Kansas City's EarthWalk is
April 11 at Theis Park,
and registration is OPEN!
Sign up today at http://www.earthdaykc.org
##
EarthWalk 2010
Sunday, April 11 |
Earthwalk / Earthfest 2010 - Sunday, April 11th, 2010 in Theis Park (east of the Plaza)
blue bird bistro - Multiple Events ++ Farmer's Table - JANUARY / FEBRUARY, 2010
four courses house made ravioli filled with local cheese and served with fresh tomato ragot American Gulf wild caught shrimp tossed with organic mixed greens, Bob Burn's honey vinaigrette, organic orange slices, crispy bacon bits and sprinkled with Maytag blue cheese Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch heritage turkey potato au gratin topped with steamed broccoli and drizzled with a mustard sauce Organic Garden fuji apples poached in red wine and served crisp $45 per person reservations 816-221-7559 start with an aperitif and hors d'oeuvres as you mingle and visit some of our local farmers be seated for five courses of all local culinary delight special seating at 7:45pm for anyone wanting to dine with the farmers Thane Palmberg Farm roasted sweet onions and Campo Lindo Farm chicken breast honey battered and tossed with Beau Solais Farm pea shoots savory Organic Garden fuji apple soup served in Organic Way Farm squash bowl Morningland Dairy white cheddar cheese basket filled with Thane Palmberg Farm sweet potato made into pasta and tossed in blue bird bistro aged red wine vinagrette shepherd's pie, blue bird style with New Grass Bison and Thane Palmberg Farm potatoes finish with Campo Lindo Farm egg flan vegetarian option - $45 wine pairing - $20 follow our year of farmers' tables at farmerstable.bluebirdbistro. Wednesday Night Table 'a communal dining experience' Wednesday, January 20, 2010 $40 includes your choice of Conclass Verdejo,
Spain or Belleruche Cotes du Rhone, France and
every Wednesday at 7:30pm in a private room at blue bird bistro
###farmers' table Saturday, January 23, 2010 ###valentine's day is fast approaching sunday brunch is on 10am to 2pm Special Valentine's Dinner we will be open Sunday, February 14, 2010
serving Valentine's specials and our full dinner menu starting at 5pm 2010 is bringing us back to peserves and biscuits now serving tomato honey or blueberry rosemary perserves
reservations are not needed as long as space is available
we will post the menu by 2pm on the day of the dinner
at
wednesdaynight.
Prairie Village, KS ~ EARTH FAIR 9 ~ Shawnee Mission East High School - Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Earth Fair 9: Wake Up to a Greener Earth!
** Free Admission **
10-3pm Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Shawnee Mission East High School
75th and Mission Rd
Prairie Village, KS 66208-4215
10-3pm Saturday, April 17th, 2010
Shawnee Mission East High School
75th and Mission Rd
Prairie Village, KS 66208-4215
For more information Contact:
Katie Nixon
ladybug_kmn (@) hotmail. com
816.809.5074
Rural / Urban Livestock Workshops (Missouri)
The West Central Region Innovative Small Farmers Outreach Program is proud to offer the following workshops:
INTRODUCTION TO POULTRY
January 30, 2010 ~ 8:30am–to-2:00pm
Lafayette Co. Extension Office
14 E. 19th St., Higginsville, MO
$10 per person or $15 per couple. (Fee includes lunch)
Space is limited. To register or for more information Contact:
Susan Jaster @ 816-589-4725
or jasters (@) lincolnu.edu
We will be addressing the following questions:
- How do I know what is best for my poultry?
- What in the heck is a Chicken tractor?
- Heifer International Presentation and Lunch (provided)-12:30
- Can poultry live in the city?
- How much feed should I give my birds?
- Can I Sell meat and eggs?
- Where will I find more information and resources about poultry?
INTRODUCTION TO GOATS:
back to the basics
February 20, 2010 ~ 9am-to-4pmback to the basics
Family Center of Harrisonville
2601 Cantrell Road
Mill-Walk Mall, Harrisonville, MO
Directions: South of Kansas City on Hwy 71,
Take Exit: MO-291 N, Turn Right from Exit.
$10.00 Person / $15.00 per Couple - Lunch Included
Must Pre-Register. To register and to get more information,
Contact Jeff Yearington at 816-779-6762
or YearingtonJ (@) lincolnu.edu
We will be covering these topics:
- Goat Health & Nutrition
- Parasites
- Pasture Improvement
- Opportunities with Goats
- Hands-on Training
Katie Nixon
Small Farm Specialist--West Central Region
Innovative Small Farmer's Outreach Program
http://www.lincolnu.edu/pages/653.asp
Lincoln University Cooperative Extension
816-809-5074
##
The ISFOP is part of Lincoln University Cooperative Extension (LUCE), created to help the small farmers and ranchers of Missouri, especially those who are socially disadvantaged and under-served, to raise the level of efficiency on their farms while taking good care of the soil, water and the environment. A vast body of resources is available from universities, government agencies and all sorts of organizations for small farmers. Unfortunately, many of the small farmers and ranchers are unaware of the information and opportunities. ISFOP will make farmers aware and assist them to access these resources so that they may improve their farms and farming operations, which in turn will improve their overall well-being.
