Posts Tagged ‘sustainable’

Garden Garlic

Mark your calendars for the phenomenal ‘Festival that Stinks,’ a fabulous celebration for the whole family. Looking for inspiration and practical skills to survive and thrive in tough economic times? At the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival you can:

Support and enjoy the bounty of over 100 amazing artists, farmers and organizations; strengthen communities by purchasing locally grown and crafted. Gain skills for interdependence: learn to grow garlic, press cider, mill lumber, make paper, coil clay, grind grain, do tai chi, go solar. Nourish yourself through chef demos, fantastic food and the wondrous wood fired bread oven. Transform trash into compost (last year only three bags of garbage for 12,000 people)! Celebrate with friends old and new: enjoy rockin’ music and incredible entertainment on two solar powered stages, wonderful workshops and garlic games galore. There’s something for everyone you love, so bring your friends and the entire family.

On October 3 and 4, follow your nose to beautiful, historic Forster’s Farm, 60 Chestnut Hill Road, Orange, MA. Visit www.garlicandarts.org for directions, pet policy, and past years highlights. Inflation buster admission at $5.00 per day for adults, weekend pass $8.00, kids 12 and under free. Bike, hike, parachute or ride the Magic Bus–the free biodiesel shuttle from nearby parking lots. Wheelchair accessible parking and restroom facility provided. The 2009 schedule of vendors, music, entertainment and games, chef demos, renewable energy and healing arts workshops, and all you need to know to have a scent-sational time will be updated by July. Multiply the fun: enjoy CISA’s Eat the View and the Conway Festival of the Hills on this same glorious October weekend.

We will bring you more info on this wonderful idea soon. Water House having a Pond Tour Sunday June 14th in Ashfield. Massachusetts.

Water House natural pools aim to create a place of deep connection to the environment. They accomplish this by taking not only recreation, but also gardening to another level. By introducing native aquatic and emerging wetland plant species to your property, we provide for an increased diversity of life, while creating an environment with tremendous learning opportunities for your family.

From swan dives to ice-skating, a natural pool provides year round interaction, as it increases the aesthetic appeal and property value of your home.
They can also discretely install fire hydrants on some projects to assist your local fire department, giving you greater peace of mind if your home is located away from municipal water supplies. Again, each specific pool site will determine the most appropriate design.

When comparing the installation of a natural swimming pool to a conventional in-ground pool, the costs are often similar; yet the maintenance of a natural pool is significantly lower, due to the lack of continual chemical treatments. Some gardening will be required to help maintain a balance, but we believe you will find that you are constantly drawn to your pool, interacting with it in a way that could never be compared to the process of applying chemicals.
They can work with you in regards to plant maintenance to whatever degree you wish. They suggest the selection of native species in order to maintain the most effective system, but They will assist you in any design direction you choose. It is of the utmost importance to them that your total pool experience is positive and they will work with you to insure that you are comfortable with monitoring both water and plant health.

Reprint from Pioneer Valley Local First.
The BALLE board of directors and staff are pleased to announce their selection of Doug Hammond as the next executive director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. His appointment follows a five-month national search conducted by the firm of Waldron & Company.
“Doug’s the right guy at the right time for BALLE,” said William Shutkin, who guided BALLE as interim executive director for the last nine months and is now chair in sustainable development at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado larger dougBoulder. “He’s got the vision, experience, and leadership to catapult BALLE and its 20,000 sustainability entrepreneurs to the forefront of a new economy and a new era. Doug’s, and BALLE’s, time has come.”

His career as an entrepreneur and self-described community systems engineer spans nearly thirty years of developing businesses and organizations that have at their core a deep commitment to economic justice and sustainability. A founding member of Business for Social Responsibility, a long-term active member of the Social Venture Network, and a founding board member of BALLE, he has served as finance chair and treasurer of our organization since its inception and has performed many key organizational capacity-building functions. In addition he has founded and chaired business alliance networks in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts since 1992, including one of BALLE’s first networks, Pioneer Valley Local First.

“The response to our search for a new executive director was extremely gratifying – through the process we met extraordinary national leaders,” said Michelle Long, board chair. “I’m absolutely delighted to be able to announce Doug Hammond as the right choice for executive leadership as BALLE moves forward to do what we believe is the most exciting and important work of our times.”

In accepting the position, Doug offered these thoughts: “As I prepare for this new role and consider the economic and environmental challenges we face, I am reminded of another role I had the great privilege to provide as a parent of two young daughters. I was their storyteller, and we would gather each evening to conjure up tales full of imagination and possibility. We created a set of characters for whom no situation or set of conditions was insurmountable. Not individual superheroes, but rather common-good contributors who intuitively understood that it was the path of community cooperation that led to greatest achievements. I am mindful of the parallels of those stories to our shared quest today. Epic challenges lie before us as does an urgent call for bold next steps. I’m absolutely confident that it will be through both a strategic and collaborative approach that our vision of local living economies will be fully realized. Together we are a remarkable set of common-good contributors, and as David Korten, a fellow founding BALLE board member, so clearly states in The Great Turning, we indeed are the ones we’ve been waiting for. I am honored to begin this next story with all of you.”

Judy Wicks, BALLE’s co-founder, spoke enthusiastically about the new executive director: “I have worked closely with Doug for fifteen years in the responsible business arena and for the past seven years in taking BALLE from its infancy to a critical force in addressing the dire economic, environmental, and social challenges we face today. Doug has the passion, entreprenuerial know-how, and strategic approach to lead us at this critical juncture. He is committed, heart and soul.”

Doug has outlined ambitious priorities for his first ninety days as executive director that include assessing operational capacities, reaching out to network leaders, meeting with individual and organizational funders and partners, moving forward on BALLE Bold initiatives, and other strategic priorities for the organization. He begins his work for BALLE on October 1 and will move into full-time capacity by January. Doug currently resides in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and will be moving to San Francisco later this fall.

For those of us from Pioneer Valley Local First in Western Massachusetts, while we are sad to lose Doug to the left coast, we whole-heartedly congratulate him on his new position and feel that BALLE will be very well served by his leadership. Doug, we look forward to continuing to work with you to effectively address the economic and environmental challenges facing communities and local businesses.