Dec 15, 2016
In the midst of this holiday season, despite fears and worries surrounding the unprecedented national election, I more than ever want to honor and celebrate what all of you have actually achieved this past year. Together, we’ve demonstrated how vital hopes for a better, more sustainable world can be made manifest right where we live. Together, we’ve shown that real change comes from the ground up when we share an ethical vision and actually roll up our sleeves and work to make “the possible” come alive through committed, collective actions.
Our mission in 2017 will continue, nourishing initiatives for the good of the whole. One of our major changes and accomplishments in 2016: Benicia Community Gardens as a non-profit organization has grown, becoming “Sustainable Solano” for wider reach to Solano communities, thus to embrace initiatives and partnerships inspired by many others sharing our vision. BCG’s accomplishments in 2016 will carry us into 2017. Here’s what we’ve done together:
- installed the last 3 of a total of 7 food forest gardens under the Benicia Sustainable Backyard program, with 3 public garden tours, and 5 more tours planned for 2017;
- inaugurated the first Land Caretakers program for training novices and professional landscapers in sustainable practices for creating edible, wise-water gardens using greywater and rain water harvesting systems;
- partnered with local chefs in Vallejo and Benicia to create community-supported kitchens, with a pilot kitchen program in Benicia to launch in 2017;
- established partnership with the Solano County Water Agency — contract awarded to establish a total of 5 food forest gardens, three in Fairfield and two in Vallejo;
- Hosted, in consort with Pachamama Alliance, a very moving and successful “Awakening the Dreamer Symposium” in Fairfield, the event serving to inspire individuals toward embracing a new dream and to take actions that can heal the world where we live, and to introduce Sustainable Solano as an organization embracing that new dream.
Thank you all for a milestone year in 2016! May we keep hope, working together to strengthen our communities, upholding basic values for a more just, healthy world.
With appreciation and gratitude,
Marilyn Bardet,
Board Chair
Nov 27, 2016
A cool, drizzly morning couldn’t stop the over two dozen people who gathered in a cozy group at the site of Sustainable Solano’s oldest demonstration food forests, “Birds, Bees and Beyond.” A Walk in a Food Forest’s third stop was hosted by Heather and Frank and their children, who volunteered their home and garden not only for demonstrating roof water catchment, laundry to landscape graywater reuse, permaculture landscape planning–but also for Benicia’s first permitted shower-to-landscape graywater installation.
Professional landscapers, gardening enthusiasts, permaculture students, and everyone in between, from Suisun, Benicia, Fairfield, Vallejo, and beyond Solano County came to hear John Valenzuela of Cornucopia Food Forest Gardens. John started his presentation with a brief overview of permaculture concepts and quickly honed into his passion of trees: pruning, grafting, guilds of trees and plants that exist in nature, and especially the edible ones native to, or thrive in, northern California. He provided fascinating historical and political context for the plants in the region, showing a deep love of place an understanding of how things came to be, and thus how things can be in the future.
Immediately following the presentation the guests were led out into the garden to see and hear about the site specific ideas applied to “Birds, Bees and Beyond”. Heather and Frank explained the process of working with a permaculture landscape designer and their hopes for the garden. John chimed in to point out elements that worked well such as herbal plantings that deter pests, things that he particularly enjoyed such as a front yard designed to invite the neighborhood in, and some things that might be done differently (such as an avocado tree very near the house).
“What you need to know for the future,” said a guest, a professional landscaper who had attended the previous talk, “Is that the next time John gives a talk, you should give him a pair of shears and he’ll prune your trees.”
“It’s true,” he agreed, demonstrating a 45 degree angle he’d like to see a branch at.
At the end of the tour, which ran overtime despite the rain, shears were indeed passed out for guests to take cuttings from the garden home.
“Thank you for this tour,” another guest, who had recently moved to Vallejo, said to the hosts. “I have enjoyed eating my way through your garden. And now I just want to go home and get started on my own!”
There will be no tours in December, due to Sustainable Solano’s “Awakening the Dreamer” Symposium and official launch. We hope you join us for the symposium–a natural extension of many permaculture concepts. And we look forward to seeing everyone on January 28th for the fourth stop of our “Walk in a Food Forest” Tour.
Stay tuned for an update of resources John mentioned during this tour’s talk.
