April 2nd, 2014
Issue No. 96
Dear Abundant Ones,

Happy sunny April! I'd like to believe that we have reached the point of no return as far as spring weather is concerned. Let's all collectively dive our hands into the soil in hopes that nighttime temperatures will never again reach freezing until October or so. High hopes? 

Ever dream of bringing greater precision to your home beer brewing? Do you hope to perfect the science and art of fermentation this summer?

Well, this weekend we have our Intermediate Beer Brewing Workshop on Saturday, April 5th from 1-4pm at the Fifth Season Gardening Co. in Carrboro! Still a few spots left. Go ahead and register here!

Only two weeks until our 6th Annual Briar Chapel 5k & Kids' Dash on April 12th, 2014 at Briar Chapel's Boulder Park! Support community resilience, improving our NC food shed, and renewable energy-- run for the Abundance Foundation! Register today and bring a friend! More details below!

henbit and redbud,

 

Jenny, Tami, Beth & Charlotte
The Abundance Foundation 
Making sustainable attainable.
Like us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter  View our videos on YouTube 
Intermediate
Beer Brewing
THIS SATURDAY, April 5th 
 
from 1-4pm
 at Fifth Season Gardening Co.! 
106 S Greensboro St., Carrboro, NC
 

 

This class is a must for the intermediate brewer who wants to take their skills to the next step. Ethan, resident brewing expert at Fifth Season Gardening Co, will walk participants through a partial mash brew with an American Pale Ale. During this 3 hour class, participants will learn how to convert basic extract recipes to a partial mashrecipe, what the benefits of a partial mash are, what equipment they would need, and best practices for conducting the partial mash. The class will also discuss the importance of yeast health and maintenance in the context of improving their brews.  After the workshop, Ethan will be available to answer further questions while he finishes the beer.

 

The class will result in two separate batches with two different yeast strains and Fifth Season invites the participants to visit the Carrboro store after they're complete in order to taste the difference that the yeast strains make on the final product.

 
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR:

Ethan Johnston's curiosity about craft beer began when he was 17 and hasn't stopped since. A North Carolina native, his first batch of beer was made a few years later and he's brewed around 100 batches on his own since then. Working at Fifth Season Gardening Co. in Carrboro has been a very symbiotic relationship, as he brews around 50% of his beer at work and 50% at home. He also plays a key role in Homebrew For Hunger, an annual educational event for the public to learn about and taste craft beers while supporting a local hunger fighting organization. Ethan's personal brewing favorites include artisanal, wild, saison and sour beers, which work with naturally occurring microorganisms instead of solely brewer's yeast. 

 



Saturday, April 12th, 2014
Briar Chapel (Between Pittsboro & Chapel Hill off 15-501)
8:30 AM Race Day Reg | 9:30 AM Race
10:30 AM Kids' Dash*
 *no reg needed- it's free!
$20 to REGISTER
includes organic TS Designs race t-shirt, goodie bag, chip-timed race, + after party 
 
 
After party:
Carolina Brewery,
Counter Culture Coffee
Barone Meatball
Citizen Yogurt
and more!
Live DJ, kids' upcycling crafts, plant-your-own-seedlings, educational sustainable living demos, and yard games to follow!
 
 
Big Thanks to our 
Sponsors:
briar chapellynn
    
   
 
***
Who wants to volunteer?!
Volunteering gets you a free t-shirt, free food, and good karma!
We need help on the afternoon of Friday April 11th, and on
 Saturday April 12th from 7:30 AM - 1 PM. 

The Abundance Foundation
making sustainable attainable. 

220 Lorax Lane #5 Pittsboro, NC 27312
Call us: 919-533-5181
Email us: [email protected]
 

The Abundance Foundation brings people together to meet their neighbors, share ideas, learn new skills, and inspire and support one another in our shared efforts at building vibrant local economies and resilient communities. 


Through our varied projects, coalitions and gatherings, we raise awareness about the value of a sustainable local economy, we celebrate the abundance of good food, renewable energy and other resources here in North Carolina, and we empower people to take action to create their ideal community. 

 
abundance logo
Like us on Facebook
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK- we're only 6 "likes" away from 2000 fans. COOL!!
 Follow us on Twitter
View our videos on YouTube 
Click the images for more info/registration
- - - - - - - - - - -     
 
  
 
 
Click the images above for info!
Interested in teaching a workshop or have other workshop ideas? Contact us!
*** 
Give the gift 
of self sufficiency 
to a Friend or Neighbor!
DIY Workshops make unique & memorable gifts.

To order: 
or call 919-533-5181
 

 co sponsored by:
cccc logo


The community partners include the Small House Institute, Central Carolina Community College,Habitat for Humanity and the Abundance Foundation. Each partner organization is committed to affordable housing designed to be energy efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and to fit the small house model sized under 500 sq ft.

 

The primary goal of the contest is to bring visibility, attention, and research to good design around affordable, energy and resource efficient, aesthetically pleasing small houses and to create an opportunity for amateur or novice designers to feature their home design concepts.

 

June 1, 2014 - Entry Deadline

August 15, 2014 - Winners Announced

 

DETAILS AND MORE INFORMATION HERE


 
Seeds of Time
A documentary film being shown at Full Frame Festival
April 3rd at 4pm.
 
Sandy McLeod is the film maker and Cary Fowler is the seed saver.  
A perfect storm is brewing as agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler races against time to protect the future of our food. Gene banks of the world are crumbling, crop failures are producing starvation inspired rioting, and the accelerating effects of climate change are already affecting farmers globally. But Fowler's journey, and our own, is just beginning: From Rome to Russia and, finally, a remote island under the Arctic Circle, Fowler's passionate and personal journey may hold the key to saving the one resource we cannot live without: our seeds.
 
Links to learn more:

  

UNC Sustainability Symposium 

The Story of Cities: 

Global and Local Perspectives on the Quest for Thriving and Sustainable Communities

 

April 3, 6pm

UNC FedEx Global Education Center, 

Nelson Mandela Auditorium

 

Daniel Brook, author of "A History of Future Cities:  Mumbai, Dubai, Shanghai, and St. Petersburg" will join a roundtable of experts to discuss how lessons learned from global megacities and green cities in Western Europe can inform efforts to overcome the social and environmental sustainability challenges in transforming North Carolina towns such as Durham into places where people and the economy thrive.   FREE but registration is strongly encouraged.

 

More information and registration:

http://www.gbc.unc.edu/SustainabilitySymposium

  


Become a sustainer or one-time donor
 to Abundance Foundation today!
donate 

We understand that you want your hard earned money to hit the ground and go to work on creating resilient communities and a post-carbon economy, and we think we are a good way to ensure that action happens. 
 


The Collective Biodiesel Conference is geared toward active and open collaboration among participants, including home brewers, grease collectors, multi-million gallon producers, and everyone in between. 

This conference is designed to provide sufficient detail for participants to put what they learn, both technical and logistical, directly into action. In addition to open forums and lectures, the conference also features case studies from active Biodiesel co-ops and companies. 

If you are wondering about whether or not attending will be worth your while, we suggest you go ahead and jump...

 
Have a friend who might want to hear about these workshops, events, etc?
 
Forward this email to them! 
They can also sign up HERE