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Here are the most recent blog posts for Sustainable Together. Enjoy!
Affordable Local Food…But How?
“How to eat better on a budget” is the title of the brochure Brwyn Griffin, the Port Townsend Food Co-op’s outreach/education manager, is holding here.
She developed the brochure for the Making Local Food Affordable forum she presented at (and I attended) back in November. Ever since, I’ve been meaning to write up the tips I collected there.
Prioritizing this post was one of the commitments I made to myself last weekend at the end of the first annual Thriving Communities conference at the Whidbey Institute (Feb. 2-4). More than 100 attendees from communities throughout Cascadia (including five from my own community) gathered to discuss “moving forward intentionally into a hopeful and life-affirming common future.” I’ll blog more about the conference later (I promise!), but what’s pertinent here is that the focus of this first year was food and how it can nourish our communities.
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When I launched Sustainable Together as a personal/professional endeavor, I made an ancillary pledge: to make food my main hobby.
I have other hobbies, many of which have fallen by the wayside as I raise a young child (pleasure reading, scrapbooking, kayaking, the list goes on!). Thankfully, I also enjoy cooking, baking, gardening, and shopping at farmers markets. At some point in my sustainable transition, I realized I wouldn’t be able to consistently feed my family seasonal, local, fresh, homemade meals unless I embraced sourcing and preparation of the food.
This takes time, so it helps if you enjoy it.
It also takes a financial commitment. We in the U.S. are conditioned to expect cheap food, year-round. But learning to shape your food budget around seasonal and local foods has many levels of benefits, both for your health and your community.
“With our food dollars, we create the future we want to have,” says Malcolm Dorn, co-owner of the new Chimacum Corner Farmstand, which proactively sources its offerings from local farmers and producers. “The dream is beautiful farmland, healthy people and a healthy habitat.”
Money tight? It helps if you follow the three simple rules the Food Co-op brochure lays out for “eating better on a budget”—with some of my own additions:
1) Eat food. (Not junk!) Avoid highly processed foods and consider the nutrient value of foods you ingest. (I found these handy charts of fruits and veggies with the highest nutrition for the least cost at the Sightline Daily blog). The fresher the food, the more nutritious it is.
2) Cook. Meal plan. Make it once and eat it twice or thrice (leftovers!). Prep your produce for longer life. Preserve the harvest bounty. Use a whole-foods cookbook. Share recipes, try new ones, get inspired!
3) Shop smart. Make a shopping list and stick to it. Buy produce in season. Definitely buy organic if it’s on the Dirty Dozen list. Buy direct from the farmer. Buy in bulk. Join a buying club. Special-order your regular buys for 15-20% discounts (a co-op member benefit). Shop sales. “Shop” from your garden, i.e., grow your own groceries. Shift your budget to spend less on luxury items and more on good food. Etc., etc.!
I learned a lot about our county’s food system at the affordable food forum, and I was so impressed by the wealth of knowledge and experience represented by the seven panelists that I wanted to know what personal steps they had taken to eat local foods more affordably. So in the Q&A period, I asked each of them to share a tip. Here’s what they had to say.
Seth Rolland of Quimper Community Harvest (a gleaning network) said he picks “free food” from his neighbor’s apple tree and has built a rodent-proof box on his porch for outdoor storage of apples.
Malcolm Dorn of the Chimacum Corner Farmstand said he worked out a trade with a farmer to plant an extra row of pickling cukes for him. He harvested them himself and preserved them with a friend, resulting in a stockpile of one of his favorite foods: pickles!
Al Latham of the Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative said he built a greenhouse to extend his garden’s growing season. He claims six millimeters of plastic added 600 miles of latitude to this indoor climate!
Judy Alexander of Citizens for Local Food (for more, see cover story of Nov./Dec. 2011 Food Co-op newsletter) said she bakes her own bread every week. She’s still using the 100 pounds of wheat she received as her share for volunteering for two years with Jefferson County’s dryland wheat project.
Candice Cosler of the Farm-to-School Coalition said she increased her garden’s production by adding “loads of compost”–which boosts the food’s nutrient content as well.
Irene Marble, a dietician at Jefferson Healthcare (our rural hospital) said she grows her own winter squash and preps them for storage by dipping their shells in a bleach solution.
Brwyn Griffin of The Food Co-op said she simplified her diet to be plant-based with little to no processed foods.
My tip is to start my weekly grocery shopping at the farmers market. (I am fortunate that there are two weekly farmers markets in my neighborhood that run April-December.) With fresh produce, local meat, eggs, and a few value-added goodies (cheese, salsa) in hand, I go home and meal-plan, creating a shopping list of necessities to get at the Food Co-op. This one-two punch works well for my family, enjoyably involves my 3-year-old son, and I miss it in the winter-time!
