On Sept 21st La'akea Community will be having a Seed Exchange Preparation Morning!
From 9am - 1pm
Come in your yard work clothes and help us prepare the site for this wonderful FREE family and community centered annual event.  We really appreciate your time!  Bring a sack lunch or something to share with others for the end of our working together, around 12:30.
RSVP for directions


East Side Seed Exchange &  Harvest Festival!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
9:00am - 2:30pm

Bring your favorite dishes using only locally grown food
for the 2nd Annual 100% LOCAL FOOD COOK OFF AND POTLUCK!!
Optional competition for best savory and sweet dish - contact
Bring Seeds AND Plant Cuttings and Bare Roots (Please Check for Fire Ants)
o        Exchange and give away localized plant material (bringing not required)
o        Hear a panel on "Preparing Local Favorite Foods, Dealing with Fire Ants, Slugs & Rats"
o        Enter the Local Cook Off!
o        Try new taste delights at the Local Food Potluck!
o        Meet your neighbors, other gardeners&  innovative thinkers.

This event is free

Schedule:
Set up open at 8:30 am
   (bring your own tables and chairs, and
   scrap paper for small packets for seeds)
Opening Circle 9:00
Plant Material Swap: 9:15
Panel Presentation: 10:00
100% Local Food Contest: 11:45
Local Food Potluck: 12:30 (bring your own plates, utensils, etc)
Marimba Dance with Mwenje 1:15 pm

To enter the local foods cooking competition or to present your favorite
local food please contact  Tracy@permaculture-hawaii.com

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Designing For Sustainability and Food Security

Fall 2012 Weekend Permaculture Design Course
This unique, exciting permaculture design course is designed especially for Hawaii Island residents!

   * Weekend class format – no need to use vacation or take time off work to complete a permaculture design course.
   * Acquire the skills to achieve food security and create sustainable home systems.
   * Learn locally proven designs and methodologies from instructors and presenters who understand Hawai’i's varying microclimates
   * Develop supportive relationships with like-minded neighbors, established organizations and professionals in your area.
   * Design for your property during the course with professional support.

Participants who meet course completion requirements will receive the internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course Certificate.

The course meets two weekends per month in the fall of 2012: Oct 13-14 and 20-21, Nov 3-4 and 17-18, Dec 1-2 and 8-9
Classes are held from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day and include a delicious, nutritious, locally grown lunch. Some class days will have optional evening events including permaculture movies and conversation time.
Hosted by La’akea Permaculture Community – see the rest of this web site for more about La’akea.

Early bird registration only $750 if paid by September 1st!
After September 1st – sliding scale $1,000 – $800

Tuition includes lunch on class days and all instruction and other course activities. Dinner and overnight lodging with breakfast available at additional cost.

For more information or to register:
tracy@permaculture-hawaii.com
808-443-4076

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is an ecological design system that draws on knowledge of natural ecosystems, traditional indigenous practices, and modern scientific and farming techniques. A permaculture approach is one of working with rather than against nature. Permaculture offers a proactive approach to meeting human needs in ways that are sustainable for future generations.

This design course is hosted by La’akea Permaculture Community, an intentional community focused on sustainability. The 23-acre La’akea site is full of the results of  hands-on design projects implemented by permaculture students and community members, and offers a wide variety of real-life examples of sustainable living techniques.

Facilitators and teachers:
Tracy Matfin of La’akea Community
John Schinnerer of Eco-Living
Wade Bauer of OnoScapes Hawaii Edible Landscaping and Permaculture Design
Dona Willoughby of La’akea Community

Additional instructors and special guests to be announced soon!

For complete details go here:
http://tinyurl.com/laakea-fall-2012-pdc


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Seed Basics & Production Workshop for Farmers & Gardeners
A Two Day Intensive Hands-on Workshop
Sat. Nov 3rd & Sunday Nov. 4th, 2012

Location:  Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Captain Cook
Cost of the workshop: $50 for both days and includes a Seed Manual and lunches.
 
The Seed Basics and Production worksop is designed to create a practical working knowledge of; seed production, botany and biology, techniques for plant selection, how to conduct variety trials, disease issues, seed harvesting, cleaning, and proper seed saving and storage. In the first year,  presentations and hands-on fieldwork will focus on the examples of growing lettuce and tomato to seed. Propagation of the Hawaiian crops, sweet potato and taro will also be discussed.  Participants will be able to practice harvesting and cleaning seed as well as learn how to select, prepare and, store fresh seed. Strategies to account for differences in elevation, weather patterns, rainfall and disease resistance and ideas for creating Island Seed Networks will also be discussed. Participants will be given seed for variety trials, information collected will be used to evaluate these varieties in a 5-island plant trial.
 
Friday, November 2nd, 3-5pm 10th Annual Hawai‘i Island Westside Seed Exchange
(optional activity)
At Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden.  This year we have also invited students from the Hawai‘i Island School garden Network to bring seed saved. The public is welcome - bring and share your seeds.  If you are attending the workshop please consider joining us.
 

Camping is available at the Amy Greenwell Garden Friday & Saturday Night - you must make a reservation.

 Presentors will include:
• Hector Valenzuela, Ph.D., CTAHR Extension - Vegetable specialist.
• Russell Nagata, Ph.D., CTAHR County of Hawai‘i Extension Administrator- Lettuce propagation 
and seed production specialist.
• Glenn Teves, CTAHR Moloka‘i Extension Office - Taro and tomato propagation specialist.
•Paul Massey, Regenerations Botanical Garden & Community Seed Bank, Kaua‘i
                      •Nancy Redfeather, Hawai‘i Island School Garden Network Program Director, Coordinator Hawai‘i                         Public Seed Initiative & Co-owner of Kawanui Farm, Captain Cook
 
Five Youth Scholarships will be offered to students interested in agriculture from grade 11-college level. We encourage the teachers on the island to notify their students about this opportunity.
 
For more information about these workshops and camping reservations; contact Lyn Howe 808-756-5310 or seedproject@kohalacenter.org
Online payment, registration and scholarship forms can be downloaded at:
http://kohalacenter.org/seedbasicsworkshop/hawaii.html