The Renewables....Thinkable is Doable!

Greetings...From the Verge!

2010-01-01T10:03:00.001-05:00

Ha Ha Happy Hanukkah!

2009-12-16T18:07:00.010-05:00

Ha Ha Happy Hanukkah All!

And HUGE THANKS to Chabad, which has helped me to more deeply embrace and celebrate so many Jewish holidays over the years.

Hanukkah, in particular, is a holiday of renewal....

According to Zalman Shmotkin of the Chabad-Lubavitch News Service, inherent in Hannukah is the message: "Spread Light! A little light dispels much darkness."

The menorah I light this year is from Chabad -- one of more than four million such kits they have distributed to people from all walks of life around the globe -- as gifted to us at their annual dinner for journalists in NYC.

Much more about the "Festival of the Lights" is available here.

May you ENJOY this and every holiday.

And may it kindle something wonderful in and for you.

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit and the Biodiesel Babes

From Hopenhagen....

2009-12-13T10:41:00.013-05:00

HOORAY for Hopenhagen and 350.org.

HUGE THANKS to homegrown heroes like Pete Seeger, who recently told us he was more hopeful than ever; Anna and Frances Lappé, whose Small Planet Fund makes a world of difference, locally and globally; Margaret Lydecker of Green Drinks who brings us all together in ways that are meaningful, fresh and fun.

A SHOUT OUT to my brother and sister-in-law, whose Planet First Aid is helping us save energy, time and money.

GRATITUDE for the days that I used a little less power, and for times when nature came to me even before I came to it.

And HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you and yours.

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit and the Biodiesel Babes

The Renewables:Thinkable is Doable!

2009-10-29T10:48:00.001-05:00

Welcome to all things lean, clean, green from The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable.

In case you haven't been here before, or haven't been back in a while, The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable is the brainchild of social entrepreneur Wendy Dubit (aka Biodiesel Babe) and the first effort out of the Renewable Media gate.

Through compelling content and concrete calls to action, The Renewables educates about and celebrates all that is renewable in energy, agriculture and life...and gives people and places the impetus and tools it takes to make their ideas and ideals real.

Here you can:

1) Learn about how people who create change do it – from Barack Obama (making history) to Gregor Mendel (making peas), Mahatma Ghandi (making peace) and Helen Keller (seeing possibilities), to Thomas Edison, Rudolph Diesel, Henry Ford, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King, Steven Jobs, Al Gore, Bette Midler, Oprah Winfrey and more.

2) Get Renewable Tools that kids, teens, families, schools, organizations, corporations and towns can use to:

3) Make Renewable Ideas and Ideals Real -- from the agricultural cooperative that makes its own energy to the inner-city community center that saves it; from the sisters who repurpose a neighborhood’s toys, to the boy who writes a renewable song that rocks the world….You make it real. We’ll make it known. Using the best of social networking tools and the power and generosity of our partners, The Renewables will help you to...

4) Be Seen. Be Heard. Create Change. Reap Renewable Rewards!

Educate, Create, Celebrate, Reward, Replicate....
Well that's our plan, anyway. Like all things, The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable will happen bigger, better and faster to the extent that we can work and play together.

Over the coming days, The Renewables' Inaugural Challenge will spotlight what's being done and what you can do as part of the Inauguration and New Administration.

Then, in time for the 2009 Growing Season, we plan to launch A Call to Open Farms that will encourage folks to visit and support as many local farms, fairs and markets as possible and to share the results in all the vibrant and viral real-world and online ways they can.

It's going to be a wonderful ride!

And for every good reason, we hope you will join us on it....

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit and the Biodiesel Babes

Pictured above: Renewable Kitchen from Cornell University's Silo House at the 2009 Solar Decathlon

A Call to Open Farms!

2009-10-09T11:35:00.000-05:00

Friends,

I could not be more excited about what's in the works!

As but one call-to-action from The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable!, we are planning and building A Call to Open Farms.

A Call to Open Farms will couple the tactility of my first non-profit -- FarmHands-CityHands, formed 22 years ago to link farm and city for the social, cultural, economic and environmental enrichment of both -- with the immediacy and reach of today’s technology.

A Call to Open Farms will encourage and enable folks from all walks of life to visit as many area farms, farmers' markets, country and county fairs, stores and restaurants that support local agriculture as possible.

Beginning with the Spring 2009 Growing Season, A Call to Open Farms will:

* Educate people about the importance of local food and farming, and about the opportunities for farm-city links.

* Guide participants to area markets, farms, wineries, breweries, distilleries, fairs, festivals, stores and restaurants that support local agriculture, including ways and means of getting there.

* Give them the tools to provide creative and profuse Proof of Presence (PoP) -- allowing them to post a vibrant array of videos, photos, stories, songs, performances, poems, recipes and more at www.therenewables.net and www.farmhands.org.

* Reward them for their involvement -- from the intrinsic pleasures of digging in, helping out, making friends and being the farm-city link to prizes like FarmStay getaways, flower bouquets, private wine tastings, meet-the-chef meals, and more….

* Celebrate the results with exciting events like Eaters' Appreciation Day, Giving of Thanks Soiree, and more.

We're making plans for in-city FarmFests, biodiesel bus tours, up-country FarmDays, and for a program that we think will herald a delicious and propitious bonding of people, call to nature and use of technology.

We'll of course keep you posted!

A Call to Open Farms will be a wonderful ride. And we want you with us on it!