NOTE: The affordable food forum was ably moderated by Scott Wilson, the publisher of our local weekly newspaper The Leader. It later carried a nice wrap-up of the event by reporter Lauren Salcedo. You can read it here.
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I want to put in a final plug for the Food Co-op’s free series of Natural Foods Classes. I attended the Grains class a few weeks ago on a rainy Sunday, just to refresh myself on the uses of the many grains I’ve stockpiled in my cupboard but have not been eating up. I also got my questions answered about baking flours (I’m now considering getting a small grain mill to grind my own to add to commercial varieties) and granola (I’ve since made a date with a friend to do a homemade batch!).
In these classes, Brwyn Griffin (pictured above, holding brochure) walks you through the ins and outs of whole foods—what that means, how to purchase and prepare them, and the health benefits of doing so. The series of 6 classes (grains, beans, oils, eggs/dairy, etc.) is offered three times a year, and each 2-hour class (always Sundays, 2-4 p.m.) stands alone, so you can attend one or all. Pick up an easy-to-read co-op class schedule in the store or click here for the 2012 calendar.
Sustainable Together TIPS
VIDEO: Transportation (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
We’ve been snowed in the last couple of days, and the walkability of our 1880′s-era neighborhood has had a chance to shine.
As Soren and I traveled on foot to the corner grocery, the post office, the coffee shop, and our friends’ houses, we encountered 10 times as many pedestrians as we normally do and 10 times fewer cars. It was so sociable, so cheery, so safe to pull Soren on his sled down the middle of the road. I almost wish the snow would stick around!
Port Townsend’s historic core was built before automobiles were mass-marketed, so it is inherently walkable. Redesigning car-oriented cities around people instead is the challenge for our times.
Creating walkable communities is – to mix metaphors – “the silver bullet in the sustainability toolkit.”
Residents’ health, safety and sense of place are all improved by lessened dependence on automobiles for transportation.
In the continuation of uploads of video from my November presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, this 5-minute video excerpt on “Transportation” describes some of the ways innovative businesses and nonprofits here in Jefferson County are replacing gas-guzzling transportation with walking, bicycling and even sailing!
I highlight Bob’s Bagels‘ bicycle deliveries, Finnriver Farm & Cidery‘s collaboration with Salish Sea Trading Cooperative to get their product to the Seattle market using no fossil fuels, and the ReCyclery, a community bicycle shop that recently moved to a more visible location in town with plans to anchor a non-motorized transportation learning center.
My talk also introduces the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, which relocated here from Florida in 2010. I’m really excited about their presence here, and the role they can play in making Port Townsend and Jefferson County a learning lab for sustainability issues.
A sample of the Powerpoint images I displayed to showcase the work of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute can be seen below. Photomorphs courtesy of WALC.
Potential for a road remake in Orange Beach, Ala.
WALC’s vision for a road remake in Orange Beach, Ala.
Click here for more video clips from my Chamber presentation.
Resolve to Be “Curious, Doubtful” in 2012
‘Tis the time for making New Year’s Resolutions, and I’d like to offer a sweeping suggestion for these transitional times: Be curious, entertain doubts, get angry!
That’s roughly the sequence I’ve followed this past year, and it is nicely summed up by journalist William Greider.
“Curiosity and doubt are the first steps toward action, especially when accompanied by well-earned anger at the way things are,” Greider writes in The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy. I just finished reading this book, and although it was published in 2003, it is one of the best overviews I’ve read of the wrongs of capitalism and how they can be righted.
It’s an especially cheering read because Greider predicts the Occupy Wall Street movement and presents a hopeful story for how society can alter capitalism’s distorted value system and how Americans can collectively acquire decision-making power that is now wielded by a limited number of powerful institutions.
“[A] more contentious time is approaching, when big questions about American economic life are back on the table again for serious reconsideration,” he writes. Economic inequality and ecological destruction will gradually persuade more and more citizens that “something in our system is seriously out of whack and ought to be changed (even if they cannot identify exactly what is wrong or how it might be corrected).” Sounds like OWS to me!
So once you’ve stoked your curiosity, percolated doubts about the current economic system, and stashed away some justifiable anger to unleash at just the right moment, what concrete actions might you take in the coming year? Here are some ideas.
Shift at least one of your bank accounts from a mega-bank to a community bank.
(A community bank, a.k.a. local financial institution, is typically defined as having less than $1 billion in assets). Moving your money is one of the simplest things you can do to support your community and its independent businesses.
We started this process in 2002 when we built our house and took out our mortgage at a savings and loan that operates only on the Olympic Peninsula and is a generous philanthropist in our hometown. In successive waves, we have shifted all of our personal and business accounts to First Federal. We are really pleased to be a part of their community giving, and two immediate benefits of banking with this small, truly customer-friendly bank is that we are not charged a fee to use other banks’ ATMs, and using our debit card in Canada is cheaper than using our (ahem) Bank of America credit card.
