandview Woodland (near Nanaimo and 1st)
The Whys and Wherefores of food cycles - why we want them, how to get them. We will plan round the calendar food supplies, both in the larder and stored in the garden.

Introduction to Medicine Making 1:30-4:30 pm
Main St./Little Mountain (near Cambie and King Ed)
There are so many plants that are safe, easy to recognize and locate, and effective. We will learn some recognition techniques, and then how to make teas, poultices, tinctures and infused oils. We’ll learn about solvents, supplies and storage.

Apartment and Container Gardening 6:30-8 pm
Potluck @ 5:30 for folks who would like to share a meal together
Downtown (near Davie and Seymour)
How to get more food from your balcony or patio. Space and weight are big problems for apartment dwellers. We will decide how to choose plants, discuss containers, soils, feeding and watering, succession planting and more in this workshop for small spaces.

Wednesday, Sept 30

Seed Saving Primer 9-10:30 am
Kits Point Village (near Cornwall and Arbutus) co-sponsored by Kits Point neighbourhood Village
Seed saving is the missing link in food security. In our current political climate of seed patenting and ownership, it is increasingly important that a critical mass of a population have a good understanding of seed saving techniques. This will make it possible to create networks for seed abundance and resilience in many communities. This workshop will provide a deeper understanding of seed saving basics as well as provide time to discuss the implications of forming our relationships soon and well.
Your donation includes a copy of The Five Levels of Seed Saving by Terry Klokeid.

Shapes in Sharing 10:45-11:45 am
Kits Point Village  (near Cornwall and Arbutus) co-sponsored by Kits Point neighbourhood Village
Ideas for sharing land, food, space and time with a workshop component. We’ll do a study of our own assets and shortfalls and figure out how to equalize these on both a large and small scale.

Intensive Urban Microfarming 1:30-4:30 pm
Potluck @12:30 for folks who would like to share a meal together
Cedar Cottage (near Victoria Dr., south of Trout Lake/John Hendry Park)  For folks who are ready to refine and to deepen their knowledge of urban microfarming, Robin invites you to participate in a 3 hour gathering that will examine as many of the following topics as time allows:
· Increasing backyard food production
· Succession planting
· Shade growing
· Extending the growing season through your choice of plants, Water Wisdom, Plant Calendar Mapping and Microclimating.

Apartment and Container Gardening 7-8:30 pm
Potluck @ 6 for folks who would like to share a meal together
Lower Lonsdale, North Vancouver (near Lonsdale & 1st & Lonsdale Quay)
How to get more food from your balcony or patio. Space and weight are big problems for  apartment dwellers. We will decide how to choose plants, discuss containers soils, feeding and watering, succession planting and more, in this workshop for small spaces.

All workshops are offered on a pay what you can basis. A one hour workshop usually costs around $10 to $15; a 1 1/2 hour workshop around $15 to $20; a two hour workshop around $25 to $30, a 2 1/2 hour workshop around $30 to $35. and a three hour workshop around $40. Our contributions to these workshops make it possible for teachers like Robin to expand and to deepen the scope of the important educational and social change work that they are involved in, particularly in these uncertain times. Enrolment is limited to 20 people for each workshop. (15 for Apartment workshops.)

To register:
(or to find out more about hosting a future workshop), please contact Ross at rmoster@flash.net.

A creative evening with Robin Wheeler (Edible Landscapes) for apartment dwellers on Vancouver’s downtown peninsula

WHEN

7 to 8:45 pm, September 28, 2009

WHERE

Gordon Neighborhood House, 1019 Broughton Street

(Between Nelson and Comox. Venue tel. 604-683-2554)

WHO

Robin Wheeler teaches traditional skills, sustenance gardening and medicinals at Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), a nursery and teaching garden in Roberts Creek, British Columbia. She is the author of “Food Security for the Faint of Heart” and “Gardening for the Faint of Heart.”

WHAT

Think about the 100-mile diet, farmers’ markets, community gardens, high food prices, sustainability, food safety, emergency preparedness…and you will understand why more and more people are interested in having healthy food grown close to home. Now there’s a buzz about the “100-meter diet.” But how much food can we grow for ourselves here in the West End of Vancouver?

In the first half, Robin Wheeler will cover various concepts from her book and experience—edible landscapes; food growing on apartment balconies and patios; ideas for sharing land, food, space, and time; food preservation/storage in apartments; and so on. In the second half, an open discussion will share information about issues in the West End. What’s already being done and who’s doing it? How can apartment dwellers get more space to grow food? What frameworks and support systems exist? Can these ideas somehow help low-income families? What problems and opportunities exist? Entrance by donation ($5 recommended). A report will be prepared afterwards, so please contact us if you can’t attend but would like to know the outcomes.

REGISTER:

FoodWestEnd@gmail.com

SPONSORS

Green Millennium Foundation (www.greenmillennium.org)

West End Residents Association (www.wera.bc.ca)

You are warmly invited to another hands-on Sustainable Living Arts School Learning Party….

