山梨富士山

Relief Eco Villages

The Earth Embassy teams are working on a set of business plans for relief villages. Combining our eco homes and organic farm developement, we are trying to amp up the schedule and funding asap now to get 2 locations going by late spring/early summer if possible.

1) Shojiko Reformed Village – to prepare 10-15 homes, with 5 small “cottage industry” shops (soap making, paper making, etc), and job training for new residents

1a) Gelato Farm – at Solar Cafe, to offer jobs and farm training for new Shojiko residents, and make a small fruit & herb farm business incubator

2) Mini Farm Home Village – mix of shipping container base / vinyl greenhouse / recycled materials. Plan is to build 30 to start, centered around a farm/education center. Hopefully locate first one in Tsunami afflicted areas, but be able to offer to other rural communities willing to develop a village to take refugee families.

3) Farm/Cottage Industry Education Team – to establish, manage and train new staff for each location. In addition to the small businesses we can set up oursleves to start, we want to send out consultants, community builders, branding experts etc to work with new residents, help identify local talent and specialties, and empower residents to re-establish their lives/careers.

Our most immediate need for funding is to get one demo Mini Farm Home built asap, so we can have one ready to show as we approach other big investors/partners to work together to get a proper village of these going. Costs will come down as we ramp up production and gather companies willing to donate materials, containers etc. For the first prototype we need about 3M jpy to get built quick, and produce some promo materials, catalog, etc.

Anyone willing to help with these projects should contact us at info@earthembassy.org
We are fielding a lot of mail, so please indicate your interest in the subject line.

山梨富士山

Organic Mint Chocolate Strawberry Tofu Cheesecake!!!

New on the Solar Cafe menu….this cake is made with organic mint and strawberries grown on our own farm, and fair trade organic 100% cocoa powder from Alishan. The “cheese” cake is made with tofu instead of cheese, so it is waaaay healthy too!

山梨富士山

Shojiko Kitchen – Classic Japanese meets Ikea

Reforming this kitchen was the biggest adventure of the whole house. We pushed out the south wall into the garden, and added big windows to let the light in and a deck next to the pond. The heated cherry floors were the only place in the house where we used imported wood; every where else is Japanese cedar. The real charm was when we exposed the beams above the drop ceiling that had been added. We polished them up and had to configure the new room to leave them visible. I really didn’t want to use wall-board behind the counter, so we ended up doing plaster by hand and added a piece of glass we recycled from an old pinball machine above the stove to catch the grease and be easily cleanable. We also wanted to keep a traditional country feel, but make the kitchen easy to use, so we added Ikea cabinets with all the special shelves inside for pots and cutting boards, etc, and an electric induction range with a grill built in for fish and toast. The final touch was the cedar splash board which we custom fit under the windows and gave 4 coats of varnish to make it last.

山梨富士山

Handmade Staircase

This one was tricky.  The stairs in our restored Shojiko Home  (currently for sale ), had to fit in between the old beams, and not be too steep so as to allow easy access for kids or elderly.  We also wanted something with a massive feel, for solidity and to match the large structural beams of the home.   Akaike-san came up with this pine log solution.  On the side facing the entrance, the heavy stairs seems to float in the air, retaining lightness while giving strength at the same time.