Simple Living Institute

Seeds, seeds, seeds

2012-02-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but I'm SO EXCITED for February to be upon us. Living here in Central Florida, it still amazes me how much time I can spend outside. This month symbolizes that re-connection of really being able to be in the dirt for me. Of course, it all starts with our wonderful seeds.

Did you know that Simple Living Institute hosts a Seed Exchange this month? It is part of their ongoing effort to connect people to growing with sustainable, local, non GMO varieties that truly work in our region. The August Exchange was my first experience and wow did I have a great time helping behind the scenes. This event myself and DS will be helping at one of the tables. We are looking forward to it.

Mark your calendars - you won't want to miss it!!!

Wed. Feb 15th from 6:45 - 9:00 at Leu Gardens Camille Room

Simple Living has done this event for a number of years and gotten fairly efficient. Here is a "how to" so you can get the most from the experience......

* Arrive EARLY - this is a very popular event

* Please cap yourself at 30 packets (so everyone has a turn)

* This is an exchange. Bring 10 diff types, get 10 new types

* Pre-sort seeds - if they aren't you will have to do so there

* Info on each packet should read:

1. Seed Type – For example: Green Beans- Bush, Tendergreen

2. Number of Days until Harvest – 60d/ bears 3 wks

3. Planting Guideline – Direct, transplant, 6”apart, ½” deep, Sep-Nov.

4. Seed Source – My Garden Green Beans or Parks Seed Catalog

So it might look like this on the packet:

My garden Greenbeans / Bush, Tendergreen / 60d bears 3wks / direct, transplant 6" apart, 1/2" deep from Sept-Nov

* Exchange tickets can be purchased for $0.25 (4 for $1)

* Please provide feedback. If you have gotten seeds from the exchange previously let us know how they did so we can ensure future seeds purchased for the exchange are even more successful.

* Any unredeemed tickets can be refunded at the end.

The event will have tables set up in these categories:

o Cucubits: Cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, melons, etc.

o Flowers, Fruits & Trees: Papaya, nasturium, sunflowers, eucalyptus, hibiscus, citrus

o Greens: Lettuce, brassicas, spinach, chard, collards...(turnips & beets are also roots)

o Herbs: Basil, chamomile, lemon grass, mint, and oregano, etc.

o Legumes: Beans, peas, pigeon peas, peanuts, etc.

o Roots: Beets, carrots, onions, radish, turnips, chives, etc.

o Solanaceae: Tomato, pepper, eggplants, tomatillo, etc.

o Other: corn, grains, okra, unique seeds like wild Florida cotton

So that's the exchange in a nutshell. It's so much fun and a great way to connect with like minded folks. We look forward to seeing you there!

Happy gardening.

Ann S.

New videos of Simple Living Institute

2012-01-04T23:51:00.001-05:00

Over the holiday break I had some free time to google search on the internet and I found some video footage of our Organic Growers Meeting and our newly released Local Food Guide on YouTube. I posted them on our media page on the website. Check em out at http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/media.html

Keeping GMO's off your Plate

2011-10-23T13:53:00.006-04:00

By: Dr. Samadhi Keever

To contact Samadhi visit: www.injoyhealthcare.com

Genetically Modified Organisms were first introduced into our food supply in the 1980’s. They appeared without consumers knowing what was happening…until recently. Currently there is a GMO scare circulating through the social media. GMO crops look, smell, and taste like normal food, so how can we protect ourselves?

A GMO By Many Names Is The Same:

GMOs are referred to by several acronyms and proper names: Genetically Modified Organism, GMO, Genetically Modified, GM, Transgenic, Transgene, and Bt (which is the name for a bacterium used during the genetic modification process). Plant seeds are often referred to as Bt or Round Up Ready, implying they are ‘safe’ to spray with the glyphosate herbicide called Round Up, which is manufactured by Monsanto.

There are hundreds of crops being experimented with using bacteria, viruses, antibiotics, plant, animal, and insect DNA and this is cause for alarm. Although there is much experimentation, not all of these science projects make it to the grocery shelves. Some that have made it to the shelves have been rejected. Years ago, the DNA from cold water fish was added to a tomato seed, producing a GM tomato plant that was cold-hearty. This failed in the market place because consumers didn’t like the flavor. Crossing a fish gene with a vegetable gene is suspect and the side-effects to human health are yet to be determined.

Current List of GM Foods:

The following Genetically Modified foods are being sold in our stores right now: corn, wheat, soy, canola, Hawaiian papaya, alfalfa, zucchini, and yellow crookneck squash. Buy organic! USDA Certified Organic guidelines (currently) do not allow GM foods to carry an organic label.

Sources of GM Foods in the Food Supply:

GM wheat, corn, and soy show up in most boxed or packaged ‘foods’ and this is what the scary statistics in the social media are pointing to. Wheat, corn, and soy are farmed in massive quantities. These crops are used by manufacturers to make things such as ketchup, vitamin supplements, eco-friendly, non-plastic corn utensils, veggie burgers and other vegan and vegetarian meat-substitutes, tofu, soy milk, corn syrup, energy bars, protein powders, cereals, breads, candies, snack ‘foods’, pastries, food additives, rennet, artificial sweeteners, enzymes, and the list goes on.

GM crops are used as feed for livestock and poultry, which translates into meat, eggs, and dairy containing GM constituents. Buy meat, poultry, and dairy from local farmers who you can talk with about what they are feeding their animals. Farm raised fish are also fed genetically modified grains. Get your fish labeled wild-caught and locally sourced if available.

Other sources of GM contamination are dairy products from cows injected with rbGH. This is a Genetically Modified hormone (created by Monsanto) to increase the production of milk. Organic milk does not contain rbGH.

Grass Roots…Taking Action, Get Involved!

There are many resources that we can utilize to stay aware and educated of what is actually in the food supply here in the United States. It is important to clarify ‘in the United States” because GM seeds and food are being exported to other countries.

There is now a voluntary Non-GMO seal that companies can receive to distinguish their product from GMO competitors. If you see a product labeled with a Non-GMO seal, support this company by purchasing their product. Getting this seal is a costly process that is not mandatory. Many of these companies are small, independent businesses, which have elected to put their product through this expensive, voluntary testing regime to earn this seal.

Our shopping dollars influence what is being sold in the stores. GMOs are not allowed in USDA Certified Organic Foods. Buy ORGANIC! There is a Non-GMO Shopping Guide which lists companies that guarantee there are no GM ingredients in their food. Download the Non-GMO Shopping Guide online for free (see Resources).

The Institute for Responsible Technology is working diligently with groups such as The Organic Consumers Association and The Center for Food Safety. These organizations are the leaders taking large corporations such as Monsanto to court in a monumental effort to keep GM crops from entering into our food supply. They are working to create a mandatory label on foods that have GM ingredients. Support these organizations and sign up for their email newsletters. The Organic Consumers Association fuels the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign; join this effort on their website (see Resources).

Shopping for locally produced items is beneficial for our local economy and gives us a chance to meet the folks involved in growing, raising, packaging, and selling the food we eat. Farmer’s Markets and local food stores such as the Florida Homegrown Co-op in Orlando and Essential Health in Altamonte Springs provide locally sourced foods.

Make your own grass roots movement…grow your own! GM seeds do not make it into the home garden. Having your own garden is a wonderful way to keep your green thumb on the pulse of your own food supply.

Resources:

Institute for Responsible Technology (http://www.ResponsibleTechnology.org)

Center for Food Safety (http://www.CenterForFoodSafety.org)

Non-GMO shopping guide (free download) ( http://www.NonGmoShoppingGuide.com)

Organic Consumers Association (http://www.OrganicConsumers.org)

Millions Against Monsanto Campaign (http://www.OrganicConsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm)

Uncertain Peril (book) by Claire Hope Cummings

The Future of Food (movie)

Food Inc. (movie)

Florida Homegrown Co-op (http://www.homegrowncoop.org)

Essential Health Market (http://www.hooversmarket.com)

Community Supported Agriculture

Local farms and local farmers

Farmers Markets

Your own garden

The Winter Park Urban farm experiment

2011-10-02T10:49:00.002-04:00

The Winter Park Urban Farm is an urban farming experiment in the heart of Winter Park. We will be meeting once a week throughout this Fall to work the farm and learn about urban agriculture. The mission is to take a vacant residential lot in Winter Park and convert its fallow land into a productive harvest garden.

With 11 weeks to work with we are looking to see just how much produce we can grow and bring to market at this year’s Winter Park Harvest Festival. Along the way we will beoffering volunteers and our “ag-curious” neighbors free lessons on the in’s and out’s of organic agriculture.

Join Tia Meer and John Rife for the next farm days at the Winter Park Urban Farm scheduled for Tuesday October 4th from 4-6pm and Thursday October 13th from 10am till noon . We will be planting more biointensive beds of vegetables and checking on our baby bean, broccoli, cabbage, collard, cucumber, carrots, and pea plants. Bring your favorite shovel! More info at http://winterparkharvestfestival.com/market/urban-farming-experiment/466

Making Connections: Anarchy & Permanent Culture

2011-09-23T12:12:00.007-04:00

Permaculture is about allowing natural systems to exist. Its about helping them to become more diverse and therefore, strong, healthy, and “more productive”. Modern thinking and philosophy involves that you apply force to a system in order to bend it to your will, that we become "masters over nature". The conventional approach is that a system will either perform as you instruct it, or be destroyed and replaced. And I do mean DESTROYED. Current landscaping techniques vitiate healthy natural systems so that they can install a particular order that is convenient to manipulate and control, but that devastate millions of years of perfectly balanced ecosystems. This can sometimes be repaired, but the overall pollution may make some areas toxic breeding grounds, incapable of sustaining life.

The good news is that natural, organic systems, although complex, can be “guided” along with ever diminishing need for human intervention by the use of bio-mimicry. Of course the answer is not to destroy the natural systems in the first place. Our best option would be to allow the system to interact, while introducing beneficial elements that offset our use of an area.

These natural systems, I believe, are the essence of anarchism. Anyone who has observed nature can tell you is that when you change the natural balance of a system, the end results are almost always a disaster. Anarchism is about belonging to natural systems. Those that evolve from free interaction between autonomous actors, both in nature and in human social structures. And as with permaculture, it is necessary that each actor be allowed to evolve and grow. As the anarchist-ecologist Murray Bookchin put it,

"The notion that man must dominate nature emerges directly from the domination of man by man...But it was not until organic community relation...dissolved into market relationships that the planet itself was reduced to a resource for exploitation."

Unnatural systems force actors to perform in a rigid manner, or risk destruction. Natural systems allow actors to unfold as a part of their environment, providing fertile ground that promotes growth, diversity, and resilience, not destruction.

We, as living organisms, evolve along with our environment. The mutilation of these natural systems destroys not only that system or resource, but destroys life on a cellular level that even human stewardship cannot redeem. Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on artificial science to fix the problems humans create in their environment, including their social structures. Natural systems already know how to deal with those problems. If only we would let nature reign.

