Eating Consciously – Page 2 – Moving to Conservers

How do you feel about starting potlucks again?
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How do you feel about starting potlucks again?

Eating Consciously, Gatherings, Moving to Zero-waste

How do you feel about starting potlucks again?

Picture above: A Moving to Conservers gathtering at Rooster Head Farm It has been over a year since we have gathered as Moving to Conservers. Now that John and I are part owners of the Cedar Mountain Canteen, we feel we have a home for Conservers to enjoy and use as a demonstration site to show how to move to zero-waste, compost, plant food and love each other. The Canteen has a wonderful outdoor garden on the Little River and we are ready to host Moving to Conservers' gatherings if you feel it is time to do that again. All the owners of the Canteen are fully vaccinated and we would love to see you again. Our gathering size is limited to 21 at the moment as that is how many we can safely host and social distance. Please let us know your thoughts. We look forward to sharing together again.

By Kim Coram|2021-04-11T08:47:39-04:00April 11th, 2021|Categories: Eating Consciously, Gatherings, Moving to Zero-waste|

Moving to Conservers Members helping us create a food forest at the Cedar Mountain Canteen
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Moving to Conservers Members helping us create a food forest at the Cedar Mountain Canteen

Composting, Eating Consciously, Food, Gatherings, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Use Food Scraps

Moving to Conservers Members helping us create a food forest at the Cedar Mountain Canteen

Growing food organically and planting native plants and trees is one of our passions. John and I are now part owners of the Cedar Mountain Canteen and we want the community to enjoy locally grown food so we are busy planting. We have planted 2 peach trees, rhubarb, blueberry bushes, strawberries, and are planning on much more as the weather warms up. We have also planted 2 Red Bud trees and 1 Dogwood in the garden for shade. We planted bee balm, a native flower. Our dear friend Susan Sunflower brought us native Green and Golds and planted them at the base of our shade trees and also blessed us with a couple of Oconee Bells, a rare native flower. Michael Plauche of the Transylvania County Bird Club brought us 4 bird boxes for our food forest as well. We have found nesting birds are one of the greatest forms of natural pest control. We received some gorgeous hanging baskets from some of our neighbors for the garden [...]

By Kim Coram|2021-04-11T08:16:13-04:00April 11th, 2021|Categories: Composting, Eating Consciously, Food, Gatherings, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Use Food Scraps|

Noel talks about the upcoming seed swap
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Noel talks about the upcoming seed swap

Food, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner

Noel talks about the upcoming seed swap

Hello Gardeners, I am sure you all enjoyed the short string of sunshine we were gifted as of late. I bet you noticed as well the day length was longer, at dawn and dusk. Time to think gardening! Since humans have been growing food, the challenges have been numerous. With this endeavor came the saving of seeds from the tastiest and most adaptable plants. People today still are making crosses, trying to achieve variety and hardiness. There are many facets to gardening and seed saving is one of the many. It is a challenge and every plant has its own protocol for ensuring next year’s seeds will be viable and delicious. But we have the luxury of thousands of varieties of seeds offered to us through garden centers and seed catalogues. Many of you most likely have packets from last year or even earlier. Check out the seed viability charts and learn what seeds are still useful. It is these you can plant this season AND share! https://www.highmowingseeds.co [...]

By Kim Coram|2021-03-01T08:47:01-05:00March 1st, 2021|Categories: Food, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner|

It is time for our annual seed swap! We are doing this one remotely.
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It is time for our annual seed swap! We are doing this one remotely.

Eating Consciously, Food, Food preservation, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner

It is time for our annual seed swap! We are doing this one remotely.

Our last gathering before the lock down of the pandemic was our annual seed swap. I enjoyed growing some of those seeds last year. I always enjoy shared seeds and plants. They have a story and I smile when I tend to the plants and remember the soul who shared them. We have beautiful Cardinal flowers and Green and Golds given to us by friends and they warm my heart every time I see them. It is like they are in our garden, beautifying it. Noel of our Eating Consciously team, sent me some seeds out of the blue last year and we have been enjoying the Arugula and Collards since. It was so nice to receive a surprise in the mail with a handwritten loving note. Noel and I were recently discussing seed swapping and we both were thinking of how to do it during a pandemic and she suggested using the US Mail. I loved it! I think hand-written letters sent in the mail are a [...]

By Kim Coram|2021-02-15T09:10:19-05:00February 15th, 2021|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food, Food preservation, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Noel Thurner|

Spring reads – as usual, it’s all about SOIL!
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Spring reads – as usual, it’s all about SOIL!

Composting, Connecting with nature, Eating Consciously, Growing food

Spring reads – as usual, it’s all about SOIL!