As importantly, since we're already planting seeds, we hope you will begin now in visiting and supporting all the local farms and markets that you can!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, aka Biodiesel Babe

World Science Fest LEARNING at its Best!

2009-06-05T09:49:00.003-05:00

Friends,

This post reprises my coverage of the first annual World Science Festival -- one of the best, most moving and educational series of events I've ever had the privilege to attend.

Well, it's back -- June 10 - 14, with a dazzling array of programs that will take place throughout the city.

Please visit the World Science Festival site to learn more and buy tickets.

And here's hoping to see you there!

I'll again be taking in as much of festival as I can...especially for and with The Producers' Project, which helps K - 12 students and teachers make and share media on such subjects as math, science and more.....

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable
The Producers' Project: A New Lens on Learning

Post of 06.02.08:

Recently, I realized and articulated why I’d moved to New York so many years ago: THIS is the place and pace of accelerated learning, creation and connection that I long for and love.

I was tickled when a recent Smithsonian article claimed the same, with Joan Acocella proposing that New Yorkers are a highly involved (bordering on intrusive) species of peeps pre-selected for higher energy and ambition.

I’d argue that even the wildlife here is that way:

I’ve seen Pale Male eating in public. (He drools!) I’ve communed with raccoons. (I had one as a next door neighbor until they took the scaffolding down.)

But now, can I just effuse a bit about the World Science Festival?!

This week, I was IN HEAVEN thanks to physicist Brian Greene, producer Tracy Day, actor and author Alan Alda, friend Sunny Bates and all the others whose brilliance, warmth, humor and magic formed a float of math, science and humanities such as I’d never known!

The city was at its Nobel~est….

I savored every second of Mayor Bloomberg's "NY Loves Science" speech and Leon Lederman's cosmic jokes.

I watched in anticipation and appreciation as the inaugural Kavli Prize recipients in astrophysics, neuroscience and nanoscience were announced, and was thrilled to meet founder Fred Kavli and laureates Louis E. Brus and Thomas Jessell afterwards.

There were compelling cases for vertical farms and a balanced renewable energy policy; rousing discussions about regenerative medicine and thorny bioethics issues; and impressive displays of neuroscientific fireworks -- monkeys who can manipulate mechanical third arms with their minds and minimally conscious men coming back to life.

I drilled down deep with NIH' Eric Wasserman, whose enviable title is Chief, Brain Stimulation Unit, and shared fresh ideas with Vivavi founder Josh Dorfman, who, though he calls himself the Lazy Environmentalist, is anything but lazy.

I heard Jim Gates, Lucy Hawking and others tell self-deprecating tales of science experiments gone wrong.

I was there when TPP’s own Jack Chiarello and hundreds of others came alive with wonder.

I was moved to tears by Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin’s speed and accuracy and by William Phillips’ "absolute zero" (or as close as it gets) ballooon tricks.

I had my picture taken with Ms. Frizzle of Scholastic’s Magic School Bus.

I learned from Saul Griffith how and why to shave a few thousand watts off my energy consumption and from Dan Nocera how to think and live more like a leaf.

And I went wild with joy, as we all did, when Andy Revkin (pictured above) ended a Powering the Planet town hall meeting with an accoustic guitar original about unsequestered CO2 (or was it liberated carbon?).

At dinner, I traded life stories with Eben Bayer, whose Ecovative Design centers around a fungi-based foam that will someday allow us to grow our own homes!

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

So when World Science Fest officially ended last night -- with a Science of Longevity session about how "the 90s are and new 50s" and with Alan Alda performing Dear Albert, which he wrote based on letters to and from Einstein -- I knew that, for me, and for so many, WSF would live on.

INSPIRED, The Producers' Project will enable K - 12 students and staff to make and share even more math and science-oriented media (music, film, television, blogs, games) than before.

I’ve bought a slew of related domain names that range from Infinitesimal to Infinite and Smallest to Allest to Adult Math.

I vow to launch a “Love Letters to Darwin” campaign someday.

And I feel as if I've value-added to my DNA....

I woke up this morning knowing....I’m going to learn a lot today!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable

HAPPPPY Earth Day, All

2009-04-22T07:41:00.001-05:00

Read between the lines....

Plant! Protect! Preserve! Participate!

Educate and Celebrate!

And so muuch more....

HAPPPPY Earth Day, All!

Lights Out for Earth Hour

2009-03-28T23:29:00.000-05:00

Friends,

I seriously need reading glasses. Somehow, I misread the time on Earth Hour's excellent website about when we were supposed to turn the lights out and experience the difference that even an hour of darkness can make.

I invited friends over for the occasion, but none could come.

And so, alone at the appointed hour, I powered down all appliances, lit candles, turned my rocking chair towards twilight, and experienced realizations, revelations, and rewards that I could never have imagined.

Realization: Quiet and calm accompany darkness to a great degree. Nature seems closer when you are calm and quiet.

Revelation: More is less. Soon, I was economizing even candles. And what I could see, hear, feel in the deepening of dusk and descent of night asounded me.

Reward: A raccoon traversed my windowsill and scampered up the netted scaffolding next door.

WOW!!! Did this happen often, I wondered, and I was too busy, noisy, bustling to see?

Was this some kind of sign -- an enticement to spend more time in silence, stillness, observation, contemplation?

Or was I CRAZY?

Later, walking to dinner, I took the park path to see who else was lighting up or powering down. At the gate, I quizzed the local police: Had they been aware of Earth Hour? No. If they had been aware, would they have taken action or encouraged others to do so? Questionable. Could they notice a difference in the city lights from where they stood? Not really. And finally: Could I have been hallucinating? Though I was admittedly alone and drinking in the dark, I could swear I saw a raccoon....

