Groundwork: Symposium
held Saturday, March 4, 2023
Helms Design Center, Culver City CA
The inaugural Groundwork: So Cal Fibershed Symposium brought together ranchers and farmers, designers, advocates, academics, and changemakers for a day of project presentations and networking. We shared projects underway in our Fibershed, and enjoyed lots of time for conversation and resource sharing before, during, and after the event.
Cole Bush, Shepherdess Land & Livestock in Ojai. Cole shared anecdotes of her “flerd” of sheep and goats, their work clearing brush as part of her fire mitigation program, updates on Shepherd School, and a thoughtful plea for us to engage in and value a culture of care.
The Regional Sourcebook, on display with yarns from our local producers, and some natural dye samples
Samples, in the foreground a sweater from local artisanal brand Greg Lauren, handknit from fibers sourced from Irene Bennally and Katherine Tuckers’ flocks of desert churro. In the background, hemp in various forms from Rodale Institute, and a rack of clothing from Greg Lauren.
Our audience. We welcomed 45 people from San Diego to the Central Coast. Scholars, costume designers, brands involved with upcycling and alternative resources, textile advocates, hemp growers, steadfast fibershed advocates, a newly minted shepherd, a soon-to-be shearing student, scientists concerned with plastics, a natural dye expert, a handmade broom maker, high school teachers, PhD students, a few folks representing a winery . . . quite a room full of talent and enthusiasm. Lots of conversation filled the space, lots of contact information was shared.
Nicholas Brown, representing Textile Exchange. Nicholas promoted a new project TE is calling Communities of Practice.
Tony de Verya, Rodale Institute, discussing hemp. Challenges, growing seasons, opportunities. The US has lost most of our hemp processing capacity.
Christina Wheeler of Greg Lauren, sharing details of their creative process, multi-layered upcycling and re-use approaches, and the project with Irene Bennally and Navajo Churro sheep. The entire project resulted in 10 handspun, handknit sweaters, some beanies. It was an eye-opening systems approach that laid bare why it is that most hyper-local fiber projects happen at the luxury level.
Regrettably we did not capture a photo of Nathanael Gonzales-Siemens, an organic agriculture consultant. Nate shared a radically transparent story of his own family’s path to CA’s Central Coast, a journey both of immigration and of values; a story that mirrors much of what we know of how CA came to be settled by others, how family dynamics have evolved over generations, and how those structures are reflected in the land and in our practices. Nate also kept it real about his experiences growing cotton, a painful experience that elicited compassionate laughs. Nate gave us all permission to be in process, while reminding us that this work is hard, there are no short cuts.
SPEAKERS
CONNECTING TO WILDLANDS THROUGH WOOL
presented by Cole Bush, Shepherdess Land & Livestock
The pastoral art of shepherding is as vital now as ever. “Modern day urban shepherdess” Cole Bush will share details of her work providing vegetation management services, land stewardship consultation, education, and shepherd training. Her company, Ojai-based Shepherdess Land and Livestock, engages more than 700 sheep and goats in climate beneficial practices that seek to promote soil health, biodiversity, healthy watershed function, native habitat enhancement, and sequestering of invasive species.
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Brittany Cole Bush (Cole) works the fields of climate-beneficial agriculture, regional fiber and hide sourcing, and prescribed grazing with sheep and goats. With over a decade of experience, Cole has aided in the stewardship of thousands of acres of California landscapes using regenerative practices of sheep and goat grazing as an ecosystem service for ecological enhancement and fire hazard reduction. Cole is the owner-operator of Shepherdess Land and Livestock and Shepherdess Holistic Hides. Cole is a long-time Fibershed collaborator, advocate, and community member of the Fibershed network.
WHERE THERE’S WOOL THERE’S A WAY
presented by Jenya Schneider, Cuyama Lamb (not able to attend; will be rescheduled)
Southern California is home to fashion brands that clothe the world and an agricultural sector that feeds the world. What if the two came together to make ecologically regenerative and fire-friendly fashions that keep us safe from wildfires, replenish our agricultural soils, and uplift our local economies?
