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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. Our group, South Whidbey Tilth, is part of the Washington Tilth Association, which is composed of several regional chapters. In The News ... Find us on Meet Hope for the Flowers author Trina Paulus
Her book was translated into 13 languages and continues to be in print after 40 years. Paulus is a lifelong activist promoting sustainable agriculture and fighting pesticides, genetically modified organisms and other environmental problems. She is working on a new book that has to do with the importance of worms and butterflies. As an elder in the activist community she has a great deal to share from her life’s work. Trina Paulus currently serves as vice president of both the Cornucopia Network of New Jersey and the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute. She raises several hundred Monarch butterflies each summer to increase the population and encourage others to personally experience the miracle of transformation.Visit the Hope for the Flowers website. New Vendors May Apply for Tilth Farmers' Market Agreements, policy and rules for the 2015 South Whidbey Tilth Farmers' Market are available. See the market page for details. 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. Hours for 2014 are due by May 1, 2015. Mail to South Whidbey Tilth or email to the Treasurer.
Puget Sound is in Trouble! By encouraging local, organic agriculture and making green choices in our daily lives we can create a Puget Sound that continues to be one of the most fertile places on earth. Find out what what you can do and get started. Learn more here and on the Puget Sound Starts Here web site.
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. Work parties are often held on Saturdays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. See recent newsletters below for more information.
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 Seattle Tilth www.seattletilth.org Sno-Valley Tilth www.snovalleytilth.org Tilth Producers of Washington www.tilthproducers.org Vashon Island Growers Association www.vigavashon.org
Online newsletters The current newsletter issue is February-March 2015 Contents Collaboration Is Key to Farm and Ecosystem Interests..1
Follow links to issues from past years: |
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Join South Whidbey Tilth in welcoming Trina Paulus, sustainable agriculture activist and author of the internationally best selling book, Hope for the Flowers, to our community. She will share some of her thoughts on today's issues in sustainable agriculture with us in a program set for, Wednesday, March 4 at 7 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church annex in Grigware Hall, preceded by a 6 p.m. potluck. Her talk will be followed by a round table discussion.
