About

Jeff Brechbuhl

Hello! – My name is Jeff Brechbühl.  For the last few years, I’ve developed a community service platform for sharing sustainable resources focused within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through ECO STUDIO’s website.  As this work has evolved, I  have refocused my message  back to the roots of why I entered the sustainability movement – establishing and operating a sustainable social enterprise.

In 1997, before we were fortunate to have a farmers market in almost every neighborhood in D.C., I launched a delivery service of locally grown organic produce (in a CSA format with extra options).  The popularity of this service lead to securing funding to establish a community-oriented natural food market called The People Garden, in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, that specialized in local natural foods and connecting people through food to community issues and service.   Since then, I have learned a lot about what it means to operate a sustainble business and learned of a lot of exciting initiatives by social entrepreneurs. The structure I utilize for helping to share resources and holistically present how to be green within a full range of  activities is ECO Studio’s ”13-Pillars-of-Sustainability“.  I like to define “ECO” as “Entrepreneurs Creating Opportunities through Sustainable Management.”  I also am very eco-conscious in my personal lifestyle choices and share eco tips and highlight best practices of being green in our local community to encourage individuals to get involved with ECO Studio as well as support the local entrepreneurs committed to sustainability.

I’m currently developing a regional printed sustainability directory to reach more people in trying to help strengthen the local green economy and raise awareness of how to fully utilize all of the green resources within our region.

Lately, I am enjoying posting shorter entries of “Daily Eco Sightings” within our watershed (mostly of photos of places I visit or totally RANDOM sightings – I am seeing more and more interesting green business advertisements on my daily commute on 495) – and I’d love to see lots of people send in their sightings with a photo, location of the sighting and a brief comment as well as your name to info@ecostudio.info.   

I also share eco tips and reflect a lot on the simple things in life — like good local food and how working in my current “micro-farm” is good for the soul  –     So, read, enjoy, contribute and use what you learn today to inspire your future accomplishments and those of others, especially young people! 

A few of our prolific sunchokes!

 

Why “Prolific Sunchoke”?!  -

Last spring we planted three pieces of sunchoke tubers in the garden and yard; by September, we had several towering, flowering plants that had rooted over twenty pounds for roasting and chowder (YUM!).  We experimentally left a few pieces in the ground over winter, spread a few more around the yard, and we now have fields of sunchokes sprouting from the ground…that is my magical thinking pictures fields extending from our .25 acre mostly shaded by 100′ Tulip trees.   So, these fertile tiny pieces of root give me inspiration that small actions today, in whatever place we may be, that may seem to be of little significance will lead to great harvests in the near future.  Also, I’ve learned that it’s such things as admiring the growth of something you tend to daily, or just happen to do nothing to but get to witness its daily growth, that feed the soul what it needs to excel.  Hence, our “micro-farm” here in Takoma Park, Maryland has been duly named  “The Prolific Sunchoke”, as will be the site of our future organic farm in some place equally delightful – the soil from which so much will sprout.    Getting this far on my path, I’ve learned that getting to where I want to be tomorrow is all about enriching your soul today, making the most of each opportunity that seems right in the moment as it comes, and reaching out to others in the process makes it even sweeter and more enlightened.   Life is all about being part of a community and making contributions that will endure after you’ve gone elsewhere.  Perhaps I will be someplace completely different in five years, but all along I will be doing what I love to do while discovering better or new ways to do it and meeting great people!  I think blogging is a great exercise in self-reflecting upon new information and what you might do with it.

Throwing ourselves into and reflecting upon the day-to-day growth of our own “gardens” (full of sunchokes) puts everything into perspective and makes anything attainable.  Thanks for visiting!

 

 More about Jeff:  I earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Spanish from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and then a MA in Applied Anthropology from American University – which brought me to Washington, D.C. from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania region in 1991.  My initial interests were in self-determined, cooperative community development and food and culture.  I also learned Portuguese and Spanish to study abroad, and I’ve been studying German since 6th grade.  Having studied in Brazil with the School for International Training, and then going back in 1994 to undertake my MA thesis research on creating culturally appropriate education and job training for street children, everything Brazilian caught my attention for a while.  So, I would say that it was(circa 1992) when I first learned of Cultural Survival’s “Rain Forest Crunch” initiative and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor incorporating the product, as well as reading everything I could about Ben & Jerry’s triple bottom-line approach to business, that I became much more actively involved in sustainability issues.  Of course, I grew up across from an Amish farm, tended a very large family vegetable garden that we had, and I had to bike anywhere I wanted to explore – so, the roots were already there.  Working at The Points of Light Foundation for five years, I also developed a strong ethic for community service and engaging volunteers and partners in community issues.  In 1997, I simultaneously started getting very involved in my own community by leading a Main Street revitalization organization and starting my own social enterprise business on Main Street (Mount Pleasant Street in Northwest Washington, D.C.) called The People Garden.  The People Garden started as a delivered CSA service of locally grown organic produce and evolved into a community-oriented natural food market and catering business by 2000.  Since 2005, I’ve combined business and non-profit management skills by working in Operations Management for non-profits.  Along the way, I’ve learned great skills in community outreach, fundraising, event and volunteer management, marketing and, more recently, social online networking.  I bought a Cape Cod in Takoma Park, Maryland in 2007 with my partner Bruce, whom I married in Cape Cod (Provincetown, MA) in September of 2009, and begun an ongoing green renovation of the home and yard.  My daughter Elza lives with us during her breaks from school in Brazil, along with our two full-time dogs.  In my free time, I am most likely exploring bike trails and country roads, or be it urban roads, that lead to local food producers along the way.