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Jenya Schneider has been asking how we can be good students and stewards of our native ecologies for the past two decades. She has served in and co-created human–, plant–, and animal–centered systems, all wish the purpose of restoring the ecologies they belong to—including the Elwha River watershed, the Bay Area, and the Cuyama Valley. After meeting Jack at Quail Springs in 2016, the vision of working as a part of California ecologies while producing regeneratively sourced food and fiber quickly wooed her into becoming a co-founding member of Cuyama Lamb. She is passionate about working alongside these amazing animals to create a California that lives safely and abundantly alongside natural wildfire ecologies.
WAKING UP TO LOCAL ABUNDANCE
presented by Christina Wheeler, Atelier Director for Greg Lauren
LA-based fashion brand Greg Lauren has been making clothes out of damaged and upcycled fabrics for years, long before the practice was deemed “sustainable” and became a trend. If you follow craft closely, you will have noticed the cover story on last Summer’s American Craft Council magazine, highlighting Lauren’s collaboration with the quilters of Gee’s Bend. A recent project, and closer to home, involved sourcing fiber from Katherine Tucker’s Desert Churros flock in Acton, CA, then working closely with Diné spinner and weaver Irene Benally (see here). Project coordinator Christina Wheeler will share behind-the-scenes and challenges of how it all came together, and what the brand hopes for next.
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Christina Wheeler has worked in the fashion industry since 2003. Her experience leans to the creative side, including costuming, fashion production, and pattern work, yet she has also owned her own upcycled clothing shop. For the last several years she has managed production for LA-based Greg Lauren. The position led to Christina’s re-evaluation of the fashion industry and it’s practices, and what her role could be in re-imagining this system. Combined with her training in permaculture, Christina is on a path to rediscover what it means to be connected to community and shared resources.
HEMP: WHAT’S HAPPENING
presented by Tony de Verya, Farm Manager, CA Organic Center
Tony de Verya will ground our conversation with a quick Hemp 101, including some flavor on fiber hemp specifically. Then he’ll share background on the small hemp trials in Lemoore in '21 and '22, and wrap up with a state of the emerging fiber hemp industry.
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Tony de Veyra is the Farm Manager at the Rodale Institute’s California Organic Center. Prior to joining Rodale, Tony worked in the hemp industry. He oversaw the first hemp test plots in California and worked on feminized seed production and breeding. Before hemp, Tony cultivated citrus and avocados in Orange County and built multi-species, no-till urban farms and edible landscapes with the Sarvodaya Institute in Pomona. Tony has a degree in Plant Science from Cal Poly Pomona and studied ecological design at Quail Springs Permaculture.
The CA Organic Center supports California growers interested in regenerative agriculture as they contend with climate change, water shortages, increasing land prices, and feeding our growing population. The Center acts as a resource for California farmers interested in rejecting the mono-cropped, low biodiversity model that currently prevails in the region.
NATHANAEL GONZALES-SIEMENS
Organic Farmer
Nathanael has an undergrad degree in Plant Genetics and Biology from UCLA as well as a teaching credential from CSU Los Angeles. He grew up on a small cotton farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley and after teaching in LA for a decade came home to restart the business. Now the whole family is involved and they are transitioning to a diversified and regenerative operation that grows crops that are appropriate to not only the local climate conditions but to the local culinary preferences as well. Nathanael has over 20 years of farm management and consulting experience on the West Coast where he currently serves as the Pacific Regional Manager for the Rodale Institute’s Organic Crop Advisor Program.
Event Details
Ticket purchase included programming, networking opportunities, morning coffee-tea service, lunch (primarily vegetarian options), a closing reception, and free onsite parking. Venue is across the street from the Expo Line Ivy Platform station; the MTA Bus 33 runs along Venice Blvd; the Culver City Bus 1 runs along Washington Blvd.
Thank you to our venue sponsor, Helms Bakery District, without whom this event would not be possible.