The information provided by ISFOP to small farmers will help them adapt to a rapidly changing farm economy. We work in partnership with University of Missouri Extension (UME), other USDA and state agencies, and non-governmental organizations to provide research-based information on various farm topics to help farmers:
- Lower input costs
- Improve farming skills
- Increase yields/ productions
- Improve record keeping systems
- Try new enterprises
- Find niche markets and improve marketing skills
- Add value to the harvest/ products
Kaw Permaculture Collaborative - Principles of Permaculture and Sustainable Living
The Kaw Permaculture Collaborative and the Kansas Permaculture Institute are proud to present their first full course in the Principles of Permaculture and Sustainable Living: Introduction to Permaculture Ethics,
Principles and Design
Principles and Design
With Steve Moring of Vajra Farm
The course consists of a series of 16, three hour sessions with lectures, video screenings and field work to be held every second week beginning *February 10th from 6 -- 9 pm at the East Lawrence Recreation Center.*
"As a community we are entering a period of energy depletion and the resulting decline in our global economy. Learn how the sustainability movement known as Permaculture promises to create an ecologically sound and economically viable system which neither pollutes nor exploits our planet."
This course consists of 48 hours of lecture leading to a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Kansas Permaculture Institute, Inc. Lecture topics include food security, permaculture ethics, ecological principles, system design, sustainable soils, food production, food forests, earth works and construction of human habitats.
A second course is our Permaculture Practicum that will consist of four, six hour field work internship program. The Practicum will begin June 12 and go to July 24, 2010, and will be held at Vajra Farm near Oskaloosa, Prairie Lovesong Farm near Tonganoxie, and Chestnut Charlie's Nut Tree Farm, North of Lawrence. The Practicum's 24 hours of field work that will culminate in fulfilling the requirement of 72 hours of instruction for a certificate in permaculture design.
For more information on course content, meeting times and locations go to websites: http://groups.google.com/
or To register: Please contact Steve Moring at 785-691-7305
or by e-mail to smoring (@) grasshoppernet.com
The Politics of Agriculture in Washington Have Been Substantially Reshuffled
Note: Please remember this, folks...
Political action is embedded in everyday happenings, and a vote for change can take many forms. Whether you write-in, call-in, send e-mail or just talk to your neighbors about political change, YOU VOTE EVERY TIME YOU MAKE A PURCHASE. Tell your local store managers that you want to see more local products for sale.
##
The Farm Bill and Beyond
Dan Morgan
January 13, 2010
More than a year after the U.S. Congress enacted a new multi-year farm bill (the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008), the politics of agriculture in Washington have been substantially reshuffled. Proposed climate change legislation has confronted the farm bloc with issues that received scant attention in the farm bill itself. At the same time, the congressional energy committees and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-not the traditional guardians of agriculture-have taken the lead in shaping climate and biofuels policies that could have long-term impacts on farmers. At the White House, President Obama has proposed cutting some key subsidies, and he has signaled interest in aligning himself-at least symbolically-with a grass roots movement that supports "sustainable agriculture" and "healthy foods." These developments have moved long-standing tensions over agriculture policy to center stage.
This paper by agricultural commentator and former GMF Transatlantic Fellow Dan Morgan examines these tensions in the context of the 2008 farm bill, with a view to setting the stage for the next phase of the debate in the United States and Europe over climate, energy, farm subsidies, food safety, trade, and agricultural aid to farmers in developing countries.
##
See also:
| Prodding the Liberal Agenda With a Pitchfork (August, 2009) http://www.gmfus.org/publications/article.cfm?id=638 ** Excerpt: In the case of the food safety bill passed by the House on Thursday, Peterson worked behind the scenes to limit new FDA powers to make farmers keep records to help trace food-borne illnesses. And in regulating small growers and organic farmers, the FDA will now have to consider the impact the new rules will have on them. All this shows that the Agracrats are a force to be reckoned with. When the Obama administration proposed phasing out a principal farm subsidy over three years for all except the smallest farmers, Peterson pronounced it "dead on arrival," then said, "We might cremate it." Spoken like a true Agracrat. ## |
JUST SAY NO to Monsanto's GE ALFALFA
| |||
| |||
| | |||
|
As New Localism Takes Root - Nurturing (and Vigilance) Required to Succeed
Food for Thought(from Transcript of a Permaculture Design Course -
http://nmag.soton.ac.uk/tf/permaculture/PDC.pdf)
Excerpts:
"... I think we can say that many tree species fulfill all our requirements for food. These are equivalent to foods that we would otherwise grow as row crops. This is particularly true of the tropics. We didn't design it this way. Any group that tries to sustain life in the tropics has to stick with trees that are all deep-rooted perennial systems. It is there that the nutrients cycle. This gets less true as we go toward cool, temperate, humid lands, where soil itself might hold much nutrient.