Simple Living Organic Grower's Meeting – the Seed Exchange

2011-08-10T15:04:00.005-04:00

Get your seeds ready and arrive early at 6:45pm on August 17, 2011 at Leu Gardens for Simple Living Institute's August Seed Exchange. For details, check out:

Simple Living Calendar

Seed Exchange Guidelines

See you there!

shayla@simplelivinginstitute.org

Orlando Permaculture Design Course

2011-07-26T10:03:00.002-04:00

We are pleased to offer the second Permaculture Design Course at the Econ Farm in Orlando, FL. This will be a weekend-format 72-hour course that will give you an in-depth understanding of Permaculture design concepts and applications in the Central Florida region. Participants that attend all sessions of this class and complete the final design project will receive a certificate in Permaculture Design.

Permaculture is a design for sustainable living. Permaculture's foundation of principles and design concepts are universal and can be suited for any region or location. The principles of permaculture can help us reduce society's overuse of industrially produced resources which are destroying the Earth's ecosystems and help us transition to self-reliant homesteads.

Course Dates:
September 17 and 24
October 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29
November 5 and 6

Fee: $1,150 members / $1,200 non-members
Advanced Registration Required! Class size limited to 12 people.
Registration ends Sept 7th, 2011
Contact us to request the course overview
Tia Meer at (321) 217-8492
tiameer@gmail.com
www.simplelivinginstitute.org/econfarm.html

Mead Garden Community Garden

2011-07-21T14:14:00.004-04:00

Join us for a volunteer work day at Mead Garden's Community Garden in Winter Park. The community garden is also looking to fill some vacant plots. Meet at the garden site at 8:45am and bring hat, sunscreen, water, and tools to trim brush and trees. More info and map to the garden site at http://winterparkharvestfestival.com/gardening/community-garden-day-mead-gardens-this-saturday/417

Our Local Food Guide

2011-07-13T22:23:00.004-04:00

The Central Florida Local Food Guide will be the first comprehensive listing of farms, community gardens, and farmers markets in the region. It has been our largest and most exciting project of the year. Join Simple Living Institute and learn about the Guide, soon to be released. Andrew Landis, director of the project, will be presenting and we will be recognizing our sponsors, Our Vital Earth, Winter Park Harvest Festival, Simply Well, First Unitarian Church, and Winter Park Health Foundation. Our Guide is scheduled for release late this summer. More info on our website at www.simplelivinginstitute.org/local-food.html

Free Electronic Waste Recycling Saturday, June 11th, 2011

2011-06-09T12:42:00.000-04:00

Keep Orlando Beautiful is holding an Electronic Waste Collection on Saturday, June 11th, from 9am to 1pm, at Orlando Festival Park near the intersection of Robinson & Bumby.

They will be collecting the following items for recycling:
• Computer Monitors
• Televisions (limit one per household)
• Telephones
• Cell Phones
• Telephone Systems
• Fax Machines
• Central Office Equipment
• Rechargeable Batteries
• Electronic Circuit Boards and Components
• Stereo Equipment
• Games
• PDA's

For complete details, please see the Keep Orlando Beautiful pdf flyer:
Electronic Waste Collection (.pdf)

This is a free service and we at Simple Living encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity!

How to Remove Grass for a Garden

2011-06-07T12:35:00.001-04:00

I would say the best way to remove grass and prepare for planting is to smother it with cardboard and then put the mulch on top of the cardboard. The cardboard will kill the grass and then decompose and add to the soil. Heres what to do:

1. Mow or weed whack the area

2. Wet the ground or cardboard (optional) maybe we can get a big bucket and soak it in the bucket for a few before laying it down
3. Lay the cardboard down starting at the corner of the garden where the first plots will go, be sure to overlap sides so no grass can peek through

4. Put a 6" layer of mulch on top of the cardboard. Cover all the cardboard with mulch.

This is the technique we will use to prepare the grounds at the new Coytown Community Garden. Join us for our next workday on June 25th. More info at www.coytowngarden.com

2011-05-13T16:37:00.005-04:00

News from the Market Gardening committee: How many ways can a local produce grower market their crops to the members of their local community?

U-Pick saves the the grower the harvesting, washing, packing, labeling, transport, sales commission fees, invoicing, and possible inspection costs (organic labeling provides customers the trust when direct inspection {Caveat Emptor} isn't available). The customer base is limited by driving distances factored by crop selection. But once a local customer is hooked up with a local grower, the relationship is similar to your own backyard garden.

Farmer's Markets requires the grower to harvest, pack, transport, and sell (serious time investment), but dodges the labeling, sales commission, and some of the inspection requirements if his customers are familiar with his operation. Pre-sold harvests to repeat customers are incredibly valuable beyond just money. And vending at a local market can be a lot of fun meeting everyone!

Local grocery retail sales have almost all the costs involved, but the local retailer's connection to the community can be invaluable. Big box groceries are curious to meet local growers, but often have administrative rules affecting local managers.

Restaurant sales can be interesting, especially when the chef involves the grower in the seasonal menu creation. Consistency of product and production is critical. Restaurants need the profit margin only available with discount pricing.

Onsite, farmstand, retail sales aren't very common here in Central Florida. Zoning laws abound and travel to remote rural farms sucks gas. It's an option that should be considered carefully.

Selling to wholesalers, resellers, storefront produce markets is out there. Research opportunities for consistent production needs. Do you have to deliver or will they send their transport for a pick-up.

I'm sure there are plenty more options out there. What methods have you found to actually bring your crops to market?

Hope to see you in the garden, Tom.

Perfect Pickling with Bill Hetting

2011-04-25T16:27:00.003-04:00

At our last Organic growers Meeting we had a pickling demonstration by pickle master Bill Hetting. About 100 people attended and some took part in making their own pickles to take home. We pickled daikon radish, carrots that I grew, and jimcama. Check out the video of the event at http://www.withrespectforfood.com/2011/04/24/pickling-demo-with-bill-hettig/

Permaculture Class Begins!

2011-03-09T12:19:00.007-05:00

On Saturday our first Permaculture Design course class was held, with fifteen students in attendance and our three Permaculture instructors. We are learning through lecture, physical demonstration, group discussion, and various permaculture activities.

A little about our instructors:

Bradford White is an Ecologist, world traveler, and Gaia University associate on the track of integrative eco-social design. Bradford has lived and worked on permaculture, food forestry, and perennial food systems projects throughout Central America, the Pacific Northwest, and Orlando, FL in the last year and a half.

Tia Meer grew up on a 13-acre organic farm in Pittsburgh, PA and has had a lifelong passion for growing food organically and lessening our impact on Mother Earth. Tia has studied Permaculture in Costa Rica, Bio-dynamic gardening on the Big Island of Hawaii, and GROW BIOINTENSIVE gardening with John Jeavons in Willits, CA.

Terry Meer grew up on a sailboat in the Florida Keys. Living on a sailboat, Terry learned about energy and water conservation, solar and wind power at an early age. Terry’s expertise is in designing and building small off-the-grid systems for homeowners interested in sustainability and for use in remote locations.

(source: simplelivinginstitute.org/files/PDC-App.pdf)

Our students are a wide range of talented, ambitious community members with an amazing bank of knowledge and experience to contribute .

A photo of the class touring and learning about the permaculture techniques implemented at the Econ Farm

Audubon Park Community Garden (3/6)

2011-03-08T12:06:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, we zipped on over to this "ground-breaking" Community garden event just off Corrine Ave on Winter Park Drive.

The garden itself is being placed in between the sidewalk and the baseball field, and in my mind means that many kids and their parents are going to see these wonderful folks tending their food and plants up-close. For those that have not had any exposure to plants, the soil and the joy of tending both it could be just what they need to consider their own garden or plants.

I was so excited to see there wasn't going to be a fence, as it implies there isn't any need to keep anyone out. Of course their was some concern, understandably, but I'm a firm believer that if you put out positive thoughts, that is exactly what you will get in return.

In this garden there will be a 10 - 4'x10' beds. Three interspersed in between trees beside the sidewalk and seven in a row behind that. As always, it was wonderful to meet new folks and see the wide diversity of people. One lady had her camera and of course found plenty of subjects to record, one man brought out his daughter to partake in the experience of creating their garden. We of course brought our dog, as he's part of the family too.

While we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked, my husband, son and I each worked on three different beds and had a great time helping out.

I must say it is was amazing to watch Tia and Tommy make short work of laying out the beds so we could dig up the grass, sift the sand back into the plots and then rake them clean.

By the time we left the first three beds were well underway and those that will have bed here, were very happy preparing the earth to receive love and care.

Ann S.

Central Florida Fair

2011-03-08T12:02:00.001-05:00

For two weekends in a row now, we have trekked out to the Central Florida Fairgrounds to volunteer for a few hours at the Simple Living table.

I am constantly amazed by the enormous diversity of people filtering through an event that stop and chat with you about their interest in eating food from their own garden, or the health aspects of eating what you grow, and of course those who love to dig in the dirt.

I especially appreciate those individuals who stop yet aren't really sure which part they are most interested in because they haven't done much of it. They want "to do something", but aren't necessarily sure where to start. These wonderful people are like seedlings; they need lots of sunlight (a warm greeting and a friendly smile), a good base soil (invite them to come to a workshop or check out what they could be doing) and lots of water to spur the grow (encouragement that starting with just one pot is wonderful).

Below are a few conversations that stuck out in my mind, that I though I would share;
One women, Wanda, who we saw at a previous event, was interested in everything and eager to find people who would take the time to answer her questions. We talked about ways she could possibly improve her health and remedy a long suffering skin irritant. My husband talked her ear off with enthusiasm about his experiences in health and wellness. Wanda was even a brave enough soul to try the sunflower sprouts, even though at the time we weren't positive what type of sprout they were. ;)

A man who came by who was interested in growing primarily as a means to get his son involved outside, and so we talked about how excited my son has been to dig, pull, cut, snip WHATEVER he can do to be part of a gardening experience. He was concerned that his son was too young at first, but I think our story has inspired him just a little, to know that any age, any pace, any ability can come out and do what works for them through Simple Living.

Lastly, I spoke to a women from New Zealand. She indicated back home it is common to have a garden. In fact, the "norm" is to see people out tending to plants and animals. She also mentioned she had a good laugh watching the First Lady out on the White House lawn using a spade when she had clearly never used one. To me, it was heartening to see Michelle Obama, out there. Politics aside, the exposure brings more people searching for ways to bring some of what the "First Family" does back into their lives and I would love to see some of New Zealand brought to North America by way of gardens.

The Central Florida Fair is apparently a big deal here- who knew? We thoroughly enjoyed the small town feel coupled with the openness of the participants. A big,Thank you, to the fair coordinators for putting us in a high trafficked location that allowed us to pass out ever copy of Real Florida Gardner magazine and chat with some excellent folks!

Ann S.

Rollins College Philanthropic Center Membership Appreciation night (Feb 22)

2011-03-08T10:37:00.001-05:00

Being new to volunteering with Simple Living Institute this was my first networking event and I had no idea what to expect.

