Farmers Market Chatter

[Kaiya at farmer's market next to 4-5 yr old girl holding a head of fennel]

Kaiya [yells and pointing]: Fennel!

Girl [smiling and nodding]: My parents used to grow fennel in our garden.

Kaiya [matter of factly]: My dada does grow fennel in our garden!

[Anthony smiling and all sorts of amused.]

Drive Less Challenge Is On!

For the next 2 weeks (Thurs, 4/22 through Wed, 5/6), we will be participating in the Drive Less Challenge, sponsored by the cities of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Burlingame. It's an opportunity for people to win prizes and engage in friendly competition around walking, biking, and taking public transit more - and driving less.

Although we already walk/bike/train to lots of places (work, garden, to restaurants on Castro St), it's an opportunity to think about other opportunities to travel in an eco-friendly manner. The biggest opportunities might be biking to Kaiya to daycare (2 miles roundtrip everyday) and other errands around town (Whole Foods, etc.).

We Can Save Deer Hollow Farm!

We went to a farm tour at Deer Hollow Farm today. Located in the Rancho San Antonio Preserve in the Cupertino/Los Altos/Palo Alto foothills, it is a wonderful little educational farm with animals and a small garden. We pet the sheep and goats, fed the chickens and ducks, saw the baby pigs sleeping, stared at the big cows, and wandered around the garden full of fennel, leeks, radishes and carrots.

Unfortunately, Deer Hollow Farm is facing potential drastic funding cuts from the City of Mountain View. We hope that as many supporters of the farm as possible can contact the city to express their support and keep the farm open!

Inspirational Story - New Roots Community Farm

This is a quick, inspiring read in the LA Times about New Roots Community Farm - community gardening, sustainable food, immigrants from war-torn countries building community and gaining access to healthy food.

Too Many (Good) Choices

So much cool stuff going on next Saturday, April 17, and not enough time to do it all!

First, we really want to go to the Deer Hollow Farm tour. Deer Hollow is an educational working farm at Rancho San Antonio Park park in the Los Altos/Mountain View/Palo Alto foothills. It would be a great way to see, pet and learn about the pigs, cows, goats and other animals on the farm. Here are pics from their last farm tour in March.

We also just learned that Morris Grassfed Beef is having a Field Day that same day - and a BBQ and picnic with delicious grass fed beef and learning about more about the ranch sounds great.

Our neighbors are having a birthday party for their 2 yr old daughter, Fausta, at Foothills Park in Palo Alto, which sounds like a great place for a fun kiddie birthday party.

Hidden Villa is hosting a mozzarella and chevre making class in the afternoon from 4-6pm!

And Pie Ranch has their 3rd Saturday of the month volunteer work day and barnyard dance.

What to do?

Planting Blueberry Plants

We planted blueberry plants this weekend! Along with our existing raspberry and strawberry plants, we're looking forward to a summer munching on yummy berries.

Thanks Ollie and Melanie for the inspiration and help to plant our blueberry plants!

Full Circle Farm - Chickens, Farm Stand, Earth Day Fest

Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale is a great place for a quick Saturday or Sunday visit. You can pick up some fresh, local and sustainable veggies, watch the hens hunt and peck, and walk the fields to see what's coming up next.

Full Circle Farm recently invited us to have brunch on the farm as a thank you for our donation to support new tree planting for their orchard. It was neat to see meet other supporters of the farm, read their tree dedication signs, and feel part of a community of people that care about a place like this.

On Sunday, April 18, Full Circle Farm is hosting an Earth Day Fest that will feature farm tours, a petting zoo, entertainment and a lot of positive energy around sustainable food and community.

Oakland Zoo!

We went to the Oakland Zoo with Uncle Ener and baby Vivien on Saturday. Earlier in the week, our friend Jenny posted a great coupon for Oakland Zoo membership on Savvy Source - $85 membership for just $40! So we bought a membership and made a day of it in Oakland. Donuts and hot chocolate at Pizziaolo, cookies from Bakesale Betty, hanging out at the park and Lake Merritt farmer's market with uncle Mike, and then a short 1.5 hour trip to the Oakland Zoo with Uncle Ener and baby Vivien.

We had never been to the Oakland Zoo before and we were pleasantly surprised. It wasn't too crowded and had plenty of fun exhibits. We saw giraffes, baboons, elephants, zebras, camels and lions. Next time, we can hopefully check out the children's zoo section and ride the steam train through the zoo.

Here's baby Vivien checkin' out the zebras.

Slow Food USA & Sustainable Meat Tasting Extravaganza!

We've been Slow Food USA members for a little while now, but we have not had a chance to go to any local events... until now. On Sunday, March 14, we're headed to a Sustainable Meat Tasting Extravaganza at someone's house in Palo Alto. Below is a description of the event:

Our host, Slow Food South Bay member Daniel Lilienstein, is collaborating with Marin Sun Farms to choose a selection of their meats, including beef, pork, lamb and goat. Marin Sun Farm raises only 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised livestock. Daniel will introduce us to each course, telling us about the animal was raised and why we should be eating it.

Udo Prambs, Slow Food South Bay member and certified master chef, will be leading the cooking, assisted by Slow Food volunteers in the kitchen. He has created a five-course tasting menu, including:

• Barbecued pork belly with apple sauce and Brussel sprouts
• Goat chop with crispy quinoa with tamarind sauce and stewed leek
• Lamb shoulder stewed with dry apricots and lavender or thyme, and tabouleh
• Grilled chili rubbed flank steak, potato pancake and hollandaise sauce
• Poached beef shoulder clod, golden beets, boiler onions, braised kale and fresh creamed horseradish

Stan's Donuts

Kaiya had her first glazed donut from Stan's Donuts today. If you have not enjoyed a hot glazed donut at the counter at Stan's, you should go. It's quite a treat - as Kaiya can now attest to.

Other than the fact that we were patronizing a local business (which does mean something in our book), there was nothing green or sustainable about our adventure this morning. We drove our car the 9.5 miles to Stan's, for this singular purpose of having glazed donuts - no public transit, didn't combine trips with anything else, and the activity was not remotely eco-friendly.

If we are aiming to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, do we cut these activities out of our lives? Or do we allow ourselves a few guilty pleasures (hmmm... glazed donuts) once in a while?