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..
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
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.
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.
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.)
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.