(I’m still seeking advice on a more sustainable credit card option. Please leave a comment if you have a recommendation.)
Shift at least one of your significant, ongoing purchases from a mega-retailer to a local merchant.
Examples: office supplies, books, wine. If you spend a dollar locally, it circulates locally, positively impacting 3-7 different local businesses before it leaves the area. That same dollar spent at a national or multi-national chain has very little positive impact on the local economy.
If you live where I do—a 45-minute drive from big-box stores—try weaning yourself from the weekly or monthly “trip to town.” When I did this shortly after my son was born, I found I saved money by shopping locally because I was less tempted to buy items that I didn’t really need from the dizzying array of options on the big-box shelves. Before long, I didn’t miss the trips at all. To the contrary, I love walking on my errands and popping into local shops where I have a relationship with the owners and employees.
Downscale your cash spending by trading or sharing a service you currently pay for.
Examples: childcare, haircuts, yard maintenance. Take back your money by not spending it at all!
I decided a year ago that my preferred bob hairstyle was simple enough to cut at home. While I’ve never tried cutting my hair myself, I’ve had it trimmed by a friend, my mother, my husband, and—this past Christmas day—by my visiting sister.
One of my 2012 resolutions is to become active in the Fourth Corner Exchange barter network that I joined last year, but have yet to use. I’m thinking of requesting help with housecleaning and yard weeding, and offering to help others with photo editing and photo gift projects for their friends and family, and delivering an extra loaf of the bread I bake each week.
Speaking of bread-baking…
Develop or practice a skill that makes you and your family more self-sufficient.
Americans have come to internalize the label of “consumer.” But I’d rather be identified as a “conserver” and a “creator.” Examples: Bake, sew, repair, build, grow, preserve food. Attend a “reskilling fair.” Take a class. Mentor with someone more skilled than you.
Another 2012 resolution is to bake most of my family’s bread and pizza dough. I’ve been practicing for the last couple of months, experimenting with no-knead recipes that can sit in the fridge all week as well as food-processor kneading, and to that end, my Christmas gift requests were a dough whisk, a new bread pan and a big package of yeast. My friend and bread mentor Luke surprised me with a present of a lidded, clear, 1.5-gallon “bread bucket.” I’m set!
Read. Learn. Be inspired by new perspectives.
Read YES! Magazine or The Nation or Mother Jones, or any other publication that stretches your worldview. We have to learn to think about the economy and society in an altogether new way, says Greider, and we should seek out compelling stories that are “more promising for society than the reigning narratives of self-centered capitalism.”
Tip: Share a subscription with a friend or two, and pass the issues along as soon as you read them. You’ll have conversation starters galore. I just subscribed to YES!, taking advantage of a special introductory offer of 5 quarterly issues (one year’s subscription plus one bonus issue) for only $15. Who wants to be my YES! reading partner in 2012?
Change your mindset from one of rugged independence to mutual interdependence.
This is the big action item, and it’s not concrete at all but very conceptual. Greider says: “[T]he paradox of American life [is that] collective action is required to achieve individual self-realization. People open paths for each one’s individual pursuit of potential only by working together to liberate life’s possibilities for all.”
Here’s to “Going Sustainable Together” in 2012! Please leave a comment and share your New Year’s Resolution.
For more inspiration to activism in 2012...
A Progressive Dinner & Other Progress
Last Monday night I enjoyed a delectable four-course meal, but only had to prepare the salad.
It was thanks to three of our closest neighbors that my family ate abundantly well and inexpensively that night, in a lingering meal spiced with much socializing. Have you guessed how? Yes, we held a “progressive dinner.”
This was the fulfillment of a pledge I made to myself—and all Leader readers!—when I told a reporter in early September that one of the ways I intended to “go sustainable together” was to organize a progressive dinner “as a way of becoming better acquainted with [my] neighbors.”
“It’s a small thing to have a supper with your neighbors, but it’s money in the bank when you need to borrow a tool or ask them to water your garden or call upon them in an emergency—or they need to call upon you,” I was quoted as saying. (Read the article.)
If you’ve only heard about progressive dinners but never attended one, the concept is simple. Get a few neighbors together (four couples is a good number, easily accommodated around the average dining room table), each household cooks up one course, and the neighbors “progress” from one house to another, in turn sampling each neighbor’s food and hospitality.
Start with appetizers, end with dessert. In between, get to know each other!
Beyond the front door
There’s something about getting beyond the front-door threshold that engenders trust. I’m chagrined to say that two of the three progressive-dinner couples had never before stepped inside our home. But now they have—and they know the story of how we came to Port Townsend, and I know their stories.
