Friday, April 22, 2011
Monday, April 5, 2010
COB WORKSHOP
Saturday
9 - 4 pm
6th and Quince
in Balboa Park
Join us in repairing the Poetry Bench, a 20 foot long natural building project made of strawbale, cob and superadobe.
We will be repairing the clay plaster so park visitors can continue to enjoy this beautiful earthen bench under a stunning grove of magnolia trees. Bring a poem to drop in the poem drop box.
Our work day will consist of mixing clay/sand with your feet and sculpting cob with your hands. Its easy, fun and a brilliant way to build sustainable benches, ovens, homes.
Please bring a sack lunch, gloves, hat and water.
Donation - $5-10 is appreciated for materials.
For a slide show of how the bench was built
visit
http://digyourhandsinthedirt.blogspot.com/
also - website on local cob ovens
www.SchoolyardPizzaOven.com
Friday, January 30, 2009
Fallen Fruit at MCASD (downtown SD) Thu Feb 5 6-10pm + DIY WWOOF SD County
foodcalendar.org but I haven't seen it mentioned yet on any of the
lists. So here it is:
Links to event details:
http://tinyurl.com/bnx7n4 or:
http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=cnUxamlkaTZndHZtb2VldjBpb2R0NXNnc28gbjIxZ283N3Jnc3JvYjJ1ZTAxdTM1czlrY2NAZw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles
The MCASD TNT info:
http://www.mcasd.org/events/lectures.asp#TNT
The following is pasted from the fallen fruit artist statement
http://www.fallenfruit.org/media/FF_statement.pdf on their downloads
page. Also check out their maps http://www.fallenfruit.org/maps.html .
The Principles of Fallen Fruit:
1. Fruit on public property belongs to all of us.
2. Mapping it is a way to share with everyone, learning neighborhoods
by foot, rather than by car.
3. Ask property owners to plant fruit trees for everyone.
4. Functional landscaping: ask cities to plant fruit trees in parks,
parking lots, and on streets.
5. Open dialogue within neighborhoods about public spaces.
6. Think about who has fruit and other resources, and who does not.
FALLENFRUIT is a collaboration of Dave Burns, Matias Viegener and
Austin Young http://www.fallenfruit.org
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project which began as a whimsical
mapping of our neighborhood public fruit: all the fruit trees we could
find that grew on or over public property.
When your neighbor's fruit tree hangs into your yard, that fruit is
considered yours. But whose fruit is that on public property? We
believe that fruit planted on private property which overhangs public
space should be public property and created this project to encourage
people both to harvest and plant public fruit. The project is a
response to accelerating urbanization and the loss of people's
capacity to produce their own foods, as well as issues
around grassroots community activism, social welfare and social responsibility.
From the original printed edition, we expanded into a website which
posts local maps from the handmade to the high-tech, submitted by our
neighbors. We have pictures of fruit and
harvesting, including fruit pin-ups. Our ambition is to map the city,
the whole state, and then the world. We have also begun to propose
public fruit projects. These include further mapping, a campaign to
encourage property owners to plant fruit, petitions to the city to
plant streets and parking lots, and a proposal for a public fruit
park. We think of Fallen Fruit as much as community activism as an art
project. Our neighborhood is full of homeless people and uneaten
fruit: why can't the two be connected? We're not interested in random
theft. Our intention is to promote sharing and community-based
thinking.
We live in a world controlled by multinational corporations, in which
we don't know our neighbors, with a media that manufactures social
realities and ignores poverty and
oppression. Our food arrives processed and pre-wrapped, and few of us
know where it comes from. Our cities are full of wasted spaces and
neglected resources. Fallen Fruit proposes that we be able to make
more food with little effort and find ways to map it and networks for
sharing it. The injunction to share food is as old as the Bible, which
tells us that we should not harvest all our food for ourselves; the
fallen fruit should always be left for those who have nothing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2] DIY (do it yourself) WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms [and
other good places]) SD County:
While I'm emailing everyone,
I'm looking for local wwoof opportunities.
If I can camp or sleep on the floor at or near where I can work
(unpaid) ~4/hrs day, please let me know. I'm happy to do kitchen,
garden, computer and many other kinds of work.
My main goals are:
* to work with others and
* to visit and learn from different people and places in the county.
For more information, please visit:
http://fo-rest.blogspot.com/2009/01/diy-wwoof-in-sd-county-will-work-for.html
Peace & a smile,
Colin
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
SD Sunday Streets LinkedIn group
[Car-free events] are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through.
Michael Brennan sent you a message:
Please join the new LinkedIn Group called "San Diego Sunday Streets." We are trying to gather local support for this exciting movement going on in cities across the US.
Car-free events have been very successful in several cities, from Bogota's Ciclovia, to New York's Summer Streets 2008, to San Francisco's Sunday Streets. The events are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through. A Sunday Streets program in San Diego would benefit the city in a variety of ways.
Here's the URL to join:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1496767
We hope that LinkedIn will provide enough contacts in the business and government communities that we can begin to connect with them, so feel free to invite others!
