Conviviality

Last week I went up to Sonoma, CA to check out the Tuesday evening market.

Every single person I spoke with in the Valley about my Master’s program final research project said that I needed to come to a Tuesday market if I really wanted to know what Sonoma was all about. The market is ending in a couple of weeks for the season, so time was of the essence and the weather forecast said I should go this week while it was still nice out.

The Tuesday market is a market for the locals, I sat and watched groups of people wander onto the plaza, greet another group, only to then split apart and greet others as they arrived. The standard items to carry included a chair, a cooler or basket, and of course, a wine glass. People found a spot to set up on the grass in the plaza, said hi to those around them, spent some time wandering through the market to pick up items not brought from home, and settled in to listen to the live music and catch up with friends.

The requisite groups of small girls in swirly dresses were dancing, twirling, and tumbling in the center of the lawn under the watchful eyes of the performers and members of the community gathered there. The packs of children running freely through the plaza, playing and screeching with delight provided a colorful counterpoint to the chit chatting adults. Groups of teenagers were scattered throughout the plaza; some with skateboards, some trying to look like the latest magazine page, some with brightly colored hair, and all in packs. The only difference from when I was in one of those packs was that now they have cell phones. The calls from mom asking what you are up to are harder to avoid now.

Happily, most of the people I talked to at least appeared to be interested in why I was there. Only one gentleman suggested that I come back on the weekend to see the town really hoppin’ or maybe I would like to go to a place off the plaza where tourists usually go. I tried not to take it personally. Having been to a weekend event in the same plaza, I could feel the difference in ‘vibe’. Both had music, wine, food, artwork, and plenty of people hanging out, but this one felt more relaxed, like people were coming out of hiding in order to enjoy what they liked best about living in that small town.

If you go: this market is held on Tuesdays in April through October starting around 5:00pm until dark on the central plaza in front of City Hall. Expect an assortment of fresh produce, as well as some gift/personal items and things to eat; if it is an election year, you might see a politician or two wandering about, shaking hands. Look for Sonoma, CA on the vendor's sign to be sure you are 'eating local'. Bring a chair and something to drink with your purchases. Sit and listen to the live music and soak in the atmosphere of the place.

Enjoy!

Scavenger Hunting

Today we spent some time weaving our way through one of my favorite places to peer into, pick up, turn over and open up stuff; Urban Ore on Murray Street in Berkeley. This for profit location takes in gently used items and re-sells them in their huge (and cold) warehouse and their outside lot at a low, low price. Helping out those looking to stretch a dollar and preventing the items from going into our already bursting landfills. The assortment ranges from broken tiles, bricks, doors still hanging in the frames they were hung in when ripped out of an unsuspecting structure, sinks, toilets, windows, furniture, and an entire wall full of electronic doo-dads that I usually spend the most time hanging around imagining what I could make out of all that stuff.

We have purchased 'containers' for our garden (out of service terracotta sewer pipe & metal duct work), stepping stones (unused pavers), extra seating for inside and out (old church pews), and my favorite find to date; a metal stand that once refurbished, went just inside our front door to catch keys, sunglasses, handbags, and mail. Based on the shape and colors of the sticker (lovingly preserved) on the front, it originally stood in the service area of a Texaco station. It is the perfect height to write comfortably while standing next to it, and the inside is full of slots and places for order pads, pens, and those fun reminder cards that they stuck in your visor so you knew when to stop by next. Some steel wool, primer and two colors of paint later the piece was suitable for inside the house, inspiring a more industrial feel in the room where it now lives.

Before & After

Our mission this afternoon was to find something to use as a new television slash cable box slash DVD player slash mini stereo stand. It is good to have a vivid imagination when going on a scavenger hunt since the idea was to find the shape and height that would work and we would sand, paint, or stain the item to fit our decor. Our first find was a solid wood mantel with an electric heating element, complete with realistic looking logs on a grate. Perfect width and height, the ledge was the right size for the television, but where to put the rest of the stuff? Next we found a changing table, complete with built in steps, but decided that would be too odd, even with a coat of paint. In the end, we didn't find what we were looking for, but did find a really great lampshade for another re-use project that I'm working on. More on that when it's finally finished. Until then, I am ready to be the 'light' of the party!

(images are author's own)

But I do try...

I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I do try to consider the impact of the things I do. One thing that I have been trying to get better at this year is to use my own bags when I shop. Not that long ago, I would only see a few people (hippies!) carrying their own canvas bags into the health food store or at the farmer's market. Now more and more people show up at main stream stores toting their own bags. Many stores have signs at the door as a reminder to shoppers and some offer a discount or raffle entry for customers that use their own bag.

Plastic shopping bags are forever; according to scientists that know about how this all works, they take many centuries to degrade. There are so many plastic bags flying and floating around our planet right now, they are one of the most common items found during litter clean ups, right up there with cigarette butts. In order to curb this flow of plastic, several cities in the state have recently enacted plastic bag bans with several others considering putting them in place. This is a trend that is starting to gain momentum, and if widely adopted across the country, could mean millions fewer plastic bags making their way into landfills, waterways, and open spaces.

