Learn chicken, rabbit and duck housing, fencing, home made feed, dealing with predators, choosing a variety, and yes… processing your bird (or rabbit) into Sunday dinner. Choose between 2-3 workshops during any given time slot.

Topics and Instructors:
Urban Chickens—Tony Seely and Sarah Boyd Payette of Traverse City Urban Chickens

Raising Meat Chickens and Processing—Tom Brown & Pepper Brommelmeier
Ducks and Duck Ponds—Peg Mahaffy
Pea Fowl and Guinea Fowl—Tom Sheneman
Raising and Dressing Meat Rabbits—Jacqueline Bowen and Julius Bugai
Egg Laying Chickens—Sharron and Paul May of The May Farm

Door prizes, snacks and lots of take-home resources! To register and for more information, contact Yvonne at yvonne@artmeetsearth.org or 231-480-4515. Pre-register by June 2 for $20; $25 at the door.

This event is supported by Murray McMurray Hatchery, Randall Burkey Company and Backyard Poultry Magazine.

Please RSVP right away for this important day! Call Judy at MLUI: 233-941-6584 or email judy@mlui.org.

Farm Route to Prosperity Summit, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., April 9, 2010, Black Star Farms, near Suttons Bay.

Just bring $10 for lunch and a get ready for a productive and fun time:

• Networking with others involved in building a new food and farm future.
• Delving into specific ideas and projects for northwest Michigan.
• Shaping our Food and Farming Network so it helps you do what you want to do.

Spread the word. See you soon!

More info at www.foodandfarmingnetwork.org. Fill out our pre-summit questionnaire while you’re there: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AB8PJNJ2Y

Meet farmers, educators and beginners like yourself. Great way to see and learn!
Join us on April 14 as we discuss how fertilizer-saving and soil quality-enhancing cover crops can also be an excellent source of high-quality forage from mid-summer late into the fall and extremely early in the spring! This event begins at 3:00 p.m. just east of the intersection of Plains Road and Tuttle Road in Mason, MI. We will have an interactive tour of a replicated cover crop research plot that was established in wheat stubble in August of 2009. Species in these plots include:
Radish
Annual ryegrass
Crimson clover
Fall rye
Oats
Austrian winter peas
Field (spring) peas
Spring and fall triticale
Grass pea
Turnips
& Various combinations of the above
Cost: $5 per person or $10 per farm, whichever is less. RSVP!

To register, please call Connie at 517-676-7207 or e-mail cvernon@ingham.org
Presented by Ingham County MSU Extension

The State Theater, 233 E. Front Street, Traverse City
Free!

“If there are two people whose ideas and values have shaped the spirit of the sustainable farm movement in America it’s Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry.”  —Patty Cantrell, Senior Policy Specialist, Michigan Land Use Institute.

Wes Jackson is founder and president of The Land Institute, in Kansas. His writings include The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge and the forthcoming Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture. He’s received the Pew Conservation Scholars Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Right Livelihood Award. He’s also a Post Carbon Institute fellow, and winner of the University of Kansas Distinguished Service Award.

In partnership with SEEDS, ISLAND, Great Lakes Bioneers, Neahtawanta Center, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and Leelanau Land Conservancy
For information contact Jim Sluyter at 231-941-6584 or jimsluyter@mlui.org

Coffee with Wes and Kent
Featuring Wes Jackson & Kent Whealy, A Sustainability Pioneer & Seed Savers’ Founder; Saturday, April 10, 8 to 10am – Higher Grounds Coffee Roastery, 806 Red Drive, Grand Traverse Commons, Traverse City – Free! Here’s your chance to hear from two leaders of the movement to harmonize agriculture, nature, and climate in an era of volatile energy prices.

Kent Whealy is the co-founder and former leader of the Seed Savers Exchange, dedicated to the preservation of the seed lines of heirloom plants. Mr. Whealy received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and edited The Garden Seed Inventory from 1985 to 2005. Currently he’s working on a book about heritage apples. “The agriculture we seek will act like an ecosystem, feature material recycling and run on the contemporary sunlight of our star.” – Wes Jackson

In partnership with SEEDS, ISLAND, Great Lakes Bioneers, Neahtawanta Center, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and Leelanau Land Conservancy For information contact Jim Sluyter at 231-941-6584 or jimsluyter@mlui.org

We are open to volunteers help for any length of time. Some volunteers come for 1 hour, some come for 3 months. Please call or email to arrange volunteer times.

Full Season Farm Intern
It turns out that the person we had lined up for the internship is no longer able to work with us this summer. Therefore, we are still accepting applications for the 2010 growing season internship.

