CONVERGE! Learn, trade, organize core permaculture group August 6, 2011-

NOTE: only a limited number of people can attend. Please RSVP, and no no-shows or flakes, please! If you sign up, meet up!

This is a full day FREE event with hands-on workshops, lectures, potluck, and clothes/books/anything/organic seeds and produce exchange. If you can teach us something fascinating, sing, dance, cook, or entertain, do let us know! We need volunteer co-creators.

ORGANIZE AND GROW : our core Permaculture meetup group

TOUR of SkyMountain: Getting from Vision to Reality (1/2 hr.)

LEARN: (see class descriptions and presenters' bio at end of this posting)

Introduction to Permaculture Design (Taif). Hands-on workshop. Try your hand at sketching your design afterwards for a project presented. Working with Urbanite: How to Turn Recycled Concrete Into Beautiful Garden Architecture (Alden). This will be a hands on workshop held outside, where we will learn how to build urbanite terraces. How to make Healthy Delicious Raw Vegan Desserts (Ann) location kitchen. Placemaking: City Repair/Village Building Convergence and Village Building Design Course and Discussion (Raffi) Greywater Harvesting (Britt) Solar Cooking workshop (Sheri): please RSVP to Sherry so that she’ll know how many people to buy materials for. You will leave the workshop with your own solar cooker. Material costs are estimated at about $ 5-10. E-Recycling (Louise). How to increase your own ability to recycle almost anything! The Biodynamic Cosmos (Dr. Tazo) . TRADE: your organic produce, jams, seeds, cuttings, recipes, clothes, books, anything you want, for free!

MEET: various "green" meetup groups will be invited. Great opportunity to know each other and mingle. The more the greener :-)

POTLUCK: Delicious vegetarian/vegan/organic potluck. Go ahead and show us your culinary creative talents and please bring your favorite dish to share.

WHERE: Sky Mountain Institute has generously offered to host this meetup. The Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustainability, with a water harvesting demonstration site and several permaculture projects on its 7 fabulous acres.

http://www.skymountain.org (http://www.skymountain.org/) (http://www.skymountain.org/)

SCHEDULE

(Concurrent workshops)

9:00 am Set-Up Crew Magic- Please come early if you want to help set up and start the excitement, and sign up under "Discussions" on top right of screen.

10 - 10:15 Opening Ritual. Introductions- Strategize Future Permaculture Meetups/Projects

10:15 -10:45 Tour of Land- Permaculture in Action

11:00 - 11:45

A. Introduction to Permaculture Design

B. How to Make Raw Vegan Desserts

C. Solar Cooking ($5-10 materials fee, take home your own cooker, please sign up days in advance with Sherry or posting here so that instructor knows how muck material to buy)

11:45 - 12:30

A. Introduction to Permaculture Design-Practice

B. E-Cycling

C. Solar Cooking

12:30 - 1:30 Potluck and Trade (Please bring food and items to trade)

1:30 - 3:00

A. City Repair

B. Working with Urbanite

3:00 - 4:00

A. The Biodynamic Cosmos

B. Greywater and Rainwater Harvesting

4:00 - 4:15

Closing Ritual. Passing the Baton.

4:15 PM Cleaning Crew Magic. Please sign up under "Discussion" on top right of screen or at the event.

PRESENTERS' BIOS AND CLASSES INFORMATION:

Intro to Permaculture Design:

Participants will be introduced to basic principles and ethics that are the foundation of Permaculture, and then will learn how to perform a site analysis, observe the patterns and flows of a site, analyze zones and sectors, and sketch a permaculture design. After the intro, participants will have an opportunity to perform a site analysis and sketch a design on a site that is under development across Escondido Creek from Sky Mountain Institute. Time permitting, we may also use an A-Frame to line out a swale and dig a small pond.

