Friday, June 3rd

1:00 pm

Get the Buzz on the Bees

Why should you care about bees?

Because... bees are essentially responsible for every third
mouthful of food we eat! They are indispensable pollinators that bring antibacterial, antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties
from their hive to our world. 
Come hear the entertaining and fascinating professional beekeeper,
Bill Walter of Guerilla Beekeepers, enlighten us about the important role that bees play in the sustainability of our food and our future.

What started as a hobby and turned into a passion has fueled the goal of Bill Walter and the Guerilla Beekeepers to rescue wild honeybee colonies wherever possible take them out of harm's way and raise and care for them without the use of dangerous pesticides, or antibiotics.

*Our workshops are free,  but you can be guaranteed a seat by making a $10 donation.  

Friday, June 3rd

2:30pm

A Green Approach to Redecorating and Rebuilding 

In this workshop, designer Donna Whelan will be sharing her experience with “green” design, giving feedback on the challenges and joys of designing sustainably, and illustrating why green design is not a trade off or a chore, but rather a visually and spiritually gratifying experience.

Joining Donna will be Caitlin Whelan, her daughter and jewelry designer. Caitlin will be sharing her experience alongside her mother in opening the Little Relics studio and how the two of them used almost entirely natural elements or re-purposed antiques.  Caitlin will also share additional thoughts on achieving a “green” mindset, and inspiring younger generations to do the same.

Donna Whelan is a local interior designer with a vision for elegantly relaxed interior design, and a taste for the greater beauty of natural, organic, and re-purposed elements. It is for this reason that Donna Whelan has cultivated a graceful blend of these two passions, incorporating sustainability and a flawless aesthetic into her work. In every endeavor, the designer draws inspiration from innovative techniques, including her work on the Barton house, a project which was enthusiastically received by many who attended the Newport Harbor Home Tour in 2009. 

Caitlin began designing jewelry when she was fifteen years old, when her desire for an artistic venture that embraced eco-consciousness bloomed into a business.  As a young entrepreneur, she strove to combine her love of antique pieces with her respect for nature and her “romantic eye” for design.  In the course of five years, her business has evolved into Little Relics, “a California-based jewelry line of recycled, re-purposed, antique and one-of-a-kind pieces, inspired by the romantic and organic.” 

 

Saturday, June 4th

10:30 am  

Making Your Garden a Magical Place
with Fairy Gardens

Master Gardener Jan Brider is a master at creating whimsy in the garden.  Each fairy garden has its own personality that might include miniature fences and garden tools or fairy figurines that draw the eye past each plant, focusing on the tiny details. During this workshop you will learn to design and create a lovely place for a fairy to come and visit in your own garden. There's no limit to the variety and impromptu intrigue that a fairy garden can offer. Come have an enchanting time and create a place that maybe, just maybe, the fairies will pay a visit some night by the light of the moon.

Jan is a Master Gardener and Consulting Rosarian. Her love of gardening started at an early age on her grandparents' farm in Indiana. Jan's grandmother had a beautiful garden that always included enough flowers to share with friends. Jan grows over 200 roses and companion plants at her home in Yorba Linda in a country garden setting. It all started with 5 roses, ground cover and a lot of grass but now the grass is gone and fairies and gnomes have come to live  in her gardens.    

        *Our workshops are free, but you can be guaranteed a seat by making a $10 donation. 

Saturday June 4th

12 pm


Emergency Preparation for Orange County

Are you ready for "The Big One?"

 
 When you live in a city with 120,000 people but only 28 firefighters and 8 rescue units, you need to be prepared in case of an emergency.

 Kirk Dominic, Interim Fire Chief for Costa Mesa Fire Department, will bring us sound, practical and life-saving information so that we can be prepared to help ourselves, our families and our neighbors in the event of a disaster. Free handouts will be available and disaster preparedness kits will be on hand for purchase for both the home and automobile.

Safeguard you and your family. Don’t miss this important presentation.

 
Kirk has twenty-four years of emergency management experience within the Fire Service. He also served twenty-one years in the United States Army Reserve and in retired in 2006 as a Major. Kirk  responded to the Katrina disaster with his church for a relief mission and to Haiti with Hope Force International on a medical mission.  Kirk is a third generation Californian who grew up in Southern California and now has a special passion for gardening. He is happily married and has three young adult children which keep him and his beautiful wife, Tamara, very busy.

*Our workshops are free, but you can be guaranteed a seat by making a $10 donation.

Saturday June 4th

1:30

Sustainability - What Does it REALLY Mean?

 

Jesse Baker is a Ph.D. with a definite handle on the concept of sustainability, which is unfortunately still vague for many of us. As a concept, sustainability lacks the structure to help people understand how to make it a reality. In this workshop, Jesse will impart numerous ways that will help us as individuals and consumers make conscience lifestyle choices that make sense and will inspire and empower us to influence how businesses impact our world as well.

 

Jesse Baker, PhD is the founder of ecofficiency.org, an organization based in Orange County whose mission is to inspire an ethic of consumer responsibility, lifestyle choices, and individual actions that result in positive impacts on society and the environment. Jesse is passionate about developing and producing dynamic community education and action projects and with the community in finding real solutions to the problems our world faces due to our consumer impacts, the globally dependent lifestyles we choose to lead, and ultimately sustainability. Jesse is also an instructor at UC Irvine in their Sustainable Business Management Program offered through UCI Extension.

 *Our workshops are free, but you can be guaranteed a seat by making a $10 donation.

Saturday June 4th

3:00

What the Heck Do You Do with a Kohlrabi?

Have you been to the farmers market, come across some interesting veggies and wondered, “What the heck is that and what do I do with it?”

Come let organic farmer John Sweredoski give you the entertaining answers and some delicious approaches to preparing and eating those mysterious wonders from our local soil.

John Sweredoski is a local farmer that sells his freshly harvested fare at both the Orange County Fairgrounds and the UC Irvine farmer's markets.

*Our workshops are free, but you can be guaranteed a seat by making a $10 donation.