Records Department

SCORE

2012-02-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

WORKSHOP Small Business Fundamentals, Silicon Valley

Every month @ Silicon Valley SCORE in downtown San Jose

Next one: Saturday, February 18th 8AM-4:30PM, $70

covers business plans, cash control & records, taxes, business law, banking, insurance, marketing & sales.

(SCORE is a national service that offers free business consulting, mentoring, and workshops for start-ups and entrepreneurs.) Found out about this workshop from the SBDC/Small Business Development Center, which offers free one-on-one consulting to established business.

today

2012-02-08T23:45:00.001-08:00

TODAY I pruned fruit trees and it was great.

Thanks to:

For summer (& winter) pruning of fruit trees:

1. Define the general form.

2. Thin for optimal light exposure.

3. Cut to weakness.

yayyy

Film Festival in San Jose

2012-02-07T22:23:00.000-08:00

FESTIVAL Cinequest Film Festival 22

' n e v e r e n d i n g p a s s i o n '

Found a guide to the Cinequest Film Festival on the dining room table today... go San Jose!

February 28 - March 11, 2012 @ downtown San Jose

$10 general per film, $5 students (student ID 4ever!)

H i g h l i g h t s :

Thursday, March 1st, 7:30PM @ Camera 12 Cinemas

Shorts 1: Beginning, Middle, End: 6 shorts to remind that life is beautiful, painful, difficult, but most of all, a blessing.

Saturday, March 3rd, 7PM @ California Theatre

Let the Bullets Fly: Machiavellian mind games, a twisted vendetta, and high-octane gun slinging...

Saturday, March 3rd, 4:15PM @ Camera 12 Cinemas

Unfinished Spaces: Three brilliant architects reveal a different Cuban revolution.

Sunday, March 4th, 1:15PM @ Camera 12 Cinemas

Shorts 4: Animated Worlds: Why accept our reality as the only one?

Saturday, March 10th, 11aAM-12:30PM @ Camera 12 Cinemas

Youth Voices: films by youth on 'issues'

Sunday, March 11th, 11aAM-3PM @ California Theatre

Encore Day: gourmet food trucks + award winning films

Legacy Project

2012-02-05T23:50:00.000-08:00

PROJECT Legacy Project: Lessons from the Wisest Americans

The Legacy Project is a research project/database of advice from American elders compiled by a professor of human ecology at Cornell University. Interviews, articles, and lessons. From the project, a top ten list of life advice:

1. Choose a career for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones. Although many grew up in poverty, the elders believe that the biggest career mistake people make is selecting a profession based only on potential earnings. A sense of purpose and passion for one’s work beats a bigger paycheck any day.

2. Act now like you will need your body for a hundred years: Stop using “I don’t care how long I live” as an excuse for bad health habits. Behaviors like smoking, poor eating habits and inactivity are less likely to kill you than to sentence you to years or decades of chronic disease. The elders have seen the devastation that a bad lifestyle causes in the last decades of life – act now to prevent it.

3. Say “Yes” to Opportunities: When offered a new opportunity or challenge, you are much less likely to regret saying yes and more likely to regret turning it down. They suggest you take a risk and a leap of faith when opportunity knocks.

4. Choose a mate with extreme care: The key is not to rush the decision, taking all the time needed to get to know the prospective partner and to determine your compatibility with them. Said one respondent: “Don’t rush in without knowing each other deeply. That’s very dangerous, but people do it all the time.”

5. Travel More: Travel while you can, sacrificing other things if necessary to do so. Most people look back on their travel adventures (big and small) as highlights of their lives and regret not having traveled more. As one elder told me, “If you have to make a decision whether you want to remodel your kitchen or take a trip—well, I say, choose the trip!”

6. Say it now: People wind up saying the sad words “it might have been” by failing to express themselves before it’s too late. The only time you can share your deepest feelings is while people are still alive. According to an elder we spoke with: “If you have a grudge against someone, why not make it right, now? Make it right because there may not be another opportunity, who knows? So do what you can do now.

7. Time is of the essence: Live as though life is short—because it is. The point is not to be depressed by this knowledge but to act on it, making sure to do important things now. The older the respondent, the more likely they were to say that life goes by astonishingly quickly. Said one elder: “I wish I’d learned that in my thirties instead of in my sixties!”

8. Happiness is a choice, not a condition: Happiness isn’t a condition that occurs when circumstances are perfect or nearly so. Sooner or later you need to make a deliberate choice to be happy in spite of challenges and difficulties. One elder echoed almost all the others when she said: ““My single best piece of advice is to take responsibility for your own happiness throughout your life.”

9. Time spent worrying is time wasted: Stop worrying. Or at least cut down. It’s a colossal waste of your precious lifetime. Indeed, one of the major regrets expressed by the elders was time wasted worrying abou things that never happen

10. Think small: When it comes to making the most of your life, think small. Attune yourself to simple daily pleasures and learn to savor them now.

#6 and #9!

PLAN TO PLANT

2012-02-05T12:35:00.001-08:00

Looking to employ myself! In the meantime, planning a vegetable garden at home - this week, started tomatoes, eggplant, okra, peppers, a couple of varieties of each. They are currently sitting next to the window, protected. I am sitting next to them, waiting. Almost ready to plant - Japanese bunching onion, Chinese flowering cabbage, and chrysanthemum greens.

T O M A T O E S

Bonny Best The famous old canning tomato that was introduced in 1908 by Bonnie Plant Farm in Union Spring, Alabama. It became one of the most respected canning varieties in America in the first half of the twentieth century. Medium-sized fruit are round, red, meaty and loaded with flavor. A good producer that makes a fine slicer too. Becoming hard to find due to modern, flavorless hybrids.

Orange Icicle Sweet, rich and flavorful with strong citrus overtones made this Jere’s favorite eating variety last season. We just couldn’t get enough of the sweet, luscious, glowing orange icicle-like fruit that are like an extra long paste tomato. This variety also makes a lovely orange ketchup and a superb salsa. It was a definite winner, and plants were quite productive. In our opinion, this is some of the Ukraine’s finest tomato breeding.

O K R A

Clemson Spineless Plant is spineless; tasty green pods are best picked small.

E G G P L A N T

Ping Tung A wonderful eggplant from Ping Tung, Taiwan. Fruits are purple and up to 18 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. This variety is so sweet and tender, superbly delicious! One of the best Chinese eggplants on the market.

Udmalbet A rare colorful eggplant from India. Egg-shaped fruit are light green, streaked in purple. Used in chutneys & curries; from a Tamil village.

Asian Trio

P E P P E R S

Jimmy Nardello This fine Italian pepper was grown each year by Giuseppe and Angella Nardiello, at their garden in the village of Ruoti, in Southern Italy. In 1887 they set sail with their one-year-old daughter Anna for a new life in the USA. When they reached these shores, they settled and gardened in Naugatuck, Connecticut, and grew this same pepper that was named for their fourth son Jimmy. This long, thin-skinned frying pepper dries easily and has such a rich flavor that this variety has been placed in "The Ark of Taste" by the Slow Food organization. Ripens a deep red, is very prolific, and does well in most areas.

Up Chimayo Red hot pepper we got from the UCSC Farm & Garden.

Santaka Chile Popular in Japan for their hot and spicy flavor, Santaka peppers are only 2 inches long, but pack a punch. Use fresh peppers in a variety of Asian dishes such as stir-fries and soups. Peppers can also be dried.

Hot Paper Lantern The same blistering heat as a Habanero, but much better adapted to the north and much earlier to produce elsewhere. Lantern shaped, 3" to 4" long fruits are also bigger than a habanero. Tall, vigorous plant gets loaded with fruits.

S E E D S <3

Baker Creek Heirlooms

Renees Garden

Kitazawa Seed Co.

Natural Discourse

2012-01-31T22:25:00.001-08:00

EVENT Symposium on Natural Discourse: Culture & Ecology

'Artists, Architects, Scientists, and Poets in the Garden'

February 10, 2012, 9AM-4PM at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, CA

$30 for students

S P E A K E R S :

Chris Carmichael, Associate Director of Collections and Horticulture at UC Botanical Garden

Hazel White, Poet and author of 'Peril as Architectural Enrichment'

William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art+Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art

Gail Wright, Associate Professor of Art at Stanford University

Dale Clifford, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University

The term 'natural discourse' itself is loaded with open questions - what is nature? who says? Does nature inspire conversation, can human conversation inspire nature, are these more than analogies. This stuff personally and totally fascinates me - the discursive processes of mutuality and adaptation that create human culture and ecology. It's like magic, and the garden is the perfect pretty place to observe it as it unfolds 8D

random photo

Dragon Year

2012-01-26T17:43:00.000-08:00

EVENT Chinese Culture Center Spring Festival in SF

恭禧發財!

Sat-Sun, February 11-12, 11AM-3PM

At the Chinese Culture Center in SF Chinatown**

750 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor

This week started off with the new lunar year, marking the end of the rabbit year, *thank god. I hope to celebrate at the Spring Festival in SF: dragon dance, parade, food tasting, local crafts, performances, and more. I'll also be running a booth on Saturday! Selling terrariums and doing a demo on how to make them; trying to become THE crazy terrarium lady by the end of the year. Happy Chinese New Year!

