Kaiya & Daddy Making Mushroom Soup

Daddy and Kaiya made mushroom soup over the weekend, using portabellos, shiitakes and brown button mushrooms we bought from Far West Fungi at the Mountain View farmer's market. We feel lucky to have a great selection of fresh mushrooms so close.

Especially since Far West Fungi only sells at a few locations in San Francisco (including the Ferry Building) and the Mountain View farmer's market.

Kaiya had a lot of fun making the soup, especially using the hand blender. =)

An Abundance of Sustainable Meat

We feel lucky enough to have an abundance of local options to buy sustainably raised meat on a regular basis:

• Mountain View farmer's market on Sundays: TLC Ranch (sustainably raised lamb and pork) Pampero Longhorn Ranch (grass-fed beef), and a vendor that sells free-range organic chicken
• Sunnyvale farmer's market on Saturdays: vendor that can't remember the name of (sustainably raised beef)
• Country Sun Natural Foods in Palo Alto: Marin Sun Farms (beef) and free-range chicken
• Grocery stores like Piazza's in Palo Alto and Whole Foods in Los Altos

And now with the holiday season here, there are two more special events in the next week or so where even more sustainable meat is being sold:

• Sat, 12/19, 10:30am-noon, Hidden Villa in Los Altos: sustainably raised lamb and pork from Hidden Villa's working farm - more info in their Animal Program newsletter
• Sat, 12/20, 9am-noon, "Pork Prom" in Oakland hosted by Live Culture Co., Sonoma Direct and Blue Bottle Coffee: 5 lb and 10 lb boxes of pork chops, ribs and fresh sausage from heritage breed, free-range hogs from Shasta Valley Farm - order in advance!

Evening Family Outing - No Car Necessary

A few weeks ago, we went on an evening family outing to Redwood City. We were looking for somewhere interesting and new (to us) to eat - and we settled on trying Donato Enoteca in downtown Redwood City. Despite the last minute planning and limited weekend Caltrain schedule, we were able to make it work:

- Ride the Caltrain from downtown Mountain View to downtown Redwood City (5:19-5:41pm) - Kaiya loved people watching on the train

- Walk a few blocks to dinner reservation at 6pm

- Lovely dinner on the well-heated patio at Donato Enoteca, a very smartly decorated, modern Italian restaurant with an interesting menu featuring fresh, seasonal and local offerings such as a sampling of artisan olive oils (which Kaiya loved dipping her bread in); a salad of Half Moon Bay fava beans, pecorino and roasted Chioggia golden beet salad; and "bigoli" pasta with braised Niman Ranch oxtail

- Walk back to the train station to catch the train back to Mountain View: 7:07-7:29pm

Nice weekend dinner at interesting new restaurant, fun train ride for Kaiya, no car needed. =)

Sustainable Food Movement, Workers and Kids in Schools

So many interesting articles to read about sustainable food lately!

Here is another one in the SF Bay Guardian that talks about the complexities of reconciling the sustainable food movement and its impact on and interaction with the working families who supply labor for sustainable and organic farms, and those who often can't afford the bounty of local, organic, sustainable food produced by the movement.

Connecting With Your Food

Here is another article in the NY Times about connecting people to their food. Featured in this article: our new favorite non-profit 18 Reasons; SF Food Wars, an interesting group that hosts food competitions; and Urban Kitchen SF which hosts Slow Food cooking classes.

Saturday Morning Bike/Caltrain Adventures

We had a great morning!

• Biked to the community garden, dumped the compost, turned on the drip irrigation
• Biked on Stevens Creek Trail and down Evelyn Ave. to the Sunnyvale farmer's market
• Grazed and shopped for 1/2 hour at the farmer's market: yummy pretzel and crunchy sticks at Esther's German Bakery, cranberry apple sorbet sample at Scream, raspberries from Rodriguez farms, sweet baguettte from Acme, Monterey Bay line caught sablefish
• Caltrain back to Mountain View
• Biked back to the community garden to weed, lay new woodchips and harvest some beets
• Biked home pooped and satisfied

Back to the Land

Here is an interesting NY Times blog post photo + essay about Thanksgiving, sustainable food, knowing where your food comes from, Alice Water, Michael Pollan, Bob Cannard, Wendell Berry, the Edible Schoolyard project and more.

Hidden Villa / Toddler on the Farm Series

Hidden Villa is a great non-profit in Los Altos that has a bunch of educational programs around nature, farming and sustainable food. Some of our favorite programs include their working farm which provides internships for aspiring farmers and sells local, sustainable produce at the Los Altos farmer's market, and their environmental education summer camp for young kids.

One of the programs that we want to try out is the toddlers and preschoolers on the farm series - a 3 week "class" for toddlers 1.5-3.5 yr olds that allows kids to bury their hands in wool, throw corn to the chickens, and explore other ways to connect with aspects of a working farm.