Absolutely affirmative! The police were as excited as I was: They had seen a hefty critter amble out of Central Park at the time in question, in no particular hurry, headed west....

Increasingly, it seems, 'coons leave Central Park to stake out new territories, run errands and the like. One neighbor reported that a raccoon accompanied her to Duane Reade the other day. And I've since been told not to invite them in for lunch, lest they never leave.

Anyhow, I arrived at dinner EXCITED to share my tales of calmness, wildness and wonder with friends...only to learn that Earth Hour was the next night. And I'd get to do it all again....

Note: In order to conserve energy and because this experience was so moving to me...and hopefully you, too, I am reposting from last year's Earth Hour. I hope you observed, and ENJJOYED.

SPRING Into Action....

2009-03-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Spring, which officially began this morning.

And here's inviting us to do wonderful, meaningful things, this season...and always!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit aka Biodiesel Babe.

Happy New Era!

2009-01-23T08:36:00.006-05:00

Friends,

Despite times of great global, economic and environmental uncertainty, I have never been more proud of...and hopeful for...our country!

Wherever you were on Inauguration Day, I hope you felt, and continue to feel, the CONNECTIVITY...the inclusivity, pulse and power of being part of a new chapter in history, and of the changes in and for each of us that started taking place immediately.

Barack Obama is now our 44th President -- one amazing man who also evokes the spirit and accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President; Martin Luther King, whose birthday was commemorated just prior to Inauguration Day, and of each and every one of us, who are invited to be part of the New Administration.

A few ways to get and stay inspired and involved follow....with more to be posted at The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable regularly.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee wants to see where were you on January 20 at Noon?. Millions braved record cold to be on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for Barack Obama's Swearing In Ceremony and Inaugural Address. Billions watched images of the festivities streaming across screens...here in NYC (as in the above photo taken by Rick Schwab at City Hall), across the country, around the world. All were/are encouraged to send snapshots to the Official Inaugural Book, which now boasts close to seven billion images.

The New Administration wants to hear about changes that you'd like to see, and encourages you to be part of them.

The Green Inaugural Ball invites you to paricipate in the Green Economy.

An amazing confluence of caring and contribution finds the likes of John O'Donohue's Blessing for a Leader, Hannah Reimann's I Have a Dream and Amy Dixon-Kolar's Rosa Sat so Martin Could Walk so Barack Could Run weaving their way across the net and into our consciousness.

I'm finding myself returning again and again to the First Couple's First Dance and photos of the First Family...and turning daily to The While House for addresses, blogs, updates and what feels to me like real hope, right action and an invitation to be involved.

What a wonderful time, place and spirit to share!

And as always, I'd love to see and hear how you are!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit
Vergant, Inc. and The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable!

New Energy for America:YOURS!

2009-01-16T10:01:00.007-05:00

Friends,

I, like many of you, was moved to hope, action and tears by the authenticity and inclusivity of the Obama campaign, and now, by Barack Obama and Joe Biden's victory, inauguration and administration...and by what it means for us as individuals, community, country, world.

As one whose Renewables tag line and experience is Thinkable is Doable, I of course resound with what Barack Obama has thought, written, spoken and now made into REALITY:

The Audacity of Hope.

Change We Can Believe In.

New Energy for America.

And I'm most struck by these words:

"I'M ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE...Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington....I'm asking you to believe in yours."

I hope you are as excited as I am. I plan to use my energy, efforts and posts to keep us informed and involved.

It's indeed an auspicious time to, as per Gandhi, "Be the change we want to see in the world."

I'm looking forward to it, gratefully.

Warmly,
Wendy

2009, Etched in Snow

2009-01-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

Happy 2009!

May it herald happy, hopeful, renewable times!

All Things Renewable....

2008-12-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

All things renewable....

Packaging, cardboard and string of course.

Energy, increasingly.

Hope, always.

May the spirit of the season be with you!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy

Planet First AidWay to Save!

2008-11-16T09:14:00.003-05:00

Friends,

I’m thrilled that my brother and sister-in-law have come up with a product designed for just such times! Enter Durango, Colorado-based Planet First Aid (PFA) and its line of Energy Gift Baskets – each packed with information and items -- from compact flourescent bulbs to retractable clotheslines -- that save time, money, energy, water and the environment.

And like anything Gregg, Gretchen and their friend John would do…it’s got a lot of personality and some romance, too. Wild flower seeds are included. And in addition to CFL bulbs, there are beeswax candles encouraging us to sometimes turn off the lights altogether and go with the glow!

A Call to Open Farms!

2008-10-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

World Science Fair: Why I’m Here!

2008-06-02T07:14:00.033-05:00

Friends,

Recently, I realized and articulated why I’d moved to New York so many years ago: THIS is the place and pace of accelerated learning, creation and connection that I long for and love.

I was tickled when a recent Smithsonian article claimed the same, with Joan Acocella proposing that New Yorkers are a highly involved (bordering on intrusive) species of peeps pre-selected for higher energy and ambition.

I’d argue that even the wildlife here is that way:

I’ve seen Pale Male eating in public. (He drools!) I’ve communed with raccoons. (I had one as a next door neighbor until they took the scaffolding down.)

But now, can I just effuse a bit about the World Science Festival?!