**The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco is a non-profit that works to preserve and promote Chinese art & culture via exhibits, festivals, and workshops in the Bay Area.

*The rabbit year was supposed to be an unlucky year for those born in the year of the rabbit, including me. I would say that this was true, at least in my life as a driver. Coincidence? Maybe.

Last Minute

2012-01-21T19:44:00.000-08:00

Peter Walker

2012-01-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

LECTURE Peter Walker: Before the World Trade Center Memorial

Monday, January 23rd, 6:30-7:30PM

112 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley

The College of Environmental Design (CED) at UC Berkeley hosts a lecture series every semester featuring visiting scholars and practitioners. (It's very tempting and will likely cause me to drive way too much). This monday, Peter Walker, one of the most influential landscape architects in the world, will be speaking about his work.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

2012-01-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

SONG Do you know the way to San Jose

Been in Downtown San Jose for exactly one month, not getting lost so often, and found out that this song exists:

Do you know the way to San Jose (1968)

Wild Kitchen SF

2012-01-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

DINNER Wild Kitchen

Got this amazing menu in my inbox today from Forage SF:

Porcini Bisque
with
Housemade Creme Fraiche
$10

Salad of Wild Greens, Slow Poached egg, Frisee,
Pickled Beets
with
Champagne Vinagrette
$11

Saigon Style Fried Sardines:
Chili, Garlic, Vinegar, Fresh Herbs
$12

Wild Mushroom and Rabbit Terreine
with
Frisee and Nastertium Capers
$15

Marin Sun Bavette Steak
with
Wild Bay Butter, Grilled Endive
and
Fingerling Fries
$22

California Halibut
with
Nettle Shiso Salsa Verde, Seared Polenta
and
Braised Rainbow Chard
$23

Nastertium Leaf Pesto:
Fresh Parpadelle
Garlic Fried Broccoli Rabe
$17

Ginger Ice Cream
with
Candied Preserved Citrus
and
Bittersweet Chocolate
$9

They call it an "underground supper club." It's a traveling kitchen that hosts dinners once in a while in SF, featuring locally foraged foods. Anyone interested in going to this?

710 Florida St @19th
January 20th-21st
6-11pm

Walk-ins welcome
Reservations for parties of 6 or more

Beekeepers Guild

2012-01-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

GUILD Santa Clara Valley Beekeepers Guild

Hive frames.

Guilds exist in real life! Last night, I found myself at a gathering of the Santa Clara Valley Beekeepers Guild, held in the basement of a nearby Baptist church. The guild is a group of local beekeepers that share knowledge and resources with one another to promote successful beekeeping. The meeting was sweet: Q&A on hive ailments with "Dr. Bee," introduction of the Guild's new board of directors, demonstration on how to set up a new hive, and raffle/drawing of beekeeping-related prizes. In a world where most people panic at the site bees, it felt neat to be around a group of people totally in love with them.

The next meeting will be held at Willow Glen Baptist Church in San Jose:

February 6, 2012

Dr. Bee: 6:15-6:45 (Q&A)

Tyler Henthorne on Catching a Swarm

Kim Campbell on Preventing Swarms

Some related photos:

First time seeing a swarm, ended up containing this in a big plastic tupperware and using it to initiate a new hive.

Bees about their business. The bigger one with the white dot is the queen.

Langstroth Hives.

two thousand twelve

2011-12-30T12:49:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 2012!

To welcome the New Year, some New Years resolutions. I'm hoping that if I put this out there, I might feel more accountable or at least pressured to make it happen. Wrote this out three months ago as an exercise envisioning life in 2012:

wake up and worry about the plants - how intense is the sun today?

make green tea and breakfast

say good morning to people I care about

walk, bike, or bus to work

do something that involves arranging things, working either outside or in a place with really big windows (with people I like)

it's lunch time! so delicious! maybe there's pan-fried ramen or tamales with green salsa

yoga after work sometimes

go home to a record player, wine rack, and friends

dinner with fresh ingredients, smells really good, home-cooked

at least 8 hours of sleep if not more

CA Farmhouse

2011-12-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

BUSINESS California Farmhouse

I've been calling this my 'fictitious business' for a few months now. Maybe like Geppetto, I can wish upon a shooting star for my creation to become a real business.

Alice's Restaurant

2011-12-14T19:16:00.001-08:00

PROFESSOR Laura Nader
It was about three years ago my anthropology professor, a sweet lady named Laura Nader (above), played Alice's Restaurant for our class, which inspired this blog. 
SONG Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, 1967
A very long song, but apparently, you can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant.

Craft Fair/Telegraph Ave

2011-12-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

EVENT Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair 2011

'Plant Crafts' FRI BOOTH #423/SAT BOOTH #146 on Telegraph Avenue

Last Saturday, I spent my evening selling terrariums at the Arc Studios & Gallery in SF with the Kearny Street Workshop. To my surprise, I actually sold all my terrariums! I also got to meet some really cool artists and even got to barter terrariums for crafts - stationery from 'Paper Suitcase' and an original print+necklace from Vivian Truong. So, this week, with a bit more confidence, I will be selling more at this year's Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair:

11AM - 6PM, this Friday & Saturday, December 16 & 17

Telegraph Avenue between Bancroft Way and Dwight Way in Berkeley

Come say hi and maybe offer to watch my booth so that I can take a bathroom break?

Marvelous Mushrooms

2011-12-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

WORKSHOP 'Marvelous Mushrooms' with Mo-mei Chen

Assorted mushrooms, 42nd Annual Fungus Fair

Mo-mei Chen is a mycologist at UC Berkeley's Jepson Herbaria. She was one of few woman scientists in China during the Cultural Revolution (her story here). I met her last Saturday at the 42nd Annual Fungus Fair at the Lawrence Hall of Science and wow, she's really into mushroom cultivation. Anyways, she's teaching a workshop this Sunday:

'Learn to grow Indian Oyster and anti-cancer Ling Zhi mushrooms'
$25 comes with mushroom pizza dinner and an oyster mushroom cultivation kit
2-6PM, Sunday, December 11th, 2011
Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
RSVP by Thursday: momeichen@gmail.com

Picking Up Leaves

2011-12-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

Cold settles, leaves turn

Green flushed yellow, orange, red, into crisp dead

Lightly detached, floated here to there

To the floor with the others

Landscape Studies

2011-12-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

FELLOWSHIP Gardner Museum Fellowship in Landscape Studies

Maybe one day. But for now, I'll work on the the studying part.

CLASSES Landscape Horticulture at Merritt College

Cool place, cool people, atop a hill overlooking Oakland & and the Bay. Today, the Landscape Horticulture Department at Merritt College announced and unveiled their AA Degree in Landscape Architecture, which would qualify someone to take board exams and acquire a CA state license to practice landscape architecture! Yes! Classes I'd like to take:

LANHT 18B: Landscape Design (Tu 1:00-3:50PM)

Principles of landscape design (primarily residential scale). Focuses on design process and definitions, legal and ethical issues and site analysis.

LANHT 210A: Landscape Design Forum (Tu 4:00-5:50PM)

Forum Emphasizing professional practices in landscape design, including review of student designs for client presentation and guest speakers in the trade. Basics of contracts and professional licensing options; development of a portfolio to market services.

LANHT 34A: Computer-Assisted Landscape Design (Tu 6:00-9:50PM)

2D drawing and editing tools; CAD orgnizational and calculation tools; personal symbol libraries; and section, elevation, and axonometric drawings.

Changing Fields

2011-12-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

FARMER FRIEND Ben Harris, Changing Fields

Sometimes I have a hard time articulating why I've headed toward left field to become a sort of farmer-gardener despite my double major double minor with honors from UC Berkeley blah blah. In his article for forward.com, Ben explains his shift from journalist to farmer.

why occupy

2011-11-24T10:21:00.000-08:00

WONDERING why occupy

It's been over 2 months since Occupy Wall Street started in New York City. However loosely organized, I imagine it's involved thousands upon thousands of people and millions of consolidated work hours across the country (not to mention the tension, violence, and pain it's had to endure). Basically, a ton of precious resources and attention - more than any kind of government program or business could ever receive in such a short period of time - have gone into this general movement. But why, I am wondering.

A theory:

People have nothing better to do. Seriously. Perhaps there is nothing better left to do in this country; maybe there are no other means left of pursuing happiness and freedom outside of occupying public space. As a country, the economy is tank, political processes have long been unsatisfying, and our personal lives are statistically overtaken by poor health, poverty, and broken families. Therefore, anything to address these issues in a quick and effective manner issues itself as an immediate priority.

The occupation of public spaces may not appear to be a quick and effective strategy however, since it is in fact a massive, unauthorized phenomenon of loose organization rearing unpredictable and unclear movement. However, unauthorized occupation is one way to move outside the amoeba of thick material that makes the status quo - an amalgamation of rules, structures, and enforcement; tools that citizens have been using for a long time without seeing timely or effective change.

Occupation may therefore pose the next best strategy for change and most benign form of unauthorized action, compared to violence, rioting, or terrorism.

Personally, I believe in evolution and see these occupations as expressions of that process, however unfortunate or uncomfortable it may seem in the short term. But that's just the Berkeley bio nerd in me :/

HAPPY Thanksgiving Music

Free mixtape download from Lupe Fiasco, Friend of the People.

succulent obsession

2011-11-23T21:55:00.001-08:00

PLANT CRAFTS succulents

An empty salt & pepper shaker. All it needs is a little plant living inside.

