Kamloops Garden Box Project

March 4, 2010 on 6:50 pm | In Local Events, Local Food System, Urban Homestead | No Comments

About a week ago Joel Dyck contacted me about his project to build raised beds in Kamloops for FREE. If you are interested in having someone put some raised beds in your yard please read the following outline for the Kamloops Garden Box Project. If you are interested in participating in this project, Joel’s contact information is below:

This project will be called Kamloops Garden Boxes. The purpose of this project is to get more people interested in small-scale urban gardening.

PHASE 1 Building the Garden Boxes The core of the project will be building garden boxes and giving them to a diverse group of people. I will start with a group of 11 families/participants and possibly have additional groups of eleven. To begin with I will need to build four different demonstration boxes and have at least eleven extras to get the first group started. I will aim to build the boxes out of recycled and reusable materials. I will learn to use an Alaskan Mill to make lumber out of waste wood primarily from trees killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle and the Tussock Moth. I have some designs drawn out already and hope to build boxes that will look somewhat natural out of mainly pine and fir. I will also weave a trellis of smaller boughs from wood that is recycled as yard waste when people prune their trees in the spring. I will ask for community support for wood, dirt, and compost. Kamloops has an excellent composting facility and a plethora of available compost.

PHASE 2 Gathering the Garden Box Community As previously mentioned, I will gather an initial group of eleven families/individuals. The idea is that they will be diverse in age, gardening experience, and in their homes. I specifically want to include people who are renters and live in small dwellings to promote gardening in smaller urban spaces. I will start by picking people I know and then ask them to refer other people who might be interested. I already have an extensive list of people who are interested in learning how to garden and others with a lifetime of experience, who want to learn new things. I want to set up this community with a wide range of experience so that they can help each other and work together. My job will be to set people up for gardening success in a community minded environment. I will be responsible for the following aspects of the project:
1. I will build the garden box and deliver it to the person/family.
2. I will provide guidance for setting up a small and realistic garden in their location with personal and email support.
3. I will give each participant a package that will include some basic advice as well as an overview of the project.
4. I will set up a feedback blog and monitor it until I can find a community member to follow through with this. The blog will be a place for all participants to communicate their successes.
5. I will provide some technical support for participants who might have some issues with using a blog and posting photos on the Internet.
6. I will share a positive spirit of kindness and have an open mind to whatever unique situations might arise. I want to provide the same kind of leadership that I would appreciate receiving.
 
Kamloops Garden Box Participants will be expected to:
1. Plant something edible in their box e.g. lettuce, squash, chives, etc.
2. Take pictures twice a month to measure progress or lack of it.
3. Post a picture and a small write up (perhaps asking for advice) on the blog at least once a month.
4. Take a final picture of produce when it is ready to eat.
5. Share at least one meal using produce with a friend/neighbor and post the recipe.
6. Share some produce with a person that they don’t know very well.
7. Send a thank you email to any sponsors and cc it to me so I know all the sponsors have received recognition.
8. Have an open-minded attitude towards small-scale gardening!
 
PHASE 3 BC Sustainable Energy Association Kamloops Energy Fair The third part of this project will be attending the BCSEA Kamloops Energy Fair as a presenter. I will build a wide array of boxes for the energy fair. Some of these boxes will be used as props and others as door prizes. I will use my existing documentation and presentation material to educate energy fair attendees about the project and how to build their own box or pursue a project that fits their lifestyle and living space. This would be the media capstone of the project and the time to share it with as many people as possible. This will be an opportunity to show some simple ways to make sustainable lifestyle choices and show evidence of the BCSEA’s mission in the community: “Our mission is to facilitate the transition to a sustainable energy future in British Columbia through education, advocacy and tangible community projects.”
 
