Most of our activities will be centered in or around Third Street Park.  Here is a map of the area with explanations of each facility:

1. Bloomington Playwrights Project – Hosting the Saturday night keynote Aaron Newton
2. Farmer’s Market – A great hangout on Saturday morning
3. Monroe County Public Library – Hosting the Thursday night keynote Eric Brende and closing sessions on Sunday afternoon
4. Garage Art (4th & Washington) – Free parking on weekends
5. First United Methodist Church – Hosting the Friday night dinner and two tracks of workshop on Saturday
6. Center for Sustainable Living/Bloomington Eco-Center – Will contain hospitality center for out-of-town guests on Saturday
7. Rhino’s All Ages Music Club – Hosting one track of workshops on Saturday
8. Third Street Park – Hosting Family Tent, Vendor Tent, and demonstrations on Saturday; also departure and arrival point for Sunday tours
9. Alison Jukebox Center (inside Third Street Park) – Hosting two tracks of workshops on Saturday

Are you coming to Bloomington for the fair?  Here are a few things to know about our city:

• Bloomington is home to Indiana University
• We have an awesome farmer’s market Saturday mornings at the Showers Plaza (7th and Morton)
• We have a great tourism office with information about lodging and things to do in town – http://www.visitbloomington.com/
• Free parking is available on Saturday in any of the university parking garages and the city-owned Garage Art at Fourth & Walnut Streets.
• Beware metered parking spaces and 2-hour limits – they are enforced on weekends!
• We will provide a hospitality center in the Bloomington Eco-Center (323 S. Walnut Street) during Saturday’s events

A lot of folks are unfamiliar with the term “permaculture” which has its roots in two different word combinations: permanent+agriculture (meaning sustainable agricultural practices) and permanent+culture (meaning a way for people live sustainably).  Here is a short explanation of permaculture from local instructor and practitioner Rhonda Baird.

Imagine a world of natural abundance, clean water and air, and community connection. Permaculture, an ethical system of design which reintegrates the human world with the natural world, helps us regenerate our landscapes—both physical and cultural. By understanding and working with natural systems we can repair the damage done to our planet over the past centuries—including re-foresting deserts, repairing soil, cleaning water and air, and increasing farm productivity through regenerative practices.

Permaculture comes out of systems theory (understanding how systems work) and also integrates information from many different traditions (indigenous wisdom, nature awareness traditions, horticultural traditions, forestry, and many other streams of knowledge).  Permaculturists work to design gardens, farms, homes, communities, and even cities that enhance both the human world and the natural world.  These designs help us live within the limits of our planet while strengthening our communities.  Permaculture practitioners and teachers around the globe have been at the forefront of sustainability education, relief efforts, and landscape scale regeneration.

Permaculture is based on three core ethics:

Care of the Land—This is the highest priority. If we don’t take care of the land and heal it, it will not provide for us. When we repair the soil, conserve and clean water, promote biodiversity, and create new opportunities for things to happen, we serve the land and allow it to support life to its fullest.

Care of People—Permaculture is quite clear that our goal is to take care of people. When we meet our needs—our real needs for belonging, security, participation, creative expression, autonomy, and so on—resilient communities will emerge.

Distribution of Surplus—We learn from nature that when an abundance of something is present, it quickly disperses to where there is lack—so that movement toward equilibrium takes place. The same is needed in our cultivated systems. Too much of anything in one place will make for disorder and pollution.

Beyond these core ethics, permaculture works with principles. David Holmgren delineated 12 of them:

1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Get a Yield
4. Self-Regulate and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Services and Resources
6. Produce No Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Detail
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

See www.permacultureprinciples.com for more information.

