Mid-September Newsletter         In This Issue 1. Upcoming Tours! \* Tours with the Commonwealth Club - Re-Thinking Waste in the Bay Area, Oc

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Mid-September Newsletter

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Knoll Farm & Smith Family Farm Pumpkin Festival on Brentwood Farm to Fork Tour

 
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Downtown Berkeley Green Walking Tour

 
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Cheese Tour with The Commonwealth Club

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Re-Thinking Waste Tour with The Commonwealth Club

 
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Slow Money SF Waterfront Food Tour

 
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Slow Money Moveable Feast: Gather, Five & Revival Kitchen & Bar

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In This Issue

1. Upcoming Tours!
* Tours with the Commonwealth Club


- Re-Thinking Waste in the Bay Area, October 12th
- Organic Cheese Tour, October 22nd Brentwood Family Farm to Fork (Pizza!) Tour, October 8th
(especially great for families!)
Tours in conjunction with Slow Money National Gathering at Fort Mason


- Green San Francisco Waterfront Food Tour, October 11th
- Moveable Feast Sustainable Restaurant Tour of Berkeley, October 11th Downtown Berkeley Green Walking Tours

2. News and Updates
* Four Course Form Tour with Whole Foods Tour in Marin
* Berkeley High School Job and Internship Tour

* Chancellor’s Grant, Berkeley Unzipped, and The Green Initiative Fund
* Our fabulous intern Erica lands a job!

* Google Grant

3. Internships available with BAGT!

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Upcoming Tours

Tours with the Commonwealth Club - Oct. 12th and 22nd

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BAGT is now partnering with the prestigious Commonwealth Club to offersome very exciting tours!

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1. Rethinking Waste in the Bay Area, October 12th

One person’s garbage is another one’s gold. On this full day tour, experience how waste is transformed into valuable products through creative re-use and recycling methods. Meet the leaders who are responsible for keeping tons of reusable materials out of landfills. We’ll visit transfer stations: Urban Ore, Omega Salvage, as well as other innovative models of sustainability. Join the tour in SF or Berkeley. 


TIME: Arrive to Ferry Building at 8:30 am. Bus departs at 9 am. Staff will have signs for BAGT (Bay Area Green Tours). OR you can meet in Berkeley at 9:30 am. Return approx. 4:30 pm to Berkeley and 5 pm to SF.
MEET: SF Ferry Building’s Northwest exit or Berkeley's David Brower Center (2150 Allston Way, Berkeley).
COST: $120 Members of the Commonwealth Club and Non-members. Includes bus transportation and a box lunch 

Pre-registration is required.

Buy tickets here!

For more information, click here

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Cheese Tasting at Nicasio Cheese Creamery

2. Organic Cheese Tour, October 22nd

Learn about the craft of local organic cheese making while touring in a comfortable bio-diesel bus through the scenic countryside of Marin and Sonoma counties. Visit goat, cow and sheep dairies and explore barns, milking parlors and cheese-making facilities, while engaging in dialogue with farmers and cheese makers. There are opportunities to taste and purchase cheese, of course! A healthful organic picnic lunch is included.


*TIME:* Check-in 9 am. Depart SF Club Office 9:30 am. Return 5:30 pm.

MEET: SF Club Office at 595 Market St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco
COST: $125 Members of the Commonwealth Club. $135 Non-members. Pre-registration is required.

Buy tickets here!

For more information, click here

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Brentwood Family Farm to Fork (Pizza!) Tour - Saturday, October 8th - Great for Families!

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The gorgeous Pumpkin Patch at Smith Family Farm

Enjoy a beautiful, bountiful day with family and friends at the peak of the autumn harvest! Spend time in the orchards, meet the farmers and tour their operations, take home your own fresh fruit and veggies right from the farms! Enjoy fresh pizza prepared by you!

TIME: Depart Berkeley 8:15 am. Return there between 5:00-5:30 pm.
MEET: Berkeley Pick Up/Drop Off: 8:15 am at Gather Restaurant, 2150 Allston Way (one block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station, in the David Brower Center).
SF and Walnut Creek pick ups and drop offs will also be available - details TBA.
COST: $65 Adult tickets, $32.50 Children's tickets (0-16 yrs). Includes Pizza & Pumpkin! Pre-registration is required.

SPECIAL FIRST TIME OFFER: If you organize a group of 10 people to come on the tour, you can come free!

Includes a hay ride, children's corn maze, pumpkin patch, live music, an antique tractor show, animals, bees, herbs, labyrinth, square dancing and a replica of a Miwok Indian Village!

Buy tickets here!