The past three hours, I've been crouched in the corner, quietly arranging succulents in little glass jars. Succulents are desert plants that store much of their water and energy in their waxy, succulent leaves. They're real easy to propagate or pocket! Also, I say 'quietly' because I don't want to scare the good relatives that are housing me with my obsession over these things. Some points on why succulents are attractive: 1. they are easy to grow b/c they are adapted to harsh desert climates, 2. they look like synthetic, plastic toys, no?

All plant materials foraged from the public & private lands of San Jose. Don't tell.

It's fun to water this one. Currently lives in my car.

From the last UCSC Farm & Garden plant sale.

At Succulent Gardens in Castroville, a 2-acre warehouse of just succulents.

Workshop time -thanks, Alice :] Time to get back to work..

KSW Arts & DIY Fair

2011-11-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

EVENT Kearny Street Workshop Holiday Party

Kearny Street Workshop is the nation's oldest Asian American multidisciplinary arts organization.

Saturday, December 10, 6-9PM

ARC Studios & Gallery

1246 Folsom St. @ 8th Street in San Francisco (SOMA)

On Friday, I decided to follow my heart into the world of plant-based craft & design. Yup. So come check me out at this arts & DIY craft fair in SF (seriously). For sale: potted plant arrangements, terrariums, and holiday wreaths using foraged and re-used materials. And if that's not cool enough for you, there will also be things like festive music, homemade snacks, and an Asian Santa! :D

can't resist

2011-11-17T00:19:00.000-08:00

QUOTE via Dave via François de La Rochefoucauld

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

(Cannot resist: good food, plant-based crafts, flowers, neglected space, matching textures, patterns & colors, friendly dogs, light pink swept clouds in the sky, good company, antiques!)

Cat Profile

2011-11-08T22:40:00.000-08:00

PROFILE Nanook

name Nanook

sex male

age young adult

studied philosophy at UC Santa Cruz

lives in Santa Cruz, California

from San Francisco Bay Area

works at UCSC Farm & Garden

status in a relationship with Milly

interests sustainable agriculture, pest control, organizational politics

activities hunting, road tripping, charming undergraduates

about me don't kidnap me, k thanks

growing at home (San Gabriel Valley)

2011-11-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I traveled back home to my southern California suburb and hometown of Rowland Heights in the San Gabriel Valley. I grew up here, driving everywhere, not really knowing my neighbors, and going to the mall all the time to shop. For a long time, suburbs, to me, have represented a gross problem of poor regional planning & development characterized by mind-shattering traffic, social isolation, and drab iterations of tract homes/shopping centers. Over time, however, I am beginning to see past the infrastructural frame of the suburb and into the cracks and corners - spaces that house unique cultural resources, social organizing, and innovation. Like amazing food & restaurants, church communities, and start-up businesses. In the San Gabriel Valley, the area also has the advantage of having immigrant populations on land with sunny skies = the know how & tenacity to grow culturally important (yummy) foods.

For example:

SUBURBAN FARM The Growing Home

During my visit, I stumbled upon the Growing Home: a house in Diamond Bar that transformed itself from a typical green lawn & cement landscape to a suburban farm & learning center. To me, this place represents a beacon of light that illuminates the darkness of suburban sprawl. The people of The Growing Home are starting a chapter of the international Slow Food Movement in the San Gabriel Valley. The first meeting is next Saturday.

URBAN FARM Earthworks

Also during my visit, I spent some time at Earthworks in South El Monte. I taught a workshop on the basic principles of irrigation (to elementary school kids)! The farm is in a period of transition and development, hopefully a place that will soon capture the huge potential that is offered by the combination of youth, immigrants, land, and year-round sun.

infographic graffiti

2011-11-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

STATISTICS On the dollar, literally

occupygeorge.com

Found this on infosthetics.com, which is a data visualization blog that features new infographic projects internationally. I check it out once in a while, usually when I get home from work and can't think of anything else to do. If you were really into this, you could download templates and print them on your own dollars. (Though, I think it is illegal to modify money. I think graffiti in general is illegal. Infographic graffiti, though=nerdy+illegal=genius.)

1 year

2011-11-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

EVENT The 3rd Annual Harvest Gala

Friday, November 18th, 6-9PM @ the David Brower Center

The Food Collective was formed by hungry students who soon became amateur business planners, policy writers, accountants, board of directors, fundraisers, marketers, teachers, and chefs - all while living the usual Berkeley student life of procrastination, frolicking, studying, and sleeping way too late.

This month marks the one year anniversary of the Berkeley Student Food Collective's storefront on Bancroft and I can't help but feel a little proud, like a middle school student of her science project - of something she had spent a lot of time fretting over. The store is now equipped with a full-time manager, consistent membership, board of directors, organizational policies, a regular schedule, seasonal menus, and all kinds of grocery items.

flash back:

2010 2009

most of all

2011-10-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

via Dave via Tom Robbins' Still Life with Woodpecker:

Yes, and I love the trite mythos of the outlaw. I love the self-conscious romanticism of the outlaw. I love the black wardrobe of the outlaw. I love the fey smile of the outlaw. I love the tequila of the outlaw and the beans of the outlaw. I love the way respectable men sneer and say 'outlaw.' I love the way young women palpitate and say 'outlaw.' The outlaw boat sails against the flow, and I love it. Outlaws toilet where badgers toilet, and I love it. All outlaws are photogenic, and I love that. 'When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free': that's a graffito seen in Anacortes, and I love that. There are outlaw maps that lead to outlaw treasures, and I love those maps especially. Unwilling to wait for mankind to improve, the outlaw lives as if that day were here, and I love that most of all.

P.S. screen printing is awesome.

2011-10-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

LA Green Festival

2011-10-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

THIS WEEKEND LA Green Festival

October 29-30 at the LA Convention Center: Line up of speakers & events around 'green living,' whatever that is! [sustainable economy, ecological balance, social justice, I guess.] Amy Goodman will be there and I love her.

The SF Green Festival is on November 12-13 at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center.

Salon on Wednesday

2011-10-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

SALON Convergence in Diversity

November 30, 6:15PM at the David Brower Center in Downtown Berkeley

Rooted and Rising, hosted by the Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative: a dialogue and 'solutions salon' on Convergence in Diversity: how to turn the food movement into a force for social transformation. RSVP here. It's free, let's go!

The prompt: There are many different groups working to address food issues. How can we bring this diversity of groups together to be effective and successful in our common endeavors?

I love

2011-10-23T12:16:00.001-07:00

I LOVE

Farm and Garden 2011 from Weston on Vimeo.

Farm cats, fresh fruit pies, fork and spade, field flowers, felcos, friends.

Outside Boutiques

2011-10-21T22:01:00.001-07:00

VIDEO CLIP via kitchenkwento.com

Interviewed by Adobo Nation, featuring Miss Aileen (I miss you!) at the Farm & Garden. Hits and connects: health, culture, and economy as related to sustainable food systems.

Some related thoughts:

Granola, quinoa, amaranth.

Kale, arugula, chard.

Bread, butter, milk.

All things Whole Foods, organic, local, fair trade, and fancy.

Deep down inside, I can't relate.

All things unfamiliar and irrelevant.

Granola, sweet. Quinoa, kwinoh-ah. Amaranth..

Kale, so green. Arugula, bitter. Chard, cooks mushy.

Bread, keep it in the freezer. Butter, all fat. Milk, soy.

Why is the face of whole, organic, local, and fair trade food represented only by particular 'hippy food' ingredients like kale? And why are quality and healthy foods displayed as boutique, luxury goods? It's not like buying a Lexus over a Honda, luxury over economy. The cheaper economy car can work well, whereas the cheaper basket of strawberries laced with methyl iodide cannot. Buying quality food is more like buying a running car over a broken car. In my cynical way, I think the image of quality food has been hi-jacked (intentionally or not) by fancy marketing teams and fancy neighborhoods. They use light green earthy colors matched with birch wood panels and endearing chalked letters on blackboard. I love it and hate it. They package and commoditize the shit out of quality food to make it something more than it is. The cute storefront, the style, the fresh and amazing gourmet product - love it. The feel-good rhetoric, like I'm supposed to get a pat on the back for going into a natural foods store and purchasing chocolate that isn't produced with cacao picked by the hands of desperate mothers. Hate it.

Quality food, healthy lifestyles, and sustainable cultures should not be tied up in boutique stores situated on cute San Francisco street corners. Obesity, heart disease, and economic instability will never be saved by the boutique alone. Or by kale and quinoa alone. The face and representation of quality food and culture need to be multi-faceted and produced by an array of cultures and communities to address the suffering of lifestyle-related diseases by our parents, siblings, children, and friends. Okay?

first day

2011-10-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

MY FIRST DAY out of Santa Cruz (yesterday), and I find myself:

at the Landscape Horticulture Department at Merritt College

conversing on the role of cultural diversity in landscape design

getting connected to an apprentice alum

ditching a screening of 'Seeding the Future' to attend a series on sustainable food systems

in the same room as Alice Waters, Nikki Henderson, Michael Pollan, and Raj Patel

receiving an invitation to the 3rd Annual Food Collective Harvest Gala

having food and drink with my old agroecology lab mates

brainstorming ways to re-invest assets

feeling lucky with direction

Greenhorns

2011-10-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

SCREENING Seeding the Future 10/18 in SF @ Internet Archive

Roundtable discussion/panel/potluck featuring young American farmers.