The 2010 Simply Living Fair and Midwest Permaculture Convergence was held Thursday, September 23 to Sunday, September 26 in Bloomington, Indiana.  This annual event is designed to provide information about simple and sustainable living through lectures, workshops, demonstrations, and tours.  Read on for information about what happened at the fair…

The event will kick off Thursday night with a talk by Eric Brende about how to decide when human power works as well or better than electricity.  On Friday, there will be an 8-hour introduction to permaculture, a design approach to working with nature when we design our homes, neighborhoods, and cities.  Friday night will be a welcome dinner prepared with local ingredients and accompanied by the Bloomington Peace Choir.   Saturday is the main event, with workshops, hands-on demonstrations, and green business vendor booths in Third Street Park from 9:00 to 5:00.  Learn about green projects in Bloomington and projects you can try at home such as urban gardening, home weatherization, beekeeping, water catchment, and more. On Sunday, we’ll wrap up the weekend with bus tours of a few inspiring green sites around Bloomington.

Come for the whole weekend or just drop in to learn about your favorite topic, whether it’s food production,  alternative energy, green building, protecting our ecosystems, or alternative transportation.  Many events are FREE and day  passes for Saturday are only $15 ($12 with advance purchase).

The 2010 Simply Living Fair and Midwest Permaculture Convergence is over but read on to hear about all the great activities offered by the Center for Sustainable Living and the Bloomington Permaculture Guild.

THURSDAY

• 7:30 pm – Opening Speaker Eric Brende will speak about his book “Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology” - Monroe County Public Library Auditorium, FREE
• 9:00 pm – Peace Through Sustainability Benefit Concert at Player’s Pub featuring Curtis Cantwell Jackson’s Motown Revue.  Suggested $6-$10 donation supports the Center for Sustainable Living and the City of Peace Community of Care initiative.  Celebrate Peace Week in Bloomington!

FRIDAY

• 9am-5pm – Introduction to Permaculture Course – First United Methodist Church, $35
• 6:00pm-  Local Food Dinner prepared by Food Works for Middle Way House with Music by the Bloomington Peace Choir – First United Methodist Church, $15
• 8:00pm – Opening Session of Midwest Permaculture Convergence – First United Methodist Church, FREE

SATURDAY – **MAIN EVENT** (Download a one-page Simply Living Fair Workshop Schedule or scroll down for workshop descriptions)

• 9am-5pm- Simply Living Fair Workshops  – Third Street Park, $15 day pass ($12 with advance purchase)
• 9am-5pm- Simply Living Vendors and Demonstrations and Family Activities – Third Street Park, FREE
• 9am-5pm- Simply Living Fair Hospitality Room – Bloomington Eco-Center, FREE to fair participants
• 7:30pm – Keynote Speaker Aaron Newton will speak about “A Nation of Farmers” –Bloomington Playwrights Project, FREE

SUNDAY

• 10:00am-12:00pm – Choice of Morning Sustainable Living Tours (to/from Third Street Park) – $15
• Tour A – Sustainable Neighborhood Tour – Explore Green Acres Neighborhood and learn how this group of neighbors have come together to create a community teaching garden and to support each other in creating green living infrastructure in their neighborhood.
• Tour B – Permaculture Design Tour – Visit the home of two of the foremost permaculture designers in the country and tour their nearly-off-the-grid homestead featuring hoophouses, passive solar heating, an involved water catchment system, and an amazing amount of food production.

• 1:00pm-3:00pm – Choice of Afternoon Sustainable Living Tours (to/from Third Street Park) – $15
• Tour A – Urban and Community Food Production Tour – Learn about urban food production by touring Grown in Town Farmstead, Willie Streeter Community Garden, and the new Bloomington Community Orchard.
• Tour B – Green Building Tour – Explore three buildings that demonstrate different uses of solar energy and green building design – the New Wings (Middle Way House) building with a solar water heater and green roof; a small residential home with a solar furnace; and a residential home in Evergreen Village featuring solar electric panels.

