Saturday, May 21st, was The Ecology Center’s monthly Backyard Skills workshop at the Center For Living Peace. This month students designed and assembled their own kites, then took them outside for a lesson in harnessing the power of the wind. Our friends from LoveArt& were on hand to guide participants on how to construct their kites made from Japanese paper and bamboo. Decorating the kites were aspirations for peace, reminiscent of Tibetan prayer flags.
Join us, Saturday June 4th at 1pm, for our monthly Backyard Skills: Veggie Box Construction. In this workshop you will learn the advantages to container gardening, how to construct your own vegetable box, what to grow and how to care for your veggies. The materials fee for this workshop includes the wood needed to build your raised veggie box and a variety of organic, heirloom seedlings to take home. Finished boxes will be about 3 ft by 1.5 ft in size, hence appropriate transportation should be planned accordingly.
Member: $15 + $20 (materials)
Non-Member: $25 + $20 (materials)
Saturday, June 4th, 1-3pm
The Ecology Center
32701 Alipaz St.
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
949.443.4223
TheEcologyCenter.org
Thanks to Company 77 Mobile Pizza Unit, we had an impromptu pizza party yesterday afternoon. Those who were lucky enough to be visiting The Ecology Center and South Coast Farms were treated to some delicious pizza made on a fire truck! Company 77 Mobile Pizza Unit is a fully functional pizza making fire truck. This truck has been retrofitted with all sorts of fun details making it truly one of a kind. Thanks to Christopher Owens and his team for stopping by; we look forward to the next party!
Saturday, May 21st, 2011, The Ecology Center will be presenting our monthly Backyard Skills workshop at the Center For Living Peace: Kite Making. In conjunction with the month long celebration of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, we will be creating kites decorated with aspirations for peace. Reminiscent of Tibetan prayer flags, which are hung to send prayers through the wind, our kites will spread our aspirations to live peace as they have done in the sky. Prayer flags are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity. Embrace the elements and your creative side in this kite construction and flying class. Students will construct traditional Japanese kites, using bamboo sticks and Japanese paper. After designing and building their kites, students will head outdoors for a lesson in harnessing the power of the wind.
$12 per person, or $10 per person for families/ groups of 3 or more.
To pre-register for this Backyard Skills workshop at the Center For Living Peace visit:
http://www.goodhappens.org/events/ecology-center-presents-kitemaking-exploration-compassion-wind-and-sky-2011-05-21
THE ECOLOGY CENTER PRESENTS THE THIRD SEASON OF ITS SUMMER SPEAKER SERIES: BASIC NEEDS. To continue the dialogue around some of today’s most pressing – and most tangible – environmental issues, The Ecology Center is pleased to announce season three of Basic Needs.
How do the choices we make to satisfy our basic needs impact the health of our community and our environment? Find out all summer long in an open-forum to explore and discuss critical topics with cutting-edge thinkers.
June 16th
Tinker Hatfield- VP of Creative Design, Nike Inc.
July 21st
Tyler Valiquette – Founder, COO, Catapult Design
August 18th
Christian Beamish – Author, “By Sail and Oar—the Cormorant Journeys”
Join us for an evening conversation, wine, beer and light fare from 6:30pm-9pm. Registration for these unique events is $10 for members/$25 for non-members. Guests can purchase tickets online or by calling 949.443.4223.
Powered by:
Hurley H20
New Belgium Brewing
Whole Foods Market
GOOD
Sambazon
Vita Coco
Guayaki
It’s that time of year again, the flowers are blooming, the weather is changing and we are celebrating the Earth! Though Earth Day is technically April 22nd, we are celebrating a bit early on April 16th. Along with our organic plant sale, food trucks and music we will be offering a variety of workshops you won’t want to miss!
There is something for everyone wether you are just starting a garden, have a seasoned green thumb or you just want to make something with your hands. Workshops include making and decorating Japanese kites, potted herb gardens, hand mixing a garden/herb salve and making seed balls. Though there are several ways to participate in these workshops for FREE, the easiest way is to bring your Earth Day postcard. And of course, all members, new and old, will receive a free workshop, so be sure to stop by.
Earth Day at The Ecology Center – April 16th
Day Long Activities – 10:30am – 4:00pm
Plant Sale – Organic Seedlings/Seeds
The Eco Shop – Including: worm bins, grewyater kits, terrariums, rainbarrels and more!
