May 31, 2018
Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Backyard program expanded to Suisun City earlier this spring and is now celebrating the completion of a public demonstration food forest garden at a private Suisun residence. The program offers informative workshops and inspiring talks on sustainable landscape design, community resilience and permaculture.
On Saturday, June 9th and Sunday, June 10th, community members are invited to help create a thriving ecosystem for pollinators, such as birds, bees, and butterflies, at Suisun Wildlife Center (SWC). This custom demonstration garden will focus on year-round pollinator plants and habitat for wildlife and will be fed primarily through secondary water sources such as roofwater diverted to swales. SWC is a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue of native California wildlife to ensure that birds and animals receive the best possible care.
Attendees will have the opportunity to learn hands-on how to build a proper foundation for a permaculture food forest, how to increase water-holding capacity in the ground, tips for building healthy soil in the garden and basic permaculture design principles that can be applied at home for self-sustaining, food-producing gardens all year-round.
Thank you to Vice Mayor, Lori Wilson, for coordinating lunch with local eateries on both days.
Workshop Dates:
Saturday, June 9th (Installation Day 1:) Laying the foundation: digging on contour swales, making berms and diverting the roof water to the landscape. Register here.
Sunday, June 10th (Installation Day 2): Creating habitat. Register here.
- Planting a community of pollinator plants with multiple functions that support a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
- Surface drip irrigation installation: Adding irrigation for young plants and water conservation.
- Covering the food forest with free woodchips (mulch) to prevent water evaporation and improve soil health.
There will be yearly ongoing workshops and tours of these demonstration food forest gardens on private and public land in each city. This project is made possible by funding and support of the Solano County Water Agency
May 18, 2018
By: Nicole Newell, Sustainable Backyard Program Manager
I am finding many Solano County treasures as our Sustainable Backyard Program expands. Suisun Wildlife Center is one of the jewels. Last weekend I learned first-hand the many incredible ways that this organization serves California native wildlife and the Suisun Marsh. I was invited on an educational walk through the area with Executive Director, Monique Liguori, leading this walk. She spoke about the Native American Suisunes tribe (also called the “People of the West Wind”), who lived in the Suisun Marsh regions of Solano County around 200 years ago, and the various plants they used.
One of the many diverse plants that was showcased was the tule rush. The Suisunes people built temporary homes, canoes and made clothing out of this plant. Since the tule rushes are biodegradable, every year these items had to be rebuilt. My head was filled with so many new facts about native plants in the marsh. I even got to taste salty pickleweed!
Not only does the Suisun Wildlife Center protect and educate the public about the Suisun Marsh, but they also rescue and care for California native wildlife. The ultimate goal is to release the wildlife back into its environment. Due to the extent of animal injury, resident raptors and a coyote cannot be released and need year-round care. Kris, Monique and many other committed volunteers gently care for these young and injured animals 365 days a year!
Currently they are taking care of:
20 baby oppossums
30 song birds
7 baby raccoons
6 baby squirrels
1 adult barn owl
This spring, Monique has gently cared for nine baby hummingbirds. These sensitive creatures eat every 15 minutes from sun up to sun down and will only eat if the feeder are in a balanced state of mind while feeding them. The dedication of Suisun Wildlife Center has inspired our Sustainable Backyard program to think about the importance of serving wildlife when designing demonstration gardens. In June, we will be installing a food forest that is focused on providing food to our precious pollinators.
Thank you Kris and Suisun Wildlife Center for all that you do!
May 3, 2018
By: Stephanie Oelsligle-Jordan, Local Food Project Manager
As I pulled into the parking lot, I wondered if I was in the right place. Several tents were set up, people were bustling around, and a guy was grilling chicken on a huge BBQ. It looked more like a small farmer’s market than a retail store….which meant the grand opening of The Heritage Pantry in Dixon was off to a great start!
Owned by Lindsey Hickman and Alyssa Connelly, The Heritage Pantry is “using the power of communal ideology and old fashioned homesteading skills to bring local farm goods into one place for consumer ease and education.” Located in a quaint old house (which used to be a real estate office), plenty of farm goods there were: beautiful fruits and vegetables; freshly baked breads; pantry staples such as jams, nuts, honey, olive oil, salsa, salts, ketchup and coffee; and a refrigerated case full of raw milk, cheese, eggs, yogurt, butter and meat. The shop also features essential oils, soaps, and other natural body care products. The Heritage Pantry will also serve its community by offering classes on a variety of topics. In May, you can learn to make Almond Milk (and use the pulp!), Cheese, Kombucha and Sourdough bread. (Parents take note – there is also a breadmaking class for kids!) And on May 18, “Rooster Paint and Sip” happens, when participants can sip on wine, and paint a rooster on a large canvas.
As I browsed around and watched the line of customers, it became clear that The Heritage Pantry is more than a retail store; it is a place that connects community members through local food. While Hickman’s and Connelly’s passion for local food certainly shows through the diverse array of products on the shelves, they have also created a synergy evidenced by the enthusiasm of their shoppers, and the pride of the farmers who were there showcasing their goods. It was fulfilling to see this small food system functioning, where local food is valued and appreciated.
