community garden outreach (spring 10)

January 13th, 2010 by david silver No comments »
i'm teaching three classes in spring - two of them new. one of the new ones is community garden outreach. classes begin friday, january 29th.


Community Garden Outreach
Fridays 1:30-5 pm
Hayes Healy Formal Lounge and in the Garden

Professor: David Silver
Office: Kalmanovitz 141
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 10:30-11:30 am & by appointment

Community Garden Outreach is a 2-unit hands-on and seminar class held in conjunction with Justin Valone’s Urban Ag class. Through gardening, harvesting, foraging, cooking, eating, reading, reflecting, and discussing, we will explore social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental issues around food, food production, and food distribution. In addition to continuing our educations as gardeners, we will work online with social media to document our garden activities and offline in groups to organize and implement various food distribution projects. Further, through life competency sessions led by Golden Venters, students will reflect upon and discuss their processes of intentional change, contemplation of self, and inter- and intrapersonal abilities. Community Garden Outreach is part of the Garden Project Living Learning Community.

Learning Goals:
o To learn more about organic gardening, urban agriculture, and community food production;
o To learn how to use different kinds social media to document the planting, preparing, and sharing of food;
o To learn how to work collaboratively to design and organize community food distribution projects; and
o To learn how to bake bread.


Books:
o Novella Carpenter, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, 2009.
o Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, 1992.

Calendar:
Friday, January 29
Last semester, through your work in Melinda Stone and Justin Valone’s fall 2009 courses, you’ve learned a lot about gardening, urban agriculture, and food production. The majority of today’s class will be spent bringing the professor up to speed with your individual and group projects and progress. We will also discuss the syllabus, course expectations, and your spring internships.

Friday, February 5
Read Barbara Kingsolver, “Called Home,” Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 1-22. Begin using twitter. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, February 12
Read Michael Pollan, “Made Wild by Pompous Catalogs,” Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, pp. 205-228, and Maggie Gosselin, Sarah Klein, and Jessica Prentice’s “San Francisco Bay Area Local Foods Wheel.” Brainstorm & discuss our three food distribution projects: Campus Farmstand, Food Not Bombs, and Dean’s Dinners. Begin using flickr.

Friday, February 19
Field trip with Justin Valone to forage for wild greens and stinging nettles.

Friday, February 26
Read Novella Carpenter, “Turkey,” Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, pp. 1-98. Begin blogging. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, March 5
Read Novella Carpenter, “Rabbit,” Farm City, pp. 99-184. Prepare garden tour and meal for class guest Novella Carpenter, author (Farm City) and urban homesteader (Ghost Town Farm).

Friday, March 12
Read “The Story of Food Not Bombs (Parts 1-4).” Watch “Food for Bombs – Nigeria." Prepare garden tour and meal for class guest Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs.

Friday, March 19:
SPRING BREAK

Friday, March 26
Read Novella Carpenter, “Pig,” Farm City, pp. 185-269. Discuss internship progress. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, April 2:
GOOD FRIDAY

Friday, April 9
Read Michael Pollan, “Planting a Tree,” Second Nature, pp. 150-175. Brainstorm and discuss documenting the building of the garden kitchen.

Friday, April 16
Read Michael Pollan, “Green Thumb,” Second Nature, pp. 117-134. Cook with Chef Jean-Marc Fullsack to prepare Food Not Bombs meal.

Friday, April 23
Read Elizabeth Kolbert, “Green Like Me: Living without a fridge, and other experiments in environmentalism,” The New Yorker, August 31, 2009. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

Friday, April 30
Read Michael Pollan, “The Garden Tour,” Second Nature, pp. 229-258, and Matt Hickman, “40 farmers under 40: Readers’ choice,” Mother Nature Network blog, September 24, 2009. Discuss semester’s successes and shortcomings. Brainstorm final party.

Friday, May 7
Prepare a delicious garden meal for the final party. Life Competency Session with Golden Venters from 3-5 pm.

This class has no final exam.


Grading:
o Class participation - 25%
o Social media participation - 25%
o Food distribution group projects - 25%
o Student Internships - 25%

If you are curious or concerned about your grade, you can request a meeting with me anytime during the semester.

Rulez:
1. Read all assigned readings prior to class.
2. In class and in the garden, listen to and learn from everyone.
3. No late work accepted.
4. No drinking out of non-reusable containers in class.

