How it all ties together...

We get manure from the Greenville zoo....
The manure feeds our gardens at 11Briar st.
The gardens feed people in need and the sales from the rest feed our other ventures...

We get manure from the horses that pull the carriages up and down main street Greenville in the evenings....
The manure feeds our gardens at 11Briar St.
The gardens feed people in need and the sales from the excess go to feed our other ventures...

We collect coffee grounds from Starbucks, Spill the Beans...We collect coffee chaff from West End Coffee...They collect the moisture from the manure, cover the smell of manure...

All of our efforts keep this stuff out of the trash stream and reduce waste in landfills....

We use containers from Starbucks and fast food places that would otherwise have been thrown away to create hydroponic gardens...
These gardens feed people in need and the sales from the excess feed our other ventures.

We use compostable matter from 14 restaurants in our compost piles...
We are a carbon sink
We use this or our gardens...
These gardens feed people in need and the sales from the excess feed our other ventures

We build tiny houses.

These create a smaller footprint and a vision for sustainable living...
The owners rent them out creating revenue...
People come out to our property to get away, rent the homes, support a cause, have fun, support local ventures.

We put on events...

These events are cheaper for our members, who get more affordable food through our CSA
The performers at these events make more money and are able to support themselves better with better food, better health and more of the money that they earn with their art in their back pocket.

We support an artist's guild...
The artists we support play at our events, support the venue, they leave with more money in their pockets and the venue gets paid for.
Allowing us to grow more food...
Allowing us to feed more people in need and the sales from the excess to feed our other ventures.

We support a school on the property...
Children learn about the natural world and the tech world at the same time...
They learn about how to create in and sustain a world that is rapidly changing and requires a foot in both worlds.

This is the tip of the iceberg.  This is the basis of what we are about. This is the foundation that we are building on.  Common sense, common cause...building, creating, being!

Tensie's House...We can do so much with so little

Tensie's House
For those dealing with extreme circumstances, an escape, however brief, can mean so much.  We are going to give that chance to as many people as we can.  We are going to give a chance to escape, a brief respite to those who are dealing with illnesses and more.
We are going to dedicate an afternoon to building  a home, the first of many.  We are going to build in one day, and move it to our property on March 1 as a place for those who need an escape.
Construction begins on March 1 at 1185 Pendleton St.


That is what is what Tensie's house is all about.  It is a tiny house, a solitary place, designed for peace.  Help us build it.
We can make a dream become a reality in a matter of hours.
If you or your group would like to participate in and support this cause, join us.
Our plan calls for the creation of three such homes by March 12. Each dedicated to a cause...
Each created to help.
Each about changing the world.
Help us reach this goal

Contact us at
eqgreenville@gmail.com to volunteer or for any other questions.

Thank Goodness for Small (?) Favors...

A few months ago I got involved with an organization that works to put together community gardens.  Their problem was that they needed to raise funds for the next year and buying fertilizer.  I asked them why they didn't just get manure from the zoo and other farms in the area.  This is, after all, a farming community.  So I made a call.
I called the Greenville Zoo and asked them for a truckload of manure.  They said they didn't do that.  The next question was what did they do with it?  It goes in the dumpster and gets hauled to landfill.  It took me a moment to catch my breath.  I am a novice gardener, but I am learning quickly.  I knew that they had two elephants and I had a general idea of how much waste an elephant produces. I had a general idea how useful this stuff could be.  I then asked who could I talk to about changing that and that set me on a path where that general knowledge got a lot more specific.
The zoo was in an awkward position literally, figuratively, and politically.  The Greenville Zoo sits in the middle of the city of Greenville.  Even though it has been there since 1960, people still complain about the smell and the noise.  I live a short stint away from it and I personally like the sounds of the lions in the morning.  Composting the manure on site proved somewhat difficult due to smell concerns and limited space.  The zoo is carved into the hills and it is really difficult to find level ground to control the leachate (urine)
The second problem is/was that they only had the two elephants.  The average elephant produces approximately 600 pounds of manure a day.  That is a lot of manure but oddly that is a small amount compared to other larger zoos that deal with tons of the stuff on a daily basis.  Basically, it is not enough to keep or to make it worth the management and that made it more expedient to throw the stuff in the dumpster and let it be hauled off.
The third problem was more political in nature.  They did not have the staff that they could task to work it.  Other organizations did not want to deal with it.  We worked very hard to solve all of the other problems.  Long story short, it is finally here.  24 (yes 24 tons) of manure for our gardens and more.
We are even gathering much of it by bike...yes bike to be carbon neutral....
24 tons that will be saved from landfill...
24 tons that will be used to grow things...
24 tons that we will put to good use...

Is the moral of this story to be careful what you

wish for?
I am not disappointed.  We saw a problem and dove in.  These are the ways these problems are solved. If you want to live in a sustainable world, it can get a little...ahem...stinky at times.

The 11Briar Project

We spent a fair amount of time fumbling around in the cold in the past couple of days.  We knew that this was going to be an issue and as people must, we prepared.  The perfect tomato starts the year before and long before that first bite is taken in the summer, a lot of work has to be put in.

So, it seems as though we are taking some time off.  It looks like nothing is being done.  That is not the case at all.  Much like nature itself, there is very little true dormancy.  Hands around cups of coffee, or legs beneath blankets, there is still work being done.  We are growing the perfect tomato.

Seeds are being ordered, compost is being gathered.  The perfect tomato is on the way.