BeFriending Creation
Palmetto Friends Gathering followed up on Ruah and Louis's visit last year with a "localvore" meal at this year's session. The Horry/Five Rivers Friends Meeting hosted the lunch on March 3, 2007 and served about 32 Friends. The process of putting the meal together was initiated by your Friends Journal article. One of the happy outcomes was learning about and visiting Freewoods Farm, a treasure in our community that we were not fully aware of. We had heard that cane syrup was made there—the old fashioned way with a mule-powered mill. We used that as sweetener.
I hope that our lunchers will be in contact with local growers. I know that I look for location more when I am in the grocery store. Thanks to Alice Wald, we have "discovered" Anson Mills and their mission to preserve heirloom grain production in South Carolina.
—Grace Gifford
Palmetto Friends Gathering
Conway, S.C.
"Put the State on Your Plate"
Take the "Eat Local" Challenge Lunch
Carolina Gold rice and grits—Anson Mills, Columbia, S.C.
Sweet potatoes—grown by Chese Jolly, Green Sea, S.C.
Collard greens—grown by Sammy Collier, Green Sea, S.C.
Butterbeans—grown and processed by Ruth & Jimmy Patterson, Green Sea, S.C.
Cornmeal—Awendaw Spoonbread, Awendaw, S.C.
Eggs—Ovis Hill Farm, Timmonsville, S.C.
Butter, cheese, milk, and chocolate milk—Happy Cow Creamery, Pelzer, S.C.
Muffins—variety of types, made with cornmeal and whole wheat flour from Anson Mills; K & J eggs from Scranton, S.C.; milk and butter from Happy Cow Creamery; and sorghum cane syrup from Blizzard Branch and Freewoods Farm, Burgess, S.C.
Tea—American Classic Tea, Wadmalaw Island, S.C.
Oatmeal cookies—made with toasted hand-cut oats and whole wheat flour from Anson Mills; butter from Happy Cow Creamery; and sorghum cane syrup from Freewoods Farm.
Blueberry crisp—made with blueberries from Mr. & Mrs. Floyd, Green Sea, S.C.; whole wheat flour from Anson Mills; and butter from Happy Cow Creamery.
I have been trained by Al Gore to be one of his "1,000 Messengers" to take his climate crisis message across the land at the grassroots level. I'm thrilled to be one of the 1,000 in the nation!
Our training with Al Gore, with contributions by top climate scientists and environmental educators, was amazing. I'm now available to give presentations about the climate crisis to any group which invites me.
Have other Quakers been trained to be messengers for Al Gore? I'd like to be in touch to share ideas. Please let me know at <Carolyn@PlanetCare.us>.
—Carolyn W. Treadway
Normal, Illinois
A recent issue of Coop America Quarterly (No. 69, Summer 2006) had a number of excellent, detailed articles of interest to members of QEW:
- Forests situation critical.
- Strategies for forest protection.
- Targeting corporate paper use.
- Managing forests sustainably.
- Protecting ancient forests.
- Coop America's paper project.
- Woodwise companies directory.
Many Friends are familiar with many of the thoughts expressed, but the thoroughness of these articles has merit for all of us to read. Write to:
Coop America
1612 K Street NW #600
Washington DC 20006Individual copies are $4.00. For members of a group or Meeting, orders of 10 copies are $2.00 each, and 100 copies are $1.00 each, plus postage.
—Robert L. Wixom
Columbia, Mo., Friends Meeting
Leonard Joy's article on economics and Ed Dreby's article on money in recent issues of QEW's Quaker Eco-Bulletin are excellent. These articles give a broad picture of the difficulties faced by any who attempt to change our usual and customary practices, particularly when they are powered by the money economy.
—Alicia Adams
Miembres, N.M.
EarthSpirit Rising, a Return to Earth's Wisdom
The 6th EarthSpirit Rising Conference is scheduled for June 8–10, 2007 at Bellarlmine University, Louisville, Ky. Titled "EarthSpirit Rising, a Return to Earth's Wisdom," the conference will focus on listening to and learning from the ways of Earth. At the heart of this conference is the conviction that the spiritual dimension of life offers the greatest untapped reservoir of power, imagination, and courage to meet this challenge to return to Earth's wisdom.
Knowing that you are someone deeply aware of the crises of our time, we'd like to invite you to participate in an opportunity for transformation.
Crises: Crisis-management seems to be our primary cultural response to the endangered life systems of Earth. Crises surely abound, from global warming to the pollution of air and water; from corporate greed to terrible violence. Things continue to worsen as we experience the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, as well as the effects of global warming. The list goes on and on. When we focus on the problems, the results can only be fear and despair.
Opportunity: The solution to these crises will be found when we begin looking at Earth in a whole different way. When we see, as Thomas Berry says, that there is only one sacred community, one Earth community; and when we understand that there cannot be a healthy human community on an unhealthy planet, then the possibility for real change arises. As we grow in this deep love for Earth, we come to know that it is not only a necessity, but also an ideal way to live.
Since 1998 the EarthSpirit Rising conferences have provided many people who have awakened to this deep love for Earth with an opportunity to come together, share their efforts, learn from visionary speakers, and leave feeling empowered to continue their part of the Great Work.
Conference organizers, Imago and Cultivating Connections, have gathered visionary thinkers Jean Houston, Kirkpatrick Sale, Jerry Mander, Starhawk, Margaret Wheatley, Paul Rogat Loeb, and Jane Siberry for this conference. <www.earthspiritrising.org>