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ALA’s Boston Homecoming

January 12th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
When the American Library Association meets in Boston later this week for its Midwinter Meeting it will be a homecoming for the Association. During the early years of ALA, the offices of the Association were wherever the unpaid elected secretary of ALA was located. From 1876 to 1890 this was Melvil Dewey. Dewey provided free space for the Association in his Library Bureau offices at 32 Hawley Street in Boston. On April 22, 1905, ALA opened an office at 10 1/2 Beacon Street in Boston. Edward C. Hovery was hired as the first paid executive officer. On September 1, 1906 the office was moved to 34 Newbury Street, Boston. The envelope shown above was mailed from 10 1/2 Beacon Street in 1906. It contained the final announcement for ALA's Narragansett Pier Conference. ALA's second annual conference occurred in Boston in 1879. The first was in New York in 1877 and there was no conference in 1878. International library leaders were invited to the 1879 Boston conference including Sir Anthony Panizzi of the British Museum. None actually attended but Panizzi sent his chair and table to the conference and they were used by the officers of ALA. ALA moved its offices to Chicago in 1909 where they have remained ever since. More on the history of ALA can be found HERE.

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happy birthday siena, you’re a half year young!

January 11th, 2010 by david silver No comments »
happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

i remember six months ago, about an hour before you arrived, the midwife looked out the hospital window and exclaimed out loud, "look! a rainbow!" i peered out the window and saw a curving column of colors stretching from one side of san francisco to another. all of us, even your mommy, stopped our labors for a moment to see the rainbow. and then the midwife exclaimed again, "now let's have this baby!"


do you remember, siena, your first three months? do you remember all the sights and sounds of your new home? do you remember your colic? your inconsolable crying? your all-night bouts of fussiness? we do. what bravery you showed those first few months.


did you know, siena, that you weren't the only brave one? do you remember that while you were bravely fighting colic, your mommy was bravely fighting postpartum depression? we do. and do you remember, siena, how family and friends rallied around us like a village? we do.


do you remember, siena, about two months ago when auntie jewlee, mommy's sister, moved from colorado to california to be your nanny? we do.


do you know, siena, how often your mommy and daddy talked about you before you even arrived? do you know how much we talk about your future? but most of all, do you know, siena, how happy and proud we are of you in the present, this day and all days? we do.


happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

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happy birthday siena, you’re a half year young!

January 11th, 2010 by david silver No comments »
happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

i remember six months ago, about an hour before you arrived, the midwife looked out the hospital window and exclaimed out loud, "look! a rainbow!" i peered out the window and saw a curving column of colors stretching from one side of san francisco to another. all of us, even your mommy, stopped our labors for a moment to see the rainbow. and then the midwife exclaimed again, "now let's have this baby!"


do you remember, siena, your first three months? do you remember all the sights and sounds of your new home? do you remember your colic? your inconsolable crying? your all-night bouts of fussiness? we do. what bravery you showed those first few months.


did you know, siena, that you weren't the only brave one? do you remember that while you were bravely fighting colic, your mommy was bravely fighting postpartum depression? we do. and do you remember, siena, how family and friends rallied around us like a village? we do.


do you remember, siena, about two months ago when auntie jewlee, mommy's sister, moved from colorado to california to be your nanny? we do.


do you know, siena, how often your mommy and daddy talked about you before you even arrived? do you know how much we talk about your future? but most of all, do you know, siena, how happy and proud we are of you in the present, this day and all days? we do.


happy birthday siena, you're a half year young!

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Carnegie Libraries on Postage Stamps

January 11th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »

I've been a bibliophilatelist, collector of postage stamps featuring libraries and librarians, since 1995. During that period I have only been able to identify five postage stamps issued by a government postal authority that feature libraries which received grants from Andrew Carnegie. These are featured on a page on my Library History Buff website. I have previously contacted the United States Postal Service in regard to issuing postage stamps commemorating America's Carnegie libraries and/or public libraries in general. Although the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee has a policy which precludes honoring individual public libraries, I feel that it is entirely appropriate to honor America's Carnegie libraries and/or public libraries collectively. There are several commercial companies that are now able to create valid customized postage stamps featuring images of libraries. This would be a good route for communities to commemorate their own Carnegie library building during the 175th anniversary year of Carnegie's birth. The postage stamp above features the Victoria Public Library in Victoria, British Columbia which was built in 1904. Canada commemorated the library on a postage stamp issued on February 29, 1996. To see United States postage stamps that have a library connection click HERE.

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