New York Times article about sending our plastic to Africa and a carbon footprint quiz
Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic. Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I read this article in today's New York Times. It speaks of fracking and plastic and the impact the industry is having. It reads a lot like my interview with Naeema of the NC Environmental Justice Network. This is another story of industry working to implement systemic change. There is a mini-quiz you [...]
We need more community food scrap drop-off sites. Interested? We will help
Growing food usually requires soil. Nutrients in the soil get used up when we grow food and luckily for us, an easy way to rebuild the soil is through making compost. We have taken on a new community project with a few other groups that involves giving plant starts to those who are in need of food. We usually have enough pots, plant starts, and volunteers but we usually need more soil. We currently have 2 publicized community compost drop off places in our community and we could use a few more. If you are interested [...]
Solid Waste Workshop
Solid Waste Workshop The Transylvania County Board of Commissioners will hold a workshop on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 4:00 pm in Commissioners Chambers at the Transylvania County Administration Building, located at 101 S Broad St., Brevard. The purpose of the workshop is for the Board of Commissioners to receive a presentation from Transylvania County Solid Waste Director Kenn Webb on the status of the County Landfill and to discuss the future of Solid Waste Management. No action will be taken during the workshop. The workshop is open to the public in accordance with NC Open [...]
Interested in a local plant-based food chef preparing meals for you?
Since we have started the Eating Consciously project, I have learned that factory produced meats are not something I can support anymore. While we do still consume some meat products in our home, mostly bone broths, we have substantially cut back. I have to admit it was something I never thought I would do. I didn't feel I was getting what I needed from a plant-based diet until 2 things happened. Fermenting The first thing that had a significant impact on our home-cooked meals was learning to ferment from Noel's classes. We bought a few books [...]
Should we send our garbage to another community or keep it here? The county commissioners will probably decide this in October. Ask candidates this Thursday at the forum! GalleryShould we send our garbage to another community or keep it here? The county commissioners will probably decide this in October. Ask candidates this Thursday at the forum!
Should we send our garbage to another community or keep it here? The county commissioners will probably decide this in October. Ask candidates this Thursday at the forum!
This is a call to action! As you know, John and I create about 1 bag of trash a year. This is our third year accomplishing that and it has changed our life. It has changed the way we eat, the amount of stuff we buy, and made us rethink any purchase we do make. A lot of this was possible because we learned how to divert our food scraps from the landfill. It reduced about 40% of our trash and others have shared they have experienced the same impact on their waste stream. I recently [...]
Free fermenting classes
This is something that is near and dear to my heart and I have discussed with the Shockey’s, my fermenting gurus and friends. So in spite of their world being turned upside down with COVID they are still walking the talk and trying to connect with those folks in most need. Scroll down to the bottom paragraphs and you will see what I mean. We hope this finds you well. For the last few months we have been working on getting two special fermentation classes up. One is a Master Class that includes 7 techniques, a number [...]
Eating Consciously, Eating Seasonally, Eating Locally
Another favorite of the nightshade family is the pepper: there are hundreds of kinds, ranging from super sweet to hellishly hot. I’ll focus on the sweet. Many do not like green bell peppers and for good reason: they are green, are not ripe and can be bitter. One can find in the grocery stores ripe bell peppers that are red, yellow and orange but chances are these took an international trip before getting to the store. Like tomatoes, peppers of all kinds are planted in the late spring once the soil and ambient temperature are warm. [...]
Thank you Whistlestop Market for helping us feed hungry children and selling in bulk
Whistlestop Market in Cedar Mountain has been ordering bulk products for us since November. We are able to get almost anything we use to get from the Hendersonville Coop closer to home and many times at a saving. Many of us have been working with Rooster Head Farm to feed the hungry around their farm. Many from Conservers has donated money and time to help. Thank you! As it became obvious that this was going to be a long term project, several in the community came together to find a different way to help that did [...]
Transylvania Shares, our community sharing club is going strong! They could use your membership!
Last year, a group of Moving to Conservers members worked with a business coach for 6 months to develop Transylvania Shares, a sharing club. The business opened in January and is going strong. Here are some updates from their recent newsletter. If you would like to learn more about Shares, how you can help by becoming a member, visit their website here: Transylvaniashares.com Transylvania Shares says goodbye to Lucia Gerdes who has recently resigned from the Board of Directors in order to pursue other endeavors. We wish her well. We welcome Gabriel Covington to the Board. [...]
Eating Consciously Podcast: Systemic racism and how I participate
John and I have decided we need to learn how we support systemic racism. We decided to start by looking at our food choices and that led us to ask a team of individuals in our community if they would help us learn about the impact of our food choices have on others. We also asked if they could guide us based on their expertise. Thus started the project Eating Consciously. We decided to start a podcast with the project as a way to bring people closer together in our socially-distanced world. This is the [...]