Graduation

2011-10-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

I'm going to miss this place ^

2011-10-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

MANIFESTO: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

A poem by Wendell Berry, selective chunks. It's something I don't intend to take word for word, but do intend to keep in my back pocket as I enter the nine to five.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won't compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn't go.

Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Squash Pile

2011-10-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

PILE of Squash

So many varieties. Of just squash! From the National Heirloom Expo.

Promagation

2011-10-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

FLOWERS <3 them

Boutonnieres we made using little things from the garden. I think I could make these all day, everyday, never blink, and be happy.

Sometimes, when I try to make a mixed flower bouquet, I get to feeling a bit crazy and completely dissatisfied with the awkward lump of flower mess I have created. Choked in my hand, I look at it for way too long and wonder what's missing in its structure, texture, or color. Not knowing what to add or change, I tighten my grasp. Torture.

Thankfully, last week, my fellow Up Garden folks and I were graced with the pleasure of learning how to use flowers effectively from our talented apprentice friends, to make bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. Good for business. And good for things like prom, which happens to be tomorrow. Farm Prom, in the Greenhouse; 'Promagation,' as in 'Propagation.' :D It comes down to a loose grip, starting with a good structure, filling in space adequately, and using complimentary colors with a diversity of textures. To finally make a complete, satisfying bouquet that's easy on the eyes, it is liberating.

White House Economic Policy Advisor 10/4

2011-09-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

LECTURE White House Economic Policy Advisor, Jason Furman

Tuesday, October 4th, 4-5pm @ Goldman School of Public Policy, Room 250

From my inbox: The Goldman School of Public Policy cordially invites you to attend a lecture entitled, “Headwinds and Tailwinds: The Path Forward for the U.S. Economy,” by Jason Furman, President Barack Obama’s Assistant for Economic Policy and Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. He will discuss President Obama’s new jobs plan and how we can get the economy moving forward.

I wonder, as I sit in this cafe with my cider, fretting over the possibility of becoming an overqualified and underemployed statistic. Trying. To stay optimistic.

Bird from the National Heirloom Festival. I think it looks a bit skeptical, or at least paranoid.

Harvest Festival

2011-09-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

WEEKEND ACTIVITY Harvest Festival

This Sunday from 11 to 5 at the Farm in Santa Cruz. I'll paint your face if you want. Or if not, you could do an apple tasting or go on a hay ride or learn to cook. $5 please.

Fingers Crossed

2011-09-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

BUSINESS Farmscape, your family farmer

Having been a part-time residential gardener for five years in college, I spent a whole lot of time planting, weeding, and pruning all kinds of things. It's a good thing I loved it. Anyhow, I remember spending hours each week gathering pounds and pounds of plant debris and thinking that it'd be neat if all those branches and leaves I had individually hand-cut were somehow valuable.

weeding & pruning:waste material

as harvesting:fruits & vegetables

So, fingers crossed, I get to interview for a company that answers to such an opportunity, Farmscape. Maybe I'll get to be someone's 'friendly' family farmer and we'll all get to smile and eat healthy food under the sunny skies of so-cal.

Until then, I'll be savoring my last three weeks at the UCSC Farm & Garden. More specifically, the Up Garden (Alan Chadwick Garden).

Two Days

2011-09-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

TWO DAYS Left of Summer, officially

The Fall, reminds me of cozy times in Berkeley with the smell of leaves on the floor <3

About a year ago:

Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley

Altieri Lab, UC Berkeley

Ridge Winery, Sonoma County

North Berkeley

Heirlooms (Vegetables & Fruits)

2011-09-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

Are absolutely beautiful and superior in every sense: visual, tactical, aromatic, cultural. (I don't have my pictures uploaded yet, so I'll try to process my memory into really descriptive words, eek.)

Today, I attended the 2011 National Heirloom Exposition in Sonoma, and I found myself - In the show room on sensory overload, feeling and smelling heirloom fruits and vegetables, wishing just wishing I could take a bite of that delicate, pale golden pear skin as I quaff its floral scent - Talking to this lovely man:

at the trade show about how his neighbor, the founder of Baker Creek Seed Company, started off his heirloom seed business as a boy at the age of 15, stapling xeroxed pages of his home-made seed catalog at the local copy shop - Asking the buyer of Bi-Rite Market whether similar 'community-based' markets might be viable in less fancy neighborhoods and finding that it's a difficult question to answer - Marveling at the general beauty of heirlooms in their intense colors, shapes, and smells, wondering why all food isn't this pleasurable to hold and look at - And lastly, feeling mild resentment build towards those dull cookie cutter lumps of pale vegetables and fruits at Safeway :(

Small Business Development

2011-09-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

SERVICE Small Business Development Center, LA Region

Free and low-cost services around small business start-up and development, including workshops and one-on-one consulting. Centers all over California, not just LA.

GUIDE Governor's Office of Economic Development: Business Permits

Enter in your 'business type' and city to find out what specific permits and licenses may be required on the city, county, state, and federal levels.

APPLICATION California Seller's Permit

Legally required for any sales occurring more than twice per year, including Ebay and Craigslist sales! More research to come...

LIST of Farmers' Markets in the LA Region

Why? Because omg I need a job! and if all else fails, I can at least try to make one up, maybe. And for practice, maybe.

Right Time

2011-09-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

CONFERENCE Good Food Conference & Trade Show

It seems as though fate has it in for me. Whether it's an unplanned, long-awaited reunion of friends in the Cheeseboard line, or the first sustainable food conference in LA held just a month before I return from the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems. Timing is just right.

Laden with key experts and pioneers within southern California food, I hope to hit up these talks:

FOOD POLICY & HEALTH SUMMIT (Friday, 9/16 @ Santa Monica College)

9:00-9:45 am Public Health & Food

10:00-10:45 am Food with Integrity

11:00-11:45 am Public Policy & Food
12:00-12:45 pm Scaling Up to Meet the Demand for Local Food
1:45-2:45 pm School Food Best Practices

TRADE SHOW

12:00-5:00 pm Buyers & Producers/Suppliers

LOS ANGELES FOOD POLICY COUNCIL WORKSHOPS

2:30-3:30 pm Building Power for Fair Food: Grassroots Organizing and the Farm Bill

From Farm to Landfill: Can ‘Good Jobs’ Be Part of the “Good Food” System?

CalFresh: Making SNAP a Good Food Program

3:45-4:45 pm Food Equity, Healthy Retail, and Community Driven Demand

Growing Good Food in Our Neighborhoods: Urban Agriculture, Food Security and Health in Los Angeles

Street Food: Where Food and Social Justice Meet

Now, some maybe related photos:

BUNS.

Apples on the Farm, pruning session

At Pinnacle Farm

Tomatoes

Because I like to nap after lunch time.

2011-08-29T13:32:00.001-07:00

PATIO

Motivated by my love for afternoon naps, been working on this:

Photos of a recent field trip to ALBA (Agriculture & Land-based Training Association), a small business incubator & distributor for local farm workers in the Salinas Valley.

Vegetables: Here they are!

Walk-in fridge, for ALBA distribution

Greenhouse growing: Patrick with the little Kubota tractor

<3 greenhouse

2011-08-23T23:51:00.001-07:00

Time runs and I lose it. Or rather, I grasp it at some point, put it somewhere, and lose track of the thing while going about my day. Forget all about it, remember that it's there, and try to find it. Is it in the kitchen, under the apple trees, on the steps? Whenever I find it, though, I see that it's not where I left it, having crept farther than I would've ever guessed.

Breakfast Recipes from Cooking All Day

2011-08-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

RECIPES As previously mentioned

+ BAGELS |vegan |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I n g r e d i e n t s (yields 1 dozen):

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 packages active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

3 tbsp white sugar

1 tbsp salt

Combine flour and yeast. In another bowl, mix water, sugar, and salt. Add this to the flour and yeast mix. Beat the mix slowly, for a long time, or until the dough is stiff. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for another length of time, until it turns quite smooth and elastic. This is a good exercise for the arms. Cover the bowl and let it rest for at least 15 minutes. Cut the big dough ball into 12 portions, or 12 hand-sized chunks. Form each chunk into a ball, poke a hole in the middle, and form into a bagel shape that looks skinnier than you'd expect. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes. Boil a pot of water and boil each bagel for 7 minutes or until floating. Let them dry on a rack. Optional: dip the tops in a shallow tray of seed/toppings, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, spices, whatever you want. Place on an oiled baking pan and bake them at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Shmear with cream cheese or ricotta, cucumber slices, and dill.

+ RICOTTA CHEESE ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I n g r e d i e n t s (yields 1 pint):

1/2 gallon whole milk

3 tbsp vinegar

1/2 tbsp salt

1 cheesecloth (or honestly, any clean thin cotton T-shirt)

Combine milk and vinegar in a pot and put on low heat until it reaches 180 degrees F (use a cooking thermometer), stir occasionally. Take off heat and leave it for a few hours. The cheese curds should have separated out. Ladle them out and strain/ring them out using the cheesecloth. Optional: spice with herbs. Refrigerate.

