Are you—or do you aspire to be—a gardener? The Seacoast Community Garden Network (SCGN), brainchild of Slow Food Seacoast’s very own membership coordinator, Jenny Isler, is now a live, interactive website of resources for gardens and gardeners. It’s a place to make connections:

• See what community gardens (more than 30!) in the Seacoast area are doing.
• Find or list a community garden plot, gardeners, or supplies.
• Share problems, solutions, and achievements.
• Get help starting a community garden.

You don’t even have to be a community gardener to benefit from the wonderful  SCGN website, because anyone can

• Learn about composting, companion planting, canning, and more from the growing list of gardening resources.
• Consult the Calendar for an array of events related to gardening and sustainability and the Free Classifieds.
• Contribute to the Compost Pile.

If you want to respond to a Free Classified ad or participate in the Discussion Forum, you’ll have to register; but it’s quick (I just did it in about 30 seconds) and FREE, so why not check it out?

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For those of us who weren’t working behind the scenes for the past 4 or 5 months, building the framework for and decorating the virtual walls of this nonprofit interactive online community, SCGN seems to have have sprung straight from seed packet to vigorous seedling. But in reality, SCGN is an idea that has been germinating for a long time.

As long as 4 years ago, Jenny and fellow community garden coordinator Gail Wingate talked about connecting gardeners. They noticed that community gardens operated in isolation but faced many of the same problems—and as a result, each one was reinventing the wheel to solve them, duplicating efforts and wasting time that could be better spent working in the garden or enjoying the harvest! Their deep passion for vibrant community, local food resources, and the environment fueled their dream of making the Seacoast community garden movement stronger by bringing together the wisdom, experience, and vision of many gardeners.

Eventually, technology caught up with Jenny and Gail’s vision. A grant from the New England Grassroots Fund provided seed money, and the intrepid pair called together more than 20 community leaders to help define their vision. Bringing the vision to life were gifted community gardeners, artists, and Joomla! gurus Kathy Lombard and Donna Chick. Together, the four women met regularly from winter into spring, and the SCGN website went live on May Day, just in time for spring planting.

The resulting SCGN website—open-source construction, and free to anyone to use—features everything the focus group envisioned and more. And just like a garden, SCGN is self-managed: Anyone and everyone can contribute, update, and post to their heart’s content—planting their own seeds! Each community garden can create a Garden Page and even use it as their own website. Folks without a community garden (for now!) can contribute to the general forums and learn from the wonderful resources that the site provides.

Since Jenny and Gail’s initial conversation 4 years ago, the number of community gardens on the Seacoast has blossomed from 3 to more than 30. Many more gardens are yet to come, and SCGN is the place to learn, support, connect and share as our community garden movement grows stronger—together. Stop by the SCGN website to see what’s growin’ on!

Via Seacoast Eat Local:

The 3rd annual Barrington Farm Tour Day is tomorrow, June 27, 2010. Eight farms will be open to visitors from  10am to 4pm. Visit the Seacoast Eat Local blog to see who’s participating and download a map.

Michael Pollan—author of best sellers including The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals—has given us a yet another great resource for learning about food: a short list of books that any Slow Foodie would enjoy. The source material for his article in the June 10, 2010, issue of New York Review of Books is a wonderful starting point for what could become quite a long reading list.

I just blogged about the article on Simply Good Food Blog under the same title (A Slow Foodie’s Reading List) … stop by if you’d like to read along.

Feel free to add your own favorite titles, on either blog! I’ll compile a master list to be posted at a later date on Simply Good Food Blog and on the Slow Food Seacoast website.

Resources

• Read “A Slow Foodie’s Reading List” on Simply Good Food Blog
• Read “The Food Movement, Rising” at the New York Review of Books
• Learn about Slow Food International
• Learn about Slow Food USA
• Visit the Slow Food Seacoast website
  

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What are some of your favorite books about food, the slow movement, or a related topic? Share yours in the Comments!

Via Seacoast Local and RiverRun Bookstore:

Seacoast Local and RiverRun Bookstore present Ron and Arnie Koss, authors of The Earth’s Best Story: A Bittersweet Tale of Twin Brothers Who Sparked an Organic Revolution, in the next lecture of the Making the Connection speaker series on Tuesday, May 18.

