Sharing the Seeds of Love

It's that time of year again and the window sills are lined with starters: beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. The Green Committee is caring for the seedlings now that will become your family's food at the great giveaway this April. Earth Week at MdTL is my favorite time of year, embodying so much of what we all strive for: a strong community that shares with joyful, expectation-free abundance; an opportunity to learn from one another about how to simplify our lives through practical, responsible living; a time to celebrate the great Earth that we all inhabit; and an occasion when our children can inspire us with compost 'how-to' and planet inspired poetry! This living is a supreme gift and Earth Week provides the sprinkling of wonder, friendship, partnership and generosity that makes our community whole.

A Final Earth Day Thought...

EARTHWEEK DAY 5: Happy Earth Day

"The earth is what we all have in common." ~ Wendell Berry

Please join us as we celebrate Earth Day with a composting demonstration by our Upper Elementary students, and a display of earthly thoughts by the students as well. At 3PM we will meet at our newly approved garden plot behind the school for a brief overview of what is to come this fall. Your soil donations can be brought to the school in the morning or the afternoon. Either way, we're going to get you dirty!

Earth Week Day Four: Seasonal Living

"Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables, they probably get jet-lagged, just like people." ~ Elizabeth Berry

Please join us as we celebrate local eats and local produce with our friends at Full Belly Farms. 4 lucky families will take home a free CSA box and one luck family will walk away with our first MdTL Family Recipe, Community Cookbook.

When you begin to eat the highest quality food that you can find, your entire being will awaken and sing. Children especially benefit from simple, vibrant, tasty and fresh foods; they smile more, sleep more, and clean their rooms frequently.

Earth Week Day Three: Clothing Swap

"There is no delight in owning anything unshared." ~ Seneca

Please join us for our second clothing swap of the year. When is shopping ever this fun? Especially for the children! All of my daughter's favorite clothing items have come from our MdTL Clothing Swaps, and what fun it is to see these shared treasures skipping around our campus.
Come enjoy the only fashion that doesn't leave a pollution footprint!

Shopping hours: 8AM-3:30PM

Cost: $0.00

Earth Week Day Two: Made at Home

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." ~Leondard da Vinci

Beautiful breads and yogurt by Daniela Weeren

Please join us Tuesday morning for an offering of homemade breads, muffins, yogurt and even a lemon sugar moisturizing hand scrub. Everyone benefits when you swing open the cupboards, and get busy.

Sugar scrub recipes are easy to mix up in a couple of minutes. When you want to clean your skin and lighten it at the same time one of the neatest ways to do it is by using items you already have in your kitchen. Lemons are natural skin exfoliators and using them in your sugar scrub will give it an additional boost. The fragrance is divine!

Lemon Skincare Tip

The most important part of using any type of lemon skin care product is to make sure that you dilute the lemon juice.Why? Because lemon has a very high pH factor. It isn’t suitable for using on your skin by itself. When combined with water, it changes the pH to a more acceptable level.

Take 1 lemon and roll it on the counter while pressing. This will “mush” the inside of the lemon so that it will be easier to extract the juice.Now, just cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a small cup or bowl. Mix with an equal amount of water.Begin by adding a tablespoon of white granulated sugar into your the lemon water and stir. Continue adding small amounts of sugar until a paste is formed. Use in the shower.

Moisturizing Lemon Scrub

If you want to transform your lemon sugar scrub into a moisturizing sugar scrub it's possible by simply adding almond, olive, or grape seed oil.

To modify your mixture simply add a little oil by the spoonful and mix to the desired consistency. It will be approximately 2 parts of your lemon sugar to 1 part oil.

* Never use almond oil in a skin care recipe if you are allergic to nuts!

Lemon Sugar Body Polish

You can even transform your lemon sugar scrub into a body polish. Simply mix it with an equal amount of liquid soap. It makes the perfect quick body scrub. Sugar scrub recipes will last for several days if you keep them in your refrigerator. You can enhance the fragrance even further by adding a few drops of your favorite essential oil. Sugar scrub recipes are perfect for experimenting with because the ingredients are inexpensive and can be mixed quickly.