As I put veggies on my plate during the meet and greet portion, I wondered where it came from. I decided if I thought about it too hard I would likely be disappointed, but noted someone from the local community could be doing this with quality and flair.

The amount of people participating was a bit surprising, but I supposed it was a good opportunity to spread their word and perhaps make connections they might not normally encounter. For example; the only person that I really exchanged ideas with was a very nice woman from Ten Thousand Villages in Winter Park. I realize belatedly, that I didn’t get her card, but believe it was noteworthy non-the-less.

She mentioned that she had read that the spice community was concerned by the “eat local” and “Native plants” movements and how would our organization respond? My comment; “Well I can’t speak for Simple Living, but first of all Native when? As North America has had much of their beloved plant material brought from over seas at some point. Additionally, the idea is to bring to the community what you CAN bring from nearby to help promote the actual community, the diversity in each community itself and its natural surroundings. That said; if we don’t also reach beyond our communities into other pools of diversity we isolate not only ourselves but in essence stagnate those same communities we are promoting”.

This Ten Thousand Villages representative mentioned she was a transplant from the North but had lived in Orlando many years, and had watched it transform into what it is today. She loves to garden but commented “it is hard to grow here, fruit for instance”. I’ve heard this so often and find the comment astounding, as I came from up North myself which has a severely limited growing season thanks to Mother Nature. I thought back to my reading about Sepp Holzer, a farmer growing fruit on the mountainside in Austria and told her about him. She said, “But he’s only one man”. I replied; “yes, but it only takes one to prove it can be done. A little ingenuity and a true desire can create something wonderful”!

Thinking back this whole exchange reminded why I was standing there representing Simple Living. Everyone, no matter what stage of life they are in, can learn from what Simple Living Institute has to offer and that is worth spreading.

Well on to the main event; we were greeted by the Dean of Crummer Graduate School and several others representing Rollins who spoke about having Philanthropy jobs posted on their website and the numerous classes they offer to us as members. The guest speaker, Mark Russell, Editor of the Orlando Sentinel has an easy manner of speaking I am familiar with and I appreciated his straightforward and witty approach. As someone who believes “tempered technology” can be beneficial to many, particularly spreading our message to an increasingly tech savvy audience, the most important part of Mark’s talk was that the Orlando Sentinel has embraced the idea of tech savvy readers. The Sentinel has grown to incorporate that into their daily coverage of the local news and watchdog stories. They have on average 250,000 visits to their website a day with over 1.5 million page views. Mark also compared covering the Daytona 500 a decade ago to now. The most recent event had “live photo galleries” and a full bodied coverage, from food available to background stories on the participants. My favorite part was hearing the Sentinel recently released an iPhone application in November 2010, which has had over 19 thousand downloads and already has a sponsor. The Droid application was released just a few weeks ago and has 3,700 downloads. They will also be releasing an application geared towards the iPad soon. As of now they make approximately $1 for online subscription compared to $10 for a printed edition. In my opinion, that will swing the opposite direction in the not too distant future. How does this relate to Simple Living? Well for one, I reiterate what I said at the Visionary Meeting. We need folks, volunteers, to write about their experiences and we need to connect with the local papers to include them routinely. Secondly, it is a reminder that life is fluid and we must identify and put our resources to targeting these areas to truly reach the most people who are out their seeking answers and connections with people just like us.

Inclosing; We come together for many different reasons, but we are connected by Simple Living Institute and I, for one, am extremely grateful.

Ann S.

Volunteer and Member

Simple Living Institute

Ten Thousand Villages is a global network of social entrepreneurs working to empower and provide economic opportunities to artisans in developing countries.

http://winterpark.tenthousandvillages.com/php/stores.festivals/store.homepage.php

Coytown Garden (Feb 15)

2011-03-08T10:31:00.003-05:00

Well this past Saturday dawned cold and sunny.
We were excited to help with this wonderful project at Coytown Garden (just off 50 near Colonial Plaza Shopping Center). We were surprised by how large a group had already gathered when we got their at 8:50 on Saturday morning. It turns out volunteers from the Orlando Mountain Bike group and Summit Church were on hand to help out as well.

The first thing you notice is this was a former military site. The buildings aren't a dead give away, but the fenced in area with traditional barbed wire top sure was. Making our way towards check-in I was excited to see many families coming to help with small children - it is heartwarming to see little ones putting on gardening gloves!! At the talk before we get started, we found out their will also be a mountain biking trail that is opening up, so bike enthusiasts keep an eye on this project it's going to be good fun to enjoy Florida style mountain bike trails....... Summit church was also hosting a bbq near their church afterwards as a thank you for a job well done, bonus!

After signing in their were three groups; Those working the mountain bike trail sort of disappeared into the wilderness. A group headed off to the park perimeter and soon we could hear a chainsaw buzzing to clear a few trees and debris a bit later. We headed over to the garden area and met Brendan Wood, the organizer of this project and Tia Meer who is doing lots to help get the garden up and running. Our task was to help clear debris inside the fenced in area which had once held ammunitions (I believe) and is 100' by 130' a BIG garden site. Tia told us later on, the first stage will be to have 27 beds. We got to work - with my husband and I raking and our son jumped in with loppers to go at a huge mound of tree roots. ;)

It was fantastic to see such diversity in one space, just like nature itself, there were kids around 3, teens, a host of college students, who were adept at keeping our 8yr old son engaged and lopping off tree root after tree root. All in all; there was much raking and hacking, pieces of fence were ripped off, the barbed wire came down (yippee!) and mulch was layed.

It was quite a transformation!! In just 3 hours this area really felt like it was soon to be a garden. How very exciting.

We headed over and were pleasantly surprised by the large Summit Church BBQ, we got our 4R sandwich, chips and an icy cold drink and headed back to the warmth of the car it had been a busy morning. We were ready to stretch out at home and relax our muscles. :)

The Coytown Garden has it's own website http://www.coytowngarden.com where Brendan details the steps taken to get this far and up and coming events.

Orlando Permaculture Design Course

2011-03-08T00:03:00.005-05:00

The first day of a 72 hr Permaculture Design Course in Orlando, was an exciting and abundantly fascinating experience at Econ Farm, home of Simple Living Institute's president and board members Tia and Terry Meer. Our instructors Bradford White, Tia and Terry Meer have an apparent wealth of knowledge and experience to guide us, a class of 14 very interesting students in the Permaculture Design Course. The instructors each have extensive hands on experience in the worlds of ecology, sustainability, teaching and much more.
The "learning" was dynamic, from the beginnings of meditation to relax and focus, intructional speaking, group discussions of exploration into the fascinating worlds of Permaculture and we enjoyed every moment at Econ Farm and were energized by our instructor's and our own passions for the sharing of information and good will.
I am very thankful to be a part of this course and wonderful group of people.
Joe

Market Gardener's Committee

2011-02-22T19:05:00.007-05:00

My Co-patriot Market Gardeners and Eaters of Central Florida,

Just as we've kicked our gardens into high-gear for Spring, events have transpired for us to see the creation of a "Market Gardener's Committee" at Simple Living Institute. And since I was the one silly enough to initially float such an outlandish idea, the mantle of Chairman has settled around my 'to-do' list. So for now, we'll call this blog home, and figure out where we're going with this committee.

The inception came via the "Central Florida Sustainable Food Project" meetings I attended as basically a curious market gardener and eater. I enjoyed everyone's welcomes, but didn't have a committee project to contribute to. Hanging with the other market gardeners evolved into my primary interest, so I suggested to Andrew Landis about forming a vehicle for us to formally contribute.

The only purpose for the committee's existence it to provide a communications portal so all us market gardeners can brainstorm with like minded souls (plants rarely choose to carry on their end of the conversation). For now, this blog is the portal. I've got a few ideas about meeting locations (that Irish pub last month was good!). And field trip visits to local operations.

Anyone can join this committee. We all enter the market to buy food.

To explain the name of the committee though, let's start with the 'Market' as anyone growing crops for sale. Let's recognize the wonderful event of growing a crop to sell, interacting in the market, and walking away with cash in your pocket. I totally respect anyone who dares grow their own food, but this committee takes it that huge step furthur. Truth is, it's RISKY to market garden in Central Florida and we can all help each other.

The second part of the name, 'Gardener' is still ringing of the human, natural element. Being able to look the person who is buying your crops right in the eye and take his cash. Not a stockholders conglomerate that uses green all over its labels. We are involved with our crops, we feed them to our families, we know them intimately. Gardener is a term applied to a person who grows his crops sustainably and honestly. (This is the part where we're supposed to mention Organic and all that stuff).

A Market Gardener's operation may be as small as a few pots of basil to flavor cornbread at a farmer' market or as big as a multi-generational ranch supplying a theme park restaurant. We're just looking for that entrepreneurial spark that forms the foundation of the economy. At the turn of the last century, European urban market gardens that ringed every major city were a primary source of food. Let's use this committee to make this wonderful concept function again. And think of all the jobs we can help create!

I'm no 'guest expert' as to how to grow crops. I leave that to IFAS and the Master Gardeners (to whom I owe a garden of gratitude). I'm not intending for this committee to be the garden pest guest expert for every eater out there, but I always try to help when I can.

This committee is for us, the risk takers, growers, producers, the foundation of the economy. WE RULE!

My Sundew Gardens is a one-man operation so take pity on me. My organized events are happening once or twice a month, so that would be the best time to visit my gardens. This is the beginning, and I'm sure with your interest and involvement, we can make a difference. Please visit me on my 'Sundew Gardens' facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Sundew-Gardens/300609518579 . Thanks, Tom Carey 407-430-2178

Volunteer Opportunities with Central Florida Sustainable Food Project

2011-02-09T18:41:00.006-05:00

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator for Simple Living Institute invites the community to participate in our Central Florida Sustainable Food Project.

simplelivinginstitute@gmail.com

Simple Living Institute

Central Florida Sustainable Food Project

Time to Make "Hey" in the Garden

2011-01-31T20:50:00.007-05:00

While the rest of the continent hunkers down for another blizzard, we need to take advantage of the early start to our Spring growing season. Taking a prepared risk to plant tomato or pepper seeds while the nights still dip into the 40's is part of our responsibility to the national gardening community. This January's almost 6" of rain is money in the soil bank, so start earning a return on your investment. Like I always say "Make Hey* while the sun is shining"! (*Hey, as in having fun.) http://www.seminolevoice.com/news/2011/jan/26/my-garden-yours/

2011-01-31T09:43:00.000-05:00

It's time!

Permaculture Design Course in Orlando

2011-01-11T23:49:00.003-05:00

Instructors Bradford White and Tia Meer are pleased to offer the first Permaculture Design Course in Orlando, FL. This will be a weekend-format 72-hour course that will give you an in-depth understanding of Permaculture design concepts and applications in the Central Florida region. Participants that attend all sessions of this class and complete the final design project will become certified in Permaculture Design.

