I LOVE Paper

My grandparents actually planted the very first seed in me to collect stationary. When I was in elementary school they went on a roadtrip across the country and sent me postcards from every state they visited. We're talking postcards made from paper, wood, copper, etc. Of course I saved every postcard they sent and it started to become my thing. As I got older, postcards became a little passe. That's when I really discovered the wonderful world of cards. My grandmother and mother had always instilled in me to send thank you cards, so that was incentive to buy them, collect them and send them out. For a while I just wanted people to give me a gift, so that I could use one of my thank you cards in return. Actually, I sometimes still think that way.

Over the past few years making my own holiday cards has become somewhat of a staple for me. Many times I have used old newspapers or magazines (see above from holidays 2006) for the design of the card, but at the time I wasn't necessarily taking the environment into consideration. Things have changed. Now when I buy new cards I am very conscious about what the card is made of, where it was made and any inks/processes used to make it. It is so wonderful how many options there are, while still allowing me to get great looking stationary. Next post I will share my new favorite place to buy paper.

Hot Sauce Cook-off

It is no secret that we have been growing the hottest pepper on earth, the Caribbean Red Pepper. We recently harvested "mini" carrots and have had them in the refrigerator for about a week now. We'd like to use them before they go bad. Decidely the only appropriate thing to do is to make hot sauce. Unfortunately we could not decide on just one recipe and thus spawned our first cook-off. I used a combination of recipes. See below for my version. You can find the recipe Donny used here.

The first step in most of these hot sauce recipes is to wear gloves. This is the first step we ignored. I mean, how hot could these peppers be? They really didn't smell hot or feel hot on my fingers. I thought "this is totally fine." I'm not sure if it was just from the heat of the food processor spinning or what, but immediately the heat of the peppers started to turn up and you could definitely smell it in the air. It's hard to describe what heat smells like, but maybe it's more of a feeling. It was strong. All of a sudden I hear Donny start yelping in pain. It appears that he's managed to rub some pepper residue in his eye. He franctically throws water in his face and drinks milk. He is fine for about 20 seconds and then repeats. He ran into the bathroom to get a clean hand towel, since most of the kitchen towels were contaminated with pepper. This action of milk and water and yelping went on for about 15-20 minutes. Fortunately he did not have his contact lenses in at the time or it could have been a lot worse. I try comforting him, all the while thinking, "why on earth did he rub his eyes? how did that happen?"

We finish making the 2 different hot sauces, but are a little defeated at this point. Both of us wash our hands with soap multiple times just to get it all off. We start to clean up the mess in the kitchen and prepare to make breakfast: scrambled eggs with organic local tomatoes & fresh basil from the garden, organic potatoes we handmade into hash browns and our favorite apple smoked bacon. We didn't have any bread, which isn't usually a must have in our kitchen, but I agreed to walk to our corner german bakery, 3 square, and pick up a loaf. Before leaving to go on the errand I sat on the couch to take a tiny break. The excitement of the hot sauce kind of wore me out, considering we only just woke up less than an hour prior. I partake in the obligatory eye rubbing to help wake myself up and then all of a sudden it hits me. I can feel the heat on my eyelids immediately and then after a few moments I can't even open them. I start yelling to Donny for support. I explain to him what I've done and how much it hurts. He calls for me to come into the kitchen immediately and so I stand up and start walking. At this point I am in so much pain and fear that I can't even open my eyes, so he helps me walk in. He immediately turns on the water and I splash it in my face repeated times. I start screaming "It hurts so much! It hurts! It hurts!", while still frantically splashing cold water in my face. He gets out the little milk we have left and I start drinking. Donny suggests splashing the milk in my face and blinking my eyes to get it all around. That might've helped, except it just hurt more. The pain was so fierce and intense that my only solace was the ability to voice out just how bad it hurt. At one point Donny even suggested that our neighbors could hear and would think I was hurt and something was wrong. My response to that was "But I am hurt and something is wrong!" He told me later that he thought they would think he was physically hurting me and was tempted to shut the window, but that they might think he was then trying to cover it up. Finally, the pain started to subside and I was able to move into the laughter stage. I'm still not sure how I managed to keep from crying, but the misery finally subsided. This was a true lesson in our hot pepper experiment. I took the calming walk down to the bakery and allowed the cool breeze to flow over my eyes.

Donny was in the midst of busily making breakfast, upon my return. We delighted in our small feast and even more so enjoyed tasting our hot sauce chellenge over our scrambled eggs and yummy olive bread. The sauces, which had more of a thick topping-like texture, tasted good in small doses, carefully placed on the eggs for each bite. We both agreed my hot sauce was better, since it contained more distinct flavors and even had a sweet, tangy taste to it. All in all, it was definitely a fun morning, but no doubt we will use gloves the next time around.

My hot sauce recipe (makes about 6 ounces):

Combine 1 cup of chopped carrots, 1 small chopped white onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 2 tsp. of salt and juice from 1 lime in a small saucepan over high heat. Boil for about 10 minutes. Put on gloves. Chop 2 caribbean red or habanero peppers. In the bowl of a food processor add chopped peppers plus a few seeds, 2 tbl. honey, 2 tbl. yellow mustard, 2 tbl. brown sugar, 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. paprika, 3/4 tsp. of each black pepper and cumin, 1/8 tsp. of each ginger and allspice. Add in the mixture from your saucepan into the food processor. Chop and grind until completey liquified. I put my sauce in an empty glass Philippe Mustard jar. Enjoy!

