[Sviannouncements] Upcoming SVI Events

[Sequatchie Valley Institute]

Lots of events coming up!
April 12, 2009:
Wildflower Hike (10:00 am)
April 18, 2009:
SVI Tour of Moonshadow (1:00 pm)
April 25, 2009:
Party for the Planet -- Earth Day at the Aquarium
April 27, 2009:
Beehive Collective -- True Cost of Coal (5:00 pm)
May 16, 2009:
SVI Tour of Moonshadow (1:00 pm)
May 21, 2009:
Food For Life (May 21-31)
June 11, 2009:
Bonnaroo! (June 11-14)

Come on up this weekend and join us for the wildflower hike... the  
last one was mostly moonshadow crew, and we had an awesome hike and  
learned a ton from john johnson and patrick. BRING FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Also, please plan to join use during Food for Life... it's 2 weekends  
in May for 2009, with many awesome workshops presented by regional  
food experts.

Food for Life 2009 — Schedule

(subject to change - please call if you want to be sure about a  
particular workshop)
Food for Life is run on Central Time.


Thursday May 21

1:00 -4:00 Arrivals at Moonshadow, set up tent, lunch
4:00-6:00 – Edible Landscaping/Forest Farming (Patrick Ironwood) -  
Patrick will focus on specific species and strategies that have  
worked in Moonshadow’s climate… and what hasn’t.  After 35 years  
of research, the Moonshadow landscape has taught us a lot - we would  
like to pass this on to all interested in growing food and developing  
a relationship with the land.
6:15 – Dinner
7:45 — Welcome Circle and Vision Sharing (Facilitator: Sandorkraut)  
- We’ll open Food for Life this year with a circle in which we will  
brainstorm about ways folks can reclaim food from corporate control.  
Bring ideas, visions, and fantasies of grassroots action to create  
better food choices. In our circle we will share our visions and  
inspire one another to action.


Friday, May 22

8:00-9:00 – Breakfast
9:15 – Morning Circle
9:30-10:30 – Introduction to Fermentation (Sandor Katz) - Experience  
how simple it is to harness the transformational power of  
microorganisms to make foods and beverages more delicious, more  
nutritious, more digestible, and more stable. Learn about the healing  
qualities and nutritional importance of live-culture ferments, as  
well as their illustrious history and integral role in human cultural  
evolution. Empower yourself with simple techniques for fermenting  
these healthful foods in your home. Be part of the fermentation revival!
10:45-12:15   — Food, Evolution, and Body Ecology (Rachel Fee- 
Prince)- A discussion centering around our evolutionary relationship  
with food and the paradigm shift happening now concerning our food &  
illness.  We will look at our species growing intolerance to staple  
foods, our immunity, gut flora & the mysterious endocrine system.   
How big is the picture?  How are we evolving now?  And how do we tend  
the garden within?
12:30-1:45 — Lunch
2:00-5:00 — Fermentation - Wine and Beer (Andrew Armstrong and  
Patrick Ironwood) We’ll keg an ale brewed the prior weekend, learn a  
bit about brewing, and participants will each fill a bottle to take  
home and savor when the time is right. We’ll also learn to make a  
simple country wine from local ingredients.
5:15 — Dinner
6:45  “Life and Debt” (facilitator, Jeff Rodgers) “Life and  
Debt” explores the effect of the International Monetary Fund’s  
(IMF) policies on developing countries through Jamaica’s experience  
with the organization. Jamaica, having gained its independence from  
Britain in 1962, found itself struggling as a result of the oil  
embargo the following year. In order to receive loans from the IMF,  
the country entered into a tricky agreement with its lenders. The  
terms of the loan stipulated that Jamaica had to agree to reduce  
trade barriers by withdrawing its local import restrictions, and thus  
enter the world market. The local economy became flooded with foreign  
goods, which were cheaper than those produced locally, resulting in a  
loss of jobs and economic self-reliance.  A powerful example of the  
cycle of dependence is seen through the method of milk production.    
Jeff will lead a discussion after the movie.


