Mycological Society of San Francisco

Every year in December there is an annual mushroom festival, called the Fungus Fair, hosted by the Mycological Society of San Francisco. If you missed it this year, you can still join the Society.

Mushrooms are amazing; some varieties cure the bird flu, others are high in vitamin D and some are good for dying fabric. Check out their website to see how you can get involved.

Something to think about...

“If I am not for myself, who will be? But then, if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”-Hillel

Buying Local, organic produce is simplified!

Sign up for either Grub Box 

or

 with Phat Beet produce 

to get a weekly bag of locally grown, organic produce. 

Picking up the grub box at your neighborhood drop off location is like Christmas- you never know what seasonal produce is going to be in there!

Drop off locations are around the San Francisco East Bay.

You can have weekly, bimonthly or monthly grub boxes. 

Both nonprofits offer low income options.

And Phat Beets has a 1/2 box option.

Sign up now and make your life easier.
No more having to remember to go to the farmer's market or to have bring cash and your own bags.
Instead pickup local, organic produce around the corner by prepaying for it online.

Painting class with the option to use natural dyes

 

Judi Pettite teaches a regular painting class with the option to paint with eco materials. You can sign up for one of her classes (beginning, continuing or special projects painting). 

All three classes run concurrently on Wednesdays 6-9:50pm, at Berkeley City College, starting January 25, 2012. 

  

Judi also teaches occasional workshops, say once or twice a year on how to make your own plant and earth pigments.

 

 Check out Judi Pettite's website: www.biohue.com

Judy Pettite, Untitled

2010

Watercolor

8" x 10"

Drip experiments using various earth and plant pigments.

 

Green classes at Merritt College

"The Merritt College Environmental Management and Technology Program, and Environmental Center (Self-Reliant House) are located in the Oakland Hills between two wild land watershed open spaces.

Courses offered cover an array of subjects including: Ecological Restoration and Watershed Management, Agroecology and Urban Farming, Alternative Energies, Ecology, Global Warming, Ecological Restoration, Food Security, Environmental Justice, Sustainable Cities, Policy and Planning, Human Ecology, Forests, Wetlands, Water Resources, Ranger/ Naturalist Training, Environmental Education, Air Quality, Recycling, Pollution, Wildlife, Population, Transportation and Green Building.

The Merritt College Environmental Center is also home to the East Bay
Watershed Center and the David R. Brower, Ronald V. Dellums Institute for
Sustainable Policy Studies.

For more information, contact: Merritt College Environmental Programs at
510-434-3840, or 510-436-2418 for the Landscape Horticulture and
Environmental Program office assistant."

-text borrowed from eco Merritt's website

Bay Area Green Business Program

Are you looking to shop locally at businesses that care about their employees and the environment? 

Bay Area Green Business Program has a strict set of requirements for being awarded a Green Business. Store owners proudly display their certification on their website and on their store front. 

Find a Green business on Bay Area Green Business Program.

Ecology Center

"The ECOLOGY CENTER provides the public with reliable information, tools, hands-on training, referrals, strategies, infrastructure, and models for sustainable living. Our programs enable people to adopt practices that are environmentally and socially responsible. We run Berkeley's residential curbside recycling program, the Berkeley Farmers' Markets, Farm Fresh Choice food justice program, EcoHouse demonstration home and garden, the Ecology Center Store, and a variety of Information and Climate Change Action programs," quoted from the Ecology Center's website.

Other things to check out at the Ecology Center:

• Free 4 session course on analyzing your carbon foot print and how to reduce it.

• EcoCalendar lists environmental and social justice classes, workshops, exhibits, tours, films, and events. 

Bay Area Salvage Yards

Do you love the thrill of the hunt, searching for thrift store treasures? Whether you are repurposing them into art or making over your home, the key is knowing where to look to maximize your time.

Thanks to Omega Salvage for compiling a list of Bay Area Salvage Yards. 

While you are out, drop by Omega Salvage in Berkeley, CA. At Omega they actively go out their way to great you, they are knowledgeable and the salvage yard is clean and organized.

