Hello People,
I’ve been remembering the song, “Get Together” by the Youngbloods this week as it is very fitting in many ways…. Our collective power to come together, to smile on our brothers and sisters and to try to love one another is exactly what we need more of in this world.
Good news to share along those lines because SLO Natural Foods Co-op has come together to offer ten scholarships to FARMGIRLS Summer Camp. May is their annual membership drive and people who join up as a food co-op members during the month of May are also helping girls get a scholarship to the FARMGIRLS summer camp! See below for more information.
If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now – song by Youngbloods
SLO Natural Foods Coop offers scholarships to FARMGIRLS Summer Camp
SLO Natural Foods Co-op is donating the proceeds of May Membership sales to support youth education programs, and FARMGIRLS Summer Camp is a recipient! FARMGIRLS Summer Camp will offer a limited number of full scholarships, courtesy of this partnership. See the application attached as a word document or download an application from Google Docs here. Submit it by May 31st, to Board@SLONaturalFoods.coop.
Anyone can shop at the Co-op. Members get and give special benefits. There's never been a better time to join than this month in May. See more about the Co-op's membership and events attached to this email.
FARMGIRLS Summer Camp June 26 – 29, 2018 8am – 12noon
$150/camper
Registration: http://www.permaculture.us.com/farmgirls/farmgirls-summer-camp
FARMGIRLS Summer Camp is Girl Power for our Future Food System! FARMGIRLS Summer Camp is held at Our Global Family Farm, a permaculture demonstration site located at City Farm SLO. It features food crops and indigenous food cropping systems from the four corners of the globe. FARMGIRLS Summer Camp will include farming, cooking, eating, making crafts, singing and nature hikes. The FARMGILRS summer camp is a place where women and girls of all ages can learn about how to grow food in an ecological approach that follows the ethics of permaculture: care for the earth, care for one another, and share the abundance. Together we can create a food system that is Regenerative, Healthy, Local, and Resilient. FARMGIRLS Summer Camp is now open to women too. We want to see generations of women and girls be empowered to learn about agriculture and be empowered to grow their own food!
International connections at FARMGIRLS Summer Camp
This year at FARMGIRLS we have a mother and daughter coming all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil and another couple of people coming from Costa Rica. These world travelers are connecting to us vis-à-vis the Nu Mundo website by searching for permaculture demonstration sites in California. They will need a place to stay, so please contact me if you have a room in a house the mother and daughter from Brazil can stay and another for the couple from Costa Rica.
Here are some more upcoming ways you can “get together” with other permaculture people….
May 12th – Monthly Work Party at City Farm 9am – 12noon with potluck to follow
Come on people now, come out to the farm! There’s a lot going on and a lot to do. We are getting ready for our farm to table dinner event on May 19th and the land needs some loving hands to beautify the place, to plant, and to reap what you sow!
May 12th – Wildlife Festival at Mission Plaza 11am – 4pm at Mission Plaza
Stop by the Ecologistics booth at Pacific Wildlife Care’s Central Coast Wildlife Festival Plaza to see the award-winning documentary series Kids Can Save the Planet. Created by 13-year old filmmaker Dylan D’Haeze, the series features three films aimed at children 10 years old and above.
1. Plastic is Forever follows plastic trash to where it ends up and features conversations with representatives from the EPA, Surfrider Foundation, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
2. Everything Connects shows kids that what happens on Earth affects them and what they do affects the Earth.
3. Finally, Tipping Point focuses on climate change and what kids can do about it.
May 19th – A Taste of Spring farm dinner fundraiser at City Farm 4pm – 7pm
Less than two weeks remain before our May 19th benefit, and tickets are limited. Please join us for a fun-filled evening on the farm.
Take part in our local silent auction while you enjoy farm-fresh bites from our featured chefs of Novo Restaurant, Granada Bistro, Thai Bounty, and plant-based chef Angelica Peach.
Their freshly prepared dishes will be paired with wines provided by Wild Horse, Opolo Vineyards, and Baileyana along with beverages by Whalebird Kombucha. We'll also be serving SLO Almonds dessert treats.