This week, I was IN HEAVEN thanks to physicist Brian Greene, producer Tracy Day, actor and author Alan Alda, friend Sunny Bates and all the others whose brilliance, warmth, humor and magic formed a float of math, science and humanities such as I’d never known!

The city was at its Nobel~est….

I savored every second of Mayor Bloomberg's "NY Loves Science" speech and Leon Lederman's cosmic jokes.

I watched in anticipation and appreciation as the inaugural Kavli Prize recipients in astrophysics, neuroscience and nanoscience were announced, and was thrilled to meet founder Fred Kavli and laureates Louis E. Brus and Thomas Jessell afterwards.

There were compelling cases for vertical farms and a balanced renewable energy policy; rousing discussions about regenerative medicine and thorny bioethics issues; and impressive displays of neuroscientific fireworks -- monkeys who can manipulate mechanical third arms with their minds and minimally conscious men coming back to life.

I drilled down deep with NIH' Eric Wasserman, whose enviable title is Chief, Brain Stimulation Unit, and shared fresh ideas with Vivavi founder Josh Dorfman, who, though he calls himself the Lazy Environmentalist, is anything but lazy.

I heard Jim Gates, Lucy Hawking and others tell self-deprecating tales of science experiments gone wrong.

I was there when TPP’s own Jack Chiarello and hundreds of others came alive with wonder.

I was moved to tears by Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin’s speed and accuracy and by William Phillips’ "absolute zero" (or as close as it gets) ballooon tricks.

I had my picture taken with Ms. Frizzle of Scholastic’s Magic School Bus.

I learned from Saul Griffith how and why to shave a few thousand watts off my energy consumption and from Dan Nocera how to think and live more like a leaf.

And I went wild with joy, as we all did, when Andy Revkin (pictured above) ended a Powering the Planet town hall meeting with an accoustic guitar original about unsequestered CO2 (or was it liberated carbon?).

At dinner, I traded life stories with Eben Bayer, whose Ecovative Design centers around a fungi-based foam that will someday allow us to grow our own homes!

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

So when World Science Fest officially ended last night -- with a Science of Longevity session about how "the 90s are and new 50s" and with Alan Alda performing Dear Albert, which he wrote based on letters to and from Einstein -- I knew that, for me, and for so many, WSF would live on.

INSPIRED, The Producers' Project will enable K - 12 students and staff to make and share even more math and science-oriented media (music, film, television, blogs, games) than before.

I’ve bought a slew of related domain names that range from Infinitesimal to Infinite and Smallest to Allest to Adult Math.

I vow to launch a “Love Letters to Darwin” campaign someday.

And I feel as if I've value-added to my DNA....

I woke up this morning knowing....I’m going to learn a lot today!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable

Those Who Prey Together....

2008-05-30T07:30:00.011-05:00

“Those who prey together stay together!”

So claims Green Chimneys, one of my favorite organizations.

And they should know! For 60 years, Green Chimneys (GC) has been a leader in animal-assisted therapy.

As part of their residential flourishment program, youth sent to Green Chimneys by New York City and State enjoy a hands-on brand of education where, among other things, they grow and sell organic produce, have a robust culinary arts program, tend rare breeds of barnyard animals and rehabilitate injured wildlife.

On Sunday, June 1, Green Chimneys students will help host a full day’s Birds of Prey festivities that will culminate with the freeing of a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk back to the wild.

If you can, please get yourself up Brewster way for Birds of Prey Day. And please join me in supporting GC at their 60th Anniversary Celebration on June 5 in NYC.

Meantime, a shout out to the magical Josephine Monter, whose eagle eyes are pictured above. She will be hosting mask-making workshops at Omega on July 13 - 18 and August 10 - 15.

THANKS to Green Chimneys, Josephine…and to all of you…for working wonders and for playing with us when you can.

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, aka Biodiesel Babe

Spring Giddiness

2008-05-01T07:26:00.002-05:00

Spring Giddiness

By Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Spring Is....

2008-04-20T06:18:00.009-05:00

"Spring is in the cock's crow, in the smell of freshly turned earth. It is no longer wise for the nature lover to procrastinate."

So says a favorite, unattributed quote that I found in the early days of FarmHands-CityHands.

And now, you don't have to wait!

Soon, our "Call to Open Farms" will give you hundreds of ways and means of going back to and giving to the land.

Stay tuned.

Meantime, here's hoping you ENJOY the Full Pink Moon and will make the most of EarthDay!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit aka Biodiesel Babe.

Water Ways....

2008-04-08T23:33:00.009-05:00

In case it hadn't occurred to you already: We are the water!

And it's up to us to preserve and protect this increasingly rare, at-risk resource in all the educated, vigilant and enjoyable ways we can.

To learn the latest on a subject we know and love, Amelia Amon and I treated ourselves to info-packed World Water Day at the American Museum of Natural History, where pamphlets and panels abounded about The International Year of Sanitation.

Earlier that week, a few of us from The Producers' Project had been struck by Andy Revkin's New York Times piece:
2.6 Billion With No Place to Go (to the Toilet).

We'd interviewed Andy for The Evolving Ecology of New York -- a documentary that explored how much we had evolved and devolved since the days of cholera epidemics and dead horses contaminating our drinking water...and that emphasized education as key to caring about, co-existing with, preserving and stewarding our natural resources.

Another TPP documentary, Living with the River found students examining The Hudson River’s environmental health as well as its economic and social importance. Students determined the health of the Hudson through water quality testing, experimentations and identification of plant and animal species; studied and documented the river’s past, present, present and future; made environmental observations and recommendations; and interviewed experts from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Coalition for a Livable West Side, Clearwater, the Hudson River Project and more.

