Fermentation Workshop – Local Culture improves!

Let’s Ferment a New Local Culture! Raw Goat Milk Yogurt and cheese, Sourdough Bread

…creating probiotics from the orchard, field and garden…

Saturday, January 21^st, 2012 -10am to 3pm

Little Lake Grange Kitchen

~~~~~~~

An introduction to several delicious and easy ferments:

Raw Yogurt – Easy to make from Raw  Milk & a simple starter

Goat Cheese – from “Curds & Whey” (simple) to Chevre’ – Sara Grusky will show you how

Sourdough breads – Ursula Partch shows us how to bake traditional bread that is highly digestible (& take home a local wild sourdough starter)

Sauerkraut– A tasty & health giving condiment from cabbage & veggies

~~~~~~

It’s hard to imagine life without refrigeration, but humans have been preserving and preparing foods without refrigeration for eons.  Fermenting vegetables, dairy, and fruit preserves them through the winter until the next harvest. But even more importantly, fermentation allows critical organisms to colonize in our food and our gut, protecting us and balancing our ecology and health. We can’t maintain health without our symbiotic organisms and bacteria. So even if you can’t manage to grow food where you live, you can still ferment foods and populate your gut with their bounty.  Let us learn yet another way to restore our health and ourselves by preserving & using local seasonal foods.  We will focus on Vinegar since it is the season to use those juicy apples, grapes & pears, but cabbage is ready to harvest too!  Let’s get started creating a new culture right at home with our healthy local foods.

Natural fermentation precedes human history; it happens by accident when the conditions are right for ripe fruit to slowly age in the heat of summer, or when honey and water mix in warm weather. Since ancient times, humans have been controlling the fermentation process. Thus humans have been preserving foods without refrigeration for eons. Fermenting vegetables, dairy, and fruit preserves them through the winter until the next harvest. But even more importantly, fermentation allows critical organisms to colonize in our food and our gut, protecting us and balancing our ecology and health.

Every successful & healthy indigenous culture appears to use some form of fermented food in their daily diet.  Dr. Weston A. Price studied these surviving cultures & found that the Austrians have their yogurt & sauerkraut; the Russians make their yogurt, the Swiss their Sourdough Rye, the Japanese – Miso, Natto.  The Chinese eat Taosi fermented beans; Africans eat soured grain breads in many places.   There are also many cultural fermented drinks, beyond the wines & beer we are familiar with.

Lactic acid preserves food by inhibiting putrefying bacteria. This organic acid is produced by a beneficial bacterium present on the surface of all plants and animals – even our own skin! Traditional cuisines from around the world prized lactofermented foods and beverages for their medicinal properties as well as delicious taste. Most traditional cuisines included at least one fermented food or beverage with every meal, which worked to improve digestion and nutrient absorption

Think of lactofermented foods as “super-raw” foods; the enzymes in lacto-fermented foods more than compensate for the enzymes lost in the foods that are cooked. Regular consumption of traditionally fermented foods and drinks promotes the growth of healthy flora and overall balance in the intestines.  Healthy intestines equals long life & reduced incidence of Arthritis, Heart Disease., and more. Lactofermented foods are rich in enzymes as well as beneficial bacteria.  Eat some with every cooked meal.  Teach your children to love them from an early age.  Yogurt is surely the easiest to learn to love at a young age.  Let’s make some home made yogurt & other tasty ferments!

If you miss this class, I can let you know when it will be repeated.  Email me at awaters@pacific.net or call 77-459-6362.

The Basics of Home Fermentation

Let’s Ferment a New Local Culture !