The Koss brothers founded Earth’s Best Baby Foods, the first nationally distributed organic foods company, 25 years ago. They describe their book as a how-to of entrepreneurship lessons. At the event, they will talk about ideas, reality, and success in the context of creating a bright and sustainable future.

WHAT: Ron and Arnie Koss talk about The Earth’s Best Story: A Bittersweet Tale of Twin Brothers Who Sparked an Organic Revolution at RiverRun Bookstore

WHEN: Tuesday, May 18, at 7 pm

WHERE: RiverRun Bookstore, 20 Congress St., Portsmouth, NH (603-431-2100) and webcast LIVE at www.riverrunbookstore.com!

MORE INFO: Visit the RiverRun website for details about the event. Learn more about the book on the Chelsea Green website.

Seacoast Local’s  Making the Connection series, co-produced by RiverRun Bookstore, serves as a catalyst for continuing education, community connections, and sustainable change for Seacoast residents.

Via Seacoast Eat Local:

Your Organic Vegetable Garden: Managing Pests & Diseases

Many home and community gardeners have taken up growing vegetables in recent years. This rewarding pursuit comes with its own set of challenges. Those vegetables we find so delicious can be equally attractive to a wide range of insects. Understanding the difference between beneficial insects and destructive pests is often difficult. In Your Organic Vegetable Garden: Managing Pests & Diseases, Eric Sideman, Organic Crop Specialist for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), will cover the identification of pests and diseases common to growing vegetables. He also will discuss organic methods of prevention and management, with a special focus on identifying and preventing Late Blight.

This event is free and open to the public. It is a collaboration of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), Seacoast Eat Local, and Seacoast Community Garden Network.

Space is limited. To RSVP or for more information, please email Debra Kam.

WHO: Eric Sideman, Organic Crop Specialist, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA)

WHERE: Portsmouth Public Library, Hilton Room, 175 Parrott Ave, Portsmouth, NH

WHEN: Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 6–7:30 pm

Some of you may already know Eric Sideman through his informative Pest Reports for MOFGA. Eric earned a B.S. in agriculture from Cornell University, an M.S. in biology from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of New Hampshire. He moved to Maine in 1982 to teach biology and ecology at Bates College. In 1986 he moved on to MOFGA to become what some call “the nation’s first Organic Extension Agent.” He provides technical support for farmers and gardeners, serves as staff scientist for MOFGA, plans and produces educational events for MOFGA and Cooperative Extension, and serves on various agricultural committees for the Maine Department of Agriculture and the University of Maine. From 1997 to 2002 Eric served a term on the National Organic Standards Board, an advisory board to the USDA National Organic Program. Eric has recently moved to New Hampshire, just over the border from Maine, and now MOFGA has a great opportunity to give support to farmers and gardeners a long way from Unity.

Via York Goes Green:

Second Annual York Energy & Climate Fair

WHAT: Learn about energy efficiency, new power sources, energy audits, composting, “green” building technologies, and new products for sustainable and efficient living. Other features include a farmers’ market and an array of food, agriculture, and transportation resources.

WHEN: May 1, 2010, 9 am–2 pm

WHERE: York Middle School, 30 Organug Road, York Village, ME

COST: FREE!

FOR MORE INFORMATION: See the York Goes Green website

Via the Simply Good Food Blog:

An unlikely hero, Joel Salatin is a rural Virginia farmer who has come to symbolize slow food, local food, practical organic farming methods, and no-nonsense ruckus-making. Read about a new Earth Eats interview and videos on the Simply Good Food Blog.

Food & Water Watch announced today that the public lecture with Maude Barlow has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 7:00 pm. Part of the “Tap In” series at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the event originally was scheduled for March 4 (see the post about it here) was canceled due to a weather-related flight cancellation.) This lecture will be the last event in the series.

Please register for this event.