A wonderful resource for home gardeners and farmers of all size:, just in time for spring garden dreams: The Hidden Half of Nature, The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery, Anne Bikle In The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery and Bikle start a garden in their poor soil back yard. That led directly to the need for organic compost, via giving us the history to understand microbial life in a decent soil, why their initial soil had it’s particular components, and other wonderful revelations. The next part of their journey was to review and change their diet, to support their immune systems and, in this case, prevent cancer. This includes how human bodies work and, very timely, how infection gets to humans from other animals. They talk about domestic animals and the development of targeted vaccination… covid and wild animal access to humans, for example. The next chapters move back to food, a study comparing an animal based diet (meat & cheese) and [...]

By Susan Sunflower|2021-02-15T09:13:02-05:00February 3rd, 2021|Categories: Composting, Connecting with nature, Eating Consciously, Growing food|

The Veganuary Pledge
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The Veganuary Pledge

Eating Consciously, Food

The Veganuary Pledge

Are you looking for a New Year's Resolution? How about taking the Veganuary challenge? Here is what it says on their website: Since 2014, Veganuary has inspired and supported more than one million people in 192 countries to try vegan for January – and beyond. We have worked with businesses to drive up vegan food options in shops and restaurants, and have made veganism more visible and accessible through our work with national and international media. Our Eating Consciously crew is here to help. What can we do to help you if you decide to take the challenge? Let us know. You can email us here: [email protected].

By Kim Coram|2020-12-17T07:37:39-05:00December 17th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food|

Kathryn Parker shares an amazing podcast
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Kathryn Parker shares an amazing podcast

Eating Consciously, Food, Kathryn Parker

Kathryn Parker shares an amazing podcast

Kathryn Parker of our Eating Consciously team shared an amazing podcast I have listened to twice and will probably listen to again. It was a fascinating conversation about communication and applies to a lot of topics. I highly recommend it and am grateful Kathryn shared it. You can find it here: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=760013 Here is the description: In Episode 112 I sit down with Harvard-educated Psychologist and best selling author Melanie Joy to discuss how we form our beliefs about food and how vegans can have healthier, more productive, conversations with non-vegans. An episode that I believe will be highly instructive regardless of the diet that you follow.

By Kim Coram|2020-12-07T10:50:49-05:00December 7th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food, Kathryn Parker|

Plant-based locally prepared and commercially available food just got a few steps closer to being a reality
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Plant-based locally prepared and commercially available food just got a few steps closer to being a reality

Eating Consciously, Food

Plant-based locally prepared and commercially available food just got a few steps closer to being a reality

Last Thursday on our Moving to Conservers conference call, we enjoyed a conversation with 2 individuals interested in providing plant-based meals in our community. We talked about goals and obstacles towards reaching those goals. We talked about ways we could help each other and discussed what next steps would be and then we made plans to start those next steps. And the next day, Friday, we started. We are super excited to be a part of the conversation and to support those in our community who want to make plant-based meals easily available in our community. I have no doubt we can and will make this happen. Thanks to the amazing response from our amazing readers who let us know just how many of us want this in our community. Looking forward to sharing a meal together. I do apologize for not recording the conversation. I did advertise we would share it and I did not turn on the recording.

By Kim Coram|2020-11-23T10:40:27-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food|

Let’s talk about locally made plant-based meals this Thursday at 6 pm
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Let’s talk about locally made plant-based meals this Thursday at 6 pm

Eating Consciously, Food, Gatherings

Let’s talk about locally made plant-based meals this Thursday at 6 pm

Thanks to the many people who have shared their thoughts about a community conversation focused on locally prepared plant-based meals. We have had a fantastic response. Let's get together on a conference call this Thursday at 6 pm. We will dedicate an hour to the conversation and record it and share it as a podcast! About half of the responses to our survey were interested in an in-person socially distanced meeting and we hope to get to that in the future. John and I worked the polls on election day and may have contracted COVID. While we wait for our test results to get back we will be hosting the conversation virtually. In order to join the call dial (515) 604-9916 Access code: 523174# Instructions: At the scheduled date and time, dial into the conference. When prompted, enter the access code. We look forward to the conversation and working together in our community! Thanks so much. If you cannot make the call and have ideas and suggestions you [...]

By Kim Coram|2020-11-16T09:45:26-05:00November 16th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food, Gatherings|

A conversation about plant-based locally prepared meals
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A conversation about plant-based locally prepared meals

Eating Consciously, Food

A conversation about plant-based locally prepared meals

We have asked over the past couple of newsletters if folks are interested in having a conversation about creating locally prepared plant-based meals. A lot of folks have completed our little survey and we will be scheduling a conversation soon. We plan to wait until after the elections to organize the conversation. Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts. There is still time if you want to contribute. Visit our survey and let us know what you think: https://movingtoconservers.com/there-is-definitely-an-interest-in-our-community-for-prepared-plant-based-meals/

By Kim Coram|2020-10-19T09:44:46-04:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Eating Consciously, Food|