This class runs every month on Fridays, from 3-4pm. We might sign up in January!

18 Reasons / Bi-Rite Family of Businesses

We have a new favorite non-profit helping build community and connect people with local, sustainable food: 18 Reasons in the Mission in San Francisco. Started by the folks from Bi-Rite Market, 18 Reasons is a non-profit community space that brings people, artists and food together.

We're hopefully going to Butterfest '09 at 18 Reasons on Sat, 12/12, 6-8pm: a 2 hr celebration of butter!

If you sign for a $40 membership at 18 Reasons now, you will get the following benefits: free scoop of ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery, $5 gift card at Bi-Rite Market, $5 gift card at Dolores Park Cafe, $5 off a pizza at Pizzeria Delfina, $5 gift card at Tartine Bakery and 10% off one visit to Omnivore Books.

Monterey Bay Aquarium & Sustainable Seafood Watch

We took our first trip as a family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. Not only did we have a good time watching the sea otters, fish and sharks, we also learned about what seafood is sustainable to buy and eat, and what seafood is not. The aquarium has promoted its seafood pocket guides for years, and one of the new features this year is a pocket guide for sushi! Download them here.

Kaiya & Daddy on our bike

Just got the ibert bike seat and we're getting our money's worth!

- 2 weeks ago: biked to the garden, baby Caitlin's house in Sunnyvale

- Last weekend: REI, baby Cole's house, garden

- This week: biked to daycare everyday

It's been a lot of fun to ride around to daycare, the garden, friend's houses, and just around town!

Silicon Valley Reads 2010 Features Sustainable Food, Gardening

Silicon Valley Reads 2010 has selected Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food as the book it will invite Silicon Valley students, families, workers and communities to read together in February 2010. This self-proclaimed "Eater's Manifesto" offers practical guidance and solutions to eating in a sustainable way, and is a great follow up to Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

Silicon Valley Reads also features two children's companion books with similar themes around sustainable food: Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens and Seed Folks by Paul Fleischman.

Open Farm Days at TLC Ranch

TLC Ranch, purveyors of pasture raised pork, beef and eggs at SF Bay Area farmer's markets, have started opening up their farm once per month for "open farm days" where you can buy products, tour the farm and know more of where your food comes from. Their farm is in Aromas, near Watsonville.

Here are the dates for for the next few months.

• Sunday, November 15th 10am to 4pm
• Sunday, December 13th 10am to 4pm
• Sunday, January 10th 10am to 4pm
• Sunday, February 7th 10am to 4pm
• Sunday, March 7th 10am to 4pm

New Kid Store in Mountain View w/ Eco-Friendly Wares

Little Stompers has opened in downtown Mountain View! After a year in downtown Los Altos, this locally owned, boutique kid store moved over to Castro Street a few weeks ago. Lots of really nice features to this store including a play room in the back so kids can play while parents shop, a super friendly and knowledgeable staff, and a great selection of eco-friendly toys and baby gear (i.e. Green Toys, Melissa & Doug, See Kai Run, etc.).

How do you be green when traveling with kids?

We recently took a short family trip to San Diego, and we were wondering what are ways we could be more eco-friendly when traveling?

Check out a cross-post on greenpropaganda for what we did in San Diego and our thoughts on eco-friendly travel for lodging, transportation, food, activities and stuff.

Do you have any suggestions?

Growing a Revolution

Metro Silicon Valley recently had a cover story that featured several of our favorite local urban farming projects including Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, Veggielution in East San Jose and Happy Quail Farms in East Palo Alto.

Check out the article here.

Pumpkin Patch at Webb Ranch

On Sunday, we went to the pumpkin patch at Webb Ranch in Menlo Park and had a ton of fun. So many pumpkins of all different colors and sizes!

It was great because Webb Ranch not only has a pumpkin patch before Halloween, but also sells fresh, local produce from its own farm (family owned and operated since 1922) and from nearby farms like Swank Farms in Hollister and others.

Check out some of the pics that we took!

Perfect Sunday

Moments from a really nice Sunday...

• The whole family sitting at the dining table, laughing, talking and enjoying a family breakfast at home: hash browns, bacon and home-made blueberry pancakes
• Kaiya at the farmer's market having a great time munching on locally grown raspberries, watching a local musician strum his guitar, and getting excited as the Caltrain rolls by
• Kaiya smiling really wide while walking Cooper in our courtyard
• Cooking a nice 3-mushroom soup with the Giants game on in the background while Kaiya naps

Recycled Board Books!

One of our favorite books is In The Garden, made by innovativeKids. They have a whole set of really cute board books made out of 98% recycled materials with nature and eco-friendly themes like gardens, trees, and baby animals.

It's neat to see pictures of how different veggies grow - on trees, vines, bushes or underground. Especially since we can read about pulling carrots out of the ground and picking peas/beans off the vine, and then go to our community garden to do it for real!

