April 5, 2011
Issue No. 32
email header 15

Chatham County Schools Chef Challenge, Solar PV Workshop, Earth Day 5K + celebration,  

Summer Camp, Save the Bookmobile + more! 

Dear Abundant People,

The results of our Chef Challenge are in...we've been working on this almost a year and the past three days have been all worth it!  On Monday the 17 schools rolled out the first menu that was created by CCCC's Natural Culinary Chef Program.  It was a pasta dish, fresh salad and fruit drizzled with chocolate.  We were at the Margaret Pollard school and the entire cafeteria cheered as Chef Hamm made an announcement.  I've had numerous kids from different schools thank me.  Wow.  Better nutrition can happen and kids will eat it.  What are we going to do when they are all making A's and able to reach their full potential?
Chef Challenge a huge success...come out to Earth Day Saturday, April 16 and meet the Chefs and try their dishes!
moncure school
Chef Jimmy with Moncure Cafe Staff
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were a huge success due to lots of preparation and almost a year of planning.

So, what happens when you take a posh chef, give them basic ingredients, limit sugar, salt and fat and ask him to cook for some of the pickiest eaters around....your kids?!!!  The kids were the winners here.  School lunch sales were way up and the lunches were eaten (not thrown out!).  The children took surveys on what they liked or didn't and the cafeteria staff survived as did the Chefs (Fearrington House, Carolina Inn & CCCC Natural Chef Program).  We (Abundance) and Briar Chapel and the school administration learned a lot.  We'll be debriefing and planning on how to take it further for next year. 
nbc
Kids get interviewed by NBC-17 TV
Come visit us on Saturday:
Our annual Briar Chapel 5K benefit and Earth Day celebration is April 16th and will start with a 9.00am 5K run...nice and challenging on the beautiful USTF certified course.  We'll have kids activities, local food and beers, organic local tshirts from TS Designs, gardening talks with Farmer Doug of Piedmont Biofarm and a reading by local author, Jonathan Bloom from American Wasteland.  It is sure to be a fantastic day. To register to run, click here. 

The schedule is:

9.00am 5K Run: 

Directly after:  Awards, Kids Run

1-2pm:  Local Food Tastings in 5 different homes:  with Fearrington House, Carolina Inn, CCCC Natural Chef, Angelina's Kitchen, Saxapahaw General Store and Bean and Barrel!

2-3pm Community Garden Talks with Farmer Doug Jones of Piedmont Biofarm, Jonathan Bloom, Author of American Wasteland, Beekeeping with Rick Kondrackie and Tami Schwerin of Abundance.  Learn how to weatherize your home with Home Performance NC!  We'll have kids activities:  "pots for tots" while adults enjoy......

2-3pm:  Tastings and Local Beer from Full Steam Brewery:
El Toro Cream Ale, Fullsteam Southern Lager and my favorite; Rocket Science IPA.

For more information: 

click here.

Hope to see you there!!
Huge thanks, hugs and kisses to our sponsors:  Briar Chapel, Chatham Marketplace, Angelina's Kitchen, Kimley-Horn & Associates, Bean and the Barrel, Southern Energy Management and Home Performance NC, and Chapel Hill Tire.
full steambook


Save the Bookmobile
bookmobile
Today was National Bookmobile Day!
With all the budget cuts happening, a really crucial literacy resource is about to be cut.  Serving over 9,000

bookmobile

Chatham residents, the bookmobile serves as a 4th library to areas of the county that are under-served, elderly, the young, have no transportation or are housebound.  What does this have to do with local food or renewable energy?  It's about community and it's about having a literate population to deal with what lies ahead.  Please spread the word and time is ticking...to learn more, keep posted or to donate, click here.

 

Farmers' Markets opening + new Chatham Mills Market!

market 

We made it through another winter and the markets are opening back up.  Check out the new market in Pittsboro @ Chatham Mills and Chatham Marketplace.  Click here for information.  For a list of all farmers markets in the triangle and triad, check out Debbie Roos' growing small farms website. 

Enjoy!!!  

Our goal is to bring sustainability to central North Carolina quickly, innovatively and while enjoying the journey.

honey and bluebirds,


Tamela Schwerin
The Abundance Foundation
In This Issue
Chef Challenge + Earth Day Celebration
Save the Bookmobile
New Farmers Market!
DIY Workshop Series:

  2 Day off-grid PV workshop with Rebekah Hren April 16th & 17th!rebekah

Interested in solar electricity? Start learning with this intensive two day class covering off-grid solar electric basics. Hands-on: students will help install a code-compliant 500 watt PV system on a small office cabin.
Topics include an introduction to site analysis, batteries, charge controllers, metering, PV modules, and safety.For more information or to register, click here.

 

April 30th-Canning 101 with Rachel Hoff.  Register here.  

May 7th-Sustainable Beekeeping with Catherine Adamson.  Register for bees here.
May 15th:  Cooking from a CSA box with Chef Sarig of Zely and Ritz.  Register here.  

May 21st:  Growing Elderberries with Rodger Lenhardt

June 12th:  Seed Saving with Farmer Doug Jones 

bio kids
making mini-batches of biodiesel

Summer Camp  

June 27-July 1:
Marvelous, Incredible Renewable Energy & Local Food Camp for ages 10-18:  

 

Abundance and Piedmont Biofuels are teaming up with Woods Charter to offer a day camp this summer!  For more information or to register your child, click here.  

 

Come experience five days of learning and hands-on activities featuring biodiesel,solar, rainwater, worm composting green building, sustainable agriculture and cooking!  Discussions on conservation,

composting and day lighting will raise participant awareness of energy and resources.  During the week students will plan a local food meal created for themselves and members of the eco-industrial park.  Each day will focus on renewable energy and local food. 



Pecha Kucha May 3rd @ Davenport and Winkleperry

Special benefit for our friends in Japan.

pecha kucha pittsboro

Please email us to submit your presentation by April 30th. 

 

What is Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha is "the sound of conversation" in Japanese. Devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in 2003, it began as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has evolved since then and has become a terrific venue for getting ideas and concepts out. Presenters each have 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide to discuss. Slides are automatically timed to be exactly 20 seconds with the total time for each presenter is 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This keeps the pace fun & exciting. Learn more about the international movement at www.pecha-kucha.org.

 

Visit us April 30th @ CCCC's

Let's Talk Trash!

9am-1pm in Pittsboro

Thinking differently about waste.... 


earthy

 

Planting a Medicinal Garden; Growing a Backyard Farmacy
w/ Kim Calhoun & Christopher Rumbley
Saturday, May 7th, 1-4pm
@ The BOG,  100 Crest Street, Carrboro  More info?
click here!

kim calhoun

 

Coming Soon!

industrial

 

For many people, the word "industry" brings to mind images of sprawling factories belching toxic emissions in a blighted natural landscape. "Industrial" has become synonymous with pollution, human rights abuse, and corporate greed. In Industrial Evolution, Lyle Estill seeks to reclaim the term, with its original connotations of hard work, diligence and productivity, and to show how community-scale enterprise can create a vibrant, sustainable local economy. Industrial Evolution is a story of survival. It is about how the small group of committed entrepreneurs introduced in Small is Possible managed to keep their dream alive and thriving through the economic recession, emerging with a model of what a sustainable local economy might look like in a post carbon future. Compulsively readable and seasoned with light humor, this grassroots account demonstrates that ecological stewardship and enterprise at an appropriate scale can lay the foundation for abundance. 

To put a copy on order

(should be here in a couple of weeks)

click here.