We became increasingly aware of, involved with, responsible for and happy about what was happening in our own home waterways. But we were horrified to learn that an estimated 700,000 children a year die from preventable diseases and ailments because they lack clean water and adequate facilities.

Time spent studying our local waterways, flora, fauna, landscape and humanscape and interviewing experts from The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Historical Society, The New York Botanic Gardens and the The New York Times had led to a sense of our inter-connectedness -- personal and collective, local and global, environmental, economic and more.

"Even more so than we are what we eat," said one TPP participant, "We are water. (Blood is 83% water.) And we are the world."

What are we doing to and for our water...and for the billions of people around the world who lack adequate access to it?

We're learning more, making plans, taking action, speaking out, doing what we can...and hoping you will join us!

Warmly,
Wendy Dubit
The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable and
The Producers'Project: A New Lens on Learning

SxSWente

2008-03-21T12:37:00.079-05:00

Friends,

I am fresh back from the SXSW music fest in Austin, Texas. And I am rejuvenated, inspired, impressed!

I was there thanks to the exquisite Heidi Richman, Program Director of Wente's Discover the Wine, Discover the Music campaign.

Founded in 1883 by C. H. Wente, Wente Vineyards is California's oldest family owned and continuously operated winery.

For more than twenty years, the Wente Family Concert Series has hosted headliner artists ranging from Ray Charles to Buena Vista Social Club at their stunning Livermore Valley ranch.

Discover the Wine, Discover the Music puts a new spin on the Wente Family's passion:

Spearheaded by Karl Wente -- fifth generation winemaker, fine musician and exceptionally evolved human -- the program pairs Wente's 100% estate-grown wines with breaking new artists in innovative ways. For example, neck tags on participating Wente wines include codes for free music downloads and info on how songs like Under the Influence of Giant's joyous "In the Clouds" pair with the crisp and honeysuckled notes of Wente's Riverbank Riesling; how Jesse Dayton & Brennen Leigh's
"We Hung the Moon" mesh with Wente's appley, oaky Morning Fog Chardonnay.

It's a program that sings to me in every sense. And I wanted to be part of Heidi's high-profile promoting of it, built on her years of experience and success, at SXSW.

After all, I impressed upon her, I can pop, open, pour, have been talking and writing about wine since long before it was legal for me to drink, and have not ceased from exploration. And somewhere in the midst of it all, I entered the music industry....

And so, happily, I was invited along for what has proved one of the most pleasurable rides of my life.

While I savored Wente's ripe, luscious Riva Ranch Chardonnay and their long, smooth Southern Hills Cabernet on the front porch of a gracious Garden Street home, Karl and fellow Front Porch singer/songwriter Megan Bradford played covers of my favorite songs (John Prine, Bob Dylan, Counting Crows, Tom Petty), introduced me to new ones (Brothers Lekas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tally Hall, John Gorka) and knocked my socks off with their own work.

On March 13, at The Moonshine Veranda, Wente treated musicians, industry execs, lifestyle and entertainment press to one of the most intoxicating blends of standout wines, spicy food and mellow tunes that it has ever been my privilege to experience.

And then, it was time to get on the bus!

The Wine Bus, that is -- festooned with Karl's image and his “Discover the Wine, Discover the Music” tag outside, and offering up a cool, acoustically correct, wine-laden lair within.

Karl, Megan, Simi Sernaker of Suffrajett and Jason Russo of Hopewell played music while we made our way to the hottest (and I’m talking 95 degrees that day) venues. At stops that ranged from the swank Whole Foods Lamar St. parking lot to the controlled chaos of Maria’s Taco Xpress, festival goers, fellow musicians and VIP press would get on board to play music, drink wine, conduct interviews and such. I popped, poured, talked about the wines that I had come to know and love, and held my own (that particular time).

Then my official "tour of duty" was over!

I was free to soak up all the strangeness and beauty that is SXSW (1500 bands, 400 films and an embarrassment of parties) in Austin, Texas (a town I love so much I could live there) in Spring (redbud, wisteria, birdsong, splendiferous beyond words).

Mostly, I hung out on the Garden Street front porch and imbibed all the Simi, Karl and Megan music I could.

I bought running shoes and cowboy boots, but spent my time barefoot.

It felt SO GOOD!

Flying home, I read an endnote that Kevin Smokler had written for Austin Chronicle:

“How Your South-By High Can Last Through the Rest of the Year:

Was it a dream? Where do I go from here? What’s this business card stuck to my toothbrush?

Where, in little changes or giant swings, can you draw on SXSW as the start of something new instead of just letting what happens in Austin stay in Austin?”

I think I know....

In significant (and not unSchrodingerlike) ways, I’m still on the bus, inside the music, drinking enough Wente for all of us.

And if they'll have me, I hope my Livermore friends will keep their corkscrews handy:

When next I can, I’ll wend my way West for more of their wine, music, kind.

Meantime, from my perch to their porch, I send admiration, appreciation, LOVE.

For me, this party is so not over! In fact, it’s just begun....

Schools, Food, Community

2008-03-18T23:06:00.001-05:00

Friends,

I encourage you to join our group of practitioners, parents and advocates for Schools, Food and Community -- an inspiration and action-packed day and a half of panels, workshops, resources, entertainment and networking.

The program -- produced by Baum Forum and the Nutrition Program of Teachers College -- takes place on April ll and 12th at Teachers College of Columbia University, Broadway between 120 and 121st St.

