Urban Tilth

 Great news! On Saturday, September 13th, 2o08 Richmond’s own Annie’s Annuals will be hosting their annual Do It Yourself Sale. Even better news—10% of all plant sales will be donated to Friends of the Richmond Greenway to support projects on the Richmond Greenway (like the MLK Jr. Day of Service or Berryland). You can head on over right after the Berryland work day.

http://www.anniesannuals.com/

Richmond’s own Rebecca Newburn has just launched a new blog intended to support grassroots movement towards more sustainable neighborhoods. Check it out at http://thriving-in-the-burbs.com/. She includes sustainable living newsletter templates that could be rewritten for any neighborhood. Earth Victory Gardens play a large role in her vision of more sustainable neighborhoods….Very exciting!

 The Master Gardener Class is being offered in West County in 2008. Classes start October 2^nd and finish February 19^th, 2009, Thursdays from 10-3pm, with breaks scheduled for 11/27, 12/25 and 1/1/2009.  

Class Location: Richmond Field Station

 
1301 S 46th St
Richmond, CA 94804

Applications will be available in July at the office (75 Santa Barbara Rd, 2 Fl. Pleasant Hill, behind the central library) or on the CCMG web-site at http://ccmg.ucdavis.edu. Applications will be accepted until September15, 2008, 5pm.  Class size is limited.  The fee for the program is $195.00, and includes the cost of training materials.

The UCCE Master Gardener program is sponsored by the University of California and Contra Costa County. The class addresses topics from the field of horticulture, ranging from soil science to plant pathology. Instructors come from UC campuses and include local experts. 

 In return for the training, UC Certified Master Gardeners help people throughout the county with gardening, environmental and horticultural issues; volunteering 75 hours in the year following graduation. MG volunteers lead workshops teaching people to garden using least toxic materials, the best use of local resources and the best suited flowering and fruiting plants for the varied climates in Contra Costa.  They work in school gardens; in farmers markets and in multiple other venues. Master Gardeners staff a Hot-line Monday through Friday from 9-12, answering gardening questions from across the county.

 MG’s are a dedicated, enthusiastic group of volunteers who continue with training every year to keep on top of our changing landscape.  If you have further questions please call Program Coordinator, Bethallyn Black, at (925) 646-6130.

Forgive me; it’s hard to resist the “doom and gloom” approach to encouraging our community develop some indepenence from the industrialized food system. There is just so much to work with these days in the doom and gloom category.

According to a Yahoo News article, this year marks the largest and “dead-est” dead zone on record for the Gulf of Mexico (Click here for the article) . Nearly all Americans (myself included) contribute to this environmental catastrophe by the simple act of consuming food from our industrialized food-chain. Fertilizer run-off from the Midwest cornfields draining into the Mississippi River is the primary cause of the dead zone. Midwest cornfields create the bulk of the calories in our food system (either directly as corn products and corn-syrup or indirectly as animal feed). 

 The growing dead zone is just another indication that our current method of sustaining ourselves entails depleting the ecological richness of our planet, almost certainly diminishing the quality of our children and grandchildren’s lives. It’s like slow-motion cannibalism. Today we are feeding off the future well-being and quality of life of our offspring. Not only that but, we, as taxpayers, are subsidizing this arrangement to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year tucked away in the USDA, Department of Energy, and Defense Department budgets.

What is a West Countian to do?

(1) Join the 5% Local Coalition and help create a movement towards independence from a destructive and unsustainable food system;

(2) Plant your own food garden. If you don’t have space to garden, join the 5% Local Coalition and make connections to join an existing community garden or start a new one;

(3) Contact local politicians (such as those running for Richmond City Council elections, WCCUSD board elections, or other local agencies) and ask them to make foodshed development one of their priorities. (In September, we will release a Foodshed Development Policy Guide for Voters and Politicians with specific policy ideas to promote a local foodshed). To be sustainable in the long-run, the bulk of the funds for building a local foodshed need to come from local funding streams such as donations from community members and local government revenues.

What could be more important for a community than committing at least some community resources and funding to sustaining itself in a healthy way?

A big thanks to Patagonia’s Palo Alto store which not supported the Lincoln School Farm with a grant, but also invited us to participate in the Voice Your Choice program. Drop by the Palo Alto store and cast a vote for Urban Tilth. Check out the link below to learn more…

http://www.patagonia.com/usa/patagonia.go?assetid=19706

Thanks for supporting us and so many other worthy environmental causes.

We are having our monthly foodshed development day at Berryland on the Richmond Greenway this Saturday, April 12th from 9:30 to 12:30. (more…)

Don’t forget the West County School Gardeners Meeting April 26th

It’s been just over two weeks since we came together on the Richmond Greenway for a Day of National Service to celebrate the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (more…)

Your support will be used to develop the capacity of West Contra Costa to grow more of its own food. Your dollars will help develop projects like Berryland, Lincoln School Farm, and the 5% Local Coalition. (more…)

Please join the 5% Local Coalition on the Richmond Greenway on January 21st from 9:00 to 12:30. We will honor the legacy of Dr. King by hosting work parties at Berryland, Lincoln School Farm, and the Greenway Swales.

Meet at 6th Street and the Greenway (between Chanslor and Ohio) right near Lincoln Elementary School in Richmond. Please wear sturdy shoes and work clothes. We will provide tools, gloves, and nourishing refreshments made from food grown right here in West County. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Please email park@urbantilth.org or call (510) 691-5051 for questions or to RSVP.

This event is co-sponsored by Urban Tilth, Urban Creeks Council, and the Watershed Project supported by Opportunity West, the Friends of the Richmond Greenway, and the City of Richmond Landscaping and Parks Division.