Beverages - Sambazon, Vita Coco + Guayaki
Food 11:30 – 1:30 – Chomp Chomp Nation truck + The Flip truck
Workshops 1:00 – 3:30 - Kite Making, Potted Herb Gardens, Garden/Herb Salve and Seed Balls!
Saturday, April 9th, was our monthly Backyard Skills workshop at the Center For Living Peace. This month we made Solar Ovens, and despite cloudy weather in the forecast, it turned out to be a perfect afternoon to do some solar cooking and constructing. Max Isles was on hand to teach everyone the ins and outs of making a solar oven.
Tools and Materials:
Large, flat sheets of corrugated cardboard, duct tape, adhesive spray, a cardboard shoe box, aluminum foil or mylar sheets, aluminum baking tin, 1 turkey-sized transparent oven bag, shredded newspaper, felt pen, utility knife, meter stick, oven thermometer.
Some things to keep in mind when cooking with a solar oven:
-When the oven temperature gets to 175 degrees or higher, it can be used for baking.
-The plastic oven bag is fragile, especially when hot, so handle it with care.
-Be sure to heat your oven tins without food first to burn off any impurities in them.
-You may need to support the tin using small stones or metal jar lids to keep it level inside the baking chamber. Whatever you use, make sure it is oven-safe and free of paints, solvents or plastics that you don’t want mixing with your food.
-Remember, it’s an oven. It’s gonna get hot! Use mitts just as you would with a conventional oven.
-What can you bake in a solar oven? Cookies, muffins, bread, chili, soups, pizza, veggies and more!
-Solar cooking is like crock pot cooking. After prep, relax until your delicious, slow-cooked meal is ready.
Some examples of what you can cook in a solar oven:
-Cookies
-Whole Wheat Bread
-Baked Potatoes
-Granola
-Sun-cooked Veggies
-Meatless Chili
-Baked Cinnamon Apples
Sad that you missed this workshop? Don’t fret, we will be holding another Solar Oven workshop soon.
What saves up to $600 a year for a family of four and does your laundry? No, it’s not your mom. It’s your washing machine!
Your washing machine has a pump that discharges graywater from the wash cycle to a standpipe that carries it to the municiple water system and away from your home. That’s a shame because the thing about graywater is, that you pay for it once, but you can use it twice. Why not keep graywater around and give your lawn or garden a nice drink? With a few basic materials, you’ll be conserving cash and water in no time.
One thing to be mindful of when using graywater is the detergent you are putting into it. Cut down or eliminate the amount of bleach you use, and do not use detergents that contain boron because it is toxic to plants.
Every time we wash our hands, our peach tree gets a small drink of water!
Retrofitting a graywater drain pipe is a fairly simple process requiring only a couple of hours of your time. This Saturday April 2nd, we will be offering our latest Backyard Skills Water Workshop: Graywater Sysems. Come spend an afternoon at The Ecology Center and learn how to get creative with water re-use.
Backyard Skills: Graywater Systems
$25 ($22.50 for members)+ $200 option for graywater kit
Saturday, April 2nd from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
The Ecology Center
32701 Alipaz St., San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Register online at theecologycenter.org or in advance by calling The Ecology Center at 949.443.4223
Join us for this special Backyard Skills Workshop at the Center For Living Peace and learn how to transform your yard into an edible oasis. Biologist Jonathan Davis will be teaching us how to start plants from seed, choose optimal planting locations, identify companion plants and create a gardening space designed for continual production. All students will go home with sown seed!
The Ecology Center Presents: Edible Garden Design and Seed Starting with Jonathan Davis
Saturday, March 19, 2011 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
$12 per person, or $10 per person for groups/families attending together
Jonathan Duffy Davis is a biologist at Fullerton Arboretum where he has developed an 11,000 ft2 vegetable garden, cares for the rare-fruit grove, and teaches a class series on vegetable and fruit cultivation. His approach to growing food is founded on the principles of agroecology with an emphasis on spatial, temporal, and biotic diversification. Jonathan has obtained a Master’s degree in biology from CSU, Fullerton and an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada). He also briefly tended a farm in Oaxaca, Mexico and has conducted ethnobotanical research in the central Canadian Arctic.
Center For Living Peace
4139 Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
P/// 949.854.5500
One of the newest additions to The Ecology Center is this awesome treadle pump! Our friend Larry Casner designed and built this functional and fun piece of equipment. Traditionally treadle pumps lift water from the ground but we use ours with our 550 gallon rain barrel. Using the water we harvested from this years abundant rainfall we can water our gardens and get a little exercise at the same time!
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