Eco Art Matters Class Brochure

EcoArtMatterClass brochure

What and Where to Recycle

Stopwaste.org is the go-to spot to learn about what and where to recycle in Alameda County. They even have a hotline number (1-877-STOPWASTE) where you can ask where to recycle your odd ball items like scratched CDs or dead batteries.

Chinook Book, coupon book of businesses with integrity

The Chinook Book is a coupon book of good businesses, which basically boils down to businesses that treat their employees and suppliers with respect, they are mindful of their impact on the environment and they are apart of their community.


There are Chinook Books and iPhone and Android apps for the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Seattle and Denver.

Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang

Judith Selby Lang and her husband, Richard Lang, walk beaches collecting plastic objects. They wash and sort the plastic treasures by color and then make art out of them.

• Judith and Richard's art website

• Their eco art gallery, called Electric gallery is in San Francisco, CA.

• What you can do about plastic pollution- downloadable pdf

Get Involved- Public Citizen

Public Citizen is one way to stay informed on what's happening politically in the US. On this site you can follow the issues that are being talked and voice your opinion by signing petitions. Sign up for the free notices on which petitions are going around on Public Citizen's Action Network.  

Stop Junk Mail

I look at it like a game. How little trash and recyclables can I incur? By having fewer objects come into my home, the less I have to organize and keep clean.

Download your free Stop junk mail kit.

Mushrooms will save the world

In the above photo Paul is holding an Agarikon, which is the oldest mushroom. It can live for up to a 100 years and when it's diluted to 1% it's the effective way to treat the Bird flu.

In 2011 Paul Stamets spoke at the environmental conference, Bioneers, about how mushrooms will save the world. They are the most ancient, keystone species and yet the least studied.

The photo was borrowed from the wiki article on Paul Stamets.





Paul Stamets considers himself the voice for fungi. From his research he's discovered mushrooms that can eat oil spills and nuclear waste, along with a mushroom who's fiber is good for making clothes, and a mushroom that is super dense in vitamin D.

Paul has several patents pending on uses for mushrooms. I was curious to see what exactly he discovered, so I looked up his application on freepatentsonline.com by searching by his last name.

Eco Arts Award

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 31, 2012

The Eco Arts Award is giving $1,000 to the first place winners in the six different categories. In a time where creativity is essential for solving world issues, us artists are even more valuable then before. 

Categories include: 
songwriting
literature
photography
fine art
functional art
short video

The deadline has been extended to January 31, 2012, so look at the guidelines now and start writing your proposal! Submission fee is only $30.

My Plastic-free Life blog

 
The albatross has the longest wingspan of up to 11 feet! They spend most of their lives gliding over seas, often going hours without landing. Surprisingly enough they also drink salt water.

The albatross are attracted to floating objects, which unfortunately lots of plastic are floating in the ocean. The famous National Geographic image shown above is of a washed up albatross and the trash found in its stomach.

Since how the ocean is down hill from everything, trash accumulates there. In the Pacific ocean there is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a swirling mass of plastic. When it was first discovered it was the size of Texas. It's now the size of the continental US and just as deep. All of this plastic is killing sea life and they are also eating and we're in turn digesting the plastic too.

Check out this wonderful blog called My Plastic-free Life for practical ideas on how to avoid and/or reduce using plastic. A good place to start is to buy a metal canteen instead of using plastic water bottles.

Women Environmental Artists Directory

WEAD's Mission:
Focusing on women's unique perspectives, we collaborate internationally to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art.

Click on WEAD and sign up for their newsletter, look at images of eco-art and apply to be apart of the directory.

Make a Bat Box

The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave, Texas, eat approximately 200 tons
of insects nightly. 

To encourage bats to live in your neighborhood, make a bat box! Having bats around will insect control and pollination. 

  

You can decorate your bat box however you'd like!

If you'd like to learn more about bats check out

Sulphur Creek Nature Center, in Hayward, CA.

Most semesters, naturalists from Sulphur Creek visit the Eco Art Matters class to talk about the importance of bats. The best part is that they bring adorable live bats to the classroom!