At my suggestion, the hosts at each house shared their story of how they came to this town and this neighborhood. We found that we all valued its walkability. “Cars are good, but not for going to get a loaf of bread,” as Mike put it. We uncovered other commonalities, too, from shared southern roots to Volkswagen vans in our pasts.
It was clear by the end of the evening—after consuming the local cheese plate, my signature caramelized nut salad, eggplant moussaka, and blackberry pie, plus drinks with three of the four courses (!)—that everyone had had a wonderful time.
“Let’s do this again!” was the rallying cry. I’d like to see the concept spread, fanning outward down our streets until all our neighbors know each other better than they do now.
Progress update
In addition to the “progress”-ive dinner, I want to tell you about some of the other progress I’ve been making toward my own eco-challenge of diving into my community’s sustainability movement in the three months since I launched Sustainable Together.
I have come to terms with the fact that keeping up this blog is ancillary to taking action. The blog is the means, not the end. So if I don’t post for a week or so, it’s because instead of typing at my computer, I’m attending committee meetings, making phone calls, and allowing extra time to bike to events, plus taking care of “housekeeping” duties like swapping childcare with my mama friends, baking bread, duck-sitting my neighbor’s flock in exchange for the eggs—or perhaps sponging vomit splatters off the walls, as I was this past weekend when Soren suffered a virulent 12-hour stomach flu. And then my husband got sick two days later. But that’s just life.
- My volunteer work with Local 20/20 continues to expand in satisfying ways. I attended my fourth monthly steering committee meeting this past week and helped make the case that the organization should become our county’s official Transition Town Initiative. The vote was unanimous that Local 20/20 apply to the national organization to become Washington State’s 11th “TT” and one of only 110 or so in the U.S. Local 20/20 is in transition itself as one of the founding members steps back after being elected to our city council (hooray, Deb!) and another moves away. There are leadership roles to be assumed, and I am stepping up where I can.
- I’m really excited to attend a regional sustainability conference coming up Feb. 2-4 hosted by the Whidbey Institute. It’s the first of five annual Thriving Communities conferences exploring the critical issues facing small communities. The focus of this first year will be food and how we nourish ourselves as communities. I had a long phone chat with the Institute’s program director, Heather Johnson, who turned out to be my same age and helped found Sustainable Connections in Bellingham, Wash., that led to BALLE (The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). In addition to wanting to network further with Heather, I was convinced it would be a detriment if I was not at the conference. So I’m going! We’re looking to gather a team of Jefferson County residents to attend together. Wanna come? Click here for more information and registration details.
- I’m also recruiting parents of young children to join me for a Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) discussion course for 8 weeks in January and February. I am co-convening the course with NWEI veteran Robin Purnell Mills, a former Adventuress shipmate who married a local shipwright, settled in Jefferson County, and now has three children. She is definitely someone I want to learn from. We are excited to share ideas and actions for raising children inspired by the course Healthy Children, Healthy Planet. Our kids are welcome at the book club-type discussions, which will be followed by optional lunch potlucks. If you can meet eight Wednesday mornings starting Jan. 11 and can afford $22 for the course book, and want to deepen your parenting community, contact me!
- Another upcoming opportunity I want to plug is the training for the new Farm and Food Producer Survey produced by Citizens for Local Food (a spin-off of Local 20/20′s Food Resiliency action group). With more than 200 local food producers, many volunteers will be needed to conduct in-person or phone surveys. The training will be scheduled on either Saturday or Sunday, Jan. 14 or 15, in Port Hadlock. RSVP to citizensforlocalfood@yahoo.com with your availability for training on these days. I hope to volunteer for this interesting and important effort to collect data on our farms and lobby for more farm-friendly regulations.
- Emergency preparedness is a subject that has been much more on my mind since Soren was born—it’s one thing to take care of yourself in a disaster, but children add a worrisome and complicating layer. So I have resolved to spearhead the organization of my neighborhood for such an eventuality, using an existing model forged through a partnership between Local 20/20 and our county’s Department of Emergency Management. My neighbor Ron agreed to be my partner in this endeavor, and the two of us attended a regular meeting of emergency prep neighborhood organizers on Dec. 8 to learn more. Then we floated the idea at our progressive dinner and received an enthusiastic response. We’re on our way!
- Partly out of curiosity, partly
out of respect for what the international movement has accomplished so far, I attended the first General Assembly held by the Occupy Port Townsend group on Dec. 3. I have not yet been inspired to join a sign-waving “demonstration”—these are periodic events, as there is no space actually “occupied” (yet) in Port Townsend. But I was impressed by the energy and new ideas that came out of the well-run meeting on the 3rd (attended by about 80 people), and I feel Occupy groups will continue to be vital protest outlets for the injustices wrought by social and economic inequality in our world.