PHASE 4 Education The fourth and final part of this project would be to document it and turn it in to a collective of lesson plans and presentation material. There will be opportunities to share it before, during and after the BCSEA Energy Fair. I will present the design and construction aspect to home school students prior to the Kamloops BCSEA Energy Fair. I hope to bring the project into the public school system as well. If I can get enough students interested it would be great to have a community of teenage gardeners bring the project to completion. Watching students combine building, gardening, and technology would be an excellent learning opportunity for me. Having this material and presenting it will give me invaluable teaching practice prior to my career as a shop teacher.

Project Director: Joel Dyck
Email: joelfish(a)hotmail.com
Phone: 250.573.2479
Sponsored by Garfield Weston Award and the Kamloops Chapter of BC Sustainable Energy Association

School Food Fight

February 25, 2010 on 10:12 am | In Chronic Disease, Urban Homestead, Weston A. Price Foundation | No Comments

Angela Davis is the Brooklyn, NY Chapter Leader for the Weston A Price Foundation. She posted this disturbing information on the WAPF Leader’s Board. There is now a ban on homemade desserts at her local school. The reason behind this ban is there is no nutritional labeling on the homemade desserts telling how many grams of macro-nutrients. Of course, processed foods from the Industrial Food System are allow because the package states this type of data. Please read and weep at the US government’s wrong headed approach to solving our society’s childhood obesity problem. Here is what The New York Times has to say about the issue.

Of course, this couldn’t happen in a school near you. Could it? After reading this posting I updated my own Funny Troubles with the local school system over nourishing traditional food and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.
Thomas Huxley

Canadian Government Appeals Michael Schmidt’s Acquittal

February 23, 2010 on 7:09 pm | In Urban Homestead, raw milk | No Comments

Yes, our fair government has appealed Michael Schmidt’s acquittal. (This is your tax money in action.) The Government of Canada is appealing our rights to jointly own a herd of animals and hire someone to care, milk and pasture those animals. I guess the government is also appealing our rights to choose the types of foods we see as healthy in the name of safety. This is a sad day for food security and food freedom. This sounds more like an issue about control than safety. Here are a few links:
1. Crown Files an Appeal on February 11, 2010
2. Province Refuses to Accept Raw Milk Acquittal
3. Michael Schmidt at Queen’s Park News Conference

Every time I get approached I make it very clear, that the ruling did not legalize raw milk at all. This ruling acknowledged and clarified the limitations of the state’s jurisdiction…We are over regulated, we are over controlled, and we are forced into an environment of compliance through fear… This raw milk debate is about basic rights, which we have lost and which we are losing every time this Government passes another regulation without considering the most important factor of liberty and individual rights… This raw milk battle is about basic food rights.
Michael Schmidt

Where large populations are controlled by a small number of individuals for their own benefit, it would be to the interest of kings, czars, nobles, etc. that the masses be educated in a way that render them slave-like in mentality. The language of wrongness, “should” and “have to” is perfectly suited for this purpose: the more people are trained to think in terms of moralistic judgements that imply wrongness and badness, the more they are being trained to look outside themselves - to outside authorities - for the definition of what constitutes right, wrong, good and bad. When we are in contact with our feeling and needs, we humans no longer make good slaves and underlings.
Marshall Rosenberg

February 21, 2010 Weston A Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops

February 16, 2010 on 5:49 pm | In Local Events, Urban Homestead, WAPF - Kamloops Chapter, Weston A. Price Foundation | 1 Comment

When: Sunday February 21, 2010 at at 2:00pm-4:00pm (meeting) 4:00pm-6:00pm (potluck) 
(Third Sunday of Month)
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC (map)
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers.

Come to the meeting before the potluck if you are interested in a herdshare program in Kamloops. I do not have good news about the progress of this project. Sorry.

Michael Schmidt, Raw Milk Activist, Acquitted!

January 21, 2010 on 12:05 pm | In Kamloops Herdshare, Local Food Producers, Urban Homestead, WAPF - Kamloops Chapter, Weston A. Price Foundation | 4 Comments

Michael Schmidt has been fighting for the rights of his herd share members to consume raw milk for the last three years. The National Post said today: “Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky upheld the legislation, but said in this case Mr. Schmidt did not break the law because he was distributing to joint owners of cows and not the public at large.”

