Local food resources
The Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salons have continued each month. The second Sustainability Salon (as well as the 14th, 15th, 26th, 27th, 38th, 39th, 51st, and 52nd) focused on food -- growing it, sourcing it locally, and eating more humanely. Afterwards, Maren put together a list of many such local sources: CSA farms, farmers' markets, grassfed and humanely raised meats and dairy, natural foods suppliers, bakeries, and advocacy organizations. This list now resides on a growing Resources section of the Putting Down Roots Blogger site.
Sep 22: Electronics recycling event
-Desktop, laptops, tablets, servers, hard drives (optional on-site hard drive shredding will be offered for $10 per hard drive)
-Cell phones, Ipods, MP3 players, etc.
-Computer peripherals include keyboards, mice, printers (
-Phones, phone systems
-AC adapter & wiring
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR A FEE (sign up in advance via Eventbrite):
-32in and smaller TVs and monitors ($35/unit - pre registration is required)*
-32in and larger TVs and monitors ($50/unit - pre registration is required)*
-Audio/video equipment ($10/unit)
-Radio, receivers, amplifiers, tuners, equalizers, tape decks ($10/unit)
-VCR, DVD & Blue Ray Players ($10/unit)
-Consumer/household goods ($10/unit)
-Wooden speakers ($20/speaker)
-Small Freon containing appliances including window air conditioners and dehumidifiers ($20/unit)
*Coupon of equal or greater value provided
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED:
-Universal Waste
-Alkaline batteries
-Light bulbs
-Large Freon containing appliances
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Calvary Episcopal Church (315 Shady Avenue, 15206). More information on Facebook and Eventbrite. A portion of proceeds will benefit Shadyside Calvary Episcopal Church.
Sep 18: Economic Impacts of the Ethane Cracker
Symposium on the Potential Regional Economic Impacts of the Ethane Cracker Plant
W&J Economics professors Robert Dunn, Ph.D., and Leslie Dunn, Ph.D., recently completed a study to examine possible effects of the ethane cracker plant on the region's economy.
We invite policymakers, public officials, business owners, and residents from across the region to learn more the impacts, the study, and the methodology and take part in a lively discussion about the project.
Presented by the Center for Energy Policy and Management and Local Government Academy, this event will showcase the work of Robert Dunn, Ph.D. and Leslie Dunn, Ph.D., along with that of other speakers and researchers. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the speakers.
Additional Speakers:
Rebecca Matsco, Chairwoman, Potters Township & Sabina Deitrick, Pitt Researcher
John Goberish, Dean of Workforce Development & Continuing Education at Beaver County Community College
Lance Grable, Executive Director of Beaver County Redevelopment Authority
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Washington & Jefferson College Ballroom (60 S. Lincoln St., Washington, Pennsylvania 15301). The Symposium is free to attend, but you must register here.
W&J Economics professors Robert Dunn, Ph.D., and Leslie Dunn, Ph.D., recently completed a study to examine possible effects of the ethane cracker plant on the region's economy.
We invite policymakers, public officials, business owners, and residents from across the region to learn more the impacts, the study, and the methodology and take part in a lively discussion about the project.
Presented by the Center for Energy Policy and Management and Local Government Academy, this event will showcase the work of Robert Dunn, Ph.D. and Leslie Dunn, Ph.D., along with that of other speakers and researchers. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the speakers.
Additional Speakers:
Rebecca Matsco, Chairwoman, Potters Township & Sabina Deitrick, Pitt Researcher
John Goberish, Dean of Workforce Development & Continuing Education at Beaver County Community College
Lance Grable, Executive Director of Beaver County Redevelopment Authority
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Washington & Jefferson College Ballroom (60 S. Lincoln St., Washington, Pennsylvania 15301). The Symposium is free to attend, but you must register here.
Sep 8: Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour
The Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour highlights the agricultural production capacity in urbanized areas of Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods. This self-guided tour provides a unique opportunity to connect with local food and farmers on commercial farms, community gardens, and apiaries throughout Pittsburgh. Featured neighborhoods include the East End, Garfield, South Side, and North Shore. Choose your own course and bike or drive to each destination.
