June 2007 Events

Could your next car be electric? Please join us tomorrow, Thursday, June 14, at 6:00 pm at F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies in Brunswick for "Meet the Electric Car: Test Drive and Discussion", featuring two "Neighborhood Electric Vehicles" -- the Miles Automotive ZX40 four-door mini-SUV model and the two-door sporty Zenn Car.

The cars will be available for test drives starting at 6:00 pm. Afterwards, Bill Drinkwater and Kal Rogers will lead a discussion.

Bill is the Director of EVMaine.org, a web site for electric vehicle enthusiasts in Maine. He has built and worked on many of his own vehicles and has worked on implementing ultra-safe materials for the automotive industry. He calls himself an "adventurer" having traveled extensively and worked as a cable car welder, an art gallery owner/artist and a gold miner.

Kal is the marketing director for Maine Electric Vehicles. Until recently he was a "sales activist" for Maine's Air America Radio affiliate, 870 The Voice. He has worked with progressive alternative businesses and organizations for more than 20 years with highlights as co-founder of Mad Horse Theater Company in Portland, founder of "The InnerGuide" publication, Chair of the Maine Peace Campaign (Peace Action Maine) as well as his time helping to keep Air America on the air here in Maine.

Alternative Energy Days at Mount Washington

Join us this weekend, June 17 and 18, on Mount Washington in New Hampshire for "Mt. Washington Alternative Energy Days," an exhibition featuring alternative energy experts and vendors. The highlight of the event will be the Alternative Vehicle Regatta.

The history of alternative energy on the Mt. Washington Auto Road began the late 1970’s with an Alternative Vehicle Regatta that featured a wide variety of alternative fuel vehicles testing their worthiness on the Auto Road. Because of mixed success of the homemade vehicles and declining interest, the Alternative Vehicle Regatta was last held in 1979. With the growing public consciousness of global warming, the Mt. Washington Auto Road has decided bring back the Alternative Vehicle Regatta as part of this new event to be held in the Glen at the base of Mt. Washington.

Summer Focus: Composting Goods & Supplies

Feed your garden with home-grown compost! We have the information and equipment you need to be successful this season making natural fertilizer from your kitchen and yard waste.

• Home Composting Made Easy
  Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for composting in your backyard. Instead of overburdening your local landfill, learn how to turn kitchen scraps, yard trimmings and paper scraps into "black gold" for your lawn and garden. 32 pages, paperback. $2.95

• Kitchen Compost Carrier
  Make your home composting program easier to manage. Perfect for short-term storage of kitchen scraps, this kitchen compost carrier features an optional carbon filter to eliminate odors. Made from 25% recycled plastic. Small (5.8 quart) size, $17.95; Large (9.6 quart) size, $24.95

• Compost Maker Microbes
  Put billions of beneficial organisms to work for you! Dormant until you expose them to air, water and a food source, this blend of microbes will energize soils, composts, and decomposing organic matter. One pound. $10.95

• Envirocycle Composter
  Make batches of rich compost simply by taking this unit for a spin. This conveniently-sized tumbler is perfect for those who want an easy way to turn batches of kitchen scraps into nutrients for vegetables, flowers and houseplants. Featuring a base that collects liquid for "compost tea", the Envirocycle is a great addition to a deck or back yard for anyone who wants a no-hassle, proven system for composting. Available in black or green. $159

• Sun-Mar 200 Composter
  This innovative outdoor composter is based on a brilliant concept: put yard and kitchen waste in one opening, and remove finished compost from another. Inside the unit are two drums: new material enters the outer drum, fills it up, tumbles into the inner drum, then comes out the middle as finished compost. So well-designed it makes you wonder why all composters aren't built his way! $299

• Sun-Mar 400 Composter
  Suitable for handling large volumes of yard waste, the 400 is the larger cousin of the Sun-Mar 200 Garden Composter. Same great features as the Sun-Mar 200, plus a crank to help turn it. $399

• Sunleaves Wormtopia
  Turn your kitchen scraps and yard waste into high quality worm castings with the help of up to 15,000 redworms (sold separately). Worms convert scraps and wastes to castings as they migrate upward to the next tray, while producing nutrient-rich "worm tea" that can be drawn from a spigot mounted on the bottom. $109.50; one pint of Maine-raised red worms, $6.00

• Sun-Mar Composting Toilets
  Choose a Sun-Mar composting toilet when you need to conserve water, minimize your environmental impact, upgrade your outhouse, extend the life of your septic system, or provide sanitary facilities where there is no plumbing. Perfect for seasonal camps; these toilets can freeze solid with no risk of pipes bursting. Composting toilets harness aerobic microbes to oxidize waste, resulting in carbon dioxide, water, and essential plant nutrients and minerals. 95% of the starting material evaporates, and the remainder is an NSF-certified safe soil amendment. Self-contained units start at $1345; we also stock the full line of Sun-Mar supplies.

F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies is located at 56 Maine Street in downtown Brunswick, Maine.