…creating probiotics from the orchard, field and garden…

Saturday, October 1^st, 2011 -10am to 2pm

Little Lake Grange  Kitchen

~~~~~~~

An introduction to several delicious and easy ferments:

Vinegar – Make your own vinegar from this year’s “Bad Apples” – take home a vinegar “Mother”

Yogurt – Easy to make from Raw or Pasteurized Milk & a simple starter

Cottage Cheese “Curds & Whey” – simple and nutritious

Sourdough starters and breads – how to make your own starter & take home a starter

Sauerkraut– A tasty & health giving condiment from cabbage & veggies

Kombucha – Sparkling “Health Beer” from common wild & garden herbs for health & well being.

It’s hard to imagine life without refrigeration, but humans have been preserving and preparing foods without refrigeration for eons.  Fermenting vegetables, dairy, and fruit preserves them through the winter until the next harvest. But even more importantly, fermentation allows critical organisms to colonize in our food and our gut, protecting us and balancing our ecology and health. We can’t maintain health without our symbiotic organisms and bacteria. So even if you can’t manage to grow food where you live, you can still ferment foods and populate your gut with their bounty.  Let us learn yet another way to restore our health and ourselves by preserving & using local seasonal foods.  We will focus on Vinegar since it is the season to use those juicy apples, grapes & pears, but cabbage is ready to harvest too!  Let’s get started creating a new culture right at home with our healthy local foods.  Sourdough starters are provided by several local “Sourdough Personalities”.

Natural fermentation precedes human history, it happens by accident when the conditions are right for ripe fruit to slowly age in the heat of summer, or when honey and water mix in warm weather. Since ancient times, humans have been controlling the fermentation process. Thusly humans have been preserving foods without refrigeration for eons. Fermenting vegetables, dairy, and fruit preserves them through the winter until the next harvest. But even more importantly, fermentation allows critical organisms to colonize in our food and our gut, protecting us and balancing our ecology and health.

Every successful & healthy indigenous culture appears to use some form of fermented food in their daily diet.  Dr. Weston A. Price studied these surviving cultures & found that the Austrians have their yogurt & sauerkraut, the Russians make their yogurt, the Swiss their Sourdough Rye, the Japanese – Miso, Natto.  The Chinese eat Taosi fermented beans, Africans eat soured grain breads in many places.   There are also many cultural fermented drinks, beyond the wines & beer we are familiar with.

Lactic acid preserves food by inhibiting putrefying bacteria. This organic acid is produced by a beneficial bacterium present on the surface of all plants and animals – even our own skin! Traditional cuisines from around the world prized lactofermented foods and beverages for their medicinal properties as well as delicious taste. Most traditional cuisines included at least one fermented food or beverage with every meal, which worked to improve digestion and nutrient absorption

Think of lactofermented foods as “super-raw” foods; the enzymes in lacto-fermented foods more than compensate for the enzymes lost in the foods that are cooked. Regular consumption of traditionally fermented foods and drinks promotes the growth of healthy flora and overall balance in the intestines.  Healthy intestines equals long life & reduced incidence of Arthritis, Heart Disease., and more. Lacto-fermented foods are rich in enzymes as well as beneficial bacteria.  Eat some with every cooked meal.  Teach your children to love them from an early age.  Yogurt is surely the easiest to learn to love at a young age.  Let’s make some home made yogurt & other tasty ferments!

If you miss this class, I can let you know when it will be repeated.  Email me at awaters@pacific.net or call 77-459-6362.

 

 

Tulsi Solar Oven Electric Hybrid – awesome!

I am in Love!!!  Just got my first  demo TULSI solar oven to play with – a few days  & a pile of cooking later has had us eating baked beans, kale & tree collard chips (secret recipe to be revealed later), sourdough bread, vegan pizza, cornbread, steamed veggies, and chicken cacciatori.  The sweet thing made some ‘sol chai tea’ in minutes too…check it out for yourself, I am now an official dealer of this solar hybrid oven… So, so you want to get off the grid, reduce your electric or gas cooking bills?  This oven is the best one I have ever used, and I have used many cardboard & foil homemade ones, also the Sun Oven (which is a great oven & you can buy one of them from me too)

Tulsi®  Solar Electric Oven Hybrid

Experience for yourself the “Solar Electric Oven” advantages!

It’s the ULTIMATE in solar cooking technology

• Operates three ways: On FREE solar power alone or on 110v. AC electric power alone or using in tandem both solar and electric.
• Nationally recognized the solar electric oven is a greener way to cook outdoors. No smoke, no open fire or fossil fuels required.
• Thermostatically controlled to save energy & increase reliable and safe operation.
• Cooking on “electric mode” keeps your food safe should the day’s solar energy be lost.
• Cooks cloudy days, partly cloudy days and all the sunny days, too.
• Easy learning curve. Start cooking from the first day.
• Save on your electric bills with our low wattage solar electric oven.
• Keep your house cooler, think “Summer kitchen”
• Completely reliable & economical the solar electric oven puts FUN back into cooking.
• Even when the weather is less than ideal you can still enjoy delicious food cooked year round.

Buy your new full sized SunFocus™ or the Mid-sized Tulsi® solar hybrid electric oven from me – Annie Green Jeans.

Call me at   707-459-2418 or   707-459-6362   to place your order.

We accept MasterCard, Visa, PayPal or cash.

Open Circle  190 North St  Willits, CA 95490

Proprietor:  Annie Waters