Employment Dates: Mid May through mid October; 5 months/22 weeks (We can be somewhat flexible with dates if needed.); Meals: We provide staple foods and cooking facilities. We have communal meals with volunteers, woofers, and intern a few times each week; Housing: We have a rustic, two bedroom cabin that is shared between our intern and “wwoofers”. The intern has their own room. Composting toilet, hot shower, and kitchen facilities on site; Stipend: $100/week

Skills Desired: An ideal candidate would be hard working, trust worthy, and have a passion for learning about organic farming. The work can be physically demanding and requires working in all types of weather. Having a positive attitude is essential. The intern will be expected to lead and oversee volunteer workers, so leadership and social skills are valuable, as well as an attention to detail. Since housing is shared with an ever-changing group of “wwoofers,” applicants should enjoy meeting new people. No previous farm experience is required.

Internship Details: This position includes all aspect of small-scale organic farming. The intern will be involved in everything from greenhouse work, transplanting, cultivation, composting, tractor work, harvest, market, and general farm projects. We expect 40 + hours per week, with Sundays off. As stated, the intern will be asked to manage volunteer workers at times, and be expected to work independently on occasion. As with any good internship, the time that you spend here is intended to be a learning experience. We will do everything we can to give you the knowledge that you are seeking.

Please email with a little bit about yourself and what you are hoping to gain from your time here.

Work Exchange Program
We are a host farm for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF); meaning that we welcome workers from all over the world for work exchange visits on the farm. The “WWOOFers” work about 25 hours per week in exchange for knowledge, basic housing and food, including many fresh veggies. Below is our listing for the 2010 season. For more information see www.wwoofusa.com or contact us.

We are located in west Michigan, about 30 min North of Grand Rapids and 30 min East of Lake Michigan, with its sand beaches, in an orchard region know as the Fruit Ridge. We have 20 acres and grow about 3.5 acres of mostly vegetables with some fruits and flowers, selling through a small CSA and two local farmer’s markets. Our farm goals include self sufficiency, environmental sustainability, creating a full circle farm system, efficiency, making our small farm profitable enough to pay the bills, and enjoying life. We value a peaceful, balanced and harmonious environment, and welcome those who also want to live a peaceful, conflict-free existence. On the farm there are chickens, sheep, bees, a dog, and pigs during the summer months. The majority of the work will be tending to the vegetable crops, including seeding, planting, cultivating, irrigation, harvesting, and all other aspects of small scale veggie production. Other possible types of work include canning and preserving, building, fence and structure maintenance, or pruning fruit trees depending on your interests. We have found from our own WWOOFing experiences that three to four weeks is a nice length of time to stay, but we are open to anything from a weekend to a couple of months. If you are interested in a long-term stay with more work hours, responsibilities, and stipend pay, p lease consider applying for the full season intern position. We can pick you up in Grand Rapids or Muskegon as long as you are staying more then one week. For shorter stays, please arrange your own transportation. A small town with shops and restaurants is about 4 miles away, and there are bikes you can use. Our work expectations are about 25 hours per week. For housing, we have a rustic, two-bedroom cabin. There is a communal living area, one bedroom for our full season intern, and the other is shared between woofers and can sleep up to four. You will have use of composting toilet, hot shower, and kitchen facilities. We can provide a tent and bedding if you would prefer. We enjoy family meals and like to all eat together at least a few times a week. But, at the same time we do not want to promise that we will cook a big meal everyday when we know that in the busy part of the year that may not be possible. So, we will provide you with staple foods, seasonal vegetables, and cooking facilities, but we do striving to cook and eat communal when possible. The majority of our diet is farm produce, beans, grains, and farm produced meat and eggs. Vegetarians diets easily accommodated, vegans welcome, but may need to prepare separate meals. We speak English and conversational Spanish. Please, no felons, drugs, excessive drinking, or smoking indoors. Help is most welcome from April through November. We seek honest people who are respectful of our planet and each other that have an easy-going and fun-loving spirit that are ready to learn and teach. We look forward to hearing from you.

Garden of Eden Project Seeks Mentors

Mt. Zion All Nation’s Bible Church at 10575 S. Creeps Rd. in Dewitt is seeking garden mentor/mentors to assist them in the development of their new Eden Garden that will serve Mt. Zion All Nation’s Bible Church and Dewitt food pantries.  25 church members and various youth have already signed on for assisting in the project and over 500 community residents will be affected by this garden.  They plan to extend this garden space in the next few years to include a pavilion and a children’s play area.

The Eden program is looking for someone to lead programming, such as teaching a Gardening 101 class to church members.  They are also looking for someone who can provide hands-on help in the garden and be available for horticultural and garden design and planting advice.  They are also seeking material and/or resources showing basic gardening step by step instructions, explaining the abc’s.