• 3:00pm-5:00pm – Closing Session of Midwest Permaculture Convergence (Monroe County Public Library) – FREE

Saturday Workshop Schedule (Tentative)

9:00 AM

• Tai Chi in Third Street Park with Elisa Pokral

10:00-10:50

• Integrating Poultry into Your Sustainability Plans by Anne Foley – You might think that adding poultry to your yard is too much extra work.  Anne will explain how you can turn poultry into the best garden helpers you ever had.
• Restoring the Streams of Monroe County by Heidi Russell Wagner, Environmental Planner – As a shared resource, clean water is a community responsibility.  However, many of the natural streams in our community are severely impaired and all show  the signs of human impact.  This presentation will begin with an overview of the natural history of Monroe County, discuss how we came to our current situation, and conclude with a set of strategies and tools individual homeowners and developers can employee to mitigate the problem.
• Preparing Bloomington for the Age of Energy Scarcity by Dave Rollo, City Council Member – We are entering an age of resource scarcity, particularly energy.  In order to meet the challenges we face requires us to take stock of our situation, and begin energy descent planning and execution.  Although the scale of the problem is large, one of the most effective ways to adapt is at the community level, and thus, it invites everyone to  participate.
• Livable and Sustainable Transportation Policy for Bloomington by Buff Brown, founder of Bloomington Transportation Options for People (BTOP) – This presentation covers the science, policies and infrastructure behind cities with high impact and low impact transportation practices. We will cover the historic trends that brought us today’s transportation practices, and the new policies that are moving cities to be more livable and sustainable.
• Weatherizing Your Home
  
• Meet Our Friends the Bats by Laura Hohman (Family Activity)

11:00-11:50

• Introduction to Food Preservation by Stephanie Solomon and Kayte Young of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard – Join our food pantry nutrition program to learn the basics of food preservation.  We will focus on canning and drying and offer resources on lacto-fermentation and other food preservation methods.
• Build a Raingarden by Todd Stevenson, Monroe County Drainage Engineer – Learn how individuals can improve water quality in Monroe County lakes and streams through practices such as rain gardens that promote infiltration of runoff and capture of sediments and pollutants.
• Measuring and Reducing Energy Use at Home by Maggie Sullivan and Will Emigh – Hear about our experiences reducing our summer electrical use to less than 3 kWhr/day by carefully monitoring our usage, unplugging unneeded devices, swapping out old appliances, weatherizing, and learning to love the clothesline.
• Take the Bus: An Overview of Public Transit by Lew May of Bloomington Transit
• Simple Living & The Catholic Worker Movement by Amanda Dubinski.  The Catholic Worker Movement is about creating a new society within the shell of the old; a world where it is easier for people to be good.  We strive to practice the Sermon on the Mount – community living, personalism, simplicity/voluntary poverty, and care for the environment.  We are just a group of people trying to live well together.
• Learn about puppetry with the Bloomington Playwrights Project (Family Activity)

12:00-12:50  LUNCH BREAK

1:00-1:50

• Food Security in Bloomington by Michael Simmons, Master Gardener – This presentation provides an overview of the current state of food security in Bloomington and suggests ways in which we can prepare at the local level for challenges to our food security caused by dwindling nonrenewable energy resources, global climate disruption, and global population increases.
• Water Catchment Systems by permaculturist Keith Johnson
• Season Extension by Stephanie Solomon of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard – Learn how you can start planning now for a fall and winter harvest.  You’ll learn how to make a harvest calendar to know when to start your seeds, and methods of overwintering or covering vegetables when the frost comes.
• Greenways and Greenspace in Monroe County by County Commissioner Mark Stoops- Learn about  the county’s move to expand its green infrastructure and quality of life including the expansion of local trail systems and changes in county zoning requirements.
• Neighborhood Action and Green Living by Ann Kreilkamp of the Green Acres Neighborhood Association (GANA)
• Learn About Wild Animals with WildCare (Family Activity)

