Growing seeds! Heres a few pictures wrapping up this grant project Ive been devoted to with a beautiful team called Cultivating Community North Valley (CCNV), as an employee of the local nonprofit yall love, the GRUB Education Program - working as the workshop coordinator and publicist. A year ago I co-created programming for Cultivating Community with Kalan Redwood of Redwood Seeds: redwoodseeds.net to teach and model for the community how to start the growing year off with seed saving in mind while leveraging the community garden network and permaculture/biodynamic community. Thank you for being witness. So much gratitude for you all. We started seeding cold season crops in the greenhouse in January, transplanted them in February, and then seeded warm season crops in March, transplanting them in April. In May we did a spring harvest field day at the Chico State Organic Vegetable Project looking at variety trials, and did a workshop on Integrated Pest Management. In June we learned about Biodynamic Permaculture for an entire weekend with Permaculture Artisans; then learned how to harvest and winnow cold season seed pods. We then wrapped up the month with a leadership workshop learning about a design model to build community based on the adaptability and resiliency of natural systems (Cultural Biomimicry) with Weaving Earth: weavingearth. With the grant funding ending back on June 30, we really want to honor this transition and have a closing event to celebrate our communitys accomplishments and establish a bridge linking us to whats next. More to come soon! Im brainstorming right now, intending to incorporate what I learned and experienced at the Art of Mentoring in the Santa Cruz Mountains, based on a mentoring model that deeply connects us to nature and repairs culture. Returning to our roots and natural design through subtle yet profound design that grows, sustains, regenerates and heals the village - our community. It really does take a village! A special thank you to Weaving Earth staff and students, as well to the 8 Shields Institute and Jon Young, and all the lineages whove contributed to this amazing body of work, that Im finding is my souls calling. There is one final workshop on August 2nd at Heartseed Farm where we will harvest and water process warm season fruits to gather the seeds. The intention behind the growing for seed CCNV programming (workshops), is to support and bring awareness to the Community Garden Network that is currently growing and thriving in Chico, primarily through the Chico Seed Lending Library and the Chico Permaculture Guild. Providing an experiential learning approach to starting seeds, designing a garden, strategizing and planning ahead, and actually learning by doing through all the phases in the year, and then donating seeds . . . CCNV participants whom attended the six-part seed saving / growing for seed series, has everything they need to do this again next year, and friends and neighbors to go to with questions and to share stories. Share what youve learned! The learning never stops!! This is our (CCNV) contribution to our community that will sustain and regenerate itself into perpetuity as long as people grow food, keep a garden, and engage in this birthright of ours in this village were co-creating and tending to. Please visit the Cultivating Community FB page to view photos, and read updates, as well as visiting our website for getting your hands and eyes on some resources. cultivatingcommunitynv.org Cultivating Community Advocates (CCA) was born out of the Cultivating Community North Valley project, focusing on food security. Visit the CCA FB page and their website for more information. CCNV was supported by a 2011 Specialty Crop Block Grant awarded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture to the California State University Chico Research Foundation. Our goal was to build participation and capacity in the local food system. CCA is is supported by a 2012 Specialty Crop Block Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. ccadvocates.net
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:49:46 +0000
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