Tastes great on eggs, tacos and other food you want to spice up. Use sparingly.

What are kids learning about the environment?

I don't have any kids and I've never lived with a kid, so I don't know that much about raising them. I can guess that if a tween hears something from one of their role models they might listen. Miley Cyrus has a new video out called "Wake up America", which is loosely about going green. It's an interesting video and I'll leave my thoughts about production value aside. What I'd like to comment on is the content and what she is telling kids to do.

See below for Miley's suggestions followed by what I think of them.

1) Unplug your cell phone once it is fully charged. It's a good thought, but the charger still uses electricity when it's plugged into the wall. Semantics, but these kids need to know exactly what to do.

2) Recycle books and magazines, give to friends. This is a great tip for kids, but its funny she didn't mention sharing music with your friends. She's okay with her fans re-using US magazine, but not okay if they burn her cd.

3) Tan green. Solar powered tanning booths. No chemicals or lotions. Why are we even talking about 15 year olds and tanning booths? Plus, and I haven't done much research on solar powered tanning booths, but does that mean you're just under the sun? Because I can do that on my roof and it doesn't cost me anything.

4) Take showers instead of baths. Also a good tip, but how many kids over the age of 5 take baths? My boss' 9 year old daughter likes to wash her hair once a month. Maybe Miley should do that, so she can conserve water.

5) Keep plastic water bottles. Don't throw them out. Recycle later. Take it to a restaurant and ask them to refill it. This is my favorite one. First off, I'd love to see a picture of Miley at The Ivy with a plastic bottle asking for a refill. Second, plastic bottles are meant for a one-time use only. After a few days chemicals in the plastic start to break down and will leach into the water. Also, bacteria can form in the water bottle. Not to mention just manufacturing plastic comes from a non-renewable resource. If you throw out the bottles instead of recycling them they will not biodegrade in your lifetime. Aluminum and stainless steel reusable bottles are options everyone should consider using.

6) Plant a tree. Reduces um, um, carbon dioxide. Good tip, but all I have to say is, practice beforehand. The kids believe you less if you don't know the important words.

7) Shop online. No car trips means no pollution in the air. If you buy online that means you are potentially using more packaging material. Plus, I'm not sure how the clothes arrive to Miley's house, but if I buy something online, the fedex guy usually shows up and he's driving a truck. That truck produces a lot of pollution, if not more than my Mini Cooper. And not to state the obvious, but if you walk or bike to a local shop to buy local products, then you will really be cutting down on the pollution.

My only suggestion for Miley is to consider an alternate form of transportation.

Check out the video for yourself.

Segways are killing the beaches

Okay, lets get it out of the way first. I actually like
Will Arnett's character, George "Gob" Bluth II, from Arrested Development. I think he's clever and funny, but this segway phenom has to go. Or at least they need to resolve their identity crisis.

The bike path next to the beach is for bikes, plain and simple. We bikers tolerate skateboarders and rollerskaters because frankly most of us use them too at different points in the summer. People walking should either stay on the path that is specifically for walkers or just walk on the sand. It is freaking sand. The people on segways think, oh this path is for anyone with wheels. No way! People in wheelchairs don't go on the bike path, do they? No. Segways go super slow and they are for super lazy people who don't want to walk, but still want to leisurely gaze upon the water and beach. They go so slow they can wave to people and pose for pictures, all without breaking a sweat or getting off.

This morning I rode to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. The route I like to take is Main Street going North, then on the way back South I take the BIKE path. As I am about to get on the bike path, I go down a short, narrow path. I have entered through this path probably a hundred times. I have easily been able to maneuver past people walking, strollers and other bikes. Not today. Today I came upon a family of 5. And I know you want to assume that all 5 of these tourists were on segways. Oh no! This cute, little, white suburban family only rented 2 segways. So I imagine that they either took turns riding them or the two daughters were the only "brave ones". Either way, this one girl could literally not even go as fast as she walks. It was as if she was on a tightrope over boiling lava. Not only was she going slow, but she was squealing. I mean, we're talking a 13 year old girl can't ride on a motor powered stand? Because tht is all it really is - a stand that moves. She literally freaks out as I'm ringing my little bike bell and scoot on past her.

I'm just wondering why this family couldn't have rented bikes or even rent a rickshaw. We have 'em in Venice. I guess I just want to believe that when people come and vacation in Santa Monica, Venice or Marina Del Rey that they either want to sit on the beach and just relax or they want to get in on all of the great outdoor activities. It's just too bad some people think there are no other options and they turn to segways. Even the models on "America's Next Top Model" couldn't make segways look cool in Rome.

