Seminars and Notes - Mother Earth News Fair

October 22-23, 2016                   Topeka, Kansas
Mother Earth News Fair

These are the notes, scribbled on the back of the fair schedule, from the seminars that I attended.

These notes may not interest you or make sense, but I want to keep them for reference.

I have included links to websites and Amazon  links for the books.



Wildlife Friendly Gardening
Tammi Hartung, author
I have been following her blog, she lives/farms on 5 acres in Canon City, CO
newest book: Cattail Moonshine & Milkweed Medicine
Bats - night pollinators, Passion Flower
Deers eat bindweed
"OMRI" products - organic for pest control


A Tiny Home to call your Own: Living well in just-right houses
Patricia Foreman
She has built tiny houses and she talked about her business and about how to get your tiny house built where you want.


How to Produce Half Your Food in Less Than an Hour a Day in a Backyard
Marjory Wildcraft
Listened in a little after the tiny home seminar, but she talked about raising rabbits, chickens, etc and I will not be doing that. I plan on growing plants - fruits, veggies, flowers.


Grow, Create & Inspire
Crystal Stevens
CSA Farmer (7 acres) and herbalist
A great seminar, by a young mom, hoping to make a difference
* Refuse-Reuse-Reduce-Recycle
* Share with others
* Reach out to kids
* Basis in volunteering
* "Slow Food Chapter"
* author Grow Create Inspire



The Road to Health is Through Your Stomach
Dawn Combs, M.A. - Ethnobotanist & Author mockingbirdmeadows.com
author of Heal Local
author of Conceiving Healthy Babies
nervines and bitters for digestion
nervines are hops, chamomile, lavender, oat tops
headache relief tincture
sage, gingko for memory loss
mugwort is a moth repellant

"Our Heal Local Mentorship is a year-long program that involves two week-long stays at the farm along with homework oversight and hands-on volunteer opportunities during the months in between. The design is intended to provide an immersive study experience while being practical for those who will need to travel to the farm."          2017-2018 SESSION DATES  July 17, 2017 – July 22, 2017 and  June 18, 2018 – June 23, 2018
"The curriculum covers the foundations of herbalism, wild plant identification, physiology and pathophysiology of the human body, medicinal herbology, herb gardening, herbal preparation, natural cosmetics, medicinal formulation, native connection to the land, traditional foods preparation, the techniques of harvesting, drying and storing plants and much, much more."



Making a Living on 1.5 Acres
Jean-Martin Fortier
Grow Better - Not Bigger
author of The Market Gardener
"Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally recognized micro-farm known for its high productivity and profitability using low-tech, high-yield methods of production."
Located in Quebec, an area that my maternal grandfather's family has farmed.





Saving Resources and Money by Intentional Living
Aaron Murphy and Dan Durica
Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage
interesting concept to living with shared facilities, everyone has their own little, solar powered house, but they share - cars, kitchens, tools, etc.


Extending the Season at Both Ends
Eliot Coleman, author - Maine
Four Season Harvest
The Winter Harvest Handbook
The New Organic Grower



The 7 Hour Business to Fund Your Family Farm
Red Rock, TX - Marjory Wildcraft, author - Grow Your Own Groceries
THE GROW NETWORK


Benchmarks of Truth
Joel Salatin, author - I listened to the audio online during my lunch break
 Permaculture - Amassing Natural Wealth
1. model scale resistant / up or down
2. appropriate in developed and undeveloped countries
3. principle consistent: spiritually, ecologically & economical
4. easy to enter, easy to exit, lower capital, portable
5. everyone can do it ie:permaculture, pond building, irrigation
6. "Innovations" should be easier, rather than harder (no franchises) (don't be a Tyson chicken farmer)
7. Equity is in management, information & service, not infrastructure
8. Builds "self'-reliance" instead of Dependence
9. Child Friendly - transparency, open source, charitable
10. Building carbon onsite and not depleting carbon in the soil



Creating Healthy Soil for Healthy Food and People
Dale Stricker is an agronomist for Green Cover Seed
No-till Farmer - avoid the problems of the "Dust Bowl"
follow the "pattern of the Prairie"
plant cover crops
Barley, Crimson Clover, Buckwheat - attract pollinators
Mycorrhizal Fungi inoculated in plants increases minerals in the soil
excellent information, the last seminar of the event, a great end to the weekend



Posting this information here, helps to keep my RV clutter free, now I can recycle my notes and the brochures and business cards that I collected at this event.