Spring!
A Retreat to Revel in the Pleasures and Practical Skills of the Season

Saturday, May 9th, 10am – 5pm

and due to demand we’ll run it again on:

Saturday, May 16th 10am – 5pm

The Rowell Farm and Homestead, Nottingham, New Hampshire

This third in a series of seasonal retreats offers direct experiences of earth-centered living to help us align our lifestyles and activities with the natural rhythms of the seasons. With Lauren Chase-Rowell and Beth Tener as your guides, you will experience a deeper sense of self-reliance and restoration of mind, body, and spirit. We are what we eat. We will explore growing and eating locally harvested food, which is a powerful and delicious way to reconnect to nature.

Enjoy a day at Lauren’s farm beginning with a tour. Her farm is a living landscape that provides food for her family and a biodiverse range of species that make it their home. We will also explore:

• Collecting Wild Edible Plants – Discover nature’s bounty for free that is right outside our door; prepare what we find for lunch.
• Planting Seeds - Plant early season seeds and seedlings.
• Embracing Our Connection to Animals on a Farm – Gather in the kitchen to learn how to make simple homemade cheeses from local raw goat and cow’s milk.

We will enjoy locally-grown organic home-cooked food during the retreat, as well as rich companionship and conversation within the circle of returning and new participants.

Cost: $100 (includes lunch and snacks)

To Register: Please contact Beth Tener at tener.b@mindspring.com or call (603) 734-2878.Please register early as space is limited. We currently have a wait list for the May 9th event.

Lauren Chase-Rowell, is an ecological landscaper, an organic farmer, and a permaculture design teacher whose farm is a living classroom. She has been living the principles of sustainable living for 30 years. She is a co-author of the new book, Integrated Landscaping: Following Nature’s Lead.

Beth Tener has trained hundreds of people in ways to take personal action to create a sustainable world. She weaves her background as a yoga teacher, a practitioner of meditation, and her personal experience in green living to inspire those working on personal and social change.

In gratitude, Lauren and Beth would like to invite participants to an optional country breakfast between 8:30 – 10:00am, with time for relaxed conversation before a full and inspiring day.

Saturday, May 2, 8:30-4:15 p.m.

From ABC News:

ABC News’ Brian Hartman Reports: President Obama’s latest shovel-ready project is close to home — in fact, right in his own yard. In an effort to promote healthy eating, the first family will be planting a vegetable garden right on the White House grounds.

ABC News’ Ann Compton and Sunlen Miller report that the new White House vegetable garden will be dug up and planted on the South grounds of the White House — near the fountain but out of view of the main house.

Though the 16-acre complex is maintained by the National Park Service, one worker who preferred to remain anonymous assured ABC News that National Park Service staff won’t do the sowing and planting. The White House residence staff will handle that.

As first reported online by food writer Eddie Gehman Kohan, who reports on food issues related to the Obamas, First Lady Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey’s “O” magazine, “We’re … working on a wonderful new garden project.”

In the April issue of the magazine, Mrs. Obama tells Winfrey, “We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet.”

A variety of organic food and sustainable agriculture advocates have been pressing the Obamas to plant such a garden.

Congratulations to our friends at Eat the View - Kitchen Gardeners International, who worked so hard to make this happen!

Saturday, May 2nd, 8:30-4:15 p.m.

This alert just in from Kidsgardening.org, a branch of the National Gardening Association:

“Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has included an amendment in the Farm Bill to authorize $10,000,000 to establish a pilot program for community school gardens. The Farm Bill passed the Senate by a vote of 79 to 14 on December 14 with the school garden amendment intact. The Farm Bill is now headed to conference committee where the Senate and House will determine the final version of the bill which goes to the President. Your letters, e-mails, and phone calls to your representatives in the House can help ensure that the school garden amendment is included in the final version of the Farm Bill.”

More information on the actual amendment can be found on the KidsGardening Website.

Representatives can be reached by calling the general Congressional switchboard number: (202) 224-3121.

On March 2, NOFA-NH’s Fifth Annual Winter Conference titled “Peas Lettuce Feed You” will take place at Winnisquam Regional High School in Tilton, NH, just 20 miles north of Concord. The conference features 28 workshops in 4 sessions, on food, farming, gardening, landscaping, sustainability and related topics, and will offer an potluck lunch, a Keynote, and a Market Fair showcasing local, organic and/or sustainable products, organizations, businesses, farms, and foods. All farmers, gardeners, food enthusiasts, landscapers, homesteaders and friends of the earth are welcome!

Early registration by February 20 saves $10: NOFA Members $35, non-members $45. After February 20 an additional $10 will be added to the registration fee. Potluck Lunch is free when you bring a dish to share! No time to cook? Then you may purchase a $10 ticket to the potluck.

This event and many others brought to our attention by the Office of Sustainability at UNH. Their online calendar is available here!