Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

This has been buggin me for a long time (haha). There ain't no such time as 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. a.m. is an abbreviation for the Latin ante meridiam meaning before midday which is noon. p.m. is an abbreviation for post meridiam which is Latin for after midday. Midnight separates the start of the ante meridiam from the end of the post meridiam.
Don't they teach kids how to tell time in school?
Repeat after me
When it is light outside it is 12 noon.
When it is dark outside it is 12 midnight.
Got it?

Mushroom are coming

The mushroom cultivation workshop with Paul Stamets was great. There were 27 people attending from as far away as Russia, Mexico and Germany. A huge amount of information was presented over the course of the weekend. Paul is so passionate about what he does. It is very inspiring. He is committed to saving the planet with fungi leading the way. He and his team were going to San Francisco last Monday to provide oyster mushroom spawn to break down the oil from the spill in the bay. The oil was soaked up into human hair mats by volunteers on surf boards.
Paul says that the fungi mother the forest. They interconnect all of the creatures. This is the link i have been searching for during my whole career as a horticulturist and landscape architect.
I now see the Funny Farm through a mycelial lens. Everything we do from here on out will be mothered by fungi. We started work on our sterile culture lab today. Soon we will be producing mushroom spawn and inoculating the world with it so we can take advantage of all the nutritional and medicinal benefits that mushrooms provide us.

Wake up Kodak

I bought a larger memory card for my camera today. The packaging it came in is a ridiculous and excessive use of plastic. A package within a package within a package wrapped in some paper with more paper inside. Just give me the little box the card is in and save the petroleum used to make the rest.
I did put in the recycle bin but who knows whether any of it will actually be recycled.

Portland, Or - A Model of Sustainable Living

We spent several days in Portland. I am amazed each time i visit there at how much progress they are making towards sustainable urban living. We visited Zenger Urban Agricultural Park which is a farm purchased by the city to protect a wetland behind an industrial development. They turned the rest of the farm over to a non- profit organization to be an education center for urban farming. A farmer grows vegetables and chickens on 3 of the acres that are sold at a CSA.
They have a community garden that is used by immigrant families to grow their own food. They have a solar power system and collect 6000 gallons of rainwater for use during the dry summer season.
There are lots and lots of restaurants that serve local organic food and they promote it heavily. We had breakfast at a restaurant/yoga studio that served their food on real plates and used cloth napkins. Imagine that!
We went to a farmers market that was started 15 years ago. It is held in the parking lot of an awesome food coop called the Peoples Market. We were able to buy salmon, fresh mushrooms and lots of vegetables for our dinner all in one place.
We visited The Rebuilding Center which is a Non-profit that recycles building materials. It was started in a down and out neighborhood a few years ago to provide jobs for local residents. Now it is thriving and so the the surrounding neighborhood. Businesses have moved in, houses have been restored and new construction is under way.
There are rain gardens all around the city that capture rain water and allow it to soak into the ground replenishing the groundwater instead of allowing polluted water to wash into the rivers.
We need to look to Portland as a shining example of what Atlanta can become through our collective efforts.

Burgerville, Fast Food Done Right

In the northwest there is a fast food chain called Burgerville. They use potatoes grown in the northwest. They use fresh beef grown naturally by a coop of farmers in the northwest. They have bean burgers, turkey burgers and milkshakes from seasonal fruits. There packaging is minimal and without printing on it except to spread their message. They offset their carbon output by investing in a wind power farm. Why can't all fast food restaurants do that?
Wake up Wendy's, Mcdonalds, Burgerking, et, al

Trashed on the road

I've been out west for 8 days. In the beginning i tried to keep up with my project documenting my trash, recycling and reuse project. As time went on I found that doing so was detracting from my ability to have a relaxing vacation so i relaxed my vigilance to some extent. However i did have some insights along the way. The first one is that other cities are way ahead of Atlanta on the path towards sustainability. Both the airports in Denver and Seattle have recycling containers readily accessibly throughout them. Wake up Hartsfield! The second is that it takes a lot of planning and discipline to eat healthy food and to tread softly on the planet while on the road. It has been suggested that we need to be more responsible about taking frivolous or unnecessary trips on airplanes anyway. I don't feel that was the case on this trip because i traveled to a workshop to learn about growing mushrooms. Once I put what i learned into practice i will more that offset the carbon expended on the trip by growing and using mushrooms and by teaching others how to do so as well.
More about that in future posts.

Go West Old Man

I'm headed to Portland tomorrow. I'll be visiting friends and touring a couple of urban farms. One is called Tryon Farm and the other is Zenger Urban Agricultural Park. Watch for reports and photos later in the week.
Can't hardly wait to get out of ATL!