Permaculture came about by studying ecology and examining relationships among organisms at different scales of organization. It is a philosophy and approach to land use which weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, insects, soils, water management, and human needs into intricately connected productive communities. Permaculture's foundation of principles and design concepts are universal and can be suited for any region or location. The principles of permaculture can help us reduce society's overuse of industrially produced resources which are destroying the Earth's ecosystems, and help us instead transition to self-reliant homesteads.

Bradford White, our instructor, is an Ecologist, world traveler, and Gaia University associate on the track of integrative eco-social design. Bradford has lived and worked on permaculture, food forestry, and perennial food systems projects throughout Central America, the Pacific Northwest, and Orlando, FL. Bradford attained his Permaculture Teaching Training Credentials in order to spread the philosophy of love and earth care through means of permaculture application in Central Florida.

Fee: $1,150 members / $1,200 non-members
Advanced Registration Required!
More info at http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/econfarm.html#permaculture

Composting Workshop at Simple Living Institute

2011-01-03T22:03:00.009-05:00

An account by Lars Paul Linden

I hacked at the rotting fruit. The tool was a sharp blade, curved like a crescent. Others in the workshop hacked along side me. We chopped up big leaves and the leave's woody stems. In this we added another layer; we were making a compost pile. With each layer that we added, we learned a little more about composting. I observed varying colors and textures, all quite beautiful. The hacking motions were rhythmic and satisfying, and somehow rambunctious.

The compost pile was rectangular, and grew

to over 18 inches in height. I easily imagined the pile several months later, in a flattened state, almost as if it was a balloon and the air was being

let out. I had already seen how compost piles shrink over a span of months. I speculated that each blade of grass would loose its ability to hold a shape, and th

at the decay is a kind of given up of the shape of life. I thought of the microorganisms that I am told are there in the comp

ost pile, and I imagined how the microorganism were aiding this collapse.

Even as I am eager for advanced knowledge of organic gardening, I am in no hurry. I relish in my recent and newly found simple ideas. The compost pile is filled with life. The compost pile is alive. For me, this idea requires knowledge, but also perhaps some imagination. My new friends, microorganisms, are in there. By habit I think of a metaphor that they have little microorganism homes and little microorganism communities. I desire to know their names and to see them under magnification; however, at the workshop I thought mostly about the the differing colors of each layer.

A group of us, under Tia Meer's instruction, layered the palm branches, busted fruits, leaves, and grass. The vegetation looked partly woody and partly moist. I knew that it would all yield to the processes of decomposition. Perhaps, it was already changing colors under the Florida sun as we added each layer.

I report now these colors: green-browns and brown-greens, yellow-oranges and orange-yellows. Each layer was different. Some of us took photos, and surely these could be cropped to be expressions of abstraction. A photo of a compost pile is a kind of abstract art.

Volcanic ash was sprinkled on top, to season the compost. While I am not sure, I think we collectively made a small prayer, each in our own way, to all compost piles. Together we had created a simple compost pile and it was a beautiful sight, the compost pile and us standing there admiring it. The next day it occurred to me that the compost pile is a kind of opposite of the garden itself.

5% Day at Whole Foods in Winter Park Dec. 8th

2010-11-29T16:13:00.002-05:00

Volunteer opportunity! Come help us our table at Whole Foods in Winter Park, anytime between 11am till 7pm December 8th.

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com
407-923-4562

Winter Park Harvest Festival and Simple Living Institute

2010-11-23T11:45:00.015-05:00

The park in downtown Winter Park was transformed and transfixed by the 1st annual Winter Park Harvest Festival. Pictured here, Avery and Lauressa, model volunteers. But look past these lovelies at all the greenery! Yes when we table at events, we bring plants and we speak about our passions, gardening and local food. This day, we were not the only ones!! I have the most beautiful mix of feelings about our burgeoning community collaberators! Yes, we are the leaders in this growing (pun intended) collective and I am used to being the one with the pretty plants and the big news about our awesome activities at the different events we table. No more. We are many now and the Winter Park Harvest Festival showcased all of US very well.

There were throngs of people strolling through the festival in the sunshine. Glorious! the weather could not have been better! Our table enjoyed planty of attention. And my vols were there in force, except my daughter Joanna, she was there by force (hhaha). Stacks of stuff touting our programs, projects and of course, our dynamite website flew off the table and into the eager hands of folks who are curious about Simple Living Institute and all we do. A very grateful raffle ticket buyer received a grow box at the end of the day! We sold a few plants and Seminole pumkins. Interest at our table was high and I expect the ranks at our Organic Grower's meetings to swell.

Our president, Tia meer is a leader in this bunch (of carrots!) and a star speaker! She presented a workshop on filling a grow box and she participated in a panel discussion, "Meet the Farmers". She was joined there by her brethren to explore the ins and outs and to share what's new. Both tents were active all day with several of our own members rounding out the line up. Trina Hofreiter presented, on organic gardening, Russ Rice, on orgainc weed and pest prevention, Bernie Moro, on worm composting and Stephanie Syson, on edible landscapes. All were well attended!

I stepped over to Williams-Sonoma on Park Ave to see a couple of the cooking demos sponsored by Edible Orlando Magazine Not only does this community grow beautiful food, they prepare it for enjoyment at the table in high style and simplicity. And aren't we fortunate? Edible Orlando Magazine assists us with the printing and distribution of our local food guide. See The Central Florida Sustainable Food Project on Facebook and at . I tasted raw chocolate that was creamy and dreamy! Next came Catelonian Kale, all raw, but so tender! Catelonian means sweet, with raisins, in this case. mixed with salty, Kalamata olives, combined with lemon juice and olive oil. Kendra told me the kale was picked that morning from Heart of Christmast Farms . Fantastic!

I tried not to eat too much because I knew that the Farm to Table dinner was going to offer an amazing array of foods. All locally produced and crafted together by 7 local chefs! A magnificent appetizer opening, 3 courses and a pear torte ending that was divine! I wonder where those pears came from! I could smell them and the taste of the pears popped right through the cakey dessert. Marvelous food! The music was bluegrass and the people were fun! Fran and I sat with an anesthesiologist and his pediatrician wife and a Chipolte exec here to visit his mom. Enchanting autumn table decor greeted us and set the mood for a beautiful evening!

My daughter Joanna and I helped Tia and Tom ScaIa set up the table at 7am. At midday, Matt from a late night radio show at Rollins radio station WPRK asked me to come on to talk about Simple Living Institute. Check the time on the clock. Yes! I went over, after that huge dinner, to crow about what a great day it was and to tell the world, I mean... whoever was listening to the radio that night about our big local food project. Matt and his co-hosts had walked through the Festival. I was happy to hear about how impressed they were! They loved all of the food and the up-beat people and suggested we hold a fest like that every quarter or so. Great idea!

When I got to the car, I found a text from Lauressa (pictured above). She had been listening to the radio! We gabbed as I drove home. What an amazing day it was!

Do this every quarter? Oh ya! What do you think Mr. Rife, founder of ?

To all who participated, especially my beautiful volunteers, and John Rife the founder, please accept my a profound thanks! This event will have a far-reaching affect for a long time to come. We appreciate all of your great efforts to make the Winter Park Harvest Festival grand! Now that we all know each other a little better, bring it on! more community, more connection, more local food!

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com
407-923-4562

Great times at the first annual Winter Park Harvest Festival

2010-11-23T10:41:00.024-05:00

Last Saturday I attended the first annual Winter Park Harvest Festival in Winter Park, Florida with Simple Living Institute. I would call this harvest festival a huge success. The main goal of this harvest festival was to connect consumers to the farms and farmers that grow locally and organically, as well as to encourage citizens to grow organically themselves. The festival was held in the beautiful Central Park on Park Ave. in Winter Park. This turned out to be a great venue for the event. The city of Winter Park had already placed an ice skating rink adjacent to the festival, which was a great family recreational addition. Inside the harvest festival one could find many vendors selling locally and organically produced foods and herbs, as well as local artisans, and even face painting for the kids. There was several local blugrass bands including the Token Gamblers and Jubal's Kin. Inside the main tent were speakers on food and health related issues. At the main tent at the other end of the festival there were speakers on organic farming and gardening methods. Weeks before the festival, grow boxes were distributed throughout the Central Florida community for citizens to grow organic foods and herbs in. These grow boxes were all gathered and set up artistically inside the festival as a showcase for these local growers. These grow boxes were also a part of a contest for which grow box was the most appealing. Ribbons were distributed to the winners, most of whom were elementary school students. It was nice to see the excitement from the children involved. The food was amazing. There were vendors such as Wild Ocean Seafood serving up the freshest sustainably caught seafood from Port Canaveral, FL. There were cooking demonstrations in the adjacent Williams and Sonoma store, purveyors of fine dining and cookware. The festival also brought together some of the finest chefs from local area restaurants and fine dining establishments in order to showcase their culinary talents. The movie Fresh was played at sundown, which is a very eye-opening film about factory farming practices and where most common food comes from and what is in it. The film also showcases farmers that use organic practices and what organic farming really means. To top off the evening, in the main tent, the best local chefs prepared a four-course fresh local organic meal along with wine and garden mojitos. The meal was outstanding. Some of the best food that I have ever tasted. According to a speaker who is a local doctor for a living, we need to have these harvest festivals more often than annually, maybe even quarterly, for the benefit of our community's overall health. I would tend to agree. If you did not make it out to our first annual winter Park Harvest Festival, be sure to make it out to next year's.

Cold protection for plants and fruit trees

2010-11-18T10:46:00.011-05:00

Our Organic Grower’s meetings continue with a stellar presentation given by our own Simple Living Institute member, Hayri Lawrence. She showcased her 5 acre nursery chock full of fruit bearing trees, vegetable beds and scurrying chickens with a beautiful slide show and season appropriate talk on cold preparation. Her personal stories about what to do and what not to do to protect plants and fruit trees welcomed us right onto her property!

I felt a shiver as she explained how important is is to hold down the covers for the plants with heavy objects so the cold (more like freezing!) wind won’t lift them and make all the work done to cover plants, for not. Dates when cuts were made written with a sharpie on banana trees demonstrate her attention to detail. Her pictures showed acccumulations of dead leaves everywhere. She piles them up them at the base of every plant to protect important roots from the cold. A child in the audience asked, “Why don’t you just throw the dead leaves away?” Hayri’s eyebrows raised, “No I wouldn’t! They are like gold! When I see the neighbors leaving bags of raked up leaves for pick up, I pick them up! You can never have too many dead leaves!”

Even a master gardener of 17 yrs has to learn about what not to do! Hayri allows her chickens to run about the garden on sunny afternoons. Sometimes the plant protecting leaves are scattered. The time she remembered to push the leaves back up, she showed papayas that survived the cold. What happened when she had forgotten? Burnt, and split stumps!