~~~

The Sun BD Corporation is so sure that you will be 100% satisfied with the performance of our solar electric ovens that within the first 30 days of purchase, should you for some reason not be satisfied, we will refund your full purchase price, no questions asked!

COMING SOON!

SunFocus™  Solar Electric Oven

FULL SIZED SOLAR ELECTRIC OVEN

The SunFocus™ solar electric oven offers superior cooking performance, high quality workmanship and the largest cooking capacity of any other solar electric cooking oven on the market today and it’s made in the U.S.A.

~~~~~~

New Improved  Tulsi®  solar electric oven:

 

Hybrid Oven Features:

• High performance solar oven with “energy miser” back up AC 110v electric elements…
  (Allowing ANYTIME cooking)
• Ultimate in solar oven technology up to 400F… (Convenient, reliable, economical)
• 90% reflective scratch resistant reflector panel for longer wear and higher cooking temps…
  (Higher reflectivity than a standard glass mirror)
• Double paned oven window instead of the typical single pane…
  (Holds trapped energy longer for superior heating)
• Double rubber oven seals instead of a single seal… (Better long term heat retention)
• Attachable “Temp. Booster” reflector panels… (Higher Temperature Cooking)
• Larger internal cooking chamber…
  (Cook 4 different food items at one time or how about one large pizza)
• Slow baked for better tasting food
• Smoke Free cooking
• More environmentally friendly than burning “traditional” fuels like wood, propane, or even charcoal
• Keep you electric bills down and your home cooler…
  Think outdoor “summer kitchen”.
• Accessories… cooking pots, oven thermometer, padded hot pad/mitt
  (Everything you need to get started solar cooking from day one)
• 24/7 electric back-up system is energy efficient using typically 75% less electrical energy than your standard in-house oven…
  (The cost to operate is pennies)
• Rugged suitcase design offers clamshell like protection to internal parts.
  (Sets up in seconds: Simple as opening a suitcase)
• Portable for easy carrying or transport…
  (Suitcase style design fits easily in car trunk, camper, RV, or boat)
• Larger range: Canada to the tip of South America… (You cannot ‘out travel’ the Tulsi™)
• In case of an emergency… Always be ready! (Solar Electric/Daytime/Nighttime/Anytime)

How It Works!

Use the Tulsi-Hybrid Solar Oven to make an ENTIRE Dinner.

The solar electric oven IS easy to use, portable, set up in seconds and are safer to use because there are no dangerous open flames. Our Solar Electric ovens can be operated in any one of three ways:

It’s the best of all worlds. You can solar cook more often and never have to worry about clouds again. We call using both solar and electric in combination – peace of mind. When the sun is out the oven acts as a solar oven but when the sun disappears the oven acts as an electric oven cycling itself on and off between electric and solar when the sun reappears. Forget the roller coaster cooking temperatures and the threat of bacterial food poisoning that can happen with solar only ovens. Our solar electric ovens are thermostat controlled and maintain the cooking temperature inside the oven chamber so your food is always safe and cooked to perfection even when the weather isn’t.

Solar ovens heat up in proportion to solar UV input.

UV solar input blocked by clouds?  No problem!

TULSI keeps your oven temperature even no matter what the weather, using as littel power as necessary

Solar cooking made practical now and forever!!!

Try a hybrid Solar Electric Oven for Year-Round Results

Cos Law – © Dr. A. Marsh, Square One, www.ecotect.com

The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular but elliptical, meaning that it is closest to the Sun in late December – early January and farthest away in late June – early July. However, this has only a slight effect on the intensity of solar radiation. Of more importance is the axial tilt of the Earth at 23.45°. This means that the path of the Sun through the sky changes significantly throughout the year.

This has an effect because the lower the Sun is in the sky, the more of the Earth’s atmosphere the solar radiation has to pass through in order to reach the surface, thus the more scattering and absorption it is subjected to. When the Sun has a lower elevation angle, the solar energy is less intense because it is spread out over a larger area reducing its intensity and its heating capacity as per the Cos Law.

Simply translated do not expect any solar ONLY cooking device to obtain summer maximum cooking temperature during winter, spring and fall seasonal phases. However, seasonal variation in solar heating capacity is not a problem for our versatile solar electric cooking ovens with built-in thermostatically controlled energy efficient low wattage electrical back–up. Now that you know about Cos’s Law would you ever want to solar cook without back up?

