Any Granger who would like to volunteer to help with hanging posters, door sales, set-up, clean-up, or drink sales, please contact Laura Litwin at: secretary@sebastopolgrange.org -OR – 707-331-4400. Thank you!

At our June general meeting, Grangers and guests enjoyed a fabulous potluck feast that included entrees provided by the Grange from Inca’s Peruvian Cuisine in Sebastopol.

Following our meal, we heard from our Worthy President, Peter, who expressed our deep gratitude to two people; Rick Theis for his generous donation for improvements in the kitchen, including an induction oven, and Michelle Price for contributing her time and knowledge on our Scholarship Workshops. Rick and Michelle are pictured above.

Grange musician Peter Schurch and “The Sugar Bomb Blueberries” entertained us with George Gershwin’s “Summertime”.

Our speaker was Barbara McChesney, from the Rotary Club of Windsor, who represents a global environmental initiative called End Plastic Soup. Barbara shared a presentation about plastic pollution, including stories of hope and resilience. She encouraged us all to take transformative action steps and rethink daily decisions.

Announccements included a call for someone with design skills to help us improve our Sebastopol Grange logo. Contact Peter at president@sebastopolgrange.org if you can help with this. Also, we would benefit from a Grange member who wants to volunteer to head up the Tend & Befriend gardening program, where a group of volunteers visits another member’s home garden to help with the yard work. We need someone to coordinate, please, which entails taking the names of people who do need the help. Scoping out the work that needs to be done and soliciting volunteers.

Two new members were inducted tonight: Pamela Augustine and Suzel Deer – Welcome!

Everyone is invited to join us for our monthly Potluck and General Meeting, which is on the last Tuesday of every month.

Attendees at The Mycological Association’s Mushroom Art Fair on Sunday, June 21, enjoyed local mushroom art, hands-on activities and workshops, food, and more! Wilder Herbertson talked about mushroom dyes and where to find the mushrooms that contain these magical pigments.
Watch our website to find out about other events at the Sebastopol Grange! If you’re not already getting our newsletters, sign up here, so you never miss anything!.

Sundays, June 7 and 14, 9:30am to 10:30am.

The hour of labor calls us. Tend and Befriend our Grange’s own backyard hedgerow.
Those who can lend a hand the next two Sundays, June 7 and 14, 9:30am to 10:30am, please join us!

Planted in 2020, tended by many of us these past years, the Pollinator hedgerow has experienced benign neglect this past season. The grass is tall and demands our attention. Many hands can make fast work of the weeds. We begin to prep for fall planting with regular work days now. And keep fire-safe.

The front metal containers also need TLC and some new plants. We have consulted with the Sonoma County Beekeepers for most of our plant choices.
The containers in front are more accepting of garden box plants.

Bring your own gloves and favorite hand tools. Anyone with a weed whacker who is up to that chore could help clean up where Jorge hasn’t reached yet on back ditch. The Grange has some shovels and tools, but much of the necessary work is pulling tall grass out of the planted area.

Sunday works for this month for some of us. We plan to schedule a monthly Tend our Grounds on days that work for many.

See you at the Grange
Laura Shafer on behalf of the Grace Flora and our Grounds Committee

At our May General Meeting, our Chaplain Lawrence began the meeting with a beautiful blessing.
Grangers and friends enjoyed a fabulous potluck feast that included dishes from Turmeric Cuisine of India, arranged by Meryl .
Craig Mason from Love Choir and The Hubbub Club lead us in song, and reminisced about Hello Dolly at SRJC.
Local historian Steve Thomas gave a detailed talk about the history of land ownership in our county and useful information about all climate related facts for our unique and beautiful Sonoma County..

