Next Event --- "Food for Thought" -- Friday, July 9, 6 p.m.

"Food for Thought" Stone Soup Dinner and Movie Night -- at Grace Church, 76 Salem End Rd., Framingham

Dinner at 6 p.m., Viewing of the Film "Food, Inc." at 7 p.m. We will also show "Wall-e" for the kids.

Bring an appetizer or dessert if you can, we'll provide the soup, movie, and plenty of food for thought. Please come to share our dinner and film night. All are welcome!

Hands Across the Sand -- 11 a.m., Saturday, June 26 -- Beaches Around the World

A few members of the Earthcare group will be trying to get to the beach this weekend -- not just because Saturday looks to be a beautiful day, but to say "never again!" to the disaster in the Gulf and call for support of clean energy. We will be holding hands across a beach protesting off-shore oil drilling. Would you like to come?

See  "Hands Across the Sand" for more information.

Planting Day at Stearns Farm -- May 22, 2010

Quick report -- We had 10 adults and 8 children at our planting day at Stearns Farm. We planted peppers, saved spinach from evil larvae, moved mulch, potted flowers, removed dead beet plants, had a great lunch, and even found time to play on the swing (some of us!). The weather was perfect, and we can't wait to come back and pick those peppers!  We know the food pantry will appreciate the share of food we will start bringing to them in June.

(Now from a kid's point of view.) At the beginning we had a limited choice of jobs, but later in the day we were allowed to do more things. Except pepper planting. Some of us played half the time. It's really fun, and I think more kids should come. The lunch could have been better. But the grown-up's liked it. Some of us kids like planting veggies more than eating them.

Next event -- Work Day at Stearns Farm -- Saturday, May 22, 2010

Coming up on May 22nd -- Grace church's annual spring work day at Stearns Farm, Framingham. We will work as a team to fulfill the hours for our farm share for 2010.  Work begins at 9:45 a.m. and ends at noon with an optional stone soup lunch.  It's always a fabulous day outside and there is work for all ages and abilities. You do not need to be a Grace church member to participate.  Contact Mary Memmott (memmottm@gmail.com) to sign up in advance.

Our proceeds of the harvest are shared throughout the year with the "Hope" food pantry in Framingham. If you can't come to the work day, you can still help us collect the harvest on Friday afternoons and/or deliver to the pantry on Saturday mornings throughout the summer and fall. This is rewarding work in absolutely beautiful location, right here in Framingham! Just let us know if you are interested and we can train you in the collection and distribution procedure.  It's simple and fun.

Enjoy the slideshow of pictures from our fall work day 2009-- planting garlic bulbs that we will soon harvest as "garlic scapes" this spring!

Styrofoam Collection Day -- Sat., April 24, 2010 -- biggest collection yet!

This was our third styrofoam collection day at Grace Church, and we collected more styrofoam than ever. The 5 hour collection event filled a 14-foot truck and and a half -- cars and pick-up's were unloading styrofoam all day. Many thanks to all that helped -- including many new friends who stopped by for a drop-off and stayed to help load and sort the styrofoam. All hands were much appreciated!

You can  see this article from the Metrowest Daily News for more background on ReFoamIt, the company that collected the styrofoam. Styrofoam is NOT recycled in Framingham, nor in most towns in MA, and ReFoamIt is one of the few companies in New England working on a sustainable way to recycle this material.  We all enjoyed seeing their display of how the foam is recycled, and a field trip to their plant is in the works! 

The next recycling date will be Saturday, July 24, 10 a.m. -3 p.m. Keep posted here for more details.

Our First Earth Care-Cooking Workshop -- Sunday, April 11

We made 3 great dishes, sampled "kale pesto," and had 18 participants from ages 7 to ?. Thank you all for coming! We hope to do this again in the near future.

Great Recipe Sources

Here's a start on where to find more recipes like the ones from our workshop on April 11.
Workshop recipes -- spicy Moroccan tofu, carrot soup, healthy breakfast bars.

Please comment and add more!

1. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution -- just a few recipes, but a lot of inspiration!

2. Epicurious -- great variety of recipes, easily searchable

3. Green Earth Institute -- a CSA in Illinois with an awesome recipe database

4. All Recipes -- not "all healthy" by any means but it is an incredibly diverse database of recipes!

5. Great Article from "The Take Away" on NPR on canning fruits and vegetables with a super-easy recipe for tomato sauce (and if you freeze instead of can, even easier)

6. How to make Kale Pesto -- at Homegrown.org -- a basic recipe to adapt to your favorite greens -- at a website of interest to farmers, gardeners, CSA-members, etc.