Drying Herbs

In my eagerness to grow a verdant garden filled with vegetables and herbs, I have to admit I went a little overboard on the herb part. We have two types of basil (sweet and Thai), I was so pretty and in bloom before she snipped me off!
cilantro, oregano, rosemary and sage and the problem is I don't even use half of the herbs all that often, like the oregano, rosemary and sage. I felt like I was leading the herbs on, giving them water and sunlight and food to help them grow big and delicious, and then I just let them hang out there in the corner and look pretty for the garden. But that isn't enough for me. So I decided to dry them. And it's my first time drying so you can learn with me!

Rosemary and sage were the first to go to the drying rack. Two weeks ago I snipped off several branches of sage, cleaned any dirt off of them with water, tied them together with twine and hung them upside down by a tack in the patio closet. It is important to find a dark, dry and airy place, which took a little thinking since I live in an apartment. At first I tried the closet, but when the bf came home, opened the closet to search for a jacket and remarked that he smelled a faint aroma of moth balls I nixed the closet. I then searched through cupboards and finally ended up with the patio closet even though I was afraid spiders might eat up the herbs. (They didn't touch them by the way.) And then last week in the CSA box we got a bunch of rosemary. Ahh! But I already have a load of rosemary! That's when I decided to dry those too; the same way as the sage. The sage took about 2-3 weeks to dry and the rosemary took about 1-2 weeks to completely dry. It was a very simple process, just took a little time and the leaf color dulled quite a bit.

Another way of drying herbs that is quicker and easier is : the microwave! Today I picked off some more sage and rosemary from the garden. With the microwave method you wash the herbs really well, de-stem them and place the herb leaves (do one type of herb at a time) on a doubled up paper towel. After you have put the paper towel with herb leaves in the microwave, cook them on a regular setting for a 1-2 minute interval and then for 1/2-1 minute intervals from then on. After each interval mix the leaves for even drying. Et voila! You are done!




Fresh -----> Dry





I enjoyed the more traditional method of drying herbs in bunches because I was able to check on them every few days to track their progress and I could see and experience the drying process. And if you were giving them as a gift or using them as decoration, the presentation of the slow, dried herbs is much prettier. However, the herbs were less fragrant and less colorful than the microwaved herbs.

I mixed the rosemary and sage together in an airtight container for safe keeping.
Not too shabby!

This past fall we were getting a lot of root veggies and tubers in our CSA box so many a night we would have pork roast with carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, garlic and lots of rosemary, but I would have to buy it at the store because it was too cold to grow. Now I will have plenty of it stocked up for fall! I also made a lot of soup on the cold (very rare) days of winter and started them off with some bacon. Soups with bacon and sage are some of my favorites. Adding some chicken broth, noodles, and veggies made it so flavorful and homey. I was excited to discover the drying process is super simple and now I feel so good about myself for preserving the herbs to use in the months to come!

If I Were in Charge of the World

I work at an elementary school in a 1st/2nd grade class with witty, hilarious, loving and very smart students. I am always surprised with the amount of knowledge they have already gained in their short 6-7 years of life, and this past week is no exception. Their assignment was to come up with two rules they would enforce if they were in charge of the world. Of course there was a splattering of silly and fun responses, but there were also many caring and responsible responses that surprised me. And I asked myself why? Maybe because these kids have been celebrating Earth Day since they were born. Or because they know why and what to recycle and are aware of where there trash ends up and try not to waste. Or it could be because they cherish the planet and they sincerely want to make it healthier.

Here are some of their responses (in all of their uncorrected glory):

If I were in charge of the world people can't hurt animals and people would also have to reduce, reuse, and recycle to keep our planet clean.
If I were in charge of the world no one would cut off a tree and every kid would be allowed to keep Lego people in their pockets. (my personal favorite :)
If I were in charge of the world everyone has to have one tree on their property or they will get taxed more and only kids under 35 will be allowed to be president.
If I were in charge of the world I would protect all animals so that they won't go extinct and everyone would have to have a recycle bin so we can save more trees.
If I were in charge of the world I will not let anybody chop down trees and I wish that every child in the world will be allowed to put a trampoline in their living rooms!
If I were in charge of the world I would say no one can litter so animals don't die because of environmental stress and I would say you had to be 1 year old to drive.

Later that afternoon I was helping a group of girls with their work and they informed me that they were going to start a new club to help save the Earth. They would have gardening, trash pick-up, cooking and playing with animals workshops. They then asked me if I would like to come and teach a workshop. "I love gardening, can I teach that one?" I asked. "Well, M is doing gardening, I'm doing cooking and N is doing animals. So can you do trash pick-up?" she responded. Figures...

