–Battling Deforestation In Indonesia, One Firm At A Time

Listen to the broadcast or read the transcript of NPR’s Battling Deforestation In Indonesia, One Firm At A Time to learn about how our everyday purchases are having catastrophic effects on our rain forests.

February

Backyard Chickens 101

Saturday February 23, 2013
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Interested in farm-fresh eggs sourced straight from your backyard? Hanover Farm‘s head farmer Brett Alcaro will walk you through all you need to know to start your own brood of backyard chickens.  Registration is required; $20 per person, $5 for children ages 8-12.

Wine and Dine Divine

Saturday, February 23rd
7:00 – 9:30pm
Get to know Friends of Karen and enjoy an event co-hosted by the creative, ConsciousWine. Tickets are just $75 — reserve now on our secure website as space is limited!

Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Sunday February 24th
Application Assistance: 3PM
Q&A with the Energy Coach and 3 local energy efficiency contractors: 4:00PM – 5:30PM
An informative seminar led by energy expert Norm Jen of EnergizeNY and local energy efficiency contractors: Michael DeCandia of EcoHome Construction, LLC, Mario Bruni of Bruni and Campisi, Larry Nissman of Phoenix Mechanical, who will help homeowners to understand how their homes leak energy, how they can fix them – and how to take advantage of state incentives to pay for it. Registration is required, RSVP with the Lewisboro Library by phone (914) 763-3857

Leon Levy Lecture

Sunday, February 24, 4 PM
Alex Shoumatoff, renowned author and historian, will present the history of the great estates of Northern Westchester, particularly South Salem, and how these estates influenced local conservation efforts.  Admission is free.

March

Food and Energy: discussion and potluck

Fri, March 01, 2013
6:30pm – 7:30pm
FOOD: On the food side: Meet your local producers, retailers, educators who are working to build a food infrastructure for us all. ENERGY:  A short panel presentation will share the opportunities for involvement in local Energy improvements (alternative and efficiency and infrastructure).  Registration is required and tickets cost $5 per person.

CT NOFA’s 31st Annual Winter Conference

Saturday, March 2
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
The 2013 Winter Conference brings into focus the challenges of adjusting to climate change for farmers, gardeners and consumers.  Join them to discuss the future of sustainable farming and celebrate local food.

Environmental Film Series: “Dear Governor Cuomo”

Friday, March 8th
7:00PM
The Lewisboro Library’s series of environmental-themed films with discussions continues. “Dear Governor Cuomo” documents the response to the news that Governor Andrew Cuomo might lift the four-year moratorium against hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York state. There is a suggested donation of $5 per person, to fund viewing license fees. Registration is required, RSVP the Lewisboro Library at 914-763-3857

Supplies will be gathered at Thornwood Self Storage, which is also accepting supplies to go to relief efforts. (M-F 9-6, S/S 10-5) Supplies will be delivered to locations designated by the Occupy Sandy and Rockaway Emergency efforts.

Please bring the following donations:

• First Aid supplies (new, sealed, labeled)
• Carbon monoxide detectors
• Blankets
• Flashlights, Candles
• Water
• Batteries
• Diapers and Wipes
• Work Gloves and Masks
• Rubber boots
• Shovels
• Cleaning supplies and bleach
• Trash bags and Quart and gallon Ziplock type bags
• Large clear plastic containers to put sorted supplies into
• Serving dishes and utensils
• Generators

NO FOOD or CLOTHING WILL BE ACCEPTED

If you would rather donate $ that will go to Rockaway Emergency Plan busses that are bringing volunteers out and back to do clean up work, please visit this site.

This effort is coordinated by Tara Santoro,  Heather Flournoy and Sandra Giordano-Lena. Each of these women realized they had an opportunity to combine the power of their workplace resources with their community resources to make a difference in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. All three love food and farming and are community builders. Tara works weekends with Gaia’s Breath Farm stands at Westchester farmer’s markets.

Her weekday job is at Thornwood Self Storage. Hearing about Sandy relief efforts she immediately saw a role that the self-storage place could play– a place to gather goods to be taken to Rockaway and other places hard hit.

Tara says “Just do something and do it now.”

Sandra can be found weekends at John Boy’s Farm stands, and manages the new winter market in Mt. Kisco. She realized that this was a perfect place to get people to donate items. During the week she works at Wittus Design in Pound Ridge, NY, a town that has had a higher percentage of residents without power for longer than any of the other northern Westchester towns. Sandra opened Wittus’ doors and fired up their super efficient woodfired stoves to the community for warmth.

Sandra says “I just want to help any way I can, and I hope you’ll help the effort be successful.”

