Inconjunction with UNANZ and the Rodney District Council Transition Town Orewa organised local schools to come and plant fruit and nut trees on a council reserve in Silverdale. Five local schools children and a few home schoolers as well turned up on the 5th of June for the planting. Local mayor Penny Webster opened the event. Deputy
mayor John Kirikiri was also there lending a helping hand.
Many thanks to everyone who attended.
Special thanks to Betsy Kettle for the barrow and extra spades and to Chris Burgess for the mulch.
The start of many more edible on council land…

Saving the planet may well stem from the small act of many, than bigger actions undergone by the few. One restaurant chooses to participate in a city-wide program, recycling its food waste into reusable garden compost—the owner explains why.

To see more stories, get recipes, and links to additional resources, go to: http://cookingupastory.com/

Held at Earthsong in Ranui on a sunny Sunday last month. Well worth attending for the free exchange of concepts and ideas for creating more resilient communities. Thank you to everyone who attended for allowing us the opportunity to record it.

Last weekend was a big weekend for interviews about Peak Oil. First up on Saturday there was Alan Hart talking with Kim Hill. Alan has been an oil man for the last 30 years and knows his stuff from practical experience. On Sunday with Chris Laidlaw there was Tim Jones from the Sustainable Energy Forum. Here are links to both discussions. As prices start to bite the media is slowly starting to awaken.

http://www.deepanimation.co.nz/multimedia/sundaytj.mp3 

http://www.deepanimation.co.nz/multimedia/Alan_Hart_Pea

Don Slater explains the benefits of Biochar.
The existence of an anthropogenic and carbon (C) enriched dark soil in different parts of the world and especially in Amazonia (Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) or Terra Preta de Índio) proves that the predominant Ferralsols and Acrisols can be transformed into fertile soils. Charcoal formation and deposition in soils seems to be a promising option to transfer an easily decomposable biomass into refractory soil organic matter (SOM) pools. The production of charcoal for soil amelioration purposes (slash and char) out of the aboveground biomass (secondary forest and crop residues) instead of converting it to carbon dioxide (CO2) through burning (slash and burn) could establish a C sink and could be an important step towards sustainability and SOM conservation in tropical agriculture.
www.biochar.org