Organized by the East End Food Co-op (EEFC), Pittsburgh Food Policy Council (PFPC), and Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), the tour’s purpose is to promote urban agriculture as a viable means for food production, build connections between consumers and farmers, and support the future of farming.
Urban farms have a significant impact on the food system, local economy, and urban environment. To ensure the farmers who manage these plots have access to resources and capital they need to be successful, proceeds from the Farm Tour will provide an honorarium for each participating farm and fund a new Urban Growers Scholarship.
Join us to see these once vacant lots now revived into beautiful, productive spaces!
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (or any subset of that, at your own pace). Select locations will have refreshments, items for sale, and offer demonstrations. Admission is $15/person; kids 12 and under are free. Purchase tickets here Event is rain or shine. Sponsored by Trellis Legal, Sustainable Pittsburgh, Construction Junction, Four Seasons Produce, and Healthy Ride Pittsburgh.
Participating Farms:
African Healing Garden
Ballfield Farm
Bandi Schaum
Black Urban Gardeners & Farmers Co-op
Braddock Farms
Burgh Bees Apiary
Centervue Gardens
Drew Mathieson Center
Garden Dreams Urban Farm & Nursery
Garfield Community Farm
Hilltop Urban Farm
Mt. Oliver Community Garden
Shiloh Farm
Steel City Soils
Aug 18: Free soil lead screening
Come join the Allegheny County Conservation District and Grow Pittsburgh at the Garden Resource Center, bring us a dry soil sample in a small ziploc bag, and have your soil screened for lead instantly! Understanding the presence of lead is essential for safe gardening and children's play areas.
ACCD staff will give you the results and explain what they mean, as well as what you can do to lower risk.
11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Grow Pittsburgh's Garden Resource Center (147 Putnam St. 15206). For more information, visit the ACCD's facebook page or contact Jonathan at jburgess@accdpa.org or 412-291-8017.
ACCD staff will give you the results and explain what they mean, as well as what you can do to lower risk.
11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Grow Pittsburgh's Garden Resource Center (147 Putnam St. 15206). For more information, visit the ACCD's facebook page or contact Jonathan at jburgess@accdpa.org or 412-291-8017.
Aug 11: 79th Sustainability Salon
The 79th Sustainability Salon will take place on August 11th. In a departure from our usual format of talks and discussion focused on a single topic, this month we'll have more informal, free-flowing conversation. It's the annual No-Topic Salon, where I don't have to interrupt the conversations for the presentations! Overall event timing remains the same, but I won't rearrange the furniture as for a regular salon. And if the Right Folks turn up (you know who you are!), we'll have a bit more time for music after the potluck supper.
Salons run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill. Please don't arrive before 3 p.m. We usually start the program not long after 4pm, after folks have had a chance to meet, mingle, and tour around an interesting and productive urban permaculture site -- but this time there is no program, so come hang out! Please email me (at maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to RSVP (yes or maybe), or click on the link in your EventBrite invitation (if you're not already on my list, please email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).
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Bring food and/or drink to share if you can (see below), along with musical instruments if you play. Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events) for updates. And if you aren't yet on my list, if you're interested in Sustainability Salons (and our occasional house concert, simply contact me and I'll put you on my email list.
As always, I'll be sending out directions and such, and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before. So if you don't have it yet, please be patient! One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's. (All the extraneous requests for the address don't help; I have lots of other stuff I send out with it, but don't like to let them go unanswered so it adds hours to my prep time. If you RSVP properly (see above), you should get the info by the morning of the salon!)
For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum, it's a mini-conference, it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues, it's a house party with an environmental theme. We usually have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening.
Past topics have included greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme; with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).