This kid-friendly adventure is presented by Bay Area Green Tours in cooperation with The Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust and The City of Brentwood.

For more information, click here

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In the Fig Forest at Knoll Farm

 
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Make Your Own Pizza at Knoll Farm

 
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Smith Family Farm Stand

DETAILED SCHEDULE:

Morning: Knoll Farm
Visit Rick and Kristie Knoll’s unique bio- dynamic, agro-ecosystem property and learn about the focus of their growing strategy - their soil. Stroll through the lush fig orchard where they often host weddings and dinners. The farm’s predominantly local customer baseincludes high-end restaurants like Chez Panisse, Gather, Olivetto's and the Ferry Building Farmer's Market. Learn about agriculture, the local food scene, and the work of great organizations such as the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust, Slow Food, Slow Money and much more.

Lunch: Everyone will have the opportunity to adorn their own personal pizza with farm-fresh ingredients which weʼll then bake in the impressive wood-fired oven that sits alongside their unique mosaic-tiled house.

Afternoon: Smith Family Farm
A fourth generation farm making the conversion to organic. We’ll be visiting during the peak of their pumpkin festival! This tour stop includes a hay ride, children's corn maze, pumpkin patch, live music, an antique tractor show, animals, bees, herbs, labyrinth, square dancing and a replica Miwok Indian Village! There will be u-picks available for tomatoes, pomegranates, and apples. You’ll be able to purchase additional produce at their beautiful farm stand and everyone will go home with their own pumpkin, included in the price of your tour.

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Labyrinth at Smith Family Farm

 
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Harvest Time In Brentwood

 
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Tours in Conjunction with the Slow Money National Gathering, October 11th

Bay Area Green Tours and Slow Money present two fabulous events in conjunction with the third Annual Slow Money National Gathering:

The San Francisco Waterfront Food Tour and Moveable Feast!

DISCOUNTED PRICE available for attending both the San Francisco Green Waterfront Tour ($89) and the Berkeley Moveable Feast ($85): $164

Slow Money SF Waterfront Food Tour

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Breakfast with Chef Kory Stewart at The Americano Restaurant

 
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Go Behind the Scenes at the Historic Ferry Building

 
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Lunch at Plant Restaurant with Chef Sascha Weiss

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Go behind the scenes at the Ferry Building and the Farmer's Market

Green San Francisco Waterfront Tour - A Sustainable Walking Tour of the Embarcadero’s Green Businesses

The Waterfront Tour will bring participants to some of San Francisco’s premiere businesses that serve sustainable food and/or participate in sustainable business practices. It will begin at Hotel Vitale’s beautiful Americano Restaurant for breakfast with Chef Kory Stewart and presentations by leaders at the forefront of local food support systems. Next participants will tour the Ferry Building and Farmer’s Market with representatives of CUESA (The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) and the Marin and Brentwood Agricultural Land Trusts. There they will meet the farmers and vendors from Frog Hollow Farm, Far West Fungi, San Francisco Fish Company, and more. An all organic lunch will be served by Chef Sascha Weiss at The Plant on Pier 3, a solar powered restaurant featuring a living wall with a beautiful waterfront view.

This tour will give participants a unique perspective on how relevant sustainability is to San Francisco and the Slow Money Movement, which focuses on “bringing people together around a new conversation about money that is too fast, about finance that is disconnected from people and place, [and] about how we can begin fixing our economy from the ground up... starting with food.”

TIME:: Depart 9:15 am. Return 2:15 pm.
MEET: Restaurant Americano at the beautiful green certified Hotel Vitale, 8 Mission Street, San Francisco (easily accessible via BART’s Embarcadero Station)
COST: $89 includes breakfast, lunch, non-alcoholic drinks, tax and gratuity, tour presentations and networking

Buy tickets here

For more information, click here

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SF Waterfront

 
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Meet Sustainable Food Leaders at the Ferry Building Market

 
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Dining by the Water at the Plant Cafe on Pier 3

Slow Money Moveable Feast Berkeley

The Moveable Feast, October 11th

The Moveable Feast will be a unique downtown Berkeley walking tour visiting three model sustainable restaurants located within a three block radius, in a city some consider the epicenter for the US food movement. We’ll dine at Gather Restaurant, Five Restaurant and Revival Kitchen + Bar.

TIME: 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm
MEET: Gather Restaurant, 2200 Oxford Street, Berkeley (one block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station, in the David Brower Center)
COST: $85 includes appetizers, main course, dessert and coffee, non-alcoholic drinks, tax and gratuity, presentations and networking

Buy tickets here

The Slow Money Conference has had a fantastic turnout in the past and is highly anticipated this year. It will be a great opportunity to partake in field building, investing and social change. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.slowmoney.org/national-gathering/ or contact Willow Blish at willow@slowmoney.org.