Nevertheless, if we look very closely at the total available food equivalence in trees, for example, we find that it is possible to go directly to that tree and eat its flowers and leaves. It is a salad tree. As you go toward the tropics, those trees start to proliferate, so that the necessity for 'green crop' is much less in the tropics; a few other trees are high value greenforage crop for man. The mulberry feeds many insects as well as silkworms and fish. Silkworm manure is good manure. Much conversion can be done from mulberry into agriculture. Fish feed directly on the mulberries that you plant beside the ponds. We should look amongst the trees and see how many of this type of green leaf trees would properly form a close-in trimmed or governed hedgerow for leaf production--a modest amount of it in northern climates, but in warmer climates, an immodest amount.
The drumstick tree, the old , is just a common hedgerow around the annual gardens throughout the tropics. Eat the flowers, leaves, and the fruits. So blind are we that we don't often see these trees as a part of other people's gardens. We would see them as a hedgerow, rather than as an integral part of the garden.
Why did we neglect plants that produce all our food needs -- the trees -- in favor of clearing? Why did we ever start wheat in these quantities when we had forests that would out produce any wheat crop at those equivalencies -- food as good, if not better, than wheat?
I'll tell you why. There have been two great factors responsible for the assault on the trees. One great loss of forest has been for war, particularly in the era of wooden vessels, which believe me, didn't end at least until the Second World War, during which vast numbers of wooden vessels were rammed and sunk. Moreover, we had a wooden airplane precursor, the Mosquito bomber. Most of the highly selected forests of Europe went out as armadas before the Industrial Revolution. It was in the early part of the Industrial Revolution that we cut trees for charcoal. That caused great loss of forest everywhere the Industrial Revolution reached. The tree, whatever its yield, was ignored for the fact that it produced charcoal. It was only when the supply of trees caved in that people started making a transfer to coal. Eventually, of course, petrol came. Petrol came along because of the urgent need to find fuel to continue the Industrial Revolution..."
...
Concerning self-sufficiency, it seems to pay great dividends to develop a sense for deliberate obstructionist regulations that force one to participate in the "money economy", i.e. offer your labour on the market, rather than becoming self-sufficient to a high degree. In fact, there are re-occurring patterns across times and peoples where self-sufficient village economies have been deliberately destroyed by a set of strategies with uncanny similarity throughout the ages. The plot usually involves introducing a demand in the population for the invading economy's currency through laws which force people to pay for something essential -- of course in the new currency. This will, over time, replace the original "device for trade and exchange" in a culture (and in fact, pretty much every culture has some kind of "money") with the new, exogenic money, for which that culture would not have had much use before. The implementation details of this strategy vary: When the British turned Sierra Leone into a colony, they imposed a "hut tax", hence forcing Africans to work in order to obtain British currency. As a consequence, Chief Bai Bureh started the "Hut tax war" in 1898. In India, the British forbade the Indians to both produce and trade salt among themselves, effectively enslaving them by forcing them to buy salt from them. One of the major achievements of Gandhi was to abolish the salt laws through a campaign of civil disobedience starting with the "Great Salt March". Similarly, one of the first new regulations in Iraq introduced by the U.S. after defeating Saddam Hussein al Tikrit was to force Iraqi farmers to buy seed, rather than using their own. (Paul Bremer's infamous "Order 81".) In Bavaria and other parts of Germany, many people remember how after World War II, regulations and laws concerning water usage forced farmers to give up their own wells and pay for water instead. I've heard (so far unconfirmed) rumors that there have been laws (and maybe still are) in France which prevent one from generating one's own electricity. (More information on this would be welcome!)"
(from http://nmag.soton.ac.uk/tf/permaculture/PDC.pdf)
Water Quality in Kansas City on KCUR FM 89.3 - THURSDAY, Jan 14th at 11am
Water Quality in Kansas City
on KCUR FM 89.3
On Thursday January 14 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. KCUR will present a show on Water Quality. Please tune in if you are interested or concerned about the water quality in Kansas City.on KCUR FM 89.3
Raw sewage often ends up on local streams, rivers and lakes. Kansas City has a combined sewer system that inherently causes raw sewage to occasionally end up in Brush Creek, the Blue River and the Missouri River. Raw sewage poses as a health risk for residents. There have been some recent large spills of raw sewage in the Kansas City area.
