Posts tagged agriculture
Interested in Greening Your Roof? Join Queen Village workshop to learn how
Jul 11th
GreenTreks has been all over the city filming various greening efforts i recent months, and this Saturday we’ll be out at the Southwark Queen Village Community Garden as the neighborhood residents put a living roof on the building that houses bee-keeping supplies.
Yup, you’re reading it right: BEE KEEPING SUPPLIES! There are nine hives at the Community Garden and the bee-kepers need a place to store equipment and extract honey — so the Honey House was born. Besides growing a vast array of edibles and ornamentals, the Gardeners have pushed the sustainability envelope and are inspiring others to rethink their own slice of the urban environment: they’ve installed solar panels (and sell power back to PECO during peak times when electricity is most in demand) and a composting toilet on the property. Putting a living roof on the Honey House to help control runoff and demonstrate how greening can happen at an intimate scale, they figured, was the next logical step.
Come and learn how easily a green roof can come together and lend a hand!
GREEN ROOF WORKSHOP
The Southwark Queen Village Community Garden and the Neighborhood Garden Association are presenting a hands on workshop to explain the concept of green roofs and allow participants to work on the installation of a simple and small roof in our garden. The workshop will help complete our new Honey House and raise money for bee equipment. The roof work will be directed by master roofer, Ray Nocella.
Come, participate, or watch, and learn.
When: Saturday, July 16, 2011, 10AM to Noon.
Where: Southwark Queen Village Community Garden
311 Christian St. Philadelphia, PA 19147
Fee: $20/person. Limit of 20 people.
Iced drinks and seating in our garden will be provided.
Call 215-320-2980 to reserve a spot.
Local Food, Local Music, Local Beverages: Maysie’s Farmfest, June 11 & 12
Jun 2nd
Our good friends at Maysie’s Farm Conservation Center are holding their annual Conservation Concert in conjunction with WXPN and they’ve got a great lineup planned, so why not go green by going local, learning something new, and joining the fun!
While you’re here, check out this video we did as part of our Biodiversity doc:
Biodiversity and Food: Maysies Farm from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.
Be Moved to Action: Stories that Change the World on DVD just in time for the Holidays
Dec 3rd
We’ve got our online Shop up and running just in time for the Holiday season, so you can now watch entire programs on your big screen television or give them as gifts to family and friends!
If you haven’t been following us for several years, you may not even know about some of the great programs we’ve put out! The fact is, we’ve been so focused on building our EcoExpress portal and helping bring municipalities and engineers up to speed on the state of stormwater management that we haven’t been promoting award-winning programs like Farming on the Edge and From the Bay to PA; beautiful documentaries such as Life on the Delaware and Raycing the Sun; and quirky thought-provokers such as Environmental Classroom and Enviro-Art. Many of the programs from our GreenWorks series continue to air on cable and public television stations in various parts of the country, but you can own them now on DVD.
We’ll be highlighting one of the programs right here, every week, but you can check ‘em out now (literally–Purchase ‘em and Check ‘em Out!) with a safe secure purchase, right from our shop. Go Stock up >>
“Green City Teachers” Program gearing up: sign up now to become an eco-educator
Sep 30th
We’re thrilled to announce that the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is the newest Community Partner in our ever-expanding EcoExpress program, and that we’ll be incorporating EcoExpress into PHS’ Green City Teachers training program, starting this fall.
Green City Teachers dovetails perfectly with EcoExpress, because it is designed to provide Philadelphia educators with the skills necessary to integrate horticultural and environmental education into curricula, after-school programs and service-learning projects, and to help students appreciate the role of nature in their lives.
Become a “Green” Teacher
Philadelphia educators are invited to join PHS Green City Teachers Basic Training, which takes place in five sessions this fall. Teachers will :
- Integrate horticulture and environmental education into the classroom
- Join a network of teachers
- Participate in a forum for sharing ideas
- Gain up to 16 hours of Act 48 credit
Thursdays, October 21 & 28, November 4 & 11. 5:30 – 8:30 pm
Saturday, October 23. 10 am – 1 pm
For more information on Green City Teachers, contact Sally McCabe at 215-988-8846, or by email.
If you haven’t done so already, check out EcoExpress>>
Uncommon Heroes: Your Choice of Fair Trade Can Change the World
Aug 23rd
It’s hard to acknowledge that despite our current “economic hardships”, here in the U.S. we enjoy a standard of living that’s unheard of tin the rest of the world. How’s this for a bit of perspective:
Worldwide, more than 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day!
We’re all increasingly concerned with what our products contain and how they’re made because of the potential impacts on our own health and the health of the environment, but how often do we make the connection to the farmers, laborers, and factory workers involved in the production process in other parts of the world?
Understanding and supporting the Fair Trade movement is a very real and tangible way to ensure that when we spend our hard earned dollars, we are truly getting the most “bang for the buck”. This short film from the Skoll Foundation offers a great introduction to Fair Trade, and highlights Paul Rice, founder and CEO of Trans Fair USA.
For more information about Fair Trade, check out Trans Fair’s FAQ>>
And look into some of these other sources of Fairly Traded Goods:
- A Greater Gift – a program of SERRV International, one of the first alternative trade organizations in the world and a founding member of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT).
- Bead for Life – Ugandan women craft beautiful beads out of colorful recycled paper, “eradicating poverty one bead at a time.”
- Fair Trade Federation – a membership association of retailers and importers committed to fair trade principles.
- Fair Trade Sports – the first sports equipment company in the US. offering fairly traded soccer balls, sports apparel and more.
- Global Exchange Online Store - shop online with Global Exchange, knowing the products you buy are entirely sweatshop free.
- Mercado Global – a non-profit fair trade organization that links rural and economically-disadvantaged cooperatives to the U.S. market.
- Pachamama, World of Artisans – Pachamama works to increase consumer awareness, build equitable producer relationships and bring beautiful fair trade products to the public.
- Ten Thousand Villages – one of the world’s oldest and largest fair trade organizations, offering jewelry, home décor and gifts.
- World of Good – Berkeley-based World of Good offers ethically sourced gifts, housewares and accessories.
