Equal Time with Anthony Pollina, Carl Etnier, & Traven

Part 1: A retrospective on the Aug. 14-22 Village-building Convergence in central Vermont, with organizers Gail England and Jennifer Steckler. For more information on completing the cob garden shed in Barre, or on planning next year's event, check the web site or call 223-1730.

The five panel discussions were filmed by Onion River Community Access (ORCA). If you'd like your community access channel to broadcast them, ask them to contact ORCA.

Part 2: Annie McCleary, director of Wisdom of the Herbs School in Woodbury, on what wild edibles are free for the harvesting right now. The books she recommends are Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, as well as Samuel Thayer's Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden.

Annie's recipe for a pint of pickled wild roots: Dig burdock root (Arctium spp.), dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale) and/or evening primrose root (Oenothera biennis). Wash and chop wild root into thin slices, enough to fill a pint jar. Steam the roots until soft but still crunchy and save the cooking water. Make brine combining using 1/3 C. tamari, 1/3 C. apple cider vinegar, and 1/3 C. of the water the roots were steamed in, and bring to a boil. Place 3 whole cloves garlic and 4 slices of ginger root in a pint jar, pack in the steamed roots slices, and cover with the boiling brine. Refrigerate, let sit a few days before eating. Keeps well in a cool place for many months.

Carl Etnier hosted. Audio to follow.

June 28, 2010

Opening editorial: OPEC's Secretary is calling on the US to continue deepwater drilling. Why is the leader of an oil cartel encouraging its competition to pump more oil?

At the Inspired by Slow Money conference at Shelburne Farms June 10-11, Alissa Gravitz told what her organization, Green America (formerly Co-op America), is doing to strengthen the local food economy.

Todd Bailey, director of the Vermont League of Conservation Voters, explains why the League chose to endorse Doug Racine for governor.

Jim Merkel, author of Radical Simplicity, saw the consequences of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and decided to changed his life from selling military electronics around the world to living on $5,000 a year in the woods. He talks about how some people are having similar responses to BP's uncontrolled Deepwater Horizon gusher. He also describes his new "job" (he's paid in housing and food) as co-director of the New Forest Institute in Maine and the plans for the Northeast Permaculture Convergence in Maine over the Independence Day weekend.

Peak Oil Check-In: Why Does OPEC Fear Reduced US Oil Production?

Carl Etnier hosts.

Web exclusive!

Michelle Long, executive director of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), explains how BALLE communities are using locally owned businesses to create a safe space outside the dominant system for the next economy to develop. She spoke at Shelburne Farms on June 11 at the Inspired by Slow Money conference. This audio was planned for inclusion in the June 28 Equal Time, but we ran out of time for it.

The Vermont chapter of BALLE is Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.

Produced by Carl Etnier.

June 21, 2010

Robin Chestnut-Tangerman builds and remodels houses and writes on green building in the Weekly Planet column in the Times Argus and Rutland Herald. Also, he organizes SolarFest, coming up next month and rated one of the Top 10 things to do in Vermont in the summer.

William Powers is the author of Twelve by Twelve: A one-room cabin off the grid & beyond the American dream, about a North Carolina physician who has chosen to live off the grid in a 12x12 foot home, and the effect her home had on him when he stayed in it for forty days.

Peak Oil Check-In: Pursuing Happiness in the Century of Peak Everything

Carl Etnier hosts.

June 7, 2010

Woody Tasch is the author of Slow Money, about the importance of backing local food production with patient capital. He's organizing a national gathering on slow money at Shelburne Farms Thursday and Friday, June 10-11.

Audio from the second segment of the show is not available, due to a technical difficulty. As broadcast, the guest was Keith Morris of Prospect Rock Permaculture in Jeffersonville, who is working in the New York City area to help the metropolitan area become more food self-sufficient. He's also teaching an intensive Permaculture Design Certification Course June 13-25 at Bishop Booth Conference Center at Rock Point in Burlington.

Peak Oil Check-In: Gas-sipping Motorcycle Doesn't Save Fuel

Carl Etnier hosts.

May 17, 2010

The legislature has changed both Vermont's current use tax program and the income sensitivity provision for state property taxes. Jack Hoffman, senior analyst at Public Assets Institute in Montpelier, helps us understand how the changes affect Vermonters' ability to hold onto their land and make a living off of it--no matter how small. He also raises the question, "Why tax land at all?"

It's Hemp History Week, May 17-23. Didn't know that? Neither did we. Shelby Girard of Rural Vermont fills us in on the history of hemp production, including how it led to a famous Vermont industry. She also talks about Rural Vermont's workshops to teach people to make something their farmer neighbors aren't allowed to sell: cheese made from raw milk. Upcoming workshops are listed here.

Rural Vermont is sponsoring a lecture on hemp's history in Vermont and a hemp history film at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury on Wednesday, May 19, starting at 7 pm. More information on this and other Hemp History Week events in Vermont here.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Updated with Peak Oil Check-In: The Three Mile Island of Deepwater Drilling

May 10, 2010

Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost in Montpelier, on the composting bill working its way through the legislature.

Chris Curtis, staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, on the big budgetary picture at the end of the session and the importance of public investment.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: Scythe Power (originally aired June 2009)

May 3, 2010

Vermont Yankee
Rutland Herald editor Randal Smathers explains why he declined to send a photographers on the tour of Vermont Yankee last week, when Entergy imposed last-minute restrictions on photographs.
Dotty Schnure, Manager of Corporate Communications at Green Mountain Power, explains why the lights are on all over Vermont even though Vermont Yankee is down for refueling, and she confirms that Entergy's latest offer would give Vermont Yankee no price advantage over other electricity available to GMP.

Current Use
How will the legislature change the current use program that protects owners of farmland and forests? Jamey Fidel, Vermont Natural Resources Council, explains what's at stake and what's likely to happen.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: What happens to population when oil supplies wane?

April 26, 2010

Tom Barefoot and Linda Wheatley explain the idea behind an upcoming conference in Vermont on how governments can measure the success of their policies using gross national happiness, not gross national product. And Ben Hewitt, author of the book about Hardwick called The Town That Food Saved, tells what he learned from the people of Hardwick about the difference between economic prosperity and quality of life.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: Airlines vs. the Volcano.

March 15, 2010
Architect and environmentalist Peter Seidel has written a modern Rip Van Winkle novel, 2045: A Story of Our Future. The main character is a Wisconsin lumberyard owner who has a bad reaction to a flu shot in 2010 and goes into suspended animation until 2045. He wakes up to a very different world--one that we may arrive in after 35 more years of climate chaos, population growth, pollution, and increasingly corporate power.

Carl Etnier hosts.

Peak Oil Check-In: 40% of US Electricity From Wind by 2030?