A Call to Open Farms!

Friends,

I could not be more excited about what's in the works!

As a first call-to-action from The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable!, we are planning and buildingA Call to Open Farms.

A Call to Open Farms couples the tactility of my first non-profit -- FarmHands-CityHands, formed 22 years ago to link farm and city for the social, cultural, economic and environmental enrichment of both -- with the immediacy and reach of today’s technology.

A Call to Open Farms will encourage and enable folks from all walks of life to visit as many area farms, farmers' markets, country and county fairs, stores and restaurants that support local agriculture as possible.

It will:

* Educate people about the importance of local food and farming, and about the opportunities for farm-city links.

* Guide participants to area markets, farms, wineries, breweries, distilleries, fairs, festivals, stores and restaurants that support local agriculture, including ways and means of getting there.

* Give them the tools to provide creative and profuse Proof of Presence (PoP) -- allowing them to post a vibrant array of videos, photos, stories, songs, performances, poems, recipes and more at www.therenewables.net and www.farmhands.org.

* Reward them for their involvement -- from the intrinsic pleasures of digging in, helping out, making friends and being the farm-city link to prizes like FarmStay getaways, flower bouquets, private wine tastings, meet-the-chef meals, and more….

* Celebrate the results with exciting events like Eaters' Appreciation Day, Giving of Thanks Soiree, and more.

We're now finalizing plans for in-city FarmFests, biodiesel bus tours, up-country FarmDays, and for a program that we think will herald a delicious and propitious bonding of people, call to nature and use of technology.

We'll of course keep you posted!

A Call to Open Farms will be a wonderful ride. And we want you with us on it from the first!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, aka Biodiesel Babe

World Science Fair: Why I’m Here!

Friends,

Recently, I realized and articulated why I’d moved to New York so many years ago: THIS is the place and pace of accelerated learning, creation and connection that I long for and love.

I was tickled when a recent Smithsonian article claimed the same, with Joan Acocella proposing that New Yorkers are a highly involved (bordering on intrusive) species of peeps pre-selected for higher energy and ambition.

I’d argue that even the wildlife here is that way:

I’ve seen Pale Male eating in public. (He drools!) I’ve communed with raccoons. (I had one as a next door neighbor until they took the scaffolding down.)

But now, can I just effuse a bit about the World Science Festival?!

This week, I was IN HEAVEN thanks to physicist Brian Greene, producer Tracy Day, actor and author Alan Alda, friend Sunny Bates and all the others whose brilliance, warmth, humor and magic formed a float of math, science and humanities such as I’d never known!

The city was at its Nobel~est….

I savored every second of Mayor Bloomberg's "NY Loves Science" speech and Leon Lederman's cosmic jokes.

I watched in anticipation and appreciation as the inaugural Kavli Prize recipients in astrophysics, neuroscience and nanoscience were announced, and was thrilled to meet founder Fred Kavli and laureates Louis E. Brus and Thomas Jessell afterwards.

There were compelling cases for vertical farms and a balanced renewable energy policy; rousing discussions about regenerative medicine and thorny bioethics issues; and impressive displays of neuroscientific fireworks -- monkeys who can manipulate mechanical third arms with their minds and minimally conscious men coming back to life.

I drilled down deep with NIH' Eric Wasserman, whose enviable title is Chief, Brain Stimulation Unit, and shared fresh ideas with Vivavi founder Josh Dorfman, who, though he calls himself the Lazy Environmentalist, is anything but lazy.

I heard Jim Gates, Lucy Hawking and others tell self-deprecating tales of science experiments gone wrong.

I was there when TPP’s own Jack Chiarello and hundreds of others came alive with wonder.

I was moved to tears by Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin’s speed and accuracy and by William Phillips’ "absolute zero" (or as close as it gets) ballooon tricks.

I had my picture taken with Ms. Frizzle of Scholastic’s Magic School Bus.

I learned from Saul Griffith how and why to shave a few thousand watts off my energy consumption and from Dan Nocera how to think and live more like a leaf.

And I went wild with joy, as we all did, when Andy Revkin (pictured above) ended a Powering the Planet town hall meeting with an accoustic guitar original about unsequestered CO2 (or was it liberated carbon?).

At dinner, I traded life stories with Eben Bayer, whose Ecovative Design centers around a fungi-based foam that will someday allow us to grow our own homes!

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

So when World Science Fest officially ended last night -- with a Science of Longevity session about how "the 90s are and new 50s" and with Alan Alda performing Dear Albert, which he wrote based on letters to and from Einstein -- I knew that, for me, and for so many, WSF would live on.

INSPIRED, The Producers' Project will enable K - 12 students and staff to make and share even more math and science-oriented media (music, film, television, blogs, games) than before.

I’ve bought a slew of related domain names that range from Infinitesimal to Infinite and Smallest to Allest to Adult Math.

I vow to launch a “Love Letters to Darwin” campaign someday.

And I feel as if I've value-added to my DNA....

I woke up this morning knowing....I’m going to learn a lot today!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable

Those Who Prey Together....

“Those who prey together stay together!”

So claims Green Chimneys, one of my favorite organizations.

And they should know! For 60 years, Green Chimneys (GC) has been a leader in animal-assisted therapy.

As part of their residential flourishment program, youth sent to Green Chimneys by New York City and State enjoy a hands-on brand of education where, among other things, they grow and sell organic produce, have a robust culinary arts program, tend rare breeds of barnyard animals and rehabilitate injured wildlife.

On Sunday, June 1, Green Chimneys students will help host a full day’s Birds of Prey festivities that will culminate with the freeing of a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk back to the wild.

If you can, please get yourself up Brewster way for Birds of Prey Day. And please join me in supporting GC at their 60th Anniversary Celebration on June 5 in NYC.

Meantime, a shout out to the magical Josephine Monter, whose eagle eyes are pictured above. She will be hosting mask-making workshops at Omega on July 13 - 18 and August 10 - 15.

THANKS to Green Chimneys, Josephine…and to all of you…for working wonders and for playing with us when you can.

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, aka Biodiesel Babe

Spring Giddiness

Spring Giddiness

By Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

HAPPPPY Earth Day, All

Read between the lines....

Plant! Protect! Preserve! Participate!

Educate and Celebrate!

HAPPPPY Earth Day, All!

Spring Is....

"Spring is in the cock's crow, in the smell of freshly turned earth. It is no longer wise for the nature lover to procrastinate."

So says a favorite, unattributed quote that I found in the early days of FarmHands-CityHands.

And now, you don't have to wait!

Soon, our "Call to Open Farms" will give you hundreds of ways and means of going back to and giving to the land.

Stay tuned.

Meantime, here's hoping you ENJOY the Full Pink Moon and will make the most of EarthDay!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit aka Biodiesel Babe.

Water Ways....

In case it hadn't occurred to you already: We are the water!

And it's up to us to preserve and protect this increasingly rare, at-risk resource in all the educated, vigilant and enjoyable ways we can.

To learn the latest on a subject we know and love, Amelia Amon and I treated ourselves to info-packed World Water Day at the American Museum of Natural History, where pamphlets and panels abounded about The International Year of Sanitation.

Earlier that week, a few of us from The Producers' Project had been struck by Andy Revkin's New York Times piece:
2.6 Billion With No Place to Go (to the Toilet).

We'd interviewed Andy for The Evolving Ecology of New York -- a documentary that explored how much we had evolved and devolved since the days of cholera epidemics and dead horses contaminating our drinking water...and that emphasized education as key to caring about, co-existing with, preserving and stewarding our natural resources.

Another TPP documentary, Living with the River found students examining The Hudson River’s environmental health as well as its economic and social importance. Students determined the health of the Hudson through water quality testing, experimentations and identification of plant and animal species; studied and documented the river’s past, present, present and future; made environmental observations and recommendations; and interviewed experts from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Coalition for a Livable West Side, Clearwater, the Hudson River Project and more.

We became increasingly aware of, involved with, responsible for and happy about what was happening in our own home waterways. But we were horrified to learn that an estimated 700,000 children a year die from preventable diseases and ailments because they lack clean water and adequate facilities.

Time spent studying our local waterways, flora, fauna, landscape and humanscape and interviewing experts from The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Historical Society, The New York Botanic Gardens and the The New York Times had led to a sense of our inter-connectedness -- personal and collective, local and global, environmental, economic and more.

"Even more so than we are what we eat," said one TPP participant, "We are water. (Blood is 83% water.) And we are the world."

What are we doing to and for our water...and for the billions of people around the world who lack adequate access to it?

We're learning more, making plans, taking action, speaking out, doing what we can...and hoping you will join us!

Warmly,
Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable and
The Producers'Project: A New Lens on Learning

Lights Out for Earth Hour

Friends,

I seriously need glasses. Somehow, I misread the time on Earth Hour's excellent website about when we were supposed to turn the lights out and experience the difference that even an hour of darkness can make.

I invited friends over for the occasion, but none could come.

And so, alone at the appointed hour, I powered down all appliances, lit candles, turned my rocking chair towards twilight, and experienced realizations, revelations, and rewards that I could never have imagined.

Realization: Quiet and calm accompany darkness to a great degree. Nature seems closer when you are calm and quiet.

Revelation: More is less. Soon, I was economizing even candles. And what I could see, hear, feel in the deepening of dusk and descent of night asounded me.

Reward: A raccoon traversed my windowsill and scampered up the netted scaffolding next door.

WOW!!! Did this happen often, I wondered, and I was too busy, noisy, bustling to see?

Was this some kind of sign -- an enticement to spend more time in silence, stillness, observation, contemplation?

Or was I CRAZY?

Later, walking to dinner, I took the park path to see who else was lighting up or powering down. At the gate, I quizzed the local police: Had they been aware of Earth Hour? No. If they had been aware, would they have taken action or encouraged others to do so? Questionable. Could they notice a difference in the city lights from where they stood? Not really. And finally: Could I have been hallucinating? Though I was admittedly alone and drinking in the dark, I could swear I saw a raccoon....

Absolutely affirmative! The police were as excited as I was: They had seen a hefty critter amble out of Central Park at the time in question, in no particular hurry, headed west....

Increasingly, it seems, 'coons leave Central Park to stake out new territories, run errands and the like. One neighbor reported that a raccoon accompanied her to Duane Reade the other day. And I've since been told not to invite them in for lunch, lest they never leave.

Anyhow, I arrived at dinner EXCITED to share my tales of calmness, wildness and wonder with friends...only to learn that Earth Hour was the next night. And I'd get to do it all again....

SxSWente

Friends,

I am fresh back from the SXSW music fest in Austin, Texas. And I am rejuvenated, inspired, impressed!

I was there thanks to the exquisite Heidi Richman, Program Director of Wente's Discover the Wine, Discover the Music campaign.

Founded in 1883 by C. H. Wente, Wente Vineyards is California's oldest family owned and continuously operated winery.

For more than twenty years, the Wente Family Concert Series has hosted headliner artists ranging from Ray Charles to Buena Vista Social Club at their stunning Livermore Valley ranch.

Discover the Wine, Discover the Music puts a new spin on the Wente Family's passion:

Spearheaded by Karl Wente -- fifth generation winemaker, fine musician and exceptionally evolved human -- the program pairs Wente's 100% estate-grown wines with breaking new artists in innovative ways. For example, neck tags on participating Wente wines include codes for free music downloads and info on how songs like Under the Influence of Giant's joyous "In the Clouds" pair with the crisp and honeysuckled notes of Wente's Riverbank Riesling; how Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh's
"We Hung the Moon" mesh with Wente's appley, oaky Morning Fog Chardonnay.

It's a program that sings to me in every sense. And I wanted to be part of Heidi's high-profile promoting of it, built on her years of experience and success, at SXSW.

After all, I impressed upon her, I can pop, open, pour, have been talking and writing about wine since long before it was legal for me to drink, and have not ceased from exploration. And somewhere in the midst of it all, I entered the music industry....

And so, happily, I was invited along for what has proved one of the most pleasurable rides of my life.

While I savored Wente's ripe, luscious Riva Ranch Chardonnay and their long, smooth Southern Hills Cabernet on the front porch of a gracious Garden Street home, Karl and fellow Front Porch singer/songwriter Megan Bradford played covers of my favorite songs (John Prine, Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Tom Petty), introduced me to new ones (Brothers Lekas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tally Hall, John Gorka) and knocked my socks off with their own work.

On March 13, at The Moonshine Veranda, Wente treated musicians, industry execs, lifestyle and entertainment press to one of the most intoxicating blends of standout wines, spicy food and mellow tunes that it has ever been my privilege to experience.

And then, it was time to get on the bus!

The Wine Bus, that is -- festooned with Karl's image and his “Discover the Wine, Discover the Music” tag outside, and offering up a cool, acoustically correct, wine-laden lair within.

Karl, Megan, Simi Sernaker of Suffrajett and Jason Russo of Hopewell played music while we made our way to the hottest (and I’m talking 95 degrees that day) venues. At stops that ranged from the swank Whole Foods Lamar St. parking lot to the controlled chaos of Maria’s Taco Xpress, festival goers, fellow musicians and VIP press would get on board to play music, drink wine, conduct interviews and such. I popped, poured, talked about the wines that I had come to know and love, and held my own (that particular time).

Then my official "tour of duty" was over!

I was free to soak up all the strangeness and beauty that is SXSW (1500 bands, 400 films and an embarrassment of parties) in Austin, Texas (a town I love so much I could live there) in Spring (redbud, wisteria, birdsong, splendiferous beyond words).

Mostly, I hung out on the Garden Street front porch and imbibed all the Simi, Karl and Megan music I could.

I bought running shoes and cowboy boots, but spent my time barefoot.

It felt SO GOOD!

Flying home, I read an endnote that Kevin Smokler had written for Austin Chronicle:

“How Your South-By High Can Last Through the Rest of the Year:

Was it a dream? Where do I go from here? What’s this business card stuck to my toothbrush?

Where, in little changes or giant swings, can you draw on SXSW as the start of something new instead of just letting what happens in Austin stay in Austin?”

I think I know....

In significant (and not unSchrodingerlike) ways, I’m still on the bus, inside the music, drinking enough Wente for all of us.

And if they'll have me, I hope my Livermore friends will keep their corkscrews handy:

When next I can, I’ll wend my way West for more of their wine, music, kind.

Meantime, from my perch to their porch, I send admiration, appreciation, LOVE.

For me, this party is so not over! In fact, it’s just begun....

SPRING Into Action....

Welcome to Spring, which officially began this morning.

And here's inviting us to do wonderful, meaningful things, this season...and always!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit aka Biodiesel Babe.