Rise and Shine summer hiking club

On June 24th, we kicked off the Rise and Shine summer hiking club.  Mary, of 4-H worked with the scholars to define the values and rules for each hiking group.  She also helped the scholars create a journal so that they could document their experiences over the 6 weeks of the hiking club.  While each of the 3 hiking groups worked with Mary, we hiked the other 2 groups toward Bracken Mountain Preserver to teach them how close this amazing trail system and gateway is to their home. It is such a gift to spend time in the woods young minds.  I highly recommend it. It is only because of community volunteers these hikes are happening.  Thanks to all of them and Rise and Shine for allowing us to hike with the scholars!

By |2019-06-27T16:51:01-04:00June 27th, 2019|Categories: Connecting with nature, Gatherings, Help a Neighbor|

Fermenting, Beer Tasting, Sharing a meal, and funding our website.

June 13th, we hosted a gathering at WolfBrew Bottle Shop.  Noel, who taught fermenting with food scraps at our Use Food Scraps Symposium, noticed we were raising money for our new website.  She contacted us and asked if she could teach fermenting classes to help us raise money.  What a nice thing to do! She taught Making Kraut on the 13th and is coming back on July 11th to teach carrot ferments at Wolf Brew.  Thank you Noel!  We raised $100 at the event.  We are half way there towards funding our new site. Noel is such a wonderful teacher.  She is so enthusiastic and knows the topic well.  Her husband educated us on some of the science and I learned a lot.  I took her class in March at our Symposium and after taking this class I went home and tried making some kraut.  It is in our spring house now fermenting.  We are blessed to have a spring house, which keeps things cool as a [...]

By |2019-06-17T16:31:51-04:00June 17th, 2019|Categories: Food preservation, Gatherings, Moving to Zero-waste|

Indie Pop-up Flea Market moved towards zero-waste

Shane, owner of GreenGo cleaning products was organizing the Indie Pop-up Flea Market, which was held in the Lumberyard District June 9th.  She asked if we could work with her and move the event to a zero-waste event.  We said heck yea! Shane owns a cleaning company and makes her own cleaning products and sells them at our local farmers market.  She distributes them in glass, which you can bring back and have refilled.  Reuse is key to zero-waste!  Thanks Shane for being a great business model! Shane worked through the health department and found out everything we needed to do to provide re-useable silverware for the food truck meals and we did it.  Thanks to Cedar Mountain Cafe stepping in at the last moment, we were able to wash the silverware in a health department approved kitchen.  Thank you Lucia! We had a great event.  Not only did we have a silverware station, we had a compost station and collected plates, napkins and such.  Shane required [...]

By |2019-06-17T16:20:22-04:00June 13th, 2019|Categories: Composting, Help a Neighbor, Moving to Zero-waste, Use Food Scraps|

The Sharing Book

Thanks to Torry for sharing his book, Sharing Solutions!  We can study this book as a group so we can decide what to do with all our dishware.  For now, we are taking requests and joyfully sharing with folks who ask to borrow our wares.  Let us know if you are interested in learning and helping us move our stash to a community sharing resource.  We would love your help!

By |2019-06-06T11:03:37-04:00June 6th, 2019|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste, Sharing Club|

Ceramic water bottle 3rd prototype ready for your input

Will has produced the third version of our prototype of a ceramic water bottle.  I love it.  He took many of the comments he received at the Use Food Scraps symposium and threw them into the new design.  :) I carry it with me pretty much everywhere.  I will bring the prototypes to the June 13th gathering for all to see.  Thanks Will for working with us.  He is waiting to hear from us.

By |2019-06-06T10:44:09-04:00June 6th, 2019|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste|

Our Sharing Library and Food Scrap Diversion work is going strong in our community!

Our Sharing Library and Food Scrap Diversion work is going strong in our community! Another step towards a zero-waste community! Moving to Conservers has an inventory of donated items given to us to promote re-use and zero-waste. Currently we have dishes, complete sets of china and lots of silverware. Folks are borrowing it and we are so happy! They are also asking if we have a home for the food scraps they collect at their event! Yes! We do we say! As we start looking at ways to make our sharing library a permanent part of our community please feel free to ask to use our items. If you have food scraps as a result of your event and are looking for a home for them (other than the landfill) please let us know. We are happy to help!

By |2019-06-03T15:39:22-04:00June 3rd, 2019|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste, Sharing Club|

Garden Tours

A few years ago John and I started a garden. Now growing our own food takes an immense amount of our day and we love it. We learn every day. It is so rewarding to harvest and eat a meal from our yard. We have organized 2 garden tours this year, the first at our home and the second at Eagle Nest Academy. Torry has approached us about a garden tour at his home in August. I learn so much at the tours and have even scored some plants! Interested in hosting a tour? We can do some work for you while there or just stroll and learn. Let us know if you would like to host us for a gathering at your garden.

By |2019-06-03T15:37:15-04:00June 3rd, 2019|Categories: Gatherings, Growing food, Moving to Zero-waste, Use Food Scraps|

Helping each other

John and I have been spending a lot of time helping friends and neighbors. One of our members recently said the way we show up to help each other in this group is unique and wonderful. We are a sharing and loving group for sure. Thanks to all who ask for help and all who are on the list to receive a note when someone asks for help. Interested in being on the list let us know.- -Do you need help or are you lonely and need someone to spend time with? Let us know. Email us at [email protected] or call our home at 828–966-5367. Kim & John

By |2019-06-03T15:34:56-04:00June 3rd, 2019|Categories: Help a Neighbor|

Blue Ghost Flies and Grape Leaves

Our gathering on May 30, 2019 welcomed 4 first-timers. Ed, Nancy, Paul and Susan joined us for the first time. We met at the Canteen in Cedar Mountain and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. I had gathered grape leaves on Labor Day and used them to make a vegetarian grape leaf roll dish to share. We have so many grape vines in our community, it makes foraging easy. In that our supply of dishware is in demand and being requested by community members, we talked about ways to create living wage jobs to facilitate that sharing. We talked about ways to use glass to create economic opportunities in our community while diverting it from the landfill when recycling collections aren’t in demand. South Carolina no longer recycles glass. Susan brought oregano plants and fresh oregano to share and it didn’t take long for it to disappear. Susan had asked earlier about bringing the oregano planted in used plastic containers to the gathering. Plastic is with us forever and we [...]

By |2019-06-03T15:29:14-04:00June 3rd, 2019|Categories: Gatherings, Moving to Zero-waste|
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