Anyways, I wanted to share these funny and cute tidbits because I find it sort of fascinating that kids this young are already aware of global warming, pollution and recycling. When I was in elementary school the only time I can remember talking about recycling was to raise money to visit the Exploratorium in San Francisco. "Recycle Your Way to the Exploratorium" was our motto (Lila and I even made a little jingle to sing along with it). We recycled to make money, not to reuse and recycle metals. Kids these days are environmentally smart; they are going to begin their lives making wise decisions to keep our planet healthy and clean. Teaching them about being "green" early in life will instill in them the knowledge they will use throughout their lives to make healthy and environmentally friendly choices towards our planet.

So stop cutting off trees!

P.S. I received a note today from a student that said I was the best aide in the history of history. Wow, that one is hard to live up to.

Great Valley Center Conference

Hey yos! So I'm just coming off of our annual great valley center conference: 20/20 Foresight: A View of the Great Valley in a Decade. It was a good couple of days, some of it inspiring, some of it exhausting. But the good news is I put my time in blogging at the conference so I think I should get two gold stars and link to it here: great valley center conference blog.

Particularly applicable to our blog mission (by the way I still have plans to write something for the about us section) was the address by California Secretary of Agriculture AG Kawamura and the founder and president of Natural Capitalism Solutions L. Hunter Lovins.

AG Kawamura spoke about how California really has two options in terms of the future of agriculture: we can just live or we can thrive. The decision to thrive really depends on us planning for predictable challenges. We know the population is going to increase (specifically in the valley, california ag's homebase), we know this population increase will increase the demand for housing, water, and transportation, so if we know this is going to happen why don't we plan for it now. Really the concept seems so simple but the truth is there is no plan for the future of agriculture. I was just super impressed by him and his address to the crowd so I encourage you to check out the summary of Kawamura's speech at the conference as well as our interviews with him that are up on the conference blog.

L. Hunter Lovins talked about how green practices and green concepts are beneficial to business interests (listen up angie). The main point she drove home was that being green is about profit and considering the return on investment (I never use that term but L. Hunter Lovins did) when green practices are implemented it's in everybody's best interest to encourage environmentally thoughtful business practices. Truthfully, I didn't think Lovins said anything that was that groundbreaking, but everybody else at the conference really like her so again check out her interview and presentation, maybe you will find it to be way more interesting then I did.

Also, I just had Robin look at our blog and she thought we needed music, I don't know how to music on our blog but I like this youtube clip so I'll post this clip of Paul Simon on Sesame Street instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1dlWmrRstc. I have no clue how to imbed this video in the blog and I'm too tired to figure it out so I'm just linking it.

Watermelon

Food Desert

Imagine you live surrounded by fast food joints, gas stations, liquor stores and concrete. Many inner-city neighborhoods live in this "food desert." They do not have access to fresh food and produce and are left with no choice, but to purchase food from these unhealthy options.

This past weekend I attended a conference hosted by San Diego Food Not Lawns called, "Cultivating Food Justice." Along with gardening, canning, composting, recycling and a slue of other workshops, there was one in particular that I found fascinating; "Nutritional Racism." We learned through an informative video called "Unnatural Causes" that inner-city, low income, minority neighborhoods harbor the unhealthiest citizens due to poor water and food quality, proximity to highways and dumps, chronic stress from daily violence and lack of efficient transportation, to name a few. "Unnatural Causes" follows the residents of one Northern California neighborhood that fits the mold of a food desert, but there are quite a few in San Diego too.

If one visits the City Heights neighborhood in San Diego on Saturday morning one could find fresh produce lining the streets at the weekly farmers' market. Neighbors wave to each other while comparing vegetable prices. However, it was not always this convenient and easy to find fresh food. City Heights prides itself on being the most diverse neighborhood in the city, but it is also one of the most dangerous. Years ago the residents were hard on finding fresh, local produce, green patches of land to enjoy or public space to garden. Now this has changed due to generous grants and redevelopment plans to beautify the neighborhood and construct new private and public buildings, like the wonderful library and low income housing options.

One of the projects that I have been following in the neighborhood is the New Roots Community Farm in City Heights, for City Heights residents. Through the long and hard work of the International Rescue Committee in San Diego, they have secured this piece of land with 89 garden plots. I believe this plot of land could be a community gathering spot for neighbors to converse and share and for families and individuals to grow fresh, organic produce for much less than buying it at the supermarket. Families could grow trees and plants from their native countries. They can be self-sustainable!