Yes, it feels like I have a lot on my plate, but I also feel invigorated by the new people I am meeting, the new causes I am joining, and the new ways my talents and skills are being utilized.
And there’s so much work to be done. How are you working toward greater sustainability in your community? Leave a comment and let us know.
VIDEO: Energy (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
Do you know where your energy comes from? Proportionally, more Jefferson County residents can proudly say, “From the sun!” than can residents of any other county in the state.
This 5-minute video excerpt on “Energy” references the sponsor of my Chamber talk (and, not entirely coincidentally, my husband’s employer), Power Trip Energy Corp.
It describes Jefferson County’s leading role in creating energy from the sun.
The Puget Sound Energy graph referenced in my talk can be seen below. Data provided by PSE, current as of Oct. 2011.
Port Townsend was named Washington Solar City of the Year in 2009 and our county currently has the highest per-capita number of grid-tied solar installations in the state—perhaps in the nation. Nearly 1% of electric utility customers have grid-tied solar panels that feed excess electricity into the grid for other customers to use. I would love to know if there is another county with similar per-capita stats.
Also discussed is the forthcoming “community solar project” to be located at the county airport. Public land and investors are already lined up and the installation of a 16-KW ground-mounted solar array was awaiting FAA approval at the time of my talk. As of this writing, the installer (Power Trip Energy) tells me the system should be up and running around the first of the year. (Update: This project is the topic of a 12/5/11 Peninsula Daily News article.)
The solar electricity produced will be sold to the landowner (the Port of Port Townsend) and each individual investor receives a state production incentive and a federal tax credit. The national model for community solar is right here in Washington, in the City of Ellensburg. (Read more.)
I close this segment with the reminder that we will soon have a greater say in where our energy comes from once our electrical utility comes under local control. Our Public Utility District is in the process of purchasing Puget Sound Energy’s holdings in Jefferson County, a move authorized by a county-wide vote in 2008 and promoted by a group called Citizens for Local Power that spun off of Local 20/20. Two other counties tried similar votes that same year and were out-lobbied by PSE. We won!
So how about “no electricity generated from coal-fired power plants”? We have to envision the future we want and demand it!
Click on graph to view in a separate window.
Roundtable Wrap-Up
Yesterday’s “Sustainability Roundtables” provided a satisfying wrap-up to my involvement with Local 20/20‘s sustainability outreach to our local Chamber of Commerce.
It was particularly gratifying to have a number of electeds and appointed officials in attendance: Mike Glenn, CEO of our hospital, sat in on the Healthcare discussion; Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval was at the Local Investing table; Public Utility District (PUD) Commissioner Barney Burke was at the Energy table. (The PUD will soon be Jefferson County’s very local electrical utility provider, when the sale of our grid from Puget Sound Energy is finalized). City councilor-elect Robert Gray joined the Transportation table.
In addition to the Chamber‘s core of small-business entrepreneurs, also attending were bankers, farmers, retirees, a policeman, and the county’s brand-new-on-the-job environmental health specialist. Two members of Economic Development Council Team Jefferson were there (well, three if you count Chamber Executive Director Teresa Verraes).
Questions answered
I sat at the Local Food Resiliency Table and got some of my questions answered about joining or starting a community garden. The conversation naturally led to preserving the bounty, and I was inspired to hear that one of my peers—also the mother of a toddler—is gung-ho about re-teaching the “domestic arts” of canning, sewing, etc. In fact, she sees a business opportunity in it.
The beauty of having a Local 20/20 table host (in the form of Judy Alexander) was that Judy was able to provide background on ongoing local discussions to host a “reskilling” fair or festival here in Jefferson County. The groundwork is laid, the idea just needs someone to pick it up and run with it! she said.
Judy mentioned the work that Sustainable NE Seattle has done in this area, and I was easily able to find a citation online to their 2011 “Hands On” skills fair. Maybe the event will be repeated this February and my mama friend and I can go do some research…
Director was ‘floored’
I chatted with Chamber Executive Director Teresa Verraes after the roundtable event and she said she was “floored” by the level of participation and by the respect accorded to those who shared their ideas.
She, like I, felt it was very valuable to brainstorm solutions to today’s pressing problems with people in your community you might not otherwise converse with, but who share an interest in the same topic.
“It felt like two different sectors of our community coming together that don’t necessarily travel in the same circles,” Teresa said, referring to business and sustainability leaders.
“I had several people who were new to Chamber come up to me afterwards and say, ‘Wow, this is what the Chamber does all the time?’ And I said, ‘No, but I think we’ll do more of it!’”
