Food Forest in Quad Cities is started! - one tree at a time

In January of this year, about 40 people from around the Quad Cities and the outlying areas gathered together at the Eastern Davenport Library to share a common vision. Food security and food and nature education were high on the list. The organizers had a vision of a public Food Forest where anyone could harvest naturally grown local food in a safe environment.

Food forests are perennial systems that consist of fruit and nut bearing trees, along with understory perennial and annual plants, such as blueberries and wild raspberries. When completed, the food forest would be free and open to the public, where all would be welcome to come learn about native plants and pick local pesticide-free food.

On Saturday, October 25th, about 100 volunteers and local government representatives took steps to make the vision a reality by planting the first 80 trees, including  pawpaw, persimmon, chestnut, and pecan. After an opening ceremony, Davenport City Arborist, Chris Johnson, demonstrated his method for planting trees. Volunteers planted, watered, mulched and added wire cages to protect the trees from rabbits this winter.

The land for the Food Forest is adjacent to an already established community park and gardens owned by the City of Davenport and will be developed under a no fee agreement between the City of Davenport and the Quad City Food Forest.

For more opportunities and pictures, visit the Quad City Food Forest Facebook Page 
 

The Farm Ecovillage

I first became interested in The Farm Community when I googled "ecovillage training". What I ran across was The Farm Ecovillage Training Center. I was nearby last year for my cob building course and stopped through to visit.

Last October on my brief visit I ran into Jason the Resourcerer.  I shared with him what we are working on at moonCat and my search for more ecofriendly transportation. Mostly this includes biodiesel with the Mercedes Benz 300D and the custom converted Mazda that Bud Wren had made an electric vehicle out of and was sitting in my garage waiting to be fixed up and back on the road again.

Jason said he could help me fix up the Mazda and get it going more efficiently and teach me even more about biofuels. Last April I apprenticed with him in biofuels and helped to support the permaculture apprentice program at the Ecovillage Training Center.

I really enjoyed all of the natural building and permaculture going on and felt there was a lot to learn from the community.  My home-schooled daughter Phoenix stayed with me for the last week and attended The Farm School. She loved it.

Largely on a journey of wanting community, but it not happening quite yet at moonCat, finding a way for Phoenix to thrive with other kids and a school that shares my vision of  what education should be, and an opportunity falling into my lap at the right moment . . . I found myself back at The Farm this September.  Helping at the Ecohostel, Ecovillage Training Center, and Farm School is teaching me many new things that I am excited to bring back to those interested back in Illinois.

Phoenix and I are now traveling back and forth each month between The Farm and moonCat, sharing knowledge, skills, love and much gratitude.  I am also really enjoying Nashville and the great natural building and farm/nature/music network there.

I will be sharing more on the blog about what I am learning and enjoying as we thrive among like minded individuals.

underwear from old Tshirts

Most of our clothing items I buy at the thrift store.  The best finds are usually in the city and we find comfortable, cute, and good quality clothes for just a few dollars. I know the clothing industry contributes a lot of pollution, and where do the discarded clothes go other than to the landfill (ok some really creative places sometimes, but not on the whole yet)? In my opinion it is just smart to get the items I can at the thrift store.

Some clothing items like good shoes, boots, and underwear I usually do not get at thrift stores. Boots, sometimes. Underwear, never.  Leggings, hard to find at a thrift store.  So I found that my last pair of leggings had worn out and Phoenix was outgrowing her underwear . . . aaaaaand I really did not want to go to the department store to buy these things, or to spend a lot of money online buying them from far away companies that specially made what I am looking for.  I thought that maybe instead of cutting up our tattered Tshirts into rags this time I could try to make our underwear from them. I also secretly hoped that I could cut up some of Jerome's college Tshirts and get him some nicer ones if I had a purpose to do so.

Underwear:

Tshirt jersey style material worked best. I made a pattern from an existing pair. This meant cutting at the seams and tracing onto the new material with chalk.  Eventually I traced the cut fabric pattern onto some cardboard form a cereal box and cut it out. The cardboard stays straight and cuts more quickly. I sewed elastic onto the top only and it worked well.

One pair I used non-stretch material for the front and stretch (Tshirt) material for the back. Phoenix thought this was so comfortable she would not let me put elastic on, and they stayed up well.  An overlock machine makes things go so quickly!

Leggings:

I have bought stretch material to experiment, but will soon be switching to bamboo fabric to be more suStainable. I watched a tutorial online that showed me how to cut the center seam, from one ankle, up and back down to the other ankle as one cut.  Then fold the fabric in half so the cut seams form the two edges and use as a simple and quick pattern.  I think I made my first pair with a perfect fit in thirty minutes. Each successive pair was much faster and I'm really looking forward to working with the bamboo.

Dresses:

I find for travel it helps to pack my seven-year-old dresses. This saves space and washes when I have one clothing item to pack instead of two (a top and a bottom).  Pants can be added or not and we're ok.  So recently I have been letting her pick scraps of fabric that she likes and sewing them onto some of her Tshirts to make dresses. She adores this and feels pride in helping create her own clothing, also, my travel packing is simplified.

Pictures and links to come soon!