south church composting

Ever clean up after a gathering at South and put the food scraps in the garbage? If you’ve begun to compost at home, it just doesn’t feel right to put coffee grounds and salad fixings into the trash. And if you haven’t begun to compost at home, Roots & Wings at South Church hopes to be your introduction to this green habit.

We’re pleased to let you know that South Church has the buckets, bins and a team ready to start community composting!

Because we're in summer mode at South (meaning the only groups using the building at this point are yoga and AA), there won't be much to compost during August.  One family a week will check the compost bucket in the kitchen—at any point during the week—to see if AA or yoga has added compostables, and follow the steps below. As a reminder, you can compost any vegetarian food scraps. That includes cake, coffee grounds, and pizza crusts (no cheese or pepperoni!).

For a more complete list of what is compostable, click here. 

(During August Dave Person will also be working to come up with an easier way to lift the pallets for access to the composting area. Right now you have to lift the lids up against the building wall where they'll stay, then take the pallet off its slots, which is hard unless you have two people doing it.)  

Beginning Labor Day, groups are back in the space so we'll need the "three times a week" checking. Here's who is lined up to do each slot:

Tuesdays - Roberts family

Fridays - Cadenhead family

Sundays- Cole/ Olsewski family

COMPOSTING STEPS AT SOUTH

1. Go into the church kitchen and check the compost bucket.  
2. If there are appropriate food scraps in it, carry them around to the back of the church and add them to the middle bin (toward the center of the bin) along with any compostables you've brought from home.  
3. Then take leaves from the bin to the right and cover the "greens" (foodscraps) with "browns".
4. If the material in the middle bin isn't moist (like a wrung sponge), you'd also wet it a little.
5. Then you'd return the compost bucket to the kitchen, washing it out if necessary so it's ready for more compostables.  It's that easy!

Thank you to our volunteers for taking on this project that's important to Roots & Wings, South Church, the user groups in the building, and the earth!

WATERING: Slow Down and Share the Load

South Church now has rain barrels—look around the corner to the left of the sanctuary door! These two barrels catch the rain that flows off a small portion of the church’s large roof. All we have to do is attach a hose and we can water anywhere on the front lawn.

Linda, Susan and Lenore tried this the other night. “This takes so long,” we whined as we watered the Roots & Wings labyrinth in this sustainable way. 

True. What a hose connected to (pressurized) city water could accomplish in 30 minutes would take an hour, maybe more.

“Sivananda ashram combines permaculture and yoga," mused Susan. "Maybe that’s purposeful—you need to slow down to garden like this."

Watering was on our mind that evening because the plants in the labyrinth are not thriving. Why?

“It doesn’t get enough sun,” suggested Cris Kossow.

“Could be dead pan,” said Susan DeGeorge. “The soil might be so compacted the water can’t get down any further.”

Or, the leaves we put in the raised beds might be leaching out nitrogen so not enough nutrients get to the plants.

But we think it’s the simple fact that we’ve been too busy to water properly. We stuck our fingers into the soil about knuckle deep or so. It was dry.

"Slow down and share the load" is the new mantra.

Here is the labyrinth watering schedule for the rest of the summer. 

We recommend using a mix of rain barrels (if it has rained) and city water.

 July 13: Lenore Lelah Person

July 14:  Linda Herring

July 15:  Chris Cole Olsewski

July 16 – 22: Amy Delaroca / Dunn family

July 23 – 29:  Amanda Jacobs and family

July 30: Susan deGeorge

July 31 – August 6: Donna Thompson

August 7 – 13: Rachel Thompson

August 14 – 26: Linda Herring

We are still looking for volunteers for watering. If you want to be involved, please email Lenore_Person@msn.com

Local Foraging July 16 CANCELLED

we apologize but Local Foraging for Food & Medicine on July 16 with Dina Falconi is cancelled. The Old Croton Aqueduct is a State Park and as such we are not allowed to harvest along that land. You can catch Dina's workshop later this month at the Northeast Permaculture Convergence.

