What’s going on in sustainability:

As I said in the last blog, the winter time for me is a time of great reflection and planning. After witnessing a huge boom to the Iceland economy, an NPR reporter once asked a resident the cause of Icelandic success to which the man responded, “It’s our cold winters. We spend our days sitting inside, reading our books by the fire, and then when the spring comes, we act.”

I thought this was genius, that was until Lehman Brothers in London went under and took down the entire banking system of Iceland with it. This doesn’t diminish the power of wintertime hibernation, but it does make me wish that I had that proper homestead where aside from study, I was also chopping the wood for my oven, tending to my greenhouse and managing my stock of preserves rather than bitching about my utility bills and going hungry until the next sparse farmer’s market because I refuse to buy greens from california or spinach that only comes in those little plastic containers. Maybe Iceland could have benefited from a little self-sufficiency too.

But that’s what this blog’s for, getting us collectively to those goals of sustainability. So, in my hibernation, I’ve been quite active, as is the city. In my own life, I’m in the midst of helping create the Walnut Hill Grower’s Cooperative. This is a  project that gets all of its growing resources (soil, wood, harvest materials, crop planning, business training, outlets) from the great Community Growers Alliance program through Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and land from the great collaboration with the Enterprise Center in Philadelphia. The project will use these resources to create a community farm where young people and senior citizens can make supplemental income by collectively growing and selling vegetables to local farm markets, co-op groceries and conscious restaurants. As I said, we’ve done a heck of a job in Philly getting diverse communities to realize the worth of eating local and organic, now it’s time to up the supply and create jobs that don’t live and die by the whims of grant funding, but that are supported by their own economic and social value.

I’ve also helped organize the idea to go beyond the internet list serve we have for local urban farmers and create a monthly meet up to become better organized. Our first meeting will be a potluck on Feb. 18th at 7:00. Our goal is to find ways to economically and socially support our farming endeavors and find any way possible to increase scope and effeciency through collaboration.

If you are interested in attending the meeting, or know young or senior residents in West Philly who could benefit from the Grower’s Cooperative, please contact me through this website.

As for events, I hope everyone had a good time at the Bee Keeping Kick Off last thursday. If you didn’t go, there are still so many opportunities to get involved with urban farming.

The weekend of Feb. 4,5,6,7 will be the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) conference. Hoots and Hellmouth will be in attendence, getting ready for our new farm season. Expect a full report on this Blog.

The following week starting Feb. 10th, the famous Will Allen will be in Philly giving the Keynote to the Compost Matters conference, which will be a week of advocation for connecting the local food cycle through compost.

Also, please make note that Philly’s new incentive- based recycling program is under way, please check this link for details http://phillyrecyclingpays.com/recycling-rewards-detail.asp.

For all of you non Philly people, please use this time to check out the events leading up to the season in your community. Staying connected is the only way we will stay conscious.

That’s all I got, until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.