May Meeting, Pot Luck dinner and Gardening in Monroeville!

Join us on Monday evening, May 7, 2012 at the Monroeville Public Library for the May meeting of Sustainable Monroeville. We'll have a pot luck dinner at 6:30 pm. The theme for the pot luck this time is Raw Food! And remember to bring a place setting too, as we like to pack in and pack out and make our events zero waste. We will compost any leftovers that folks do not take home with them. At 7:00 PM the meeting will start with a short look at the Monroeville Food Garden. Then we will move right into a discussion about food and the movie we showed last month called Forks Over Knives.

Now is your chance to help prepare the Monroeville Food Garden behind the Monroeville Public Library for the 2012 season. Come de-thatch with your own tools Friday, May 11, 2012, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. There will be some tools available if you do not have any to bring. Cold drinks will be there to keep you cool! Bring along a friend or two or three!

This will be the second year for the Monroeville Food Garden. Last year the garden provided 500 pounds of vegetables to five local food banks. Thanks so much to councilwoman Lois Drumheller, Councilman Bern Erb, Sandy McFall, Pam Barroso, the Girl Scouts, and others that helped with this incredible effort!

Schwartz Living Market Call for Vendors!

Schwartz Living Market at 1317 East Carson Street in the heart of Pittsburgh’s historic South Side will be opening this summer, 2012, on Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM. We are looking for vendors that are interested in selling delicious healthy foods and drinks, beautiful art and more! There will be 16 vendor booths and a kitchen with a  cafe. The fees for booth rental are $50.00 to $60.00/ day and between $200.00 and $240.00/month at first with three month leases for food vendors, and six month leases for artists and others. Contact Pam Barroso at 412-315-9319, pjs787@gmail.com for a vendor application. We are working towards forming a cooperative/collaborative among the vendors and plan to expand to six days/week. Join us in the adventure of a life time!

Inside the building we will be showcasing local environmental and other non-profits and educating and engaging the local community about what sustainability and regenerative design and living is all about. If you are involved in a non- profit that would like to display inside the market, please contact us!

If you are interested in speaking to the crowds of folks that will be shopping at the market, feel free to contact us, and let us know which Saturday you'd like, and we will find an available time slot for you! On opening day this summer, and every Saturday, we will have a lot of folks there talking and demonstrating a variety of topics related to how to eat well, get healthy and stay healthy at this most interesting moment in history.

This building project inside and out is one of creating sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of life. Join Us!

Our long term project of transforming the building into a Living Building of an Existing Historic Structure that is zero net energy and zero net water is in the works. As you may know, our project has been registered with the International Living Futures Institute for over a year! Pretty cool for the ‘ Burgh and Main Street USA, eh?

A Living Market. What does that mean? Well, how about a market where you can get food that is as close to having its life force as possible. Food that is as close to being picked as possible? Or maybe you can pick the food on-site. Gee whiz, that might be too lofty a goal for the short term project we are working on, but we shall see! What else could a Living Market have inside of it? Perhaps plants that are alive, fresh air to breathe, fresh water and green juice to drink, and fresh, bright walls to look at so you feel good when you walk inside? What does Living Market mean to you?

I often refer people to the Sustainable Monroeville web/blog as the "back story" of the Schwartz Market project. You see, I live in the Municipality of Monroeville and founded Sustainable Monroeville in February, 2009, before I had ever heard of the Transition Town work of Rob Hopkins or had even thought about working with our family building at 1317 East Carson Street in Pittsburgh's historic South Side. The Schwartz Living Market project is physically located in the South Side, but the project's reach goes far beyond. After all, connecting the idea of Food, Not Lawns and us suburbanites selling the food we grow on our front and back yards with the urban core through the Schwartz Market project is a dream I've been thinking about for quite a long time now. And it is happening! Think about who you know who is ready to have a business in the South Side flats of Pittsburgh, the historic district, one of the few long historic main streets in the USA. And send them our way! My husband Stan's grandfather, Morris Schwartz, who founded Schwartz Market in the early part of the century would be proud! Elisa Beck

Eating a Plant Based Whole Foods Diet

Recently I spent three weeks at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, and participated in the Life Transformation Program. What an amazing experience! I am convinced that this place is a valid potential model of the hospital of the future where people really heal, and medications are not used to mask symptoms that are speaking to us to tell us what is out of balance in our inner ecosystems. Through their educational programming, serving delicious raw vegan food, and exercise and therapeutic opportunities, they teach each individual how to take charge of their own health and move forward in their lives as joyful, fulfilled spirits. It is a wonderful journey to be on, this life!