Bee Appreciation

….with master beekeeper Brian Campbell

Saturday, June 27 at 10am-noon.

Join us afterwards for a picnic in Clinton Park if you like.  Bring the kids!

This learning party will happen in the Hastings-Sunrise Neighbourhood.  Address will be emailed to the folks who register 3 days before the learning party.

Bee’s are the life’s blood of the environment. They connect plant life to animal life making abundance and creating a healthy ecology. For bees the city is the place to be. We provide a wonderful habitat of flowering plants and soil profiles that supports Canada’s greatest diversity of pollinators.

But all is not well. Bees and other pollinators are in decline around the world  so our privilege of bee diversity is also our responsibility to protect and conserve. Because of development our bee populations are divided up and separated from each other. By connecting these population pockets we help to make bees more resilient and better able to help the stresses we throw at them.

In this learning party we’ll explore a backyard habitat and then make a bee’s journey through the neighbourhood helping to make bee corridors. Come learn about how to plant for bees, make bee condos and help make one neighbourhood more bee-friendly.

Our guide for the day: Brian Campbell
Brian Campbell is a certified beemaster and beekeeper, heavily involved in food security issues in Richmond and beyond. A member of the BC Association of Master Gardeners, Brian spent three years as seed manager for West Coast Seeds. Brian guest lectures for Gaia College’s Growing Food in the City certificate program, operates pocket markets in Richmond and teaches young people about honey bees as well as native types. He offers classes in grafting fruit trees, food preserving and other farm skills.

Register: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/369963571

Location: Hastings-Sunrise- details will be emailed to registered participants 2 days before the learning party.

By Donation: Suggested donation is $25. Pay what you feel.  Sustainable Living Arts School learning parties are 100% participant supported. Thank-you for your generous donations.

Children are very welcome with their grown-ups.

The Sustainable Living Arts 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 3^rd in this Series…

Cool Comfort of Comfrey

Sunday June 21^st (Summer Solstice)

9am-1pm

Commercial Drive Area

**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 http://slas.ca/learning-party/pay-as-you-feel/

Donations will be split between SLAS, LMP and the facilitator(s)

Space is limited, Register here! http://comfrey.eventbrite.com/

Information specific to the event will be forwarded to registrants on June 19th.

BIO http://slas.ca/teachers/garliq/

Please pass around where appropriate!

Two days of herb nerds! What could be better? We’ll learn recognition skills, making basic medicines, native herbs, harvest and storage techniques and more $25 per class.- take one or take all. You can either pay by Visa or Mastercard  via Paypal right away or mail her a cheque. 80% of student fees go directly to the teachers, with another 10% for preparing for classes and promotion.  Attending these workshops is a direct way to support folks who live on the land and keep the skills and traditions of the sustainable living arts alive.

If you are part of a family or group of friends who would like to learn and practice together, get in touch with Robin to arrange group pricing. Edible Landscapes is a place to come to reconnect, learn, relax and get inspired on how we can increase our self-sufficiency…together. You can camp on the land, hike to the ocean, walk in the woods, wander the gardens, browse in the edible and medicinal plant nursery and medicine emporium.

To register, contact Robin at (604) 885-4505, or email (and she will invoice you via Paypal) – see details on other programs at slas.ca or ediblelandscapes.ca.

June 13

10:00 – 11:30    Herb Recognition and growing methods with Robin Wheeler
Seeing a plant bursting with vigour and swaying under the weight of the bees, instead of just in powdered form or tincture, is a great reminder that we are working with an integrated, energetic being when we make medicine. See, smell and taste some of the over 150 varieties of plants here so that you will more easily recognize them in the future. Take photos or leaf samples as that can help as well. We will discuss growing methods for those wishing to grow herbs at home.

11:45 – 1:00   Intro to Botany for Herbalists with Garliq

This class is designed to navigate the world of Green, to know why a plant is what it is and not a ‘look alike.’ We’ll learn to answer a few basic questions about flower and leaf structures that will enable us to be sure we’re working with the medicine we think we are. Please bring samples from Robin’s plant walk to help apply this learning directly.

1:00 – 1:45   Lunch – brown bag or order $6 snack lunch.

1:45 – 3:15   TBA – hopefully Infused oils and lotions with Barb Cotgrave of Halfmoon Herbals.

3:30 – 4:45  - Harvesting and Storage Techniques with Robin Wheeler
We will go outside and harvest leaves, stems and flowers, then go in and prepare them for drying. When we store herbs for any length of time, we want to use the best practices possible, know the problems that can occur and how to bypass them to retain high active levels in our medicine and culinary plants.

5:00 onwards – shared/potluck dinner.

7:00 – 8:30     Homeopathy and Herbs with Marlow Purves
Herbs and plants are a major remedy source in the homoeopathic pharmacopeia.  The herbs that have been used traditionally for thousands of years find new and different application when potentised.  Marlow will share some of the revelations of the remedies made from common herbs as a means of enhancing our knowledge, respect for and awe of our healing companions. We will likely try to potentize a herb for ourselves!