Judy e-mailed me after the roundtables to say, “Thanks again, Shelly, for all you did with getting the Chamber on board. I think we may have forged a new partnership today, a big one!”
Roundtable Shout-Out ‘Best Ideas’
• Local Food Resiliency: Put on a Reskilling Fair to demonstrate and promote teaching and sharing of “old fashioned” skills like food preservation, beekeeping, leatherworking, etc.
• Transportation: Would like to see (1) a ferry connection from Port Townsend to Bainbridge Island, (2) an ORCA-style regional transportation card system for all buses and ferries, and (3) free Jefferson Transit service from the Port Townsend Park & Ride to downtown and uptown (a fare is currently charged, but this route has been free in the past).
• Local Investing: Need to provide additional education to our community about investment modalities—what is available, how do they work?
• Emergency Preparedness: Every business needs to conduct a disaster preparedness assessment and put a plan in place so that in an emergency, we can rely on ourselves, not on government.
• Water: Align the farmer and their land and the available water with the optimal crops.
• Energy: Focus on residential energy efficiency upgrades.
• Waste Reduction: Work to reduce paper and plastic waste in our community.
• Healthcare: Simply a question… How can we have a for-profit entity standing between people who need healthcare and healthcare providers?
So there you have it!
Click to view a PDF file of the notes from all the table scribes: RoundtableReport_1121_11.
VIDEO: Local Investing (Presentation to Chamber of Commerce, 11/14/11)
This video excerpt focuses on successes in local investing, including those initiated by the Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION), the Quilcene Conversation, and our community banks. Specific projects cited are Mt. Townsend Creamery, Finnriver Farm, Quilcene’s Village Store, and the forthcoming Quimper Mercantile.
This first clip is just 7 minutes long — for a variety of reasons, one being that only my dear parents are likely to listen to all 40 minutes of my talk last Monday to the local Chamber of Commerce (see recent post).
So I’m slicing and dicing my presentation into manageable chunks, and video excerpts on other talk topics will be posted here in the weeks to come.
>>>Many thanks to friend and colleague Jessica Plumb of Plumb Productions for taping the entire presentation for archival purposes and performing the technical wizardry to compress her HD footage into a form I could upload into a free video-sharing account for your viewing pleasure.
DESCRIPTION: Independent sustainability reporter Shelly Randall gives an overview of the diverse sustainability initiatives in Jefferson County that are drawing regional and national attention.
This excerpt from her presentation to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 14, 2001, highlights successes in LOCAL INVESTING.
The book she refers to is Locavesting: A Revolution in Local Investing by Amy Cortese. (For more, see Cortese’s recent guest post, “Community Capital,” for American Public Media’s Marketplace blog.)
Learn more about Jefferson County’s LION investing network at l2020.org/lion.
P.S. One factoid I didn’t mention is that Small Business Saturday, coming up Nov. 26 and promoted nationally, was test-driven here in Port Townsend last year. Ours was one of three Main Street communities in the nation chosen to roll it out in 2010. The promotion is a partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center and American Express.
Click here for more video clips from the Chamber presentation.Round Up for Sustainability Roundtables
Want to talk about solutions?
Then you’re invited to join a roundtable discussion on one of eight sustainability topics on Monday, Nov. 21, noon-1 p.m., at the weekly lunch meeting of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
[Yes, the roundtables are this coming Monday, the 21st. Apologies for incorrectly posting the date earlier. -SR]
If you heard my presentation on “Going Sustainable Together” to the Chamber on Nov. 14, you’re probably all fired up for the Sustainability Roundtables coming up next Monday.
If you weren’t there, or if you’re having trouble deciding which topic to explore in this special hour-long program facilitated by table hosts from Local 20/20, here are some teasers for each of the eight roundtable topics.
Pick a topic, join a table. You can just listen, ask questions, or share what you know.
Although you will sit at one table, you will have access to what happens at all of them. There is a “scribe” lined up for each table, so we will be able to capture, and report back to the Chamber membership, all salient concepts that were discussed. (I’ll probably be drafting this…) The Chamber and Local 20/20 want to hear and engage with your ideas!
Please arrive promptly to purchase your lunch (optional sandwich or salad bar) and be seated at the table topic of your choice.
Waste Reduction
Of the “3 Rs” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), which one most impacts your business’s well-being? We’ll debunk the recycling “myths” in Jefferson County and trade tips on how to move toward zero waste.
Water
You’ve heard of a “carbon footprint,” but do you know what your “water footprint” is? What actions can you take in your business to steward Jefferson County’s shorelines, rivers and aquifers?
Healthcare
When your employees get sick, your business suffers and so do they. What can you do to influence the health of your employees? How are you addressing rising health insurance costs?
Transportation
How do your customers travel to you? And how can we put more money in your customers’ pockets by supporting alternative transportation options that reduce the expense of owning or using a car?
