Tastemakers: Edible Forest Gardens - SO Good Coffee

April 5, 2006

Edible Forrest Gardens
As a kid I was always fascinated with those that “lived off the land.” While the “Super Grocery Store” movement has changed society’s buying and consumption habits over the past 50 years, there are those who live off the land, and the movement is resurfacing in popularity. Promoters of the renewable resource movement and sustainable living organizations are popping up all over. 
In Northern Michigan we have several groups like SEEDS, ISLAND
and The Great Lakes Bioneers Conference promoting an eco-friendly living environment. These organizations and others are hosting two programs next week to promote a sustainability concept that is featured in “Edible Forest Gardening,” a two-volume book by author and eco-design expert
Dave Jacke. 
A free lecture, “Gardening Like the Forest: Home-Scale Ecological Food Production,” will be offered on Wednesday April 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Michigan Works Center 1209 S. Garfield in Traverse City. On Thursday, a full-day workshop, “Fundamentals of Ecological Gardening,” will be offered for $55, including materials. It will take place at the MSU NW Horticultural Research Station in Leelanau County.  
The catchword to define this movement is “permaculture” coined by Australian ecologist Bill Mollison in 1978. Mollison helped launched the movement of permanent agriculture that involves designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. It is a land-use and community-building movement that strives for the harmon-ious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The central theme in permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds. To learn more visit www.ARTmeetsEarth.org or call
(231) 377-4146.

SOGOOD Coffee Yemen Sana’ani

Derek Prechtl is the Lance Armstrong of Northern Michigan. Prechtl has been a prominent name in both on and off-road bike racing circles, not only locally but also across the country. Prechtl recently quit his day job to pursue his fulltime professional racing career and to keep up with the pace of racing on both the road and off-road circuits 
Prechtl decided he needed some caffeine so he started roasting his own coffee. Friends and family kept telling him is coffee was “so good,” so Prechtl decided to start selling to his friends and named his company SOGOOD Coffee. In just a few short months he signed a national deal for his coffee to marketed with K2 Skis; he is also the official coffee sponsor of the Subaru Women’s Winter Tour. Business has been “so good” that he has moved his roasting operation from his home to a storefront location in Empire (he
is sharing space with the Grocer’s
Daughter Chocolates). 
Prechtl is currently offering eight roasts. The Yemen Sana’ani is a full-bodied dark roast with huge mocha aromas. It is great to start the morning with or to pair after dinner with a rich dessert. Coffee is a great inspiration at work, so Prechtl will deliver weekly (sometimes on his bike) and he roasts the coffee the night before he delivers so the coffee is fresh. Work from
home? No worries, he delivers to
homes as well. To learn more visit www.sogoodcoffee.com or call them at 231.326.2077, or better yet, visit them in Empire for that added chocolate experience.

 

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