"We must bring money back down to earth" - Woody Tasch

For more information, click here

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At Gather Restaurant (a Slow Money project) we’ll enjoy appetizers and a presentation by owner Ari Derfel, a founding member of Slow Money, and his partner Eric Fenster. Since the three featured restaurants are located a short walking distance from each other, this is sure to be a relaxed and delightful dining experience!

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At the second stop Chef Banks White of Five Restaurant, will present a family-style meal and a discuss shopping at local farmers markets, where he sometimes leads tours.
Located in the beautiful Hotel Shattuck Plaza in downtown Berkeley
this hotel was built in 1910 by the family of Francis Kittredge Shattuck and was Berkeley's first hotel. After undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation, this is Berkeley's newest boutique hotel.

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The last stop at Revival Kitchen + Bar will feature dessert with tea, coffee and a talk with Chef/Owner Amy Murray about the history of the restaurant and their sustainable practices.
Participants will indulge in a locally sourced, organic and relaxed meal while learning about Slow Money, Slow Food, local farms and food sources. They will also enjoy an opportunity to leisurely network (feel free to sit next to a new person at each stop!), while enjoying presentations by award-winning restaurant owners and chefs.

Buy tickets here

$85 includes appetizers, main course, dessert and coffee, non-alcoholic drinks, tax and gratuity, presentations and networking

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Downtown Berkeley Green Walking Tours

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Touring the David Brower Center & The Hub

 
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Rooftop Garden in Berkeley

 
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The Bike Station & Peddle Express

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Rainwater Catchment

See and meet Berkeley's local green leaders and entrepreneurs! Get behind the scenes and visit local pioneering and high-impact models of sustainability in one of the nation's environmental epicenters, located in the heart of the East Bay's Green Corridor.

We’ll tour The David Brower Center, The Hub, Gather Restaurant, the Bike Station, a rooftop community garden and Green Citizen, an e-waste recycling facility, and other cutting edge green businesses. Meet and interact with the leaders of the local green movement while enjoying an exclusive tour of their businesses.

Stay tuned for upcoming dates or contact us for group tours.

Also, check out recent press coverage and radio clips from our last Berkeley Walking Tour!
http://www.hearplanet.com/users/kellynpatterson
http://www.examiner.com/alternative-recreation-in-san- francisco/introducing-bay-area-green-tours-for-locals-and- visitors-alike-berkeley-based

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News and Updates

Four Course Farm Tour with Whole Foods Marin

On August 30th we launched our Four Course Farm Tour through Marin County, in conjunction with Whole Foods Markets, and the first one went fabulously! We visited Christine's Upper Crust Pies where we met with Christine who she told us how she got started and grew to a much larger scale, while still maintaining the same principles as when she began her company. Our first course consisted of numerous samples of her home made pies, ranging from gluten free apple pie to mixed berries and pecan. Then we went to AllStar Organics where we met with owners Janet and Marty. They talked about their relationship with The Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) and how the organization has helped them greatly, and supplied a delectable salad made from their own organic lettuces, onions, and cucumbers. Whole Foods catered a really yummy pasta salad lunch with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. The last stop and course was at Nicasio Valley Cheese Company where we got to visit the cows at their dairy and learned more about this company's particular style of cheese making. You can check out more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bayareagreentours/sets/72157627484998887/

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Berkeley High School Education Tours

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Ari Derfel, Intern Jessie Nicely and Green Academy Students at Gather

BAGT recently contracted with Berkeley High School to provide 16 more educational tours for the Green Academy. This program brings students behind the scenes in their fields of interest and allows them to learn directly from leaders in the sustainability community. We began with teacher Amanda Salzman's senior class, which toured the David Brower Center and spoke with environmental leaders about internship opportunities for the current school year. Stay tuned for updates!

Sponsors Sought for this Program!
*BAGT is looking for sponsors for these educational tours, to help us reach out to as many Bay Area students as possible. If you are interested in learning more about how to enable this effort, please contact info@bayareagreentours.org - THANK YOU in advance for your support!

For more information, you can also visit http://www.bayareagreentours.org/educational.html.

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Amanda Salzman's Classes

 
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Deborah Moore from Green Schools Initiative & Teacher Amanda Salzman

 
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Go BHS Yellow Jackets!

