The Kompost Kraft table at Tahoe Truckee Earth Day celebration.
Last Saturday the 21st marked the 42nd Earth Day! Hopefully, you all got out to hug Mother Earth and honor her magnificence! The Tahoe-Truckee Earth Day Foundation has been hosting a ragingly, successful celebration for the past eight years in the village at Squaw Valley, CA. I wore two hats running back and forth between our Slow Food Lake Tahoe booth and the kids' zone where the grow dome had a craft project to decorate compost buckets...
At the grow dome, we will be embarking upon a relatively large, composting program. We will be collecting yard waste from an eco-friendly landscaper, Green Envy, and organic coffee grounds from Sierra Pacific Coffee Roasters. To feed enough greens and nitrogen to the compost pile, we will be recruiting the veggie and fruit scraps from friends and family. We are supplying each contributor with a 5gl pickle bucket to keep their food scraps smell-tight. We will schedule weekly pick-ups and feed the compost pile the organic waste collected. To make it fun and encourage participation,we wanted to have kids decorate the buckets. Each art piece was transferred to a sticker which could be applied to the bucket so it provided an easy to clean surface. We got a variety of great submissions, see below.
At the grow dome, we will be embarking upon a relatively large, composting program. We will be collecting yard waste from an eco-friendly landscaper, Green Envy, and organic coffee grounds from Sierra Pacific Coffee Roasters. To feed enough greens and nitrogen to the compost pile, we will be recruiting the veggie and fruit scraps from friends and family. We are supplying each contributor with a 5gl pickle bucket to keep their food scraps smell-tight. We will schedule weekly pick-ups and feed the compost pile the organic waste collected. To make it fun and encourage participation,we wanted to have kids decorate the buckets. Each art piece was transferred to a sticker which could be applied to the bucket so it provided an easy to clean surface. We got a variety of great submissions, see below.
How to make paper seedling pots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW4t_6dTAvA
Over at the Slow Food booth, we had a festive seedling table where we helped kids make seedling pots out of newsprint! Each child got to take home at least one seedling in a cute caring case made out of milk cartons. This is a great project for all kinds of events from birthday parties and school projects to just a fun way to brighten up a rainy day! Kids and volunteers had a blast and got way into it!
Seedlings planting seedlings!
Paper Seedling Pots Recipe:
- Strips of newsprint cut to 4"x10"
- V-8 Juice can and a golf ball. Roll the newsprint around the can to shape the pot and use the golf ball to twist and lock the 1" of paper hanging off the bottom. Or, buy a wooden pot maker.
- Large bowl of organic, potting soil
- Variety of organic, seed packets
- Spray bottle for giving seedlings a drink after planting :)
- Crop stakes for labeling the seed in the pot. Fun Note: make a seedling wish on the other side!
- Single serving milk cartons cut in half for carrying the seedling pot. Or, use a 1/2gl carton to carry six
The compost bays outside the grow dome and more happy artists decorating compost buckets.
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