Wednesday, February 25, 2009

We have two meetings this week. Both are in Johnson 204 and both are on Thursday. The first is at 12:30, the second is at 7:30. Come to one or the other, or both!
A huge topic we need to discuss is LAND. We met with Tranquada (Oxy PR guy) and he (as well as some other people from facilities and long-term planning) thought a better land option might be the lawn outside of Booth. Here are some pros and cons of each:

Avenue 50 site:

Pros: The land is big and we would have room for fruit trees, a gazebo and expansion. The land is already fenced in so we wouldn't need to build a fence. The soil is already in good condition.
Cons: Threat of ground squirrels. In the long-term, faculty housing will be built there. Less central to campus.

Booth site:

Pros: More central to campus. Ground squirrel situation taken care of. There is a toolshed there already. Irrigation would probably be easier to set up.

Cons: We would need to build a fence. Much smaller (about a quarter of the size of Ave. 50 site) which means little or no fruit orchard, less possibility of a chicken coop, less room for future expansion. The grass that grows there now will be very hard to eradicate-- making it hard to plant this season. We will most likely need to bring in outside soil.


I'm sure there are a lot more pros and cons to both sites and we should discuss them at the meetings. See you on Thursday!

POSTED BY ELISSA CHANDLER

Friday, February 20, 2009

School Lunches

Check out what Alice Waters envisions as the new National School Lunch Program (see link below). Her plan to make school lunches more organic, local and healthy will be an investment but one that will likely give a lot back-- a lifelong understanding of healthy food for the students who participate, energy conservation and environmental awareness. It is a win, win, win situation.
nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20waters.html

POSTED BY ELISSA CHANDLER

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Some Up-dates

As usual we have a meeting this Thursday (tomorrow) in Johnson 204 at 7:30. We've made great progress this week-- a meeting with risk-management, planting of some wildflowers in the back plot of the land and meeting Frank from Burkard Nursery in Pasadena. Frank is very friendly and will put us in touch with irrigation specialists as well as a teacher in the Pasadena area who has a similar project going on at a local elementary school. We're bringing a soil sample for evaluation in to him tomorrow (call me if you want to come (650- 255-2863)) to help us nail down some final budget numbers. Also, Ava mapped out a beautiful plan for the garden which I will bring to the meeting as well as some FABULOUS logo ideas. I still encourage everyone to submit some more though!
By early next week we should have a final proposal with a pretty legit budget and a meeting with faculty, facilities, administrators, students and marketplace representatives to show it off to.
Also, Ava and I were talking about staying here for a bit over Spring break to start serious work on the garden. Hopefully we're not the only ones interested in doing that!

See you tomorrow night!

POSTED BY ELISSA CHANDLER

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

First Meeting

Don't forget about our first meeting this thursday in johnson 204 at 7:30pm. We wanted to touch base with everyone and share somewhat of a timeline for this semester along with our goals that we will attempt to accomplish.

Thanks for your support,

The Team

POSTED BY SAUL SUTCHER

Monday, February 9, 2009

The other day I was re-reading an article that Michael Pollan wrote back in October for the New York Times and it reminded me of the startling facts that make me so determined to make this garden happen:

- After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy at 19%

-In 1940 every calorie of energy used to make food produced 2.3 calories of food. Today it takes 10 calories of energy to make 1 calorie of food.

- Four of the top ten killers are directly related to diet (heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, cancer)

-Merely bringing international yields up to organic standards would increase yields by 50%.

We have a meeting with facilities on Wednesday to find out about the soil and irrigation on the land we want to use and our first big club meeting on Thursday. Be there...

POSTED BY ELISSA CHANDLER