Moving plants

The reason for planting veggies is to harvest and eat them. I feel like we spend way more time tending to them, which isn't so bad because we love our free time together up on the roof and in the sun. Today was half harvest, half moving day for some of our plants. Donny noticed the tomato and pepper plants outgrowing their pots. We ended up moving the 2 tomato and 2 of the pepper into larger 14 in. pots. Moving the peppers opened up new real estate, so I planted more garlic cloves. We also have 2 other pepper plants and are experimenting by planting them right into the ground. However the front garden has limited sun, so we are taking a risk. When I first started planting in the front garden I littered it with tons of different seeds. It was covered with carrots, but they had been in the ground for almost 4 months. This was way past their harvest. Unfortunately it seems that my first attempt at gardening was met with a bit of my laziness. The carrots probably could have grown to full size, but the soil was so compacted there was no more room for them to grow. As you can see these carrots are piddly, but so cute! Donny tilled the ground so that planting anything new will have a better chance at life.

And back to the old times of gardening out front. Our neighbor caught us and convinced us to plant her own basil plant. Since she's had it sitting in the tiny plastic container it came in when she bought it from Trader Joe's, we took pity on her. She actually told us that she and her partner had been talking about how I'd been neglecting the front garden. Awesome.

This is going to sound a bit crazy, considering a recent post, but although they are gross and live in a smelly trashcan, I think I am starting to like the maggots. They eat our food and turn it into compost so fast - its amazing. We still don't have our replacement composter and with the full day of gardening, I had to make a lot of trips to that maggot-filled can. I won't say I enjoyed myself, but I am getting to be quite fascinated with the maggots and have managed to move past the terror. I am pretty happy with myself about that. I had actually thrown away food last week just so I wouldn't have to go over to that can. I am glad to be beyond that so all composting at our house can continue on with business as usual.

We hope to use these carrots, along with our caribbean red peppers for some homemade hot sauce. I'll pass along the recipe after we make the attempt.

Westside vs. San Fernando Valley

There are many reasons why I choose to live on the Westside versus the Valley, but for this forum I will stick to issues based on local living.

LA City Council is starting a pilot program for the city to do our composting for us. They will provide us with kitchen pails to throw our scraps into. Each residence would then collect their scraps in the large green bins we already have, for the city to pick-up each week. If it passes they would start in just 5,000 homes. San Francisco has been doing this for a while already, but I am so glad to be living in a place where we too can be on the forefront of convenient local living. I don't think our household will stop using the indoor composter, but now we can have the city compost our soiled pizza boxes and corn cobs instead of throwing them out.

The Valley, on the other hand, is preventing people from expanding their yards past the water-sucking, boring green grass. Glendale, specifically, has their own guidelines about how your front lawn can look and be manicured. They want you to believe you can do whatever you want to your lawn and that you can have "any number of types of vegetation". Many residents are finding out if they pull up the grass, they had better have an immediate solution for making it look pristine again. Of course we all know that gardens take time and while you wait for things to grow it could look like rows and rows of dirt for weeks. Everyone in this country is aware of concerns about drought, but it is a really big issue here in southern California. If the city of Glendale was just as concerned about it, they would not send their officials out to starting fining people. Instead they should come up with alternate plans as to how to help their residents.

Circa 1940, a couple in their Los Angeles Victory Garden. F.Haeg's "Edible Estates"

Rooftop Gardening continues

I would like to say that our rooftop garden is flourishing, but that is only partially true. Our neighbor's cat as continued to cross over onto our part of the roof and do his business. Donny even called him an expletive at dinner last night, so you know its getting bad. This cat is a real menace and will do anything it takes to squat on our veggies, even if he gets a little metal fencing up his butt. He has now officially killed a pepper plant and I'm pretty sure he has deterred our 5 garlic cloves from sprouting. I'm hoping that our recent additions of oregano and green onions don't encourage to him to hang out in our area more. Donny is going to great lengths to keep this cat out. I'm not sure if we will ever truly win this fight. It is exciting, however that the asparagus are growing like gangbusters and if anyone is looking for a habanero pepper, we've got a half dozen already. Also, we moved our english mint to the front garden, which goes right into the ground. The mint has been looking quite sickly for a while. We took it out of the pot this weekend and realized that it might have just outgrown the pot because the bulb is huge. Hopefully it will spread out under the ground next to the lemon tree and live a healthier life.

In other news I wanted to let everyone know how easy Naturemill has been to deal with, regarding our broken composter. They are sending us a replacement, giving us a pre-paid UPS sticker to mail back the old one and letting us pay the difference to upgrade to the Pro edition. Although we keep our composter up on the counter, the foot pedal will still be useful for those who don't want to get too close to the mixture. The Pro also comes in a variety of colors, so we ordered the new one in Slate, which is a dark grey. I'll let you know how different the Pro is from the Plus once we've used it for a few weeks. Until then we will continue to use a metal pot for all of our scraps.

Tonite I am going to make some homemade bison lasagna. Lasagna feels like one of those very American home cooked meals. It is definitely not something my mother would have made for me as a child. It doesn't look pretty and its not that hard to make, but it is so delicious. I found this recipe and I will just add the bison to it. My favorit part of this recipe website is that you can control the servings and it will automatically adjust the quanity of ingredients. I think it is a nice tool when you are cooking for a specific number of people.