Despite solar cooking’s great potential benefits, it has been held back from achieving universal acceptance due to its one fatal flaw: No sun, No fun, Cold Food! The fact is that solar cooking is a weather dependent activity and that weather conditions constantly change. Successful solar cooking has always depended on clear skies and intense sunlight. But no longer!

Buy your full sized SunFocus™ or the Mid-sized Tulsi® solar hybrid electric oven

from me – Anniegreenjeans.

Available online at our websites : www.solarovenhybrid.com or  www.ancientcircles.com

Call us at   707-459-2418 or   707-459-6362   to place your order.

We accept MasterCard, Visa, PayPal or cash.

Open Circle, 190 North St, Willits, CA 95490

Proprietor:  Annie Waters

The Sun BD Corporation is so sure that you will be 100% satisfied with the performance of our solar electric ovens that within the first 30 days of purchase, should you for some reason not be satisfied, we will refund your full purchase price, no questions asked!

 

Ethical Eating – Food and Environmental Justice

I have been watching movies & reading so many diet & health books lately – trying to get my head around the deeper ethics of diet. Beyond eating for best health – what are the other issues? For one – Food Ethics – finding a worldview that incorporates the rights of humans to choose their food with the rights of all Beings to live successfully in harmony on this finite planet. That sounds simple enough – yet, why the raging controversy? You’d think we are discussing religion or politics! Well, maybe we are…

While studying for the endocrine nutrition classes I recently taught, it became very clear that references & resources are now legion in any one camp of belief, especially with Internet resources, multiple books promoting any one theory, and very few of us capable of reading actual peer-reviewed studies. In fact – my own history of study using peer-reviews in technical journals, is that the studies themselves seem to be funded by a well-off corporation who managed to get some academics to perform the study with an intended result. Am I being cruel? Is there no way out of this entanglement of beliefs & truth?

I can only reach deep inside myself & feel my way out when this happens. The heart “knows” more than the brain when it comes to first perception. I choose from there.

Have I lost you yet?
If not – back to my topic in mind – food ethics – determining what foods humans should choose with full consideration of planetary balance & the rights of all living beings. (Let’s say all of those still alive & those who have died due to our lack of eco-ethics)

Let’s say also that… we need to BE healthy instead of BELIEVE healthy.

What food choices really work for YOU? Can you know now what to eat – in advance of the probably years it will take to see the results… once your health is compromised – or worse – wrecked?

Simple thoughts:
Whenever I can – I choose to eat locally & organically, a variety of foods produced with minimal impact on water use, soil degradation & while also recycling maximum nutrient back into an almost closed loop system. Can we artfully achieve this noble goal in our daily life – replete as it is with the temptations & delights – indeed – the wondrous tastes of foreign foods- rich roasted coffee drinks, creamy chocolate desserts, bananas, blueberries in winter, fish from foreign shores, the entire range at Trader Joes for Gods sake! In order to eat ethically you have to stay home & garden, or shop quickly with a list & get out before your eyes linger on the specialties waiting to grab your attention at checkout. The demons of imported foods are all around us.

Oh, now where was I? (as she eats cute small tangerine & handful of almonds -where were they grown? – during mini-break) I was hoping to at least give you a list of ethical discussions now in print…recommended by me in my own slanted style of current favorites…reader warning – they don’t all agree!
Viola! Finally you come to it….(forget cultural bias, availability, health theory or practice when considering this aspect of food choice)

(a partial list of “Ethical Eating” resources)

BOOKS:

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon, Mary G. Enig PhD (A full-spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message–animal fats and cholesterol are vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Includes information on how to prepare grains, health benefits of bone broths and enzyme-rich lacto-fermented foods.)

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability - Lierre Keith (discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms.)

Full Moon Feast – Jessica Prentice (Jessica Prentice champions locally grown, humanely raised, nutrient-rich foods and traditional cooking methods as she recounts her relationships with local farmers alongside ancient harvest legends and methods of food preparation from indigenous cultures around the world.)

Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating by Jane Goodall (Goodall focuses more on the product of “factory farming” techniques: mountains of waste, nutritionally depleted soil, polluted water, displaced organic farmers, and severely compromised food.)

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters (the Waters mantra: eat locally and sustainably; eat seasonally; shop at farmers markets)

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe (eating lower on the food chain -i.e. more grains and vegetables- is crucial the key to ending worldwide hunger, author’s theory is that non-meat proteins are much more efficient and sustainable to produce)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (In a journey that takes us from an “organic” California chicken farm to Vermont, Pollan asks basic questions about the moral and ecological consequences of our food)

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons (Jeavons lays out a comprehensive guide to growing the most food you can on the least amount of land in the most sustainable way – on an ongoing basis into perpetuity, most healthy both for your family, your land, and the wider world.)

MOVIES:

I am happy to see more and more “good food” documentaries coming out. While I think movies like “Food, Inc.” are important to educate us on food issues, I appreciate the solution based films even more.

DIRT! The Movie, tells the amazing and little known story of the relationship between humans and living dirt. Why Dirt?

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth’s climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.

Edible City: A new (more grassroots) film prides itself in showing what people are doing in their own backyards in an urban environment, and with their own resources. It shows the movers and shakers in sustainable ag in the SF Bay Area.

FRESH - Ana Joanes (“FRESH brings more of the solutions and ideas for positive change to the table while Food Inc. focuses on the overwhelming power of industrial ag, its problems and challenges, leaving the viewer very troubled.”) I really enjoyed seeing the film “Fresh” recently on the shift towards sustainable food. It was great to see Will Allen’s Growing Power. He was growing sooo much food on a small urban plot, and loves his composting worms! And I loved finally meeting farmer Joel Salatin.

Botany of Desire: Michael Pollan (takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world – seen from the plants’ point of view – the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato – evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control)

Nourish: Food + Community: (With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish traces our relationship to food from a global perspective and suggests the steps individuals can take to create a more sustainable food system and live more healthful lives.)

Want more?
Read some great thoughts…

Lia Huber about Nourish -

Further interesting discussion threads form on this vegan web page – a China Study critique. Vegan insights – yet of course – in support of my current theme of moderate eating of all healthy foods, animal or vegetable – locally grown with closed loop inputs….plus a questioning of the results of our last 10,000 years of agricultural practices & the future of food…

Invite response? Yes! I may be impatient & a poor scientist, but am an eater of food therefore deserve an opinion. Also – as avid debater in the realms of art – in which I have always thought that nutrition & food belonged – I get to enjoy my own my “taste”.

How should we eat? Damned if I truly know…yet. Can we even afford to debate this matter of ethics & choice considering the spiraling descent of food availability planetary -wide? Best to debate it while we work in the garden & rest a moment on our shovels – just in case the narrowing gap between the starving & the well-fed continues to affect more & more eaters, mainly those of us in the USA blessed with choice & variety of nutrient & taste. The debate continues even while the deserts enlarge & the waters are poisoned.

PS For those who are still concerned with the effects of diet on personal health – and I am one of them….the important discussion on health & community should remind us that it doesn’t matter how much conviction these various authorities have on their own theories, if it doesn’t work for you it’s worthless. We’ve each got to find out on our own what we should include in our own diets using the advice of others merely as a framework. Wholeness & Health? Cancer? Perfect energy? Endocrine disruption? Arthritis? Athletic prowess? It’s all around us, let’s perceive with our hearts & choose with our deepest feelings before we say grace over that next meal.

Nutrition & Cooking for weight loss & fatigue

Are you always stressed?  Want to lose weight?

