Presentations

12:00-1:00 pm - Kurt Cobb: The Energy We Eat: The Emerging Oil Crisis and the Future of Agriculture. Our food supply is deeply dependent on fossil fuels which power farm machinery for planting, harvesting and other on-farm tasks; provide the chemical building blocks for pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; and supply the energy to process and package food and transport it to our tables. As the oil age draws to a close, can we develop a new agriculture that will feed us without large inputs of 
oil and natural gas?

1:00-2:00 pm - Lisa Kivirist & John Ivanko: Green Acres - Green Living Inn Serendipity, a farmstead in southwestern Wisconsin where a wind turbine spins, chickens roam and love and laughter fuel one family's quest for the good life. Join the co-authors of the book: "Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the God Life," as they narrate the engaging and inspiring story of their family's journey from the concrete urban jungle to an organic farm and bed & breakfast. Take a visual tour around their homestead as they share their experiences and inspirations for living more sustainably.

2:00-3:00 pm- Lori Evesque- Living Foods- An Introduction to Fermentation. Have you ever wondered how people preserved fruits and vegetables before modern fuels made canning and freezing possible, made bread before you could readily buy yeast at the supermarket, and were able to use all the milk from the average family cow? Well, fermentation is the answer. Fermentation is responsible for products like sauerkraut, kim chee, sourdough bread, yogurt, cream cheese, and many other products we are very familiar with. Join Lori to learn how you can make these healthy living foods for yourself and your family.

3:00-4:00 pm- Lisa Kivirist & John Ivanko: Harvesting the Good Life: Sustainable Living Simplified. Despite what ad campaigns tell us, "the good life" can't be bought on a credit card. Join Lisa and John as they share ideas and approaches to sustainable living through creativity decluttering, reducing and recycling. Lisa and John blend a holistic approach to the good life and green living by integrating their food, energy, and living system with livehood.

4:00-5:00 pm - Rita Bober: Tending the soil, mending the spirit: there is more to gardening than pulling weeds. Let's take time to share how working in our gardens nourishes our souls, brings us peace of mind, improves our health and helps us find a "oneness" with all living things.

5:00-6:00 pm - Larry Dyer: Thinking globally, growing and eating locally. Food is an essential part of our relationship with one another and with the earth. The way food is grown, marketed, prepared and shared shape our families, communities and cultures and the ecosystems we inhabit. So it is worth giving some thought to those relationships during this harvest festival as we celebrate locally grown and shared food. At Tillers we extend this thinking to our relationships with people of different countries and cultures as well. In this talk we'll discuss personal considerations for growing and eating locally and how Tillers approaches sharing technology in ways that are sensitive to the needs and traditions of other cultures.

Presenter: Lori Evesque
Lori is a certified  master gardener growing chemical-free herbs and heirloom vegetables for her family of 4. Her formal training is in food engineering. She has long been interested in foods and their preservation. Her interest in fermentation has grown out of a desire for healthy foods and self-sufficiency.

Presenter: Rita Bober
Rita Bober has for over 35 years grown her family's own food, flowers and herbs. She has studied herbs through Rosemary Gladstar's "The Science and Art of Herbology" and plant spirit medicine with Eliot Cowan. Rita is currently studying how to enhance the relationship between humans and the environment. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and retired social worker.