Veganic Gardening Group Get-together

[Stephanie Lucas]

Hi guys and gals,

Sorry for the delay and maybe confusion.  May 10th was not doable, after all.  May 11th is Mother's Day.  So the date of the Get-together will be May 9th, Friday, starting at 6:30 to about 9 pm.  If you can't get there exactly at that time--no problem.  We will spend the first half hour or so touring the gardens at the Eco Village where many impressive projects in sustainability have been created.  Of course, we will have the seed and plant exchange and hopefully tasty vegan snacks (please bring your favorites).   We also hope to have a representative from Farmageddon, a commercial farm cooperative using veganic techniques, plus a person interested in the concept of using human urine as a fertilizer. Should be an interesting, informative meeting.  Hope you can be there! 

Directions are below.  Please RSVP.

Thanks!

Stephanie

 

Kailash Ecovillage is near the corner of SE Holgate & SE 39th
It is next to the corner of SE Cora & SE 37th at:
4311 SE 37th Ave Portland, OR 97202

Trimet bus lines 75-Cesar Chavez/Lombard & 17-Holgate/Broadway are just one & two blocks away. 9-Powell Blvd and 66-Marquam Hill/Hollywood are about 6 blocks away.

[Cindy Koczy]

Cindy is RSVP ing.

So glad Nicole is joining us.

C<3

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[Bonnie Hildebrand]

Looking forward to it!

If anyone wants to donate larger veggie or ornamental plant starts to be used as table decorations and gifts at Northwest VEG's 10th Anniversary Celebration (May 16th), please let me know and bring them along. I will care for them until the event.

Bonnie

On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Stephanie Lucas <sluc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[A.M. Fortin]

Here is an article that may be of interest...

Now available: 29 flavors of open source seeds, sans patents

By http://grist.org/author/nathanael-johnson/

Bioversity International/Alfredo Camacho

There’s been an argument going on for at least 100 years over seeds. Should they be free? Or should the people who develop them control, and profit from, their use? If they were shared, we’d have a more fluid development of agricultural technology, because all plant breeders could experiment with the best stuff. On the other hand, maybe breeders wouldn’t want to engage in the hard work of experimenting if they couldn’t sell their inventions for lots of money.

It used to be that those who bred new varieties of plants shared them freely, in part because it was almost impossible to control them: As soon as someone buys one of your new tomato seeds, he can use it to make a hundred more.

As Irwin Goldman, a vegetable breeder at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told NPR reporter Dan Charles, plant breeders used to have a code of ethics that mandated sharing:

“If other breeders asked for our materials, we would send them a packet of seed, and they would do the same for us,” he says. “That was a wonderful way to work, and that way of working is no longer with us.”

All that changed after seed companies began producing hybrids, which lose their superpowers if you try to grow more of them, and as cash-strapped universities have begun patenting more and more of their seeds. But on Thursday the Open Source Seed Initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released the first set of seeds with an open-source license. It is distributing 29 varieties, including broccoli, celery, kale, and quinoa.

The license is pretty simple: It’s just a commitment to keep the seeds, and their derivatives, in the public domain. Instead of the pages of small print that comes with most patent use agreements, this is “almost like a haiku,” Goldman said. But, like the software-industry idea it borrows from, it also effectively commits those who use the seeds as raw material for new products to share those innovations under the same open-source terms. In other words, it’s contagious, in a good way.

Jack Kloppenburg (who I’ve written about here) has been one of the main people pushing open source seeds. And Kloppenburg, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says this initiative is aimed at a larger problem. As with open-source software, these seeds are meant to encourage innovation and allow researchers to build quirky things for small markets. Bigger companies generally specialize their products for the biggest market. Here’s Dan Charles again:

[Kloppenburg] says turning seeds into private property has contributed to the rise of big seed companies that in turn promote ever-bigger, more specialized farms. “The problem is concentration, and the narrow set of uses to which the technology and the breeding are being put,” he says.

Kloppenburg says one important goal for this initiative is simply to get people thinking and talking about how seeds are controlled. “It’s to open people’s minds,” he says. “It’s kind of a biological meme, you might say: Free seed! Seed that can be used by anyone!”

This doesn’t conclude the argument over seeds, by any means; it actually ups the stakes. Commercial seeds used to be naturally open source, and now they are overwhelmingly privatized. The Open Source Seed Initiative provides the opportunity to make what was an academic debate real again.

For the moment, university scientists will probably be the main people to benefit from open-source seeds. But if you want some, you will soon be able to buy them from High Mowing Organic Seeds and Wild Garden Seed.

Nathanael Johnson (@savortooth on Twitter) is Grist's food writer and the author of All Natural: A Skeptic's Quest to Discover If the Natural Approach to Diet, Childbirth, Healing, and the Environment Really Keeps Us Healthier and Happier.

Now available: 29 flavors of open source seeds, sans patents

			Now available: 29 flavors of open source seeds, sans pat... Wisconsin researchers release the first batch of seeds designed to propagate the old-fashioned notion of sharing.
			View on grist.org	Preview by Yahoo

 

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From: Bonnie Hildebrand <rogue...@gmail.com>
To: Northwest VEG Veganic Gardening Group <nwveg-vegan...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 8:37 PM
Subject: Re: [VEG] Veganic Gardening Group Get-together

[Lori]

Please put me down for gardening group on May 9th.  Looking forward to it.

