Sometimes you have to make a stink!

Saturday, June 25th, the Earthcare Grace group (and friends) spent the morning working at Stearns Farm.  This is part of our work hours for our farm share, most of which goes to the Hope Food Pantry in Framingham.  This year's work hours were a little unusual -- most of the kids (and adults) ended up helping to pick potato bugs off the crops -- thousands and thousands of bugs that apparently made an unpleasant stink when drowned!  Kudos to the kids for sticking with it, despite the "yuckiness." When we take a nice big bag of potatoes to the pantry this fall all your work will be appreciated.

Next Event -- Saturday, July 16, 6-8 p.m., "Food for Thought" Dinner

Topic: Is Coal Worth the Cost?


Saturday, July 16, 2011, 6-8 p.m.; Edwards Church, UCC; 39 Edwards St., Framingham

Bring an appetizer or dessert to share, we’ll provide the soup, information, and plenty of food for thought.

Please join us for a light meal (featuring Stearns Farm produce), followed by a “heavy” but important discussion on the impact of mountain-top removal coal mining on Appalachia. We will have a preview/review of the movie The Last Mountain, currently playing nation-wide, which highlights the terrible effect of this practice on people and the environment. There will be also be time to take action through letter-writing.

Thank you Sierra Club -- report on "local food" event

Thank you to the Framingham Sierra Club for an informative, well-attended meeting on local food at the Framingham library last night (March 29th).  I've added some new links to "places to find local food" on the lower right side of this blog page -- Silverwood Organic Farm in Sherborn and the Mass Local Food Co-op that may be coming to Framingham.  Contact Kelly O'Connor: president@masslocalfood.org if you are interested in the Mass Local Food Co-op  (note, this isn't a commitment to participate) or interested in volunteering to help run a drop-off site in Framingham (driving, helping to distribute orders, co-ordinating, etc.)
Anyone else attend the meeting, or know of places (markets, farms, etc) that I should add to our local food list?  I have the feeling I have not found everything yet!  I would love to find more place to buy eggs, for example.

Earth Hour -- tonight -- Saturday, March 26th, 8:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Can you turn off all your lights and electronic devices  for one hour tonight?  This has become an annual event  -- check out the website for more information on "Earth Hour" -- http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx?intro=no.  I just saw this on today's Carbon Fast -- and like most of the things on the fast, I think it's worth a try. 

Lenten Carbon Fast -- Discussion

Lent started this week and some of us are signed up for the Lenten Carbon Fast -- sponsored by the New England Council of Churches -- you can still sign up here.

The fast gives you daily email suggestions of things to do and prayerfully consider.  Here's a summary so far:

Day 1 -- commit to the fast!
Day 2 -- pick a lightbulb anywhere in your home and take it out for the duration of the fast
Day 3 -- slay "vampire power" in your home -- unplug power plugs needlessly using electricity
Day 4 -- sign up for an energy audit through NSTAR or your own power company
Day 5 -- consider how 20% of the earth's population use 80% of its resources

I was a little dubious at first thinking I'm "ahead of the curve" on some things and at my limit on others.  But then I found an extra light-bulb in my bathroom that turns on every time I turn on the bathroom light -- I get along fine without it.  If all 1,000 people in the fast do the same, that's not insignificant.  I went looking for vampire power and found two things I'd forgotten about.  I got to pat myself on the back for already having an energy audit.  And the thought for Day 5 prompted me to get some laundry on the line today, even though the weather is a bit borderline, and the girls had a great time running through the towels.  A clothes dryer is quite a luxury in the grand scheme of things -- after all I'm lucky to have a washer compared to a lot of mothers around the world.  And you can't play "run through the towels" when they are in the dryer.

So looking forward to the next 35 days -- anyone else have any reactions to the fast?

Response to "No Impact Man"

Thank you to the brave souls who came out on a tough weather night to share good popcorn and a good movie. 

If you are thinking of doing your own, "no impact" project for Lent or on your own time-table, our youngest viewer would love to hear from you.  She has been inspired to create her own earthcare blog (really, on her own, I only found out what she was up to after helping to spell various words like "styrofoam," "transportation," etc.), you can find it here: http://www.earthcarebyakid.blogspot.com/.  We can't wait to hear what projects this may have inspired!

Free movie night -- "No Impact Man" -- Friday, Feb. 25th

Free Friday Night Flick with Earthcare Education!

Featured Movie: “No Impact Man”

Friday, February 25, 7 – 9 p.m.

Grace Congregational Church, UCC; 76 Salem End Rd., Framingham

We’ll provide the movie, snacks (Framingham’s Stearns Farm popcorn!), and plenty of food for thought.

Edwards Church UCC and Grace Congregational Church UCC present another in our series of Earthcare events. Find out what happens when a “New York liberal decides to practice what he preaches for one year . . . Turns off the electricity, stops making garbage, gives up TV . . . all while taking his baby daughter and caffeine-loving retail-obsessed TV-addicted wife along with him." Then discuss how you could dial down YOUR impact this Lent with a “carbon fast.” Sponsored with the generous support of the Barnes Foundation.

Call the Grace office 508-872-3342 for more information, see the Grace website for directions.