For more information …

About the organization: Food & Water Watch

About the Tap In series at UNH: UNH Office of Sustainability

About the event, and to register: New Date: Water Activist Maude Barlow Visits UNH

Forwarded from Food for Maine’s Future, whose mission is “to help build a just, secure, sustainable, and democratic food system to the benefit of all Maine farmers, communities, and the environment”:

5th Annual Local & Sustainable Food Conference: Building Urban/Rural Alliances
April 10 & 11, St Mary’s Nutrition Center, Lewiston, Maine

Presented by Food for Maine’s Future, Lots to Gardens, Healthy Oxford Hills, Lewiston Public Library, and WERU

JOIN US FOR FOOD, FUN, ENGAGING DISCUSSION, MUSIC, & SHARING SKILLS

Register Today!

Registration is now open for the 5th Annual Local and Sustainable Foods Conference: Building Urban/Rural Alliances and Mud Season Dinner taking place in Lewiston April 10 & 11. This year’s conference will explore key issues facing Mainers working for positive change in local and regional foodsheds. Through discussion and facilitated planning sessions conference participants will help create a set of Action Plans to guide our growing movement towards an equitable food system with justice and dignity for all. Conference tracks include:

RURAL FOOD FOR RURAL PEOPLE
What are the principal barriers to rural Mainers’ feeding their own communities a diverse diet? How do we help rural producers sell locally first?

CULTIVATING MAINE’S FUTURE FOOD LEADERS
Creating a sustainable food system involves investing in our youth. How can youth and adults work together to better the food system? What role does farm-to-school and school gardens play in this? How do youth get a seat at the table for decisions that affect them?

WE CAN GET THERE FROM HERE: GRASSROOTS FOOD DISTRIBUTION
Maine has a number of successful grassroots models for getting food from farm or sea to our plates. How do we support and expand what is working? How do we create what is needed?

GROWING FOOD EVERYWHERE: THE HOME ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY
What support and resources exist for homesteaders, subsistence farmers and fisherman, community gardeners? How can we help each other build a food economy based on bread labor, interdependence, and self-reliance?

Don’t want to sit in meetings all day? Take part in one of eight Skill Shares:

Seed Saving - Will Bonsall, Scatterseed Project
Sheet Mulching & Permaculture Principles - Jesse Watson, Mid-Coast Permaculture
Making Kombucha - Gail Wartell, Winter Cache Project
Starting a Community Garden - Shelby Childs, Stone Soup Garden
Raising Backyard Poultry
Starting a School Garden
Starting a Buying Club
Season Extension

or take a self-guided tour of Lots to Gardens‘ community gardens!

End the day with our Mud Season Dinner, a (nearly) all-Maine meal & a enjoy vaudeville revival with over a cardboard sea!

One day not enough? Join us on Sunday for a round table discussion:

Whose Rules? Balancing Food Safety, Food Traditions & Food Policy
Opening remarks by Mark Silber, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, USM
10:00am - 2:00pm St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, Lewiston
**Please note: Registration for this round table is limited. Please contact Bob St. Peter to register. There is no charge for the event and lunch will be available for a small donation.

Registration for the Saturday, April 10 conference is $15-50 sliding scale, suggested donation is $25. Members of Food for Maine’s Future receive free admission to Saturday’s conference. Sign up today!

Mud Season Dinner is $15-150 sliding scale, suggested donation is $20. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Registration for Saturday, April 10 conference and Mud Season Dinner is required and space is limited.

Register Today!

The World Affairs Council of Northern California presents the WorldAffairs 2010 Live Webcast on March 11 and 12, 2010: “The world that the Obama administration inherited a year ago is already a very different place. From global economic crisis to climate change, from international security dilemmas to development challenges, the path forward will require innovation from all sectors. Governments, non-governmental organizations, private sector initiatives and individual actors must all contribute.”

Topics include environment, economy, development, and security—all global issues. (Download the Webcast agenda in PDF format here.) Both days end with a session entitled Local Solutions to Global Problems, and Josh Viertel (president of Slow Food USA) will be speaking at this closing session on March 12.

The webcast is free, and no log in or registration is required! Simply go to the WorldAffairs 2010 Live Webcast page on March 11 at 12:45 PST and begin watching!