Saturday May 23

8:00-9:00  – Breakfast
9:15 — Morning Circle
9:30-11:45  – Choice of two workshops:
Too Much Food??  (Carol Kimmons) - Safe and Healthy Food
Preservation.  This hands-on workshop will cover fun and easy methods of
canning, pickling, freezing, and drying your surplus from the garden  
or market.  Materials and instruction booklets included.
Play with Yer Food (Michelle Kimmons) - A hands-on crafts workshop  
just for kids! (…yes, grown-ups are welcome to participate as well).  
Hope your imaginations are hungry, because Michelle is cookin’ up  
some creative fun!  This year, we will look at examples of art  
inspired by food and then make our own fabulous art using things  
found in the kitchen! Your refrigerator has never seen art like this!
12:00-1:15  – Lunch
1:30-3:15 — Econutrition (Joel Kimmons) - Lets talk about  
nourishment- ecology and where we fit in- how can we live an inspired  
gastronomic experience while nourishing the earth and all her  
communities.  Local food, CSAs, farmers markets, community gardens,  
green spaces, school gardens, cooking, eating, and how to be more  
than just poop factories.  Bring  short questions (or don’t) and we  
will work towards the best  answers in a real world and whole world  
perspective.
3:30-5:00  Tonic Beverages (Sandor Katz) This workshop will cover  
kombucha, kefir, water kefir and beet kvass.
5:15-6:45 — Cultural development in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world: Green  
response to the collapse of the Great Toxic Bubble (Sandy Hepler) -  
Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon.  This workshop will have a special  
emphasis on food and nutrition.  Experiences and food costs will be  
drawn from Sandy’s experiences in Nicaragua which are typical of  
many 3rd world countries.
7:00 — Pizza and wood fired cob oven discussion (Patrick Ironwood) -  
we will disscus the ins and outs of wood oven use and tips on  
building your own… as we bake.


Sunday May 24

8:00-9:00 — Breakfast
9:15 — Morning Circle and Fermentation check-in
9:30-11:00 — Wild Edibles and Native Plants (Carol Kimmons) Walk  
through the fields and forest to discover plants which have fed and  
healed
Appalachian humans for thousands of years.  Learn about current  
research on safe medical uses of our native plants.  Collect plants  
to make a “wild salad” for the evening meal.
11:15-12:45 — Hands On Herbalism (Rachel Fee-Prince) - We’ll  
prepare one herb three ways, exploring how each medium changes the  
herbs actions as well as discuss many other herbs & their  
applications.  Relaxed discussion atmosphere with plenty of  Q&A  
time.  Bring a small glass jar with lid if you wish to take medicine  
home.
1:00 — Lunch
2:15-3:45 — Chocolate Surprise (Sandy Hepler) - Explore an all-time  
world favorite. Cacao itself is health food and can be made  
healthier.  Original Aztecs drank it as a hot, bitter, peppered drink  
(did they ever add honey?).  A really healthy, great-tasting  
chocolate is possible!  samples of delicious organic chocolate are  
guaranteed. These are handmade in northern Tennessee by Sandy Hepler  
himself, our Mad Kitchen Scientist.
4:00 — First Weekend Closing Circle

Monday:  hike and swim
Tuesday: work day at Ulinawi, Moonshadow’s neighbor (see below)
Wednesday: work day at Ulinawi

This season Ulinawi is taking off with new agricultural and building  
projects!   We will be pasture-farming chickens, working towards a  
more animal-integrated landscape, as well as developing garden beds  
and row crops.
Also, we are simultaneously working on revolutionarily simple rural  
family housing and permanent earth bag and timber-frame thousand-year  
dwellings.  Other projects include developing a vermiculture system  
(worms), experimenting with rabbit breeding and mushroom cultivation  
and taking care of our goats.


Thursday May 28

10:00 — Sequatchie Cove Farm Tour This day will start with a trip to  
the “Sequatchie Cove Farm,” a diversified family-run biodynamic  
farm working with available resources, focusing on grass-based animal  
protein (eggs, meat).  They also raise bees and native plants,  
operate a pick-your-own berry patch
and have made their own biodiesel.
12:00-2:15 —  Arrivals at Moonshadow, Tent Set-Up and Lunch
2:30-4:30 — Permaculture (Patrick Ironwood) The moonshadow homestead  
is a great example of permaculture… we will explore and disscuss the  
key ideas behind these concepts.
4:45-5:45 — Artist/Activists Participatory Theatre - part one  
(Cerulean, Aurelia Crumb, Trish Woolbright and Patrick Ironwood) -  
Group games, improv, automatic play writing and exploring fearless  
narratives!  All ages invited to
play.  We will create a play to be performed on Saturday night.
6:00 — Dinner
7:30  –  ”Flow” (Asha Ironwood, Facilitator) - For 84 terrifying  
and informative minutes, filmmaker Irena Salina makes a very  
persuasive case for stopping the commoditization of water and  
ensuring that everyone has access to clean drinking water. Salina  
interviews an array of researchers and activists who all describe the  
frightening international situation: dirty water kills more people  
than wars, the world is quickly running out of clean water, and water  
has become a valuable commodity for multinational corporations to  
exploit for profit.