June 14

10:00 – 11:30    Introduction to Chinese herbs with Sarah Gilbert and Julie Starsage
Ancient Chinese systems are based on far different diagnostic criteria than we are used to, and the forms their medicines take, in terms of preparation and ingestion, are also new to us. Sarah will introduce us to herbs and formulas that have been appreciated for centuries, and give us a better idea of how they are used in modern times.

11:45 – 12:45    Wildcrafting Basics with Lyrae Emerson
An examination of the methods of ethically harvesting wild and indigenous plants in a manner that minimizes impact on the population while maximizing their medicinal potential. We will look at tools, time of year to harvest roots, barks, stems and other plant parts, as well as look at how the practice of wildcrafting in itself can be a healing experience. Comes with take home instruction sheet on wildcrafting and harvesting guidelines.

12:45 – 1:30    Lunch – brown bag or order the $6 snack lunch.

1:30 – 3:30 – Making Plant Medicine with Lyrae Emerson
Learn how to turn your raw or dried plant matter into finished medicines. Lyrae will discuss and show preparation of infusions, pills, teas and tinctures, show and share samples, discuss alternate procedures, and basically give a solid background so that people new to the field can go home and follow recipes with confidence.

3:45 – 5:00     Native Use of Herbs with Cymba
Consisting of in-the-field plant identification, discussing traditional and contemporary uses of these plants.  Food, medicinal and ceremonial uses will be covered as well as ecologically sustainable harvesting techniques.  A hands-on component will include topical salves making (everyone will leave with a traditional medicine).

Shared potluck dinner to follow for all who want to continue exchanging thoughts.

The elders in our community have abundant knowledge of gardening practices. My grandparents grew up on farms on the Prairies during the Depression. Growing food and composting were facts of life. But as this generation of gardeners retires to smaller homes, their knowledge is leaving us.

At the same time, so many people are getting excited about growing their own food. Maybe it’s the recession, or maybe it’s just time: new parents want to teach their children how to garden, and flower gardeners are starting to cultivate food as well.

This year, the Sustainable Living Arts School, in consultation with the Edible Garden Project, is  working on a small garden mentorship program funded by North Shore Health. The Growing Traditions project is a small pilot program designed to help us learn how elders and new food gardeners can share their knowledge. We would like to learn how garden mentorships work, experiment with how learning parties can support these relationships…and get families growing food!

A big thanks to Stacey Friedman and all the participants of Intergenerational Landed Learning at UBC Farm who welcomed us to join them for a day of Landed Learning fun at the farm. We also took the opportunity to crash in on  Diane Johnson, who managed UBC’s Trimentoring Program through its start-up years.  They both asked great questions, created a context where we could ask what we needed and well, mentored us for a day.

The project is looking for experienced gardeners on the North Shore who would like to mentor newer gardeners. We’re also looking for families to participate - newer gardeners who would both contribute to and benefit from a community connection with an elder gardener. The mentorship would occur from June until the end of September.  At the end  families and elders will share their knowledge with their neighbors and friends by hosting a learning party.

Do you know anyone who would like to do something like this? Interested participants or those with any questions are welcome to contact Tricia at 604-842-3251 (please leave a message) or email growingtraditions(at)slas.ca.

Stay tuned for an upcoming learning party with Rin of the Farmhouse. In the meantime, check out this fabulous sounding workshop she’s offering around Vancouver over the next few weeks…

Do you want to grow more of your own food, but don’t know where to begin?  Think you don’t have enough space?  Are you interested in learning more about Permaculture and organic gardening?

If you have a 10 X 10 foot space and want to learn how to turn it into a full year of fresh, nutritious, yummy food without chemicals or hours and hours of work, this workshop is for you.

This one-day workshop with Rin from the Farmhouse Farm — an urban farm right here in Vancouver — will show you how to start from scratch and build a garden that will produce food all year long in just a hundred square feet!  Vegetables, herbs, and greens are all a part of the comprehensive garden plan that you’ll learn to build and maintain.  Perfect for those with small yards or working in allotment plots, this easy-to-follow plan incorporates Permaculture principles into a garden design you can follow to the letter or change and evolve to fit your space and goals.  We’ll spend the day going over the plan and then getting down and dirty and building the garden from scratch at the host site.  You’ll leave with a copy of the full garden design including crop rotations, maintenance routine, and all the information you’ll need to get started.

There are three chances to check it out:

Kitsilano:  Saturday May 16th,  12.00 - 6.00   13th and MacDonald.
Main Street:  Sunday May 17th, 12.00 - 6.00  Ontario & 24th.
New Westminister:  Saturday May 23rd, 12.00 - 6.00  Edinburgh & 16th.

The workshop is offered on a Pay-What-You-Feel basis, with a suggested donation of $60 to $100.

For more information or to register, contact farmhousefarm(at)gmail(dot)com or go to farmhousefarm.wordpress.com

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www.farmhousefarm.wordpress.com