I can hear the outcry with all the reasons why you need those bags. "I need plastic bags for diapers/dog poo/trash can liners", "I use paper bags for collecting my recycling/sort newspapers", but I'll bet we can all live with fewer of them laying around. Personally, I've found that since I get a plastic bag on my newspaper every day, I can save those and use them for my dog walking duties. I use a paper bag in my recycling station, but empty the bag into the bin and use it several more times (sometimes for a couple of weeks) before it goes into the curb bin itself. This has led to the realization that I should bring bags (and egg cartons) back to re-use at the farmer's market and that I should probably start to consider all the bags I get from places other than the grocery store.

In reality this is something fairly easy for everyone to do. I found the hardest part of using my own bag was remembering to take it back to my car after I had unloaded the stuff into my house. This was eventually solved by making it a point to hook them onto the door so that they were in the way the next time I went to leave. Also, I always have a small nylon bag rolled up in whatever purse I am carrying for those small purchases that come up as you are out and about in the world. Of course some of this could be solved by stores adopting the European model of charging for any bag you use. I still have a paper bag that I paid for in a Swiss grocery store that has been used within an inch of its life. I paid for it, I'm going to get my nickel's worth! This model would have to be adopted widely and consistently and would probably need a large scale public education program to support the change.

There are so many other things that you can do, but if we all try to start with this one simple thing in Twenty-Ten, we can slow the avalanche of thin, plastic bags around this big blue marble of ours. Let's all try.

Labels are for People and Cans

In 2007 Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket chain said that they would be starting a program to label "varieties of orange juice, potatoes, energy-efficient light bulbs and washing detergent, stating the quantity in grammes of CO2 equivalent put into the atmosphere by their manufacture and distribution." In 2008 Japan announced a similar program modeled after Tesco's scheme. In September of 2009 Sweden announced new rules for listing of carbon emissions on all food labels. While well intended, the labeling could cause more confusion when considered alongside healthy eating advice being given by nutrition experts.

In the Swedish model, consumers are encouraged to eat carrots instead of cucumbers or tomatoes mainly because in the Swedish climate, tomatoes and cucumbers must be cultivated in a greenhouse using extra power that the carrots do not require. The labeling even recommends beans and chicken as a preferred protein over beef based on the greenhouse gasses generated by raising cattle. That cows produce more greenhouse gas than most farm animals is not new news, but for those of us used to filling up on cucumbers and tomatoes during the summer months, the new labeling makes a once healthy activity as guilt filled as eating an entire wedge of cheese in one sitting.

The Tesco program in the UK appears to have the goal of educating the consumer, which makes more sense to me. The company started to label items in categories that most people buy and have communicated that a lower footprint is better along the way. This creates less guilt about certain items and more information about lowering the overall footprint. Finally, they have continued to layer on new categories as the company and consumer could absorb it, which allows everyone to absorb things at an even pace.

I believe that we should consider the impact of our food choices on a more holistic level. Knowing where our food comes from is the first step, but understanding the impact of our choices by knowing what the carbon footprint is gives us a level of detail that we really need to help us understand the resources used to grow and harvest, transport from farm to processor, and final transport from the processor to the final point of sale. Looking at labels on a can of tomato sauce in the supermarket these days in order to pick the one that has traveled the least based on the company's address is one way to accomplish this, but in the end who knows where the tomatoes came from and where they were processed before they ended up on the shelf at the supermarket?

Lower carbon footprints are not always the result of locally grown foods. While reading an article in the Guardian last spring I was again reminded that some areas require additional resources to sustain livestock or grow crops. In these cases, it might be more 'green' to bring in the food grown or produced in other areas of the country or even world. As with most things, there needs to be a balance between the 'eat local' and the 'eat anything anytime' crowds. Carbon footprint labeling would help to guide all of our choices. Perhaps in the end by eating a combination of locally grown, in season foods and foods that have a low carbon footprint and sprinkling in a few very special out of area items we can help reduce emissions caused by food transport.

Out Sitting in Their Field

Last night we had dinner at a farm. This in itself isn’t too surprising if you consider how many farms large and small there are around here.

A 15-minute drive from most of the East Bay will put you within spitting distance of at least a farm stand or a you-pick plot where you can buy as much as you can carry.


This particular farm was about an hour away from our home. We drove over a bridge to Sonoma County and found Green String Farm just east of Petaluma on Old Adobe Road. Green String Farms’ primary focus is on “growing food for people while simultaneously improving the land they grow on."


Before we ate we saw our meal being cooked on a spit (the goat), in a brick oven (flat breads) and got a tour and some education about where the vegetables that we were going to eat were grown.

This wonderful experience was made possible by the folks at Out Standing in the Field. Their mission is "to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it."


They work all over the country (and sometimes world!) to "bring together local farmers and food artisans, chefs and winemakers, we explore the connection between the earth and the food on your plate."


We have shopped at a local farmer's market every week for almost seven years now, getting to know the farmers and vendors along the way. This experience seemed to be a logical extension of how we try to eat at home. One of the best parts of the entire night was when the farmer, wine, cheese and bread makers came out to explain their process, craft and sourcing to everyone that was interested.


And then the sun went down and it was time to go home.

Portrait #3

Portrait #2

Portrait #1

Have you ever seen a blue egg?

Now you have!

Holly

Bay Laurel

Nature's Candy

Winter

Zweibel

Persimmons

.

Broccoli

 

Bok Choy

Profusion

Marigolds...

Are sometimes orange

Little green globules

Never tasted better!