Fast Food

The other night I was listening to The Tim Conway Jr. radio show on 97.1 Free FM. Arsenio Hall was his guest. They were discussing the recent ruling that bans further development of fast food chains in South Central LA. Tim was preaching that any restaurant should have the right to build where they choose, especially if the demand is there. He also thinks it is unfair to gentrify an area that is currently low-income and put a Whole Foods there, for example. He believes that it is forcing people to pay more money for food. He doesn’t think they “want” any other food, except that which is already available and believes that this whole issue is about race.

I think it is astounding. People have a demand for is something that is cheap and easy. They don’t want to drive 10 miles to get to a Whole Foods if they aren’t committed to it, but they just might if there is one around the corner. Also, to say that people demand fast food is ridiculous. Our appetites and food preferences are mostly nurtured from a young age and you need to condition yourself differently if you want to change that. It’s not necessarily about education or how you were brought up, but more about what you get used to. I don’t mean to get up on a soap box right now, but I think it is unfair to say that low-income residents choose fast food because they like it so much more than well-prepared home cooked meals. They choose fast food because they can walk across the street and in less than 5 minutes get fried chicken in a bucket for $5. Arsenio Hall actually disagreed with Tim Conway, but did not voice his opposition that loud. I am glad there is a ban on further development because it gives a chance for the people in that area to explore other options. Of course the language of the ban is also up for discussion because apparently 7-eleven isn’t considered fast food, but Subway is. I’ve blogged about fast food in the past and it's hard for both me and Donny to give up In-N-Out, but people just need options. We're getting excited about the new Whole Foods coming to Rose & Lincoln and I'm guessing every type of person in Venice will shop there, not just the rich white folk.

Take a listen for yourself.

Maggots

Warning!

If you gag easily, then I urge you NOT to read the rest of this posting.

Maggots have taken over our compost. I knew this already, but seeing it by myself today made it a little more real. I have to be honest. I have a problem with small creepy crawlies. My definition of a creepy crawly is usually a mouse, a rat or even something as large as a possum. Something that I feel has no problem biting me or crawling up my arm. Those things all scare me. I’m actually stressing out right now. My boss’s daughter has 2 pet rats and I am absolutely freaked out by them. However, I usually have no problem with insects, like spiders, cockroaches, flies, etc... I don’t like them in my house, of course, but I can easy squash them with my hand, my foot or a fly swatter. And now maggots are on my list of things to get used to. I’m not talking about a few maggots. I’m pretty sure there were millions of maggots in that bin. The entire contents of the bin were practically moving in unison. I’ve read many articles that say maggots are good for your compost and that they will reduce the size of your compost at a rapid speed. All of that aside, maggots are just pretty nasty. I couldn’t even make breakfast after I got a glimpse of them. My brain immediately went to that visual of all the maggots moving around. For a moment I thought they were going to climb out of the bin and grab me. I want to get used to the maggots. I really do. At this juncture, though, I will keep my distance and let Donny be the front line. Sorry buddy.

Composter Down!

I biked to the twice monthly Santa Monica Flea Market at the Santa Monica Airport. The selection of goods was so much better than the Fairfax High Flea Market last month. I walked away with two tablecloths and a kitchen towel. I could’ve bought a lot more, but I am trying to cut back.

Donny and I planned on rinsing out the composter today. Fun Sunday, right?? Stringy food and large pieces have made the inside a bit messy. The motor sounds like it is overheating and stuff is getting stuck inside. I pull the tray out to empty it before we could get the cleaning underway and a weird red plastic stripe had become visible. There is no way the composter can be fixed. I called Naturemill, but their phone number doesn’t transfer you to a live person. I think it is because they are such a small company. I emailed them and posted a comment to their website. Hopefully whatever is broken is covered under the 1 year warranty and they will send us a replacement. We have gotten used to it for months now. It completely changed our kitchen habits and without it all we really have is a big steel pot to throw our scraps in. I hope they get back to us soon.

After a 24 mile evening bike ride down to Hermosa Beach and back up to Venice we walked to a sushi restaurant nearby home for dinner. On the walk Donny and I passed by a 3 day new restaurant on Abbot Kinney called Gjelina (pronounced "jelina"). The interesting thing about this place is that their slogan is "EAT LOCAL". We nabbed a menu and right off the bat noticed German beer on tap, French wine and proscuitto from Iowa. However they also noted having market lettuce, homemade condiments and San Fransisco steak. Our waitress at the sushi joint, Wabi Sabi, told us that her manager, Robert Schwan, had left them to manage Gjelina. The waitress also thought the local aspect went only as far as delights from the farmer's market. It seems like kind of a cop out in my mind, considering all that is available in this region. And for a restaurant with such a strong slogan it doesn't add up but hey, I'll talk to the restaurant directly and get the scoop. To be continued.

