Creating a Children's Garden - Moms Night Out

We enjoyed a lovely evening at Nature by Design, a family-owned nursery in Alexandria, with a discussion led by Lisa Caprioglio of Aldertree Garden. A former Montessori teacher, Lisa gave us some wonderful ideas about how to create a magical space for our children. One idea was to create a circle of plants that will grow tall to create an enclosed space proportional to the child's size. We also discussed edibles and a number of other ideas for taking advantage of children's natural sense of wonder using native plants.

Thanks to Natalie for organizing, to Lisa for coming all the way from Takoma Park, and to Nature by Design for hosting us on a beautiful evening! We all walked away with lots of ideas, some of us with a few plants, and everyone having enjoyed the transition through twilight to darkness under a lovely crescent moon. How inspiring!

"Local Food" presentation inspires!

We had an amazing turnout for our April meeting on "Local Food: Farms and Markets." Thank you to all of our speakers who traveled so far to be part of our meeting! Christy Przystawik and Chef Tom Przystawik, Food Matters Restaurant; Becky and Lawrence Latane, Blenheim Organic Farm/Gardens; Laurie Smith and Mark Reinhardt, Local Flavor Farm Buyer's Club; and Nancy Pritchard, Smith Meadows

Thank you also to all the businesses that sent materials for our information table, to AUMC for hosting us, as always (even though we spilled out of the meeting room with such a large crowd!), and to all of the wonderful businesses that donated refreshments and prizes for our event. The food was enjoyed by all, and at the end of the night, we gave away plants, restaurant gift certificates, and plenty of other goodies!

Notes will be available to members soon, and resources can be emailed upon request to holisticmomsarlalex (at) gmail (dot) com. We have links to local resources as well as a lists of farmers markets, CSA opportunities, and sources of pasture-raised meat/milk.

Thanks to the following businesses that donated to this event:
Blenheim Organic Gardens, Elevation Burger, Equinox, Food Matters, Grounded Coffee, MOMs Organic Market, Nood Food Café, Nourish Market (Kennedy’s Natural Foods), The Organic Butcher of McLean, Polyface Farms, Potomac Massage Training Institute, Pork Barrel BBQ, Restaurant Eve, Smith Meadows Farm, St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub

HMN at Joint American Homeopathic Conference

Our chapter helped staff the HMN booth at the recent Joint American Homeopathic Conference, sponsored in part by one of the HMN's National sponsors, the National Center for Homeopathy. Two of our members got to attend part of the conference, and boy, was there a lot to learn! And so many wonderful people to meet! What a great event!