Just Coffee

Instead of purchasing another lame holiday gift for the person who has too much already, try something different this year. The Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project is offering the following alternative: Purchase of one of the following kits for a family or community in Timor-Leste in the name of your friend, colleague, loved one or yourself. Your gift will directly assist to empower people across the globe to sustainably create their own system of food sovereignty.

ROMIT Group:

From the vegetable seeds that we have received, we organized ourselves in order to prepare a site as a vegetable garden.

1. First we cut/turn the earth.

2. Second we fence the site.

3. Third we plant the vegetable seeds.

The Seed Project is looking for people willing to Adopt-A-Box. We now have over 20 (twenty) boxes of seeds waiting to be mailed to Timor-Leste (East Timor). The cost per box to send Global Priority Flat Rate is $37 per box. These boxes hold approximately ten (10) pounds of non-hybrid seeds which have been donated by various individuals and seeds companies. These seeds are desperately needed by the Timorese.

With the Adopt-A-Box program you as an individual will receive a photograph of the box which you have adopted, as well as a 12oz. bag of coffee compliments of Just Coffee. And you will be able to check updates on our website to see pictures of people growing food, directly benefiting from your generous donation. Please think of this as not only a box, but as a way of helping people desperately in need of food sovereignty.

To Adopt-A-Box please email Mark Bystrom: thespark (at) justcoffee.net, or call Just Coffee (608) 204.9011.
Just Coffee
1129 E. Wilson
Madison, WI 53703
please make checks payable to Family Farm Defenders

August 15, 2007

Gardeners of Eden East Timor Seed Project Update:

Greetings! We hope this letter finds you well. Below is an update of work being done by the Gardners of Eden Seed Project here in East Timor. Please read on to find out more about all of the hard work we have been doing and about how to donate to this important project! Photos of the project can be found here.

Hello everyone.

I received the following very generous email from Mr. Emmett Schulte in Madison. He has many seeds that are available to be donated to the East Timor Seed Project but just needs someone who is willing to sort them (to eliminate most flowers and hybrids, only mailing the fruits, vegetables, and herbs), box them, and mail them to me in East Timor. I must admit it does take some time, but it is also a lot of fun and you may be able to skim a few seeds for your own personal garden as payment for your time.

Dear Friends,

Planet Ark - Gardeners of Eden Project: Fundasaun Harii Au-Metan in collaboration with Just Coffee and Family Farm Defenders is seeking support for its work in sustainable agriculture and Permaculture in East Timor/Timor-Leste!

The ancient gardening traditions of local people have maintained resilient agricultural production systems for several thousand years. These gardeners have resisted the destructive Portuguese and Indonesian colonisations which reduced their forest production base, and have adopted and adapted to the new crops and technologies brought by each period. This project seeks to support the enrichment of the systems that have survived and proven their viability, as well as the introduction of improved intensive poly-cultural systems techniques.

We are now seeking vegetable and fruit seeds for trials, grow out and multiplying, in both coastal lowlands (small urban sites and ‘village farm’ in Dili) and the cooler mountain regions where coffee is the main commercial crop. We have already tested several new varieties of brassica, lettuce and other salad greens with great success, and this year want to expand our trials, as well as the number of families participating in seed multiplication.