Sustainable Crown Hill 4th Annual Green Halloween Dance Party

On October 30, kids and adults enjoyed an evening of dining, dancing, and hunting for inedible treasure to celebrate Halloween at the Crown Hill Activity Center.  The wet, miserable weather pushed the fun indoors but didn’t dampen spirits.  The lively music from Glenn Dudley, Jerry Berger, and Suzanne Giardot coupled with calling from Sherry Nevins got everyone off their feet moving in space.  Thanks to several rock club members from the North Seattle Lapidary and Mineral Club the lucky party goers scoured the darkened halls for 12 rock specimens (petrified wood limbs, chunks of obsidian from Oregon, nephrite, grossular, jaspagate chunks, polished beach agates from Whidbey Island, olivine samples from the Nooksack River, amethyst, quartz crystals, and calcite beauties, thundereggs and pumice).

Maybe we’ll see YOU next year!

Hallowe’en Hoedown 2010

Sustainable Crown Hill and the North Seattle Lapidary and Mineral Club have teamed up with local musicians and caller Sherry Nevins to create an all ages costume dance followed by a flashlight treasure hunt for rocks (obsidian, petrified wood, geodes…)

Don’t forget your flashlight, costume, and dancing shoes!

April 17 – Carkeek Park storm drain painting – How did it go???

April 24 – Help Green CH:  Meet in the Petco Parking lot at 9:00 AM.  Trash detail, graffiti painting, exercise.

April 28 – Crown Hill Park Meeting from 6:30 to 8:00 PM at Crown Hill Center.  Update the park plan – the fire station will be moving out soon – let’s make a great park.  FINALLY!!

May 15 – Crown Hill Neighbors Annual Meeting.  Elections. Jim Diers, special guest.

Crown Hill Neighbors received a grant from Department of Neighbors to work on the Tree survey project!!  An arborist from the UW will help to create a map and interesting walk.

Next Meeting: May 9 (Mother’s Day) from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.  Potluck meal from 5:00 to 5:30 PM.  Break-out sessions from 5:30 to 7:00 PM – baking bread and drop spindle spinning.

New Business
1. Seattle Urban Farm Co-op – Group. A new group starting up in Seattle. From the Yahoo group:
“The Seattle Urban Farm Co-op is a community-based project to start a co-op to purchase supplies for urban farmers in the Seattle area.
Our focus will be on obtaining supplies such as animal feed, fertilizers, mulch, seeds, etc., from local & organic sources.  More information
Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seattleurbanfarmcoop/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50710252506&_fb_noscript=1
Future website: http://surfcoop.com/
2. Possible Sustainable CH ‘field trip’ to Raintree Nursery.  It is located in Morton, WA. 2 hours S of Seattle.
No date yet.
3. Chickens – Members have had good luck with Road Island Reds and/or Whites.

Old Business
1. Pruning for fruit trees that will later be gleaned.  So none have been identified for sure. Contact Lanae or Bert H.
2. Permaculture – neighborhood designs – beyond individual backyards.  East of 12th will be working with Bert, others welcome to join. No
date yet.
3. Green Acre Radio.  Five minute segment that airs several times a week on KBCS.  Martha Baskin does a great job.  There are now
podcasts availables too.  A recent show featured the “Farm Boys” – previous neighbors of Carol B.  More information on her blog:
http://greenacreradio.blogspot.com/
4. Seed sharing and group purchasing:
Next meeting bring seeds to share and a list of seeds you want to buy.  Swap seeds and combine orders to save $ and shipping costs
Next  Meeting Sunday February 14th.
5-7 PM Potluck 5:00 – 5:30.
Room 4 Crown Hill Center.
Danielle will facilitate the meeting.

COOL (the Coalition of Organic Landscape Professionals http://www.organiclandscapers.org/index.html) and Seattle Tilth (http://www.seattletilth.org/) are presenting the compelling documentary “A Chemical Reaction” as part of an afternoon event at Lake Washington Technical College in Kirkland on Saturday, February 20th, from 2-6pm. The event will also feature keynote speaker Paul Tukey, the nationally-known gardening host who is the executive producer and narrator of the film. Tukey is also the founder of the regional gardening magazine “People, Places & Plants”, author of best-seller The Organic Lawn Care Manual, and founder of SafeLawns.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting natural lawn care and grounds maintenance. The event will feature displays and resources from The Garden Hotline and several other environmental organizations, books for sale, refreshments, and a question-and-answer session and book-signing with Paul Tukey after the movie screening. Proceeds from this event will be contributed to http://safelawns.org/

The movie addresses the human health hazards of pesticides, and one community’s efforts to ban the use of lawn care chemicals. It tells the story of a doctor whose activism prompted her town in Canada to be the first to ban lawn and garden chemicals in 1991. Since then the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and hundreds of other Canadian municipalities have also passed similar legislation.

For the past several years, Tukey has traveled across the United States and Canada in a relentless quest to tell the Hudson story and urge municipalities to follow suit. “Canadian doctors and the Canadian courts have looked at the toxicity associated with chemical lawn care and have banned these products in much of that nation,” said Tukey, a Maine native who went on to become America’s Horticultural Communicator of the Year in 2006. “Our hope is that people watch the movie and say, ‘Canada has banned these products, why do we still use them in the United States?’” As you well know, this issue is particularly relevant in the Puget Sound region, where chemical fertilizers and pesticides run off into our lakes, rivers, streams, and the sound during each rainfall.

To view a movie trailer, visit www.ChemicalReactionMovie.com

EVENT DETAILS:

Saturday Feb. 20, 2010, from 2:00pm- 6:00pm
Movie screening; reception with film producer; books for sale; free educational resources; door prizes; refreshments
At Lake Washington Technical College
West Building Auditorium, Rm. #404
11605 132nd Avenue NE
Kirkland, WA 98034-8506

Tickets:
$10.00 in advance from www.BrownPaperTickets.com or $15.00 at the door.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to SafeLawns.org
Free parking in the south or west parking lots (follow the sandwich board signs)
Campus map and driving directions: www.lwtc.edu/about/maps/campus

Stone-Buhr / Shepherd's Grain Flour

I often attempt to buy at least some of my food from trace-able sources, and this is often not easy to accomplish. Mega-stores like Whole Foods are probably no better, and it could be argued are actually complicit in the attempts to reduce traceability and consumer knowledge of food sources and composition. Many so called organic products are actually distributed and packaged by some of the largest agricultural entities in the world. Just look at the organic spinach fiasco from 2 years ago propagated by some of the biggest food companies. All you have to do is look at who owns who and you realize that real spinach grew in the ground and needs to have the dirt and sand washed off in a sink.  It doesn’t come pre-washed, in little plastic bags pumped full of just the right amount of inert nitrogen and product, then shipped from the Salinas Valley in California to Washington state via Texas. Similarly the peanut butter fiasco of a couple of years ago doesn’t lend any feeling of a safe or trace-able food chain … even companies like locally owned Cougar Mountain cookies were misinformed about the provenance of the peanut butter they were purchasing.

A few years ago, I tried to alter at least some of my buying habits to enhance my knowledge of the products I was purchasing, and the companies that made them, and the chain down to the farmer level. As at least some of you know, I make bread, and lots of it. A natural place to start, no?

50 pound sack of unbleached or bread flour from Costco … good price, wow that stuff is cheap … bakes up pretty good too … but ConAgra foods … located pretty close by in Kirkland … “one of North America’s largest packaged foods companies … spent heavily to defeat Oregon’s measure 27, which would have required food companies to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConAgra_Foods) … need to look elsewhere. The bulk bins offered no comfort, just exorbitant prices and no labeling I could take home and investigate … no lot codes or expiration dates. This is going to be tougher than I thought.

Wheat Montana Flour

Five or six years ago, as I was perusing the bulk department at Central Market in Shoreline (http://central-market.com/), out of the corner of my eye, I spotted clear 10 pound plastic bags of flour from Wheat Montana (http://wheatmontana.com). I checked ‘em out … family farm (Folkvord), operate their own mill … 12000 acres … Montana … sustainable farming practices. It’s very nice flour (Natural White, Prarie Gold, Bronze Chief). The Natural White, an unbleached flour has more gluten than a lot of “bread” flours, and the baked goods are great. The mill uses an impact milling process, so the flour only gets to about 95 F during milling. The ingredients list is really short and sweet. Great example of complete control of the growing, milling and distribution chain. And I can find the entire operation on the map. This one’s a keeper.

