Dec 15, 2016
Join us in co-creating a world that works for everyone. Whether you were with us for the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, or you want to learn more about how you, with your own unique values, skills, and concerns, can commit to creating the change you want to see, a good place to start with with the Game Changer Intensive. Offered by Pachamama Alliance, it is a seven-week online course designed to educate, inspire, and equip you to be a pro-activist leader, a game changer in your community.
Sustainable Solano is partnering with Pachamama Alliance and Solano County libraries to offer, in conjunction with the online session, regular meeting spaces for residents of Solano County to meet, build, and support our communities together. If you are interested in registering, please submit your interest here. Pachamama and Sustainable Solano will contact you with more information according to the respective cities that you live in. For any additional information, please contact info@sustainablesolano.org.
Dec 15, 2016
We are pleased to announce the speakers for the remaining tours in 2017! All tours begin at 10 am on Saturdays and usually last about 2.5 hours. Each tour includes an indoor talk about permaculture /urban food forests, secondary water and water saving techniques, and an outdoor part where participants explore the existing food forest under the guidance of an experienced professional. Tours go rain or shine, so please plan accordingly and bring your rain gear and warm cloth. The tours are free, but you do have to register to receive the exact address. Registrations are coming soon.
January 28
David Shaw from Santa Cruz Permaculture will lead a tour of the “Barley’s Backyard”
February 28
Lydia Neilsen from the Regenerative Design Institute will lead a tour of the “Greyhawk Grove”
March 25
Our very own Kathleen Huffman, who is completing her permaculture design certificate with Toby Hemenway at the Permaculture Skills Center will lead a tour of “The Curious Garden”.
April 22
Jessica Bates from the Food Forest Farm West will lead a tour of the “Marina Place Food Forest”
May 20
You will have a unique opportunity to see all seven gardens in one day. Stay tuned for more details of this exciting and informative day!
To learn more about the program and seven demonstration food forests in Benicia.
Dec 15, 2016
Dear friends of Sustainable Solano,
As I am looking back at the eventful and transformative year of 2016, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all people who helped co-create Sustainable Solano: the Board, our volunteer leadership team, our funders and supporters, and all of you who made a personal commitment to make a difference, to participate in something bigger than ourselves, to nurture heart-based initiatives for the good of the whole.
In 2017 we will continue to refine and shape the vision for the organization, to deepen our understanding of our current situation and to develop strategies to help making Solano County more environmentally and economically sustainable, socially just and personally fulfilling place to live and work.
We will continue with meaningful conversations in the community, beginning with a seven-week “Game Changer Intensive” offered by Pachamama Alliance as a follow up to the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. Everyone can participate in this program! Our goal is to provide opportunities for face-to-face meetings in Solano County allowing us to deepen the connections we felt so profoundly with each other at the Symposium and to engage with each other in new and existing initiatives that facilitate change at the local level and beyond. Learn more and to register.
Our sustainable landscaping efforts will continue with monthly tours of Benicia demonstration permaculture food forests, installation of demonstration gardens in Fairfield and Vallejo, and a series of talks and workshops in Benicia, Fairfield and Vallejo – watch for regular updates on our calendar.
We invited professional landscapers, both established and new, to explore our Land Caretakers Program. Sustainable Landscapers Association of Solano County is forming now – please email info@sustainablesolano.org if you are interested in learning more.
Calling all the players in Solano local food movement to get to know each other and to join our efforts to create a robust, healthy, inclusive local food system in the county. We are planning to have a Solano Local Food Summit in the spring of 2017. If you are interested to learn more, please email info@sustainablesolano.org.
For cooking classes and talks on healthy, local food throughout the county, please check our calendar regularly (and let us know if you would like to promote your efforts of brining wholesome local food to our communities through our website and newsletter).
I am looking forward to see you at these upcoming programs and events. Please let me know if you have suggestions, ideas or questions. I wish you a peaceful and restful holiday season!
In gratitude,
Elena Karoulina
Executive Director
Sustainable Solano
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 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!
Aug 29, 2016
Have you ever been to an urban food forest? Did you help us establish one (or a few) of the seven Benicia demonstration food forests? Did you attend one of the public laundry-to-landscape greywater system workshops?
We are inviting you to see our budding permaculture demonstration food forests established in 2015 – 2016. Each month, you will have a chance to visit a food forest, hear a talk by a permaculture or sustainable landscaping professional, and have a guided walk through these gardens in the backyards and frontyards of Benicia residents.
You will see how rainwater is retained in the ground, how roofwater is diverted and harvested, what a difference greywater makes in a garden, and various plants selected either for their high yield food producing capacity or supporting role for these thriving ecosystems.
Here is the list of the dates and the gardens. Please watch our website and newsletter for further announcements about the speakers for each date and other details.
1. September 17 – “Nourishing Provision”
2. October 29 – “Bees, Birds and Beyond”
3. November 19 – “Marina Place Food Forest”
4. January 28 – “Barley’s Bountiful Backyard”
5. February 25 – “Greyhawk Grove”
6. March 25 – “The Curious Garden”
7. April 22 – “The Living and Learning Garden”
May 20, 2017 – “A tour of Seven Gardens”: your unique chance to see all seven gardens in one day. More details to come.
Read more about these gardens and the Sustainable Backyard program:
