Ojai screening of QUEEN OF THE SUN
July 11, 2011: Transition to Organics hosted the screening of an important documentary, Queen of the Sun, What Are the Bees Telling Us, at the Ojai Theater, with the filmmaker Taggart Siegel and Ed Begley Jr. hosting the event. Courtney Cole (Grounded by Nature), and Kim Ainsworth (owner of RedtailRanch) joined us in sponsoring the after event, which was a memorable community gathering honoring the bees and beekeepers. Organic and biodynamic farmers donated time, food and energy to prepare delicious dishes and treats for this incredible gathering.
The most notable results of our efforts is that we were instrumental in inspiring a Ventura County orchard to begin the transition to organics! The orchard manager also manages other orchards, and we are hopeful that the success of this first orchard will spur the manager on to begin transitioning the others!
Our Transition to Organics Team includes Steve Sprinkel (Farmer & the Cook, Gozo Farm), Matt Boeck (organic horticulturist and pest control advisor), and Gena Nonini (biodynamic expert and land manager for Marian Farms). They are available for consultation and advice on how to best begin and follow through with transitioning to organics.
Also, because of the Queen of the Sun event, we have a newly formed Beekeepers Club meeting monthly. 80 people signed up in the club and 40 actually showed up for the first meeting. The room was buzzing with enthusiasm in support of creating bee friendly, sustainable landscaping, backyards, orchards and agriculture in our valley.
Update: One of the attendees of the Queen of the Sun event (an orchard owner in San Diego County) who was inspired by the message of the movie, is in the first steps of transitioning! Also: a local orchard manager and a golf course manager are seeing results with the biodynamic compost soil amendment, and are moving ahead in testing larger areas on the properties they manage.
QUEEN OF THE SUN coming to Ojai July 11th, 12 th & 13th at the Ojai Theater- showing at 4:30pm
Queen of the Sun has received rave reviews, and is up for academy consideration. Box Office Magazine calls this important documentary “the feel-good advocacy movie of the year”. The New York Times gave it Critic’s Choice, calling it “Revelatory”. As well as Roger Ebert calling it, “A remarkable documentary that’s also one of the most beautiful nature films I’ve seen.”
We hope you will join us on July 11th, 12 th & 13th !
Our sponsors Transition to Organics & Malibu Biodynamic Compost, have put together a team of local organic and biodynamic experts to work with conventional growers who are interested in transitioning to a more sustainable practice. We are inviting the community of Ojai to experience the film at the Ojai Playhouse July 9th (invitation only event), 11th, 12th and 13th for 4:30pm daily screenings.
To watch the trailer: http://www.queenofthesun.com/about/trailer/.Questions or to get involved : 805-646-4294
Transition to Organics 