new lambs

At the movie night I was called back home to help with the successful delivery of our new lambs. As promised here are a few pics. Ferdinand and Fin were born on March 3 at 7:20PM. The barn pics are from the night they were born and the pics of the gang out in the pasture were taken a week later.
- Carleen (www.weirauchfarms.com)

Salad Garden Project Photo Update

clearing all the weeds from the area, preparing beds, planting seeds and starts

CALIFORNIA STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY COALITION

The California Student Sustainability Coalition unites students, campuses, and campaigns from across California to transform our educational systems into models of sustainability. It is their mission to unite and empower the California community of higher education to collaboratively and nonviolently transform ourselves and our institutions based on our inherent social, economic, and ecological responsibilities.

• General Inquiries, Questions, and Comments: info@sustainabilitycoalition.org
• To Submit News, Calls to Action, or Job Opportunities: news@sustainabilitycoalition.org
• To Submit Events to the Calendar: events@sustainabilitycoalition.org

EAT THE VIEW

Eat the View is a campaign to urge the Obamas to plant a large organic Victory Garden on the First Lawn with the produce going to the White House kitchen and to local food pantries. Eat the View is coordinated by Kitchen Gardeners International, a Maine-based 501c3 nonprofit network of 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries who are inspiring and teaching more people to grow some of their own food.

Eleanor Roosevelt during WWII had a food garden at the White House. During WWII 40% of our produce came from Victory Gardens. It is time to create more support for local gardens and what better example to have one at the White House.

Learn more and sign the petition at http://www.eattheview.org

JOIN THE CLUB STEERING COMMITTEE

This semester we vote in a new leadership team! President, Vice President, Secretary, Communications & Programing Director are all positions that will need to be filled by the end of the spring semester. Start thinking about yourself in a leadership role. Its fun and is a great networking tool for off campus opportunities like internships and employment. Remember: Slow Food is an international organization with a wide variety of roles for scientists, educators, planners, farmers, chefs...etc. Lets keep this club going. Our club "meetings" will take place at the end of the three FOOD FORUMS on our calendar. At these meetings decisions are made about projects both on and off campus and it is also when voting takes place. See calendar to the left for FOOD FORUM dates, times and locations.

GARDENING OPPORTUNITIES

GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY

This semester we have THREE (!) gardening opportunities:

1. Slow Food SSU Community Salad Bowl Garden Project workday this Sunday, May 8th from 12-2 assuming the weather is clear. Our bed is located just west of the ETC building. Come check it out and follow our progress. Also a few of us are meeting casually in between classes on Wednesdays from about 12-2PM for mini garden tasks. Feel free to drop on by.
2. ETC Garden Friday workdays with Frederique Lavoipierre, Department of Biology Masters Candidate. Time: 10-2, on Feb 20, March 20, April 24 and May 8
3. The church on the corner of E. Cotati and Snyder is interested in starting a community garden! This is an opportunity to really grow a lot of vegetables for you, your friends and family. If you, or anyone you know is interested in getting in on this community project please direct them to Frederique. Here is her contact info: Frederique Lavoipierre Masters Candidate, Department of Biology lab tel: 707-664-2977 (no voice mail) 707-829-0751 (home)

SLOW FOOD COMMUNITY GARDEN PILOT PROJECT - SPRING SEMESTER

We are starting a semester pilot project utilizing one of the beds in the ETC Garden. Would you enjoy getting your hands dirty periodically throughout the semester? We need some volunteers. NO EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY. This will not require any long term commitment, just communication about when you can join us as the project progresses.


TO DO LIST

• Create garden info signs and handouts
• Paint donated garden bench to reflect the vision of the garden
• Seek out donations: seeds, plant starts, and drip line irrigation suitable for our project
• Plant seeds in seed trays for starts
  
• Prepare soil as necessary
• Plan out garden bed layout

The Slow Food SSU Community Salad Bowl Project - Celebrating Our Right to Fresh, Local, Organic Produce

1. This is not a class but a student driven collaborative, educational project, facilitated by Slow Food SSU. Slow Food SSU members and supporters from the campus community will be the "farmers" of this project on a volunteer basis.
2. What will be planted and tended to will be shared with the SSU Community at an end of the semester special event. This special event will reflect what we believe is our right to grow, eat and share food that is good, clean and fair. GOOD = tastes good because it is fresh; not shipped from hundreds or thousands of miles away. CLEAN = free of chemicals or the influence of GMO's. FAIR = produced, harvested and distributed in a socially just manner
3. We will focus on growing edibles for a raw salad: assorted greens, herbs, onions, carrots etc. These are seasonally appropriate for cultivating now and should be harvestable at the end of the semester in May.
4. We will respectfully adhere to the guidelines of the ETC Garden, acknowledging that we are very fortunate to have this opportunity to share the garden with the horticultural classes and research projects happening there already.
5. We will use this pilot project as a stepping stone to cultivating a larger Slow Food SSU garden in the future.