Please call into the program in support of Clean Water.
 | KCUR-FM, 4825 Troost, Ste 202 Kansas City, Mo, 64110 816-235-1551 kcur (@) umkc.edu |  |
Thanks,
Claus Wawrzinek
Sierra Club
Thomas Hart Benton Group
http://missouri.sierraclub.org/thb/
http://missouri.sierraclub.org/thb/
KCCUA - Annual Meeting - Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture - SATURDAY Jan 23rd, 2010
Annual Meeting - KCCUA (Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture)
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
9am-12pm
PLEASE RSVP - see details below (scroll down)...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Katherine Kelly
katherine (@) kccua.org
...
Hello, all! Some final details on our Annual Urban Farmers and Friends meeting.
The meeting will be at the:
Master's Community Church
2548 42nd Street
Kansas City, KS 66106
from 9:00am to 12:00pm
MAP IT before you drive!
http://www.mapquest.com/mq/10-
We will:
- Eat pie and drink coffee.
- Talk to each other.
So, please bring the issues you'd like to discuss with other farmers/ gardeners/ community members. On the spot, we will organize discussion and learning groups. There are going to be some really smart people in the room (we estimate around 100 or so of them) and you can count on doing some good learning and thinking.
We'll also join together to CREATE A HEALTHY AND GROWING KANSAS CITY (in under three hours J). The local food scene and the urban landscape in Kansas City is changing, we want to spend some time thinking deliberately about how we can take the change process in our own hands and shape it!
PLEASE RSVP so we know we have enough pie and can set up the room properly!
And, let us know if you'll be able to bring pie or any type of food to share with others -
Looking forward to a wonderful morning with you -
Katherine Kelly and the KCCUA staff and board
Executive Director, Farmer
KC Center for Urban Agriculture
www.kccua.org
Watch for KCCUA news and updates on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kansas-City-KS/Kansas-City-Center-for-Urban-Agriculture/58338522414
Funky Friday Farmers Market at BADSEED - A MUST ON FRIDAYS IN THE CROSSROADS
Howdy Folks,A great big "thanks" to any of you brave souls who risked your lives for local-organic goodness last Friday night despite the nasty weather. Unfortunately, most of our farmers didn’t make it as they were coming from long distances, but believe me….they were there in spirit! Lets hope for a more fruitful market (and a heck of a lot less snow) this Friday from 4-8 PM at the BADSEED.
Weather permitting, we will have the usual array of *Winter Wonders* including:
* Certified Organic Grass-Finished Beef
* 100% Grass Fed Lamb
* Farmstead Sheep’s Milk Cheese
* Free-Range Brown Eggs
* Gourmet Mushrooms in Shitake and Oyster
* Artisan Breads & Baked Goods from local/organic whole wheat flour
* Delicious Jams, Jellies, and various Canned Goods
* Local/Organic Bulk Grains
* Heirloom Pumpkins for pies, soups, and breads
* and last but not least, Organic/Fair-Trade/Micro-
So come on down and greet your local farmer!! Together we can build community and collective consciousness through the universal pleasure that comes from eating GOOD FOOD!! …..and when I say “good food” I mean food that is grown ethically, with love, and close to home.
Sincerely,
Brooke
-farmer and mistress of the BADSEED
---
Check out this month's
Greenability Magazine
(Greenability is available
at BADSEED Market):
GreenabilityMagazine.com
Check out this month's
Greenability Magazine
(Greenability is available
at BADSEED Market):
BADSEED
An Urban-Organic Farm & Market
Celebrating Local Food, Culture,
and Community
Celebrating Local Food, Culture,
and Community
1909 McGee*KCMO*64108
See you this Friday from 4:00 to 8:00 PM
Vendor Links:
BADSEED FARM
ROOT DEEP URBAN FARM
HERB'N GARDENER
PLATTE PRAIRIE FARMS
BREAD OF LIFE ORGANIC BAKERY
GOATSBEARD FARM
PUDDN' HEAD COFFEE
CURIOUS CANINE*
HUNS' GARDEN
GREEN DIRT FARM
WELLS FAMILY FARM
JCCC/K-State Student Farm
Western Hills Produce
Knot Perfect*
PJ's Emporium / Mushroom Farm*
Bigg Blue Farm*
Walnuts & Pecans from John Wilhelm*
*(link pending)
BADSEED FARM
ROOT DEEP URBAN FARM
HERB'N GARDENER
PLATTE PRAIRIE FARMS
BREAD OF LIFE ORGANIC BAKERY
GOATSBEARD FARM
PUDDN' HEAD COFFEE
CURIOUS CANINE*
HUNS' GARDEN
GREEN DIRT FARM
WELLS FAMILY FARM
JCCC/K-State Student Farm
Western Hills Produce
Knot Perfect*
PJ's Emporium / Mushroom Farm*
Bigg Blue Farm*
Walnuts & Pecans from John Wilhelm*
*(link pending)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)