The Globe and Mail today describes the issue as: “really about the extent to which consumers should be free to buy foods, however rarefied, and whether constitutional rights stretch as far as the grocery basket, farmer’s market and the people who own shares in - but do not live on - food producing farms.

This is not just about raw milk, this is about people’s rights to choose whatever foods they want. I advocate for choice, said Joseph Heckman, an organic farming expert at Rutger’s University in New Jersey who has consumed raw milk since childhood and now studies it.”

The court has upheld our individual rights to hire someone to care, milk and pasture animals. They have upheld our rights to jointly own a herd of animals. This ruling may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. But right now, Michael Schmidt can go back to the business of running his farm.

Updated January 23, 2010: Patricia Meyer-Watt CNP From the Weston A Price Foundation Toronto Chapter posted this article from the Toronto Star about Michael Schmidt’s acquittal. The essence of why herd share programs are legal is outlined in the following statement: “Schmidt has long maintained he does not break the law by providing milk to the cow’s owners, all of whom purchase a portion of the cow and pay to board the animal at Glencolton Farms. The prohibition on raw milk in Ontario does not apply to farmers drinking raw milk from their own cows. [Justice of the Peace Paul] Kowarsky ruled Schmidt’s cow-share program did not break the law because the farmer only provided milk and raw milk products to his members, did not advertise or market his operation, and that cow-share members were aware they consumed milk at their own risk.”

Updated January 25, 2010: There is celebration at the Weston A Price Foundation over Michael Schmidt’s acquittal. Kimberly Hartke is the publicist for the WAPF. Kimberly tells the story of her great grandmother’s recovery from TB using the raw milk cure. She has a posting on the Royal Family’s support of raw milk and many other interesting postings.

January 17, 2010 Weston A Price Foundation Potluck in Kamloops

January 15, 2010 on 9:49 am | In Kamloops Herdshare, Local Events, Urban Homestead | No Comments

When: Sunday January 17, 2010 at at 2:00pm-4:00pm (meeting) 4:00pm-6:00pm (potluck) 
(Third Sunday of Month)
Where: 2853 Bowers Pl, Kamloops, BC (map)
Contact: Caroline Cooper at 250.374.4646

We will be hosting a Weston A. Price Foundation Potluck. Please bring one nourishing traditional dish to share with others. If you are unsure of what a nourishing traditional dish is, please read Dietary Guidelines and Dietary Dangers. Please bring a list of ingredients for the dish or a copy of the recipe. This is for those people with food allergies or sensitivities to even properly prepared nourishing traditional foods.

We will be discussing the formation of a herd share program for Kamloops. We will review Naomi Fournier’s lecture on January 9, 2010 for those families that could not attend. If you are interested in raw milk, please come to this meeting.

Raw Milk Contamination?

January 5, 2010 on 8:11 pm | In Urban Homestead, WAPF - Kamloops Chapter, Weston A. Price Foundation | 4 Comments

I was listening to CBC Radio today and heard a warning from the BC Center for Disease Control about raw milk contamination at Home On The Range in Chilliwack, BC. I have not been able to find a reference to any sickness caused by the contamination. Please read Raw Milk Products Contaminated for the full story. This is my response to the CBC News article:

My name is Caroline Cooper. I am the Chapter Leader for the Weston A Price Foundation in Kamloops, BC. The Weston A Price Foundation supports people trying to get nourishing traditional foods. Raw milk is one of these traditional foods that has nourished generations of farming families.

The cooperative members of Home on the Range want to have a product that they cannot get through the Industrial Food System. These members have pooled their resources to buy a herd of milking cows. They have contracted with an agister/milker and lease land so the members can get raw milk.

I would hope in a free country like Canada, a group of like minded individuals would still have the right to organize themselves and, as a group, contract for special services or products. If safety is a true concern, this closed system of commerce is very safe.