I recently learned that Stone-Buhr (http://stone-buhr.com) sources the wheat berries for its flour from sustainable, independent, small growers right here in the Northwest. Stone-Buhr’s original mill used to be in Fremont (http://stone-buhr.com/story.php). Their all purpose flour is made with wheat from Shepherd’s Grain (http://shepherdsgrain.com). Shepherd’s grain is an alliance of Northwest family farms that promotes something called “sustainable agriculture.” Stone-Buhr has a bit of a checkered past. It began in 1908 and was independently owned and operated until the early 1980′s when it was sold off. Through a series of sales, mergers, acquisitions it ultimately became a brand of Unilever. Josh Dorf and his company JOG distribution acquired it and have partially returned the brand to its roots. JOG is headquartered in San Francisco. The Washington White, Shepherd’s Grain All Purpose Flour has a date code on every bag which allows you to find the farmer (http://findthefarmer.com) who grew the wheat used to make the flour in the bag. The flour is relatively low in gluten content in comparison to Wheat Montana’s offering, so it works very well in cakes, cookies, muffins, pizza dough and other baked goods which don’t require the development of massively elastic doughs.

As a baker, I have noticed significant differences between flours, and this is exactly what you should expect when buying from smaller operations. Wheat berries grown in Montana or Washington have different characteristics than if grown in North Dakota, Nebraska or Manitoba. When buying from the the little guys, grains aren’t blended into an anonymous, untraceable mish-mash of pulverized grain speculated on by commodities traders from all over the world, then delivered to your supermarket shelf in a tidy little paper package.

In short, we have here, two great examples of traceability, and smaller operations making a difference. Both of these products cost more than the non-traceable product. In both cases, its nice to know there are companies out there, not part of the merger mania interested in delivering quality food grown by farmers and processed by real people at identifiable places.

Feb 6 Fruit Varieties for the Pacific NW . 1 – 3 pm.  UW Botanic Gardens.  $20/$15 (members). Sam Benowitz is the owner of Raintree Nursery, a nursery specializing in fruit trees and other edibles. Whether it’s plums, apples, pears, or berries, Sam knows what varieties do best in any particular situation. He will discuss the best fruits for the Northwest, why rootstocks are important, and how to determine how big a tree will grow.

Feb 20 The Art of Espalier. 1 – 4:30 pm. UW Botanic Gardens. $30/$25 (members). Dave Conners, former president of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, has been training 18 different antique apple varieties on his city-sized lot for more than a decade and has been teaching “The Art of Espalier” at the UW’s Center for Urban horticulture for many years.

Mar 6 Pruning Grape Vines 9 am – noon. Phinney Neighborhood Association and neighboring site with grape vines. $20/$15 (members). Learn to prune and train grape vines and get tips on growing grapes for best production. Larry Davis is a Master Gardener and teaches grape and other fruit production classes for the WSU-King County Master Gardener program.

Mar 20 Planting and Caring for Young Fruit Trees 10 am – noon. Orca School Environmental Learning Center. $20/$15 (members). Find out how and where to plant your new fruit tree and how to keep it healthy. John Reardon, vice president of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, teaches tree care classes for Plant Amnesty, Seattle Tree Fruit Society and City Fruit.

Fruit tree care classes are also offered by the following organizations. See the City Fruit Calendar at www.cityfruit.org, or their websites for details.

Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle

Friends of Piper’s Orchard

Seattle Tilth

Seattle Tree Fruit Society

Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Offered by City Fruit

Location: Phinney Ridge

10 am – noon

$20/$15 (City Fruit members)

Pruning your fruit tree will improve its health, productivity and appearance. This beginner’s class covers the basics, including pruning tools, reasons for pruning a fruit tree and basic techniques. Instructor Ingela Wanerstrand, Green Darner Garden Design, specializes in edible garden design and coaching and has been pruning fruit trees professionally for 14 years.

Register at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/91245 or send a check with the name and date of the class and your contact information to City Fruit, PO Box 28577, Seattle 98118. After registering, you will receive confirmation and the address of the class. If you can’t afford a class but really want to learn, email us atinfo@cityfruit.org.

We’ll make Bottle Cap Jewelry, Paper Sack Gift Tags, Stamped Cards, and Collages.

