This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.
Fun recycling fact: The plastic from 5 soda bottles can completely insulate a ski jacket.
From Richmond Police:
4th Precinct
BURGLARY
6/5/12 – 6/8/12 12:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
800 block of Holly Street
An unknown person(s) broke into the residence.
From email announcement:
8 Best Food to Buy at the Farmers Market!
Robin Raver remains a popular addition to this season’s market, massaging the blues away; but this week she also posted a really good link from Organic Gardening’s website about other great reasons for buying your food locally. Check it out: http://www.organicgardening.com/living/8-best-foods-to-buy-at-the-farmers-market
At the Market!
Don’t wake our baby, whispered Summer Squash. Meet Jake and his big brother, wiped from another full day at the market.
And don’t forget to check what our vendors will be featuring this week by visiting our blogspot: http://byrdhousemarket.blogspot.com/p/visitors-welcome.html Click to search by location or by product! When you search by location you can click on your favorite vendor’s website link and see how they do things on the farm, y’all. Great people doing great work. SNAP, Credit and Debit cards can be swiped for Tokens you use to shop at BHM. SNAP tokens come in $1 increments are can be used for all eligible foods (to take home and prepare for you and your family) and food plants and seeds (grow your own veggies and herbs). CC/Debit card tokens include a $1.50 transaction fee and come in increments of $5 which are good as cash (you’ll get your change back in cash). No cash back for SNAP tokens; thus the smaller $dollar increments. Its convenient and really helps stretch your thin food budget. And facilitate you trying something new AND healthy for a change!After Market Film for July: Sourwoods
Stay tuned for fliers and info about next month’s film and potluck after the market. Last week’s debut screening, Vanishing of the Bees, was GREAT! While the weather drove us just inside, into the gym, and threatened anticlimactically to rain upon us, it was a clear lovely night for a powerful film and great discussion moderated by local beekeepers David Stover and Nina Zinn and one fine fella brought his fresh pulled honey and shared with the crowd. I hadn’t tasted honey that fresh since the farm truck came to my elementary school back in ’69!
Still Winning!
Pictured above is our 6th week winner – he looks pretty happy! Support your Byrd House Market. Our weekly raffle is generously sponsored by Byrd Farm &; Rural Virginia Market. $1 ticket gets you a chance at a week’s share of goodies from Byrd Farm – value $33.83. Win this week, pick up your share next week. And we get to see your pretty face and you take your loot home in a shiny new Virginia Grown re-usable sack. Not too shabby!Under the Mulberry Tree
Caroline returns to tell stories each first and second Tuesdays of the Month, from 4-5pm. Third Tuesdays feature Beth from the Richmond Public Library. For your caregivers, the kids, your inner kid? Enjoy a relaxing afternoon under the Mulberry Tree. And, HEY! ANNOUNCING our new Facepainter-in-Training, Nadine! Practically raised in the Rostov’s Coffee & Tea Tent, Nadine has been an assistant-vendor to her mama Christine and volunteer at Byrd House Market since she was this high! She returns to provide face painting fun for visitors to the market beginning June 19th (next week). By the way don’t forgot to visit Rostov’s Coffee & Tea at their great shop on Main St in the Fan. We miss them still.there’s even more doings at
william byrd community house www.wbch.org
eat good grow great via byrdhousemarket.blogspot.com
—_____________________
Ana Edwards, Manager
Byrd House Market & Library Programs
Grace Arents Library & Education Center
William Byrd Community House
www.wbch.org / 804.643.2717 ext.306
This morning the Times Dispatch ran an editorial by Grace LeRose, the President of the Virginia Water Environment Association. I should note that I know Ms. LeRose, having met her personally during some of the hearings on the James River TDML. In particular, pet waste is one of our shared concerns in terms of water quality. Her editorial this morning continued on the water quality theme. But it seemed as if it was in response to a column that I had submitted earlier on City water rates. Her column begins-
Recently this paper published an opinion piece declaring the City of Richmond’s water fees to be “outrageous.” As president of the Virginia Water Environment Association (www.vwea.org), a nonprofit educational association of wastewater professionals dedicated to preserving Virginia’s water resources, I offer the following observations:
The water (and wastewater) industry has been called the single most important public health development in the past century, bringing clean water to our citizens while removing and treating wastewater in an efficient (oftentimes unseen) manner. The incidence of water-borne disease has almost been eradicated in our country. Funding for investment in water infrastructure came from many sources — rate payers, local governments (by selling bonds), state governments (matching grants or loans to communities that could not afford these improvements on their own) and finally, the federal government. Like the interstate highway system that helped the US grow after World War II, spending on water and wastewater systems brought health benefits and access to an expanding economic prosperity for all Americans.
