This Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00pm, there will be a Transition Middlesex
meeting at the Coldstream Community Centre. 10227 Ilderton Rd.
We
will share a 'transition ingredient' from The Transition Companion
book, then discuss any logistics for upcoming events in our spring
program. Another thing we may focus on is revisiting the governance of
the club and its constitution.
Other than that, it will be the usual amusing tangential conversations.
Note that the Joel Salatin event that
we're working with Wildcraft Permaculture on is this week also,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, in Ailsa Craig. Full details are here: http://transitionmiddlesex.blogspot.ca/2013/02/joel-salatin-workshop-in-ailsa-craig.html Today and tomorrow are your last chance to get the cheaper
pre-registration price of $40 per session, or $100 for all three days. Registration at the door with cash is available too.
Monday, 18 March 2013
Friday, 15 March 2013
Upcoming Transition Middlesex Events

We are excited to announce our spring and summer events for 2013. Mark your calendars! More information will be provided closer to each event date. All events are free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
April 3 - The Spiral Path: A Map to Personal Empowerment
Presented by Inner Transition at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, 7-9pm
May 1 - Gratitude: Enough is Enough
Presented by Inner Transition at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, 7-9pm
May 4 - In Transition 2.0 Movie Screening
Screening the evening following the Mindful Way Skillshare Day at Circle R Ranch, 3017 Carriage Road
June 5 - Mindful Living: From Habits that Drain to Habits that Sustain
Presented by Inner Transition at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, 7-9pm
June 23 - Great Canadian Ecofest
Come visit our booth at the Komoka Community Centre, 133 Queen Street, Komoka
July 5 - Creative Dreaming: Take Control of your Sleeping World
Presented by Inner Transition at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, 7-9pm
July 10 - Junior Weed Eaters
Edible plants tour for all ages at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, 7-9pm
August 4 - Transition: Celebrating Community
Potluck, Bonfire, and more! The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road. Details to follow.
-----
Transition Middlesex - Open Meetings
Coldstream Community Centre, 10227 Ilderton Road, 7-9pm
Meeting Dates (3rd Wednesday of the month) :
March 20, April 17, May 15, June 19, July 17, Aug 21.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Joel Salatin Workshop in Ailsa Craig
Together with Wildcraft Permaculture, Transition Middlesex will be hosting a livestreamed workshop with Joel Salatin in Ailsa Craig on March 20, 21, and 22.
I'm so happy that we've been able to put this together - Joel Salatin is a living legend in the field of 'beyond organic' and permaculture farming.
Note that this is an online video workshop, but by attending in Ailsa Craig, you will save a significant amount of money compared to doing the workshop online at home (one sixth the price for all three days), plus you'll get to meet other fellow farmers, aspiring farmers, and urban agriculture enthusiasts.
Full details, including how to pre-register, follow below.
3 days of workshops with Joel Salatin, the inspiring owner of Polyface Farms featured in the film Food Inc!
March 20: You Can Farm – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. Register here.
March 21: Pastured Poultry Profits - Net $25,000 in 6 Months on 20 Acres. Register here.
March 22: Salad Bar Beef. Register here.
Get a discount if you Register for all 3!
Workshops will be held at Ye Olde Towne Hall in Ailsa Craig.
(Misguided) Industry experts agree: local, organic and sustainable alternatives are inefficient, perhaps even dangerous, often even illegal, and certainly never profitable!
Well, once you’ve read even one chapter of Joel Salatin’s eight books, you’re pretty clear that such a horror-story of a farming model may be promoted by governmental agencies and underwritten by the petrochemical industry, but it needn’t represent your reality!
With three generations of family farming history, a lifetime’s experience in entrepreneurial small farming, and growing international acclaim to back him up, Joel demonstrates conclusively that the dream of a profitable, healthy, sustainable, beyond-organic small farm enterprise is quite achievable. In fact, Joel describes it as “making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country.”
What does that mean in real life? Well, the Salatin family and their working team at Polyface Farms proudly say that they “haven’t bought a bag of chemical fertilizer in half a century, never planted a seed, own no plow or disk or silo.”
Instead, Polyface uses a contrarian land-healing practice that Joel calls “mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization” (in other words, farming the way Nature intended, with diverse and integrated livestock feeding on and fertilizing bio-diverse pastures and woodlands).
And despite all the industry experts’ dire predictions, Polyface has achieved both local and global fame, supplying a customer base of more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants, being profiled in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and Gourmet (among other media coverage), and being featured in the movie Food, Inc. and the New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Whether you grow veggies in pots on your apartment balcony, or whether you’re an aspiring livestock systems farmer, or whether you’re somewhere in between, these three days will have you drawing up plans to increase both your yield and your bank balance!
Tickets $40 in advance, available at the door for $50, or all 3 workshops for $100!
Please note, these workshops are being live-webcast from Alberta. Joel will not be here in person. This event is being hosted locally by Wild Craft Permaculture and Transition Middlesex.
I'm so happy that we've been able to put this together - Joel Salatin is a living legend in the field of 'beyond organic' and permaculture farming.
Note that this is an online video workshop, but by attending in Ailsa Craig, you will save a significant amount of money compared to doing the workshop online at home (one sixth the price for all three days), plus you'll get to meet other fellow farmers, aspiring farmers, and urban agriculture enthusiasts.
Full details, including how to pre-register, follow below.