Instructor: Taif Dhia Bio

Taif grew up on a small organic orchard in Bonsall, where he developed a strong feeling of kinship with Nature and the web of life that sustains us all. After reading "One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka, he became convinced that many of the energy intensive inputs that even organic agriculture are dependent on are unnecessary, and then discovered that there was a global movement based on this realization called Permaculture. He now works full time consulting and implementing Permaculture systems.

Qualifications: Permaculture Design Course, Advanced Permaculture Design from Regenerative Design Institute. Landscape Design from Mira Costa College, 6 years experience as an organic farm manager.

Working with Urbanite: How to Turn Recycled Concrete Into Beautiful Garden Architecture

This will be a hands on workshop held outside, where we will learn how to build urbanite terraces. I will teach all the tricks and techniques I have learned over the years on how to make beautiful and durable urbanite architecture.

Instructor: Alden Hough

Alden is garden manager and instructor at Sky Mountain Institute; a non-profit organization in Escondido which offers free monthly workshops teaching people how to live more sustainably. Alden spent 6 years working and traveling in Asia. That experiences led him to want to live a simple life and treat the earth as if it really mattered. Alden is a graduate of the internationally renowned Center for Agro-ecology and Sustainable Food Systems program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is committed to organic gardening practices, regenerating the soil and social justice. Programs take place at their seven acre family homestead and focus on hands-on training and demonstrations covering such areas as soil regeneration, water harvesting, sustainable living, permaculture practices, helping others to develop organic gardens and localize food sources, and backyard food networking and information sharing.

The Biodynamic Cosmos

Biodynamic gardening takes organic gardening to a new level, creatively incorporating the dynamic forces and energies of nature. This holistic approach recognizes that the earth is a self-regulating, multi-dimensional ecosystem, and seek to reproduce this on the land and in the community.

Instructor: Dr. Tazo

Author of The Secret Teachings of the Lost Land of Eden, Rosicrucian Mysteries Revealed, and The Secret Teachings of Eden:Christian Mysteries Revealed. Head of the Rosenkreutz Institute, an on-line School of Spiritual Science,and Rosicrucian Christology and studies of the Holy Grail. Dr.Tazo is Head Pastor for the Church of the Holy Rose Cross and lecturer on Biodynamics of the Cosmos, and Spiritual Science, also a musician, song writer, poet, and story teller along with numerous audio and video publications.

Solar Cooking

Any age welcome. There will be a short question and answer session on solar cooking. Materials will be distributed with directions. I will show each step as the class follows along. Lines are drawn then cut or folded as needed. Foil will be glued to appropriate pieces.When everyone is finished I will demonstrate how to focus for maximum cooking heat. During class there will be food cooking in the solar cookers outside. You will leave with your own fully functioning solar cooker.

Instructor: Sharon Clausson
Sharon has been making solar cookers for many years. She took metal shop to make her first Solar Cooker. She has made 25 different solar cookers from plans in books and on the internet. She cooked in each of them and took notes. Sharon has been a member of a local solar cooking club for 2 years and done demos of her cookers at the meetups. She and her husband were California Licensed Landscape Contractors for years. During all this time Sharon has been designing and and making adorable wooden toys which have been sold at Harvest Festivals.
She designed the low cost ($5-$10) solar cooker being made at this workshop. It cooks as well as commercial solar cookers costing $200 to $275 and withstands gusty wind better. When done it fits in a standard grocery bag and weighs about 8 oz. Sharon regularly cooks 3 frozen chicken breasts in 2 to 2 1/2 hours. All that is needed to cook with this solar cooker is a dark pan and a tight fitting glass lid or dark metal cover.

Rainwater and Graywater Harvesting

Water is a precious commodity in the Southwest. We must learn to use it frugally and maximize the effectiveness of the amount we do have. Our homes are built to drain water away from the property, sending it out to the ocean. Not only does this take precious nutrients and toxic chemicals out to the ocean, it is a waste of water that can hydrate our gardens and recharge the aquifer. Rainwater is a free resource and excellent for the garden. The washing machine, shower, and sinks send hundreds of gallons per household of useable water to secondary treatment and to the ocean. Those hundreds of gallons are better used in the garden. Learn how to capture rainwater economically and how to use graywater in your garden.

