The following email showed up in my in-box and I thought it worthy of passing along.  Text is as follows:

Dear Friends, 

One of the primary reasons I cast my vote for Barack Obama was his insistence that a well run country begins not only with an effective and fair leader, but with citizens who are willing to mobilize and do something in their communities. To me, President Obama's win was just the first of many changes that need to happen in order to build a community and a nation that we are proud of and that is truly representative of the spirit of the American people. President Obama has challenged what I believe to be epidemic apathy by asking each of us to actively engage in our personal, our families, and our ommunity's well-being.

In the spirit of change, I am inviting you to create with me a community of action here in Olympia - Olympia Action Network. My concept is to meet once a month (the third Sunday of the month, for example) and do something to better our community. This is what we have been asked to do by our President elect. This is why many of us chose to give him our votes. It is our turn to show him that we have heard his request, that we believe in the change he promises and to actually 'be the change we wish to see in the world.'

We are thinking of adding a room to our house. I am wondering if any Olybloggers have any recommendations or suggestions for a builder that you can vouch for. You know, someone who does quality work, is timely, is nice, affordable, etc. Also key is someone who is available to work soon as we would like to have the room ready by January. Any help would be much appreciated. You can either respond here or send me an PM. Thanks!!

Gardens can bring so much victory. Personal victory in the sense of accomplishment and pride one gets from building, planting and harvesting from a garden, not to mention eating from your garden.  Gardens also give you victory from dependence on external food sources.  A tomato from your back yard is way better than a tomato from the grocery store, I promise you that.  Along with that independence comes a cascade of other victorys, victory from the energy it takes to get food to you, victory from the chemicals it takes to grow most conventional food, victory from the resources growing commercial, conventional food takes.  It's quite liberating!!  

In that vein, here's the first and second harvests from our garden.  They are smaller than normal, since i spent the majority of the spring big as a house with our son in me, and the summer has been spent caring for our new baby.  But somehow, we managed to eek out some pretty darn good organic food. In fact, missing from these pictures is a HUGE carrot harvest that I processed into baby food and froze for the little man when he's finally ready.  

First Harvest:

Second Harvest:

So, people.....share your garden victory!  I think we would all be better people to hear it!! :) 

August 3 - 9 is Farmers Market Week. the Farmer's Market Association and the Department of Agriculture and issuing a Farmer's Market Week Shopper Challenge.

Farmers Market Week Shopper Challenges

1. Buy Local! How much of your food dollar can you spend at your local farmers market during Washington State Farmers Market Week?
   
2. Try It, You’ll Like It! Try a new fruit, vegetable, or food at the farmer’s market or recipe at home (with your farmers market ingredients) and expand your palette of flavor.
   
3. Yes, You Can! Preserve the harvest to enjoy a bit of sunny warmth during the wet winter months by canning, freezing, or drying fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats.
   
4. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Bring your own re-usable shopping bags, little red wagon or wheeled cart and load up all of your groceries for the week.
   
5. Meet a Farmer! Say hello and thank the people who grow your food.
   

How to Participate: Send an email with a written description and/or photos of your experience meeting the challenge during WA State Farmers Market Week (August 3-9) by August 15 to challenge@wafarmersmarkets.com, and enter for a free bag of market goods from WSFMA. Include your name, address, phone number and which challenge you are meeting on your entry. Each challenge (a, b, c, d, e) will have a winning entry and receive a bag of WSFMA market goods

More details at the WA Farmer's Market Association Website: www.wafarmersmarkets.com

I just got back from a mega walk around the neighborhood and couldn't help but notice that all black houses have overgrown lawns. I mean - every single one of them (and there's ALOT of them)!

I've heard that all of the houses are painted black because of the owner is mad at the city for not letting him paint a house a certain color (I can't quite remember the details). I don't know if that's true or just Oly lore. But is there also a thing about not mowing the lawn, too?

A Sustainable Agriculture Response to the Food Crisis

On June 5, 2008, Evergreen will host a talk by Joel Salatin, a farmer, visionary and expert in the practice of sustainable agriculture. Salatin was profiled in Michael Pollan's influential book, "Omnivore's Dilemma."

Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008

Location: The Evergreen State College campus, Lecture Hall 1

Time: 7 p.m.

Cost: free

A locally-sourced dinner dinner will be served from 5 - 7 p.m. at the Evergreen cafeteria, The Greenery, on the ground floor of the CAB.

About the Speaker: Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm achieved iconic status as the livestock farm featured in the NEW YORK TIMES'S bestseller "Omnivore's Dilemma" by food writer Michael Pollan. A sought-after conference speaker, Salatin addressed a wide range of issues from "creating the farm your children will want," to "making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country."

Salatin's speeches are both conviction-based and humorous, akin to theatrical performances, often receiving standing ovations. He describes his occupation as "mob-stocking hervbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization."

Background: In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia 's Shenandoah Valley , purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area. Using nature as a pattern, they began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations. Today the farm represents America 's premier non-industrial food production oasis. For more information about Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/default.aspx

This event is sponsored by Olympia Food Coop, Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute, Olympia Slow Food, Olympia Climate Coalition and the Evergreen State College

Well, we tried it. On a previous thread a while back regarding plastic grocery bags and whether they should be banned, I commented that I like them because we used them for garbage bags. I did commit, however, to trying to ween ourselves off of them and not use garbage bags at all (we don't throw away food or anything that I thought was stinky or smelly). We did it and I'm hear to report our failure. Yup, we're back on the bag.

First, Yoda hypothesized that going bagless would make a mess on trash day. Because of the way that the garbage trucks grab the container and empties them into the back, there was high probability of trash spillage if not contained in bags. This hypothesis was disproved, although he did just tell me he had to pick up one piece of trash. But, that particular pick-up day was calm, and I could see how a windy day might increase the change of garbage escapage and make a general mess in the neighborhood.

Second, I thought that our garbage was relatively clean. You know, the empty chip bag, unrecylable strawberry container variety. I was very wrong. We actually eat a fair amount of meat and yogurt, which often leaves "skid marks" on the side of the garbage can which will STINK if not immediately addressed.

Anyway, I messed around with the picture and added some of my own stuff to it.

All this talk about reducing our usage of plastic bags really got me thinking. For some reason, we have an addiction to garbage bags in our house. We really don't need them, since we compost our food waste and our garbage is generally pretty "clean" and not stinky, wet or gross. So why not get rid of the garbage bags all together? I think that we'll give it a shot and get off the plastic bags for good. I'm not going cold turkey, though, but I admit we have a problem and and working my way through the 12 steps of plastic garbage bag addiction :)

We have had a variety of compost bins in the multiple houses we have lived in. Most of them didn't really work, one of them was infested with rats and the rest just turned into slimy, smelly sludge. But, last year, we put our mind to it and lo and behold, have been getting compost from our brush bin and hope to have compost from our food waste bin this year (see the worm picture!! BTW - pistachio nut shells NEVER compost - that's them in the upper left hand corner of the picture!!).

FREE COMMUNITY SEED EXCHANGE

Sunday, February 24th
Noon - 3 pm
at Bigelow Park
1220 Bigelow Avenue NE, Olympia

Expand your seed collection, help preserve plant diversity, grow something new, ask questions, share know-how, and meet new people!

Bring your open-pollinated seeds (non-GMO) to share - please mark your seeds with a description and collection date.


Questions?
Contact Allyson Ruppenthal at sacredseeds@riseup.net