Community gardens not only provide us with healthy food to nourish our bodies, but also with lasting experiences to share with neighbors and family. I love to see positive change. Busy street with cars to bustling produce market with buyers. Seed to fruit. Vacant lot to community garden. Despair to hope.

Peas

Just an observation...

...that has nothing to do with the objective of our blog, but Mormons have really nice blogs. Cruising around blogspot blogs every super cute site has a wedding picture in front of a temple. Okay now somebody else needs to post so this post isn't at the top of our blog.

work?!?

Sometimes it is so difficult for me to remember that I'm lucky to work for an organization that keeps me connected to the earth and the concept of sustainable practices. The Great Valley Center's mission is officially to support activities and organizations that promote the social, economic, and environmental well-being of California's Central Valley. I have to admit (which is hard when you're in the communications department) that the mission is pretty vague. But I will admit that the exposure I've gotten at GVC to people who are thought leaders in terms of communities that are healthy and environmentally sound is incredible.

I'm thinking specifically of this last week when on Tuesday I got to work at our AB32/SB375 local government actions event in Merced and then on Friday got to spend the day at Stewardship Day at the Burrows' Ranch in Tehama County. Tuesday's workshop was great in terms of those talking about legislation that is working to maintain California's environmental health. Particularly notable Judy Corbett, Executive Director of the Local Government Commission who I have long admired and got to hear speak for the first time last week. Judy talked specifically about sustainable communities and what the cost savings for communties can be when they implement sustainable practices, but more important than cost savings was Judy talking about the quality of life improvements people can experience when they live in communities designed with sustainability in mind. Judy's presentation is unfortunatly not linked at our energy program's blog yet but here is where it will be when it is: http://www.gvc-energy.org/. Stuart Cohen, from Transform, was also a great speaker.

Friday's outting to Bill Burrow's ranch in Tehama County for Stewardship Day was truthfully a little overwhelming. I had such a hard time keeping up on what they were talking about in terms of land management practices. I really appreciated the Red Bluff Daily News' story on Saturday, it helped me understand what I was supposed to understand while I was out at the ranch, while I actually picked up was that there were a thousand goats, yes a thousand head of goat, it was pretty cool- but I do just want to say I did pass on the goat lunch besides goat being the red meat that is highest in omega 3 (I learned that too).

Anyway work is just really on my mind as I prepare to take off tomorrow for our big annual conference. I'll probably post something following the conference considering some of the major topics are the future of food and the environment in the Central Valley- I'll keep you posted!

The Garden

Disclaimer: I just want to state I did not purposely choose to write about my garden as my first post to "compete" with Lila because, come on, we have been friends since like 1st grade, but I did notice my tomato plants are like twice the size of hers. ;)

I have a garden too. It consists of a menagerie of pots with plants named "Husky" and "Homestead" (those are my pretty tomatoes), a variety of herbs: sage, rosemary, cilantro, oregano, sweet basil and thai basil; as well as serrano peppers and a dwarf tangerine tree that is just flowering and smells so sweet! We also had a super cool hummingbird nest a branch away, but I will save that story for another post.

Le jardin has been in full force for about a month now (I live in SoCal and it was a balmy 90 degrees last week) and the bf and I shared our first "Husky" cherry tomato last week. Yes, we cut the 1in. circumference tomato in half and thoroughly enjoyed the juicy, sugary fruit. It was the best tomato we have tasted of the season. :) The thai basil is growing taller every day just so it can fulfill it's destiny of properly flavoring our delicious yellow thai curry recipe and the sweet basil has already been denuded a couple times to make an amazing fennel and tomato pasta.

I love sitting out on our plot of porch and admiring the growing plants, but often I yearn for a plot of land so I could grow a dozen tomato plants or even a small fruit tree orchard with the goal of being self-sustainable. So, a few weeks ago the bf and I attended a free screening of the Oscar nominated documentary, "The Garden." It intrigued me because I read it was about a 14 acre community garden in the middle of LA! I (was jealous) couldn't believe how large the plot of land was and I needed to find out what they grew! The lush community garden was divided into dozens of family plots that provided food to many impoverished residents of the neighborhood. And the drama begins when the property owner wants to sell the land the garden is on. The community togetherness and love for the garden was real and this film really shows the positive impact a garden/food source can have on a community. I recommend renting the movie, if you can, and I will also update y'all on the talk I am attending tonight regarding the movie, with the actual farmers from the LA garden on the panel! San Diego Food Not Lawns is sponsoring the event.

Peas