Spring has come to ELT! We are watching fruit trees bloom, perennials emerge from hibernation, and are sprucing up our beds for new annuals.  We've started new veggies indoors and are eagerly awaiting time to plant them outside. Enjoy some of the pics from Walker Creek (where spring is a little wetter than everywhere else!), Sunset, Pragtree Farm, and Sherwood!

So I'd just gotten back from three weeks of camping in northern Idaho, and saw the invite for River Farm's annual ELT fundraiser, Camp-A-Thon. I was barely unpacked, which, I suppose should have made it easier. But in my mind, I was a bit done with the work that comes with camping. Ah, but Camp-A-Thon is unique in terms of ease. Once I realized that they cook three square (delicious) meals for you -- this alone pushed me over the edge, into the "do-able" realm (I have a 9 month old remember - at this point I'm easily overwhelmed).

Four of us Walker Creek-ers made it that weekend, along with our delighted kids. The kids seemed to really love the Free Store, what fun for them to choose their goodies, and I’m only sorry I did not get a photo of all the young campers hunkered down on the stage for the night/morning. The music & singing around the campfire was a highlight for me – loved how Ian and crew had a knack for leading songs in a way that we could join in so easily. African Dancing & drumming! Basket weaving & yoga! Eating and eating! Playing & relaxing! Loving the stars and the river and the golden grasses in the summer breeze. Oh, and that moon!!!!

Later on Sunday we Creek-ers managed to linger long enough to capture the inaugural pizza cooking in the new cob oven built a few weekends prior at the Earth Activist Training led by Starhawk.

Thank you, River Farm, for an amazing weekend. We'll be back!

Here we are lined up for some delicious uber-local fresh-air food under the banner shouting out, "Let's Get Fed From Our Local Food Shed."

Question of the day: Are River Farm kids so smart that they would not touch a deep-fried Twinkie with a 10 foot pole? (yes)

I like NICA's spring conference 2010 theme:

“FOOD AS CELEBRATION: how food helps build community”

* Share a happy memory around food
* How does food create a sense of community for you?
* Do you have a ritual around food?
* How does food nourish your Spirit?

I'm a sucker for these prompt questions and would love to hear about you and food in your community.

Well, it's Elinor Ostrom who actually won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, not the topic itself of collective management of resources. (hello, ELT!)

She's done years of work on societies and communities who manage property collectively - how it works, why it works, and what conditions must exist to make collective management work well. She's produced hundreds of studies on the conditions in which communities self-organize to solve common problems.

It's an interesting read about her in this month's YES! magazine. As YES! says, "What makes this award particularly special is that her work is about cooperation."

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/america-the-remix/elinor-ostrom-wins-nobel-for-common-s-sense

She lists conditions that need to exist to effectively manage collective property. Interesting to see if they apply to our circumstances and individual communities.

Well, two years of work and the Board has revised ELT policies. A few key changes affecting everyone: