Urban Foraging Walk with Melany Vorass

What: April Urban Foraging Walk

Where: Seahurst Park, Burien, WA

When: April 15th, 2-4pm

Welcome to the fun and delicious world of urban foraging! Come join us at Seahurst Park on April 15th to learn how to identify some of the most common edible weeds and wild foods available to us in the city. Weeds are an abundant source of nutritious food available for the picking. Many of our most common weeds hide huge nutrition in their tasty little leaves! Master forager, Melany Vorass, will present information on gathering ethics, local rules and regulations, safety, and general information about how to cook with weeds. Participants will learn about free and abundant superfoods like dandelion, plantain, catsear, nipplewort and shotweed and will receive a handy take-home brochure with field identification information and cooking tips.

After almost 25 years as an environmental policy analyst, Melany retired to pursue a combination of her three greatest loves: plants, food and writing. She studied ethnobotany at the Evergreen State College, has a degree in environmental policy, and has been an avid forager for well over 40 years. With over 20 years experience in adult instruction, she now teaches urban foraging to a wide variety of people including University of Washington, high schools, youth groups, homeless shelters and through Seattle Tilth. Smack in the heart of Seattle, she tends an urban farm with chickens, honeybees and goats. Between farming, foraging for plants, bugs and snails, urban trapping and fishing, and cooking, canning, drying and fermenting her family’s food, she seldom needs (or has time) to visit a grocery store.

Allow enough time to park at the upper parking lot if lower is full. Walk will start right at 2 p.m. from the lower parking lot. Dress for the weather.

Sunday, January 8, 2012
Burien KCLS Library
2:00pm – 4:00pm (doors open at 1:30)

Elizabeth Weldin, of the Toxics Cleanup Program with the Washington State Department of Ecology, will be speaking about the “Tacoma plume,” from the ASARCO plant in Tacoma. “For almost 100 years, the Asarco Company operated a copper smelter in Tacoma. Air pollution from the smelter settled on the surface soil over more than 1,000 square miles of the Puget Sound basin. Arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals are still in the soil as a result of this pollution.”

Learn how this affects you. How safe are we? Who is at risk? How does this impact the sustainability of Burien? Can I grow my own food? Can my kids play outside in the dirt? What businesses might be impacted? Land value? What steps can we make to mitigate the presence of arsenic and create a healthy and resilient community?

Please join us!

Please join us for our yearly holiday potluck and roundtable discussion.  Bring something to share – food and your thoughts about Sustainable Burien and some possible directions for 2012.  We will have some utensils available, but it would be helpful if you could bring your own.

Our January speaker (January 8^th) will be talking to us about the “Tacoma plume,” the toxins in our soil from the Asarco plant in Tacoma that affects so many of us.  The Department of Ecology is presenting a public information meeting (and asking for comments) about a cleanup plan on December 6^th from 6:30-8:30 at 2045 South 216^th at the Des Moines Activity Center in Des Moines).

Note re this month’s Walk ‘n Talk on December 4^th:  Eric Mathison, editor of The Highline Times, will lead this month’s walk to Mathison Park.  Meet at the grassy knoll at Burien Town Square. http://www.b-townblog.com/2011/12/01/get-set-to-walk-n-talk-this-sunday-to-through-buriens-mathison-park/

THIS MONTH:

• Emergency Preparedness and Burien’s Walk ‘n Talk. Nancy Barry will share her experiences in CERT training this fall and we’ll talk about getting more neighborhoods interested in Map Your Neighborhood emergency preparedness.
• Maureen Hoffman will talk about the fun community members have been having on the Walk ‘n Talk outings and bike events. She’ll also talk about an effort to get bike racks placed in strategic places in Burien. (This coming Sunday’s walk – November 6th — will meet on the grassy knoll at Town Square at 2 p.m.)
• We may also be doing a short report on desired efforts to make Burien a certified Wildlife Habitat Community.

Come join us for learning, exploring and more!

Rather than our usual 2nd Sunday monthly meeting at the library, we’re going to join a fun community event which is happening on the same day. It’s Burien’s yearly Brat Trot, which raises funds for two local non-profits Safe Kids King County South and Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence. It looks like a lot of fun and a great way to get to know each other better as well as other community-minded folks in Burien! Check out this link for information about the “trots,” a 5K and a more leisurely 1.2K. Afterwards, we can join the fun in Olde Burien.

Those who’d like to run, walk or trot need to register. We can register as a group of 10 or more for a discount – let me know before Friday, October 7th, if you’d like to be part of a Sustainable Burien team. Also let me know if you’d like to pay an extra $10 for a t-shirt. Otherwise, I believe it will be $15 (goes to good causes!) and I can pick up the registration packet on Saturday.

Hope you’re not bummed about not getting to go to a SuBu meeting that day! We’ll be back on track in November and hope we’ll have made more friends who’ll join us!

Contact us by email if you have questions!

SOLAR? ELECTRIC CAR? FOR YOU?

Sustainable Burien will have two presenters for our September meeting:

Ready to go solar? Not sure if your home is right or if you can afford it? Come by Sustainable Burien for answers to all your solar questions. Presenter will be Eric Thomas, NABCEP Certified Solar Installer and founder of Seattle solar company Solar Epiphany, a local electrical contractor focused on solar power. Bring your electric bills for a free solar analysis of your home.

Electric cars! Steven Lough, President of the Seattle EV Association, will be speaking on the past, present, and future of Electric Tranportation. Steven has been working on education, demonstration, and proliferation of electric cars for 30 years. Bring your questions and comments.

Please join us!

 When: Thursday, September 27, 2011
5:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Where: Elliott Bay Brewhouse & Pub
255 SW 152nd St.
Burien, WA 98166
206-246-4211

Cost: Free to NBIS Members
$15 for non-members

From the NBIS Website:

NBIS provides Businesses and Professionals who are serious about Profitable Sustainability with the connections, skills, tools, programs, and resources that are vital for success in the Green Economy.

NBIS convenes a diverse membership that spans industries and supports and highlights innovative companies and best practices. NBIS members are passionate, dedicated people with much talent to be shared. By providing a hub for this talent and opportunities for people to meet for social and professional networking, we create valuable links between companies and the technical assistance and expertise provided by our members. Members include academic institutions, government agencies and the collaborative resources of individuals and businesses charting the path to sustainability.

Burien’s first-ever ‘Walk-n-Talk,’ will start this Sunday, Aug. 7th, beginning at 2 p.m. at Town Square, then continue the first Sunday of every month.

Meant to inspire locals to meet up, then walk and talk while enjoying the sights of Burien, as well as local businesses or whatever else participants encounter, this is another new, innovative, artist-inspired idea.

“Put on your comfy shoes and come for a casual Walk-n-Talk with friends and neighbors,” reads a press release. “On the first Sunday of every month, meet up at Burien Town Square with friends, old and new. Enjoy conversations and a walk through town. Grab a local coffee or snack before or after your stroll.”

WHAT: Burien’s first-ever ‘Walk N Talk’ begins this Sunday, Aug. 7th.

WHEN: First Sunday of every month; meet at 2 p.m., then start walking at 2:15 p.m.

WHERE: Start at Burien Town Square; then take a 2.25 mile loop around Lake Burien and back to Town Square.

WHAT: Sustainable Burien meeting

WHEN: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Burien library, corner of SW 152^nd & 4^th SW

Sustainable Burien wants to broaden its outreach. Please come and help us brainstorm the key principles of sustainability. We’ll be asking you to share your thoughts on how we can make Burien a place that is resilient, healthy, sustainable, fun and . . .

Please join us in a creative and stimulating conversation!