If you have any miscellaneous crafting supplies you’d like to contribute, we can use everything (stamps, stamp pads, markers, scissors, paper, magazines, glue, acrylic paint, watercolor paints, paint brushes, bottle caps, paper garbage sacks, newspaper, crayons, yarn).

Upcoming Events:

Thanksgiving Salmon Walk (3rd Annual)
Saturday 28 November 10 AM
Meet at the old oak on the Corner of 13th Ave and 95th Street NW. We will walk to Carkeek Park. Doug will provide information about restoration of the salmon habitat and Carkeek Park.

Holiday Card Making Party
In lieu of a December meeting, Danielle has proposed a holiday card making party. More information later.

Next Regular meeting

Celebration of 2009: a busy and successful year:

• Halloween Party
• Table at the November Arts Festival
• Crown Hill Center and Park Purchase
• Speed bumps on Mary and 14th Avenues
• Traffic circle at Mary and 92nd
• Fruit gleaning for food banks
• Permaculture workshops (2)
• Sheet Mulching workshop
• Native Plant Workshop
• Soap classes
• Kitchen party
• Movie nights
• Moving meetings in the CH Center
• And best of all many meetings with wonderful food and neighbors

Activities continuing into 2010 (and beyond)

Permaculture: Additional workshops to be planned for the winter. They will be in the Sunday Afternoon before the Sustainable meeting, as we did this Spring. More information will be forth coming. Actions:

• Bert to hold a couple more workshops that include background principles etc.
• Martin still planning on the solar workshop

Fruit Gleaning and Tree Pruning: There are many old fruit trees in CH where the fruit is not being used by the owners. These trees need pruning. Some Sustainable CH neighbors took a fruit tree pruning workshop a couple of years ago. The general plan is to identify potential fruit trees this fall (while they have leaves), leave a flyer at the door with information about the pruning and gleaning project. The trees can be pruned this winter and then harvest next summer and fall.

• Lanae to make a new flyer up in a PDF and distribute to the sustainable list.
• Lanae and Bert are the contacts for the project
• People available for pruning include: Dennis, Kit, Frank, Doug, Carol, Mira, Martin, Stephanie, and Eric (If I missed your name, let me know.)

Street Painting Project: The time to apply for a grant is in April 2009 for a summer project, so now is a good time to start talking with neighbors to lay the ground work. It is now possible to paint streets between intersections and not just the intersection!! One idea possible location is on 95th between 13th and 14th. The 12th Ave neighbors are interested in doing a street painting this year. More than one painting could be included in a single grant. Actions:

• Doug to take a lead to get things going for 12th Ave
• Frank to have a party to bring neighbors together for 12th Ave

Mary Dead End (north of 100th) Traffic Calming: In follow up to the Walkable Crown Hill Project, a group of Mary Avenue neighbors submitted a grant for traffic calming on Mary Ave and stairs on the 103rd right-of-way. At this time the group is working with the city on the details of the street calming. The stairs are on hold.

Community Garden: Lanae and Jason are converting some land on Journey Church property (92th and 11th) into a community garden. Volunteers welcome.

Park Planning: After the Fire Department has moved out the planning and construction of the park can take place. The fire department is scheduled to move out of their temporary quarters in August 2010. While there is the Levy money in place for building the park, proposed city cutbacks for the Parks Departments may delay the planning of the implementation. Discussed that since the initial park design sustainability is more in the forefront. Decided that proactively Sustainable CH could come up with sustainable ideas or concepts that we felt were important for including in the park. Various ideas (general and more specific) were put forward including, using recycled materials, solar and wind power for lighting, p-patch or community garden.

Mobile Pizza Oven: One neighbor is interested in building a mobile pizza oven in 2010!!

Updates, general announcements, and misc.

Rapid Ride: It is on Schedule for 2012. The proposed rapid ride line D will replace the 15 and and run North on 15th East on 100th and turn around near the QFC. More details as the come available.

Holman Median Project: People in both CHNA and Sustainable CH are working toward a plan having medians and turning lanes along 15th and Holman. This is to both make it safer for crossing the street and beautify the area.
Ryan McFarland of CHNA is leading this effort.

Power Pool and Traffic Light control boxes: Apparently Seattle city light as a process for painting the boxes that hold the controls for traffic lights. Crown Hill Business Association is looking into this as well has painting power poles along the pedestrian corridor.

Notes by Kit Galvin. Additions or corrections please email tehama@speakeasy.net