Do You Want Peace?

Do you want peace? So asks Marta Gomez of Ashland. She tells us: The Southern Oregon community now has an opportunity to share as well as learn about various personal paths all leading to inner peace. The Ashland Daily Tidings Inner Peace Column began when Sally McKirgan submitted a letter to the editor called “In This Season of Love, give yourself the gift of inner peace.” The letter was published as a guest commentary on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008.

Sally followed up the letter in 2009 by suggesting a regular column that would feature people of varying paths sharing their practice for a peaceful life. Her goal: If the people of this planet practiced some form of inner peace it would alleviate wars and personal conflicts between neighbors and relatives.

Sally volunteers her time and continually seeks those who will write about their life lessons. When we share the whole community is enriched and lives are touched in ways seen and unseen. The column is printed every Saturday on the back page of the Daily Tidings. To see past articles: www.dailytidings.com or submit an article of 600 to 700 words to Sally at innerpeace@q.com . Find or share your path to peace today!

Marta Gomez
Ashland

Farmer Incubator = Good Food for Me+You

The Southern Oregon Farmer Incubator helps beginning and limited resource farmers start and sustain their businesses while providing needed fresh produce to area food pantries. Participants can opt to participate in one or both of two program tracks: hands-on farm business courses and access to new markets.

Track 1: Farm / Business Training consists of bi-monthly hands-on agricultural, business management and marketing education over a nine-month season. Participants will receive an on-farm consultation with a small farms instructor and be referred to other experts to address any specific issues arising during the program year.

Track 2: Market Access gives participants an opportunity to sell their produce to area food pantries, made possible by a generous grant from the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation. Participants in the second track will also sell product through Rogue Valley Local Foods, an online farmers market, and will gain experience by staffing the markets in rotation.

The program is a collaboration between the Oregon State University Small Farms program and Thrive in partnership with Friends of Family Farmers, Rogue Farm Corps and ACCESS. For more information contact Thrive at http://www.buylocalrogue.org/index.php

100 Trees for Talent

Diana Morley from Talent tells us:

Most residents want their city to look lovely, be ecologically sustainable and promote strong neighborhoods. When Talent’s centennial this year coincided with the work of local activists already promoting community building, we were in luck.

With the city's permission and help from Public Works and community volunteers, Sharon Anderson and Cynthia Care created the 100 Trees for Talent’s Centennial program. With the city’s Steve Olsen they planted 23 trees donated by Dan Bish at Plant Oregon, in the Chuck Roberts Park (more to be planted this fall) and invited the public to plant trees in their own yards. Program organizers also coordinated with American Cancer Society Relay for Life volunteers to plant over 200 donated seedling trees in a memorial grove along the Greenway. At City Hall is a map where residents pinpoint tree-planting addresses and receive a lapel button and centennial ID tags for the trees. The program’s next focus is to encourage the business community to plant trees on their sites.

My husband and I happily joined the program by planting a fuyu persimmon tree, which is flourishing. Through this program we’re all improving air quality, sprucing up our neighborhoods, and building good working relationships with others.

FOTAS - Our Best Friend's Friends

Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) and the Jackson County Animal Shelter are working together toward the day when every adoptable cat and dog finds a good home. They come a little closer to this goal with each new volunteer who shares their time, talent, and energy.

FOTAS volunteers help the Shelter search for qualified homes through several Shelter-based and offsite adoption programs. They also help keep the animals healthy until a good home can be found.

FOTAS also recruits foster parents who provide a temporary sanctuary and help find the perfect permanent home for a cat, kitten, dog or puppy.

Contact Information:
Web: If you are interested in getting involved or learning more about general FOTAS programs visit them on the web at http://www.fotas.org/jcas.html

The Shelter hosts a Low Cost Dog and Cat Shot Clinic and nail trims August 21, 2010 from 11am to 2pm.

Lomakatsi is the Hopi word for ‘Life in Balance’

According to the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, a Rogue Valley organization dedicated to the regeneration and rehabilitation of watersheds within the bio-region of Southwestern Oregon, Nature does the real restoration work. Our job is to learn how to do things that help, without causing additional problems.

Here’s what they’ve learned so far:

• Act conservatively. Don’t change things too much at once.
• Respect what is already on site.
• Remember the wildlife.
• Remember the soil.
• Remember people.
• Learn.

Lomakatsi uses the historic and scientific support of Native American traditional ecological knowledge as a reference point to indicate the ultimate conditions for restoring fire to its place in the natural cycle of balanced ecosystem functions. Through their many programs and projects, Lomakatsi is beginning the process of restoring watershed health and fire resiliency to the landscape, for the benefit of people, communities, forests, wildlife, and the next seven generations to come.

Contact Information:
Web: http://www.lomakatsi.org/

LOCAL GROWING at Ashland-Talent Growers CSA

The Ashland-Talent Growers CSA* is a new and exciting collaboration of small-scale local farmers and food producers in the communities of Ashland and Talent who have combined their resources in order to provide all of us fresh local organic food lovers with an increased variety of local products.

The Farms:

The three main farms – Happy Dirt Veggie Patch, Meadowlark Family Farm, and Village Farm – encompass ten acres on five different sites in the Bear Creek Region. Within their cooperative effort, individual farmers can specialize and grow what is best suited to the micro-climate and soil type of their location. And the group as a whole can take advantage of the diverse skill set of the individual farmers: organic farming, ranching, permaculture, mycology, food preservation, distribution, wildland ecology, and value-added food production.

*CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture

FAM JAM is FAM-TASTIC!

On the last Monday of each month, Tease Restaurant hosts the Rogue Fam Jam. This monthly musician's jam session is like no other musical experience in the Valley - it's music with a mission! The music is provided by artists like Vida Girls, Lost Maven, Alcyon Massive, Marko, Frankie Hernandez, Andy Casad, Aaron Reed, Mathew Michael, Ras Cricket, and more.

The mission is provided by local non-profits in need of your support. Rogue Fam Jam is packed to the rafters with musical genius and financial generosity and definitely one of the best nights of music all month

The Fam Jam is the opportunity for guests to 'band together' and support a local cause. This month's cause? Saving local farms, forests, and trails! All proceeds from door admissions, food sales and raffle items will benefit the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.

Contact Information:
Web: http://www.teaseashland.com/