~~~~~Take Annie’s Classes on Endocrine Balance – find out how your unique body needs to be fed!

Fresh & simple – tasty meals for low thyroid, adrenal fatigue, diabetes & sugar balancing

Simple Healthy Nutrition with Traditional Foods & Herbs

Supplements & Herbs to help balance your endocrine system

Tricks to getting healthy – for good!

Find your way back to balance in body, mind & spirit

Cooking with LOCAL, garden fresh  produce & Organic Staple Foods ~

~ a series of 4 classes ~ includes sample tastings & appetizers :

January 4th:      NUTRITION & supplements for weight loss & endocrine system balance

Finding your true energy & health!  How EFT can change your cravings forever!

plus…Blender Drinks – a dieter’s friend…

January 11th:     PANCREAS: Weight loss & diabetes nutrition with balanced protein meals.  Crock Pot cooking*  – Soup & One Pot meals, Low Carb Desserts

January 18th:     ADRENALS: Vegetables, fruits, grains & healthy carbohydrates

Lower stress &  fatigue with nutritional snacks & correct meal patterns*

February 1st:     THYROID: Create Your Plate!  Healthy Menus for energy & stamina.

Tips for making a quick meal from simple ingredients*

Fees are $20/class or $60 for all 4 sessions  ~ Tuesday evenings at 5:30pm to 7:30pm

Sponsored by GWA – Little Lake Grange – 291 School St, Willits

Your instructor: Ann Waters, Qualified Nutritionist & Experienced Natural Chef

[B.S. In Food Science & Human Nutrition -MSU]

Sign up at 707-459-6362 ~ Limited Class Size

WINTER SOLSTICE SPIRAL DANCE

SPIRAL DANCE ~ 16th ANNUAL SOLSTICE CELEBRATION!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 ~ 6:30pm

Little Lake Grange, 291 School St – Willits, CA

Theme: A Council of All Beings

We celebrate the turning of the Wheel as Yule comes to the forest

*The trees, the salmon, the sacred deer & animals…

All have something to share with us about the future

and our human interconnectedness with the Web of Life*
~~~

~ a family friendly program ~  Candle lighting & sing along  to be followed by the Spiral Dance!

We invite you to wear a costume or mask or head piece

that celebrates your love of nature – animal, bird,  tree, fairy, bee…

~~~~~

A Benefit for the Grange Remodel Project  ~  $5-10 at the door (CHILDREN FREE)

Midwinter Traditions –

for Willits and Beyond!

by Ann Waters

Event Calendar – Willits Winter Solstice Celebration & Spiral Dance

December 21st, 2010 at 6:30pm at Little Lake Grange, 291 School St, Willits

What is Midwinter, and why do we celebrate it?  The longest night of the year and the dawn that followed was considered a special turning point in the solar year for our ancestors.  Looking for the Sun’s return is still a bright thought on our dark winter nights.

The ancient traditions of old Europe would have found us dancing the longest night into dawn. The drum jam and dancing needs YOU to bring your drum and rattles and join in the merriment as we dance together as long as we can stand up.

“COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS” is the theme for our 16^th Annual Willits Winter Solstice Celebration & Spiral Dance. We will all participate in a wonderful play that is about Solstice, the forest creatures, human community & the Earth. This traditional Willits celebration is an evening of songs, dance, theater, candle lighting, making wishes, and ends with a spiral dance and drum jam. Children of all ages are invited to join in the Dance of the Faires & Creatures as well as in the opening procession.

