February 2015
  Same Canoe Newsletter  Hawaii Island vol. 34

Straw Bale Gardens, Green Think Tours,  Handmade Paper Class, Herbal Salves, Home Brew Kombucha
 

One Island News

 

Join Our Mailing List 

Click here to join our online  news & learning community and to receive our monthly newsletter 

 

 Upcoming Events
Calendar
 
 
Green is a Verb!
____________
 
February 8th in Hawi
 
Green Think Tour 2-3pm
 
Handmade Paper Book Making 3-5pm
 _______________
 
February 13th in Honaunau
 
Herbal Salve Workshop
9am-noon
_________________
 
Green Think Events in Hamakua, March 8th
 
Tamale Making workshop
noon-2pm
 
Green Building Tour
2-4pm

_________________

 

March 22nd in
Honaunau

 

Home Brew Kombucha
2-5pm
 

 

Straw Bale Gardening

 

We are experimenting with straw bale raised bed gardening. Our goal is to assess whether investing in the bales can:  provide raised surfaces for back ease, offer an easy means to exclude cat / chicken / snail intrusions, grow food and flowers in self-generated soil with healthy microbes, allow for protected growth of hard-to-grow crops like melons (normally hit by pests in Hawaii), and eventually breakdown to create new soil.

 

 
Step one was laying the bales out on a weed-preventative compostable surface.  
 
Step two was further binding the bales to help them last longer in the tropical environment. We added additional twine and netting as our first experiment.
 
Step three is adding a 'secret sauce' of ingredients that help the bales begin to decompose and create their own growing medium. Coffee grounds and compost tea are part of the ingredients.

It's ALIVE! 
 
More in the next newsletter

Upcoming Discoveries

at One Island in Honaunau 

Herbal Salves to
Soothe the Skin
Guest herbalist Paula Sorrenti will guide us in making salves to care for our skin, chase off bugs, and soften gardener's hands and feet.
 
Friday, February 13th
9am-noon
$25 incl. materials and instructions
 
Great Mother-Daughter Day!
 
 
Home Brew Kombucha
 Back by popular demand is our easy-to-master probiotic beverage brewing class. We'll provide the SCOBYs, tea, bottles and instruction.
 
You get to take it home and enjoy!
 
Sunday, March 22nd
2-5pm
$25 incl. materials and instructions
 
for these Green School
DIY workshops or
 
 

Local Food System

Green Building

Art and Culture

Natural Resources

 

It's all connected


  February is full of FUN
Make it. Build it. Taste it. Live it.

 


 

Modern Homesteading Tools

 

Sustainable Living is not only good for the planet - it is great fun! This month we tour a smart green-built compound, learn to make herbal salves to soothe our skin, and get to make our own notebooks using hand made Hawaiian plant paper for gorgeous natural covers. 

 

Whether you live in town or on a farm,

Living Green is full of great rewards.

 

Green Think Tours 

with Local Art and Food Experiences

 

Green Living Innovation Discoveries

Join us at fascinating tour locations with a fun cultural or culinary experience option. Come for the green building tours and stay for a hands-on art workshop or learn to make organic corn tamales with banana leaves!

 

Register online for the Green Think Tours and/or Art and Food Workshops

 

    ____________________________________________________


Algood
Farm 

Green Building and Book Art Workshop

Hawi, February 8th

2-5pm

 

 

 

 

Green Rural Life with a spectacular ocean view

 

Multiple green built materials and structures grace 32 acres at The Algood Farm in Hawi. Highlight is a wonderful bamboo 'barn' residential scale structure with beautifully finished clay walls. This is a permitted architectural jewel that provides luxurious green living.

 

The designer/ owners describe their farmstead as "a sustainable oasis on the northern tip of the island. Our buildings are made of environmentally friendly materials and we create all our own electric energy. We raise organic chickens, bananas, herbs and vegetables and have planted over 500 coconut and other trees on our land."

The ocean and Maui-view farm uses interior and exterior natural and green materials in some very exciting ways.

 

February 8th Tour is 2-3pm and will showcase multiple building materials and methods to green your home.

 

ART Fun in the Bamboo Barn!  Join us for a delightful hands-on book making art experience in a class with Susan O'Malley, 3-5 pm, (following the tour). Individual workshop fee is $20, family rate is $35. Each participant will make handmade paper covered writing journals to take home or give a gifts. Susan is just back from an artist-in-residence in Assisi, Italy and leads fun and rewarding workshops.

 

Thanks to the success of the previous Green Think Tour, we are offering four family scholarship discount places at $15 per family. Email [email protected] to request consideration.

 

ALL AGES WELCOME!

 

February 8th, Tour 2-3, Art 3-5pm

Suggested tour donation $15

Bookmaking Workshop is $20 / $35 for families

Register here 

 

 
     _____________________________________________________

 

Hi'ilani EcoHouse

Honoka'a, March 8th

Tour 2-4pm

Culinary workshop      12-2pm

 

 

 

 

 

The fascinating Hi'ilani EcoHouse is our tour site on March 8th in Honoka'a. Built by two sustainability-minded couples who joined forces with an inventive designer, the house employs special green building materials to conceive and build a dramatic perch overlooking the Pacific. This 4,000 square foot carbon-neutral home is worth a journey from around the island to see its innovative materials, structural design, interior finishing, energy efficiency, and green living concepts.

 

Tamale Magic    We have a culinary experience to share! We'll be hosting a tamale making workshop using organic grains and foods from noon-2pm preceding the workshop. Yum! Workshop fee is $25 and includes all ingredients to take home four tamales. And if you can't join us for the workshop, we'll be selling tamales as a Greenshool fundraiser during the tour.

 

 

 

See the Hi'ilani web site for more details about the house.

 

Second Sunday of March, Tour 2-4pm

Culinary Workshop 12-2pm $25

Suggested Tour donation $25

Register here

 

 

One Island continues to develop new projects, to secure funding to improve the quality of rural life in Hawaii, and to promote sustainable living options. As a small non-profit program, we have successfully competed for, won, and managed $2.2 million in green economic incentive funding for work in Hawaii since 2002. We are dedicated to positive social change and provide tools, education and inspirational programming.

We just got the surprise news that our organization has been pre-qualified for an unsolicited Capacity Building Grant. If selected, this grant offers change agent organizations new resources to improve the quality of rural life. This support will help One Island improve its ability to network with other organizations, provide professional development for those organizations, and bring new services to the areas we serve. 
 

Accomplishments to date include:
  • Launching new Green School education programs island wide.
  • HUD rural economic development funding to build a green job training incubator focused on rural innovation.
  • USDA rural utility funding to train and deliver renewable solar energy equipment to 175 rural homes, non-profits and small businesses.
  • National Institute for Food and Agriculture funding to seed new community and home gardens that increase access to local food.
  • USDA Farmers Market support to launch food gleaning, youth ag camp, and inter-farm network projects.
  • State of Hawaii Dept of Labor funding to create green employment in the agriculture sector.
  • Serving Native Hawaiian villages with grants and services that have brought solar power, solar cooking, solar energy and water improvements to remote off grid fishing villages.
  • An AmeriCorps grant for invasive species removal and education site development.
  • Providing over 150 guest presenter workshops, field trips, film nights, library talks, energy conservation training, youth camp, and special events to enrich and empower the communities of North and West Hawaii.
  • Creating a rural exchange ag education and cultural events network with sister sites in Washington and California.

 

Mahalo to our funders and to our 

2500 local participants!