The importance of water in our daily lives can hardly be overstated. Water industry professionals work tirelessly to protect public health, more than 3 million miles of rivers and streams, 40 million acres of lakes, 87,000 square miles of estuaries (including the Chesapeake Bay) and 95,000 miles of coastal waters. The infrastructure that supports this massive effort — 800,000 miles of water pipe and 600,000 miles of sewer pipe — lies below our feet every day. These systems have worked silently for years, in some cases more than a century, to deliver and remove water and wastewater. The water and wastewater utilities have done such a remarkable job of producing and delivering clean water out of the sight of the public that the public can be forgiven if they think water should be always available and always cheap. We are now learning that water may not always be available and will probably not be cheap.
Of course, none of this is wrong- however, LeRose begins this piece as if she is offering a rebuttal to my column, yet ignores the rate structure issue. LeRose is not addressing my column in which I criticized Richmond’s plan to hike the minimum water/sewer service charge to $49.40 per month. Deriving the lion’s share of the revenue for the city’s water works from the minimum service charge does not promote conservation. If I conserve this resource and got my water use to below 1 ccf, this month and yet my water/sewer bill is still $47.03 for 0 ccf of service (soon to be raised to $49.40). Richmond’s minimum service charge may be the highest of any city in the United States, and that allows the city to keep the volume rate artificially low. As a result, there is no financial incentive to conserve water in the Richmond.
In Hanover, the minimum service charge for the water/sewer bill is only $14.03 per month. This is less than a third of Richmond’s minimum monthly service charge. Hanover promotes conservation by giving a volume rate discount to those who use little water. Hanover offers a heavy discount for the first 4000 gallons of water volume, while the volume charge increases almost three fold for the next 11,000 gallons of water and increases again for over water volume in excess of 15,000 gallons. Richmond has this backward and offers a discount, not to those who use the least water, but to those who use the most volume: over 74,800 gallons of water.
Can we get the Virginia Water Environment Association and other groups to address this? The local Sierra Club is on board, but where is the N.A.A.C.P., James River Association, or the Richmond Crusade for Voters? What does it take for citizen concerns to gain attention and triumph over corporate control these days?
Because the Oregon Hill Home Improvement Council is preparing to rent the Jacob House, it is selling some of its excess office furniture (very cheaply) to make room for the tenant.
Time is of the essence though, so if you are interested in any of these items, please send an email to info at oregonhill.net.
I have posted previously about the local connections of this movie’s story, and now here it is:
From the Richmond Police Department’s Daily Crime Report:
4th Precinct
THEFT FROM MOTOR VEHICLE
6/6/12 3:00 a.m. – 1:50 p.m.
600 block of Holly Street
An unknown person(s) broke into the vehicle and stole an iPod.
From press release:
Whether it’s an old uniform cap or a helmet, a box of medals and ribbons, a flag, gun belt or a canteen, every piece of military memorabilia has a story to tell.
Now, anyone who would like know more about that military item that belonged to a relative or was discovered in the attic or at a yard sale can get the scoop for free from the experts at the Virginia War Memorial’s Artifacts Roadshow, Saturday, June 16 from 10 a.m. until 12 noon.