If you are able to dedicate your time to this important project, please contact Sarina White at (517) 327-6273; j_white5817@comcast.net

Location Manager for Door to Door Organics

The Michigan Location Manager is the critical link in the success of Door To Door Organics (DtDO). Location Managers are responsible for all local operations, which include the oversight of all door to door employees, inventory, finances, products, sales, storing, packing and delivery.  The Location Manager must be a do it all personality, equally comfortable behind a desk, managing people, selling products and working in a warehouse.  The Location Manager must be successful at building and managing the local team to execute the overall goals of the Company; while remaining flexible enough to step into every person’s job that they manage at any given time.  The individual will work closely with and communicate constantly with the DtDO Central team, including daily operational calls and weekly management team phone calls.  Employee oversight will include a team of packers, warehouse employees and delivery drivers, along with all operational equipment.

Essential Responsibilities

• Foster a team environment built around product quality, efficient operations and a strong work ethic
• Work to achieve a perfectly packed and delivered box every time, with the end customer experience in mind
• Expand sales in the local market
• Ensure that DtDO Central has adequate information on the local market to better meet their needs
• Work with the DtDO Central team to create and foster the DtDO culture
• Develop and document best practices both verbally and through the DtDO website
• Foster a team culture, where everyone is focused on our customer’s experience and is  willing to step up and support other members of the  team as needed
• Create and enforce an injury free workplace; demonstrate good judgment
• Actively promote the Company and products; lead and participate in sales activities as necessary such as presentations and distributing flyers
• If you don’t know or understand something, ask
  

Essential Duties

• Hire, train, develop, encourage, review and fire employees as necessary
• Enforce and maintain a safe and efficient warehouse and delivery operation
• Oversee the delivery vehicle fleet as necessary, keeping accurate maintenance schedule and safe operating vehicles
• Understand and enforce work place safety requirements·
• Fill in for any missing employee at any time
• Maintain disciplined communications practices with DtDO Central
• Act as the local lead for sales presentations
• Reinforce DtD policies and practices
• Develop and manage to budget expectations
• Perform other duties as needed
  

Requirements

• Must be able to work flexible hours depending on the work load, including overtime without notice (typical start time is 5am)
• Must have familiarity with Microsoft Office Word and Excel; the more computer literate the better
• Must have a clean driving record, current drivers license and be comfortable driving in all weather conditions
• Must be able to lift 50 lbs and function at repetitive work tasks
• Must be able to work in a refrigerated facility for an extended time at 35 degrees
• 
  

The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND) is seeking one self-directed and contagiously curious intern for the summer of 2010. The ISLAND intern will work in and around the Village of Bellaire in North- west Lower Michigan (50 miles NE of Traverse City) for between 8 and 16 weeks from June to October.

A typical ISLAND intern is interested in plenty of the following: alternative building, animals, architecture, art, arts administration, construction, community organizing, computers, ecology, farming, film, food, gardening, homestead- ing, outdoor work, manual labor, music, philosophy, radical hospitality, radical domesticity, reading, renewable energy, resilience, small non-profit work and sustainable living.

ISLAND Interns are equally at home with a tool belt and a laptop. Interns have real responsibility on a mix of projects both challenging and prosaic. Expect a few fresh blisters, and expect that others will be counting on you, and not just to bring them coffee.

You can download the application HERE.

And check out their benefit concert on April 17th @ Short’s Brewing in Bellaire!

Taking Root: 5th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference
Detroit, MI, May 17 – 19, 2010
www.farmtocafeteriaconference.org

Farm to Cafeteria programs are TAKING ROOT in schools, hospitals, colleges, day care centers, and other institutions. Come to Detroit and learn about successful models across the country and how you can start and scale up a program in your community.

Register by March 26

to receive the early registration discount and reserve your seat for one of the exciting field trips or short courses.

More Info:

About the Conference

Farm to Cafeteria is TAKING ROOT all across the country. Entering its second decade, farm to cafeteria is becoming a permanent feature of school meals. It’s now the subject of collaborations with community groups, of state policy, and even of a new national initiative within the US Department of Agriculture.

During the conference attendees will have the opportunity to learn about initiatives involving pre-school, K-12, childcare facilities, hospitals, colleges and prisons.  One workshop – Farm to School by Land and Sea – will include examples of integrating local seafood into cafeteria menus. Prospects for professional development will abound with short courses on media training, policy advocacy, and research and evaluation.

Raising the voices of youth, two flavor and film contests will kick off the conference. The winners will be awarded from the second annual nationwide Real Food Is… video contest, in which students from kindergarten to college are challenged to consider what “Real Food Is…”  The conference will also host a new opportunity for youth involvement in “Cooking Up Change,” a contest that challenges high school and college students to create healthy school meals, with local items, that can easily be prepared in a school kitchen. Participants will have an opportunity to sample their tasty dishes.

The conference has something to offer everyone, from field trips and short courses to workshops, a sampling of local foods and perhaps best of all…the chance to connect with others.  Join us in Detroit as we work together towards forging new frontiers in the realm of Farm to Cafeteria.