-Mike
Friday, October 17, 2008
rough SD Permaculture update
--
The only new sites I've become aware of since you left: the city college urban farm: a must-see: http://www.sdcity.edu/esc , and girosol.org [http://www.girasolbaja.org/] (? Look up giro sol. I tried contacting them, got no reply. The workshop leaders were from Portland, if it happened). Missed the permacultureconvergence.org (socal ? See links from quailsprings if that's wrong), but heard there are now efforts to organize an sd-tj permaculture gathering this year. Marcia Boruta may be more in the know. She got Brad Lancaster here. . .
Deer park monastery would be another site, progressing fast: monks were at Brad's talk--brother stream and brother vu(?) (rain).
Then there are the other pieces: edible sd mag (haven't seen it, ediblesandiego.com ), the new city heights farmers market, chollas & 54th garden (groundbreaking 10/21).
Alias b's house is in a wonderful spot, nicest I've experienced in sd in fact (camped there), and a very good example of cobbling things together and figuring out problems: grey water, chickens, compost tea bubbler, banana basin (whatever it's called). Showing a great return on 3-4 months effort (~same time as city college farm).
AB's also had to deal with social challenges of pc. . . partner not as into all the experimentation and change. . .but that may be having a happier resolution.
and the restaurant side: the linkery, the local food plate I heard one was putting together.
and you may have seen it: looks like Ellee's getting FNL in gear for another conference.
Julie O's work on the 6th and Quince garden, balboa park.
and who knows what all's been going on with "north coastal food not lawns"--check with rachel of the solana center.
and I just heard of (searching for volunteer ops on americorps.org) a socal city repair variant: aclaparks.org
it's great you'll be here to shake things up. Josh R ( quakingaspenpermaculture.blogspot.com ) is another permie who returns here in december.
may post parts of this to various of the blogs I started. . .
peace,
Colin
Monday, July 14, 2008
Re: Permaculture in San Diego/California Rare Fruit Growers
There is enormous opportunity in SD for organizing around permaculture. I'm not able to help out much at the moment. I've forwarded your message on to Marc B, who may be able to, however.
I don't want to push ideas I will not be supporting--but if you can get to Quail Springs when Geoff Lawton is there and hear the story about the Permaculture Noosa organization, that may be an example SD can benefit from.
Addressing your questions:
> 1. Is there an active Permaculture group in San Diego?
Many people working in different ways on different pieces. SDFoodNotLawns, however, seems to have most of the local pc-aware people following it--try posting these questions to their email list--sdfoodnotlawns.com.
> 2. If so where do they meet? If not would you and others be interested in
> forming a group along with several of our interested members?
> 3. Do you ever speak to groups about Permaculture? If not do you know some
> one that does?
I've had great intentions and plans but have not followed through in any significant way--
> 4. Are there ever local Permaculture Design courses? If not then how would
> we go about getting a certified instructor here locally to teach a group?
>
Marcia Boruta of sdecc.igc.org organized at least one of these at camp stevens in Julian in 2003. I believe, however, she has retired from organizing and speaking about PC.
Lawton / the Designers' Manual recommends weekend PC courses for developing local teachers and local PC--
We need some dedicated locals to go get certified and then set up weekend courses here. People who want more experienced teachers can always go to quail springs or other places. The rhizome collective may be a good example for developing our local PC.
--------------------------
There is a lot of potential here to educate and organize around PC.
My recommendations:
(1) establish a once-a-month weekend work party/trading party/skill share with a brief meeting as part of it that rotates at people's houses/at community PC-related projects or businesses. Travelling for short evening meetings over such a vast area as SD county does not make sense.
(2) establish local multiple-weekend PC cert courses.
(3) Generate demand for (2) by showing films related to PC at local venues--e.g. global gardener, & and the gardening australia video Marc B and I got from Josh.
(4+) Consider why PC has not yet found wide appeal in SD and SoCal--are there cultural barriers that could be opportunities?
I have a vision of SD where the excessively wide streets are depaved, sculpted for rainwater harvesting, and planted with useful and edible spieces. Maybe in the future I can help out, but for the time being I'm focused on spending more time in the forest.
I hope that you are able to find more collaborators through Marc B, SD Food Not Lawns, or through all the links on the web sites I've created in the past--such as sdperm.blogspot.com, sdtjdph.blogspot.com.
Peace,
Colin
> To give you some background about myself. I have been interested in
> Permaculture for several years now. I have been getting really serious about
> it in the last year or so as I see the status quo destructive practices of
> society starting to bear fruit. I want to get involved and involved now to
> preserve some semblance of a future for my descendants. I am a 5 generation
> Californian and am deeply distressed as to what this state has become
> especially in light of its past natural grandeur and agricultural history. I
> am currently the chair of the local California Rare Fruit Growers
> organization. You probably know about us already and what we are about. If
> not you can find out more about us at www.crfg.org and at our local chapter
> website nc.crfgsandiego.org We have several in the group that would like to
> also practice Permaculture on our backyard gardens and at a local level
> besides being active in CRFG. There are some really talented folks in our
> group that could bring multiple disciplines to bear. Looking forward to
> further discussion. Ben Pierce