+ CHOCOLATE DONUT HOLES |vegan |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I n g r e d i e n t s (yields 3 dozen):

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup almond milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of salt

Heat a wok or pot and fill with vegetable oil ~2" deep. Mix dry ingredients together. Then mix in the milk and oil. Drop in 1 tsp-sized balls or dollops of dough into the heated vegetable oil. Drop multiple dollops of dough one at a time and cook for 3-5 minutes. They will expand, round out, and form a sort of crispy outside. If overcooked, they will appear obviously burned. When ready, take them out and place them onto a tray lined with paper towels. Let cool and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Eat.

Bagels & donut holes = boiled and deep fried dough

Poona kheera, a cucumber variety from India - crunchy with a mild, tender flesh

Sustainable Economies

2011-08-15T21:05:00.001-07:00

ORGANIZATION The Sustainable Economies Law Center, SELC

I stumbled upon this organization off a friend's email signature (the stamp thing on the bottom of most emails).

"The sustainable Economies Law Center facilitates the growth of sustainable, localized, and just economies, through education, legal research, and advocacy." They currently have projects set up to guide legal development in trade & bartering systems, cooperatives, urban agriculture, local investing, and what I'm most interested in, community-supported enterprises.

I think the appeal in regional, community-supported start-ups comes out of a personal distaste for what I'd call, for lack of better words, being someone's bitch, or a tool - being used and exploited solely for someone else's personal gain without just compensation. The ability to start a business, work for good people who share similar visions/goals, or put to work unique talents & passions to the delight of others seems like a very exciting and empowering kind of thing that could be instrumental in building more secure, sustainable communities.

I guess what I'm saying is.. it might be fun to start business planning?

PHOTOS from our market cart

Off Bay & High Street on Tues & Fri, 12-6pm. A practice of direct marketing:

Blackberries! They are my favorite.

My market cart coordinator buddies :)

Flower arrangement = addiction.

Twinsies.

Farm to Fork

2011-08-15T18:35:00.001-07:00

EVENT Farm to Fork

The UCSC Farm & Garden will be hosting a benefit dinner to raise scholarship money for future apprentices. It'll be a full-on five course meal made with the absolute highest quality local organic produce in the county - set right on the farm under the kiwi vines. I've gotten an opportunity to work on my first T-shirt design for the event and I'm really excited/nervous about it. Well, here's the menu:

Farm-to-Fork Dinner Menu

First Course: Roasted Red Kabocha Squash with Aged Parmesan

Second Course: Quick Pickled Salad

Entrée: Roasted Pig ~ or ~ Herb Stuffed Smoked Chicken~ or ~Vegetable Strudel with Oaxaca Pepper Sauce, all served with Tongue of Fire Succotash and Garlic Parsnips

Cheese Course: Artisanal Cheeses with Farm Fruit

Dessert: Apple Tarte Tatin with Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Organic & Fair-trade Coffee and Teas

Wine and other beverages included

Cooking all day

2011-08-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

MENU August 11, 2001 at the Farm and Garden

The most intense day of cooking I've ever had. Today. We began at 5:45 this morning and made everything from scratch with almost everything on our menu vegan, with gluten-free and soy-free options. Fourteen hours later, after cooking all day, I am ready to check out!

B r e a k f a s t

Bagels topped with:

ricotta/hummus, cucumbers, and dill, or

ricotta, honey, and strawberry jam

Chocolate donut holes

L u n c h

Green salad with balsamic vinegar + olive oil

Baked + curried yukon gold wedges

Mapo tofu on rice with summer squash and leek

C o o k i e F a i r y

Steamed bun with sweet mung bean paste

D i n n e r

Green salad

Korean pancakes

Vegetable steamed buns

Deep fried green beans

Marinated, spiced cucumbers

Sweet tart with caramelized plums

Photographic proof and recipes coming soon.

Floating Thoughts

2011-08-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

There are a number of ideas floating in my mind that need to be tethered - tied down to the ground and executed:

Paper invitations

Letterhead and logo

Terrarium workshop

Patio under a fir tree

Market propaganda

Fruit tree maps

Installations

Sketches of everything

... and more, I'm sure. There's always more.

Now, some more photos, of more romantic things, like:

roses strewn about | Alan Chadwick Garden

inspirational murals | UCSC Campus

baby deer with mama deer | Alan Chadwick Garden

winding hose | Alan Chadwick Garden

a smiling dog | Dinnerbell Farms of Grass Valley

2011-08-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

QUOTE from The Little Prince

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

Here is my secret. It is very simple. We can only see rightly with the heart. The essentials are invisible to the eyes.

Go, Helen!

The Best of Orin Martin pt. 1

2011-07-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

Above: This is an illustration of Orin Martin, horticultural hero and manager of the Alan Chadwick Garden. Yes.

Below: In his original font, here are some of Orin Martin's postings:

Work Therapy

2011-07-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

NURSERY Grow Native Nursery, Westwood

15 acres of greenhouse and garden space adjacent to the 405 freeway. A partnership between the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and the VA Hospital's VA Garden in Westwood off the 405 on Wilshire, the Grow Native Nursery seems like an exciting new hub for native plant culture and local business. The partnership makes some nice connections within the realms of military, economy, and ecology - job training & work therapy for veterans in sustainable plant propagation and landscaping. Can't wait to check it out.

2011-07-21T23:06:00.001-07:00

I feel like summer is a length of thin paper streamer lightly attached to a post and slightly flipping in the breeze. In an instant, the wind might take it away. Like anything good, it'll be something that flies too quickly and too unpredictably to catch, out of sight in seconds.

bee-a-thon

2011-07-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Found this in my inbox.

yourgardenshow.com is broadcasting a 12-hour live stream dedicated to bees on July 16th, 9am-9pm.

preoccupations

2011-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

part-time farmer of organic cut flowers and asian vegetables

farm manager for an educational urban farm

masters student of landscape architecture

greenhouse & nursery operator

edible landscaper

gold digger

degenerate

rebel

Now, some photos:

It's my last week in the field.

Drip irrigation, yes!

Bee hive initiation :D

underground markets

2011-06-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Held in an empty parking lot in Oakland on a summer's eve last year, we anxiously waited in a line going down the block, paid a $2 entrance fee, signed a waiver promising not to sue, and finally gained access to various local food makers who lacked legal legitimacy as vendors due to high start-up costs and business barriers. That night, we ate well, homemade everythings from chocolate to chicken bowl. Sadly, SF Forage, whose mission is to give local food artisans a boost toward legitimacy, announced today that the Underground Market has been officially shut down.

Seven hours south by car, in our hometown off the main street (one of the highest traffic-dense streets in Los Angeles County), is a 3-acre farm run by a Taiwanese immigrant family, growing Asian vegetables and aggregating produce from local community growers. It's a for-profit, peri-urban family farm selling vegetables and homemade buns+cakes directly to Chinese moms out of an underground market/shack at prices lower than most grocery stores. Running business for over ten years, the lady at the market puts a free ginger and garlic clove in our bag after we give her cash for the goods.

The most legit food, maybe it comes from the illegitimate, inexpensive family kitchen.

blueberry equivalents

2011-06-13T22:09:00.001-07:00

Today felt like *summer - warm, slow, and sleepy. The main activity of the day was to pick blueberries off the blueberry bushes. I definitely ate a bunch of the less ripe ones that I'd accidentally picked, which may be contributing to some kind of disenchanted relationship to the blueberries I once thought precious and rare. A good thing and/or a bad thing.

In total, we picked $720 worth of blueberries this afternoon, 12 flats or 144 baskets at $5 per basket. They all fit into one vermont cart, in my mind, the worth of one month's rent for a single room in a Southside Berkeley apartment in blueberry equivalents.

These blueberries are precious, though. They're actually locked in an enclosed, netted structure that protects them from human and avian theft. Today's blueberry harvest alone took 18 man-hours of amateur picking. Each basket took about 7.5 minutes to pick, not to mention all the additional hours and inputs invested into them prior to harvest. Like every other crop I'm developing a closer relationship to, I'm finding that good food in all aspects is a labor of love and their value, multidimensional. Like organic blueberries: enchanting, sweet, healthy, expensive, laborious, lovely, blue.

*Officially, though, the first day of summer is in exactly one week, June 21st, 2011.

kinship

2011-05-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

ORGANIZATION Homeboy Industries: nothing stops a bullet like a job

Last Thursday, I went to see Father Gregory Boyle speak. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries in LA. Here's something that struck and stuck [as edited by my imperfect memory]: "If you stand for the right thing, you've got solidarity. If you stand in the right place, you've got kinship. It's mutual, it's geographical." I like it. What do you think?

These are cover crops.

2011-05-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a run-on sentence for you: I'm learning so much so quickly so I'm going to try to make note of all of it here but to be honest I don't think I'll succeed at this ever because there is too much to know, oh well.

Now, here's my attempt at covering cover crops.

These are cover crops. Bell beans in the foreground!

Here's the farm and garden when we first arrived. Since, we've skimmed it all down and put it in our compost piles for brewing.

Cover crops are plants grown intentionally during off-season times to condition soil and supply 'green manure' for compost-making. Depending on what cover crops are planted, various soil conditioning services are rendered, ie. rye grass roots break up hard soil clods, bell bean roots fix nitrogen into the soil. In general, cover crops also protect soil surfaces from weathering/erosion from wind/rain while housing beneficial insects that eat pests. They're pretty functional but can be aesthetically pleasing, too.

