Local Economy Posts
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)....
read moreResolve 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...
read moreRoundtable 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...
read moreVIDEO: 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...
read moreRound 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,...
read moreWhen 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...
read moreForgetting the Pie We Paid For
& Other “Money Fast” Anecdotes
Money… Ah, it’s more intertwined in my day-to-day life than I imagined. And awfully hard to disentangle from. That realization was driven home during my 5-day “money fast” Oct. 1-5 and a subsequent “money scrutiny” phase Oct. 6-15—both intended to foster sustainability through frugality, and to explore non-monetary transactions within my community. For the two weeks of the Northwest Earth Institute’s annual EcoChallenge, I originally planned to split the 14 days down the middle and undertake a...
read moreHouse Concerts Sustain Musicians
Port Townsend musician Simon Lynge has performed for 25,000 fans at the famed Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, but tomorrow night you can hear him in Port Townsend in a much more intimate setting: RoseWind’s Common House, which holds fewer than 100 people. This Friday’s (Sept. 16) “house concert” is also a way for the community to support this talented musician’s touring lifestyle. There is a suggested donation of $15 for the event, which is a shared billing with his wife Janna Marit. Currently Simon is on the road more than half the...
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