Rooftop Gardening

Yesterday was a successful day in continuing our rooftop garden. Donny already planted a caribbean red pepper, 3 regular red peppers, 2 kinds of basil, 2 tomato plants, and a mint plant. Together we planted 4 cloves of garlic and an asparagus plant. And for a few weeks now we’ve been breeding horsetail. It’s on the expensive side, so Donny thought it would be a good idea to split up one container into two and let them grow. Horsetail is really just a weed and it’s been multiplying pretty rapidly. (see picture)

Our neighbor's cat has spent a bit too much time near our plants, and by that I mean he thinks our plants and our roof is his bathroom. In defiance of him we spent the day making custom fencing around each pot with a big roll of chicken wire-type we bought at Home Depot. All of the pots look so uniform and hopefully will keep unwanted animals out.

Family Summer Visit Pt. 2

The weekend ended up being all about recycling. On Saturday we took a family field trip and walked to see my hairstylist Jen at Ohm Salon. Donny, Kim and my Mom all got haircuts, except my Mom’s cut was the most renegade. She chopped off 10 inches of her hair and donated it to Pantene beautiful lengths. I did the same thing in ’06 and donated to Locks of Love. I’ve had a bet going with my Mom since then that she wouldn’t be able to grow it out. She lasted pretty long, over a year and a half, but it was time to get rid of it and go back to the short ‘do.

Earlier today we went over to the Flea Market at Fairfax Highschool. I ended up buying a nice mid-century vintage bench. I also got a few handkerchiefs, which I’ve decided are my new favorite thing. In my family we are plagued with allergies and asthma, so I go through a lot of tissues. Somehow handkerchiefs don’t feel too girly or old world, especially if you get the ones that are just all white silk, no lace. I just talked some of my colleagues off the ledge about using handkerchiefs. Both of their initial response was “Ew!” But after some discussion we all admitted to having carried used tissues in our bags or reused old tissues, which basically means handkerchiefs are not that gross. After having used handkerchiefs solely for a few days, I think I prefer them over tissues anyway. They are quite soft and it was an easy swap that reduces my tissue use immensely. I am going to call my grandmother and see if she will send me the handkerchiefs my grandfather used. It will be a nice memory to use his old ones and it’s just another way of recycling.

Oh – and handkerchiefs shouldn’t really go in the dryer. If you buy vintage fabrics they can be delicate and best dried flat or outside on a clothes line. We have had some trouble finding the best place for our clothes line. We first tried putting up a make-shift line on our roof with wood planks stuck in concrete weighted buckets. We ended up using the small outdoor space between the side of our building and the neighbor’s fence. It has worked out quite well, though Donny was apprehensive off the bat. We have come up with a good system where we put wet clothes on the line and after a few hours in the sun we throw the clothes in the dryer for 10 minutes. It doesn’t use as much energy as if we put them in for the whole hour, plus they soften up for that last shot of direct heat.

Family Summer Visit Pt. 1

Having family visit your home is always an excess of something. Excess of emotions, excess stress on your body and more scheduling than normal. I feel like I usually eat more food, spend more money, and drink more alcohol when I’m around my family.

So my Mother and her Partner are in town from Philadelphia to visit Donny and me. They are here to see our new place and enjoy Los Angeles. We have several local activities planned for the week, including having them join in our local eating. Last night we made locally grown hormone-free bison short ribs, local organic asparagus and local organic carrots. My mom and I also drank some tasty organic Samuel Smith’s apple cider. This morning we feasted on local orange juice, local organic cage free eggs topped with local organic peppers and local cheese. I had some local grapefruit and we all nibbled on local organic blueberries. Local enough for you? (As always, something has to come from Ralph’s and that is where Donny picked up the Stubbs bbq sauce. And the coffee came from Peet’s. I can’t complain since he picked up the rest of the groceries on a bike ride from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.)

This weekend my mom, two other women friends and I are headed to the Melrose Trading Post. It not only sells used & vintage items, but also helps contribute to Fairfax High School. Every other California school dealing with the budget cuts do bake sales or car washes, but this flea market is a great way to give back to the school, while also recycling.

Blue is the new Green

So I finally did it. I chose to forego my car and ride the Big Blue Bus to/from work almost every day for the last 2 weeks. I take the #2 bus, which is two blocks from house. I ride about 10 minutes to Broadway and 4^th Street, which is downtown Santa Monica by the 3^rd Street promenade. I walk across the street and usually wait a few minutes. I then transfer to the #5 bus, which is another 15 minutes to my office. It is quite easy to get the hang of, once you know where the bus stops are.

MONEY: In the short term I am spending more money, but as gas increases that margin gets smaller. In the long term I am probably saving money since I am driving my car less – about 180 miles less per month, which should translate into less repairs.
I have also read that our local transportation could possibly be hit with severe budget cuts. This could adversely affect fares, routes and availability of buses. The BBB is looking out for the well being of our community and I believe that since the senior fare rate has stayed the same since the 1960’s. The City of Santa Monica is urging us to voice our opinion to help keep state funds directed to our local transportation.*
BUS: $2.50 per roundtrip** CAR: $1.70 per roundtrip (.17 p/mile*** x 10 miles) Difference: extra .80 per day

TIME: Losing precious minutes in the morning before I leave home is a hard sell to my brain & body. I give up time in the shower, time with Donny, sleep and the chance to make a good breakfast. Once I get on the bus I'm fine and I don't even mind changing buses anymore.
BUS: 40 minutes one-way CAR: 20 minutes one-way Difference: extra 40 minutes per day

PERSONAL: Instead of walking just a few feet from my house to the car and then from my car to the office door, I walk about 10 blocks a day getting to/fro the bus stop. It’s not a huge amount of exercise, but it’s more than I was getting before. I also find that riding the bus is less stressful. Los Angeles drivers are crazy, which makes most drivers, me included, quite anxious. Aside from having to watch for my stop, I can basically just kick back and read a book or surf the internet on my sidekick, something I shouldn’t or can’t do in my car. July 1^st California drivers will not be able to use a handheld wireless telephone. By riding on the bus I can freely check my email and chat on my phone without having to worry about getting pulled over.

