Join us @ West Coast Women’s Permaculture Gathering

kristySustainability News

Hello to all who’ve signed up for this occasional dispatch,

Here’s the brief version:
* I’ve begun doing talks again. This summer I’ve spoken at Antioch Graduation, Women of Whidbey TED-ish talks, the Happiness 2012 conference, Slow Food Festival and gave my first public reading from the Blessing book (standing ovation!)
* Blessing the Hands that Feed Us is one month from done and delivered. Just finished umpteenth rewrite.
* Comedy Island (improv/sketch comedy group) is performing monthly for you Whidbey people.

Coming up:
* West Coast Women’s Permaculture Gathering 9/20-23
* Bioneers (co-hosting 2 world cafes on resilience)
* November 7 – Healthy Money Telesummit – stay tuned!

West Coast Women’s Permaculture Gathering 2012
September 20-23, Weekend of the Autumnal Equinox. Three full days!!

Camp Latgawa near Ashland, Oregon. Register

This is the third annual gathering of the largest, and perhaps only, women’s permaculture group. Information on workshops and presenters is below, it’s going to be a fascinating and inspiring event. You can now read workshop descriptions from our fabulous featured presenters on the website.

Starhawk: Social Permaculture, Cultivating Healthy Groups. Starhawk will also be leading us in an Autumn Equinox ritual.
Vicki Robin: Natural Consumption; Surfing the Waves of Wanting, Having & Giving
Marisha Auerbach: Dancing with Life: How You Can Participate in Preserving Biodiversity.
Jacqueline Freeman: The Spiritual Role of the Honeybees
Maud Powell – The Story of the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative
Jeanette Acosta – Indigenous Perspective: Thinking The Highest Thoughts & Our Good Mind
Louise M. Paré , Ph.D. – Improvisational Movement: Daily morning series
Carmen Gonzales – When Magic Wakes Up- My journey to transform personal and collective trauma into an inspiring new vision of sustainability in native country.
Pandora Thomas – Earthseed co-founder and Columbia University Human Rights Program Fellow
Deborah Eden Tull – Personal Sustainability: Sustainable Design as an Attitude of Mind

You can now get a price discount if you register with a friend. We also have childcare and kids activities on site. Please register children by August 30th so we can arrange to have enough care providers.

During this long weekend of connection and community, we will enjoy workshops, engage in circles, ceremonies and and story-telling, join daily movement practice and be served fabulous healthy organic meals. Come connect, learn and laugh in a breathtaking space, surrounded by nature and amazing women. You will leave renewed and motivated to continue the essential work of the Permaculture movement.

The 2012 WPG will be held at Camp Latgawa, a beautiful wooded area of the Rogue National Forest. Two gentle flowing creeks and towering evergreens provide a peaceful setting just 35 miles east of Ashland, Oregon.

Blessing the Hands that Feed Us
Birthing a book is a process of discovery. Recently, when asked what the Blessing the Hands that Feed Us book is about, I wrote this:
o A funny, informative, inspiring story about my effort to eat within 10 miles of my home in September 2010
o A brief education on relocalization, transition, and the global crises
o An introduction to “relational eating” – eating in the context of community (which is the way it is, we just forgot)
o A personal story of hope lost and found in my life as an activist
o A call to participate in re-regionalization of our food systems
o A spiritual story of redemption through community, of finding a true home
o Profiles of farmers and a community becoming stronger through food and feeding one another
o A topography of Whidbey’s local food territory that others can use in their lives and communities

It’s about food and farming, but it’s also about hope and community. And it’s funny.

Food Quotes
As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it. ~Buddy Hackett

Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm. ~Ambrose Bierce

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~Jim Davis

In Mexico we have a word for sushi: bait. ~José Simons

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. ~Old New York Proverb