It will focus on strengthening the resolve and ability of children to eat nutritious, fresh foods by:

* Connecting holistic food and nutrition messaging in our classrooms, cafeterias, after-school programs, homes, and neighborhoods

* Fostering relationships among children and their communities that focus on food, cooking, and gardening

* Exploring the nuts and bolts of cross-sector (i.e. health, education, food service, and agriculture) public and private collaborations

* Committing to actions we can take.

Last year's program sold out. So here's hoping you will register soon and looking forward to seeing you there!

Warmly,
Wendy

Leap Year!

2008-02-28T01:08:00.000-05:00

Whatever you do with this year's LEAP DAY, may it hold leaps of faith, love, learning and life for you. And maybe a little wine, too?!

Renewable Returns!

2008-02-12T15:32:00.014-05:00

As all of the domain names coming up for renewal reminds me, TODAY is the birthday of of Biodiesel Babes and The Renewables!

This day last year I fell in love with and almost "bought the farm" for to build and run a renewable dude ranch where folks like us could build solar sheds, brew biodiesel, tend vines, make wine, grow food, cook and dine together, see stars, work hard, sleep well.

EVERYTHING had its intended use -- the fields, pond, creek, stone walls, build lot, old house, smokehouse, artist's studio, historic barn. But what was that "Ponies Only" section out back? And what could it become? Perhaps it would be where kids make gimp lanyards while parents drink local whiskey and shoot skeet? Or better yet, where little ones generate electricity, learn about food chains, plant seeds and the like? Hmmmn....

Several reality checks and one big banking crisis later, I remain without land. But I've got lots of intellectual property and what I hope turns out to be a virally good idea.

In the realms of renewable energy, agriculture and life, we plan to host a series of Renewable Challenges -- contests that will:

* Educate about issues
* Spotlight solutions
* Give people the impetus and tools they'll use to be part of the solutions
* Encourage them to be juicy, creative and collaborative in their sharing of ideas and actions
* Showcase and celebrate the results

For example, how many farms and farmers' markets can we visit, and how vibrantly and profusely can we prove it -- online and in the real world, through video, photos, assorted artworks, recipes, poems, stories, songs? Where does our energy come from, and how can we make more it while using less? How can one man's trash become another's treasure? Which TV show or network most successfully campaigns against climate change?

Of course The Renewable Challenge we will start small and stay fresh.

But with your help, The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable can grow in all sorts of meaningful, wonderful ways.

For every good reason, we'd love your insight and could use your energy!

Meantime, I'm still wondering what "Ponies Only" means.

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy

Still There!

2008-02-02T06:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I arrived in Ireland forJohn O'Donohue's memorial service. Lindaa and I drove from the airport to Co. Clare through snow so fresh that our tracks were the first. Later, we learned that Feb. 1 is also the first day of Irish Spring.

It found me remembering a favorite quote from Diana Kappel-Smith's Wintering:

"In the winter, everything out of doors seems to be gone. But...we know that nothing is gone, and that all the rich life of a June morning is out there on a January morning."

The Space Between Us? Blessings To, For, From John

2008-01-15T22:03:00.001-05:00

In Tribute to Poet, Philosopher, Friend John O’ Donohue….
Jan. 1 1956 – Jan. 4 2008

Our last e-mail, on Jan. 1, was just Happy: Happy New Year! Happy New Book! Happy Birthday! Happy Everything!

I know he went Happy.

But all of us in his circles -- intimate, expanding, infinite -- are bereft.

On Jan. 4, we lost our beloved John O’Donohue.

Or have we? Because as John always said, “Nothing is ever lost or forgotten.”

And he gave us more to remember, think about, hope for and grow towards than anyone I know.

I had the privilege of working with him last year.

Amongst phone calls, e-mails, meetings, we had fun thinking, talking, laughing, drinking, challenging each others’ beliefs and expanding each others’ horizons.

John is a spiritual mystic, Irish philosopher, prolific writer, part-time farmer and former Catholic priest.

I am an urban, agnostic entrepreneur.

In the birthing of his latest book -- Benedictus (to be published as To Bless the Space Between Us in the U.S. this March) -- we talked a lot about love, life, death, and everything before, after and in between.

“The dead,” he would say, “are nearer than they seem.”

I could grasp this in the same way that my Dad lives on in me through DNA and jokes we tell...as well as from a particle physics perspective: “We are in the universe. And the universe is in us. Isn’t that enough?” (Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

But anything beyond that would have to seen to be believed....

“You’ll see," he would say, "In the Celtic landscape and all over. Someday....”

Who knew how soon someday would come?

I don’t usually ask for signs. Or see them when they're there, but....

On the night of Jan. 3, in a rare effort to clear clutter, I came upon obituaries, eulogies and wills from one branch of my family tree. I was moved beyond words...into that reverent space where the sadness of loss balances perfectly with the appreciation of presence.

I can’t put my finger on why, but on a train ride north, I read poems from Linda Pastan’s An Early Afterlife, and was struck by these lines:

“Why don’t we say good-bye right now
In the fallacy of perfect health
Before whatever is going to happen
Happens….”

Hours later, I received the devastating, unexpected news: John had died peacefully in his sleep while on holiday in the South of France. No further details were available.

