April 4 - April 25, 2018

Deanna Pumplin

"To educate about the importance of restoring soil, restoring integrated plant/animal food growing systems that use conservation agriculture (no-till, rotation, cover crops), holistically managed grazing and farming methods, and building local food resiliency. "

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
250 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

60

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

7

public officials or leaders

contacted
UP TO

42

zero-waste meals

consumed

Deanna's actions

Food

Learn More about Silvopasture

#9 Silvopasture

I will spend at least 60 minutes watching videos and/or reading about the environmental benefits of silvopasture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Contact your Elected Officials

#23 Farmland Restoration

I will contact 7 elected officials to voice my opinion on the importance of restoring farmland in my region, including both public and private land.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Zero-waste Cooking

#3 Reduced Food Waste

I will cook 3 meal(s) with zero-waste each day.

COMPLETED 14
DAILY ACTIONS

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Deanna Pumplin 4/25/2018 7:48 AM

I lost momentum on checking in, but have continued the habit of using vegetable scraps for soup stock, rather than composting. I also went to a local meeting with our Congressional Representative to talk about the 2018 Farm Bill.

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Deanna Pumplin 4/14/2018 10:41 PM

I never considered composting vegetable trimmings to be wasteful, but when I see how easy it is to make soup stock from a few days of trimmings I get that I save either money or vegetables. Tonight I chopped up the radish greens for a veggie stir fry. Delicious! Who knew!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Zero-waste Cooking

In North America, up to 65% of food waste happens at the consumer level. Chef Steven Satterfield advocates for utilizing every part of a vegetable. How can you incorporate using an entire vegetable, including the skins, tops, and stalks during your next meal prep?

Deanna Pumplin 4/04/2018 8:57 AM

I used to save onion skins, to later make a natural dye, but never got around to the dye making. I'll try again. I'm going to start with saving tops, stems, peels (if any) to make soup stock. And since I aways have veggies for breakfast, I can include more stems in that mix.

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- Fern Deininger 4/23/2018 10:56 AM
  
  Red onion skins make great dye! I've been into natural dyes and textiles lately-- putting hard work into a product/item makes me care for it so much more. I form an intimate relationship with the item then, and work to maintain it. I have a bowl I made from Nettles as a child. The process of soaking the nettles, turning them into thread, and weaving them made me care for this item and move it across states with me. Longer lifespan = less waste! Also, the soup stock that comes from saved/frozen scraps is the moooost delicious. Go you!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Contact your Elected Officials

In what other ways can you exercise your civic duty to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions?

Deanna Pumplin 4/04/2018 8:52 AM

I'm still working on the action--to write local/regional elected officials about restoring/saving farmland. It's a challenge to decide what to write and how to frame it. SOS. Mayday. Urgent. The tools available are different for different levels of officials--local, state, federal. Just writing this reflection is helping me think about this problem. The 2018 Farm Bill is sitting in Congress right now...it could have a huge impact. Even though I'm thinking how can change happen TODAY, even now it's important to turn the volume up on providing more funding and support for farmers to change from "conventional" farming practices to restoration farming practices. Phase out the current crop insurance and subsidies and amp up grants from USDA for farmers to transition to organic, conservation, or restoration agriculture, and managed grazing. Also, farmers seems to learn best from someone they know. So, perhaps increasing local and regional training hubs.

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- Deanna Pumplin 4/10/2018 10:12 PM
  
  Hi Judith! Now, that's a challenge! Sure. I'll go with you--show up together. 8 o'clock for BOCC? I may need a ride for City Council. How do we contact our team mates?
  
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- Judith Alexander 4/10/2018 9:20 AM
  
  Hi Deanna, I chose to take on the action, too, of reaching out to elected officials. Right away, I contacted Deb Stinson and Kate Dean about whether the City and the County could participate this year- - or post something on their websites. They both said there was not enough lead time, and I agreed with them... I got involved too late to do a good job of promoting the Drawdown. BUT they also said "how about next year"? I want to propose that you and I go to the BOCC meeting Monday morning next week, and the City Council meeting Monday evening next week, the 16th, and share our message at the beginning, in the public comment period... Want to go together and maybe encourage others involved in the Drawdown challenge this year to join us? Please let me know! (I will be gone the following Monday so favor going on the 16th.) Judy
  
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Deanna Pumplin 4/01/2018 10:49 PM

I chose the no waste cooking challenge to see if I can make more soup stocks using ends of onions, celery, carrots, stems, etc. Usually those go in the compost pile that eventually goes on the garden, but I like the challenge of getting more use out of the veggies I grow or buy.

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- Deanna Pumplin 4/11/2018 10:34 PM
  
  Veggie trimmings make great soup stock. Easy to save in the fridge. I'm also saving chicken bones in the freezer. When I get enough saved up I make a bone broth. So much better than packaged broths.
  
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- Deanna Pumplin 4/09/2018 9:16 PM
  
  So far so good. Pulled up last year's beet today and used every bit of it for a red and green vegetable dish. Easy.
  
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Deanna Pumplin 3/31/2018 4:41 PM

I'm asking people in my intentional community who I think would have time and energy to participate to sign up for this challenge experience.

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