Local Foraging for Food and Medicine

Take a "Weed Walk" on the Old Croton Aqueduct on July 16

Discover the wild and cultivated plants you can use for health and healing at Local Foraging for Food and Medicine, a Roots and Wings workshop with Dina Falconi on Saturday, July 16 from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM at South Church, 343 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY. Tickets are $30 in advance / $45 at the door and can be purchased at http://rootsandwingswestchester.blogspot.com. This workshop includes a delicious “wild” lunch. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Dina Falconi is a sought-after clinical herbalist who has been teaching classes about the everyday use of herbs for over twenty years for places as varied as Albany Medical College and Gaia Northeast to Wild Earth Programs. Based on what she grows and finds near her home in the Catskill Mountains, she produces her own line of natural bodycare products and medicinal tinctures.

Local Foraging is a six hour “best-of” of a Herbal Intensive she typically teaches over six months. Participants will take a “weed walk” on the Old Croton Aqueduct in Dobbs Ferry, then return to South Church’s kitchen to cook and make medicinal potions and herbal skin care.

This workshop provides inspiring, practical and thorough “hands on” herbal information on:

-       Herbal Therapeutics

-       Wild Plant Identification and Application

-       Wild Food Foraging and Culinary Preparations

-       Medicine Making

-       Herbal Skin Care

-       Nutritional Healing… and More

 “As for the menu,” says Dina, “I am thinking we will make the following if the plants permit:  wild salad with basic vinagrette, wild vegetable gratin, flower butter to spread on bread, wild green pesto to spread on bread, and ff wild berries are around, we will serve them with lightly, maple-sweetened whipped cream or organic whole milk yogurt.”

“Everyone will take home a remedy made during the workshop.”

Participants should bring: sun hats, water, baskets, scissors, notebooks and pen, and cameras (optional).

DINA FALCONI

Dina Falcone is part of the movement sometimes called “radical homemakers”—people who guided by simple principles of ecological sustainability, social justice, community engagement and family well-being to reclaim domestic skills. Some plant a garden, grow tomatoes on an apartment balcony, mend a shirt, repair an appliance, or provide one's own entertainment. Dina cooks and preserves the local harvest for food, medicine and pleasure.  

Dina is a founding member of the Northeast Herbal Association, a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation and on the boards of Slow Food-Hudson Valley and Gaia Northeast, the action-learning regional center of Gaia University International. She organized the annual Family Farm Festival from 2003 – 2007 and is the author of Earthy Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody. Listen to her interview on Herb Mentor Radio here.

Garden in Harmony with Nature

Thank you Minnie Kansman for your May Spirit Gardens presentation. For all who missed this event, here are Minnie's Feng Shui Garden Tips.

1.  Create curves whenever possible. Energy flows in the most balanced way when curves are introduced. Avoid sharp, pointy angles that can send uncomfortable "arrow chi" towards buildings and people.

2. Be able to walk all around your house easily and have something green and alive on all sides of your home. This ensures accessibility to all of your garden spaces and hugs the house with positive green energy.

3.  Give nature a place to remain wild in your yard. This encourages habitat for beneficial insects and keeps us connected to the earth and our roots.

4. Use only safe organic fertilizers and pest control. Read the label. It if is hazardous to humans it is hazardous to the environment and our ground water as well.

5. Name your garden areas giving them focus and intention. The Cottage Garden, the Abundance Garden and the Fairy Garden are a few examples.

6. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce the amount of water that you use by planting drought tolerant species. Reuse plants by dividing what you have extras of and sharing them with a garden friend. Recycle your plastic flats and containers at your local garden or recycling center.

7.  Mix variety into your garden plan, allowing for different heights and textures of plants to compliment each other.

8.  When in doubt, work in groupings of three for an asymentrical, natural balance. For example, arrange three combination planters together on the backyard deck or plant three yellow coreopsis in a triangular formation within the garden bed.

9.  Incorporate comfortable seating into your plans so you spend as much time enjoying your beautiful spaces as you do tending them!

(c) Minnie Kansman
Eco-Balance Humanity in Harmony with Nature
www.minniekansman.com

learn how your garden can deepen your spiritual awareness