"I have been greedy thinking that I'll save the fruits by covering just the tops" she says. But her pictures showed us that when she learned to protect the bases, many tress and plants come back to fruit again. Greedy? Hardly! Hayri showed just how many plants in pots she moves in and out (and in and out!) of her insulated shed and garage during the cold and sunny weather. It is a lot of work!

Do you have a question about cold protection or fruit trees, or gardening? write Hayri at gardenreb@earthlink.net

Thanks to everyone who contributes to our raffle table at the Organic Grower's meetings! There is Shirley making sure everything is labeled and presentable. Members of Simple Living Institute receive a free raffle ticket and many many are purchased at every meeting for cheap! Every ticket holder goes home with a treasure from our raffle table.

Our next Organic Grower’s meeting is Wednesday Dec. 15th. Stephanie Syson from Gray’s Garden, graysgarden.org will present "What to do with herbs?" Sounds yummy! See you then!

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator shaylaspeaks@gamil.com 407-923-4562

Sustainable Agriculture Course at Rollins College

2010-11-02T09:49:00.003-04:00

Simple Living board member, Andrew Landis, is teaching the first Sustainable Agriculture course at Rollins College this semester. With the help of myself, Tia Meer, students planted two 4x8' garden beds to learn from. Heres the garden just 2 months after planting!

Plant Sale

2010-10-19T23:25:00.003-04:00

The plant sale at the UCF Arboretum was great, lots of plants to peruse and choose from. I myself picked up a lemon-balm plant, for which I am very excited as the leaves produce a delicious tea! Thank you to everyone who taught a class or workshop, and if you were not able to be in attendance, be sure to schedule an event like this in next time!

Plant Sale Schedule

2010-10-13T11:37:00.002-04:00

Hope to see you all at our Fall Plant Sale at UCF.

For more info and directions visit http://www.arboretum.ucf.edu/node/65

Saturday October 16th

9am Conversations on Permaculture: an Introduction- Bradford White

10am Xeriscape Tour- Martin Haux

11am Garden Crop Choices- Tom Carey

12pm Growing in Grow Boxes- John Rife and Tia Meer

1pm Why Heirloom Seeds- Russ Rice

2pm- How to Start a Garden- Tina Richards

3pm Organic Gardening Basics- Trina Hofreiter

4pm Herbs- Summer Singletary

Sunday October 17th

1pm Edible Landscaping- Stephanie Syson

2pm- Community Garden Tour- Arboretum Staff

3pm- Organic Pest Control- Tia Meer

Veg Fest coming up

2010-10-11T17:16:00.004-04:00

Central Florida Veg Fest is coming up on Oct 23rd in downtown Orlando. As many of you know, Veg Fest is a you-must-not-miss festival. I may be biased, but I believe this event really helped kick Orlando into gear back into 2005. The festival has helped bring together many local groups, volunteers, friends, and got the word out about many new businesses before they opened their doors. It has now grown to fill up Loch Haven Park with over 200 vendors.

Veg CF, the host of the festival, does a great job at keeping out cheesy, unrelated vendors that you might see at other festivals. This year includes some new things that you will have to go to find out what they are. If like me you love local music almost as much as local food then come hear some of the best musicians in town. Grab some delicious, vegan food, maybe a beer, and chillax under a tree to some jams. What better way to spend a Saturday? Oh yeah, if you have a some extra time to also volunteer then you can sign-up to volunteer at the Simple Living Institute's booth or help out the all volunteer festival staff.

Find out all of the details at www.cfvegfest.org. Hope to see you there!

Biointensive Gardening Workshop

2010-09-29T09:50:00.007-04:00

Have you seen our president, Tia Meer in action?

Yes, she is a great leader! Yes, she plans and runs excellent meetings. Yes, she shares her fabulous ideas about growing and about sustainability with us. Yes, she knows about a gazillion people and brings them to all of our Simple living Institute events, activities and projects. But have you seen her do what she really loves?

Tia loves to dig in the dirt! She loves it so much that people paid (okay, it was only $20) to hold a shovel and dig in her garden. Look at these people dig!

Digging, or I should say double digging is the cruxt of what she taught eager participants at Simple Living Institute's recent Biointensive Gardening Workshop. Yes, she goes by the book, How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons, but it is her passionate way of teaching people the "Florida" way of gardening that keeps the workshops she presents at standing (digging) room only!

"I can't grow anything in the sand and fire ants in my yard!" is the cry we hear from many people. Our hands on workshops like this Biointensive Gardening Workshop and our Organic Grower's meetings teach us exactly what has to be done so we can grow vegetables here in Florida in 2 seasons!

Tia teaches us to go by a "Florida" planting dates chart and she uses the best seeds and plants that have been grown here in the Florida sun. Email me and I will zip the planting calandar over to you.

In conjunction with the UCF Arboretum, SLI is holding a Plant Sale Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 16 and 17. You can purchase plants that were grown from seeds right here in our backyards and at the beautiful UCF Arboretum. Come out to see what UCF has going on out there! No parking hassels, we promise! See the flyer on the home page and stay tuned in for a list of plants available.

Our Organic Grower's meetings are held every 3rd Wednesday of the month, 7pm at Leu Gardens Come on out! We always have a speaker and everyone who attends either has a garden or wants to have a garden. Many have container gardens or keep a plot in a community garden. Learn along with us!

Are you on our email newsletter list? Monthly, we'll let you know about all the fun stuff we do here at Simple living Institute. Click over to the home page to the link there.

See you at the plant sale!

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com
407-923-4562

Tabling for our Local Food Project

2010-09-29T08:02:00.012-04:00

Simple Living Institute tabled at the Global Peace Film Festival Street Festival. We attracted a lot of atention! Don't those banners look stellar? Thanks to Tom Scala. He brought out his tent and table and those are his strings lashing up our message for all to see.

Feel the windy and sunny Florida fall weather! And, right on schedule, the love bugs are here! They floated everywhere that day! How funny it was seeing people slapping at them. They just don't shoo do they? They suffuse!

Love bugs or no, the people who aproached our table asked questions about our Central Florida Sustainable Food Project "When is it coming out?" " Where can I pick it up?" "Will there be prices?" "How about organic vs conventional?"

This project is a 6 county, Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia, inventory of every farm, especially ones that sell to the public, community garden, farmer's market, CSA, U-pick operations, food producer and restaurant and business that sell or serve locally grown food, including meats and eggs. This resource guide will be published in print and online providing consumers with free information as to where to purchase locally produced food. We hope to influence growers who currently sell shrubs and palm trees! By showing these business owners where and how much money people are spending for local products and just how high the demand is, these growers could switch and produce more locally grown food!

We are fortunate to have friends at Edible Orlando Magazine. They are helping us with the publishing and distribution of the printed guide. As many as 10,000 printed resource guides will be available to the public early in 2011.

Prices? There will a lot of information. I am not sure if pricing will be included.

Organic vs Conventional. What is important to SLI is that information about locally produced food will be accessable so that questions and concerns can be addressed. For example: I have taken my kids out to Pappy's U Pick It Strawberry Patch for years! This is such a delight that eventhough they are teens now, they don't ever let a springtime strawberry soiree be skipped. This year, I have raised my awareness so I asked Pappy (yes, he was right there!) if he sprays for pests. "I spray lightly and then I wait 24 hours before allowing anyone to pick." was his answer. Will Pappy be in our guide? Yes. Will I take my kids out there again to pick strawberries? Yes. Now I am making an informed choice. Maybe it is not the best choice, maybe it would not be your choice, but I did have a conversation with the grower. This is one of the oportunities our work on this project will afford the public!

Do you have questions? Ask us! Find out more! Come out and help us! Comment here on the blog. Friend us on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128333397187109. Write in on our Community Forum We want to hear from you!

See you out there!

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com
407-923-4562

Coytown Community Garden garden set-up

2010-09-27T14:05:00.002-04:00

Simple Living Institute, Inc. is once again involved with another garden start-up in Central Florida. This proposed garden will be the Coytown Community Garden and it is located in downtown Orlando. Brendan Wood is the organizer of this endeavor and if anyone is interested in being a contributor should contact him at bwood@me.com . For anyone who has questions and wants more information can go to the Simple Living Institute website at http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/garden-startup.html or email us at info@simplelivinginstitute.org

Danielle Treadwell speaks at Organic Growers Meeting on Cover Crops

2010-09-16T12:54:00.004-04:00

Simple Living Institute, Inc was delighted to have Danielle Treadwell, PhD from the University of Florida IFAS at our meeting at Leu Gardens. Danielle was a great speaker and is very passionate about cover crops. She recommended to plant Velvet Bean, Pearl Millet, Sorghum Sudangrass, Sunn Hemp, Sunflower, and Daikon Radish. Cover crops provide ecological services to your garden by adding nitrogen to the soil, producing organic matter that can be tilled in or composted and added later, and attracting beneficial insects to your garden (including beneficial nematodes that attack root knot nematodes!). Danielle gave us seeds for cover crops and we will be bagging them and distributing them at our next Organic Growers Meeting on October 20^th. Visit our website for more at http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/organic-growers.html

Fall Into Fun With Us!

2010-08-27T11:35:00.020-04:00

Hello Simple Livers!

Our Jack Johnson themed benefit was a huge success! Thanks to all who attended and a BIG thank you to all who donated their time and efforts. You know who you are. Individual acknowledgements are on the way! Check out the gallery link on the Simple Living institute website. 39 great pictures taken at the benefit by Raymond Silvasy! Thanks! That is Commissioner Sheehan being honored by our president Tia, for her contribution to our community gardens project in Festival Park.

The money we made at the benefit will, of course, go towards keeping our Organic Grower's meetings and other workshops cheap or free to attend. The best part is that we can now move forward with our BIG project: The Central Florida Sustainable Food Project

Heading it up is new board member and our official "planner" Andrew Landis (see his bio, on the website). He calls it an exercise, a mapping exercise. This project is a 6 county, Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia, inventory of every farm, especially ones that sell to the public, community garden, farmer's market, CSA, U-pick operations, food producer and restaurant and business that sell or serve locally grown food, including meats and eggs. This will be published in print and online at sustainablecfl.org titled The Local Food Resource Guide. The goal is to provide consumers with free information as to where to purchase locally produced food. We also would like to influence growers who currently sell shrubs and palm trees and the like, that are not edible and maybe non-native. By showing these growers where and how much, people are spending for products that are very high in demand, they could switch and grow more food!

Data from all of these counties has poured in and we are excited to think that we could be quite thorough even concerning far flung locations. There is more work to be done! Each entry will list location and hours of operation if applicable, their contact information, basic descriptions of products and their availability. A few interesting stories or antidotes about the farms or businesses will be included! Eventually, the website will be interactive. Local food producers will have a way to convey what is in season and available. We hope to print several thousand guides (maybe even 10,00) and distribute them for free to the public early in 2011. Consumers, that's you and me! can use this important information to decide what and where to buy the absolute freshest, highest quality food available.

