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.

At the Fair - Mother Earth News

October 22-23, 2016       Topeka, Kansas

MOTHER EARTH NEWS is the "Original Guide to Wiser Living."

I now subscribe to the magazine via my Kindle.

The Mother Earth New Fair was centered around more than a dozen stages, inside and outside, with the speakers changing every hour or two.

There was no way to listen to all of the speakers in 2 days.  I do not have any interest in livestock and I wasn't planning on setting up my own sawmill,  I could cross those off the schedule.

I circled one or two speakers for each session and would decide later which ones to sit in on.

There were a few authors that I recognized and the author of a blog I follow, and I knew I did not want to miss those.

Subjects I listened to over the 2 days included:

herbal medication

healthy eating

organic gardening

making a living off your land

tiny house building

no-tilling soil management

attracting wildlife to your yard

sustainable communities

https://desertcanyonfarm.wordpress.com/

There was a huge bookstore in the center of the exhibition hall, I looked but I did not buy any books, hoping to find used books while I travel, or read them on my kindle or get them at the library. I was tempted to purchase the thumb-drive loaded with many years of back issues of the magazine, but decided to wait until I actually owned some property.

My purchases were organic basil and sunflower seeds and herb tea blends.

As with any fair or trade show, there were many vendors and many freebies.

I went home with these free items 

Food is always part of any fair or gathering. Several of the vendors offered samples - I sampled Coconut Bliss Ice Cream, Vegan burgers and breakfast patties, salad dressings, kombucha, elderberry syrup, and blender soft serve fruit "ice cream".

There were several food trucks outside, many of them offering up organic and/or vegan food. I chose some items from a food truck and walked back to the RV to eat lunch and take a break. 

I had purchased a 2 day fair pass, so I had plenty of time to see everything at the fair.

Around the Fair

 view of the State Capitol from the parking lot

ExpoCentre building / looks like a Tornado Shelter

Art Deco Building at the fairgrounds

The earliest recorded event on this site dates back to 1871. A small, local fair quickly grew to be the largest in the state. Just nine years after its inception it became known as the Kansas State Fair, featuring a wide variety of exhibitions. Fairgoers saw the newest farm equipment and the best agricultural exhibits in the state, as well as the finest livestock.

During the last decades of the 19th century the original grandstand was erected. However, it was not until 1909 that funds were appropriated for the building of permanent structures.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

I am really happy that I decided to take this detour and attend the fair.  It was good to take the time to learn more about something that I have thought about for a long time.  I love to travel, but I really feel that having a place to grow food and flowers has a stronger pull on my heart than the love of traveling.

Leaving my home state and traveling in the RV is/was all about discovery. Who am I after a major life changing event? What is it that I really want to do with the rest of my life? Where is the best place to have a homebase, if any?

There are still so many places that I want to visit. Alaska is still at the top of the list, along with the east coast - Maine, Boston, etc. I have not been to the Pacific Northwest yet or to the southern parts of Arizona.  If I purchase a piece of property, then a "camper van" may be in my future, so that I can continue to explore around the country. 

I can't imagine "retiring" and just sitting around.  I started my 1st business when I was around 26 years old. Before that I sold handcrafts at craft shows in my neighborhood. I was always busy making something, growing something or traveling somewhere.  I suppose I will always be a tax preparer, also. I stepped away from that for a few years, but went back to it - it's part of who I am.

Everyone has a "calling" or two?  What is yours?

I've recently read that there is a trend with retirees wanting to stay in urban areas, with convenient access to services and entertainment.  A walkable community with a good public transportation system.

Is it possible to "live close to the earth" in an urban environment?

I would like to attend this event in 2017

but I'll be at work doing tax returns.

Mother Earth News Fair

Many, many years ago when I was a newlywed (1976) new mom (1977) and new homeowner (1978), I subscribed to the Mother Earth News magazine.

I always dreamed about living on a farm with a big red barn, I enjoyed working outdoors and growing things. What I miss from my house in Illinois are the gardens. I planted a lot of native prairie plants and also had a beautiful rose garden in the back yard.  Sometimes, when life wasn't too hectic, I would have a vegetable garden, too.

Many weekends I would drag my husband and daughter to look at an abandoned farm or small cottage, I wanted to move to the country. We lived in Chicago and would travel to rural areas of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.  In later years, our road trips took us farther away from home.

2008 Boone Forest, Kentucky

Last fall, I noticed an ad for the Mother Earth News Fair in Topeka, Kansas, the dates were October 22nd-23rd (2016). I would be finished working on October 17th and decided to take a detour to Kansas on my way to Denver.

Attending this event fueled my desire, again, for a small farm.  One of the goals of full-timing is to find a "home base".  I still have not figured out where that will be, but I plan on searching for a place while traveling this summer.

My work schedule is January 15th-April 15th and again from August 15th-October 15th.  This allows me a lot of time for visiting with family and exploring. Instead of working a summer job that requires a commitment of 6+ months in one location, I will work this split schedule and free up the summer months for exploring.

My property requirements are pretty simple:

No restrictions on parking an RV on the property

Utilities already in place

One to two miles from a thriving town center

I currently walk/bike for most errands and want to continue this

The town must have a grocery store, library and community center

A house is not necessary, I do not want to worry about leaving it vacant while traveling.

I will continue to travel in the RV, there are many places to visit, I am not ready to sit in one place yet.  It will take time to establish perennial plants and small fruit trees on the property, it will be a work in progress, a place to hang out and make plans. 

To be continued...

*Traveling to Topeka and "at the fair"

*More Texas State Parks

The Mother Earth News Fair will be in several states again in 2017.

Link provided on this blog post.

Mother Earth News, books, magazines and archives available on my Amazon link.

Thank you for checking out these links to Amazon!