Come join us this coming Monday, April 2, 2012, in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library to see the film Forks Over Knives and learn about the advantages of eating a plant based whole foods diet. Elisa Beck for Sustainable Monroeville-- Join us on Facebook!

"Join the conversation that's changing the way America Eats." "The film features leading experts on health and tackles the issue of diet and disease in a way that will have people talking for years."
                                                                                                                          from the film jacket

"A film that can save your life," Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times; "Great Movie." Mark Bittman, New York Times Columnist; "Convincing, Radical and Politically Volatile," John Anderson, Variety

Forks Over Knives

The Sustainable Monroeville meeting on April 2, 2012 at 7:00 PM at the Monroeville Public Library will feature the movie Forks Over Knives, a 96 minute film by Monica Beach Media. Discussion will follow the film.

 "The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. The storyline traces the personal journeys of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the world renowed Cleveland Clinic. Their seperate research led them to the same conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented- and in many cases reversed-by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet."

Soil Food Webs and Composting class on Monday evening, February 5, 2012 at 7:00 PM at the Monroeville Public Library

As our March 5, 2012 meeting of Sustainable Monroeville at 7:00 PM in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library we will be hosting Jeff Newman of Steel City Soils.


 Class topic:  Soil Food Webs and Composting

from Jeff: "Join us for an informative class on the basics of your garden soil.  This 1.5 hour class will include a lecture by Jeff Newman of Steel City Soils LLC and some interactive group work.  

We'll be focusing on getting to know the site and soil at the Monroeville Public Library Food Garden.  Talking about soil fertility and plant interactions.  Then participating in a small group exercise to get you thinking about the underground city that is your garden soil.  You will leave the class with some new facts and some practical things you can do to increase your long-term fertility."

 Monroeville Food Garden work session following Sustainable Monroeville third annual pot luck dinner  February, 2012 meeting

Amy Baer, Pam Barroso, Susan Cardoza, Sandy McFall, Lois Drumheller, Jeff Newman

Thanks Don Winkie and Emma Winkie for giving us an update on your participation with the local girl scouts in the garden. We look forward to your continuing participation!

Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium

Elisa Beck and Lorraine Vincent of Sustainable Monroeville presented to the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium today. The faith leaders in attendance wrote suggestions about how to involve themselves in gardening efforts in the Monroeville Food Garden behind the Monroeville Public Library and beyond. The Monroeville People's Garden provided 500 pounds of vegetables for the four local food pantries this past year!

Here are some of the things the faith leaders wrote: "My parish may have a person or two who might be interested in working in the Monroeville Food Garden. I would be happy to publicize events in the bulletin, newsletter, etc." Eric Ash

"Advertise, Educate, Inform, Invite congregation to participate. Have a Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium member as part of the leadership."

"Have congregations take turns tending garden. Give us a 'garden mentor' to come to our congregations and create our own, also to benefit the food banks. Help us write the grant to the Monroeville Foundation."

"Ask parishiners to become involved. Develop own garden."

"Promote volunteers via weekly e-mails." Crossroads Church has a wonderful garden. They use their vegetables they grow for the folks that frequent their own food pantry.

"We can volunteer to weed and tend the garden, or start various plants at our homes and bring to garden to transplant."

"Tell someone else about it."

Thanks so much Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium for your efforts!

We talked about the importance of a pure food system, enriching the soil, living soil vs. sprayed lawns and promotion of the ideas of Food, Not Lawns in our beautiful suburb. We are the change we have been looking for!

Come one, come all to our February meeting of Sustainable Monroeville on Monday evening, February 6, 2012, in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library. Our third anniversary dinner pot luck will be at 6:00 PM with the meeting from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. Bring food that is locally sourced, if possible and your own place setting. This will be a zero waste event and leftovers will be composted. We will have reports from the Recycling Committee,  the Monroeville Food Garden, the developing permaculture landscape at the Cedars of Monroeville, and plan for 2012 including the action item of filling out the application for the Monroeville Foundation! Elisa Beck, Founder, Sustainable Monroeville

Happy New Year!

