Earth Week 2010

Last week, the BU Green Groups, Sustainability@BU, and BU's Dining Services participated in Earth Week in honor of Earth Day.

Events throughout the week included Meatless Monday at lunch throughout all the dining halls, free Bike Workshops sponsored by BU Bikes, a screening of the film Earth 2100, and a compost awareness day. (In fact, BU composts much of their waste regularly to Save That Stuff. Read more about what BU Dining Services is doing about food and sustainability here).

Slow Food BU participated in the Earth Day Celebration on the GSU Plaza last Thursday with environmental groups from BU and the Boston area. This year, we teamed up with Fair Trade Boston to bring students free fair trade banana splits, made with fair trade bananas from Equal Exchange and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Ben & Jerry's aims to expand their full product line to Fair Trade Certified ingredients by 2013 as announced in their press release.

Other groups present at the Earth Day Celebration included BU Dining Services,

BU Bikes (with bike-powered smoothies, of course!), and BU's Organic Gardening Collective, among others.

As always, Earth Day was a great success, and the students and the groups involved in Earth Week learned a lot and had a good time. We look forward to participating again next year!

April Events

There is a lot going on this month! For more details, look at our calendar.

• Wednesday, April 7th - Slow Food BU Potluck in Sargent College (635 Commonwealth Ave.), Room 218
• Throughout April - Sustainable Food Films: free film screenings throughout April thanks to Whole Foods.
• April 9-11th - Down:2:Earth - Sustainable Living Expo at the Hynes Convention Center
• Wednesday, April 14th - Screening of "The Garden" thanks to the Harvard Food Literacy Project
• Saturday, April 17th - Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini at Tufts School of Nutrition *CANCELLED and to be rescheduled*
• Sunday, April 18th - Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini at Harvard University *CANCELLED and to be rescheduled*
• April 19th-23rd - Earth Week at BU, with various events sponsored by us, BU, and BU's Green Groups
• April 23rd-24th - SlowFest. Check out the local food vendors that will be present.

Kombucha Demonstration and Potluck

Last week, we learned how to brew the fermented tea kombucha at our Kombucha Demonstration and Potluck co-sponsored by the Boston Localvores. The kombucha workshop was led by Annabelle Ho, an officer of Slow Food BU and author of Kombucha Fuel.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and read the recap of the event at the Urban Homesteaders' League, written by Annabelle:

"Last week there was a Kombucha Demonstration and Potluck put on by Slow Food BU, the Boston Localvores, and Kombucha Fuel, a blog of which I am the author. Thanks to the Urban Homesteaders’ League for supporting this event!

Kombucha, sometimes referred to as 'the elixir of immortality,' is a fermented tea traced back to Chinese origins to around 220 B.C. Various health benefits have been attributed to kombucha, which is said to have probiotic benefits and detoxifying effects. It’s been claimed that kombucha reduces blood pressure, boosts the immune system, and even cures cancer..."

Read the rest of the post here.

*Special thanks to Darry Madden of the Boston Localvores for taking some great photos of this event.*