 
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Freight & Salvage Coffee House

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BAGT is Awarded a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Grant -- Berkeley Unzipped and the Green Initiative Fund

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Thanks to the Chancellor’s Grant and the Green Initiative Fund, we have received a very generous gift of $5,000 to help us provide more programs like Berkeley Unzipped -- our Green Tour Program for UC Berkeley which will be implemented in Fall, 2011 and 2012. Its goal is to connect Cal students to the Berkeley community: its green ventures, neighborhoods, independent retail stores, and the important role they play in keeping purchasing dollars circulating within our local economy. Students will meet people from non-profit organizations, pioneering sustainable businesses and the cutting-edge green tech industry -- with the goal of informing them about possible internships and jobs, as well as the valuable resources available to them as students and when they transition off campus. This tour will help students become acclimatized to the City of Berkeley -- highlighting green architecture, local resources, services, as well as historical and cultural points of interest in a variety of districts that would be of interest to students. Berkeley Unzipped is a partnership with Cal’s Green Initiative Fund, which provides funding for projects that reduce UC Berkeley's negative impact on the environment and make UC Berkeley more sustainable. Our Green Tour is also being produced in cooperation with the Downtown Berkeley Association, Buy Local Berkeley, The Berkeley Business District Network, The Sustainable Business Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce.

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Our fabulous Intern Erica Woll Lands her Dream Job!

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Erica (left) with Kitty Dolicni on Farm tour in Marin

Erica graduated with a degree in Land and Water Management from UC Davis and we've been blessed to have her as our Farm Tour Manager for the last eight months. After organizing a tour for Kaiser employees to Alhambra Valley Ranch, owner Tom Powers was so impressed with her that he offered her a job! Erica's currently helping the ranch obtain their organic certification, as well as designing a planting schedule for the ranch's first winter harvest.
Alhambra Valley Ranch produces olive oil, wine and vegetables, and is a wonderful spot to picnic in an olive grove which we hope to visit again soon. Congratulations Erica! We will miss you!

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Google Grant

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Bay Area Green Tours is pleased to announce that we have been accepted for a Google in kind grant, which makes it possible for us to reach a larger audience and spread the word about our mission and activities via free advertising -- THANK YOU, Google!

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Internship Opportunities

Learn about Bay Area green businesses, non-profits and farms while building up your resume, collaborating with a fabulous team, making valuable contacts, and getting hands on experience at a cutting edge organization! Bay Area Green Tours (BAGT) invites passionate and dedicated individuals to volunteer to help us further our mission of inspiring and educating people about sustainability.

We are looking for interns in the areas of: research, tour development, computer support, administrative support, fundraising and sponsorships, graphic design, marketing/outreach/pr, and multi-media documentation. Currently we need help with the following specific types of tours: agricultural (farms and urban gardens), architectural, re-thinking waste, energy and transportation, SF Waterfront, downtown Berkeley, UC Berkeley and Berkeley High School tours covering several of the topics listed here, including Green Collar jobs. Hours and location are flexible, though we require a minimum commitment of 5 hours a week, and interns must be comfortable structuring their own time.

To apply for our internships, please send your resume (if you have one) and a cover letter about yourself and your interests and qualifications to: Beth Gelfand: beth@bayareagreentours.org, with INTERN as the subject matter. Please indicate in your cover letter which of intern positions listed above would best suit your skills, interests and experience.

Bay Area Green Tours depends on interns and volunteers to forward our efforts to shine a spotlight on our area’s sustainability pioneers. We currently have a fun and committed team, and we really enjoy and appreciate each other!!! These positions provide on-the-job experience and networking opportunities, as they connect interns with some of the most inspiring sustainable businesses and entrepreneurs in the Bay Area.

While they are unpaid positions, they do provide substantial professional benefits including:
- Training and experience working with a unique local environmental non-profit organization and with a strong, spirited and dedicated team
- Experience researching and connecting with innovative and pioneering leaders in the expanding field of sustainability
- Improved research and communication skills and experience
- Community service credit for school, if desired
- Letter of recommendation/professional reference, based on performance
- Valuable job networking (One of our interns recently got a job because of a person she met through her work organizing a BAGT tour.)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION!

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MISSION STATEMENT:

To provide educational tours that demonstrate the sustainable economy in action, inspire support of local green businesses, and empower people to incorporate environmental responsibility and social justice into their personal and professional lives.

For more information visit: http://www.bayareagreentours.org/index.html

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SPONSORS

We are extremely grateful to our generous sponsors:

Better World- www.betterworldtelecom.com
East Bay Express- www.eastbayexpress.com/
CHEF news- chefnews.com
Art's Automotive- www.artsautomotive.com

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