Posted in Composting Workshops and Events, General, Uncategorized, tagged compost, Composting, education, garden, gardening, school, schools on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Join the Solana Center for a great course on how to start and sustain a school garden. As with any garden, composting plays an important role and will also be discussed in this course along with several other issues that are critical to school garden success. One of the class days will focus on a hands-on garden build, from the dirt up! Please contact Elizabeth for more information at (760) 436-7986 ext. 218 or elizabeth@solanacenter.org.
Posted in "Rotline" Question of the Week, Composting for kids!, Composting Workshops and Events, General, How to, Master Composters, tagged compost bins, compost lessons, compost workshop, Composting, Composting for kids!, El Cajon, Farmer's Market, food scraps, free workshops, greens, Master Composters, mulch, nitrogen, vermicomposting, vermiculture, worm castings, worm tea, worms on October 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday, January 22, 2011
10 – 12 noon
San Diego Botanic Gardens
230 Quail Gardens Dr.
Encinitas, CA 92024
Saturday, February 5, 2011
10 – 12 noon
Water Conservation Garden
12122 Cuyamaca College Drive West
El Cajon, CA 92019
Monday, March 14, 2011
2-4 p.m.
Welk Resort Farmer’s Market
8860 Lawrence Welk Drive, Escondido, CA 92026
Saturday, March 19, 2011
10 – 12 noon
Summer’s Past Farm
15602 Olde Highway 80
El Cajon, CA 92021
Learn about the ins and outs of backyard composting and vermicomposting at this free workshop! Workshop will include information about selecting a bin, maintenance, harvesting, and more! A limited number of compost bins and worm bins will be available for purchase after the workshop.
Click here to pre-register now or to view a full list of upcoming workshops!
Posted in General, tagged compost, compost aerator, compost moisture meters, compost thermometers, composting tools, free composting workshops, Master Composters, newsletter, Solana Center, worm tea on September 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The latest edition of the Solana Center Composter Newsletter was emailed on September 1, 2010. This edition includes information about worm tea, composting tools, and upcoming workshops and events! Click here to take a look!
For a complete list of past Composter Newsletters visit the Composting 101 page. Don’t miss the next newsletter! Click here to join our mailing list!
Posted in General, tagged compost, compost bins, Composting, food scraps, free workshops, gardening, Master Composters, recycling, san diego, San Diego Zoo, Solana Center, sustainability, vermicomposting, worms on December 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday, January 9th, 2010
8am-10am
San Diego Zoo Otto Entrance
(one block south of main entrance)
Learn how to create rich garden soil, save water, and reduce trash at the landfill by recycling your kitchen scraps and garden debris at this FREE workshop.
Workshop is taught by trained Master Composters from the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation and cover how and what to compost using both a vermicomposting (worm) bin and a backyard composting bin.
Pre registration required. Please register online at www.solanacenter.org or by phone 760-436-7986 ext. 222. Limit 25 participants.
Click here to pre-register now!
Posted in General, tagged City of Encinitas, environment, reusable bags, single-use bags, Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, sustainability on December 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Join us for A DAY WITHOUT A BAG today, December 17th!!!!! Give up using single use bags for 24 hours!!!!
We will be giving away reusable bags at the following locations:
Encinitas City Hall 10am-6pm
Encinitas Community and Senior Centers 10am-6pm
Encinitas Public Works 10am-6pm
El Torito Market 4-6pm
Henry’s Marketplace, 1327 Encinitas Blvd. 4-6pm
Ralphs 125 N. El Camino Real 4-6pm
Seaside Market 4-6pm
Smart and Final 479 Encinitas Blvd. 12-2pm
Stater Bros. 1048 N. El Camino Real 4-6pm
Trader Joes 115 N. El Camino Real 4-6pm
Vons 262 N. El Camino Real and 453 Santa Fe Drive 4-6pm
while supplies last (one per household)
Posted in General, tagged compost, compost bins, Composter Quarterly Newsletter, free composting workshops, Master Composter Course, organic gardening, soil amendments, Solana Center, worm bins on September 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The September Composter Quarterly Newsletter is available online! This edition features information about the next Master Composter Course, the Solana Center’s newest worm bin, and information about upcoming events and workshops. To view this edition click here or visit the Composting 101 page for an archive of the Composter Quarterly Newsletter.
In this edition: The next Master Composter Course starts September 30th! Click here to read more!
Click here to sign up to receive the Solana Center Composter Quarterly Newsletter!
Posted in General, tagged compost, Composting, food scraps, Master Composters, Temperature on August 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
By Pete Ash, Master Composter
Pete supervises as greens are added to a compost pile
It all happened by mistake. Or did it? At this point I don’t really know. Many would say it was no accident, but in a way, it was. It all started a year ago when I decided to come to India to study Biodynamic Agriculture.