ENVIRONMENT: Here are some great things to know directly from the BBB: Currently, half of the Big Blue Bus fleet operates on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which put 80% less pollution into the air. The remainder of the fleet operates on a clean bio-diesel fuel and has p-traps that capture emissions before they reach the air. The Big Blue Bus recycles everything including bus batteries, tires, plastic and paper and keeps our water clean by recycling the bus wash water and using biodegradable soaps to clean. Of course, the greatest way we contribute to the environment is through removing cars from the road by providing trips to our customers. I also recently read that by taking the bus to work everyday you could reduce 3% of your total CO2 emissions.

SOCIAL: My colleagues have had some interesting responses. “I wouldn’t ride the bus. I have a car.” or “You live that close?” or “Where are you walking from?” A possible vendor may have been placating me, but she thought riding the bus was “remarkable” and “inspiring”. The social aspect of riding the bus has been the most interesting. I enjoy being around people that are different ages, genders, races and live different lifestyles. I have always thought that the beauty of NYC is that everyone takes the MTA, no matter if you are wealthy or poor or are going to school or to a nice dinner. The Big Blue Bus has a very mixed group of riders too. Rush hour seems to be more eclectic, which is not surprising. I like listening to what people are going through or dealing with. Today the driver and a another passenger were talking about the housing market and how they knew people who lost their houses. Last week some kids were chatting about graduation and their final week of school. I’ve also seen some of my neighbors and recognized regulars who ride the same line as me everyday. It makes me feel like part of an actual community, rather than just living in a little bubble with just Donny and our close friends. It also feels good to contribute to a good company. The Big Blue Bus has been in service for 80 years and is a charitable organization. They participate in food drives, community service and were part of helping displaced people from the Katrina hurricane.

I have no doubt I will continue to ride the bus to work as long as possible. My job often keeps me at the office for long hours, but I feel pretty safe riding the bus late at night. I look forward to more exciting adventures on the Big Blue Bus.

*Please consider contacting: Sheila Kuehl at senator.kuehl@sen.ca.gov or 310-441-9084, or District Assemblywoman Julia Brownley at Assemblymember.Brownley@assembly.ca.gov or 310-395-3414

**Equal to the cost of a day pass, which is unlimited rides for 1 day.

***Figures based on premium $4.76 p/gallon and 28 MPG (city) for a Mini Cooper (manual). Premium gas required for BMW engine.

Eat.Shop

In my unprecedented amount of free time, I have been reading books & magazines about 250% more. Fancy that. (See new GoodReads widget sidebar.) In this quest for information, I have been re-introduced to my favorite travel guide series – there is a new edition out for Los Angeles. I first found the eat.shop guides last year when I was preparing for a trip to Europe. I had already found my hotels and I knew the major museums to peruse, but I really wanted a guide to just tell me the raddest, hippest, cutest shops and restaurants in Paris. Because there is seriously nothing I love to do more (aside from helping the environment, of course!) than to Eat and Shop. Each listing is paired with wonderful color photographs of literally just food and stuff. The great part about these photos is that they are mostly close-ups and are so crisp and colorful that they just pop out of the page and make you want to buy or eat it immediately.

Anyway – back to the new Los Angeles guide. I was in my new favorite boutique in Venice called Firefly, which is basically one of those all-purpose shops for women who love adorable things. Usually I don’t love adorable things, but they have great recycled stationary, plenty of goodies made with recycled materials, and just all around cute stuff for your home and body. Firefly is featured in this second edition of eat.shop, so they are naturally selling the guide. Just by flipping through it I found many shops featured sell recycled or vintage clothes – many of which I have never heard of, which is exciting. In a city like LA where there are so many big chain options, you really want to know about the hard to find, totally unique shops.

In the preface the writer talks about the different listings being homegrown, distinctive, posh or street-style. I kind of love that because so many of us are all of those things on different days. It is also nice how many different areas this guide manages to cover. The writer refers to LA as being sprawling and that is exactly true. How many guides feature 12 shops in the Venice area alone?!?

As you know, this website is all about locally-grown products, but supporting local vendors is just as important too. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take into consideration where they get their ingredients or products from, but most locally owned restaurants take pride in showcasing what our local farms have to offer. I often find that a locally owned shop is more welcoming and they tend to remember you after repeat visits, which just makes me feel good. The eat.shop guide is definitely for a traveler seeking a special visit to Los Angeles or an Angeleno who wants to find the best shops around. If for some reason the adorable 4x4 square book is too daunting or you just want to save paper, you can buy PDF’s of the guide on their website for almost 35% off.

