Hello Permaculture Community,

 

Wow! Feeling the wonderfulness of spring! Hope you are feeling it too!

 

And feeling the love from Love SLO event yesterday, March 19th!!! We had the most wonderful families and individuals come out to help at Our Global Family garden on Saturday! The kids who came were the happy, helpful and so energized to be out at City Farm. The parents were incredible at inspiring their kids to dig up weeds, plant potatoes and to move pieces of lumber too!!! It was such a delight to see people enjoying the land as it is intended: The bring humanity back to the land to stand together as one!!! Attached are a couple of photos. City Farm crew members, Dena Paolilli and Danielle Armstrong, were also there to help.

 

Steven Marx and his grandkids came out and he also brought the filmmakers of the Gaining Ground movie that is part of the SLO Film Festival. (It is showing today Sunday, March 20th at 1:15pm at Mission Cinemas.) Mary White came to take some footage to make a small video too. Hopefully we can post that on our Permaculture in SLO County Facebook page. Here is a link to a photo album that Steven Marx just put together:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124814213@N08/sets/72157666127354186

 

Have had lot of other helpers come out to City Farm lately too. Sigma Pi Fraternity is in the middle of installing shade canopies over head for us to meet at Our Global Family Epicenter. Montgomery Norton, John Phillips and Brianna Ruland have been coming out to help water. Patty Parks-Wasserman from the Institute for Permaculture Education for Children from Portland Oregon came out to see the Global Family garden where we hope to host summer camps the week of July 11 - 15. Josh Carmichael of Carmichael Environmental is going to help finish installing the irrigation system with funds from the Whole Kids Foundation. Reo Cordes is helping with his weed whacking skills. Sarah Ramirez, who used to be a professor at Cal Poly, brought her crew from Healthy Tulare to help weed a few weeks ago too. Attached is a photo of one of the young men who came with Sarah. He only has one leg yet he got right down on the earth to pick weeds. Incredible stuff going on at Our Global Family Garden!

 

You are invited to come out to enjoy Our Global Family Garden on Thursday afternoons from 1pm – 4pm. (Going to cut back to just one day a week for now.) We will have more Family Days on the fourth Saturdays of other months too, as announced. Next month however, we will all be out at Branch Mill Organic Farm for Earth Day on April 23rd. You are invited to join us there. Here is the website to learn more: http://branchmillorganics.com/classes-offered/

 

More fun to come this next Saturday, March 26th when we will plant Asian veggies, apply worm tea and even have an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids in the garden too!!!! We will use the “share the wealth” ethic for the Easter Egg Hunt and allow each child to collect five treats and then we will make sure everyone has five. We will divide evenly all the treats that are found in other words. Have you ever heard of an Easter Egg Hunt organized in such a fair fashion?

 

And then we have a film about urban agriculture on March 29th. We will have a Farmer’s Market Soup and Bread as part of the evening. (No potluck this time.) See below for details…..

 

March 26 - Worm Tea Application 9am – 12noon at Our Global Family Village at City Farm

$5 - $10 per family to help cover the cost of the worm tea application

Special Addition: Easter Egg Hunt will start at 9:15am.

City Farm is at 1221 Calle Joaquin at the end of the cul-de-sac

This special work day includes bringing the SLO County Worm Farm folks with their Black Diamond Vermicompost Tea to be applied to the crops and soil. We will be planting Asian vegetables too. Come enjoy the process and learn from the best; Cristy Christie and her crew will be on hand to educate us about worm tea. What is worm tea you may ask?

What is “worm tea”? http://www.slocountyworms.com/tea/

Aerated Compost Tea is made from Vermicompost and water which goes through a thorough and highly active aerating process. Quality compost Tea will increase species diversity of leaf, stem, flower, seed-surface and soil microorganisms. These microorganisms will select, eat and destroy the disease-causing pests and organisms in the soil and on the plant. Benefits of using Tea for foliar or root applications:

 

March 29 – Bringing Food Home film and discussion at 6pm at SLO Grange Hall - Farmer’s Market Soup is being served!!! $10 donation goes towards educational projects out at City Farm. Flyer is attached.

BRINGING FOOD HOME is a film focusing on sustainable solutions for local food in Northern New Mexico. The documentary features several farms and gardens in the region practicing regenerative agriculture. Produced over the last two years, the documentary hopes to provoke constructive dialogue, inspiring Santa Fe and other cities to embrace urban agriculture as essential to a resilient community.

The flurry of reactions around the creation of Gaia Gardens, a one-acre farm within a residential zoning area in Santa Fe, provided the impetus for this documentary. The controversy has raised a larger question for the community: how will this high-desert city sustain itself in the future?

The film goes beyond the specifics of Gaia Gardens’ circumstances to explore the need for visionary policy change, as well as a radical shift in our relationship to food. Local farmers, land-use professionals, educators and policy makers present insights into fostering a sustainable future.

 

Panel discussion of our local food system here in San Luis Obispo to follow the film.

Movie trailer: https://vimeo.com/133098783

Facebook invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/686591681482527/

 

Teresa “Tree” Lees

On behalf of the SLO Permaculture Guild