Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community
When: Sunday, March 22, from 4 - 5:30 p.m.
Where: Location will be announced via email reminder
Email bookclub@moscowfood.coop for more info and to subscribe
“More than just another gardening book, Food Not Lawns provides a road map for ecological and social literacy in our own backyards and neighborhoods. A quiet revolution is taking place across the country centered on small plots in urban and suburban areas where food is being produced, jobs grown, and real community developed.”
— Michael Abelman
I have a confession to make, and I’m breaking protocol just this once, to do so in first person narrative. The Moscow Food Co-op’s Good Food Book Club met in January and we agreed on a number of books as our selections for the rest of 2020. I am hereby exercising a choice to include a book we did not know about at that time, right now. For the month of March, in conjunction with our upcoming growing season.
Here’s why: Since our January meeting I had a chance to attend the hugely inspiring Palouse-Clearwater Food Coalition 2020 Food Summit. There I saw dozens of local folks – farmers, growers, gardeners – putting their heads together to build immediate and thriving food resilience on the Palouse in all sorts of ways. I met and spoke with some folks who are right now, launching a new effort to do much more to support people who want to grow food in their yards. The organization is inspired by a national effort and book titled “Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community” by Heather Jo Flores.
By the time you read this, Food Not Lawns of the Palouse will have had its first meeting locally, and will have been part of a seed swap at the Latah County Library. You can find the local Food Not Lawns of the Palouse chapter on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/639036106846774/
This book and organization has great potential to help immediately bring thriving and restorative food resilience to our communities, and to, at the same time, help increase important habitat for our native wildlife and insects.
The description for our local chapter reads as follows:
“Food Not Lawns of the Palouse is a group of individuals living in the Moscow Idaho and Pullman Washington area inspired by Heather Jo Flores book and movement Food Not Lawns. We are working to support each other in growing food for humans, birds, bees, and butterflies in our homes. We strive to build a network of resources and work parties to help each other in our growing endeavors.”
You can access the open-source book here: https://www.permaculturewomen.com/foodnotlawns/freeyourlawn
And find more info here: http://www.foodnotlawns.com/
Please join us to discuss “Food Not Lawns” by Heather Jo Flores (Chelsea Green Publishing 2006) on Sunday MARCH 22 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. (We meet one week earlier than usual in March to accommodate a prior parenting commitment). Email bookclub@moscowfood.coop for reminders about the Good Food Book Club. If you want a hard copy, FOOD NOT LAWNS is also available through your local library – or check the area’s local book stores, including BookPeople of Moscow, where Book Club members receive a discount.