Stay tuned as I visit & review some of the shops highlighted in
eat.shop los angeles: second edition.

Time vs. Convenience

Sometimes it can feel like living locally means driving more.

I venture out to so many different Farmer’s Markets during the week to get everything we want. Culver City has the trail mix Donny likes. La Cienega sells shrimp from Santa Barbara. Santa Monica sells blueberries I love to snack on. And Venice sells fresh squeezed organic orange juice in a ½ gallon that I’m drinking right now. I also end up having to shop around because vendors don’t show up or like today at the Santa Monica FM Lindner farms didn’t have Bison jerky and won’t have it for a few more weeks. It takes a lot of time and energy to go to all of those different places each week. It’s hard to manage all of that shopping, a full-time job and sustain a healthy relationship.

I’m worried about it because I haven’t been working for the last few weeks. I have had the time & luxury of going to 4 or 5 different markets in the week, plus additional excursions to the Whole Foods. How are we going to do this when I go back to work – tomorrow?!?

Donny is tired. He drives a lot for work – A LOT! I get it. He doesn’t want to drive to Beverly Hills on a Sunday just to see if they are selling whole chickens. He just doesn’t. And I understand that now, but there has to be a balance because we do need food.

When I go back to work Donny will just be finishing a job and then he will be in charge of this whole food debacle. But he wants it to be easy. He wants to just make one trip to one supermarket and not have to go anywhere else. Or he'll want to eat at California Chicken Cafe 6 nights a week. And if that happens we won’t really be eating locally. In my opinion the waste overload in landfills has come from the convenience of what happens when you one-stop shop. Convenience in packaging, in only buying from certain conglomerate companies and convenience in pre-made, instead of fresh.

In August we will have a Whole Foods market within walking distance from our home. We are both really looking forward to it opening, but that is still 2 months away. Until then only time will tell as to how we are able to keep up with local eating.

Homemade Party

So we finally had our housewarming party. After a week of cleaning & organizing, 2 trips to the farmer’s market, 2 stops at the Ralph’s, and 2 passes at the Whole Foods, we were ready. We had a mostly local/organic/homemade menu: 2 pitchers of Bloody Marys made with my own tomato juice, a pitcher of Mojitos, Mimosas, onion dip, a plate of fromage & charcuterie from Joan’s on Third (our favorite gourmet deli in Donny’s old hood – not local food, but a great local vendor), smoked salmon tea sandwiches, pretzel rolls, red velvet ice cream cone cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, brownies and a fruit tart.

I also purchased compostable cups & straws made out of corn, sugarcane plates and silverware made out of vegetables from BiodegradableStore.com, of Eco-Products. Please note**these products are not local. In fact, they are not even made in the US. After many hours of research I have found that almost every single option for biodegradable or compostable tableware come from Asia. Many companies will confuse you by saying they are distributed in the US, but do not be fooled. Those that are honest and upfront about where they manufacture are also forward that they have all fair trade workers. Greenfeet does sell Nat-ur Corn's silverware that is made out of corn from the US, but since I was making a last minute purchase, it was cheaper to buy everything from just one company. Now, there is still a question about where to dispose these products once they are used. Most of them call for commercial composting, but others say you can cut them up into small pieces and throw in your own outdoor composter. One company called, EATware, even boasts that you can eat their products. If you are not in the mood to snack on your plate – they claim to have a composting turnover of only 2 weeks if you leave it in water. Since local is not an option, here is a list of the other websites I compared products/prices: Branch, Treecycle, and Earth-Friendly Home. I can’t comment on any of these companies, but I can say that Biodegradablestore.com was very helpful and easy to order from. They also seem to have the largest selection of options and quantities.

All of our guests responded well to our request to consider the environment when gifting. We excitedly got some potted flowers/cactus, a fish named Milkshake and several bottles of California wine. Katie & Junio even recycled a book to us. Though it did travel 3000 miles from their home in Brooklyn, NY, we were its fifth recipient. And our favorite was a gift certificate to Whole Foods.

Gasoline

It is no secret that gas prices are at record highs. Today I paid over $4.70 p/gallon, which was $52.17 for my 12 gallon tank. The last date I filled up at the pump was March 26, 2008. Between then and now I have been out of town a total of 4 weeks for business and pleasure, which means I have been in LA for 48 days on 1 tank of gas. This is definitely the longest I have ever gone without filling up. It doesn’t hurt that I am not working and don’t have to drive to thru classic LA traffic to the office everyday. Trips outside of Venice have been mostly for special events or to the local hardware shop. Somehow I managed to do almost all of our grocery shopping by foot or on my bicycle. Donny and I even rode our bikes to the 3^rd Street Promenade for a double feature: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and 3 bags full of groceries from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. We brought our bags of food with us into the theater.