Last year in Taiwan, I remember seeing flower ocean ['Hua Hai'] fields in the winter time. Farmers used cosmos and other attractive, flowering cover crops during the winter to promote tourism in their region. Um, at least that's what my taxi driver tour guide told me. She seemed like a genuine person, I don't know.

Earthworks

2011-05-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

URBAN FARM Earthworks Enterprises Community Farm

During my 3-month stint of unemployment and laze in LA, I happened to find myself at Earthworks in South El Monte [thank god]. I think my soul might have otherwise been void of meaning and rather full of annoying Hulu commercials. Thanks, Earthworks, for preserving my soul! Here are some pictures of the place.

1210 N. Lerma Road, S. El Monte, CA

organic, small-scale production

Sister Rashida [me] Andy

I'm not sure what the future has to throw at me, but regardless of what it is, I hope that the farm gets to grow into it's greatest potential. [Nerd time: It's like a very strong genetic variety of a valuable crop that does or does not produce ideal fruit depending on whether it receives the necessary environmental inputs: C, N, micronutrients, sunlight, irrigation, drainage, time, etc.]

Il faut cultiver notre jardin. We must cultivate our garden. -Voltaire, Candide. Yeah!

Compost Recipe

2011-05-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

RECIPE Compost

pile, pile, pile. my group's was named 'Lady Elaine Fairchild' <3

the metabolization of materials by aerobic microbes = heat. if i was homeless, i'd like to sleep on a compost pile.

Compost is a secret super ingredient in the system of French intensive gardening that functions to inoculate and condition soils for successful planting. Like black, crumbly gold or dark chocolate cake. It's pretty amazing.

I n g r e d i e n t s

Greens/cut cover crop [N]

Hay bale/dried grass [C]

Horse/animal manure [C+N]

Water

I n s t r u c t i o n s

1. Measure out a 5' by 5' space, located in a moderately sheltered area outdoors

2. Lay down a very thin layer of hay on ground surface within the 5' x 5' dimensions

3. Lightly chop up the greens with a spade & put down a 3-5" layer of it on top of the hay

4. Next, add a 3-5" layer of animal manure on top of the greens

5. Continue systematic layering, adding a light sprinkle of water atop every hay layer

6. As the pile begins to build up, occasionally pull back corners and edges with a fork to maintain square dimensions

7. Continue layering until the pile reaches roughly 4' tall

8. Finish the top with a layer of dry hay

9. Cover the entire pile with a large tarp

10. Take the temperature of the pile to monitor biological activity

11. The pile should reach upwards of 130 degree F. If the temp slows, turn the pile by re-piling it into an adjacent space

12. Let the pile sit and process for maybe 3 months or until it reminds you of black, crumbly gold or dark chocolate cake or whatnot

13. Slice and serve. Um, just kidding. Add compost to garden beds prior to planting for a nutrient & microbe boost throughout the growing season.

Week 4

2011-05-08T14:53:00.001-07:00

TYPICAL day at the farm & garden

I'm currently typing and sipping coffee at the Abbey coffee, art & music lounge in Santa Cruz. I feel very Santa Cruz right now [which is hard to describe without coming off as super judgmental, but I'd say it's a distinct mix of modern hippie suburban upper middle class social justice vintage rural chic]. Anyways, four weeks have gone by since I got here, and time is really just flying by. I feel the need to recap and reflect.

m o r n i n g

6:50 - alarm sounds off, snooze

I live in one of those tent cabins. 4 units per structure, but I've got my own room.

7:30 - breakfast ends in 15 minutes, must get out of bed, get dressed, and gear backpack with water bottle, felco trimmers, harvesting knife, sunblock, and notebook.

7:40 - eat breakfast, prepare coffee, lounge around

8:20 - impromptu stretching circle

The 'Down Garden.' Everything here is hand-worked. This is the garden on day one. I've been working in this site over the past 3 weeks.

8:30 - gather at veggie shed for the day's run-down of tasks

9 to 12 - work in crews: bed preparation, transplanting, irrigation, weeding, etc.

We're learning about CA native plants to prepare for our plant sale, which raised over $18K this year.

a f t e r n o o n

12 to 2 - lunch, usually something extremely delicious and nutritious, everyone gets really excited about food here

Recently, I've been stirring molasses into equal parts whole milk and coffee during lunchtime as a comforting snack-beverage, which usually leads me to falling asleep. This is the farm cat/rodent exterminator, Nanook, also taking a nap.

2 to 6 - continue working, around 4 o'clock 'cookie fairies' come to raise our spirits with something like homemade peanut butter cups and milk, it blows my mind

We're preparing the soil for raspberry planting. It's a tough job.

e v e n i n g

6:30 - dinner

8 - lounge around, internet connect in library, solar heat shower under the sky, study/read

10 - go to bed

I'm only starting to get accustomed to the scene and the routine. It's too dreamy, surreal. Bright pink blooms, hands in dirt, sipping cold beer, breaking off chocolate chunks, picking strawberries and then eating them right after, sharp tools, hummingbirds diving, barn owls screeching at night, guitars strumming, laughter, hot afternoons & cold evenings, living with 45 extremely capable people & hearing their stories. I feel like I'm on sensory overload sometimes. In contrast, I lived in a solitary studio apartment not too long ago, sometimes going days without having a conversation and eating noodle soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's been quite an awkward process to jump from one lifestyle to another. The transition trips me out, but I think I'm getting there okay.

hypercities

2011-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

MAPS hypercities

Free access to interactive historical maps and overlays attached to location-based narratives & info collections. It's a project in the works based out of UCLA. So cool. I used to work at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology where my job was to scan historical photos and maps, pressing buttons. I think it'd be great to attach those documents to something like HyperCities to show progressions and interactions between natural history and land use over time. Hm.

Week 3

2011-04-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

ANALOGIES Ecological Horticulture:Social Processes

pruning:tree as revising:budget

bacteria:soil as resident:neighborhood

surface area:cation exchange as human exposure:social interaction

Into week three. I'm constantly struck by how analogous concepts specific to ecological horticulture can be to non-plant-related situations. I get the feeling that ecological horticulture is a pretty poem about life. Maybe because I'm personally trying to organize my thoughts about the 'larger picture' and my purpose in the context of what I know. Maybe because, like gravity, these processes have a way of ruling our lives. Most likely it's because I live on a farm and I love it!

Here's a list of some skills I've been practicing (so that I don't forget): HOW TO construct & turn a 5' x 5' x 4' compost pile/initiate a bee hive/side fork, single dig, and double dig, to prepare French intensive raised beds/select and plant raspberry & blackberry stock/deal with yellow bushy dwarf virus/transplant cut flowers/select, plant, and shape apple trees/transplant peppers/choose mechanical tillage implements/select cover crop mixes/manually incorporate cover crops/make sauerkraut.

I've also been working on some sketching that I'd like to ramp up. I'll post some pictures of all of the above as soon as I stop being lazy.

Week 1

2011-04-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

I've just completed my first week as an apprentice at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).

Some highlights: Orin Martin, spade and fork preparation and bonding time, professional team building exercises, learning about pruning apple trees, string band sing-along, bike ride through Santa Cruz, barn dance at Pie Ranch, and THE FOOD IS AMAZING HERE i.e. medjool dates stuffed with chevre, pistachio, and almond alongside freshly picked strawberries, served as a snack during a break from building a 5' tall compost pile named Lady Elaine Fairchild, after the creepy puppet from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, what the heck. And so much more I can't remember right now.

"Are you kidding me with your f-ing farm skyscraper?"

2011-03-31T22:25:00.000-07:00

DIRECTIONS Horizontal versus Vertical

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a panel discussion off MASNYC on the viability of commercial-scale organic food production in fully-equipped hydroponic skyscrapers aka vertical farming. And my thoughts exactly: "Are you kidding me with your f-ing farm skyscraper?"

Okay - the buildings - they look ridiculously beautiful and they'd be built to support local, organic food production in urban areas. Thumbs up! But how much are these vegetables going to cost? And what about the thousands of existing urban acres brimming with the products of neglect: hot cracked asphalt, trash piles, crack addicts galore. I think it'd be way more cost-efficient to kill a bunch of birds with just a couple of existing stones; invest in urban agriculture on the ground to beautify and clean up neighborhoods while providing local produce. Kids might even get the chance to figure out how carrots grow from the ground and not from expensive fancy eco-friendly platinum starred skyscrapers.

"Why re-invent the wheel?" outside of fun & excitement. I really think that the infrastructure is already there for the horizontal:

LAND - lots of neglected urban land, ugly & wasted.
LABOR - lots of unemployed laborers looking for work.
DEMAND - local food is all the rage, people are hungry, and obesity sucks.
KNOWLEDGE - lots of people know how, especially immigrants, your grandma probably knows how.
CAPITAL - minimal start-up costs compared to those skyscrapers. though i'd like to learn more about this.
POLITICS - again, local, healthy, sustainable, [more buzz words] foods are all the rage. politicians & michelle obama love this stuff.

