CUFSP Meeting Recap 1/25

Hey CUFSPers!

Thanks for another great meeting last night -- we had a number of new members (exciting!!), and everyone came with such great ideas and excitement.

A few announcements from meeting:
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1. Special Guest Speaker at next week's meeting!
We are very excited that Jeff Deasy, CEO and President of American Feast (Specialty Foods/Sustainable Slow Food Products), will be attending our next meeting to give a presentation on his experience founding and running a small, eco-friendly business in an economy that is driven by big business, which tends to value profit over sustainability and ethics. His talk will be followed by a Q&A period. He will also be speaking about an internship opportunity, so all who are interested in interning at a sustainable foods business should attend this event to find out more information on how to apply! The event will be held in Hamilton, Room 511, from 8:30-9:30 PM, Tuesday, February 1st

2. BEE COMMITTEE MEETING - Tonight at 9pm, 401 Hamilton (and all Wednesday's to follow)
At this meeting, the bee team will be meeting with College Beekeepers, an organization that helps colleges develop beekeeping projects on/off campus, and discussing how to move forward with the project. If you are interested in joining this committee, please email Patricia Sazani at patriciasazani@gmail.com, or just show up to the meeting!

3. Spring Break CUFSP WWOOF TripOn of our members, Rose, is organizing a farming opportunity for spring break, at a small organic farm (WITH SHEEP!) in upstate NY, and is gathering initial interest before moving forward with the program. The woman who owns the farm will feed all who help for the 4-5 day period, and provide housing/accomodations of course. If this sounds appealing to you (no commitment necessary at this point), email Rose at rad2147@barnard.edu
4. Earth Week Brainstorming
Please continue to think about how CUFSP can participate in Earth Week this year! Last night we discussed having a garden "first planting" celebration with the Columbia Bluegrass band, sustainable catering (from campus groups), and education on food sustainability. We also discussed collaborating with other groups to create a guide to sustainable living that is specific to Columbia University, and joining the Ecoreps in their "eco-polluza" event, perhaps selling or raffling off various herb seedlings/plants. Continue to bring your ideas to meetings, or email me about this!

5. Additional Updates:
-We completed our Vertical Farming prototype last Sunday, it is now in Tina and Ana's dorm on the Brooks Hall eco-floor in Barnard. Let us know if you want to take a visit to see it.

-We will be setting up 7 new worm bins in the next few weeks, with a total increase of 4 lbs. of worms, and 2lbs./week of food waste turned into priceless compost!

-We will be making CUFSP shirts/canvas bags out of sustainable dies (perhaps indigo!), stay tuned for more information, or let us know if you have any experience/access to silk-screening equipmentnatural dies.

-We recently ordered seeds from the Hudson Valley Seed Library (and gained membership there!) to start in the greenhouse:
*Ideal Market Green Bean
*Danvers Carrot
*Catskill Brussel Sprouts
*Black Beauty Eggplant
*Sugar Baby Watermelon
*Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Pepper
*Early Wonder Tall Top Beet
*Muncher Cucumber
*Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato
*New Yorker Tomato
If you have any additional crop requests -- please email your requests to our garden manager, Madeline Pantalena, at mvp2115@barnard.edu
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That's all for this week -- I hope to see you at our meeting next week, with our special guest, Jeff Deasy.

Peace, love, and gardens,
Kristina Gsell
SEAS 2012, Earth and Environmental Engineering
CUFSP President