Hand scrub courtesy of Loren Altura-Hopkins

EARTHWEEK DAY 1: Seedling giveaway

Please join us Monday morning for a selection of free vegetable and flower starters. These little plants have already sprouted and will need a gentle introduction to the outdoor elements with moist, but not wet soil. After a week to 10 days of transition they'll be ready to go into a large pot or a compost enriched mound outdoors. There is nothing quite like growing your own food. Enjoy!

How to transplant seedlings

(Click on picture for more information about taking care of your seedlings)

EARTH WEEK: DAY FIVE

The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee; a clover, any time, to him is aristocracy.
~Emily Dickinson

Celebrating Bees


"One-third of the world's food supply depends on bees for pollination. Every year in California alone, honeybees pollinate more than 100 crops worth more than $6 billion, including vegetables, nuts (notably almonds), fruit and wildflowers. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or from a colony of European honeybees, Apis mellifera, suddenly disappear.

To produce their own drug-free queens, a few Marin County beekeepers are breeding queens that are able to detect a hive infested with mites and other pathogens, kill and remove the damaged brood, and thus protect the rest of the hive from infection. Also, University of California researchers are selectively breeding bees that hoard pollen, as this trait enables these bees to maintain their nutritional requirements over the winter and concomitantly protects them from succumbing to CCD.

To learn more about bees and CCD watch PBS' Silence of the Bees: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/video-podcast/69/ and for bee-friendly gardening, visit the farm at the College of Marin's Indian Valley campus. Bethallyn Black, the farm manager, working with Steve Smart, a local organic bee grower, is installing five beehives, each with an organic queen bee and pheromone to attract feral male drones from untreated hives. These hives will not be sprayed with toxic chemicals for pathogens, such as mites. The goal is to breed queens with feral males in the midst of myriad flowers and vegetables attractive to bees on this productive organic farm. The mix of pollens available in the farm's garden will provide the building blocks for the best bee diet and most robust bees. It's hoped this type of endeavor will inspire beekeepers in other parts of the country and world to raise bees without the use of pesticides, herbicides or other unnatural or harmful substances, so that bee populations will begin to be restored to their former health." Full Marin IJ article click here

Creating a Bee Friendly Garden

Bees are all about pollen. If you want to support the many different varieties of bees which range through your yard, plant some things which will feed them.

The good news here is that bee-friendly plants are easy to grow. Scatter a variety through your yard, ensuring a good supply of pollen through the warm months. Bees prefer flowers that are blue, purple, or yellow.

Clover is a great choice. Bees love it, and clover makes attractive and robust ground cover. There are organic varieties available.

Other bee-yummy plants: sage, salvia, oregano, lavender, ironweed, yarrow, yellow hyssop, alfalfa, honeywort, dragonhead, echinacea, bee balm (guess where the name comes from?), buttercup, goldenrod, and English thyme.

Flowering trees are also attractive to bees. Try tulip poplars, tupelos, oranges, and sourwoods. Don’t forget that bees need sources of shallow water.

Unless you have particular bee allergies, don’t be afraid of attracting pollinators to your property. The “bees” that give most people trouble — yellowjackets, wasps, and hornets — aren’t really bees at all, and won’t be attracted by bee-friendly plants.

Local San Rafael Honey Contact:

Bill Pappy
willbpappy@hotmail.com
415 499 1099

EARTH WEEK: DAY FOUR

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society." Martin Luther King Jr.

Earth Day Clothing Swap

Rethinking the way that we live is the single most important act that any of us can make. When we begin to question why we make purchases, where we make purchases, how we purchase what we need, and what we are purchasing––we begin a solution minded, thoughtful living existence that feels gooooooooood.

Clothing swaps, freecycle programs, sharing, bartering, and trading all force us to connect with one another more and connections breed yummy things.