SOME BIRDS TO KILL - neglected urban space, unemployment, hunger, obesity, incompetency

When the above has been addressed, then sure, let's go for the vertical option if we still need it. I think Despommier is probably a really well-intentioned, smart man, but I think as a prof. of medicine and public health, he may need to study up on his "traditional farming" before trying to one-up it. Maybe I'm missing something, too.

More technical arguments: "Advantages of Vertical Farming" (from website, response in color)

Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres) Seasonality?; horizontal organic intensive techniques exist.

No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests Rather, it would be energy & input-dependent.

All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers All farming was organic until recently.

VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water Energy-dependence -> coal, oil ->runoff.

VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services What is "nature?"

VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface

VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of evapotranspiration Energy-dependence -> black & gray water.

VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals How will plants be fertilized if not from composting or fertilizers? Also possible in horizontal.

VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.) How do you make steel, glass, & plastic?

VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers Horizontal does, too, w/greater accessibility.

VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers Horizontal does, too, but improves on the existing ecosystem.

VF creates new employment opportunities Horizontal does too, with more opps for entrepreneurs & small business.

We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth Is giving up on the earth a practical approach?

VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps

VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production.

VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture The political nature/root causes of those conflicts may manifest in other forms.

not okay

2011-03-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

NOT OKAY Upper Sproul, Spring 2008

I just read an article about the "Kill Team" in Afghanistan. My first reaction is: oh damn, sucks, but it happens, the whole of war is messed up, acceptance, move on. But today, I actually read through the explicit details of the story, and it hit me a little harder than usual. The last time I remotely felt this way was three years ago in my Controlling Processes class. Our guest speaker was this guy named Dahr Jamail who used to be a mountain guide in Alaska, who up and left for Iraq in 2003 to find out what was going on first hand.

During the lecture, he stood at the podium and simply described the nuances of what he observed. Stuff like how the streets over there don't have clear addresses like we do here, so it was common for military personnel to wrongly (and knowingly) detain, question, and harass civilians from incorrect locations for indeterminate lengths of time. No defenses, no lawyers, no complaining.

I know that if someone ever did this to me, my family, or a friend, I'd simply explode, kaput, and probably develop some kind of hard and vengeful, paranoid outlook on life :/

I just remember after the lecture, I went on my usual way home through Upper Sproul, except this time I stopped at the fountain, sat for a while, and broke down. It's not something I have a habit of doing, either. I really couldn't help it. It just hit me. A stranger even tried to console me and all I could say was, "the Iraq war [sobs]." I don't know my American idioms too well, but I guess in a different way, the devil lies in the details. I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but I know that I don't ever want to forget how I felt then, not numb, not cold, not okay with it.

Difficulty Reading

2011-03-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

DIFFICULTY Reading

^Franny and Zooey in existential crisis!

A Confession. In my many years of formal education, 19 years to be exact (gross!), I've only read through a handful of books to their very last pages. Maybe 20 in my lifetime. I too quickly give up if I'm not immediately captured by the words, due to a lack of patience, I think. Luckily, and/or unfortunately, I've been able to successfully write entire essays and participate in meaningful discussions without completely reading material first hand, as in the case of the classics I've sadly never come to finish: To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter, 1984, Dante's Inferno, to name a few. I even took a semester-long seminar solely dedicated to that last one. In a way, I feel I've faked my way out of it perhaps intentionally, keeping myself ignorant at a distance. It's fun to guess sometimes, I don't know. I don't care to know. In the end, I'm pretty sure I'll never finish these books 'cause I simply have no desire to.

So it was a relief to find some exceptions this past year: Truman Capote and J.D. Salinger, so far. Especially Truman Capote. I read through Breakfast at Tiffany's today in one sitting, which NEVER happens. It's pretty short, but I'm also a pretty slow reader since I have to sound out all the words in my head to hear them. His collection of short stories, Music for Chameleons, is my favorite. Something about the rhythm and sound of the words, and how it's all arranged to create meaning, sort of like music. J.D. Salinger's, Franny and Zooey, too. In strict terms of plot, it's completely dull: Franny reads this book, freaks out, and lies on the couch for a while. Her brother, Zooey, lies in a bathtub, walks around the house, and consoles her. But the language and the substance, for chrissake, GODDAM.

My problem, I'm sure, is that I haven't actively pursued or explored literature with any faith. So I'm hoping to change that and give it a try after all these years. Trying to get my eyes off the computer screen and back into my imagination. Next stop: Oscar Wilde. He's supposed to be witty, right?

Some stuff from Breakfast at Tiffany's:

I came home to find outside my door a grand-luxe Charles & Co. basket with her card: Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling: and scribbled on the back in a freakishly awkward, kindergarten hand: Bless you darling Fred. Please forgive the other night. You were an angel about the whole thing. Mille tendresse - Holly. P.S. I won't bother you again. I replied, Please do, and left this note at her door with what I could afford, a bunch of street-vendor violets.

And,

the trick had been worked by exaggerating defects; she'd made them ornamental by admitting them boldly. Heels that emphasized her height, so steep her ankles trembled; a flat tight bodice that indicated she could go to a beach in bathing trunks, hair that was pulled straight back, accentuating the spareness, the starvation of her fashion-model face. Even the stutter, certainly genuine but a bit laid on, had been turned to an advantage. It was the master of stroke, that stutter; for it contrived to make her banalities sound somehow original.

And,

They've had the old clap-yo'-hands so many times it amounts to applause.

pretty informative

2011-03-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

VISUALIZATION infoaesthetics

So much to visualize.

Check out the 2011 Federal Budget on NYT's interactive infographic. Pretty raw, but does the job.

"twitter"

2011-03-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

So I've heard of this thing called, "Twitter." You know, that thing that does the message thing thinger. I hear it's all the rage. Well, I signed up for an account finally and ended up subscribing to some random people/orgs. And I learned that March is National Frozen Food Month -_-

LA Food

2011-03-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

REGIONAL LA Food Policy Council

"Good Food For All Agenda"

Before last night, I didn't even know that there was a real food movement in LA. My bad, now I know.

Just two months old, the LA Food Policy Council is working to capture and coordinate the momentum of LA's food movement to make policy tools that will provide a more secure/sustainable regional food system for Los Angeles. Priorities: boosting regional economies, market building, hunger elimination, improving equitable access, facilitating urban agriculture, and food system education. They've come out with a comprehensive report, the Good Food For All Agenda, with full-on charts, graphs, stats, and next step recommendations.

I'm especially interested in the regional economy aspect of the movement because I think our current economy is too insecure, dependent on outside fickleness over which we have little control. Like foreign oil supplies and failed banks :( For the sake of economic resilience, I think investment in local entrepreneurs along with increased regional circulation of funds might be worthwhile. (I'd prefer a cute family business to a faceless one anyways since they're more likely to invest and recirculate funds within the region.)

Apparently, until the fifties, LA County was the largest agricultural producer in the US. Who knew. Currently, LA County spends about $25 billion per year on food. We can at least try to capture more of that $ and profit some off our sunny weather, fertile land, and readily available labor, because who can live without eating? The market is there. Might as well use our unique position in CA to build a stronger piece of the economy through food by facilitating the growth of community-based/family-owned growers, distributors, vendors, restaurants, businesses, etc.

(Although, one of the major road blocks I can think of is that of subsidies, and that's a whole 'nother discussion that deals with the distortion of price, competition, real value, okay it's time for me to run away now.)

100th Anniversary

2011-03-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

STATS Women in Science & Engineering

I remember an ecology teacher at Cal telling us how amazed she was to see so many girls in her classes. During her time there were supposedly very few women professors in science & engineering. So I looked it up, and I guess it's true: six times more male S&E faculty in 1987. I know at least in my bio & ecology classes at Cal, I was mostly around Caucasian and Asian girls, so it's sort of cool to see how some things have progressed over our lifetimes. (Though I know there are still a bunch of depressing statistics out there that tell us otherwise, OF COURSE! I.e. only 17% of the US Congress is represented by women, a record high, what?!) Happy 100th International Women's Day!

Always Jane Jacobs

2011-03-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

INTERVIEW Jane Jacobs Medal Winners 2008

MASNYC, the Municipal Arts Society of New York, "fights for a more livable New York, and advocates for intelligent urban planning, design, and preservation."

I think if I'm to have any long term goal in my life, it's to be on the level of a Jane Jacob Medalist: someone who can cleverly transform a problem into an asset.

"You can make absolutely a difference. You just have to understand what your talents and skills are, identify a problem or concern you have and are committed to, and you can begin to make a difference." - Peggy Shepard

"We're not looking for people to give us things. In the end that perpetuates a cycle of disempowerment. We're looking to be respected as engaged citizens of this city in determining what is best for ourselves, our future, in partnership with policymakers, agency heads, and elected officials." - Alexie Torres-Fleming

History: Not Dead

2011-02-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

PERSPECTIVE A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

carrots...

Today, I planted a row of carrots and pulled some weeds at the Farm with a master gardener I work with. As we worked, she told me stories about the history of her people from her perspective as a black civil rights activist who once marched with the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta. Crazy, huh? Her stories helped illuminate for me, history as living.