Immediately, hearts all over the world went out from his group of friends, fans and colleagues...all of us to each other, and most of all to his family and Kristine. Sadness, memories, stories, love and consolation were shared in unbelievable concentration and constellations via e-mail, on the Internet, over the phone. Tributes went up…on www.johnodonuhue.com and elsewhere, from friends and colleagues like David Whyte, Gareth Higgins, Jesse Kornbluth and from venues he appeared at often, like Miriam's Well and Kripalu. We were able to hear his voice on NPR, BBC and elsewhere.

Those who could gathered in Ireland, where he was laid to rest. I took solace in the thought that two soul friends, Linda and Loretta, might be bookends that would bring true a line from John’s “Blessing for Death” from Anam Cara: “May your going be sheltered and your welcome assured.”

Me? I drank whiskey in his honor, and prayed as best I could at the time...including for a sign.

Bizarrely (though I’m sure it wouldn’t have seemed so to him), a lovingly inscribed copy of Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, arrived on the day of his funeral: He had sent and meant it to be there by Christmas. But it had gone to a wrong zip...sitting at that post office for a bit before finding me at just the right time.

It was one more way for John to say: “You are never alone” -- a proof point of the paradox, merriment, bedevilment, fulfillment, embodiment, humor, joy and generosity that is John....

Almost all the words I can find to express my sadness and hope are in that book and his others.

If you haven’t already, I hope you will go to the sources to hear, read, share the soul-satisfying stuff he is made of.

Here, I’ll simply end with Stars, a poem that I hope brings comfort and that perfectly expresses what I've come to know and believe about the universe, those that we love in it, and the way they live on....

Stars

By Hannah Senesh

There are stars whose radiance is
visible on earth
though they have
long been extinct.

There are people whose brilliance
continues to light the world
though they are no
longer among us.

These lights are particularly
bright when the night is dark.

They light the way
for human kind.

Wishes...Shared & Squared

2007-12-31T01:13:00.000-05:00

This year, instead of feeling guilty for cards mailed late, we decided to feel GREAT about hopes, dreams, and all things worth building.

We send you and yours wishes for a happy, healthy, hope-filled New Year.

And we encourage you to share your wishes, here and via Wishing Wall online, where HOPE can be sent up into cyberspace and rain down on the crowd (as confetti) gathered in Times Square.

On second thought, would that mean PAPER wasted?

More likely, just ink....

To ring in 2008, the organizers would have dropped the ball with same cofetti weight anyway. Now, your hopes can be written out, sent up, perhaps carried home in a pocket and/or shared with the world.

The "message in the bottle" is RENEWABLE....

Thinkable is Doable.

And YOU can be the proof!

The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable

2007-11-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

Friends,

We live in interesting times. Amidst all-too-present proof of global warming, environmental degredation, energy insecurity and unstable food policies, awareness is rising. Momentum is building. Important changes are taking place. Take, for example, University of Maryland's Leaf House (shown above) from last month's Solar Decathlon and the burgeoning best-of-local movement that is connecting people with the land and farmers with consumers like never before.

In coming weeks, The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable will launch its Renewable Challenge so as to EDUCATE about issues, CREATE solutions, and CELEBRATE results.

In realms of renewable energy, agriculture and life, who did great things...and how? From Gregor Mendel (made peas), Mahatma Ghandi (waged peace), Helen Keller (saw possibilities) to Thomas Edison, Rudolph Diesel, Henry Ford, Marie Curie, Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Steven Jobs, Al Gore, Bette Midler and more...

How did they make their ideals real? How can you? And what kinds of rewards can be reaped for people and the planet by doing so -- from the power of being the change you want the world to see to...well all sorts of things!

Stay tuned! The Renewables: Thinkable is Doable is DUE SOON.

Brown...The New Green?!

2007-11-11T00:44:00.000-05:00

FINALLY, the seaons are changing. It's Fall. BROWN is the new GREEN !!!

Celebrating Home Grown!

2007-09-06T10:51:00.001-05:00

Friends,

Farm Aid has come to New York City! And there are many ways to join the festivities and to support local food, family farming clean-burning biodiesel and renewable everything in the process.

On Saturday, September 8, Farm Aid's Home Grown Festival will kick off at Union Square Greenmarket at 7:30 a.m., when the "Upstate - Downstate Food and Farm Caravan" -- loaded with fresh food and produce gathered during its week-long tour of of New York State -- arrives at farmer's market for to show off NY's Pride and fill up with more food from local farms.

Union Square Greenmarket will be at the height of its growing season -- made even more delicious and celebratory through cooking demonstrations and contests, the presence of local food and farming groups,
hands-on activities and live music.

I'll be there all day -- visiting old friends, meeting new ones, brainstorming the revival of FarmHands-CityHands and the launch of The Renewables, and hoping you'll e-mail me (wendy@biodieselbabes.com) so we can seek each other out in the square and share a long glass of something good.

Then, the Food and Farm Caravan makes its way to Randalls Island, where, On Sunday, September 9, 22-year-old Farm Aid Concert comes to New York for the first time, and for the first time at a major concert event, aims to serve 100 percent local, organic, humanely-raised and family-farmed food.

There are still tickets for noon - midnight concert, whose lineup includes Farm Aid founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellancamp and Dave Matthews and many more.

There's also a noon - 5 p.m. Home Grown Festival abounding with family farmers, great food, hands-on activities and more. I'll be brewing biodiesel with friends from Windfall Farms and Neely Green Solutions, listening to some of my favorite music, feasting...and very much hoping to see you there.

Giving Green Light....

2007-06-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

How GREEN can it get? Happily, VERY!

