Tag Archives: Sustainability

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Community Supported Agriculture and One Dog Friendly Kitchen

Capay Organic

This month’s Farm Fresh delivery to our door from Capay Organic.  (Dog not included.)

Our monthly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) delivery from Capay Organic’s Farm Fresh to You  produce arrived on Friday.   We initially signed up for the service with a short-term commitment in mind; bridge the deficit that our back yard farming efforts do not provide us so that our nutritional needs could be better met.   Shopping at local grocery store chains for vegetables trucked from the Central Valley is one thing but to buy produce from Canada or Mexico?   I  prefer not to be a part of that economy because it isn’t necessary for us to do so.  We have access to fertile land in a garden I call Eden, otherwise known as California.   What might our world be like if more people were granted access to land to grow their own food and help sustain their communities?

Capay Organic 2

Stella sneaks a lick of the King Richard Leek when she thought I wasn’t looking.

Please support your local farmers.  Plant seeds of your own.  The rewards are worth the effort.

~T.

© 2014, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.

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Vermont’s Connection to a Green California: The Clean Energy States Alliance

California and Vermont seem to be blessed with the largest per-capita population of creative, experienced policy makers and green practitioners in the nation.  A good friend from Vermont coordinated this year’s Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) National Membership Meeting in Sacramento earlier this week, so I was able to connect with her between the events hosted by the California Energy Commission and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  

 CESA’s mission supports state and local leadership to promote the use of existing and emerging clean energy technologies. The Alliance’s analysis and studies are designed to accelerate clean energy deployment.  They are a nationwide network of leaders at the state and local level working together to catalyze a low-carbon energy economy, and I feel privileged for having the opportunity to be in the presence of such good intended thought leaders. State policies and programs will determine the progress of renewable energy implementation and standards in America.  Did you know that since 1998, $3.4 billion of state clean energy funds support has driven the construction of over 130,000 renewable energy projects representing a total investment of nearly $16 billion? 

 

I’m interested to see these projects continue to succeed and expand in the coming years, and will continue to do my part in supporting the initiatives.

~T.

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Urban Farming

It has been a year since we first began planting our garden here, and I relish the success of our efforts.   The work was intensive and our rewards all the sweeter for it:

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Even Stella has enjoyed some of the bounty:

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Technologies such as vertical growing and aquaponics are allowing people to grow even more in small spaces which can have a positive impact on the growing global urban populations.   It matters less about how much we grow – what’s important, I think, is that we try to grow something so that we continue to move ourselves more towards self-sufficiency and away from a total reliance on the food chain.  Now wouldn’t that beet all?

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~T.