Friends In Our Garden

One of the best things about our community garden plot is being able to take our friends to visit. We can show them what we have growing in the garden (right now: corn, peppers, carrots, snap peas, butternut squash, beets, fennel, leeks, and raspberries), and our friends can see how all these veggies grow.

Our friend Fiona recently came to our garden to pick some peppers.

U-Pick Tomatoes at Full Circle Farm on Sun 9/20!

[Original post]

Join us for some fun picking tomatoes at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale! Just found out about this from the Full Circle Farm newsletter - it's so fresh that it's not even on the Full Circle Farm website yet.

If you have not been to or have not heard of Full Circle Farm, it is a really neat non-profit working farm on under-utilized land at a middle school in suburban Sunnyvale. It's a really creative re-use of land where the farm provides fresh organic produce to local schools, neat educational opportunities for children, and a great source of very local veggies to folks in the South Bay.

Here's the info from the Full Circle Farm newsletter:

We will host a mixed-heirloom tomato picking event during our farm stand hours Sunday, September 20th. Fresh and ripe from the vine, we have Romas, Brandywines, and more. We're open between 11:00 and 3:00 for this unique, hands-on experience in our crop rows!

Free admission; hand-picked heirlooms will go for $1.75 per pound. We encourage everyone to bring bags from home. Tomatoes are available first come, first serve. Don't fret! This will not be a one time event, check back frequently for more You-Pick announcements.

Full Circle Farm is located at:
1055 Dunford Way
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

[Update]

Tomato u-pick photos

When I Go To Stanfurd...

... I want to take this class! Food and Politics

Making and then eating good food? Talking Michael Pollan and about where food comes from? Maybe if they had classes like this when Dad went to Berkeley, he would have actually gone to class.

So Many Things To Do!

I don't know if Mom and Dad will be able to take me to any of these, but Dad found these 3 fun food events in the next few weeks:

1. Sat, 9/26: Tomato U-pick at Mariquita Farm in Hollister. Dad is excited that organic tomatoes are only $0.50 lb. I'm excited that I can pick tomatoes right off the vine like at Grandpa's garden. http://www.mariquita.com/events/tomupick09.html
2. Sun, 10/4: Full Moon Potluck at Hidden Villa in Los Altos. Dad thinks I'll like the music from the acapella group from Stanfurd. I'd just like to feed the chickens and pet the sheep like I did last time at Hidden Villa. http://hiddenvilla.org/calendar9.php
3. Sat, 10/17: Gardening with Your Children class at Common Ground Organic in Palo Alto. Dad is not sure I'll be able to sit through the class. But it would be fun to see more gardens. http://gardenchildren.eventbrite.com/

Tea Time

I love playing with this really cool tea set that Mom bought me - made out of recycled milk jugs! They're pretty with nice colors, very sturdy, and best of all, very eco-friendly.

Green Toys makes this tea set, and much more! (I'm hoping that I get the recycling truck soon!) Here's their website if you want to check out their other toys: http://greentoys.com/tea.html

Adventures on public transit to Berkeley!

Dad took me to Berkeley a couple days ago - it was SO much fun, but I'm still pooped. That's what happens when I ride the train for 4 hours (!). I LOVE riding the train, but even I have my limits.

Here's a quick rundown of our fabulous day riding public transit to Berkeley:

• Hopped on Caltrain in Mountain View at 8:59am (good thing the train station is just a few blocks from our house). The conductors we're really nice and I really enjoyed looking out the window. I love Caltrain.
• Switched over to BART in Millbrae. I wasn't that excited about getting on another train after the 40 min on Caltrain, but good thing Dad brought lots of Cheerios and raspberries. The snacks and playing Amazing Race with auntie Kasey was pretty fun.
• Arrived in downtown Berkeley around 11am. It was fun walking around Berkeley with auntie Marna, especially since the Cheeseboard has so much bread and cheese. Yum. The chocolate gelato at Gelateria Naia was tasty too - and it was pretty cool they list the farms where their fruit comes from! I wish I had more time in Berkeley to run around and play at the park. Maybe next time, we can get out of the house earlier and have more time.
• Back on the BART around 1:30pm and Mountain View Caltrain station around 3:15pm. It was a long haul home. I was fine as long as Dad was willing to help me "fly", carry me up and down the Caltrain stairs, and feed me lots and lots of raspberries.

After we got home, I was pooped and conked out for 2 hours. I didn't realize how much fun it could be to play on the train and BART for 4 hours (and I didn't realize Dad could have the energy to entertain me for that long). I love riding the train - maybe we can go for an hour next time? =)

In The Garden

This is me, Kaiya. In my Dad's community garden plot. Look at the pepper I just picked!

I'm excited that Dad set up this blog for me so I can tell you about my adventures in Dad's garden, on the train, to the farmer's market or just roaming around downtown Mountain View.