Quite a few people have asked me what sorts of food to bring -- and my answer, as always, is whatever inspires you; I believe in the "luck" part of potlucks. Tasty noshings for the afternoon, hearty main dishes or scrumptious salads and sides for dinner, baked goods from biscuits and breads to brownies or baklava -- and/or beverages: wine, hard or sweet cider (the latter we can mull if you like), juice, tea, whatever. The more the merrier! Local fare is always particularly welcome, whether homemade or boughten. Dishes containing meat or dairy are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it. We refill a bunch of growlers at East End and provide a big batch of mostly-homegrown pesto (cheesy and vegan), and other things as needed. More details will come after you RSVP (hint, hint!).
If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all. Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations will continue through the evening, as well.
Aug 11: Rethinking Plastic forum
Keynote Speaker:
Patricia DeMarco, local environmental scientist & author of
Pathways to Our Sustainable Future: A Global Perspective from Pittsburgh
Panel Discussion led by filmmaker Mark Dixon with
Myrna Newman , director of Allegheny Cleanways, on Waste Management & Recycling
Doug Shields, Food & Water Watch, on the local connection: Fracking/Cracking & Plastics
Dianne Peterson, activist & owner of Our Children Our Earth on Sustainable Alternatives
11-2 p.m. at the Wilkins School Community Center (7604 Charleston Ave. 15218 (in Regent Square). Free and open to the public, but please register by email to LivablePittsburgh.RePlastics@gmail.com Light lunch included.
A selection of Eco- friendly products from Our Children Our Earth will be available for purchase.
Remember to RSVP at LivablePittsburgh.RePlastics@gmail.com and you can also touch base on Facebook.
Jul 28: Ohio River Valley Bus Tour
Join Climate Reality Pittsburgh and SWPA leaders for a tour of some inspiring renewable energy projects in Beaver County, also ground zero for the gas industry petrochemical hub expansion that proposes to make our region a major source of global warming emissions and a hub for the manufacturing of plastic products.
11 a.m. to 6 p.m., departing from the Environmental Innovation Center (1435 Bedford Ave. in the Hill District). Note that the EIC no longer provides parking for visitors, but there is plenty of on-street parking in the neighborhood. Registration: $25 -- please register early, as we need enough people in order to make the bus arrangements! For more information and to sign up, click here.
Jul 26: Green Drinks Pittsburgh
... is back!
Are you green? Come out to East End Brewery to grab a drink and a chat with other environmentally-focused professionals, volunteers, and enthusiasts. A casual forum for the eco-minded of Pittsburgh to meet and mingle. Occurs monthly on the fourth Thursday of the month - join us!
5:30-7:30 at East End Brewing Company (147 Julius St. 15206). Organized by the Pittsburgh chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby.
Are you green? Come out to East End Brewery to grab a drink and a chat with other environmentally-focused professionals, volunteers, and enthusiasts. A casual forum for the eco-minded of Pittsburgh to meet and mingle. Occurs monthly on the fourth Thursday of the month - join us!
5:30-7:30 at East End Brewing Company (147 Julius St. 15206). Organized by the Pittsburgh chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby.
Jul 22: Permaculture and justice in Guatemala
Indigenous Education in Guatemala:
Ending a Legacy of Genocide
Join us for a teach-in and conversation about a great new education/school project
Join us for a teach-in and conversation about a great new education/school project
Survivors of Guatemala ́s genocide are creating a new kind of education for their children.
The residents of one rural Maya village, Copal AA la Esperanza, have founded a
community-run middle school that focuses on indigenous culture, human rights, and
sustainable forestry. Students and teachers from the school have also been active in
opposing hydro-electric dams and petroleum extraction in their region.
Join us for a speaking event with indigenous leader Magdalena Garcia Domingo to learn how you can support their efforts.
As a child, Ms. Garcia was forced to flee her home during the Guatemalan military's campaign of genocide against the Maya people. Growing up in refugee camps, she quickly became a leader in the organization, Mama Maquin, which fought for women's participation in the refugee return to Guatemala in 1993. After the return, she was elected to the Parent's Committee of the New Dawn Maya Middle School to provide indigenous-centered education for youth in her community.
