2010 Summer program

THE 2010 TEAM!!

We say it every year, but it's always true. This was the best summer EVER for Deepening Roots! We had five new participants: Lashanda, Addy, Julia, Victor, and Naren, and two returners Jenny Olah and Joel Collard.

The director Andrew Korza was at the helm for the three plus weeks and was supported by Abhimanyu Sud (Youth Empowerment Seminar master teacher) Andrew and Shenaqua Jones (Permaculture, Health, and Culinary Arts instructors).

All the participants made big steps towards becoming Deepening Roots workshop facilitators and the program took another step towards going global with Victor hailing from Sweden, Addy from Dubai, Lashanda and Naren from the US, and Julia holding down Canada.

In the future you, our faithful readers will get to hear from the participants themselves as they immerse themselves in gardening, smoothies (green ones?) meditation, health, community, workshop planning and all the other fun details that they picked up over the summer.

Addy has already started seeding a garden in Dubai

Here is the most recent-

Ive started a vegetable garden. Got a wooden table made so i can stand easily and work. Its 52 degrees celsius here (125 F).

im having fun though

Addy

the promised video

This video is hot off the presses. I have not run it though the appropriate channels to check for content, so I hope I still have a job Monday. Enjoy. Oh yes, Ill put it on fbook soon too. Thanks to all that joined us in DC and to Alton Ellis for the sound track.

DC=Awesome

Here we are in the busy season for Deepening Roots! We just finished up a 2-day workshop in DC and judging from the participants responses and smiles, it was another success.

Again we had a wide range of people, established gardeners, newbies, nutritionists, Art of Living teachers and more, and again each and everyone got something (lots of things actually) from the 12 hours. I was able to attend/observe and will be assisting on the next course, so you better be there!

For me the best part was planting and designing two poly-culture gardens. One was annual plants (cucs, tomatoes, basil). The other was perennial including a blueberry bush, lupine, strawberries, and yarrow. If you don't know why these four are good together, take the course, and you will say "Oh, that makes sense, wow, that's smart" or something along those lines. Seeing the joy on peoples faces as they planted is wonderful!



The summer program has started and I am eagerly awaiting a report on the first few days. Ill update you all once I hear, or at the latest, when I get there later in June.

Enjoy June!

Michael Sustick

A great link for Urban farmers.

stumbled upon this rummaging around google. It is the blog for "Little Homestead in the City" (a play off Laura Ingles Wilder's books "little house on the prairie"). Basically, a family in Urban Pasadena grows about 6,000 pounds of organic produce every year on ONLY 1/5 of an acre. Although not all the links on their website are working I still recommend checking it out. I found the "homestead" tab off the main page to be informative and inspiring.

what you can watch on TV on earth day...

In honor of Earth Day 2010 PBS has some great programming avaiable to watch. One cant miss film is "Dirt the movie" which is playing on Idependent Lens. Don't worry it is playing on days besides Earth Day which leaves you plenty of time to go to this website an find out what is happening in your community. If you are looking for someting to do after you read this blog, maybe check out this. Finally if your brains aren't mush from all this media I am recommending, take a look (if it is on in your area) at this feature on Rachel Carson.

Soon a very special Deepening Roots video will be taken out of the vault and be released to the public for the first time in two years. I just know you cant wait to see it!

-Michael

PS today I reached the highest point in NJ. (not very high) but I took a picture anyway. Ill insert that soon. Have you been to any highest points in the states? Tell me about it!

Mixed bag

Today you get a two-for-one.

First are two pictures of the 2-day workshop in Oakland (remember, we have another coming right up in DC!). And second you get to see some early efforts of my class (pre-school) and our tiny garden.

Andrew leads the group in a discussion: "what do you look for in a life partner?" why do we discuss this? I guess you will have to take the workshop to find out!

During the workshop you get to sample delicious superfoods courtesy of

Navitas Naturals Just snacking on this stuff is worth the price of admission. My favorite are the golden berries.

Nursery School Garden

This photo captures about 1/3 of our beautiful plot. The green springs shooting up are garlic (planted last fall). Ready to pop out are Cosmos, nasturshums, and marigolds. Once the flowers have gained some footing we will mulch it with straw. Ill keep you updated through the spring...

2-day workshop in DC

Happy to report that our successful workshop in Oakland has helped us secure dates and a venue for our next workshop. The workshop will be held on May 29th and 30th in Washington DC and will run from 12-5 both days. Below is a flyer with the information. For more detailed information including a overview of the two days and facilitator bios check out the registration page

Also there is a $20 dollar discount for registrations sent before May 13th.

I will share more as it becomes available.

-Michael

Click on poster for larger view!