2007 - A Productive Year

To achieve our goal of developing a range of learning programs that present and promote sustainability, we...

Dave Blume explaining how applied permaculture principles can profitably produce ethanol in an environmentally friendly manner.

• Sponsored Alcohol Can Be A Gas! workshops in Milwaukee and Chicago by alcohol expert Dave Blume. These workshops taught attendees how to produce ethanol in an environmentally friendly manner and how to use ethanol to fuel many types of engines. Attendees also learned how to profit from the valuable distillery co-products.
• Offered introductory presentations on various aspects of sustainable community including: chicken raising, permaculture, beekeeping, pastured sheep raising, herbalism, edible native plants and techniques for non-toxic living.
  See our Past Events for complete details.
• Provided educational tours and open house presentations to groups ranging from farmers to boy scouts.
• Held a themed weekend that included cider making, honey extraction, yogurt making, and tour of Harry Carr's sheep farm.
• Connected with many who visited our booths at the Chicago Green Festival, Midwest Renewable Energy Association Fair, Family Farmed Expo, Foresight Design's Sustainable Convergence, and the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference.
• Expanded our Speakers Bureau.
• Co-sponsored the Stelle Earth Day Celebration and Solar Home Tour.

To work toward our goal of developing eco-village models with revenue development that teach the cooperative nature of sustainable community, we…

• Performed major cleanup and maintenance of the CSC's orchard to prepare it for a variety of models to be initiated in 2008. Cleanup included cutting dead trees, preparing the gardens for winter and pruning over 100 fruit trees with the help of an intern from Dancing Rabbit Community and Argena Berne.
• Sponsored an organic chicken co-op

Carroll English (in blue blouse) sharing her knowledge on one of many local edible plants.

Jim Duggan (in purple shirt) describing the design and operation of a
chicken tractor.

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Tasting home made apple cider during our Milk, Honey, and Cider weekend.

Tim Wilhelm explaining Stelle's solar powered telephone company during the 2007 Solar Home Tour.