Worthy Master, Brothers, and Sisters,

We Gather tonight as Patrons of Husbandry, Grangers
As the summer sun warms the land, let us welcome the blessings of the Goddesses who guide our work:
May The Goddess Flora blanket our fields with the magic of blooming herbs, feeding the bees and lifting our spirits.
May The Goddess Ceres bless the seeds and crops we plant, nurturing their roots deep into our living soil food web.
May The Goddess Pomona watch over our orchards, promising a sweet and abundant harvest to come.
We resolve tonight to labor for the good of our Order, our community and all living beings.
Let our work tonight enhance the comforts and attractions of our homes, foster mutual understanding and cooperation, and hasten the good times coming.
May Grangers who travel or wander, May the Goddesses protect our Brothers and Sisters on the open road. Bring them safely back to our circle, their spirits recharged by new horizons.
Let us fill our summer days with
the medicine music,
scent of lavender,
and the sounds of laughter.
Let our Grange remain a sanctuary of radical hospitality, beautiful harmonies, and joyful stewardship.
Blessed Be.

Grange Meeting 5/26/2026 Sebastopol California

In order to create our Granger Garden next year, we are rounding up plants to propagate and materials for the planting. If you can bring in cuttings or root divisions of the following list of perennial plants, we can get them propagated. If you have volunteer fruit trees or smaller fruit trees you don’t want anymore, dig them up and bring them in to be potted temporarily until planting day. Additional things we are gathering are old pots for propagating, potting soil, wood chips from tree services and old bricks to line out planting areas. Bring these items to the produce exchanges. Bricks and wood chips will be stored at the back of the hall near the old cement steps.

Our garden wish list

Grape vines -any variety
geraniums (any variety)Roses-bush and climbing
iris-Dutch or bearded
Daffodils and other bulbs
succulents-smaller varieties
Shasta daisy starts
Mexican wedding flower starts
Calla lily
Canna lily
Bird of paradise
lily of the Nile
Society garlic (flowering )
Salvia
other flowering perennials
Fruit trees and nut trees including apple, apricot, almond, avocado, all citrus, cherry, fig, guava, nectarine, olive, pear, plum, persimmon, pomegranate, and walnut.

Questions: Email Vi Epperson at vionaepperson (at) gmail (dot) com

At our April General Meeting, we enjoyed a fabulous potluck dinner! The Grange provided  appetizers and entrees made by award-winning Chef Hannah Romanowsky, creator and host of the television series Dancing in the Kitchen.

Grange Musician Peter Schurch and the Free Range band performed “Don’t Fence Me In” and “The Grange Cheer”.

President Peter Rogers recognized Past President Lawrence Jaffe for his service. “Thank you Lawrence for all of your amazing work! Our Grange would not be what it is today without all of your dedication, networking and love for our community.”

Our speaker was Evan Wiig from Community Alliance with Family Farmers, who talked about challenges to small farms, such as climate change and federal cuts to local food programs. We also learned about CAFF’s origins, and inspiring actions, from grassroots advocacy in the capitol to celebrations of 2026 Year of the Woman Farmer, as declared by the UN.
Evan invited Grangers and friends to join CAFF’s Friend of the Farmer program, volunteer to help at the Agrarian Games at the Gravenstein Apple Fair, attend Howl & Harvest, a farm-to-table dinner on May 3, or join CAFF Sonoma County 

Everyone is invited to join Grangers and friends at our monthly General Meeting on the last Tuesday of the month.

Dear Grange Members,

We are considering a Grange Gleaning Pilot Program. What’s gleaning? It’s the act of collecting leftover, excess, or unharvested crops from farmers’ fields or orchards. Our first step is to survey members only to see if we have people in the Sebastopol Grange who meet this criteria:

• You are a Grange Member
• You have fruit trees or veggies that produce more than you can use and you would like to donate surplus to our community
• You are physically unable to complete the surplus harvest on your own and would welcome a glean team to come to your property

If you meet the above criteria and would be interested in being a part of the Grange Gleaning Pilot Program please send an email of interest to produce@rahus.org

Our Rationale: Within our grange community there are many who appreciate gifted, fresh produce, and there are also Grange members that grow surplus produce and would like to share but need help harvesting and distributing.

A Sebastopol Grange Gleaning program would address both issues as well as be a good addition to the existing Grange food for all programs.

Photo: Contra Costa Fruit Rescue (Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)