The power of the plate is at work here. Anyone who eats potentially, could want this guide in their hands or in their favorites on the computer. This could be the reason we have attracted over 100 people to our meetings over these last few months. Specifically, faith based organizations, and people who are making a concerted effort to to eat more healthfully to combat sometimes life threatening medical conditions have been the most vociferous. Now that there is national attention on childhood obesity, schools and childcare facilities, and parenting groups will appreciate having this information close at hand.

Participate by attending our meetings and getting on one of 4 committees: the Data committee, the Print, the Web, and the Marketing committees all would welcome your ideas and energy! Follow and comment here and on our Facebook page and on our Community Forum

All of our meeting dates and locations are listed there. Join us! This is an exciting project!

Ah! Fall in Florida! There is nothing like it and it is coming soon! Would you like to get outside and meet the community with us? Simple Living Institute is supporting many interesting events this fall with our bannered information table! Here's the line up: Global Peace Film Festival in downtown Winter Park Sunday Sept 19th. The VegFest at Loch Haven Park Saturday Oct. 23rd. The Owl Festival in Apopka Saturday Nov. 9th, also at the Seminole County Master Gardener Expo that same day at Red Bug Lake Park. We'll tout our wonderful programs and our BIG project to an eager public who wants to learn more about us at Simple Living Institute.

There is one more! This year we are teaming up with the UCF Arboretum for our annual plant sale. Mark your calendars, Saturday and Sunday Oct. 16ht and 17th. Listings of plants available for sale will be available soon. If you've never been out to the Arboretum at UCF, those of us who have will tell you it is well worth the trip. We are promising you now NO PARKING HASSLES for our event! All directions will be included on an upcoming flyer.

Which event appeals to you? Come out and give us a 2 hour shift at our Simple living Institute table! I am coordinating our valued volunteers, so reach to me please. Once you commit, we'll let you know exactly what to do and what to say to people while at the table. These events are really fun!

Meanwhile, follow us and comment here on the blog, and on Facebook and on our Central Florida Sustainable Food Project community forum (click the above links)

See you soon!

Shayla Dougher, volunteer coordinator
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com
407-923-4562

A day of Mycology

2010-08-12T10:15:00.002-04:00

On July 31st the Simple Living Institute sent a part time intern, Bradford White, to a wonderful gathering of Mycologists and plant enthusiasts in outer-Gainesville for a day of Mushroom talk. The founder of Finca Mycol, Michael Stevens, as well as retired University of Florida Mycologist Dr. James Kimbrough, facilitated discussions of mushroom identification, usages, and journeys for the first part of the day. After a delicious lunch of local sand pears, watermelon, various mushroom teas, and homemade pesto, the group gathered for a mushroom walk on the various parts of the Finca. The day dimmed down with the sight of dark overhanging clouds, but the great discussions and fun still ensued until the evening. A big thanks to Michael Stevens and Dr. James Kimbrough for having the Simple Living Institute out at the Finca!

Upcoming Benefit

2010-07-18T13:30:00.006-04:00

Join Simple Living Institute for one of our largest events of the year... our Benefit. The benefit will feature our video contest judging, a Jack Johnson cover song contest, speakers, a raffle, a silent auction, and a kids activity area. The funds raised at the benefit will go towards our 2011 programs and our Sustainable Food Project. The benefit will be at the Cameo Theatre at 1013 Colonial Drive on August 12th, 2010 from 7:00-11:00pm.

Volunteers needed! More info at http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/benefit.html

Food Resource Guide Meeting 7/06

2010-07-07T01:01:00.006-04:00

Hosted at the Stardust Coffee & Video in Audubon Park, a great turn-out with a diversified crowd. Here is what was involved and how you can help.

Firstly, the WINTER PARK HARVEST FESTIVAL is scheduled for this November the 20th, 2010. Visit the website at http://alocalfolkus.com/harvest-festival and contact 'A Local Folkus' with your skills and community hook-ups to make this event successful.

As John Rife, co-developer of the event, said tonight, "Help raise awareness, do something cool."

July 15th at 10am the Arboretum Community Garden invites you to work in the garden. A vegetarian pizza lunch is provided for volunteers at noon and the work is open to continue until 4. Children (well-supervised) that are over the age of 5 are welcome. Head to the website, arboretum.ucf.edu, for great directions.

Meeting Notes
The web-based resource will launch this Fall, around October, and this Spring we will print and distribute our first local food guide.

Currently, there are a lot of smaller similar projects in progress. We are producing a marketing package to centralize this focus through a comprehensive local food guide. Everyone can help ! by creating a logo, brand-recognition, promotion and the like. Contact Shayla Dougher @ shaylaspeaks@gmail.com to join/assist this design committee.

There is a lot of enthusiasm surrounding this project, and there is a place for you to fit into this, whether the logistical or creative type. We NEED a strong volunteer effort. We will make it easy to manage this data, but we need people going out to collect, distribute, and be liaisons.

Growing a Garden from Seed Workshop

2010-07-01T09:20:00.003-04:00

This great event was well attended on Saturday June 26th out at The Econ Farm!

Tia began with the all important basics of soil composition. Excellent soil supports excellent plants and more yield! This is the credo we at SLI, teach and have been taught by the masters in the sciences of gardening. Tia chooses How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons as a reference because his techniques work! And Tia's spin on what Mr. Jeavons writes work for us growing in Florida. She went on to demonstrate how many and how deeply and where several different seeds and seedlings should be planted. Tia's instructions are always quite thorough. Several attendees had questions. Tia had answers!

Be sure to click on this video. There you'll see the rich soil Tia has in her garden! All my friends have beautiful gardens, but my jaw dropped a bit when she pulled the grass clippings away to reveal that amazing deep color! Tia lives what she teaches!

Reach to us via the contact page here at Simple Living Institute for exact instructions on soil mixing, or any other gardening questions. We have a planting dates chart that we can email. You have time to prepare and plant for fall harvesting! Know that we are out there (sweating!) too!

Peruse our website regularly and get on our newsletter email list! Come out to our exciting events that always include usable information. We are an institute because we teach. You can learn along with us!

Simple Living Institute on Front Porch Radio

2010-06-24T16:15:00.005-04:00

Julie Norris from The Dandelion Communitea Cafe (dandelioncommunitea.com) does a weekly show called Front Porch Radio on WPRK 91.5 FM every Wednesday at noon. She invited Simple Living Institute to be her guest on the show this week!

I jumped at this opportunity to crow about several EXCITING projects our dynamite nonprofit has in the works right now! And boy it was fun!

Of course Julie knows us so her questions pointed exactly to the information I wanted to share with her audience. I began with our Organic Grower's meetings. I bragged, "When we first started, we had only 10 or so people attending our meetings. But now it has grown to 60 or 70 people attending every month!" I went on to talk about how people are very happy to find help with building and maintaining a garden here in Central Florida, especially if they learned gardening somewhere else that does not share our climate and sandy soil, not to mention the fire ants! During the radio show, a call came in asking about...... you guessed it! WORMS. I was very happy, because people always ask about worms. Worm composting is gaining notoriety with no small thanks to our friends at Our Vital Earth (ourvitalearth.com). I emphasized that not only does our Organic Grower's meeting always have a relevant speaker or a program, but that everyone who attends is a Florida gardener too. The tips and stories about gardening abound at our meetings!

Next I explained a bit about our Central Florida Sustainable Food Project. This is a regional inventory and mapping guide over 6 Central Florida counties encompassing all the community gardens, farms that sell to the public, farmer's markets and businesses that deal in LOCAL food. Once completed it will be up on our website and out in print, free to the public. We intend for it to be interactive, growing and expanding just like the industries it will support! This Local Food project energizes our efforts to strengthen the connections between local food producers and purchasers!

Jack Johnson is coming to town!! His nonprofit, All At Once (allatonce.org) has agreed to match the donations we, Simple Living Institute can collect between now and when his World Tour stops here at the Amway Arena Aug. 24th! Our BIG fund raiser will be held Thursday night Aug. 12th at the Cameo on Colonial Drive featuring a video contest, song contest, silent auction and raffle!
This sensational video contest will reward the winner with 2 tickets to the Jack Johnson concert! Contestants are to submit a 3 minute video that shares your vision of sustainability while highlighting the work we do at Simple living institute. Submission deadline is August 1st. We'll have an open mike style Jack Johnson cover song contest, with that winner also receiving 2 Jack Johnson concert tickets! The silent auction and raffle will make sure there is something for everybody. We are expecting 300 people! Every Simple Living Institute event is kid friendly. This fund raiser will serve as a membership drive as well.

Do you know of a business who'd like to donate something to our silent auction or raffle? Please ask! Have a videographer in the family? Bring us that video! Love Jack Johnson? Come over and strum and sing for us! That's Thursday night August 12th at the Cameo!

I am very grateful for this time to sing out (I didn't really sing!) about all of the impressive events and activities we are involved with at Simple Living Institute. Thank you Julie and Jeremy at Front Porch Radio! A podcast of this broadcast will be available soon on the Dandelion Commuinitea Cafe's website.

Everything we do is done by VOLUNTEERS! We have many opportunities for you to help us in very useful ways. Reach to us to find out how you can enrich your life by participating with us.

Shayla Dougher, Volunteer Coordinator, Simple living Institute
shaylaspeaks@gmail.com

Organic Grower's Meeting: Organic Pest Control

2010-06-18T12:44:00.004-04:00

This past June 16th the Simple Living Institute hosted their monthly Organic Grower's Meeting (free) at the beautiful Leu Gardens on North Forest Avenue. Included in the presentation were enjoyable anecdotes and helpful advice from the owners of the Fruit Dog Foods Farm, Larry & Beverly Bailey. Also a presentation on identifying the "good" and "bad" bugs of your garden, and the natural and/or organic solutions that one can utilize to maintain a thriving ecosystem.

Our raffle table yielded many prizes, including worm compost, various herb and vegetable plants, homemade balms from Gray's Garden, and more. Around the room were Our Vital Earth and Nature's Solutions, along with a plant and fruit-jam sale. The tasting table provided delicious morsels including an array of Etho's Vegan Kitchen pizzas, fresh peaches, and warm zucchini-nut bread.

All in all a very fun and informative night! If you have not yet been we encourage you to join us next month; the schedule announcements can be found here: http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/calendar.html

Local Food Sustainability Planning Meeting

2010-06-09T15:41:00.003-04:00

Hello All, last night at the Virgin Olive Market in downtown Orlando we hosted a planning meeting for our "local food resource guide." The turnout was fantastic, so much in fact that there were a few participants leaning in to listen and contribute from the hallway.

The meeting lasted approximately one hour and following is a summary of what was discussed. If interested in the full meeting notes, do not hesitate to contact me.

The project has begun with website design and development, and is working on developing a system which will allow open access to all contributing partners. Currently, representatives at the Planing Council are collecting regional data from the six counties of Central Florida, and a comprehensive (yet unfinalized) listing can be obtained from Slow Foods. The list specifications include those farms supplying to the community and restaurants that utilize local food.

The guide, which will be online and available for print, will include a map with address and basic information pertaining to the location listed. Ideas are being accepted as to what else can be included, one example being articles highlighting relevant events and projects within our local area.

