The downtown Nevada City Farmer’s Markets were well-attended by locals and tourists alike.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see familiar faces and meet new folks as well.  The markets will continue through the end of October.  I hope they resume next year!

Thank you to Reinette Senum of PowerUp-NC and Kathy Hillis of Mountain Pastimes for supporting the musicians at the markets.

More about Reinette Senum from PowerUp-NC.org:

Reinette has had the great fortune of living most of her life in Nevada County since 1971, graduating from Nevada Union High School in 1984. In 1989 Reinette trained with the International South Pole Expedition and continued her pursuit of extreme cold adventures in the early nineties by founding and organizing the American Women’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Though Reinette did not participate on the actual expedition, the team of five women successful reached the South Pole in 1993 becoming the first team of women to reach the South Pole on foot.

In preparation for her largest endeavor, Reinette commercial fished in the Alaskan Gulf as well as trained Iditarod sled dogs before embarking on her most grueling adventure; a solo winter crossing of Alaska. It was in 1994 when Reinette became the first woman to cross Alaska alone while filming the endeavor, herself, for National Geographic. Highlights of this trek include cross-country skiing 600 miles down the frozen Yukon River pulling a 160 lb sled in -55F temperature, building a canoe in an Athabascan native village and paddling 900 miles after spring break-up. She completed her 1,500-mile journey in 4 months and 6 days. Reinette has traveled throughout 50 countries, summiting various mountains along the way such as Mt Rainier, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. McKinley. Other previous pursuits include back packing around the world for 14 months on ten dollars a day, trekking across East Africa alone where she traveled for a month without money and most recently volunteering twice in the Hurricane Katrina area, rebuilding and rescuing abandoned animals.

For the past twenty years Reinette has been a motivational speaker for many schools and groups throughout the west coast. Reinette gave the 2007 commencement speech at the Nevada Union High School and most recently spoke at the Planning and Conservation League’s 2008 Symposium in Sacramento with keynote speaker, Attorney General Jerry Brown.

LOCAL COMMUNITY ACTION-

Feeling overwhelmed two years ago by the thought of global warming, oil depletion and animal extinction Reinette Senum decided she had to take some local action regarding her concerns over these large global issues. Reinette held her first conference May of 2005 on Oil Depletion recruiting international and local oil experts to speak on the matter.

Following this conference Reinette was hoping to hold a monthly think-tank to address these concerns, but following the first think-tank with 40 participants it was decided not to have hold the think-tank monthly, but weekly until the group could figure out what steps needed to be taken. This weekly think-tank continued for 8 consecutive months until the organization APPLE (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) was born. APPLE is dedicated to educating the community on the effects of oil depletion and global warming and the benefits of a strong, local economy.

Since then, with the concerted efforts of these community members, APPLE has successfully launched projects, public forums, assembled workgroups, monthly public meetings (APPLE Town Hall Meetings), events, and an active website, (http://apple-nc.org), a Clean Power Co-op, PowerUp-NC, and Peak Moment television showcasing sustainable solutions.