I realize now that history as we learned it in public school is truly dead, at least to me. The premise for this claim: narratives portrayed in mainstream media are dictated by a narrow perspective, which when distributed and taught to the rest of us, helps to enforce and perpetuate a particular paradigm. (Alternative: A People's History of the United States.) The particular paradigm, however, might not produce ideal outcomes for the majority of its participants who believe and perpetuate the narrative. Rather, it is more likely that the particular paradigm will produce outcomes ideal for the minority who dictate it.

Okay, that was really wordy, sorry.

I tend to think of it like a game of Monopoly, except there's a powerful minority that can make up and change the rules without telling the other players about them. Of course, those who dictate the rules will do best in the game and everyone else will likely lose. Yeah, the majority of the players are pissed about it, but they're caught up in the confusion and are trying to learn the new rules to at least keep themselves in the game. And the rule-makers offer to educate the rest of the players about the new rules and even provide assistance to them, like low-paying jobs, high-interest loans, and unreliable welfare that will keep them afloat and make the game seem "more fair." In the end, the minority (10%) ends up with most (73%) of the property and cash.

Why is this important? Because we define ourselves and our neighbors based on the stories we hear. Narratives provide us with material to judge ourselves and others with; a source of justifications for our actions and thoughts. Every individual has a unique story, as does every ethnic and socioeconomic group. Although it's impossible to hear them all, these stories, as accurate representations of the living, can help to better shape democratic societies. I think?

Dark Horse

2011-02-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

MOVIE Dark Horse

A quirky Danish film directed by Dagur Kari, 2005. No horses, little darkness.

Liked:

girl to donut, "don't crawl away..."

wallpaper of hearts

unacknowledged elephants

zebra print sheets

one color frame

Despite a decent attempt at filling my days with productive activities, I still find myself with hours and hours to spare, consuming entertaining media. I wonder what it does to my brain. Strange to think that once upon a time all visual/audio sensations were experienced only in live 3D space and time, right in front of you. No repeats.

Planning Brainstorm 3

2011-02-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS American Urban Farms

Josef Frank, Swedish designer

Green Youth Farm, Chicago, Illinois
A group of four small urban farms that employ about 50 youth interns each year in various Chicago neighborhoods.

Elements: Year-long intern stipend, 4hrs/wk labor during school year, 20 hrs/wk during summer. 1. Grow produce, 2. develop marketing/business plan, 3. sell & manage produce to local buyers. 20 students per acre. Weekly cooking sessions. Job shadowing. Field trips. Training sessions. Guest speakers. Entrepreneurial activities. Graduates get promoted to crew leaders/staff. A LOT of external funding, individual, corporate, local, and government levels since it's run under the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Earthworks Urban Farm, Detroit, Michigan
They have 2 youth programs, a summer camp, and provide for their parent organization, a soup kitchen.

Growing Healthy Kids, 5-11 years old: Weekly afternoon program w/healthy snacks, outdoor play, coloring, flower bed planning, vegetable garden planting, painting, pancake making, honey extraction, and seed starting.

Youth Farm Stand, 11-17 years old: Farming, marketing, personal development, and community food system education. Stipends.

Other Elements: Monthly food justice potlucks, co-teaching of workshops, lots of organizational collaboration, annual tours, event tabling, seeking of community feedback, organic certification funding from Farm Bill.

HUB Urban Farm Hub

Lots of links to organizations across the nation w/technical material, funding opportunities, etc.

INSTRUCTION MANUALS from CASFS

Free pdf downloads. Hundreds of pages, EVERYTHING is in here, including how to plan a CSA, how to teach soil science, and business planning strategies. Gosh.

1. Teaching Organic Farming and Gardening: Resources for Instructors

2. Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors

3. Sustainable Agriculture Curriculum

Biological Control the Movie

2011-02-15T03:04:00.002-08:00

TRAILER Biocontrol

Biological Control - Trailer from R.J. Glass on Vimeo.

"Forty five Billion with a B."

I miss the lab! <3

Planning Brainstorm 2

2011-02-14T17:27:00.000-08:00

INSPIRATION Chicago Botanic Garden

Browsed through their website today, which features all 24 of their gardens, including a Sensory Garden [designed for "fragrances, sounds, color, texture, movement"], Enabling Garden [designed for therapy], and Landscapes Garden [which demos appropriate small-scale residential landscape designs for the Chicago Midwest area].

Putting the Chicago Botanic Garden on my list of places to visit.

Lamb's Ear. This plant screams, TOUCH ME!

A Garden for the Senses: feel, smell, listen, look. A guide from the Chicago Botanic Garden.

1. plant fragrant flowers/herbs in raised beds or containers to bring pleasant scents closer to your nose

2. plant near doors and windows for maximum enjoyment

3. include the soothing sound of water by building a fountain, pond, or stream

4. create mood with color. red/yellow/orange for warmth. green/blue/violet for cool

5. make music with a variety of trees, grasses, and shrubs that rustle in the wind

6. select plants with colored and textured leaves, flowers, berries, and bark to make it interesting

7. choose plants that are furry, spongy, prickly, or silky to add tactile delight

8. combine tall, medium, and short plants to create visual interest

9. group plants with subtle fragrances in drifts to combine scents and intensify their effects

10. plant varieties that will attract birds, butterflies, bees, and wildlife

Brainstorming. Elements: botanic science, rainwater harvesting, green roof garden, teaching pavilion, greenhouse, aquaponics, solar panel demo, green jobs training.

So I'm doing research alone in the corner of a coffee shop on Valentine's Day and I really can't complain. God, I love this stuff.

Planning Brainstorm 1

2011-02-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

PROJECT Earthworks Garden Design

Last week, I started volunteering at Earthworks Community Farm, located in South El Monte, cornered by the 60 Freeway and a Ramada Inn. It's run by volunteers, a few hardcore immigrant farmers, a full-time youth intern, and a project coordinator from the San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps. By happenstance, the Farm has recently entered a phase of renewal/renovation, and has given me an opportunity to help shape it during the next two months. The timing is uncanny.

Essentially, I've been given the chance to design a small resting/garden space for installment in September. Despite the fact that I have no prior design experience, I'm hoping to step up and use this opportunity as a space to experiment, practice, and transform all that socio-nature theory in my head into application.

Brainstorming. Landscape elements: seating, walking, eating, resting, education, playing, beneficial insects, birds, edible plants, ethnobotany, color, texture, art, concepts of community, wholeness & cultivation, irrigation. Very. exciting.

Guides: California Native Plant Society, Native Plants for School Gardens & Urban Areas: A Survival Guide

Recidivism

2011-02-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

DEFINITION Recidivism

The percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested and returned to prison.

Relevant to: tax dollars, state budget, economy, productivity, equity, community.

NUMBERS CA Recidivism Rate/Prison Population Growth

1980 Prison Population: 24,569

2009 Prison Population: 167,922 [that's 0.5% of our population]

Yes, the general population of CA did grow during those years, but no, it did not increase 583%, not that much.

2009 CDCR Budget: $9.8 billion [$9.1 bill proposed for the coming year]

Avg annual cost/prisoner: $49,000

These people could be paying taxes instead of taking them! How?

CA recidivism: 66% [two out of three will return]

National recidivism: 40%

The reduction of recidivism has potential for increasing state productivity and saving CA money via methods of employment and education since reasons for recidivism are so closely linked to very low education levels and very few employment opportunities post-release. It's a cycle. The Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice has released a report on increasing employment opportunities for people with prior convictions to slow that cycle. If the budget for the "corrections" system could be allocated to actually make corrections, to form productive, contributing members of society, we might have more money to spend on programs that help all of us and prevent said cycle from even starting.

That's not to say that prisoners should take no blame for their actions as individuals. I mean to say that I think criminal behavior can additionally be seen as a side effect and indicator of broken social systems that are set up by public policies and social norms that need to evolve to better suit changing conditions for the sake of the rest of society. The correlations of arbitrary characteristics [such as race, income level, and education level] to imprisonment is just too strong to say that all criminal behavior is 100% an individual choice.

Sketch Up

2011-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

MODEL 3D Modeling of the World via Google

Apparently, most of the Bay Area's urban centers have been modeled in 3D, now visible on Google Earth.

Made with Google's Building Maker modeling tool: 1. select a city, 2. make a building, 3. save your building, 4. see it in Google Earth. Additionally, 3D modeling is available with Google's free SketchUp tool, which can be used to draw up floorplans, furniture, houses, parks, whatever you want. Another thing to play with.

Two Months

2011-01-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

TIME To Waste

Currently in between stages of life, I've found myself with the rare opportunity of having two selfish months to myself, with few or no real responsibilities. So far, I've used my time haphazardly, lacking structure, consistency, and accountability; dabbling here and there. Running, cooking, sketching, stretching, and other present tense verbs marked by leisure and consumption. If I had the time to do these things 3 months ago while working 3 jobs, volunteering, and taking classes, I think I would've died of joy. Instead, I'm spoiled with boredom. Guess that's why jam tastes better on plain toast. Or nutella on crepes. Or cookies with milk! Mmmmm.

Gonna try, for the sake of meaning.

1. Volunteering: at Earthworks Community Farm & The Newport Bay Conservancy. [Both beautiful places to visit.]

2. Sharing: of ideas, stories, meals, and stuff I make.

3. Conversing: yep.

What would you do if you had two months to spare?

Al Jazeera

2011-01-29T01:27:00.000-08:00

NEWS Al Jazeera Live Stream

Hopefully civil unrest will work toward better days.