2:00-2:50

• Alternative Grain Production for the Midwest
• Save Water, Save the World: Home Water Conservation by Sura Gail Tala – Since first working on the environmental movement in 1969, I have put into practice many simple actions that anyone can do that make a large difference in the world. My greatest interest has been in helping animals on this planet and every animal’s basic needs includes water. In our country, we do not value water as it is almost free and appears abundant but the time is drawing near that we will have to draw our attention to this important element.
• Yum with the Sun: An Introduction to Solar Cooking by Matt Connors.  Cooking with the sun is a great way to use less electricity or fuel while keeping the heat out of your house during the summer months.  In this workshop you will learn about different types of solar cookers and how to use them to prepare many types of meals.  You will also learn how easy it can be to build your own solar oven to use at home.  If the weather allows, there will be a solar cooking demonstration as well.
• Divorce Your Car and Live Car-Free by Lucille Bertuccio and Ria Collee.  Divorcing your car is serious business but with a little organization and time, it is possible to live without a car in Bloomington.  The rewards are great, including better health, seeing the changing seasons and meeting people as you commute.  Come to our workshop to learn more.
• Back to the Future: Sustainable Housing in Bloomington by local builders Chris Sturbaum and Marc Cornett – Join us for a discussion on how re-using most of our existing structures is the most sustainable way to house ourselves in the future. We will talk about new technology meeting older pre-Oil Age patterns of building and development. The city of the future is already built but it needs work!
• Explore the Power of the Sun with Wonderlab (Family Activity)

3:00-3:50

• Composting: Nurturing a Natural Cycle by Dave Parsons of REAL Compost – We will look at composting from macro to micro points of view.  We will consider the importance of plants in forming and maintaining the world as we know it and the cyclic relationship between plants and animals.  We will look at the basics of soil biology to understand the significance of compost and organic matter to plants and soil.  Then we will look at different methods of composting, their pros and cons and focus on specific steps involved in producing quality compost using piles or turned windrows.  There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.
• Open Session
  
• Increasing Your Home Energy Efficiency by Michael B.
• Pedaling to Freedom: How to Make a Bicycle Your Primary Mode of Transportation in Bloomington by Keith Vogelsang – This presentation will cover some of the basic equipment and skills recommended for those interested in bicycle transport. Impediments to bicycling, bicycle safety, and resources available will also be covered.
• Inviting Nature into Your Yard by Marcia Pluta-Figuerido
• Make Treasures from Trash with the Trashionistas (Family Activity)

4:00-4:50

• Keeping Bees in Urban Areas by Tracy Hunter of Hunter’s Honey – Learn basic information on beekeeping, how to get started and special requirements for urban areas.
• Permaculture Walkabout by Rhonda Baird, permaculture designer – Learn how permaculture designers analyze a yard, farm, or other site to determine the best situation of homes, gardens, ponds, and other features.
• Introduction to Solar Energy by the Southern Indiana Renewable Energy Network (SIREN)
• Open Session
• Sustainable Building – Really? This presentation looks into the fact and rhetoric around the “green” buzzword craze as it relates to housing and building systems, examining both short and long-term effects of choices we have in housing. We’ll discuss building methods, materials, products and design choices of real benefit. The emphasis will be on proper scaling, orientation and design to accomplish true sustainabilty in building. There will be a slide show, handout and plenty of lively discussion.
• Make Treasures from Trash with the Trashionistas (Family Activity)

Eric Brende is the author of the book “Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology,” about his family’s experiment living without electricity for one year.  A graduate of both Yale and MIT, he has long been interested in determining which forms of technology improve our lives and which have a less positive effect.  Eric and his family now live in Saint Louis, living frugally and without being monopolized by technology. He operates a bicycle rickshaw, manufactures magnificent soaps out of his home, and writes and speaks about the importance of community, the pitfalls of technology, and the advantages of simplifying your lifestyle.

(Eric’s Thursday night talk is FREE and co-sponsored by the Monroe County Public Library.  7:30pm at the library auditorium)

Aaron Newton is the co-author (with Sharon Astyk) of “A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil.”  He is passionate about supporting local food systems and creating a new generation of farmers whether they are focused on small urban gardens or larger more commercial farms.  Aaron lives in North Carolina and is currently working on a farm incubator that will help young farmers establish themselves and get growing in the face of high land prices and steep learning curves.

(Saturday night talk is FREE at 7:30pm at Bloomington Playwrights Project.)