In the eight years I have lived in LA I have never taken public transportation and still haven’t – and I don’t think I am very different from most Angelenos. I recently heard on public radio that in the past few months the park & ride for the LA metro had increased by over 40%, however there is still a caste system about taking the bus. I start work on a movie next Monday and plan to try out the Big Blue Bus for my transportation needs. I might sit in just as much traffic if not more, but it will cost half as much. Plus, “43 percent of the BBB fleet is fueled by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which is 77% cleaner burning than diesel-fueled buses”. If I can go into Ralph’s by myself with reusable bags and not be too embarrassed, then I can ride the bus. I just might wear really dark glasses at first.

Planning

My ex-roommate and her boyfriend came over for dinner. I bought a 3 pound grass-fed bison roast from the Santa Monica Farmer’s market and my ultimate goal was to serve a completely local meal. Local in the sense that we could use ingredients already in the house, i.e. spices and condiments. And that as long as an item came from the state of California we wouldn’t discriminate. We already had asparagus from a recent trip to the farmer’s market. Early that morning we went to the Beverly Hills Farmer’s Market and bought potatoes and bread, in addition to Chilean sea bass and broccoli for another night. Donny has been snacking on apples lately and we didn’t find any good ones in BH, so I promised to ride my bike over to the other Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. This one edges on the Venice border, so it is just a short ride from our house. I pulled up to the awe-inspiring bike valet next to the petting zoo. So many people out and about. No good apples in sight, but I did pick-up some grapefruit and flowers. After I got home we started to go over the menu. Realizing we had not picked up tomatoes or garlic, Donny wanted to just walk over to the Ralph’s. This is where I started to get frustrated. I remind him about this “local” meal and we get into a whole discussion about organic vs. local vs. convenient. It’s hard for him because he doesn’t have the passion for this project like I do. If Donny wants something at the last minute, he wants to be able to go out and get it. Since he doesn’t taste chemicals on the fruit and he isn’t the one going to China to pick-up the vegetables, then he doesn’t think about its effects on our bodies or environment. Out of sight, out of mind, really. In the back of my mind I'm thinking - he's getting off easy. The couple in the 100 mile diet and the No Impact Man are extremists in my mind. I think their stories are very inspiring, but I'm not making him give up every chance at convenience. Right now I'm just asking for one complete local meal. After a long talk we realize that just a little bit of planning could relieve a lot of tension. It is definitely hard to plan every single ingredient. We have so many farmer’s markets in a 20 mile radius yet without any planning, 4 trips to the markets in one week is pointless. Genny and Jon brought over 2 bottles of California wine. The bison was a bit dry, maybe overcooked, but everyone wanted more meat and potatoes. It is sort of funny that we had such an American classic for our menu. I have never thought of myself as patriotic. In fact, I relate much more to the European style of life. If being American means cooking for friends, while eating literally home-grown food then I’m okay with that label.

Vegetable Garden Pests Part 1

This morning I found we have a big problem. The gnats and aphids situation was out of control. There were swarms of gnats in front of our door and in front of our neighbor’s door. At a glance, you could easily see hundreds of tiny pests living in my vegetable garden. I quickly started spraying the homemade bug repellent I made last week. That worked for the moment, but what to do about this soil that is just covered in aphids. Gross! Yesterday I purchased some Sea Kelp by a company called Organics Rx from the Living Green store in Culver City. Per the instructions, I added a capful into each can of water I used. I doused the plants. Some websites say lots of water is good to get rid of pests and others say that the pests thrive in wet soil. Today I am going with the notion that more water is better. The sea kelp is more for the plants than it is pest control. I went online and found several non-toxic options, mostly bug traps that are sticky. In my quest to hammer out this pest problem quickly and to avoid having anything shipped I quickly got in my car and went to the nearest nursery, Lucky Plant, which is about a 5 minute drive away. It occurred to me that I probably should've biked there. The salesman tried to get me to buy some toxic sprays and basically told me I should go somewhere else if I wanted a product without chemicals. Ugh – why are people so difficult? At this point I wonder if organic gardening is worth it. I push on. Glad to not be on my bike at this point, I drove to another nursery, which is about 10 minutes away from the first. Merrihew’s Sunset Nursery in Santa Monica has a very friendly staff. I like to buy from them. The salesman actually laughed at me when I told him I had some homemade bug repellent. Considering I was there looking for something that will actually work long term, I don’t blame him. He also pointed me in the direction of a spray. I bought Safer Brand’s Yard & Garden Insect Killer. It is made with Pyrethrum and is Omri Listed, which means it is approved for organic gardening. The salesman told me not to spray until the evening because it could damage the plants. Honestly, this situation is so bad that I feel getting rid of everything might not be a bad idea. It feels about 10 degrees cooler in the courtyard of my building compared to the air at the nursery, so I’ve decided to spray everything right now. I’m sure that every gardener in the world would tell you not to spray your plants with anything, water or insect killer, at high Noon during a heat wave. Oh well. I’m taking the chance. I sprayed everywhere – in the air, on the soil, on the crop. I mulched a bit as well, which brought a few worms to the surface and hopefully unearthed some of the aphids that were living in my organic soil. I have a good feeling about this. I was really discouraged this morning and now I feel a lot better. The directions on the bottle are to apply solution every 7-10 days. I’ll use my homemade spray during the intervening days and hope this is a cure. Even though I have been back inside for an hour, I literally feel like I have bugs crawling in my hair and on my skin. Good times.