I believe the needs of the BC Center for Disease Control and the cooperative members of Home on the Range are not that far apart. Everyone wants a safe product. It would be more helpful if the BC Center for Disease Control used its excellent resources to help the cooperative to improve their safety protocols. I would hope an enlightened government would use its power to help, not penalize, its citizens.

It is important to realize that it might be great if the government used its resources to help herdshare programs improve their safety methods, but the government does not have jurisdiction regarding inspection or regulation of the products of the herdshare program. This is because the products of the herdshare are not being sold. The monetary transaction occurs between the herdshare members and the agister/milker under contractual agreement. Any products of the herd are shared between the herdshare members in proportion to the member’s shareholding. (If there are any lawyers out there that can weigh in on this point of law, I would appreciate it.)

Updated January 6, 2010: This is a link to Michael Schmidt’s blog called The Bovine. There is a posting written by Gordon Watson, a herdshare member of Home on the Range, about the situation in Chilliwack, BC. This is a link to Health Authority Cracks Down On Raw Milk. It is a story about Deb Purcell’s search for better health for her child.

I still have not been able to find any proof that someone has become sick from the stated food contamination. If anyone sees any test results from the BC Center for Disease Control please forward the information to me.

Undated January 7, 2010: I contacted Sally Fallon yesterday and she had a number of questions that the BC Center for Disease Control could answer to clarify this situation:
1. How many people in the area became sick?
2. How many of these people drank raw milk?
3. Did they test the milk?
4. If so, did they find a pathogen?
5. If they found a pathogen, did it match the pathogen that made people sick?

Many of the answers are in the following email from Home on the Range. The email was written by Gordon Watson, a long term member of the Home on the Range cooperative:
On January 6, 2010, I got a copy of the lab results which was given to one of our former depots, by Vancouver Coastal Health. A ‘cfu’ means colony forming unit. The presence of colonies of bacteria is the way foods, in particular milk, are tested for pathogens. It is important to realize that we live in a world of bacteria everywhere. Colonies of bacteria may be either ‘good’ bacteria or ‘bad’ for human beings. For purposes of food safety, what matters is the sheer quantity of colonies present in a one gram sample of milk. The less the better. The FOOD QUALITY SAMPLING RESULTS for milk from our herd show that the colony forming units range between 1,300 for the butter and up to 3,000 for other products. The fluid milk was 2,400. Thus, the tests from the BC Center for Disease Control show that our milk is well under the 10,000 cfu standard for pasteurized homogenized milk retailed in BC.

I still cannot find a reference to anyone becoming sick. Therefore a tie to the strain of bacteria found in the raw milk products is irrelevant at this point.

January 14, 2010: I have just received an email from a shareholder/worker of Home on the Range. Sui Ryu has started a blog about her insider experience with the raw milk issue in Chilliwack, BC. This issue is not only about having access to a nourishing traditional food such as raw milk. It is about the individual’s basic right to choose the source and type of food the individual considers healthy.

Updated January 21, 2010: Michael Schmidt, Raw Milk Activist, Acquitted!

Dreaming In the New Year

December 31, 2009 on 11:06 am | In Healing Diets, Personal Stories, Urban Homestead | No Comments

New Year’s Day is a time to reflect on the past year and contemplate the future. Many people use this time as an opportunity to make New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, but I find myself thinking about what I would like for my future. I have only so much energy and resources, so I must carefully focus my intentions, so I may arrive at my destination.

In my last blog I shared my dreams. I sometimes feel I have taken the long road to my dreams. Obstacles get in the way, and I find myself going in directions that I never intended. I find these side trips to be incredible learning experiences. At the end, I find I better understand my underlying motivations and resolve.

There are many dreams that have been left at the side of the road. Below are a list of dreams from my past and present. They have been sustaining dreams. I wonder what miraculous forces will shape these dreams into my future.