The Heritage Pantry is located at 350 West A Street in Dixon, CA, and is open Monday – Saturday, 12-6 pm. For more information visit www.theheritagepantry.com.
Farms and Producers featured at The Heritage Pantry include:
Eatwell Farm
Terra Firma Farm
Lockewood Acres
SucherNova Apothecary
The Cloverleaf Farm
Araceli Farms
Erickson Ranch
Early Bird Farm
Olivewood Olive Oil
Petaluma Creamery
Claravale Raw Dairy
Mast Coffee
Thaddeus Coffee Roasting
Fat and the Moon
Minnie and Grace Soap Company
AzureStandard.com
May 3, 2018
By: Elena Karoulina, Executive Director
On a sunny Saturday morning, a group of local community members gathered at Morningsun Farm in Vacaville to have a conversation with a Food and Farm Attorney Neil Thapar from the Sustainable Economies Law Center.
In the beginning, Neil painted a grim picture of the state of our national food system. We produce a lot of food and throw away 40% of it, while the rate of hunger is going up each year. For example, studies show that one in four kids is going hungry in our county. Diet-related diseases are also on a rise, so all we have to show for our latest “advancements” in agriculture and food production is the excess of food and decreased food security and community’ well-being.
Neil focused on the three major components of production: land, labor, and capital, and shared with us the staggering examples of the increasing level of consolidation of ownership in agriculture, food industries and land use. Our food system, from field to table, is being concentrated in just a handful of companies.
Then Neil introduced a concept of commons. The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable earth. These resources are held in common, not owned privately (Wikipedia). He talked a little bit about an American economist Elinor Ostrom, the first and only woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Economic Science for her work defining principles of the commons.
We discussed how some of the industries can be organized based on cooperation and community control and looked closely to the following examples:
- Worker owned enterprises: Arismendi, Cloverleaf Farm, Flying U Farm, South Central Farmers
- Cooperative lending: credit unions as a concept and Shared Capital Cooperative as an example
- Crowd investing: Direct Public Offering done by Peoples’ Community Market and Equal Exchange CD
- Community Farmland Trusts: Agrarian Trust https://agrariantrust.org, a project of the Schumacher Center for New Economy (remember “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” book?!)
- Farmland Investment Cooperatives: Poudre Valley Community Farms
All these efforts are in the early stages of development and none of them are in our area. We, at Sustainable Solano, are working on envisioning and implementing some of these ideas in our county, but it will take time and dedicated effort.
Meanwhile, there are other ways to support this “new” emerging world of commons:
LAND
Short-term: Learn about history of native people in your area, how US policies displace them, and how that relates and influences your local food system.
Long-term: Create a community land trust to manifest permanently affordable, community-controlled, democratically-managed land
LABOR
Short-term: Increase your spending at cooperatives by a definite amount over the next 6 month (and help take “Cultivate Community Food Co-op off the ground).
Long-term: Convert your business, or suggest conversion, to a worker-owned cooperative
CAPITAL
Short-term: Move your money (checking / saving / loans) to a credit union
Long-term: Redirect a significant amount of your investments into locally owned businesses or cooperatives.
Mar 30, 2018
One private yard in Suisun City has been selected for the installation of a demonstration food forest garden as part of Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Backyard program offering informative workshops and inspiring talks on sustainable landscape design, community resilience, permaculture, and local food systems. The first of three public installation workshops will be held on Saturday, April 7th, at a private Suisun residence, where community members can help create the foundation of an edible ecosystem fed by secondary water sources such as greywater (laundry-to-landscape system) and roofwater. This workshop will focus on digging swales, making birms, diverting roofwater and planting fruit trees to increase water-holding capacity and building healthy soil in the garden.
Selected homeowner, Cassandra, a resident of Suisun City for over 21 years and passionate about growing food and healthy eating, was looking to replace her lawn with a more sustainable landscape that her family could eat from. This led her to apply to have her yard transformed into a steady, water-retaining food source that would not only increase resilience but catch the attention of lawn owners lining her neighborhood streets. “This project will help secure a source of local food for my family with a surplus to share with the community”, Cassandra said. The family has named the garden, “A Growing Future”.
Through this project, she will be joining a growing family of “food forest keepers” in Solano County that have committed to opening their demonstration food forest gardens for the public to learn about simple sustainable landscape techniques and ways to use water more wisely to grow food.
Her yard was selected among four other Suisun City homeowner applicants. The selection process for these sites are based on criteria such as yard access, greywater feasibility and sun orientation. Sites are assessed and selected by Sustainable Solano’s Sustainable Landscaping Advisory Board made up of dedicated Solano County residents aiming to raise sustainability awareness in Solano County.
The garden will take three full days to complete and all installation events are free and open to the community. There will be yearly ongoing workshops and tours of these demonstration food forest gardens on private and public land in each city. This project is made possible by funding and support of the Solano County Water Agency.
Registration is required for these FREE hands-on workshops. Visit our calendar to register.
The Sustainable Backyard and Conversations program will expand to Vacaville in the fall of 2018. Visit www.sustainablesolano.org and www.facebook.com/sustainablesolano for updates and details about this expansion.
