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Among people everywhere there is increasing concern about the quality and safety of our food as well as concern about harm to the environment from ill-conceived agricultural activity. Tilth's mission is to promote environmentally sound and sustainable agriculture. We are devoted to learning about and promoting ways in which to raise food, ornamentals, other farm crops and farm animals without damage to the environment. In The News ... Annual Membership Meeting to Elect New President Members of South Whidbey Tilth are urged to attend the annual meeting beginning at 3 p.m. on Sunday January 19 at Trinity Lutheran Church's annex in Grigware Hall. Four new members including the president will be elected to serve two year terms. Come learn about exciting plans for 2020. Following the business portion of the meeting is a presentation from the Organic Seed Alliance (see below) and then a potluck dinner. There will be refreshments all afternoon as well. Please bring a dish to share and your own utensils.
The public is invited to a presentation by Katie Miller of the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) on Sunday, January 19 at 4 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Annex, Grigware Hall, 18341 WA-525, Freeland. Please join us for a potluck following the presentation. OSA educates thousands of farmers and other agricultural community members, conducts professional organic plant breeding and seed production research, and advocates for national policies that strengthen organic seed systems with a mission to advance ethical seed solutions to meet food and farming needs in a changing world. Katie Miller is the field research assistant at OSA’s research farm in Chimacum, Washington. She spends most of her time out in the field tending to OSA's variety trials and breeding projects. Katie aspires to be a good steward of the plants that she loves and to address the breeding needs of farmers on the Peninsula. She has been producing seeds and vegetables since 2005, first at Scratch Farm in Rhode Island, then at Nash's Organic Produce in 2016 before joining the OSA team in 2017. Katie lives in the woods in Quilcene, Washington and tries to get out on the water whenever possible. 
The Year of the Doe—Adventures in Community Herding is Sunday February 1 Goats for food security is the theme for this series which happens on the first Sunday of each month.from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Come to Maha Farm, 4328 Glendale Road in Clinton. If you are curious about raising goats, join us. Topics each month range from creating the herd, housing, feed – buying and storing, health matters, breeding and kidding, milking and collaboration with other herders. A donation per class is welcome. For more information contact email Year of the Doe. The Farmer’s Shadow Discussion/Class Is February 4 The Farmer’s Shadow is a monthly drop-in educational event sponsored by South Whidbey Tilth and Slow Food Whidbey Island. Led by South Whidbey farmer Anza Muenchow, meetings start with a short presentation on a chosen topic. Meetings will be at a new location, the Bayview School Classroom at 5611 Bayview Road, Langley on the First Tuesday of every month from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Meetings are drop-in, no need to preregister. We ask for a donation of $5 to $10 to benefit South Whidbey Tilth and Slow Food Whidbey Island. For more information contact Anza, education chair. 
Tilth's Council of Trustees, Next Business Meeting January 16 The 2019 members of the governing council of trustees are Lynae Slinden, Edward Hueneke, Leah Claire, Andréa Linton and Anza Muenchow. Trusees continuing the second year of their terms are Prescot, president; Kirstin Clauson and Ida Gianopulos. The next regular business meeting is Thursday, January 16, 2020 . at 6 p.m. Trinity Lutheran Church annex in Freeland. Members are welcome to attend and participate. Questions? Contact the President for information or leave a message at 360-321-0757.
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Vounteer hours South Whidbey Tilth depends on its volunteers. Please download a volunteer form as a pdf file. Keep track of your time all year. Mail to South Whidbey Tilth or email to the Treasurer. Our Organization Enjoy the Sustainability Campus The South Whidbey Tilth 11-acre Sustainability Campus provides a unique, leisurely ambience and focus for learning. The campus is open for walking, and you can view our ongoing projects: demonstration field crops, community garden and orchard, forest trail and understory recovery project, native plant salvage beds operated by Native Plant Stewards, the highway vegetation management model, and bluebird nesting boxes established by Coupeville fifth-graders. Dog walkers, please usethe poop bags behind the restroom where the directional signs are. Use the trash can there.
Volunteer Opportunities South Whidbey Tilth has opportunities for you to help with classes, farmers' market, community gardens, facilities maintenance and improvements and forest restoration projects.
Tilth History On August 27, 1977, more than 70 people gathered at Pragtree Farm near Arlington, WA, to develop strategies for the sustainable agriculture movement in the Pacific Northwest. Known as the "Regional Planning Meeting," the gathering established the framework for the Tilth Association.
Recently the Berry Center in Kentucky posted a video of Wendell Berry's July 1, 1974 speech in Spokane. Wendell's insights are as powerful today as they were forty years ago. The full transcript of his speech is available on the Tilth Producers website.
The meeting at Pragtree Farm laid the foundation for organizing local Tilth chapters. The next spring the first chapters were formed in Seattle and in Southwest Washington, followed by Willamette Valley Tilth and Rogue Tilth in Oregon. By the summer of 1982 there were 15 Tilth chapters in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, with an estimated combined membership of 2,000. At the Regional Planning Meeting three years later Anthony Judge's ideas were incorporated into Tilth's strategy of organizing autonomous local chapters empowered to respond to the needs of their communities. Over the past three decades the Tilth movement has ebbed and flowed, with the central organization dissolving into statewide organizations in Oregon and Washington, and local chapters forming and fading away. Because of its decentralized, ecological strategy, however, Tilth has continued to adapt, survive, and thrive. Today Tilth is experiencing a resurgence parallel to the growth of the organic food and farming nationwide. The complete story by one of the founders, Mark Musick is on the Washington Tilth website select History.
All the Tilth organizations celebrated the 40th anniversary at the Tilth Producers Conference in November 2014. Mary Berry, Wendell’s daughter, was a keynote speaker.
See our chapters at: Oregon Tilth www.tilth.org Tilth Alliance www.seattletilth.org Sno-Valley Tilth www.snovalleytilth.org Vashon Island Growers Association www.vigavashon.org
Online newsletters Winter 2019-2020 South Whidbey Tilth NewsletterContents
Follow links to issues from past years: |
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Katie Miller of the Organic Seed Alliance to speak at the South Whidbey Tilth Annual Meeting
WiFi at Tilth Is Off Until April!
South Whidbey Tilth
. PO Box
252, Langley, WA 98260