As of now, design is based around ease of access both to information and the addition of information to the system by users. As a vision of the completed product, individuals will be able to search using their zip-code and receive information on accessible food, markets, farms, restaurants that serve these foods, and companies that will assist in building your own garden. Basically, a vibrant local food economy.

A proposal was passed around and the group targeted an answer to stand as the goal and mission of the project. Such were promoting consumption of local food (without seeming weird), increasing demand and therefore supply, encouraging farmers in our region to diversify their crops and therefore break away from subsidies, transparency of the food process (growing, harvesting, transport and finally appearing on a shelf), and education of consumers.

Coming from such brainstorming was born an idea in which micro-supply can be viable by supplying personal crops to a licensed produce peddler for selling. If this is of interest to you, please contact stephaniesyson@graysgarden.org

With a central food resource, interest and support can be generated for the project and the door can be opened to the public, garnering legislative support and renegotiation of current food legislation.

Colonialtown Community Garden Dedication Ceremony

2010-06-01T13:38:00.013-04:00

On Tuesday, May 25th, elected officials gathered with residents of Orlando's Colonialtown neighborhood for the grand opening of their new community garden. Trina Hofreiter, garden organizer, introduced members of the garden and officials in attendance. State Representative Scott Randolph, Mayor Buddy Dyer, County Commissioner Bill Segal, and City Commissioner Patty Sheehan all spoke briefly of their support for community gardens in urban areas. Commissioner Sheehan was particularly enthusiastic, and encouraged other neighborhoods to follow Colonialtown's example. She presented gardeners with a gnome statuette as a gesture of her appreciation. Mayor Dyer was given a large basket of recently harvested produce from the garden as thanks for the Mayor's Matching Grant that helped to fund the project. Fresh watermelon was shared by all, and a local band performed while garden members showed off their plots. If you get a chance, stop by and check out the well-designed space located at the corner of Spokane Ave. and Lake Highland St.

Simple Living at Disney's Flower Festival

2010-05-23T01:36:00.003-04:00

We recently had a display at Walt Disney World's Flower Festival. We had park visitors stop by our display to see our fresh herbs and cucumber, the pickle maker, grow boxes, and pick up literature on how to grow organic gardens. We got to meet people from all over, surprisingly alot from Florida too.

Earth Day at Anthropologie

2010-04-21T09:00:00.005-04:00

I had a great time at the Anthropologies store in the Millennium mall What a beautiful store! Their lively front windows are decorated with flowers made from recycled plastic. Many of their clothes are made from beautiful natural fibers. The for your home things they sell are all nature based, with lots of books on gardening and sustainability. A printed blouse I admired had beets or carrots and comes with beet or carrot seeds!

I collected emails from people who want more information about Simple Living Institute and I gave away many, many brochures. One woman exclaimed “I don’t know anyone who is into this kind of stuff, but me!” Another woman, a teacher at Oak Ridge High School, told me she gardens to relieve stress. She says, “My husband thinks I am crazy! But he eats well!” Have we ever heard that before?

I enjoyed a myriad of discussions! A young girl had just seen the movie Food Inc. and wanted to talk about Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. Others agreed that raising awareness leads to making better choices. Notice the plastic water bottle in our display. I posed it right in front of the time line for decomposition. Several people tried to pick it up and throw it away. I happily objected! This helped them to understand that it takes 450 years to really get rid of a water bottle in the land fill. I read that only 30% of all plastic water bottles go to recycling. Our display opened some eyes that day!

The vegan food from Laina’s Ethos Vegan Kitchen opened some mouths too! I heard several people say they had never eaten humus and that they loved the roll ups that were offered there that day. How nice it was to have free food to celebrate Earth Day!

Raising awareness does lead to making better choices!

Earth Day Celebration at Anthropologie

2010-04-13T12:20:00.002-04:00

The store Anthropologie in the Mall at Millenia is having an Earth Day celebration because they are committed to being green. They have asked SLI to bring educational materials and a visual display on this day. Set up time is 10am-11am and break down time is from 2-3pm. They will be providing us with one 8x3’ table in the center of the store for our display. Display ideas we discussed are a solar panel, plants or produce, worms, and a recycle art demo. Shayla and Karie have volunteered to man the booth at this event. We will also have our canvas bags, brochures, pictures, and a sign-up sheet for emails. The store is also buying local food from the UCF Arboretum and having it prepared by Ethos Vegan Kitchen. The store will be giving SLI a donation from a percent of the sales they do on that day.

Strawberry Season is here!

2010-04-05T22:20:00.003-04:00

I have about 100 strawberry plants and they are just now starting to produce big red sweet juicy berries. I'm growing the Camarosa variety. I went to Pappys' Patch U-Pick Strawberry patch in north of Oviedo in the Black Hammock area. They were delicious and only $2.00 a pound there, local but not organic. They say it is too hard to grow the berries organically. Their season runs till May.

A Honey of a Organic Growers Meeting in March

2010-03-29T10:41:00.004-04:00

Jean Vasicek was our featured speaker in March. Her introduction told us that she has a degree in Physics and worked in the Aerospace industry. Then the swicheroo! She told us how her interest in keeping bees turned into a bountiful business.

She created the company called Winter Park Honey 5 years ago and sells honey locally and all over the world.

Her stories of how she went from just being "interested" to being in business were full of toil and triumph! Her natural humor shone through her sometimes emotional explanations. Raising bees and collecting honey and bringing it to market are all laborious and time consuming. Her stellar slide show made her story quite vivid.

Jean wrapped up her presentation by explaining a few of the holistic and medicinal benefits of enjoying, especially local, honey. Many of us learned things about honey that we didn't know before!

Thankfully, she brought her divine tasting honey to sell. We bought 3 different kinds!!
Boy! we had fun guessing which was which by tasting and not looking at the labels.

http://www.winterparkhoney.com Jeans sells at many local farmer's market and on line.

Enjoy!!

Tomatoes!!!

2010-03-21T15:26:00.003-04:00

This year I am trying a lot of different varieties of tomatoes. I started eight seeds of each and then kept the biggest and best plant of each variety for myself. I got a little carried away:)

Heres what I planted:

Yellow Bell
Wisconsin 55
Zarnitza
Brandywine
Wickline
Yellow Perfection
Lollipop
Siletz
WA Peach
Fantastic
Spoon
Ponderosa
Stupice
Rutgers
Homestead

Plant and Gardening Freecycle

2010-02-28T21:32:00.002-05:00

Simple Living Institute, Inc. hosts the plant and gardening freecycle at Ethos Vegan Kitchen. A "freecycle" encourages sustainability by sharing your excess; like a free thrift store. You can bring unwanted plants to give away &/or take plants for free. It will be held out on the patio and Simple Living Institute volunteers will be there to help you get the right plants for your yard.

More info at www.ethosvegankitchen.com

Seed Exchange

2010-02-14T22:16:00.002-05:00

This Wednesday we are hosting a Seed Exchange at our Organic Growers Meeting. It will be from 7-9pm on Wednesday February 17th. you can bring your seeds to trade for free and if you don't have anything to trade you can buy seeds 4/$1.00. This is a great way to stock up for spring planting! I will also be giving a brief presentation on how to start seeds so please spread the word about this special event.

UCF Arboretum at Organic Grower's Meeting

2010-02-03T10:15:00.002-05:00

Tina Richards is the Environmental Educator and Program Coordinator for the UCF Arboretum. Tina coordinates the volunteer program, conducts educational tours and workshops, and supports the internship and service-learning students.
She spoke to us at our January Organic Grower’s meeting. We meet every 3rd Wednesday at Leu Gardens, 7pm.
Tina brought a slide show that pictured the amazing, only a year old, UCF Arboretum! Her slides showcased the tons of work that has been done to bring about this fantastic opportunity for people to learn, hands on about organic gardening up close and community gardening at large. Tina Richards, on left, and her friends Sarah Benjamin, center and June Draznin, on the right spoke to us of the challenges and the triumphs of what their year with this immense project has brought them. A serious lack of funding and hungry deer who jump the fences have forced them to come up with inventive solutions. They made seed cups out of newspaper. What a great idea and biodegradable! They sell the produce at the Audubon Market in Orlando. http://apmarket.wordpress.com
They give the produce and herbs and extra plants away too! Here is another reason to come out and volunteer! The public is invited to help with everything from building up the plant beds, to planting seeds, weeding, and harvesting. Check the website for volunteer information. arboretum.ucf.edu or call 407-823-3583
Teachers from elementary schools bring their students out for field trips. Tina quipped “One of the best parts of my job is watching a little kid surprised to see where a watermelon comes from then nibble on it’s sweetness.”
Yes! Living ”simply” is showing the next generation and each other the bounty that comes from from just tickling the earth a bit with a hoe and seed and loving it with a sprinkle of water. That bounty is not only the succulent veggies, fruits and herbs that are raised but also the experience of being outside with our hands in the dirt feeling the living earth. Come over to the UCF Arboretum and grow with us!

Feng Shui at my home

2010-01-30T23:19:00.005-05:00

I recently had a Feng Shui consultation at my home by Melinda Joy Miller from the Shamballa Institute. With the principals of Feng Shui Melinda Joy offered suggestions to make slight adjustments to my home to make it a more wholistic, beautiful, and harmonious space. She started by asking questions about what I wanted in life for my home, job, relationship, money and connection with Mother Nature. We went through each room of the house moving things around, hanging pictures to reflect the light, making my daily areas more pleasant to be in and more productive to work in. Visit www.shambhallainstitute.com to learn more!

Composting Workshop this weekend

2010-01-25T09:17:00.002-05:00

Garbage into Gold...
Backyard Composting

When: Saturday, January 30th, 2010, 1:30-3:00pm

Tia Meer, longtime organic gardener, will lead this hands-on workshop in how to build and harvest a compost pile. Divert organic waste from the landfill while using your yard clippings and kitchen scraps to make your own fertilizer. Participants get a bag of compost to take home.

Fee $15 members/ $20 non-members
Advanced Registration Required
To Register email info@simplelivinginstitute.org
Or call (321) 228-4310

http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/econfarm.html#workshops

Volunteers help out at Econ Farm Open House and workday

2010-01-15T20:05:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came and helped plant at the Econ Farm Open House and workday. About a dozen people came to take a tour and we planted some seeds for the spring garden. What a good day.

Lake Formosa Community Garden is started!

2009-12-10T12:44:00.011-05:00

Simple Living Institute helped to start a new community garden downtown Orlando last weekend. The garden is located south of Lake Formosa and north of Virginia Ave near Ethos Vegan Kitchen. Despite the rain and gloom, twelve people participated in the start up of this new community garden. We built two biointensive garden beds and planted a fenceline permaculture garden consisting of bananas, papayas, Okinawan spinach, sugarcane, and basil. This community garden is open to the public and anyone is welcome to join in. Thanks to everyone who helped! Our next workday is scheduled for Saturday January 9th from 10am-1pm.