1. Meditation, Mindfulness and Lovingkindness are three practices common in some form in all religions.
Mettā Meditation: The Practice of Lovingkindness
Birken Forest Monastery (Abbot: Ajahn Sona)

2. Autodidactic Learning is self-directed study. I can’t give any links to sources because there is no authority on this topic. Nor can there ever be. Autodidacticism is self-directed learning without an authority figure to direct the course of study. Along with the process of autodidactic learning is the process of “unlearning” lessons taught by authorities which may impede the ability to learn new ideas.

3. Nonviolent Communication is a method of communication where everyone gets their needs met. When everyone’s needs are met the world indeed becomes wonderful.
Marshall Rosenberg on Nonviolent Communication Part I
Marshall Rosenberg on Nonviolent Communication Part II
Marshall Rosenberg on Nonviolent Communication Part III

4. Financial Independence is having enough resources to live comfortably without having to work for the basic necessities of life. If a person has simple needs, this state will be achieved earlier than a person with complex needs. When this state is achieved it opens up time to “work for love not money”.
Vicki Robin on Your Money or Your Life

5. Permaculture is a system of designed human settlements that mimics the relationships found in natural ecosystems. It is based on perennial agricultural and integrated animal husbandry.
Behind Greening the Desert with Geoff Lawton
Permaculture Water Harvesting with Geoff Lawton
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part I
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part II
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part III
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part IV
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part V
Bill Mollison on The Permaculture Concept Part VI

6. An Earthship is a home built with recycled materials and is completely energy self-sufficient.
Earthship 101 Part I
Earthship 101 Part II
Dennis Weaver Builds His Earthship

May all living beings be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May they always meet with success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome the inevitable obstacles in life.
Somewhere Over The Rainbow with IZ

Boxing Day: You Are What You Buy (Believe)

December 26, 2009 on 11:26 am | In Healing Diets, Local Food System, Personal Stories, Ranches & Farms, Saving Money, Urban Homestead, WAPF - Kamloops Chapter, Weston A. Price Foundation | No Comments

Boxing Day has a long history but is now primarily known as a shopping holiday in North America. I haven’t participated in Boxing Day “celebrations” for decades. But at this time of year, I can’t help but think about what we “buy into”, will make the world we live in.

I dream about a world where my needs can be met without those needs costing someone else dearly. I dream about food that will nourish the body and community that will nourish the spirit. I dream about producing food for our families in a way that won’t cost “the world”. I dream about a world where our children are surrounded by a caring loving community that thinks about our shared future.

How do we become more enlightened about our behaviors so we can live our dreams? How can we change our thinking so our actions will follow? Maybe we need to just “buy into” a new vision. Of course, this vision isn’t new but very old. Maybe we need to learn how to tame our technology and harness our brilliance. All the answers are out there, we just have to apply them.

While I was at the Weston A Price Foundation 2008 Conference in California, I had the opportunity to see some new ideas being worked out in the real world. I visited the Three Stone Hearth in Berkeley, CA. They are running a Community Supported Kitchen (CSK). Jessica Prentice is one of the co-founders of Three Stone Hearth and author of Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection. I hope you enjoy an interview with Jessica Prentice Part I and Part II. If you would like to see inside the Community Supported Kitchen run by Three Stone Hearth please watch Business With Passion.

People who feel themselves in chains, with no hope of ever getting them off, want to put chains on everyone else.
John Holt

Weston A Price Foundation Updates Website

December 16, 2009 on 8:59 am | In Urban Homestead, WAPF - Kamloops Chapter, Weston A. Price Foundation | No Comments

The Weston A Price Foundation website has been updated. This means many of the links on eatkamloops.org will not be working for a few days until I can reset all the links. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. The new Weston A Price Foundation website can be found here.

Updated December 16, 2009: I have gone through eatkamloops.org and corrected most of the links. I could not find a few of the essays on the new WAPF website, which I hope to find over the next few days. The new WAPF website is extremely well organized. It is much easier to find information about a particular subject.

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