Apr 16: Sustainability Salon on Food


For our 51st Sustainability SalonApril showers will bring our annual springtime focus on Food (more below). 

Also, longtime salongoers will recall our January 2014 feature Bidder 70, and its subject Tim DeChristopher -- he'll be here along with Josh Fox for a free screening of Josh's new film How to Let Go of the World (and Love all the Things Climate Can't Change) on Wednesday, April 13th (7 p.m. at the Carnegie Lecture Hall;  more info and online registration here).

The speaker lineup for Saturday's salon has filled out nicely:   Jessy Swisher, Three Rivers Hub Program Coordinator of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, will discuss PASA's programs, the role of the regional offices, and the shift to a Sustainability Hub model, and the new SOIL Institute Pittsburgh's Open Space Specialist Shelly Danko+Day will update us on the city's new Urban Agriculture zoning code and other food initiatives like the Adopt-A-Lot program.  Executive Director Ken Regal of Just Harvest will talk about their important word addressing hunger, poverty, and economic injustice in our region.  And AJ Bisesi, Grow Pittsburgh's Community Garden Coordinator, will give a glimpse into GP's programs and some upcoming opportunities (for garden support and for employment).  We'll also have a couple of activities along with the salon:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History educator Lindsey Scherloum will be here with an interactive activity relating food to climate, developed by the Pittsburgh node of the Climate & Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP, which we featured in the December 2013 salon on Community Mapping), and Greg Schaffer, a Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer, will have info and signups for democratic Get Out The Vote efforts as the April 26th primary approaches. 

I'm still working on finalizing the speakers for the next salon, but it will take place on May 21st.  Stay tuned for more details! 

Salons run 3-10 p.m. at Maren's house in Squirrel Hill.  Please don't arrive before 3 p.m.  We usually aim to start the program sometime around 4, 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 to be added!).  Please RSVP each time -- it helps greatly in several ways.  Among other things, attendance varies widely, and these events have been so successful that we need to begin limiting attendance.  So RSVP early if you can, to ensure your participation!  The free virtual "tickets" on Eventbrite may run out (you don't need to print any tickets, by the way, just be on the list).  Also, weather and such can be unpredictable and it's good to know who to contact if there's a change -- and I'll send directions and/or a trail map if you need 'em on Friday or Saturday.  Be sure to include salon in the Subject line, as I receive a ridiculous amount of email every day.  And if you're new, please let me know how you heard about the Salons!
Bring food and/or drink to share if you can, 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;  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 topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening.

Past topics have included getting money out of politicsSolarize Alleghenyclimate (again, this time focusing on the upcoming COP21 negotiations), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalizationsolar powerclimate changeenvironmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projectsenvironmental journalismgrassroots actioncommunity solar powerMarcellus shale development and community rightsgreen buildingair qualityhealth care, more solar powertrees and park stewardshipalternative energy and climate policyregional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with Rachel Carson and the Power Of One VoiceTriple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous GameA Fierce Green FireSustainability Pioneersfilms on consumptionLiving DownstreamBidder 70YERTGas Rush Stories, and foodfoodfoodfoodfoodfood, 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 of any kind:  wine, beer, 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 homegrown or boughten.  Dishes containing meat or dairy are fine, though if it isn't really obvious please make a note of it.  


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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