Energy
How can energy conservation and the shift to renewables buffer our businesses and the local economy from the double challenge of climate change and the decline from peak oil production?
Local Food Resiliency
How can the push to achieve 20% local food purchases by 2020 have a positive ripple effect in our local economy, and how can your business be involved in the shift to a more local, secure and just food system?
Emergency Preparedness
Did you know 100+ neighborhood groups in our county have organized around emergency planning? How can businesses do the same, and promote community resiliency through self-sufficiency?
Local Investing
Learn more about the Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) and the ways money circulates most effectively in our local economy. How can we make a habit of thinking “local first”?
Judith Alexander of Local 20/20 will facilitate the program. Hosting the table discussions will be Local 20/20 “action group” leaders who have been working for years to engage our community on these topics.
Having worked hard to coordinate this community outreach (see previous post), I’ll be there in the role of roving reporter!
The event is free and open to the public. I really hope you can join the conversation.
Be Careful What You Wish For: My Chamber of Commerce Dream Come True
I’m feeling justified. A few weeks after I followed my gut and launched a blog calling for “going sustainable together,” Occupy Wall Street started (finally!) making headlines. I’m not alone in thinking global corporatization is the downfall of so many American communities, even if I happen to live in a fairly resilient one.
But even sooner than that, my phone rang with an invitation I couldn’t refuse. My blog went live on a Tuesday; our Leader newspaper ran an article about it on Wednesday, and that Friday the local Chamber of Commerce called asking if I would present at one of their weekly member lunch meetings.
I’ve just begun this journey! was my first frantic thought. What do I have to talk about—yet? My next rational thought was, This is about going sustainable together: it’s not about me. What if I highlight the diverse sustainability initiatives in Jefferson County that are drawing regional and national attention? I think a group of local business leaders could be interested in that. And a plan to raise my profile as an independent sustainability reporter began to take shape.
Earlier that very busy week, I had committed to joining the steering committee of our county’s umbrella sustainability organization, Local 20/20. Everyone was very excited about my publicity skills and my enthusiasm for increasing outreach. This fortuitous opportunity to speak to the Chamber called for folding Local 20/20 into my plan.
“Togetherness” firmly in mind, I invited Judy Alexander, a longtime Local 20/20 leader, to join me in a meeting with the dynamic new Chamber director, Teresa Verraes. The three of us talked for two and a half hours—no doubt wreaking havoc on Teresa’s schedule that day, but she honestly seemed as enthused as we did.
The more-than-we-wished-for outcome is that the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce—a group not historically known for progressive thinking, but that’s definitely changing—is dedicating two of its weekly meetings in the month of November to the topic of local sustainability.
Yours truly has the Nov. 14 slot!
OK, now I just have to prepare my presentation—and it’s only a scant week away. So is the deadline for a paying client project (of course).
Be careful what you wish for, my hubby Jeff has gently chided me. He’s right. I did wish for this. And got more than I wished for.
Concerned with the current circumstances of our economy? (And who isn’t?) You are invited to attend two upcoming luncheon meetings of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce focused on sustainable solutions.
On Monday, Nov. 14, independent sustainability reporter and communications consultant Shelly Randall gives an overview of the diverse sustainability initiatives in Jefferson County that are drawing regional and national attention. Her talk previews the eight topics that will be explored in a round-table format at the next Chamber meeting. (Thanks to Jeff’s company, Power Trip Energy, for stepping up to be the business sponsor for my presentation!)
The following Monday, Nov. 21, a special hour-long program hosted by Local 20/20 and moderated by Judy Alexander features roundtable discussions on the following topics: local investing, energy, transportation, waste reduction, local food resiliency, water, emergency preparedness, and healthcare. Local 20/20 is lining up table hosts and facilitating the discussions.
Pick a topic. Explore how it impacts the economic well-being of your business, and share your ideas for how our community can move toward greater sustainability and resiliency.
Both meetings run from noon-1 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Lunch is available for purchase. Location: Elks Lodge (555 Otto Street, Port Townsend, in Glen Cove).
For more information, contact the Chamber at 360-385-7869 or admin@jeffcountychamber.org.
See also the preview article I helped prepare for the Chamber’s newsletter, on page 5 of this PDF.P.S. I joined the Chamber last month. Their leadership is taking a chance on me; I’m going to take a chance on them!
P.P.S. If you can’t make my talk on the 14th, Jessica Plumb of Plumb Productions will be taping it and I’ll post video excerpts here soon after. VIEW VIDEOS.
Featured photo by Darren W. ~ Flickr Creative Commons
When We Have Grown it, a Gift of Food is a Gift of Ourself
“First we fed the chickens, now the chickens are feeding us.”
