NEWO/Spirit of the Land Permaculture and Fruit Rescue Projects
The Concept of Abundance
When we decided to get married we were beyond thrilled to share our love with all of our friends and family. What a gift it is that we can all gather in a meaningful place to express our devotion to one another.
One thing that distressed us about our wedding was the image we had in our minds of a big pile of plates, crockpots, and other material wedding gifts. What we need in our lives is your love. The material things will always be there for us at the thrift store. Consequently, we have decided to ask that no one brings us gifts.
When we chatted about what we would do to still follow the tradition of giving as we begin a new step in our lives we instantly knew what to do. Our good friend Rajan Rathnavalu is one of the founders of a Camrose based non-profit organization, NEWO. He says that their company's outlook is that when we receive abundance, we should give it back to the community. We knew that NEWO would know what to do with our abundance, and that when we give to a key leader in our community we will see the impacts on our lives.
As the conversation unfolded we came upon an opportunity for our receiving wedding gifts and then giving to NEWO to directly impact our lives together in our early stages of marriage. Rajan had previously mentioned that there is an opportunity to receive government funding for a salary to work on a green initiative. All you need is a passion. This attracted us both, but we were waiting for our passion to form.
At the 2017 Spirit of the Land conference everything fell into place. Matt was struck by the conversations on permaculture, and Emily was struck by the idea of a fruit rescue project in the context of social enterprise. When we proposed following these passions Rajan was enthused and ready to move forward with our dreams.
The conversations around permaculture led to the beginnings of the execution of some already-existing ideas for a permaculture project. The term permaculture comes from the words "permanent" and "agriculture" and denotes ecosystemic human habitation and agriculture that works with nature rather than against it. Starting July 16th we will be participating in a two-week Permaculture Design Course just outside of Edmonton. We hope to then move toward the design and effectuation of a few projects around Camrose. We hope to be able to create an engaging, educational, and regenerative space for future community members, such as Augustana students taking the "Spirit of the Land" course, local farmers, entrepreneurs, urban dwellers, and anyone else interested in learning about permaculture.
Fruit rescue projects are not a new concept in today's day and age. Edmonton has two initiatives and Emily will be starting a similar project in Camrose. The basic idea is that there is tons of fruit that rots on the ground every year which could be harvested. We have an abundance of food but not the infrastructure to collect it. The project in Camrose will not only include rescuing the fruit but also a fruit preservation initiative. The knowledge keepers of preservation are primarily our elders, and so we will be asking them to share that wisdom with the younger generations.
We are both working as "Young Agrarian" interns, which allows us to share what we are working on with the greater community of wonderful minds. This includes us hosting a day in Camrose for other young agrarians and community members to see what we are up to and for us to have the support we will need to make connections all across Alberta.
The beauty of both of our projects is that there are endless possibilities for growth and ways for everyone to become involved.
Thank you for sharing your abundance of love and if you would like to donate funds as a gift to go towards the costs of our projects, it would be greatly appreciated. We can assure you that only good will come from your monetary contribution and that it means the world to us both.
When we decided to get married we were beyond thrilled to share our love with all of our friends and family. What a gift it is that we can all gather in a meaningful place to express our devotion to one another.
One thing that distressed us about our wedding was the image we had in our minds of a big pile of plates, crockpots, and other material wedding gifts. What we need in our lives is your love. The material things will always be there for us at the thrift store. Consequently, we have decided to ask that no one brings us gifts.
When we chatted about what we would do to still follow the tradition of giving as we begin a new step in our lives we instantly knew what to do. Our good friend Rajan Rathnavalu is one of the founders of a Camrose based non-profit organization, NEWO. He says that their company's outlook is that when we receive abundance, we should give it back to the community. We knew that NEWO would know what to do with our abundance, and that when we give to a key leader in our community we will see the impacts on our lives.
As the conversation unfolded we came upon an opportunity for our receiving wedding gifts and then giving to NEWO to directly impact our lives together in our early stages of marriage. Rajan had previously mentioned that there is an opportunity to receive government funding for a salary to work on a green initiative. All you need is a passion. This attracted us both, but we were waiting for our passion to form.
At the 2017 Spirit of the Land conference everything fell into place. Matt was struck by the conversations on permaculture, and Emily was struck by the idea of a fruit rescue project in the context of social enterprise. When we proposed following these passions Rajan was enthused and ready to move forward with our dreams.
The conversations around permaculture led to the beginnings of the execution of some already-existing ideas for a permaculture project. The term permaculture comes from the words "permanent" and "agriculture" and denotes ecosystemic human habitation and agriculture that works with nature rather than against it. Starting July 16th we will be participating in a two-week Permaculture Design Course just outside of Edmonton. We hope to then move toward the design and effectuation of a few projects around Camrose. We hope to be able to create an engaging, educational, and regenerative space for future community members, such as Augustana students taking the "Spirit of the Land" course, local farmers, entrepreneurs, urban dwellers, and anyone else interested in learning about permaculture.
Fruit rescue projects are not a new concept in today's day and age. Edmonton has two initiatives and Emily will be starting a similar project in Camrose. The basic idea is that there is tons of fruit that rots on the ground every year which could be harvested. We have an abundance of food but not the infrastructure to collect it. The project in Camrose will not only include rescuing the fruit but also a fruit preservation initiative. The knowledge keepers of preservation are primarily our elders, and so we will be asking them to share that wisdom with the younger generations.
We are both working as "Young Agrarian" interns, which allows us to share what we are working on with the greater community of wonderful minds. This includes us hosting a day in Camrose for other young agrarians and community members to see what we are up to and for us to have the support we will need to make connections all across Alberta.
The beauty of both of our projects is that there are endless possibilities for growth and ways for everyone to become involved.
Thank you for sharing your abundance of love and if you would like to donate funds as a gift to go towards the costs of our projects, it would be greatly appreciated. We can assure you that only good will come from your monetary contribution and that it means the world to us both.
Photo by Annika Olesen
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