The festivities will be accompanied by live music from B and the Hive for your listening and dancing pleasure.
So come out and be part of the happenings at City Farm SLO. Take a tour of new student gardens, outdoor kitchen, food forests, and more.
Help support our non-profit's volunteer-run educational and agricultural programs.
If you can’t make it to this event and would like to help support our programs, it’s easy here.
Buy your tickets online today at:
atasteofspring.brownpapertickets.com
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1819367125024861/?active_tab=about
May 19th – SLO Natural Foods Co-op Local Vendor Fair & Co-op Annual Members Meeting 11am – 3pm
In addition to all kinds of great samples, games and more, over 21 vendors will be participating and offering a 10% discount on their products.
The Co-op's Annual Members Meeting will be held at 1:30pm. We welcome all our Members and if you're interested in being a Member, there's never a better time. http://slonaturalfoods.coop/events/
May 23rd – SEED: The Untold Story movie to be shown at SLO County/City Community Room at 7pm
Filmmakers will be there for Q&A. SLO library community room - Palm & Osos Streets in San Luis Obispo. Co-sponsored by: CP Center for Sustainability, SLO Permaculture, & SLO Seed Exchange. “Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds.” SEED features Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke, Raj Patel, Indigenous Seedkeepers, Organic Farmers, and others.
Saturday May 26 from 1-3pm - SLO library community room. Harvesting the Sun: Cultivation & Uses of Traditional Peruvian Andes Food Crops – free talk by Amalia Escobar Galpert.
Community Grief Ritual May 25 – 28 at Loving Earth Sanctuary (PDF document is attached for more information.)
This powerful restorative Grief Ritual and healing workshop over Memorial Day weekend draws from the traditional grief rituals of the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso, West Africa brought to the West by Dagara healer Sobonfu Somé, ritual practices from Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects, and the teachings of grief workers, soul activists and ritualists Francis Weller, Martin Prechtel, and Michael Meade.
What if we had the loving support of community to help us connect with and process the pain of our personal losses along with the anxiety, sadness, and overwhelm many of us are feeling collectively in these unprecedented times of deep social division and injustice, and ongoing environmental devastation? Throughout history people have come together tribally and ceremonially to honor and metabolize their grief.
Please register for this event at the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/aEvv1mEmlPcqI3FV2
Cal Poly CAFES May Newsletter Announcements
Center For Sustainability at Cal Poly Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences are looking forward to hosting two events this month. For those interested in learning how to interpret and make best use of soil tests, please join us on campus May 17 for a talk with Ag Laboratory founder Eryn Gray. On May 23, we will host a general interest documentary on the importance of seeds with its directors at the SLO library. Also, happy International Compost Awareness Week May 6-12! http://www.cfs.calpoly.edu/announcements_may.html
(Note: San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden newsletter for May and June 2018 is also attached.)
Women Power in Online Permaculture Design Course
Permaculture Women’s Guild and Heather Jo Flores present Permaculture Design Course with Advanced Certification in Social Permaculture and Designing Invisible Structures. Online Permaculture Design Course, with advanced training in social, emotional, personal, and cultural applications of ecological principles and stewardship philosophies. Open enrollment, go at your pace,
More than 40 Women from 13 countries have collaborated to craft an accessible, comprehensive online course for a global community of mothers, sisters, healers, activists, gardeners, problem solvers, and eco-feminists.
Learn the skills you need to not only design landscapes and create closed-loop homestead systems, but also to manifest personal, cultural and ecological abundance. Register here: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Thn/splash
Permaculture Solutions for Climate Change
At the International Permaculture Convergence in Epping Forest, 2015, members of permaculture organizations from five continents formed Permaculture Climate Change Solutions. http://www.permacultureclimatechange.org
Our first undertaking was to create a comprehensive statement of the permaculture perspective on climate change, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the International Permaculture Convergence, which included over 600 people from over 70 countries. We invite additional permaculture organizations to add your names to the statement on the website, and to share it widely.
Teresa Tree Lees