Jesse Smith, curator of the Virginia War Memorial’s military collection, and noted military collectable expert C. Robert House III of Virginia Beach will be on hand to personally review and offer their opinions on the origin and history of any military-related items. While Smith and House will give an assessment and the story behind each item reviewed, they will not offer appraisals or estimates of monetary value for items.
The Virginia War Memorial Artifacts Roadshow is a free event and there is no charge to have an item or items reviewed. Parking and admission to the Memorial, which is located at 621 Belvidere Street in downtown Richmond, are also free.
“People often bring in military items for us to look at and hopefully tell them more about them,” notes the Memorial’s Jesse Smith. “We held our first ever Artifacts Roadshow in January this year to give everyone the opportunity to rummage through their attics and get the story behind a military item they discovered or perhaps belonged to a relative.”
“We were amazed at the variety of things people brought in…from uniforms to banners to pistols and rifles. One gentleman brought a sword that he was surprised to learn dated back to the War
of 1812. Robert House and I look forward to seeing what unique and unusual items will turn up here on June 16.”Weapons or ordinance items brought to the Artifacts Roadshow will be checked and inspected for safety at the door by representatives of the Colonial Shooting Academy of Richmond before review. All persons bringing items must also register to have an item reviewed.
For more information, please call 804-786-2060 or visit www.vawarmemorial.org
I am guessing this is in preparation for the book release.
From announcement:
First Tuesday at the Market!
Artist/Caricaturist Stan Rayfield is BACK! Robin Raver Will Massage the Kinks from your BACK! New Vendors in the house: Limeades & More (ice cold beverages), Petal Palate (flower laced divinities), Shakambhari Garden (medicinal herbs) alternating with Growing More (perennial flowers). St. Andrew’s returns in July, Pizza Tonight has had to leave us. Don’t forget to get your ready to eats with Almadina (Mediterranean), Phal Wong (Spring rolls, noodles, tofu), Sustenance (Local ingredient wraps & PBJs, rose hips tea)Thank You!
for adjusting to the new flow and redefined entrances to the market. Thanks to local artist Chris Milk, chrismilkhulburt.com, we have some very fun new signs – his style is a little Klimt, a little Chagall, even a little of the artists responsible for Samurai Jack. Two that look like unfurling ribbons on pikes that simply announce, “enter”, and two others that provide an impressionistic market map to indicate where the entrances, BHM Info tent and parking areas are. A more judicious use of shockingly orange market tape should help the rest of those inclined to seek old paths to follow new ones!After the Market: Vanishing of the Bees Screens at BHM
SEE ATTACHED FLIER and join us after the market for a leisurely evening of food and film: “This award-winning documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth.” Marking the debut of the 2012 outdoor film/discussion series with seasonal salad pot luck. Program: 7:30pm – meal and socializing, 8pm welcome and movie, followed by discussion moderated by local beekeepers David Stover, Nina Zinn and Cy Bearer. Co-sponsored by William Byrd Community House, Shalom Farms and Victory Farm. Bring your own beverages, blankets, and (fine FINE) behaviors!
Winning Rafflers!!
Pictured above is our 5th week winner – she looks pretty happy! Support your Byrd House Market. Our weekly raffle is generously sponsored by Byrd Farm & Rural Virginia Market. $1 ticket gets you a chance at a week’s share of goodies from Byrd Farm – value $33.83. Win this week, pick up your share next week. And we get to see your pretty face and you take your loot home in a shiny new Virginia Grown re-usable sack. Not too shabby!Under the Mulberry Tree
Caroline returns to tell stories. For your caregivers, the kids, your inner kid? Enjoy a relaxing afternoon under the Mulberry Tree. Identify what’s growing in the community gardens (look, don’t step!) ……………….Are you a secret face painter? Want to share your talent? Want to be trained? Reply or call 643-2717 x306.