I had just completed a couple of intensive trainings in Biodynamics at ISKON Farms just outside Mysore in South India when I fell off a motorcycle and broke my shoulder. I had planned on staying in India for another two months to practice what I had just learned when the accident happened. There was nothing left to do but come home early.
1 pile is made every day at the ashram.
I couldn’t get a flight home for another three weeks so I decided to go over to the coast and lay low. The day before leaving Mysore, I met a young Westerner at breakfast that had just arrived from Amma’s ashram in Amritapuri, a small fishing village amidst the coconut groves along the Kerala coast. I didn’t know anything about Amma, “the hugging saint,” nor did my breakfast companion explain. That night I took the bus, arrived the following morning and checked into the ashram. As part of one’s stay at the ashram, one is expected to do a couple hours of “seva,” or service. I was told that because of my shoulder, I wasn’t expected to do anything, but when I saw the ashram’s Eco Department and gardens I thought I could at least pull a few weeds and do some watering.
Pete adds water to a compost pile.
When it got out that I was an experienced farmer and gardener, taught composting and organic gardening workshops—and was indeed a Master Composter—well, I got hooked in. Amma, who travels the world giving hugs and spreading her message of love, also preaches the need for making a “Greener” world (see www.amritapuri.org/). In no time, I was teaching composting workshops and giving lectures in organic farming and gardening, both at the ashram and also in Amma’s colleges attached to the ashram. By the time I returned to California in late January of this year I had helped Amma’s Engineering College start an organic garden (see http://www.amrita.edu/news2009/events-news/e-april/earth-day-amritapuri-organic-garden.php). The students had formed a “Green Friends” club following our composting workshop. By the end of June, I had lectured and composted with Amma’s Ayurveda College in Amritapuri, where the students also formed a Green Friends club and started their own organic garden. I have also been to Amma’s ashram in Mumbai where I lectured and composted with the Ayudh International group there (see http://www.ayudh.eu/2009/mumbai-organic-farming-workshop/).
The interior temperature of the piles are checked with sticks.
But my real “seva” has been the composting project here at the ashram in Amritapuri. By the end of my first trip in January of this year, I discovered that the ashram had been dumping the food waste (about 750 to 1000 kilos per day) into the backwaters. It was hard to believe. As it turned out, there had been several attempts in the past to compost the food waste but each time it had failed, creating terrible smells and attracting rats and crows, and upsetting the neighbors to no end. I couldn’t bear the thought of all that waste being thrown into the backwaters. I decided then that I would return and start a composting program.
I made my second trip to India in the last week of April. By the first week of May, we began composting, making a new pile each day. Today is August 25th and this is my third time to the ashram. We just finished making compost pile #106. It has been a lot of hard work, we’ve faced many challenges, but it has been very rewarding and so much fun.
Pete with friends at the ashram.
Pete Ash has been a Master Composter since 2007 but has been composting for many years. He is highly involved with the Master Composter program; instructing workshops, up keeping demonstration sites, instructing the Master Composter Course, and answering Rotline questions. Pete will be instructing the Master Composter Course this fall in Encinitas. To learn more about the Master Composter course, please visit the Solana Center Website. If you would like to ask Pete any questions about his work and experiences in India, please email Carlie (carlie@solanacenter.org) and she will forward your question onto Pete.
Posted in General, tagged compost, compost bins, Composter Quarterly Newsletter, free composting workshops, Solana Center, troubleshooting, vermicomposting, worms on June 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Click here to view the June 2009 Solana Center Composter Quarterly Newsletter! This edition includes Composting at the San Diego County Fair, how to select a compost bin, upcoming composting workshops and events, worm bin troubleshooting, and more!
To view an archive of the Composting Quarterly newsletter click here or visit the Composting 101 page.
Click here to sign up to receive the Solana Center Composter Quarterly Newsletter!
Posted in General, tagged gardening, landscaping, water conservation, Water Conservation Garden, Water Smart Pipeline on June 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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Concerned about how to garden in these water-challenging times? Call The Water Smart Pipeline!
866-962-7021 ext. 17
8:00 – 12 p.m. Tuesday mornings and 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. Thursday afternoons
Nan Sterman, instructor of “ByeBye Grass” class, author of California Gardener’s Guide Vol. 2, and host of the gardening television program “A Growing Passion” will answer your questions about water smart landscaping.
Provided by the Water Conservation Garden until the end of 2009.
Posted in General, tagged Food, food in policy, Inc., movies on June 17, 2009 | 2 Comments »
“In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.” (www.foodincmovie.com) Visit the Official Web Site.
Click here for a list of Food Inc. release dates and locations.
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