Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Place: The Resiliency Institute, 10S404 Knoch Knolls Rd, Naperville, IL 60565
FREE, but donations to The Resiliency Institute are appreciated
Local food forms the basis of a new economy that will occupy most Americans for the remainder of the century. Author Peter Bane will discuss the emergence of garden farms in and around cities and how they can help us stabilize both our economy and the climate. Using permaculture, or ecological design, to create synergistic household systems, we can buffer our homes and families against the difficulties of volatile energy prices and future economic crises. The talk will focus on how our towns and suburbs can incubate the new eco-agriculture and launch a food security revolution. Hosted by The Resiliency Institute, a non-profit organization transforming the suburbs into resilient communities through permaculuture design and education. Read More
4 PDC Scholarships have been made available due to the generosity of an individual who supports our efforts and believes in the benefits of a permaculture education to create resilient communities.
Apply for $300 Scholarship
Application deadline: February 7, 2014
Results will be announced via email: February 10, 2014 Read More
What a treat to host Linda Conroy this past weekend to teach Cheese Making. She is so knowledgeable, skilled and nurturing, that you want to go home with her to have her teach you everything she knows and feed you nourishing foods. For those who have met her, I am sure you agree. I am so happy we are inviting her back in February to teach soap making and in June to teach fermenting and herbal remedy making. Don't miss these opportunities to learn from Linda. She is truly an herbal/homesteading goddess.
Soon I will have completed my first year as a beekeeper and am eager to continue along this path. I don't know that I ever would have considered beekeeping as a hobby had I not met Bill Lorch. Bill has been keeping bees for 60 years and has several hives on his small lot in Joliet in addition to other hives he manages in the neighborhood.
Bill and I met when I worked for Illinois Solar Energy Association. He participates in the annual Solar Tour, and rather than mailing his materials one year, I decided to drive out to his house to check out his solar installations. What I found when I arrived at his Joliet city lot was an edible yard filled with fruit trees - and I mean filled - annual vegetables growing everywhere, several beehives, a recently emptied chicken coop (Joliet doesn't allow chickens), an outdoor oven, and both solar thermal and photovoltaic systems. Bill was an urban permaculturist!
Linda Conroy, founder of Moonwise Herbs, is a bioregional herbalist with 20 years of experience. Bioregional herbalism believes in using plants that grow in your own region for healing, rather than subscribing to popular herbalism which recommends remedies made from plants all over the world. Linda offers this example, "If I have a fungal infection popular herbalism suggests I reach for Tea Tree oil and I remind myself that it comes from Australia. What resources does it take to bottle that herb and transport it to me? Now wisdom tells me that the people who lived on this continent had all the medicines they needed, so that leads me to look for an anti- fungal herb in my backyard. And so I reach for Red Cedar (Thuja plicata). I can make a strong infusion, a tincture or an oil with minimal impact to the planet."