Lori Alexander

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[Marsha and John Rakestraw]

John and Marsha plan to be there :) Sounds fun!

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John & Marsha Rakestraw
Portland, OR
503.296.0640
jmrak...@gmail.com

"Every choice we make can be a celebration of the world we want." ~ Frances Moore Lappe'

"My life is my message." ~ Gandhi

[Stephanie Lucas]

Hi all,

Just wondering if all the RSVPs have been sent.  So far about 10 have indicated that they are coming.  Was thinking we might open up our invitation to get a few more by announcing the event on the NW Veg website, but we only have room for about 20 max.  Please let me know if you are planning to come--if you haven't already.

Many thanks!

Stephanie

ps, Ole - Do you have a sense of how many from Kailash might come?

[Margaret Bakke]

I live one block north of Murray and Allen.  Is there anyone driving from my direction.

I need a ride.  I am flexible.  I am new at gardening and I would like to learn all I can.

Margie Bakke  503 246 1807  margi...@gmail.com

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[Carolyn Gabbe]

Hi,

Sorry I'm going to have to miss this event. Sounds interesting.

Happy gardening,

Carolyn

On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Stephanie Lucas <sluc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[gmmc...@gmail.com]

Hello! I would live to attend. -Gabrielle McGrew

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[Stephanie Lucas]

Hi Margie,

 

Do you still need a ride?  If so, perhaps there is someone on the westside who can carpool?

[Margaret Bakke]

I do still need a ride.   I would say I could take the Max and meet someone at their

convenience, but I hesitate about taking the Max at night.  Do you ever have the

gatherings in the afternoon.  Fri evening traffic in Beaverton is a challenge.  I am so

new to gardening.  I do compost so that is a start.  Thanks for your effort but perhaps

it will be too much trouble.    Margie

[Stephanie Lucas]

Hello all,

Just a friendly reminder that the Veganic Gardening Group is meeting this Friday, May 9th at 6:30 pm in the Kailash Ecovillage Community Room (entrance in the front on the ground floor).  Address and directions below.  Please bring yourselves, any seeds and garden starts you want to share, plus tasty vegan treats are much appreciated!  

Hope to see you there!

Stephanie

On Tuesday, April 22, 2014 10:00:52 PM UTC-7, Stephanie Lucas wrote:

[Stephanie Lucas]

Hello Fellow Veganic Gardeners,

 

Been doing a little research on using our personal urinary output to fertilize our future oral inputs (the ultimate in sustainability).  Here’s an interesting article:  http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/605742/urine_the_ultimate_organic_fertiliser.html  I’ve been using this method for years and can attest to it’s effectiveness and simplicity.  Tomorrow at our Veganic Gardening gathering, we will have a discussion of using this liquid gold as an effective fertilizer not only for our personal gardens, but commercially, as we have an attendee interesting in starting a sustainable sanitation company here in Portland.  Should be an interesting evening!

 

Look forward to seeing all tomorrow!

 

Stephanie

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[gmmc...@gmail.com]

Anyone attending tonight have food allergies, particularly peanut?

> On May 7, 2014, at 21:25, Stephanie Lucas <sluc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Kailash Ecovillage

[Bonnie Hildebrand]

No peanuts for me. Thank you for asking! But please, don't worry about it. If you make something with peanuts I just won't eat it. I'm not so sensitive to them that I can be around them.

On another note: If anyone has 8" or larger decorative plant pots that you no longer want and would be willing to donate for use at the Northwest VEG 10th Anniversary Celebration, please bring them!

Thanks!

Bonnie

[Marsha and John Rakestraw]

Shoot! We're not going to be able to make it after all. Have a wonderful time!

Peace,

Marsha & John

[Ole Ersson]

Here is a panoramic photo of tonight's get together. Thirteen gardeners participated.



We had a great conversation about what is veganic gardening, how we all approach vegan fertilizers, using urine and composted humanure as veganic fertilizers and attitudes towards these admittedly non mainstream practices, among other topics. We also toured the ecovillage grounds and enjoyed a nice variety of vegan snacks. The seed and plant exchange appeared to be a big success. And thanks, Nicole, for discussing your upcoming eco-sanitation project to save and recycle urine in volume at local experimental gardens where its effect can be studied!
Thanks Stephanie and Jill for organizing this!

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a model for sustainably focused intentional community in the city
kailashecovillage.org

[gmmc...@gmail.com]

Thank you, Ole, for hosting! It was great to be able to put faces with the names from e-mails. You all are inspiring and I hope to get to know you better. 

-Gabrielle

On May 9, 2014, at 22:04, Ole Ersson <ole.e...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here is a panoramic photo of tonight's get together. Thirteen gardeners participated.

<cgfdjbba.jpg>

[Stephanie Lucas]

Yes!  Thank you Ole and Maitre.  Your place is wonderful.  And thanks to all who attended.  It’s so great to support each other and share.

Stephanie

ps,  Here’s some info re. encouraging bumble bee nests:  http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nests_for_native_bees_fact_sheet_xerces_society.pdf

 http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nests_for_native_bees_fact_sheet_xerces_society.pdf

 

 

From: gmmc...@gmail.com

Sent: Friday, May 09, 2014 10:07 PM

To: nwveg-vegan...@googlegroups.com