Beautiful winter sky in Pittsburgh, PA, 2012

Mark your calendars for Sustainable Monroeville meetings in 2012: January 9, February 6, March 5, April 2, May 7, June 4, July 2, August 6, Sept. 10, Oct. 1, Nov.5 and December3, 2012. Most meetings will be at 7:00 PM. 

The monthly meeting on January 9, 2012 in the downstairs program room at 7:00 PM will feature the documentary Bag It: Is your life too plastic? The film is both lighthearted, and heavy, and a must see! 

The February meeting will be at 6:00 PM and will be our annual local foods pot luck dinner. Bring a covered dish that has at least one ingredient that is locally sourced. That gets all of us thinking! Remember to bring along utensils and a plate and cup too. We'll be packing it in and out. 

This year, the February, 2012 meeting will be the third anniversary of the founding of Sustainable Monroeville! A local girl scout troop will be joining us too! Come prepared to let us know at least three things you've done in the last three years that have led to a more sustainable home or community or earth!

PolarTrec at Sustainable Monroeville in collaboration with the Monroeville Public Library

PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a program in which K-12 teachers spend several weeks participating in hands-on field research experiences in the polar regions. In May 2011, Gateway High School teacher Jim Pottinger went on expedition to Greenland to join a team studying solar radiation on the Greenland ice sheet. The team traversed the ice sheet several times and then lived and worked at Summit Station, located at the peak of the Greenland ice cap atop 3,200 meters of ice. The goal of the project was to gain a better understanding of the Earth's heat balance -- the solar radiation reflected back into space and absorbed by our planet. Join us at Monroeville Public Library on Monday, December 12, 7:00-8:30 p.m. as Jim shares stories and photos from the expedition.

Vandana Shiva in Pitttsburgh. Pure Joy and Inspiration!

Last night, I went to Point Park University to hear Vandana Shiva, "world- renowned environmental leader and thinker...She is the founder of Navdanya ("nine seeds"), a movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds. ..(she) set up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in her mother's cowshed in 1997. (Her organization)..has done studies that have validated the ecological value of traditional farming and have been instrumental in fighting destructive development projects in India." She also written many wonderful books including Soil, Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, 2008, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development, 2010, Earth Democracy, Justice, Sustainability and Peace, 2005, Water Wars: Pollution, Profits and Privatization, 2001, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, 1997, (all South End Press) Monocultures of the Mind (Zed, 1993) and The Violence of the Green Revolution (Zed, 1992)

A few of my friends, Steffi S. Eric V. a student from Point Park University, Vandana Shiva and me!

The talk was one of the most upbeat and inspiring talks I have ever heard. Shiva is grass roots and talked about the improtance of doing anything, any small thing, to work towards the world we want to see. She explained how turning land and soil to the organic way by enriching the soil, the earth will heal itself in a very short time, in two years.

After the talk, there was time for Q& A. I told Dr. Shiva that I usually ask questions. Following her talk though, I expressed my admiration that she spoke so well and summarized the healing plan for all of us people, plants, and all organisms through re-establishing the biodiverse earth, that I did not have any questions. Instead I told her what we are doing in our community of Monroeville to work with these issues. I told her about how we are linking the Food Not Lawns campaign with the urban core through the Schwartz Market project on Pittsburgh's Historic South Side.

So the newly established garden behind the Monroeville Public Library in cooperation with the library and the municipality is the first huge step in an outstanding direction. This winter, I will be thinking about, planning,  and designing a food garden for our front lawn, out here in this suburb called Monroeville. Our January meeting will be dedicated to the idea of Food Not Lawns. Join Us!

So what does this have to do with the urban core? Well, the urban folks do not have much space to grow food. Let's provide our suburban food for sale in the city and help the city folks establish their own rooftop gardens and urban farms....We are working step by step by step to establish a vibrant Schwartz Market on the South Side on Historic East Carson Street, main street USA! See http://1317eastcarson.blogspot.com. for more on this urban project. The market is available for vendors to sell food and some art, or have their goods sold. Please contact me if you are interested in being involved on any level out here in the suburbs or in the South Side.

