“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller
What’s Growing?
The Sustainable Solano Blog is the hub for all the latest information about our many projects and programs, as well as a snapshot of grassroots community transformation in action. If you would like to comment or get in touch with local sustainability and resilience makers and shakers profiled in our blogs, please email us at info@sustainablesolano.org
Wise Water: An Informative Video from Sustainable Solano
For the past two years we've been working on our Demonstration Food Forests, with a major component of it being Wise Water use. Now, with the help of Constance Beutel, videographer extraordinaire, we wanted to share with everyone how very simple and replicable it is....
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What’s For Dinner? Vallejo
Eating healthier and incorporating more fresh vegetables and fruits into our meals is the theme of the new series of healthy cooking workshops hosted by the John F. Kennedy library in partnership with Sustainable Solano and UR what U eat. The first of these seasonal...
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Swale Tales: An experience of the Vallejo Installations and 7 Food Forest Tour
By Allison Nagel Sometimes the hardest thing about finding something new is wrapping your brain around how to approach it. When it comes to permaculture and sustainable gardening, no online resource can replace seeing, walking through, discussing and getting...
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R.O.O.T.S. Permaculture Training Course
Our Walk in a Food Forest Series is over for this year, but are you still wanting to learn more about permaculture and sustainability? Soul Flower Farm, just a quick hop across the bay in El Sobrante, has a permaculture design course that you might be interested in....
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Curious about our Vallejo Demonstration Food Forest Sites?
Learn about the plots, the schedules for the days, the families involved, and dive in to our community installation event! The future Vallejo Demonstration Food Forests The Enchanted Cottage Garden is a water-sucking, plain lawn that wants to become so much more for...
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Sustainable Solano Creating Wise Water Documentary
Over the weekend, Sustainable Solano, with our wonderful Constance Beutel as camera-woman and director, shot scenes for a Water-Wise documentary video. The video was shot at Birds, Bees & Beyond, one of the Demonstration Food Forests, with commentary from...
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What’s For Dinner? Workshop and Bookclub coming to Vallejo!
Sustainable Solano, The Vallejo Public Library and U R what U eat have partnered to bring the community a continuation of the What's For Dinner? cooking and educational series (now in its 5th year). This year's series features healthy cooking classes and conscious...
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L2L greywater workshop at Benicia’s Mayor Elizabeth Patterson house
On Sunday, April 2, as a part of the Benicia Sustainable Backyard program, about ten people gathered at a Benicia house for the final (for now) 2017 laundry-to-landscape hands-on greywater installation workshop. The host for the day was Mayor of Benicia Elizabeth...
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Announcing not one, but two, private food forest installations in Vallejo!!
Often times you find the solution within the problem. We couldn’t find one yard to fit all our educational needs of the demonstration food forest. So with the creative use of our limited funds we will be installing two! The Enchanted Cottage Garden is the perfect...
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Community Food Center dinner with Heritage Presbyterian
Over the year, a special partnership has been growing between Sustainable Solano and Heritage Presbyterian Church, for the sake of creating a Community Food Center in Benicia, a dream that’s been taking shape with inspiration from Sustainable Solano’s Exec Director,...
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Q&A with Anna Larsen of Siren Fish Co.
Our Seasonal Cooking Seafood Class is Wednesday, March 8 and we're cooking through our CSF partner's weekly seafood box, so we did a little Q&A with Anna Larsen of Siren Fish Co. Why CSF? Community supported fisheries reduce food miles, educate the...
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Benicia Community Gardens Annual Meeting 2017
Benicia Community Gardens Annual Meeting on February 18, 2017 After a brief welcome by Marilyn Bardet, Board President, our executive director, Elena Karoulina, explained that the Benicia Community Gardens and Orchard are now part of Sustainable Solano. In the past...
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“Greyhawk Grove” Food Forest Tour — Stop #5
It was a cool and sunny day for the Greyhawk Grove Tour, and perhaps it was that, or that our tour is gathering steam, that nearly 30 people squeezed into a room to listen to Lydia Neilsen from the Regenerative Design Institute. She started with a brief...
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Gamechanger Intensive — An Experience
By Nicole Newell Did you attend the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium in December? I did, and it woke me up. I was ready to see what was next, and signed up for the Pachamama Alliance’s 8 week Gamechanger Intensive program. The Gamechanger Intensive is an...
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Sustainable Solano Vallejo Volunteer Training Potluck
Do you want to learn how to get involved with Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Landscaping program? This series of events is designed to prepare a group of volunteers to help implement Vallejo Sustainable Backyard program. If you are interested to become a part...
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International Trade and the Local Economy
By Roman Johnson Resilience.org is a publication that focuses on creating platforms to stimulate conscious conversations about community building strategies. The Sustainable Solano Communications Committee recently stumbled across an article regarding trade policies...
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Pruning Workshop Recap
By Jason Lingnau of Intuitive Design The pruning workshop on Saturday was informative and timely. The winter pruning season is upon us and my wife and I have some work to do but have been hesitant to “make the cut”. The speaker , Ann Ralph had such a wonderful...
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Sustainable Landscaping for Your House classes
By Kathleen Huffman of The Repurposed Oakie On Thursday, February 2, the Benicia Community Center provided a warm respite from the winter drizzle for curious gardeners getting ready for spring. Inside several ecologically minded citizens from all over Solano...
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LOOKING FOR: A Vallejo home to install a demonstration food forest!
Do you own your home in Vallejo? Are you interested in living a more sustainable life? We are inviting you to consider becoming a demonstration food forest keeper! With the help of the community, we’ll convert your lawn, if applicable, and install a permaculture food...
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What is sustainable? A UN Perspective
As Sustainable Solano continues our work throughout the county, the question we often get is “What does sustainable mean?” We continue our exploration into our mission, our focus, and what it means to be sustainable with our third installation of the conversation: a...
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Maggie Ingalls on Ann Ralph of “Grow a Little Fruit Tree”
When we asked Community Orchard Program Manager Maggie Ingalls why she invited Ann Ralph to speak to Orchard members, she said, "I took Ann’s workshop on backyard fruit tree pruning soon after we had planted several fruit trees in our new yard here in Benicia. I wish...
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“Barley’s Backyard” Food Forest Tour — Stop #4
David Shaw of Santa Cruz Permaculture's talk and tour turned into an extended one when the official event ended. Due to enthusiasm the talk portion ran long and the tour ran out of time. Attendees still had many questions, so David graciously agreed to...
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