SSU Faculty Makes a Film at Sebastopol Farmers Market Showing 12/4 at noon

Please join us at the final Arts & Humanities Forum of the fall 2008 semester.

Film: SomeThingsAboutFood
When: Thursday December 4th
Time: 12 noon
Where: SSU, Shulz 3001

Michael Litle (COMS) will present a film entitled, SomeThingsAboutFood: a film set in a farm
market.” Michael describes the film as follows: During a busy farmer's market in Sebastopol, Wadner Pierre, a foreign exchange student at SSU, attempts to sell his photographs of Haiti.

DEFEND ORGANIC AGRICULTURE - sign up for this online newsletter

Organic Bytes - Health, Justice and Sustainability News Tidbits with an Edge!

Environmental, Consumer and Health News Tidbits With An Edge! Organic Bytes, OCA's twice-per-month email newsletter, offers useful news tibdbits, tips and information for the green-minded consumer. Organic Bytes has a readership of over a 250,000 people, making it one of the most popular email newsletters focused on issues involving health, justice and sustainability. http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.cfm

SSU Rated #1 in California for Sustainability!

Sonoma State University has been named by The Princeton Review as one of the Top Schools for Sustainability in its annual Review of Best Colleges. SSU scored 98 out of a possible 99 points in the Review's new Green Rating, which gave it a rating of #12 in the nation, and #1 overall in California. The short news report on NPR also gave special mention to "a new program allowing students to participate in sustainability research, the Environmental Studies Department, and the appointment of a Sustainability Coordinator." This is fantastic recognition for the university, and we hope we can use the momentum for creating additional awareness. Here is the SSU press release, which includes a link to the Princeton Review page and info on their new Green Rating:

http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/newsrelease/archives/002749.html

Pacific Coast Farmers Market Organization

These are not "certified organic" farmers markets but just "certified" (hmm...) - nonetheless a list of more northern CA markets managed by this non-profit.
Here is their market list

Support Slow Food Nation! Buy a Fruit Box

Thank you to everyone who has supported Slow Food Nation by getting a box of hand-picked California fruit delivered to their doorstep. In just three months, we have raised over $7,400 for education and youth engagement at Slow Food Nation. The deadline for ordering a June box is Friday, June 20, and the $59 price includes delivery to any address in California. More information about what is included in this month’s box is available by calling The Fruit Guys at 650.246.1200 or http://www.fruitguys.com.

Traditional, Sustainable Rice Production

Article about dramatically increasing rice production using traditional, sustainable farming methods instead of GMO seed, chemical fertilizers, & mechanized farming.
For the complete NY Times article click here

Support Slow Food Nation! - A Call for Gardeners & Volunteers

Calling All Gardeners

Are you interested in helping to create a productive, beautiful, well-maintained, edible garden in front of City Hall in San Francisco? The Slow Food Nation Victory Garden needs help July 1—12 with garden installation, educational docents and stewards–both new and experienced gardeners are welcome. For more details and to enroll as a Victory Garden Volunteer, please email your contact information and availability to info@slowfoodnation.org with “Victory Garden” in the subject.

Volunteer

Volunteer opportunities of all types are available both before and during the event. Additionally, volunteers who can assist with recruiting, training and supervising others may be eligible for “captain” positions. Slow Food Nation thrives on the participation of the local food community. Sign up to volunteer at here or write info@slowfoodnation.org

Click here for lots of great info on THE SLOW FOOD NATION EVENT WEBSITE

On the Trail of a Sustainable Feast in Sonoma

"...We had come to Sonoma County specifically for the food. Inspired by the “locavore” movement, in which Earth-aware consumers go to great lengths to eat only locally grown, sustainable food from within a 100-mile radius of their home, we decided to take a locavore holiday, creating an entire meal from farms we had personally visited and farmers we had personally met...."
For the complete NY Times article click here