Designers Amelia Anon of Alt Technica and Natlie Jeremijenko of XDesign took the spirit of Haute Green to heart and earned our personal best-of-show with their Green Light -- a solar-powered light source, terrarium and air-filter all in one.

We're thanking their sense of style and responsibility for a concept this layered, healthy, bright and fun.

B100: Biodiesel All the Way!

2007-06-08T20:15:00.000-05:00

Hooray to Windfall Farms and Neely Green Solutions for bringing biodiesel full circle...and for inviting us to be part of the process!

In October 2006, longtime friends Morse Pitts of Windfall Farms and engineer Tom Herbert of Neely Green began brewing biodiesel on a FuelMeister II in Morse's Montgomery, NY barn. The operation started fairly full circle to begin with: Morse grows an array of greens that are in great demand at New York City Greenmarkets and restaurants. Each week, on his way home from Union Squre Greenmarket, Morse picks up used cooking oil from the restaurants he delivers greens to. Back on the farm, Tom and Darren Hinman brew clean-burning biodiesel that fuels farm trucks and tractors and Tom's Jetta and that heats a family home. By March, Windfall greenhouses were also being heated by biodiesel. In May, the bus shown here, fueled by home-brewed B100, was added to the fleet, and has since been used to ferry goods to market and the makings of biodiesel from it.

Hopefully YOU'll get on the bus, one way or another! Windfall sells at Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the year. Morse often finishes his market days by delivering greens to, meeting friends at and picking up oil from Heartland Brewery, just across the street...giving truth to the forthcoming bumpersticker, "Our Fuel Comes from the Heartland." Up on the farm, Darren and Tom undertake the transesterification process that transforms cooking oil from Heartland, Chow Bar, City Bakery and other restaurants into clean-burning biodiesel. While byproducts from the process are used to fertillize the fields, biodiesel made from it is used to heat the greenhouses that grow the greens that feed the fans that...can also come upcounty to help make it happen! Check out Neely Green Solutions for upcoming biodiesel workshops, and befriend Windfall Farms to learn more about the farm tours, best-of-local feasts and seasonal celebrations that often follow.

Count me in! And Happy B*Day, Morse!

Introducing...Biodiesel Babes!

2007-03-03T13:55:00.002-05:00

Biodiesel Babes was born the first time I brewed my own, in Oct. ’06, under the tutelage of Tom Herbert, up at Morse Pitts’ Windfall Farms.

Suddenly, this sometimes city girl who had moved to New York “so no one would ask her to cook or drive again” felt the drive again:

I wanted to drive tractors, trailers, trucks, a Jetta of my own, the renewable energies evolution and revolution, and more.

I scented home-brewed biodiesel with essences of lilac and sage; burned it in lamps, lanterns and a Hannukah menorah; studied the science, economics, political and environmental implications and more. I delved into education and practiced conservation.

And by the time a brief stint with Biodiesel America and their Fields of Fuel feature doc took me to the National Biodiesel Conference, I was on top of the subject...and very much in love with it.

For proof, please stay tuned!

And please, if you have renewable energy hopes, dreams, stories, solutions...bring them here.

Biodiesel Babe is open!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit and the Biodiesel Babes

Return to Roots...

2007-02-27T21:42:00.001-05:00

Friends,

I invite you to join me at a delicious and propitious time and place:

Over the next few months, I hope to be “buying the farm!”

I mean that in only the best senses of the words – "buying the farm" as an investment in, showcase for and shared experience of all things renewable...energy, agriculture, work, life and play.

It feels like a long-awaited homecoming and a well-timed springing forth.

Twenty one years ago, I founded FarmHands-CityHands to link farm and city for the social, cultural, environmental and economic enrichment of both. Through it, tens of thousands of New Yorkers visited area farms to get their hands dirty and their minds clean; to learn first-hand what does and doesn’t grow on trees.

Our tag line was “New York: Love it and Leave It.”

FarmHands-CityHands was about building bridges between producer and consumer – enriching and cross-stitching rural and urban people and fabrics and proving that, in truth, we feed each other.

For many country-hungry city dwellers, FarmHands was a dream come true.

For me, it was the fruition of a dream I’d been living for a long time.

When I was five, my family moved to a Maryland subdivision that could easily be considered “cookie-cutter.” But not for us: Our street backed onto a farm that had once encompassed much of the county, but that year-by-year was carved away to make way for more homes. I went down to the farm whenever possible – always eager to learn more and help out. By the time I was twelve, the farm gave me a shack that served as a clubhouse. Some days, friends prevailed, and we went to the strip mall at the other end of our street. More often, we were on the farm, playing and working at what we would later become – journalists, entrepreneurs, farmhands.

It was a thread that I would hold to tight and work with always.

At college, I found myself writing about energy and agriculture and delving into Cajun culture – trawling the bayou, frying up every kind of creature, baking biscuits with the best of them.

In France, a series of hands-on food and farming articles found me fishing for eel, force-feeding geese, making Camembert and Calvados and fostering new forms of agri-tourism.

Fast forward a few career incarnations in food, wine, farming, media and technology. Add an increased urgency for conservation, preservation and education. Bring it all together, and we have....

The Renewable Ranch – a paragon of renewable energy, agriculture and lifestyle and a "green" resort where folks from all walks of life can brew biodiesel, grow food, tend vines, make wine, herd sheep, eat well, see stars, sleep sound...and so much more.

Like Spring, The Renewable Ranch could be coming sooner or later! And it begs your involvement. So please stay tuned!

Warmly and looking forward,
Wendy Dubit, Vergant