Nanaimo Community Gardens Potluck and Speaker

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Sunday, September 12th, 2010
5:00 PM

The Nanaimo Community Gardens Society also provides free education to their members and the public at their monthly vegetarian potlucks. The purpose of these community meals is to celebrate the bounty of the season and provide free gardening education at the same time! Everyone is welcome. If you wish to attend the potluck just bring a vegetarian dish to share and your taste buds.

Shaun Janzen, a local permaculture advocate, will begin his talk at 6pm. As Janzen says � Real responsibility is knowing where your food comes from and how you obtain all the stuff that is required for life without a negative impact on any ecosystems. Permaculture is the only response I�ve come across that meets all the most pressing issues facing society today.� As someone who helps others set up their gardens and work with permaculture principles, Janzen is highly aware of strategies that can be employed by home gardeners to increase yields and reduce the workload of gardeners. In his talk he will address some of the problems and introduce how applied permaculture design can be used as a response to these issues. Janzen feels that �The permaculture response starts with a decision to take responsibility for yourself and that of your children. In fact, permaculture applied will yield all of our needs and leave a positive impact on all Earths ecosystems.�

October's potluck will be at 5pm on Sunday October 17 and will be followed at 6pm by a hands-on workshop on herbal medicine and local medicinal plants with Stephanie Mills, Clinical Herbal Therapist. Mills believes that individuals are responsible for taking control of their own health and encourages them to do so with a holistic and preventative approach. This approach includes using herbal formulas for balms, teas and salves. She emphasizes that local medicinal wild and organically grown plants can be harvested in a sustainable and respectful way and herbal products can be crafted without preservatives or artificial ingredients. In her talk, Mills will describe some of the basics of medicinal uses for plants and herbal medicine. She says �There are many beautiful and pristine areas of B.C. that teem with wild medicinal plants. I love spending days in these wilds exploring and wild-harvesting. Slogging around in a mucky wetland or a dark old-growth forest, dirty and prickled by the Devil�s Club or Stinging Nettle that I'm collecting is one of my favourite things to do!� So join us and find out more about the beauty and wonder of herbal remedies in October.