I can be reached by e-mail at elisabeck@aol.com which I check almost daily, or sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com which I check infrequently!

So why am I so excited? Because when a person like Vandana Shiva says, oh, yes, that she did not talk about that last night, but that connecting the rural farmers with the urban core is so important and telling me that what we are doing is exactly what needs to happen, I get even more inspired! Perhaps she'll mention some of our after talking in her talk today at Carnegie Mellon University between 12:30 and 1:30 or tonight when she receives the Thomas Merton Award at the Sheraton in Station Squrare.

Join Us in this magnificent journey of vibrant life!  Elisa Beck :)

Elisa Beck

The Pittsburgh Public Market at Sustainable Monroeville

On Monday, November 14, 2011, at 7:00 PM, Rachel Kudrick of the Pittsburgh Public Market will be our speaker. Rachel will be talking about some of their specific plans for how to help communities become healthier, more sustainable, greener and friendlier, including future planning for educational classes, demos and partnerships.

She'll be bringing some maps of the Strip and a few other give-aways. Rachel, center, came to our meeting in September, 2011, and is pictured below with the two speakers from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and the Food Security Partnership:

Pittsburgh Public Market is a year-round public market hall located in the heart of the Strip District, Pittsburgh’s historic market district. The market offers a variety of locally grown and produced goods to support local business, industry and agriculture.

They are a non-profit entity under the auspices of Neighbors in the Strip and provide a place for local small businesses to open, learn, grow and thrive without the high cost of overhead that a traditional storefront would entail.

Their mission is to preserve the historic character of the neighborhood, provide healthy food and nutrition education to the neighborhood and surrounding region, provide jobs for low-income individuals with an emphasis on women and minorities, and create a public space that celebrates Pittsburgh’s diverse ethnic and food traditions.

Prior to the meeting NOTE CHANGE! At Monroeville # 4 Firehall, 4370 Northern Pike, in Monroeville, PA, on Monday evening, November 14, 2011, at 5:30 PM there will be a public meeting sponsored by Alcosan to update the community on fulfilling the consent decree to fix the sewage system in Allegheny County.  Sustainable Monroeville will not have a pot luck dinner that evening so we can attend this meeting and then follow it with our meeting at 7:00 PM at the Monroeville Public Library.

Background: Alcosan is planning to spend billions of dollars to expand their facilities and put in a new system to handle stormwater.

Another meeting will take place on Wednesday evening, November 9 from 5:30 to 7:30at the IBEW at 5 Hot Metal Street on the South Side. Alcosan has scheduled other meetings too. Go to their website for details.

Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank's, Kerri LaCharite and James Harrell, Jr., speak!

Hunger and food access affects one in every seven people in the United States, a total of 14.5% of households.  Fresh produce is often the hardest item for families to obtain and purchase.  At the same time 12% of produce goes unharvested due to the cost of labor, market price of produce and other factors.  Kerri LaCharite, Produce Specialist at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank will speak about local and urban agriculture initiatives and volunteer opportunities in South Western Pennsylvania and James Harrell, Jr., Regional Coordinator of the SW PA Food Security Partnership, will speak about the Southwestern Pennsylvania Food Security Partnership at the October 3, 2011 meeting of Sustainable Monroeville between 7:00 and 8:30 PM in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library. Free and open to the public. Join Us!

http://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Food Security Partnership was formed with the understanding that a unified approach is the way to make substantial progress toward eradicating hunger in our region.  Strengthening communications, sharing resources, identifying gaps and forging new collaborations throughout the Partnership’s network is their methodology.  It is an approach one set of authors recently described as a “collective impact” rather than an “isolated impact” strategy.

 Below is a more detailed link to the Pittsburgh food bank website which shows the types of work that the Partners have been doing in Allegheny County as well as the entire region.

http://www.pittsburghfoodbank.org/programs/partnership.aspx

Melons surrounded by Marigolds to stave off extraneous large critters in the Monroeville USDA People's Garden, September, 2011

Stormwater Management and a USDA People's Garden!

