The Urban Homesteaders' League promotes eco-friendly workshops in the Boston area. The group encourages individual empowerment and an active lifestyle to build a sustainable world.
By Daniel Kobialka
12/6/10
Somerville Trading Post offers opportunities to exchange green, save green
Looking for a book, a pumpkin, or even a Fisher Price cash register? Have excess items you're looking to trade? The Somerville Trading Post proves people can acquire goods without spending green; every traded item has ecological value.
The monthly event gives resourceful traders the chance to exchange anything they want, including preserves, homemade red lager, and occasionally, a wooden business card holder.
The free public trading post encourages community gathering and ecological sustainability. The Somerville Community Growing Center began hosting the trading post in October after the event was previously held on Laurel Street. The new venue gives attendees more space to barter and trade their choice of items one Sunday afternoon every month.
Somerville residents Blake Roberts and James Crall have hosted the gathering since January. Roberts said she and Crall got the idea to host a trading event after a zucchini harvest in their home garden.
"It was a way for us to share our garden harvest," Roberts said. "And it's just kind of taken off from there."
Roberts said the trading post promotes ecological sustainability because it helps make produce available to people who do not necessarily have access to it. In addition, encouraging the exchange of goods prevents perishable goods and excess items from going to landfills. "It's an alternative way of valuing things," Crall said.
The Urban Homesteaders' League (UHL) has helped Roberts and Crall promote the monthly event through its MeetUp Group. Crall said he and Roberts are not official members of the UHL, but the group has helped them draw supporters. "It's not very goal-oriented," Crall said. "Just having people get interested and want to do it has been the biggest success thus far."
Roberts said at least 20 people attend the monthly gathering. She said there are a few regulars, but new attendees visit the trading post each month.
Somerville resident Jen Mazer has attended the trading post events regularly in the past. Mazer has a degree in human ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, and said human beings play an important part in promoting ecological sustainability. "I think of ecology and economy as related topics," Mazer said. "They both have to do with the household." Mazer said she believes the trading post helps educate people on the importance of sustainability.
Crall said he participates in the trading as well. At the October event, he said he exchanged a pumpkin for three bottles of homemade red lager. "I feel like I got good value," Crall said.
Roberts and Crall have hosted trading post gatherings for less than a year, but they have been successful in educating younger people on environmental awareness. Crall said the majority of people who visit the trading post are under the age of 30.
Roberts said people from out of town have become interested in starting their own exchange events after visiting the Somerville Trading Post. In November, the first North of Boston trading event was held on the North Shore. Roberts said she hopes the Somerville Trading Post will inspire others to create similar exchange events throughout the Boston area.
Whether it's concocting exotic tea blends or making soap, the Urban Homesteaders' League (UHL) offers free workshops to promote ecological sustainability in the Boston community.
Artist Lisa Gross founded the league in June 2009. "We've brought together a group of people with a lot of different skills," Gross said. "There's been a mutuality in the way things have developed."
Gross said she received inspiration during her childhood to form the UHL. "I'd always had a childhood fascination with 'The Little House on the Prairie,'" Gross said. "I wanted to be in a group that organized events I wanted to do."
The UHL seeks to empower individuals to move from a passive lifestyle to an active one by promoting ecological sustainability workshops and presentations. In addition, the group hosts potlucks, trading post events and film screenings.
Gross said the UHL boasts nearly 1,000 members. "We're integrated within a network of groups in the Boston area," Gross said. "We're connecting personal and private interests with social and political ones."
The UHL allows members to advertise their workshops and presentations through its MeetUp Group. It's free to join, and any member can attend or host a workshop.
The UHL sponsored a medicinal workshop and a soap-making event in October.
Spiritual herbalist Iris Weaver hosted a class at the Harvest Co-Op in Cambridge. Weaver taught attendees how to make tinctures, oils and tea blends.
Weaver, a Wenham resident, said she has always been passionate about plants. "I have loved plants all my life," Weaver said. "I want to help people learn more about what plants [provide] for us and what we can do for plants."
As an herbalist, Weaver teaches the importance of ecological sustainability in her workshops. "If people start to learn about plants, they will start to care for them," Weaver said. "They will start to take better care of Mother Earth."
But the UHL makes its presence felt in other local areas as well.
The UHL gave a series of do-it-yourself demonstrations at the Union Square Farmers Market in Somerville. The UHL booth featured presentations that taught people how to make cordials, how to grow and juice wheat grass and how to make their own soap.
Medford resident Tom Capetanelis said he visited the UHL's booth to learn how to make soap. "It was cool seeing someone explaining and demonstrating [soap-making]," Capetanelis said. "It makes it a little more accessible for us to try at home."
Capetanelis said he and his wife enjoy do-it-yourself projects. He said he has made his own lip balm and candles in the past. "It's fun for us," Capetanelis said. "It makes us a little more in touch with our material possessions."
Gross said the UHL will soon shift to a group leadership, a move which could have long-term ramifications. "We're trying to put together an aggregation of events in related areas," Gross said. "[A group leadership] should help us grow on a national level."
Gross said she anticipates the group will grow as it continues to promote ecological sustainability in the Boston area. "We encourage everyday actions and processes to shift our own behavior," Gross said. "Active participation in the community will lead to a shift in consciousness."
I could watch Schindler's List and still be happy after raeding this.