Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts

Friday, October 24, 2008

Local Food Rebuilds Small Town (And Inner-City) America

La Finquita Community Garden Image


"La Finquita Community Garden via Nuestras RaĆ­ces


Our uncertain times, both economic and environmental, have businesses, individuals and all levels of government scrambling for a positive way forward. On one end of the solution spectrum is the short-sighted U.S. financial bailout. On the other end are thousands of far-sighted individuals, community groups, neighborhoods, and towns, planting, growing, preserving, cooking, and eating food grown in their own (literal and figurative) backyard..."

(Via TreeHugger.)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Minnesota Piloting "Productive Conservation on Working Lands"

grasses kittelson wetland photo

"Wise people in the US State of Minnesota are working on an program for rural landowners and/or farmers who would like a way to maintain bio-diversity without fully 'idling' present, or prospective, cropland. It's called the Productive Conservation on Working Lands or 'PCWL' program. Instead being stuck with the binary choice of using wet or erodible acres to feed the ethanol beast, versus a 5-year contract to keep land in 'conservation reserve' (currently the only taxpayer supported program for protecting nesting game birds and other wildlife), farmers can 'kill two birds..." (More Via TreeHugger.)

Friday, September 12, 2008

The 1st Annual Urban Farm and Harvest Festival

September 27th, 2008, 2pm – 7pm at the Open Space Visitor Center

tractorDid you know that in addition to other important public lands such as the Sandia Foothills Open Space, the Petroglyph National Monument and the Rio Grande Valley State Park, the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division preserves over 366 acres of farmland within the Albuquerque area?

“Since the purchase of the Candelaria Farm Preserve in 1977, the City’s Open Space Division has proven to be one of the key local agencies involved in the protection of agricultural lands in Albuquerque,” says Mayor Martin Chavez. “Our achievements in farm preservation provide another example of why we have one of the most celebrated Open Space programs in the nation.”

WHAT: A Celebration of Open Space, urban agriculture, local food, and community with music, fun, workshops, and more!

WHEN: National Public Lands Day, September 27th, 2008, 2pm – 7pm

WHERE: Open Space Visitor Center, 6500 Coors Blvd NW. The Visitor Center is located east of Coors at the end of Bosque Meadows Rd, which is between Montano and Paseo del Norte.

COST: FREE

See below for more details!

farm festival

Open Space is proud to be a part of Albuquerque’s agricultural heritage, and this year we’re celebrating with a unique event for the whole family. For the inaugural year of this event, we’ve joined forces with local farmers, local businesses, and conservation organizations to bring attention to the importance of preserving our agricultural heritage. During this event you can:

  • Visit with local farmers
  • Participate in free workshops
  • Talk to local organizations working to preserve agriculture
  • Learn more about Albuquerque’s Open Space program at our beautiful Visitor Center
  • View birds and wildlife at the Visitor Center’s 24 acre farm and wildlife preserve

ACTIVITIES FOR ALL AGES including live music, arts and crafts for the kids, face painting and henna art by Have on Art, food demonstrations, apple harvesting, an apple cider press, and more!

MUSIC!

Enjoy the following performers on the grassy lawn overlooking our 24 acre working farm/wildlife preserve:

  • 2:30 – 3:30 pm: Big Daddy Long Loin/Recycle Man ("One Man Big Band")
  • 3:45 – 4:45 pm: Aztec Dancers (drumming and dance)
  • 5:00 – 6:00 pm: The Rivet Gang (Bluegrass)
  • 6:00 – 7:00 pm: Antares (Jazz and Blues)

Workshops and Demonstrations:

Throughout the day you can participate in free workshops including a composting demo, wild plant harvesting, water harvesting, and more!

For more information about the event, call 452-5216, or see www.cabq.gov/openspace.

Email: kswanson@cabq.gov

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Awesome new Chicken Site and Course offering


ABQ Urban Chickens

Chicken Keeping 101

Saturday May 10th @ 2 pm
- Come learn about how to keep chickens in your backyard
- The class is free and will be taught by current ABQ urban chicken keepers
- Class will be held at a chicken keepers home (RSVP for location)
- Bring a lawn chair, hat, a pen and paper, and lots of questions
- Lemonade and snack provided
- Short presentation and demonstrations will be followed by Q and A session.
- Class will end around 4-ish

To RSVP email kt@urbanchickens.org