January 2013 Workshop Leader

Kristine Wagner graduated with honors from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a bachelor's degree in Public Health and Spanish language. She first experienced Ecuador in the summer of 2011 with the AMP/CFI team, where she learned about the oil industry and its influence on the health of the population as a part of the Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship. After visiting with the Secoya community during that trip, she directed her research toward the Secoya and their ongoing transition from traditional plant-based to Western medicine. She returned to Ecuador in January of 2012 to continue this research, living in the community and conducting interviews about the Secoya experience at the intersection of development, healthcare, and culture. Her role in this course is to use what she knows about traveling and oil issues in Ecuador to help others to expand their world, think globally, and connect them to key people and groups in Ecuador to foster international collaboration. Participate with her in the course Oil and Health in the Amazon in January 2013. See http://ecuador2013.22slides.com/ for more details and register here http://www.cloudforest.org/education/courses/register/

Permaculture Podcast Interview

Thanks to Ryan Unmack for inviting me to do this really fun interview on his bombastic Permaculture Podcast! http://permaculturepodcast.org/freeda-burnstad-cloud-forest-institute-permaculture-podcast-episode-55

CFI/AMP Summer Course Info Film

Amazon Mycorenewal Project from John Michelotti on Vimeo.

Current Land Purchase in Cambugan

AMP Spring Retreat and Workshop at MendoDragon

The date is set for March 24th and 25th. The weekend will include a community presentation and fundraising event, a public workshop on mushroom cultivation using brewery waste, and a planning retreat for AMP members. Contact us if you are interested in presenting and/or volunteering.

Volunteers, city gov., native shrooms here we go!

Hola Amigos,

Activities are marching right along in Mindo. We currently have 2 volunteers, 2 more arrive on Monday, another on Friday and more later in the month. We are reorganizing the mushroom cultivation to try and reduce the infestation from insects and other slimy, fuzzy pests. My personal opinion is that we should not do bags and just do logs. We'll see what our group of minds can come up with in the next couple of months.

We have harvested and dried 2 gallons of reishi and eat shitake and oysters daily.  Now that the rainy season is here there are 'shrooms popping out everywhere. We are trying to identify, photograph and catalog what we find and culture what might be good food or medicine. Today the volunteers Katie and Stephen are attempting to culture native reishi and oyster.  

Other developments onsite include 30 quail newly laying eggs. We are starting to sell/gift plants from the nursery and are looking to expand the plant cultivation.

I have been doing more community outreach and we are making some inroads with the local government so that volunteers can also be placed with the municipality, the child care facility and new tech lab. There is a wildlife rescue center that we look forward to supporting with volunteer energy too. We have arranged a number of homestay partnerships with local families for those who choose that option.

Now a big effort in advertising must begin and I am looking at connecting more with Spanish schools and other programs that bring volunteers to Ecuador. I continue updating the website and hope that I'll be able to bring in an intern/volunteer that can help with the admin/PR side of things.

Now that we have wifi here at the facility I hope to blogg more often, please consider subscribing and I'd enjoy your feedback.

Love and light in 2012!

Freeda Alida Burnstad