3 days of workshops with Joel Salatin, the inspiring owner of Polyface Farms featured in the film Food Inc!
March 20: You Can Farm – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. Register here.
March 21: Pastured Poultry Profits - Net $25,000 in 6 Months on 20 Acres. Register here.
March 22: Salad Bar Beef. Register here.
Get a discount if you Register for all 3!
Workshops will be held at Ye Olde Towne Hall in Ailsa Craig.
(Misguided) Industry experts agree: local, organic and sustainable alternatives are inefficient, perhaps even dangerous, often even illegal, and certainly never profitable!
Well, once you’ve read even one chapter of Joel Salatin’s eight books, you’re pretty clear that such a horror-story of a farming model may be promoted by governmental agencies and underwritten by the petrochemical industry, but it needn’t represent your reality!
With three generations of family farming history, a lifetime’s experience in entrepreneurial small farming, and growing international acclaim to back him up, Joel demonstrates conclusively that the dream of a profitable, healthy, sustainable, beyond-organic small farm enterprise is quite achievable. In fact, Joel describes it as “making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country.”
What does that mean in real life? Well, the Salatin family and their working team at Polyface Farms proudly say that they “haven’t bought a bag of chemical fertilizer in half a century, never planted a seed, own no plow or disk or silo.”
Instead, Polyface uses a contrarian land-healing practice that Joel calls “mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization” (in other words, farming the way Nature intended, with diverse and integrated livestock feeding on and fertilizing bio-diverse pastures and woodlands).
And despite all the industry experts’ dire predictions, Polyface has achieved both local and global fame, supplying a customer base of more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants, being profiled in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, and Gourmet (among other media coverage), and being featured in the movie Food, Inc. and the New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Whether you grow veggies in pots on your apartment balcony, or whether you’re an aspiring livestock systems farmer, or whether you’re somewhere in between, these three days will have you drawing up plans to increase both your yield and your bank balance!
Tickets $40 in advance, available at the door for $50, or all 3 workshops for $100!
Please note, these workshops are being live-webcast from Alberta. Joel will not be here in person. This event is being hosted locally by Wild Craft Permaculture and Transition Middlesex.
Thursday, 21 February 2013
How we can eat our landscapes
This is an inspiring video about just how easy it is to get people involved with local sustainable (and regenerative) approaches to growing food. Want to get involved with this kind of thing? One way is to get involved with a local Transition initiative, like Transition Middlesex. It makes a difference in your own attitudes to hang around with others who are passionate about making the world better with small local actions.
We had a great meeting last night, and one of the things that's exciting me the most is our plan for a 'local food feast' in the summer of 2013. Stay tuned for more info on that soon, and our other upcoming events, soon.
Friday, 15 February 2013
February meeting - Wed, Feb 20, 2013
So, we have secured a new ongoing location for meetings, but it's not available until March. The meeting next Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013 at 7:30pm, will be at my home again (Rob Read & Julie Walter). Email me at readobread at gmail.com to get directions if you need them.
We had a great meeting last month, discussing ideas for the coming year, and this meeting we will solidify some dates, and organize hosts for events.
Hope you can join us.
We had a great meeting last month, discussing ideas for the coming year, and this meeting we will solidify some dates, and organize hosts for events.
Hope you can join us.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Next Meeting - Wed, January 16, and Hardy Ginger
The meeting will be at 7:30pm - and it will take place at my home, where we will decide on a new location for meetings going forward.
I'm not posting my address here - we live in Poplar Hill, just northwest of London, but please email me at readrobread at gmail.com, and I can give directions.
Looking forward to planning our year's activities and initiatives - so if you've been considering coming out to a meeting, I encourage you to.
Here's a surprise for the new year - ever considered growing your own ginger? Here's a hardy ginger that will grow in our area (Zone 5/6) - though it's the flowers that are eaten, not the root. It's widely used as an ornamental, so I'm hoping to find one around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zingiber_mioga
I'm not posting my address here - we live in Poplar Hill, just northwest of London, but please email me at readrobread at gmail.com, and I can give directions.
Looking forward to planning our year's activities and initiatives - so if you've been considering coming out to a meeting, I encourage you to.
Here's a surprise for the new year - ever considered growing your own ginger? Here's a hardy ginger that will grow in our area (Zone 5/6) - though it's the flowers that are eaten, not the root. It's widely used as an ornamental, so I'm hoping to find one around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zingiber_mioga
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Nov 7 event postponed - Natural Building event ready to go on Nov 14

This is not Chris & Wil's home, it's a a straw bale house pic by Peter Blanchard.
Sorry to say we've had to postpone the Sustainable Energy Panel that was scheduled for November 7th. We hope to reschedule this event for the new year.
HOWEVER - you can join us at the Living Centre on November 14 for a fascinating talk on Natural Building by Chris & Wil Dancey.
For the past twenty-five years, Chris and Wil Dancey have been accumulating knowledge about the many materials and methods that are used to build healthy, sustainable, natural buildings. As owner builders, they have built with local materials including industrial hemp, lime, clay, wood and stone. Their home is a round log timber frame with hemp and lime infill for insulation. They have constructed a living roof and a heating system that includes a masonry heater and radiant floors.
During their presentation, they will take you on a virtual tour of building projects from around the world that have had a minimal impact on the environment, while providing truly beautiful structures for play, work and living. There will be many examples of natural building in Canada and discussion about using local materials will be included.
Free, with donations greatly appreciated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)