At the first meeting of Sustainable Monroeville in February of 2009, we worked to start two committees, one to begin a rain barrel revolution in Monroeville, and the other to learn how to design and implement 10' x 10' biointensive gardens in our suburban yards. Those specific projects have not happened yet, but we did spark a permaculture-style vegetable garden project at the Monroeville Public Library that is planting the seeds for helping us understand how bioswales are important in stormwater management and much more. The garden is now a People's Garden. The People's Garden is an initiative of the United States Department of Agriculture "that encourages government and other organizations to create gardens to benefit the community." (People's Garden takes root beside library, Pittsburgh Post Gazette 9-15-11, EZ-2 byAnne Tubbs,)  The Crossraods Food Pantry and the Pitcairn Food Pantry are receiving the bounty of the Monroeville People's Garden. Here's today's article in its entirety by Annie Tubbs of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Lake Fong/Post-Gazette

Lois Drumheller examines the garden behind the Monroeville library, recently certified by the USDA as a People's Garden.

Between the library and the senior citizens center in Monroeville lies a two-row garden of flowers, vegetables and herbs.
It's the brainchild of Monroeville Councilwoman Lois Drumheller, who wanted to establish a People's Garden -- a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative that encourages government and other organizations to create gardens to benefit the community.
She'd hoped to secure thousands of dollars in grants, but when it became clear that wasn't going to happen, she started planning the garden with just $450 in donations.
"This is the first year, and it's all experimental and done on a shoestring budget," she said. The garden is the only USDA-certified People's Garden in Allegheny County.
So far, the 240-square-foot garden has produced about 250 pounds of vegetables, fruits and herbs for two local food pantries -- the Cross Roads Presbyterian Church and the Pitcairn Food Bank.
Early in the year, Sustainable Monroeville, a group that promotes sustainable gardening, helped design a "permaculture" garden -- the plants have a symbiotic relationship to help each other grow.
Then, Ms. Drumheller had the soil tested in March by scientists at the Penn State Cooperative Extension. The test results weren't promising.
"We didn't have very nutritious soil," she said.
So she spent $225 of her budget on a "soil amendment" done by Steel City Soil. After public works employees dug two rows for the garden with a depression in the middle for a bioswale to catch water runoff, topsoil donated and delivered by a local landscaping company was laid down, followed by a nutritious compost mixture from Steel City Soil. On May 31, seeds and seedlings were planted, all of which were either donated or sold at a deep discount by two local garden centers -- June Rose Garden Center in Plum and Mosside Greenhouse in Wall.
Amid the zucchini, tomatoes and cantaloupe, the garden is dotted with marigolds and Irish Spring bar soap because a public works employee told Ms. Drumheller that the smells are offensive to deer.
"Municipal employees are an encyclopedia of knowledge," Ms. Drumheller said.
She also put fences around the tomatoes to further deter four-legged thieves.
She has seen rabbits, deer, turkeys and groundhogs nearby, but they're not really bothering the garden. Only one plant has been gnawed on -- a Jerusalem artichoke
"I don't really see a lot of animals getting into this," she said.
The staff at Monroeville Public Library helps Ms. Drumheller harvest produce from the garden during work breaks.
"It's been exciting to watch it grow and harvest the fruits of Lois' labor," said Christy Fusco, library director.
The small bioswale in the garden catches water on the sloping hill toward the library, preventing some of it from getting into the building.
Ms. Fusco said she hopes to include more environmentally friendly permaculture landscaping on the library grounds to mitigate flooding.
"We're just keeping our eyes open and sort of including that in our plans ... as we address facility issues," she said.
Ms. Drumheller hopes that sustainable gardens expand across the library grounds and onto the nearby Gateway School District campus. School board members took a tour of the garden last week.
Ms. Fusco said the garden is a great start, and she also hopes to "take those ideas and apply them to the whole campus."

Annie Tubbs: atubbs@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1613.

First published on September 15, 2011 at 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11258/1174606-56-0.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml#ixzz1Y1yVwl88

Check out the link to a wonderful editorial about stormwater management by Brenda Smith, Executive Director of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, and one of 15 women being honored for making the region more green by the Boys and Girls Club on November 19, 2011, at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in downtown Pittsburgh: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11243/1170941-110.stm