Heather Flournoy can often be found at an area farmer’s market on a Saturday morning, gleefully shopping for local foods and chatting with friends about ideas for her community network, Katonah Green. During the week she works for Energize NY home energy efficiency program. (notice a them yet?). When she saw that both of her friends Tara and Sandra had posted ideas on Facebook about gathering goods to go for Sandy relief efforts, she decided to jump in and bring it all together. Her co-worker Elyssa Rothe had already been very involved in relief efforts and revealed how much citizen action was desperately needed in the Rockaways and how uncoordinated the Red Cross efforts seemed to be. Heather spoke with one of Energize’s home energy efficiency contractors  and mentioned the effort. Mike from Bright Home immediately offered up a truck and some guys to collect items and deliver them to the  Rockaways. This effort will continue until the areas hit by Sandy have been restored to the point of self-sufficiency.

 Heather says “We are all more powerful than we ever imagined when we join forces.”

In essence, just bring stuff out to the market closest to you this Saturday!

Questions? Call the team at 914-589-6615 or email heather@energizeny.org

Not everyone is so lucky. This year I live in an apartment in Katonah, upstairs, so I have less control than in a full house. BUT, my landlord had and I have done a lot of things to prepare, and I’d like to share, as well as suggest we use this forum to support each other.

If you are setup with sources for heat and water and power, and are willing to share that with Katonah Green readers, email me and I’ll share that info privately. If you are in need, email me at editor “@” katonahgreen.com (remove quotations) and I’ll try to find you a place to cook, charge up, get internet and maybe even get a shower. I don’t suggest posting it on the page as that will be public. If you are a member of the Katonah Green Meetup group then you already know a lot of the members and may wish to make your resources available to them. Head over here for that. My suggestion is that we have each other’s phone numbers as internet will likely get knocked out.

FOOD

Here are some food items I’ve prepared in case we have no refrigeration this week. (I do have a portable gas grill and a propane stove in the apartment so I can cook) All items available at Mrs. Green’s in Katonah and Mt. Kisco and at Nature’s Temptations in Ridgefield. By the way, they had fully stocked shelves Saturday evening and no panicking crowds and are open today.

No cook/no refrigeration Breakfast food: chia and hemp seeds with buckwheat groats. I add water and canned coconut milk to this and it expands and is ready to eat in 20 minutes. I add dried mulberries, brazil nuts, walnuts, pepitas, cinnamon, allspice and raw honey to flavor.

A few other food items to have on hand:

• Canned organic soups
• Unripe bananas and avocadoes (should be ripe by Tues/Wed when we start feeling the stress of the storm’s aftermath
• Apples, plums
• Farmer’s market eggs (they don’t need refrigeration. *note that store eggs do!)
• Canned wild-caught small tuna
• celery
• onions
• greens (will last a few days uncooked)
• potatoes
• sunflower seed and almond butters
• rice crackers
• mom’s homemade jam
• a bottle of Pacific Redwood organic, sulfite-free wine (available at Katonah Wine and Liquor)
• a couple of packs of aseptic organic lunch sized milks ( I don’t normally use these because of BPA contamination among other things)
• organic food bars, like Rise brand (the first organic one I’ve found with no cashews or peanuts or stuff like maltodextrin)

Don’t forget that even if we lost power tonight, the food in the fridge is edible tomorrow, and that the foods in the freezer will be edible the next day or even longer if your fridge is well insulated.

WATER

I saved jars and have filled them with filtered water. Tonight I will fill the tea kettle and two big pots with filtered water.

I just learned one thing that I didn’t realize: in Katonah, we won’t lose water pressure so toilets will flush and at a minimum we can have cold showers. But do consider having potable water prepared in case of water contamination.

POWER!

Plug in Inverters: Above is a photo of a great little inverter to have on hand this year: (similar inverters available from Radio Shack). I even ground coffee with mine last year.

Installed inverters: If you have a Prius, there are a number of options to use it as a backup generator.

If you don’t, here is what my landlord had installed in his non-hybrid car: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?keywords=2500+watt+inverter&qid=1351400703&rh=k%3A2500+watt+inverter%2Cn%3A172282&sort=reviewrank_authority

NOTE (from neighbor Michael): with inverters this big, they need to be installed properly, directly to the car charging system with heavy gauge cables. I had my mechanic do it, because I didn’t want to cut through the firewall myself. I also have a big cutoff switch so I can’t accidentally leave it on and drain my car battery. Last year we ran 2 sump pumps 2 refrigerators (10% duty cycle — not on all the time) 1 heating system.

Be safe, be prepared, check on your neighbors, get real about climate change! And even if this storm doesn’t knock out power etc, we’ll be better prepared for the next.

~Peace, Heather