Oct 31, 2016
Over a dozen people, from San Francisco, the South Bay, East Bay, as well as those within Solano County converged at The Living and Learning Garden this past Saturday to see the progress this food forest had made since it’s installation nearly six months ago in April 2016. There were permaculture students, landscaping professionals, homeowners, and interested people and gardeners all meeting and mingling, under gracious hosts Leslie and Stacy’s care.
Ryan Johnston of Permaculture Skills Training Center started off the morning with a somber, humorous, educational and inspirational talk on how we can make a difference starting with small steps, and how the yield of a permaculture garden is really connections, community, ecology, and sustaining and restorative to the soul and the environment–but that the food that comes from a food forest can be quite delicious too.
The talk then moved outside to point out the greywater installation, ingenious workarounds to use secondary water (such as fitting a pipe perfectly snug in a crack in the driveway), plantings and strategies to create a healthy system that incorporates not only the plants and water, but also edges for people to interact with neighbors. And of course, problem shooting issues brought up by individuals.
“This talk was so great,” said one attendee, “That I’m going to definitely go to the next one too.”
We hope to see you there as well. November 19th, at “Birds, Bees and Beyond,” one of our more established food forests, nearing two years old. The speaker will be permaculture expert John Valenzuela. More information and registration can be found here.
Oct 27, 2016
Over 150 people gathered at the Empress Theater in Vallejo to watch the premiere of the documentary “SEED: The Untold Story”. It was an alarming and moving account of seeds, its story and its modern fate to become a commodity just like anything else these days – nature, land, money, people….
Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind, these subtle flecks of life are the source of all existence. Like tiny time capsules, they contain the songs, sustenance, memories, and medicines of entire cultures. They feed us, clothe us, and provide the raw materials for our everyday lives. They are life itself!
Yet in our modern world, these precious gifts of nature are in grave danger. In less than a century of industrial agriculture, our once abundant seed diversity—painstakingly created by ancient farmers and gardeners over countless millennia—has been drastically winnowed down to a handful of mass-produced varieties. Under the spell of industrial “progress” and a lust for profit, our quaint family farmsteads have given way to mechanized agribusinesses sowing genetically identical crops on a monstrous scale.
For eons, cultures around the world have believed seeds to be our birthright: a covenant with the earth shared by all and passed down across generations. But today, our seeds are increasingly private property held in corporate hands. A cadre of ten agrichemical companies (including Syngenta, Bayer, and Monsanto) now controls more than two-thirds of the global seed market, reaping unprecedented profits. Genetically modified crops (GMOs) engineered in their sterile laboratories dominate farmers’ fields and dinner tables in the United States and countries around the world.
People everywhere are waking up to the vital importance of seeds for our future. Seed libraries, community gardens, and a new generation of passionate young farmers are cropping up to shift the balance toward a more sustainable and sovereign seed paradigm. A David and Goliath battle is underway, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
How can you participate on the right side of this battle, right here, in Solano County?
Get educated, demand our right for seed and food sovereignty, grow heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, use seed banks and seed exchange, and support local farmers who are doing things right – through our Community Supported Agriculture and Solano Grown.
Oct 10, 2016
Save the Date: Awakening the Dreamer Symposium Comes to Solano County
Are you ready for a deeply transformative experience? On December 3rd, 2016 from 10am-2pm, the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium comes to Solano County at Solano County Events Center in Fairfield, offering a dynamic multimedia half-day workshop that uses videos, personal reflection, and group activities to engage people everywhere as the co-creators of an environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling world.
Register for this free event.
Imagine:
- Having everything we need to create a sustainable, just, and fulfilling world
- Understanding the unique contribution you can make in your community
- Feeling hopeful about the future of our planet and species
You don’t have to just imagine these things–together, we can make them real. Participants will leave the Symposium empowered to take clear steps to embody their vision for a better world, and having established new connections to work with others on common issues for the common good of the whole.
The Symposium is developed and distributed by The Pachamama Alliance, a San Francisco-based nonprofit started at the invitation of indigenous people of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Through the Symposium and other workshops, they work to generate widespread awakening at the grassroots level and a transformation of our worldview, such that humanity becomes committed to restoring and protecting the environment and moves towards social justice and spiritual fulfillment.
For even more details on the Symposium and The Pachamama Alliance, please visit:
www.pachamama.org
Pachamama Alliance Workshops and Events
Awakening the Dreamer: A Transformative Workshop for People and Planet (Video):
https://youtu.be/n8zaUjvCJOY
This Symposium will be open to anyone who wishes to take practical steps to bring about transformation to the environmental, social and spiritual presence of humanity on the earth. We hope you join us!
