MESA 2011 CTP Orientation

At this year’s Orientation for the Core Training Program, we hosted Stewards from Cambodia, Ecuador, Peru, and Thailand at the Hidden Villa Hostel with the theme A Personal Adventure, a Global Challenge.

We packed in a tight schedule this year: a farm tour from Jason McKenney, Hidden Villa’s Farm Manager; garden workshops from Bill Dudley of Hidden Villa and Ellen Bartholemew from Golden Rule, who gave both a double digging demonstration of Grow Biointensive and a presentation on ancient grain seed saving; a presentation on global GMO usage by Ignacio Chapela of UC Berkeley; a “World Cafe” session hosted by Dave Shaw of UC Santa Cruz; presentations by Stewards at our Farm to Fork dinner – prepared by MESA intern and former Gather pastry chef, Michelle Roses; and the first California screening of the new film The Greenhorns about beginning farmers in the US.

 

The 4-day Orientation was generously supported by in-kind donations from: Acme Bread, West County Gloves, Patagonia, Veritable Vegetables, Massa Organic Rice, Natural Grocery Co., and Hidden Villa. Thank you, Donors!