This year is incredible…we hope you will come dressed as your favorite animal, plant, tree or fairie, elf, or as yourself in your brightest ceremonial garb!

More about this seasonal celebration…The marking of the yearly cycles of the seasons was a matter of life & death for our ancestors.  – they measured and noted the sun’s path and length of days for reasons of weather and agriculture, or for their own nomadic changes.  We might do well to begin to note the natural cycles as a part of our return to nature- our own bio-logic consciousness…our shift into a new way of being…solar values.

Peoples all over the world and throughout time have celebrated the turning of the  wheel, the cycles of the seasons upon which all life depends. One of the most celebrated the world over is Midwinter – celebrated with lights as we honor the Sun’s return on December 21st!

Winter Solstice has a special magic that resonates deep within us.  It is the season of hope and love, of goodwill and sharing, of making merry, making wishes and giving blessings. On this, the darkest night, they come together, to honor the time of gestation, of dreaming and inner sight.

Winter Solstice Eve is the darkest, longest night of the year – midwinter to our ancestors,  the very beginning of winter to us.  The long dark nights are a time to sleep more and eat less, to rejuvenate, to be still and quiet, to go within to know and heal oneself,  to awaken our curiosity and nurture our creativity, to tell our stories,  to incubate our  ideas and our dreams.

Worldwide – through the years, most cultures have held festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations – quite often involving light and candles around this time.

Community celebrations that mark the seasons bring us together regularly and promote deeper relationships.

Come to the Spiral Dance December 21st, 2010 at 6:30pm at Little Lake Grange, 291 School St, Willits – and make a seasonal tradition for your family that goes beyond the commercial feeling that now pervades this time of year!

This non-denominational event is open to all ages and families are encouraged.

Bring the family, drums, rattles, and your costumed self.

Suggested donation of $5-10 for adults, families $10. Children free.  No-one turned away for lack of funds.

Donations will be used to repair and maintain the beloved Great Hall of the Grange Building.

For more information contact: abweller@pacific.net – see notices on www.anniegreenjeans.com or  call 459-2418

Blessings of Yule!

—by Ken Humphreys—

Slow and slow turns the Wheel of the Year.

To the season of silence, cold, bleak and drear.

Hope’s to be born, from the dark, wintry night—

The feast is prepared, and the Yule-log alight.

Round is the wreath, as the year turns round;

Green is the Holly—Life midst Death found;

The berries red as the Sunrise of Birth

Of Hope to the world, and Joy to the Earth.

Bright blessings of Yule! May they shine on your life!

May you feast, and rejoice, and set aside strife!

Hope and gladness be with you, gloom and misery fly

Away, at the Birth of the Lord of the Sky!

Front Page News

NOW & THEN FILM SERIES PRESENTS!

In Willits – Thursday, November 19th, 7pm

Little Lake Grange Film Night

What Would Jesus Buy?

- 2007PG 91 minutes

Taking on rampant American consumerism with a focus on Christmas shopping, the Rev. Billy (Bill Talen) and the Church of Stop Shopping go on a cross-country journey to save citizens from the Shopocalypse in this hilarious documentary produced by Morgan Spurlock.

Reminding shoppers of the true meaning of Christmas, Reverend Billy exorcises demons at Wal-Mart’s headquarters and preaches his message at the Mall of America and Disneyland.

Cast: Bill Talen

Director: Rob VanAlkemade

PLUS – a  Heartening Film of the true nature of Gifting that makes a difference in people’s lives…

Heifer International “12 Stones” documentary

See this sample – a Five-minute short of 22-minute Heifer International “12 Stones” documentary produced by Sandy Smolen.

“12 Stones” illustrates the heart of Heifer’s work: Passing on the Gift, through the transformation of a community of women in Nepal, from helplessness to hope

Join us for movies, discussion, fair trade chocolate & Organic Popcorn.  Suggested Donation $5