Instructor: Britt Cool

Britt is in the business of rainwater and graywater harvesting, the owner of San Diego Water Recycling(.com). She is a Master Gardener and Master Composter, a Certified Water Use Efficiency Practitioner, and has a Permaculture Design Certificate. Britt began her business by setting up a rainwater harvesting system and recognizing the value of using rainwater in the garden. She carries the products to set up a low cost rainwater and graywater system in your home. She has been an organic gardener for 35 years, is a beekeeper (her honey is wonderful, contact her if you want to obtain some), teaches vermicomposting workshops at the South Bay Botanic Garden at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, and is an Organic Garden Coach, helping residents get rid of that lawn and put in a food producing landscape.

How to Make Healthy Delicious Raw Vegan Desserts

Raw desserts are easy to make, taste great and are actually good for you. In this class Ann will demonstrate how to make a raw vegan Peaches and Cream Cheese Cake and discuss healthy ingredients that can be used to make other desserts.

Instructor: Ann Hough

Ann started to eat a high raw food diet for health reasons four years ago when doctors told her there was nothing they could do for her serious health conditions. What started out as a way to improve her health has become a much loved way of life. She trained as a gourmet raw food chef so she could enjoy the best raw food diet possible and loves mucking around in the kitchen and sharing her recipes with friends.

Introduction to Placemaking

Place matters. This workshop will be a group exploration of placemaking, an essential practice for building resilient communities. The interactive presentation will focus on the work of the Portland, Oregon organization, City Repair. We will watch a video about placemaking, discussion of those videos, a brief presentation on placemaking principles, the work of City Repair, and a facilitated, highly participatory conversation on how conscious placemaking can grow in San Diego. The intent will be to also explore how we can take practical steps towards placemaking here in San Diego.

You are invited to read this article beforehand:

http://cityrepair.org/how-to/placemaking

Instructor: Raffi

Raffi is an international facilitator and trainer. He was based in Russia from 1997 until 2006 (Moscow and Nazran, Ingushetia) working with NGO’s in conflict resolution, peacemaking, and refugee issues, and also with business and government. Also, he has facilitation experience in Tajikistan, Georgia, various parts of the North Caucasus, Canada, Finland, and the United States. He works with holistic facilitation approaches for sustainable and transformational community development and organizational health around the world. Also, he is editor of the collaboratively written e-book, Living Peace: the open space of our lives (http://www.archive.org/download/LivingPeaceTheOpenSpaceOfOurLives/living_peace.pdf) (an initial consideration of the personal practice of Open Space). Having lived half his life abroad (Russia and Iran) and having been an eyewitness to two major revolutions (the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the collapse of the USSR), he brings a cross-cultural perspective mixed with a visceral understanding of social collapse. Raffi speaks Russian, Farsi, and French. Current interests include herbalism and placemaking. E-Recycling: How to increase your own ability to recycle almost anything !

E-waste is a popular, informal name for electronic products nearing the end of their "useful life." Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are common electronic products. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled. Unfortunately, electronic discards are one of the fastest growing segments of our nation's waste stream. My talk will cover not only E-Waste, but what companies are Green, or are striving to go green (cell phone companies, etc). Electronics are here forever, learn how to embrace and work towards not only recycling, (that is only 1 part of a green world) but reusing and supporting Green companies. Encouraging and purchasing from companies that follow BAN (Basel Action Network); and E Stewards will be explained.

Instructor: Louise Batchelor Louise Batchelor has followed a green path most of her adult life. Living on 2 acres, growing organic food, canning and recycling, she realized that living the "simple life" is only one part of existence. Giving back and making the world a better place is her responsibility for her children and grandchildren. Divorcing yourself from technology will not solve, better or fix what's wrong. Learning, educating and finding alternatives to work alongside large companies, will ultimately make the world a greener place. E-Waste and how to dispose and/or use greener and safer materials is her passion for tomorrow.