Friday May 29

8:00-9:00 — Breakfast
9:15 — Morning Circle
9:30-10:30  Slow Food, Farm to School, Preserving Farmland (Trish  
King) - Discussion on the philosophy of Slow Food USA: promoting  
good, clean, and fair food.  How will a good, clean, and fair food  
system benefit communities?  What are the implications for  
institutional food systems such as school lunches?  What will happen  
to our local food economy as land use changes and farmland is  
threatened by sprawl?  From a global movement to the local food  
scene, we’ll discuss what it means to live Slow.
10:45-11:45  Choice of two workshops:
Beer Brewing, Bottling & Kegging (Andrew Armstrong) We’ll keg an ale  
brewed the prior weekend, learn a bit about brewing, and participants  
will each fill a bottle to take home and savor when the time is right.
Artist/Activists Participatory Theatre - part two (Cerulean, Aurelia  
Crumb, Trish Woolbright and Patrick Ironwood) - We look for the play.  
Characters start appearing…
12:00-1:15 — Lunch
1:30-3:30  – Hands-on Tempeh and Vegetable Fermentation workshop  
(Sandor Katz)
3:45 —  Cheese for Beginners workshop (Spiky)
Dinner
Evening program — “Man and Fungi : A Journey into the Past,  
Present, and Future of Mushrooms on Earth” (Tradd Cotter)


Saturday May 30

8:00-9:00  – Breakfast
9:15  – Morning Circle
9:30-11:30 — Mushrooms : Cultivation, Composting, and Biological  
Filters (Tradd Cotter) - Participants will learn the basics of log  
and straw cultivation of most edible mushrooms.  Included will be  
techniques for enhancing yields of garden crops by creating hybrid  
systems to optimize water conservation, filtering livestock runoff  
using mushroom compost filters, and converting agricultural and  
household waste streams into edible protein.  Creating perpetual and  
circular systems will also be discussed.
11:45-1:00 — Lunch
1:15-3:00 — Farm and Activist Networking Panel (Padgett Arnold from  
Sequatchie Cove Farm, Sandorkraut from Little Short Mountain Farm,  
Bradley Jones from Ulinawi, Trish King from Slow Food and Land Trust  
for TN, and representatives from Crabtree Farms and  Williams Island  
farm)
3:15-5:15 — Artist/Activists Participatory Theatre - part three  
(Cerulean, Aurelia Crumb, Trish Woolbright and Patrick Ironwood) -  
One last rehearsal…
5:30 — Dinner
7:00 — Performance by the Food for Life improv theater troupe -  
After dinner theatre. Please bring instruments. Dress: festive.
A long-form improvisational narrative will be presented. Be prepared  
for fun!


Sunday May 31

8:00-9:00  – Breakfast
9:15 —  Morning Circle
9:30-11:00 — Organic Meats, Butchery and Sausage Making (Trae Moore)  
What i could do would be talk a bit about butchery, sausage making  
and cured/fermented meats.  I guess I could make a bit of sausage too.
11:15-12:15 — Rainbarrels: a how-to and why (Jon Cable) - This  
workshop will be an overview of the purpose and use of rainbarrels  
followed with a demonstration of how to construct one with simple  
tools. There will be a hand-out for folks to take home to reference  
with helpful sources.
12:30-1:45 — Lunch
2:00-4:00 — Basic Breadmaking by Hand (John Sweet from Niedlov’s  
Breadworks in Chattanooga) - There will be discussion, demonstration  
and participation in easy and reliable hand-mixing techniques, basic  
bread shaping, and baking of our handmade bread.
4:15-5:15 — Breaking bread at the closing circle

Voices for Appalachia
Throughout the second weekend Food for Life participants will have  
the opportunity to be involved in the following bioregional art project:
Voices for Appalachia, Written and Narrated by Hundreds — A Portrait- 
Story Project (Casey and Cesco) - Being our own media. Be your own  
ethnographer and historian. A positive self-fulfilling paradigm of  
expression…
If you’d like to participate, you can write your anecdotal,  
Appalachia bioregional, narrative (with a clear sense of TIME, PLACE,  
and ACTION) in advance or on site. When Cesco is finished sketching  
your face (using a combination of wet and dry media), you will copy  
your narrative in your own handwriting onto the page around our  
portrait of your face. This series of hundreds of stories and  
portraits travels as a show, and the images also go online to make  
perspectives widely available.
for more info about this project see: voicesforappalachia.org and  
portraitstoryproject.org

Download the event flyer (pdf)

Food for Life flyer (Legal size - 8.5″x14″)
Food for Life flyer (Letter size - 8.5″x11″)


We hope to see you soon!

Chris Gilligan
Board of Directors
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sequatchie Valley Institute
1233 Cartwright Loop
Whitwell, TN 37397
(423) 949-5922 tel
svionline.org




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