My toddler’s chant became a mantra, a blessing, as we scrambled the dark yellow yolks in the pan, cooking up a dinner of the freshest eggs possible. That afternoon we’d made our first visit to Valley Rock Farm, one of our county’s many small-scale egg producers. It was also a long-overdue visit because it is owned by part-time farmer friends of ours, and every time they see us in town, they invite us out.
Soren’s recent obsession with farm animals (maybe the veterinarian gene skipped a generation, from my father to my son?) encouraged me to call Mark and Tami, and they were thrilled to have visitors.
Mark is raising two fine sons, so he knew just how to engage Soren. We toured all the barns and paddocks with a bucket of multipurpose grain. To make friends, we offered food. (Just as I brought a loaf of my banana-zucchini bread for our farmer friends.) We fed the sheep (a mixed flock for both wool and meat), the solitary goat, and the fowl—oh, the birds! I tried to keep count: about 35 chickens and 25 ducks of various species, and two huge geese leading the pack.
And oh, the poop! Good thing Soren and I were both wearing boots. I am so grateful to farmer families for putting up with livestock on their lawns. I’m just not prepared to deal with poultry droppings in our yard. That’s why I’m prepared to pay $5.50/dozen (the going rate here) for local eggs. It’s one of my top food commitments for my family, and once you’ve switched, there’s no going back! (Full disclosure: I keep some lesser-quality eggs—but not the worst factory-farmed ones—in my fridge for baking. My motivations are health, taste and local economy, with ethics lower on the list.)
Valley Rock Farm poultry have the run of a grassy barnyard so large I couldn’t see its fenced edges over the lay of the land; this is what free-range, pastured birds look like. But they have been trained to lay in the nesting boxes inside one of the barns, and that’s where Soren “discovered” half a dozen of their most recent gifts. Mark boosted him up so he could feel around under the straw and unearth each one with a triumphant grin.
Of course, these six eggs were sent home with us, along with another six to make an even dozen, plus two pumpkins, plus a frozen package of salmon that Mark caught and smoked himself (can’t wait to try that!). Producing food makes us generous. Food wealth is somewhat perishable, that’s true, but that can’t account for the impulse to share foods that can be preserved or even sold for cash.
We wouldn’t think of gifting departing guests with bags of potato chips or breakfast cereal, even if pantry was overflowing with these rather nonperishable, commercial items. But when we have grown it, a gift of food is a gift of ourself, of our talent, of our dogged persistence to keep those plants or birds alive and productive. We can be so very proud of that, and the receiver so grateful.
Gratitude for the people who grow our food is sorely lacking in our culture, and we need “the good food revolution” to bring it back.
On the 35-minute drive home from Valley Rock Farm, I felt overflowing with fall bounty, and with excitement about our friends’ parting offer: to join them next August or September when they “harvest” their roosters. If I want a roasting bird from their flock, I have to earn it, Mark said. Since reading about poultry harvest in Barbara Kingsolver’s food memoir, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’ve been wondering how I could experience this cycle of life-giving-life that she describes so beautifully. I’ve been handed my opportunity.
Thoughts about food have been gathering in my head this week, and they coalesced yesterday at (where else?) our Saturday Farmer’s Market. I had $45 in my wallet and toward the end of my shopping, I decided I’d rather have a 10# bag of carrots for $10 than hot soup for lunch. So I blew my lunch budget and lugged the beautiful bag to the playground, where a friend was watching my son. I was suddenly the object of carrot envy! Three acquaintances confessed they had eyed the carrot bargain but had been unable to commit. What was I going to use them for?
As I passed out carrots to all their children for snacking, we had a great conversation about the merits of cooking from scratch, eating organic produce, supporting our farmers, and not busting our food budgets. I feel it comes down to changing your habits, and knowing what healthier behaviors can replace not-so-healthy ones (like shopping trips to Silverdale—our closest big-box nightmare of a town, which fortunately (and very unusually in our nation of sprawl) is an hour drive away—from whence you return with more packaged crap than you ever intended). It’s not about simply substituting local, fresh, organic food for the cheaper produce you purchase from a chain store that was shipped from California or Mexico.
It’s about changing how you cook and eat, and discovering how food shopping, preparation and ingestion can become more of a force for goodness and happiness in your life, your relationships and your community.
This is the precise topic of a forum coming up this Thursday, Nov. 3, which I am interested to attend. It’s called “Making Local Food Affordable,” is moderated by our newspaper publisher Scott Wilson, and is held from 7-9 p.m. at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend. There will be info tables and people to chat with starting at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public, so hope to see you there!
P.S. You can buy Valley Rock Farm eggs at the Port Townsend Food Co-op, and maybe you’ve eaten their duck eggs on the menu at Sweet Laurette’s Café. Support our friends!
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