Join us for a speaking event with indigenous leader Magdalena Garcia Domingo to learn how you can support their efforts.
As a child, Ms. Garcia was forced to flee her home during the Guatemalan military's campaign of genocide against the Maya people. Growing up in refugee camps, she quickly became a leader in the organization, Mama Maquin, which fought for women's participation in the refugee return to Guatemala in 1993. After the return, she was elected to the Parent's Committee of the New Dawn Maya Middle School to provide indigenous-centered education for youth in her community.
1 p.m. at 827 North Sheridan Avenue, 15206. Note: This is a fundraising event for the school.
For more info and to RSVP, contact
mb.steisslinger@gmail.com / 412-916-8716
or
copalaa2003@yahoo.com / 614-572-6344
July 21: Sustainability Salon on Greening Business
It's hard to imagine a less sustainable business than the petrochemical plastics industry looming over our region. It will greatly increase the amount of fracking (and global fossil energy consumption) for its ethane feedstock, negate regional progress on both air quality and climate, require dangerous pipelines, and produce more plastics in an already-inundated world. However, there are plenty of spots of (green) light in the Ohio River Valley, and next weekend you're invited to join a bus tour organized by the Climate Reality Leadership Corps showing both sides of the economic and environmental coin. It will feature Mario Leone, Monaca's Borough Manager (familiar to longtime salongoers), a net-zero home, past and future sites of heavily polluting industries on Neville Island and in Potter Twp., and a beautiful reservoir threatened by the pipeline for the cracker plant. That's next Saturday, and we'll have some more info and Q&A at the 78th salon. This Saturday, right before said salon, I encourage folks to attend the youth-led climate march and rally downtown: This Is Zero Hour. We'll be having a salon on youth activism soon -- keep an eye on MarensList!
Salons run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill. Please don't arrive before 3 p.m. We will start the program not long after 4pm, after folks have had a chance to meet, mingle, and tour around an interesting and productive urban permaculture site. Please email me (at maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to RSVP (yes or maybe), or click on the link in your EventBrite invitation (if you're not already on my list, please email me with salon in the subject line to be added!).
|
Bring food and/or drink to share if you can (see below), along with musical instruments if you play. Check back on MarensList (where you can find information on all sorts of environmental and social justice events) for updates. And if you aren't yet on my list, if you're interested in Sustainability Salons (and our occasional house concert, simply contact me and I'll put you on my email list.
As always, I'll be sending out directions and such, and any late-breaking info, to all the RSVP'd folks by the morning of the salon if not before. So if you don't have it yet, please be patient! One of these days I'll streamline this process a bit, but for now it takes a while to to dot all my i's and cross all my t's. (All the extraneous requests for the address don't help; I have lots of other stuff I send out with it, but don't like to let them go unanswered so it adds hours to my prep time. If you RSVP properly (see above), you should get the info by the morning of the salon!)
For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum, it's a mini-conference, it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues, it's a house party with an environmental theme. We usually have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening.
Past topics have included greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme; with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).
Quite a few people have asked me what sorts of food to bring -- and my answer, as always, is whatever inspires you; I believe in the "luck" part of potlucks. Tasty noshings for the afternoon, hearty main dishes or scrumptious salads and sides for dinner, baked goods from biscuits and breads to brownies or baklava -- and/or beverages: wine, hard or sweet cider (the latter we can mull if you like), juice, tea, whatever. The more the merrier! Local fare is always particularly welcome, whether homemade or boughten. Dishes containing meat or dairy are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it. We refill a bunch of growlers at East End and provide a big batch of mostly-homegrown pesto (cheesy and vegan), and other things as needed. More details will come after you RSVP (hint, hint!).
If you haven't been here before, you may enjoy checking out our roof garden and solar installation (and now apiary!) as well as the many other green and interesting things around our place.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, don't forget the evening sing -- we typically run the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time is had by all. Bring instruments if you play, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations will continue through the evening, as well.
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