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turtle_logo_transparent-square-small.pngMission Statement

Our mission is to celebrate the connection between

personal health and wild lands.

 We promote sustainable practices honoring wild wisdom of nature and the health of the community. Examples of our work include growing, harvesting and preparing local, wild and living food through our Turtle Cafe open for lunch every Tuesday and Friday, educating about the great values of the wild edible and medicinal abundance available in our area, providing local microgreens and wild food products for the public schools, restaurants and stores and providing organic land stewardship throughout the Southwest through the project,                        Bee Happy Lands.

Current Events

As our mission and project continues to gather momentum, we offer our gratitude to all the generosity over the years that makes us who we are. We have been gifted by so much generous volunteer service from our community and we are so grateful!  Because of this amazing support, we are able to serve our community so well! We are so appreciative of all the generous efforts of so many people who have dedicated their time, their knowledge and their life force towards the health of body, community and earth.

Thank you to everyone for the support and joy and celebrations of local wild and living foods! Thank you for participating in creating health for ourselves, our community and the planet!  Thank you for being alive and connecting to the vital life force of nature's wisdom!  One way that we serve our community is through celebrating! Come Celebrate with us!

We continue to serve a delicious, local, wild and living foods lunch from 11:11am - 2:22pm every Tuesday and Friday.  We continue to grow local microgreens for our community. We continue to offer education in the fields of sustainable living, permaculture, holistic health, edible and medicinal plants. Our continued passion and purpose directs us to commit to quality of life for all beings. In deep appreciation, the Turtlesturtle_logo_transparent-square-small.png

 

Turtle Cafe Lunch Days~ every Tuesday and Friday all winter! Our cafe is in the back patio at 848 East 3rd Ave. in Durango. We offer lunch all year round!  Come inside to our greenhouse on cold winter days to enjoy the fresh oxygen from our growing microgreens and the sunny warmth coming through the windows!  We also serve outside in the patio when the weather allows!

We can deliver lunches! 

Please give us a call at 970-247-8395

 

Live Music at the Turtle Cafe on special Tuesdays and Fridays at 848 East 3rd Ave in  the back patio from 11:11am - 2:22pm. 

 

The Regenerative Landscaping Speaker Series

May - September 2023 | Durango, CO

Please join us each month this May through September for an amazing line-up of experts as they
educate and guide us into chemical-free, regenerative landscaping practices.
Amid growing concerns in the West over water, along with drought and wildfires, landscaping that
proactively focuses on soil health, water retention, and increasing biodiversity is safeguarding our
future! Regenerative landscaping will save water (and money!), as well as being healthy for all of us, our pets, and our local wildlife!

Speakers:

Monday, May 1st
Katrina Blair of Turtle Lake Refuge and Bee Happy
Lands @ 6:00pm at the Durango Public Library
(Program Rm #2)

Wednesday, June 21
Brooke G. Safford of Blooming Landscape & Design,
LLC @ 6:00pm at the James Ranch
Thursday, July 20
Taylor Hanson and Chris Cullaz of Table to Farm
Compost @ 6:00pm at the Durango Public Library
(Program Rm #2)
Monday, August 7
Jonathan Bartley and Adrian Lacasse of
DuranGoats @ 6:00pm at the James Ranch
Tuesday, September 26
Mandy Magill of Project Dung Beetle and Get
R.E.A.L. Food @ 6:00pm at the James Ranch

 

Special Pre- Dandelion Festival Event

Friday, May 5th, 2023 

Wild Food Dinner at 6:00pm and Key Note Speaker at 7:30pm

Key Note Speaker - Jaqueline Freeman, author of 'Song of Increase'

will provide a slide show movie and be available on zoom

for questions and answers afterwards.

Jaqueline Freeman will speak on behalf of the pollinators

and the significance of our relationship to nature and the honeybee.

~ $44 Donation

~ Includes wild food dinner and presentation 

 Join us for a special night starting with a wild foods dinner by chef's Katrina Blair and Jon Paasch. Menu includes: fresh tapped Box Elder sweet sap water, local spring Nettles soup, Curly Dock wraps with seed cheese and beet salsa, Wild Lambsquarter and Dandelion Green salad with a sweet and creamy chokecherry dressing and fresh honey comb and bee bread for dessert. Following the meal, Jaqueline Freeman will offer a presentation.

Make Reservations here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wild-food-dinner-and-hum-of-creation-presentation-on-bees-tickets-618610389327

 

Saturday, May 6th - Dandelion Festival! 

~ Join us for a fun local festival honoring the spring wild greens, wild pollinators and honeybees, community health, organic land stewardship and joy in every way! Live music, local food, thrift store, may pole dance, kids activities, and education offerings.

~ Free Event

~ Held at Rotary Park in Durango, CO

~ 1pm - 9pm

~ Visit Dandelionfestivaldurango.org for more information

 

May 12th - Bee Happy Lands Organic Land

Stewardship Workshop

  ~ Held at Delany Nature Preserve in Carbondale, CO

  ~ Educational workshop from 9:00am - 3:00pm

 

May 13th - Dandelion Day in Carbondale  

Turtle Lake Refuge will have a booth at Dandelion Day in the town Park 

Katrina Blair's is offering an educational talk on Bee Happy Lands at 2:00pm

Link to Carbondale article on Organic Land Stewardship and the decision not to spray at the Nature Park.  

https://soprissun.com/making-peace-with-turtle/

 

Wild Hearts Women's Gathering

June 2-5, 2023

Held at the Deer Hill Expeditions in Mancos, CO

Wild Heart Women’s Gathering is a call to gather in the shared rewilding of our true feminine essence. In reconnecting to the earth and sharing our earned and inherited skills, our intention is to further the evolution of our collective feminine wisdom. With dance, yoga, ritual, feasting, song, sensuality and herbal medicine, we send out a primal call to join in this celebration.

For more information :wildheartwomensgathering@gmail.com

https://www.awakenedheart.org/wildheartwomensgathering/wild-heart-womens-gathering-2023

 

Wild Plant Fest - Paonia, CO

~ September 8th - 10th, 2023

~ Held at Big B's in Paonia

~ Teachers include Katrina Blair, Briana Wiles and Kat Mackinnon

~ Call (970)765-6432 or email Rooted Apothecary: rooted-apothecary.com for more information

 

Local Wild Living Soil Program

Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants * Permaculture * Holistic Health * Nutrition

~ Fall Program - September 19th -October 26th, 2023                       

         ~ 88 Hour Program                                             

         ~ Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:00am - 12:00pm

         ~ Two Overnight Field Trips 

          ~ Suggested Donation - $888 for all classes 

          ~ Drop In Fee $33 for classes

~ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-wild-living-soil-spring-program-tickets-523986948067

 

 

 

For questions, please contact Katrina at turtlelakerefuge@yahoo.com or call 970-317-0988.

Katrina Blair's speaking events, classes and walkabouts will be updated as they are booked.  Please email us turtlelakerefuge@yahoo.com at if you would like her to come to your area for a slide show, a wild food feast, a plant walk or multi-day wild food walkabout. 
 
Tickets to our upcoming events, when available, can be purchased on our EventBrite: http://turtlelakerefuge.eventbrite.com
 
 

 

 

Attached Files   

2022 dandelion flyer.doc turtlelakerefuge Feb 11, 2022 1.11 MB
wild 16 plant display.jpg turtlelakerefuge Nov 12, 2021 2.49 MB