The Philanthropy Center

2009-11-21T08:56:00.004-05:00

Simple Living Institute has a membership with the Rollins Philanthropy Center, a very supportive organization for nonprofits. Tia and I attended a class there this week given by Annetta Wilson titled "Give a Better Elevator Speech" .

Just the words elevator speech congers images of being trapped in a small space with a high powered salesman, doesn't it? So what does this have to do with living simply?

When we are out and about people ask the big question: "What do you do?" We all ask and answer this question in our business and social lives. We took the class because answering the same old way was not satisfying to us or to the people asking. There had to be a better way to make our message clear in a very short time period. Now that is living simply.

Aahh! dear readers, Tia and I were in for an unexpectedly wonderful learning experience! We knew we would come away with something new to say to people, but it was the way Ms. Wilson helped us find our own great words to use that was such a delight and real work as well. It was clear that all we gleaned could be used for any specific event or different aspect of our endeavor, be it a nonprofit or business.

It was a 3 hour workshop, so I can't cover all we learned here. But, if you would like to dialogue with Tia or myself more about specifics of this class, please reach to us via the Simple Living Institute website. We'd love to share with you some of the exercises we learned. It was fun! They showed us how to tap into what really goes on in your nonprofit, or your business and be able to tell about it in 30 seconds or less.

These new skills are quite valuable in our hurry scurry world. People do ask the question, "What do you do?" But Ms. Wilson made it clear that that is not really what they want. They want to know what's in it for them. And we can help them find out quickly if we have what they want. Simple!

Ms. Wilson demonstrated the Dr. Mehrabian formula for effective communication. His studies conclude that all communication between people is 55% non-verbal, body language, 38% tone, inflection and pace, 7% actual words or data. Who you are and how you come across conveys most of your message! And because the rest is only 7%, those words must be chosen to carry the most impact.

We learned that people respond to emotional words and enthusiastic delivery. We turned from the old way, "We show people how to grow their own garden organically" to to the new "Our hands on workshops help you to magically bring great food to your table by playing in the dirt!" When we say something like that, as opposed to presenting our laundry list of events activities, and benefits, it allows who we are talking to to decide if they want to know more. A conversation can be had, or not. Either way is good.

This is another skill we can use to live simply. This helps us to not get bogged down with telling people too much. Let them ask if they want more. So simple!

Make your own Greenhouse

2009-11-07T09:10:00.005-05:00

We just made our own greenhouse with two plant stands we got for $100 each. We put a PVC pipe in the top to connect them and then added irrigation with another PVC pipe with misters attached. Once it gets cold enough, I'll put on a piece of plastic to cover. We'll have this on demo and for sale at our next Organic Growers Meeting on Weds Nov. 18th from 7-9pm at Leu Gardens.

write-up from Diversity in the Nonprofit Sector at Rollins

2009-10-30T20:35:00.002-04:00

Simple Living Institute enjoys a membership with the Rollins Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center. Because of this, our board allowed me to attend their Leaders Series Luncheon titled Power & Privilege: Diversity in the Nonprofit Sector. This sumptuous event was sponsored by Rollins Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center and by AFP, Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Sumptuous because the meeting room is well appointed with portrait paintings of many civic leaders leaders, lush carpet and fresh flowers adorned the circular tables laden heavily with brightly colored lunchables, tuxedoed attendants pouring iced tea with lime. Lake Fairview on this warm October day beckoned from the very large windows.

Every seat in the room was filled with fellow workers and leaders from nonprofits of all sizes, shapes and persuasions. The panel invited for discussion came from 4 different and quite influential sectors of the nonprofit arena. The topic, sumptuous in itself: diversity. All of this combined to make an afternoon that filled my heart, head and stomach to beyond capacities.

The moderator began with a bold statistic. Orange County Schools have more kids who speak different languages than any other county school system in the state. More than Seminole, more than Dade or Broward counties. Wow! So what does that mean to us? This statistic reveals that our kids are in their math class sitting next to someone who might not speak English or even Spanish as their first language. It means that we all must embrace diversity with both arms! Our kids are!

The panel was asked to, one by one to define the title of this luncheon Power and Privilege: Diversity in the Nonprofit Sector. The 4 did not disagree much on exactly what diversity is. The Webster's definition prevails. The juicy discussion was exposed when they spoke of inclusion. They explained that the challenge for nonprofits is to walk the talk. Yes, they must include language in their grant proposals that states they "embrace diversity" by hiring non-whites, gays and women or accept their volunteer efforts. But when it comes right down to it, these people are do not become board members. No they are janitors, or leaflet distributors or day care workers. Monies are granted because the mission statements of most nonprofits are aligned with the high idea of inclusion. After all, many nonprofits serve the very people we are talking about.

So how can change be brought about? One panelist spoke at length about perspective, our own perspective! She urged us to consider ourselves first. The eyes we look through are greatly influenced by our own experiences or lack there of. This made me think of when I was a kid, my dad worked closely with the Special Olympics. At their events I saw special needs kids clamoring for my dad, running up to him and hugging him! I grew up jealous of these kids! I didn't realize how much he enjoyed it. I do now, but I still give a person in a wheel chair a wide berth when I pass one on the street. Can you see how our own perspectives could be a handicap?

When asked about power and privilege, all 4 panelists agreed that the power and the privilege in the nonprofit sector lies within their boards. They all spoke of how difficult it can be to deal with board members whose actions or beliefs are not in alignment with the lofty goal of embracing diversity. Discomfort arises when tender subjects are brought up and there is misinterpretation that blame is being laid. The panelists said a lot of time is spent here, smoothing feathers.

In truth there is no blame, they said, and that all Americans were at sometime the minority that immigrated here. It just seems so much more scary now because many people who make up this "diversity" are not European. And some still are unnerved, because after all we've been through together, in some circumstances, blacks don't enjoy the recognition they deserve.

Solutions? Yes, solutions had their moment in the (abundant, natural) light. The panelists threw out a call to action! They suggest that we do a little self searching and prepare to speak about our own prejudices. They urged us to reach beyond our centers of influence, maybe even way beyond and talk with people to ask questions. One panelist complained that when he holds a "multi-cultural" event, there are no white people!

Everyone wants to tell about their needs and wants and to convey those of their families'. Filling the need to be asked and the want to be heard would go a long way to help everybody to "embrace diversity". The panelists assured us that we'd find a wide swath of expertise hidden with those who seem so different. They promised that there is much more of a commonality between us all than we may have thought.

Panelists:

Michael Freeman

Allies/Diversity Initiatives Coordinator

UCF

Sue Idtensohn

President/CEO

Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando

Linda Landman-Gonzalez

Vice President of Community Relations

and Government Affairs

Orlando Magic

David Odahowski

President/CEO

Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation

Ourlando Local Food Alliance Farm To Table Event

2009-10-27T15:08:00.003-04:00

Join us at Farm To Table event! Sunday November 15th from 12:30-2:30pm at the Enzian. Simple Living Institute is part of Ourlando's Local Food Alliance which promotes small farms, local organic foods, and connecting farmers to consumers and creating a local economy. Admission is $18 and you get food, drink, and to see the feature film Food Fight. Simple Living Institute will have a booth. Let us know if you would like to volunteer. Help us to connect the dots - local farmers, producers, restaurants, markets, and the public to help build a sustainable, local food economy.

Simple Living Plant Sale and Farm Day

2009-10-14T01:03:00.008-04:00

Fall is prime gardening season in Florida so get your gardens ready. Come out to our fall plant sale this Saturday, October 17th, from 9am to 4pm, at the Econ Farm, and pick up some starter plants to get your garden growing. We will have vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, natives, and flowers. We are growing varieties well suited to our Florida climate. Stop by to visit our farm and learn more with our free demonstrations on how to start seeds, feed worms, use a solar panel, start a garden, and sift compost.

Schedule of demonstrations
9am- Wetlands Exploration
10am- Making and Harvesting Compost
11am- How to Start a Garden
12pm- Planting seeds
1pm- Worm Composting
2pm- Natural Pest Control
3pm- Solar Energy

>More Info & Driving Directions
>View Flyer (.pdf)

Pumpkin Harvest

2009-10-01T13:31:00.007-04:00

This summer our garden was completely overrun by cover crops such as black eyed peas, volunteer flowers, and squash vines. We grew luffa squashes for sponges and transplanted some mystery squash from the compost pile. When mid-September rolled around, it was time to clear the mess. The squash vines had taken up the entire 600 square foot garden bed and overrun about 20 feet into our driveway. In the process we found 10 Seminole pumpkins, a dozen luffas, and 3 large green crooknecks. We cut a Seminole pumpkin in half and cooked it on the campfire. It was so delicious it didn't even need any salt or butter. We are currently storing the pumpkins under our house where it is cooler and shady and hope they will last a long time.

Organic Gardening Workshop

2009-09-21T15:52:00.007-04:00

This weekend is our Organic Gardening Workshop. It will take place at the Econ Farm and you will learn hands on how to start a new garden, plant seeds, and amend the soil for planting. The workshop is for any skill level of gardener. Fall is the prime gardening season in Florida. You will learn what to plant when, seed spacing, and garden design. Come out to see our gardening techniques. Advanced registration is required so make sure and contact us to register. The workshops will be limited to 15 people because there is not a lot of room for people in the garden:)

Seed Exchange

2009-09-17T07:27:00.006-04:00

We had a great seed exchange last night at our Organic Growers meeting. We all sat at big round tables like for a banquet dinner and separated the seeds according to family or season and swapped. It was a one for one trade or people bought coupons for twenty-five cents each if they brought no seeds. The event went really well, I got to meet some new people, and get new seeds.

Fall gardening season is upon us!

2009-09-11T13:05:00.005-04:00

Here in Central Florida we are entering fall gardening season!

This is a very exciting time because in the next couple of months we have an opportunity to plant all sorts of yummy vegetables. At our Econ Farm, we have already planted seeds of tomatoes, peppers, and some brassicas such as broccoli, collards, and cabbage. Now that it is September it is time to plant, plant, plant! Get em in the ground: cucumbers, zuchinni, yellow crookneck squash, green beans, carrots, radishes, sweet peas and so many more. Happy planting:)

Seed planting time!

2009-08-21T14:42:00.009-04:00

Today we planted about 500 seeds with volunteers from Simple Living Institute, Inc! This is the last chance to plant warm season veggies like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant from seed. We planted a couple flats of cucumbers, yellow squash, and zuchinni. I'm gearing up for the fall with lots of collards, broccoli, cabbage, swiss chard, and bok choy. They should be pretty good size in a couple of months and we will be raffling them off at our upcoming growers meetings and selling them at our fall plant sale at the econ farm saturday October 17th.

Welcome simple livers!

2009-07-24T10:46:00.003-04:00

Hello all you simple livers out there! We have started this blog to keep you updated on what Simple Living Institute, Inc. is doing and give you tips and direction on how you can live more simply wherever you are at! Please feel free to leave comments and let us know what you think!