Some thoughtful investments that we can make:

* very high quality, long-lifetime goods
* locally made goods
* locally available or recycled building materials
* low toxicity goods and furnishings
* locally grown, organic food
* self-sufficient lifestyle products

EARTH WEEK: DAY TWO

"We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them."
Albert Einstein

Many of our most common purchases and land fill culprits can be made at home. There is a pride that comes with frugal living--a deep satisfaction about using less, and finding one's own solutions. Enjoy!

Save the $4-8 on foaming hand soap and make your own, using the same bottle over and over and over again: FOAMING HAND SOAP INSTRUCTIONS

Cloth napkins are convenient, stylish and smart--for your family and the planet: SEW-FREE CLOTH NAPKINS

Vinegar and water cleaning solutions are as effective as the pricey store cleaners that leave chemical residues all over your house. Next time your spray cleaner runs out--save the bottle and try these recipes: HOMEMADE CLEANERS

Everyday we pack lunches for our children and ourselves (hopefully). Here are some of our favorite eco-lunch container options: ECO-FOOD CONTAINERS
ECO-FRIENDLY LUNCH TIPS

EARTH WEEK: DAY ONE

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies." ...Gertrude Jekyll

CARING FOR YOUR SEEDLINGS

As your seedlings grow stronger, thorough but less frequent watering is needed to encourage root growth.

They will need partial shade when young but should be increasingly exposed to the sun so they become used to conditions in the garden. Water in the morning rather than at night.

TRANSPLANTING YOUR SEEDLINGS

Mark where you plan to put each of your plants. Use a trowel to make a hole large enough to take the root system.

Gently ease out the vegetable seedling from its container taking as much of the soil as you can with it into the garden bed or new container.

Firm the soil around the plant in its new position, cover the area with mulch and water it gently.

It is best to transplant seedlings in the late afternoon or evening to give the plants time to settle before being subjected to midday sun.

*A note about soil: several failed gardening attempts later and I can tell you that nothing matters more than the soil. Take time to create either a simple mound, raised bed or container that combines your 'native soil' and compost (if you don't have any at home, a small bag can be purchased at any nursery). Soil that maintains moisture without over saturating the roots is ideal. I find in my yard that vegetables grow much better above ground in mounds and beds.

EARTH WEEK AT MdTL

CELEBRATING AND PROTECTING OUR HOME

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you."

Frank Lloyd Wright

Monday April 20: BUY LOCAL-Information on all Marin Farmer’s Market locations and times, as well as a list of grocers who support local farms and a seasonal veg/fruit calendar.

Tuesday April 21: SHARE THE RIDE-MdTL Carpool Map Display and bike maps.

Wednesday April 22: EARTH DAY/HEIRLOOMS-Heirloom tomato starters with care instructions, growing instructions and historical information.

Thursday April 23: COMPOSTING IN ACTION-Before, during, and after compost piles as well as a composting tutorial by Alex Bottmeyer at 3:15PM (childcare provided).

Friday April 24: THE GREAT SUNFLOWER PROJECT-Sunflower Project & Seeds and Starters with growing instructions and Honey Bee information. Solar presentation by 'Solar Guy' John Bennett at 2:30PM.

EARTH WEEK AT MdTL

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Monday 4/20: 'BUY LOCAL' Information on all Marin Farmer’s Market locations and times, as well as a list of grocers who support local farms and a seasonal veg/fruit calendar.

Tuesday 4/21: 'SHARE THE RIDE' Google MdTL Carpool Map Display, as well as local bike maps. Hike to the Ridge––8:45PM. Join us as we explore just outside MdTL's door.

Wednesday 4/22: 'EARTH DAY' Heirloom Tomato Starters for each MdTL family, with growing instructions and heirloom information. PA Mtg.––8:45AM Valerie Young will talk nutrition and the Sierra Club will share why Novato needs to get on board with Marin Clean Energy.

Thursday 4/23: 'COMPOSTING IN ACTION' Before, during, and after compost piles, as well as a composting tutorial by our very own Alex Bottmeyer––3:15PM.

Friday 4/24: 'SUNFLOWERS, BEES & SUN' Sunflower plants & seeds for MdTL families, as well as growing instructions and Honey Bee information. Solar Guy John Bennett will teach us all about going solar–– 3:15PM