It’s Time for a Picnic

Sustainable Danville Area Tip of the Month – April 2013

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President Sustainable Danville Area

Just two days past Spring Equinox and Mother Nature has spring fever.  The poppies are flourishing along with so many other colorful blooms and even after what has proven to be our driest winter, our hills are green.  The sun is warm and my concentration is so poor; I had to ask for a deadline extension for submitting this month’s tip of the month.  This month’s column has more than just one Sustainable Tip of the Month, but it’s a picnic – a smorgasbord of ‘Where to Find Sustainable Tips’.

For almost three years, we have shared tips on everything from the benefits of biking, local food, sustainable landscaping to home energy diets, eco-travel, raising chickens and eco-friendly art supplies.  These articles are still available to you online from Danville Today News/Alamo Today News and on the Sustainable Danville Area website. 

Often, I’m asked to describe what sustainable living is and simply it’s ‘making choices that allow our resources to continue to be available for our children and their children’, ‘living as though there’s no Planet B’ and remembering that ‘Planet Earth is the only one with chocolate’.  With this in mind and in honor of Earth Day, celebrated worldwide on April 22nd by hundreds of millions of people in over 184 countries, here are some of our favorite places for information and tips to care for our corner of this wonderful planet.

Gardening:  Hands down the Contra Costa Master Gardeners have it ‘going on’. These trained volunteers are residents of local communities that provide University of California research-based horticultural information to the citizens of California. Besides engaging local lectures, their website is filled with tips for school gardens, edible gardens and drought and native landscaping.

Composting & Recycling:  Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority offers terrific information on where to recycle just about anything.  You’ll also find a calendar for composting workshops, including worm composting too.

PG&E:   Saving energy in your home is not just good for the planet, it’s good for your pocketbook. PG&E has great tools to track your electric and gas usage online and they make it easy to do a self-audit of your home energy to find and prevent energy loss.

Environmental Working Group  This powerhouse site is our ‘go-to’ place for everything from their cosmetic database, the Dirty Dozen list (which recommends the best fruits and vegetables to buy organic to avoid pesticides) and guides on sunscreens, home cleaners and other daily products.

Want more?  Well then, Picnic on the Green! The Town of Danville, The Danville Library and Sustainable Danville Area present the 3^rd Annual Town of Danville Earth Day Event on Saturday, April 20th 12pm – 4pm on the Town Green, in  the Danville Library, at the community center and the Village Theatre Art Gallery.

The Town of Danville Earth Day event is a free, fun and informative way for residents and visitors of all ages to learn about green building, sustainable landscape design, solar power, home energy efficient products, waste reduction, recycling, water conservation, hybrid and electrical vehicles and much more!

Pack your picnic or purchase lunch and snacks al fresco from La Boulange Bakery while enjoying music from local band, Other People’s Money.  Play with our Giant Earth Ball, visit with hybrid/electric car and electric bicycle owners and participate in popular hands-on activities at interactive booths, including:

•  Get ready to experience nature with Peanuts…Naturally! Fun, creative environmental crafts and activity stations presented by the Charles M. Schulz Museum.
• Plant a seed to start your summer vegetable garden with The Bounty Garden and Urban Farmers.
• Explore the Wonderful World of Worms and Composting for Busy People.
• Make an Earth Day pledge to reduce, re-use or recycle. See how Every Choice Counts and help the Earth Day Tree grow!  Everyone who adds a ‘leaf pledge’ will be entered into an hourly raffle to win a “Get Your Green On” reusable book bag.
• Afternoon speaker series will help you Green Your Home, Replace your Lawn with Drought Tolerant Plants and Enjoying Local, Organic Foods for a Healthy Planet.
• Be inspired at Story Time with special tales and eco-friendly ideas to celebrate the Earth all year.
• Measure your carbon footprint.Discover if solar energy is right for your home?
• Be dazzled by art from local students at the Earth Day Student Art Show in the Village Theatre Art Gallery. (Students: click here for  details to enter contest before 4/5/13)
• Try new veggies from Community Supported Agriculture Farms – Full Belly Farms & Doorstep Farmers.

Students from San Ramon Valley High School Environmental Club are hosting free bicycle parking for the event, so please consider two wheels or your feet as parking is limited for the event.  Hope to see you there!

The Essence of Herbs

Tip of the Month – March 2013 

By Joey Mazzera, Danville Area Sustainable Business Owner, Green Apple Acupuncture 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal medicine is at the root, so to speak, of achieving balance in the body. For thousands of years Chinese doctors have used nature and more specifically food as not only preventative but also active medicine. When we think of herbal medicine we tend to think of sticks, roots, flowers and maybe even some obscure animal parts. All of those do in fact make up the Chinese Pharmacopeia however everyday foods are also considered medicine. In TCM, dietary choices are the anchor of health and healing. As an acupuncturist people are always asking me about weight loss, a faster metabolism, and what specific foods they should be eating; The fact of the matter is how you eat is just as important as what you eat. Keep it simple and listen to your body.

Every body is a different machine that requires an individual and specific dietary plan. The TCM diet is very much a personalized approach to food and nutritional health. The foundation begins with eating fresh foods, eating as seasonally as possible and acknowledging how your body reacts to certain foods. Eating mindfully with intention can teach us how we are assimilating our foods and how we may need to change our dietary ways. The preparation of foods changes the energetic properties. For instance, a raw carrot may cause a different metabolic reaction than a baked carrot. Understanding what you need from an individual food will change the way you prepare it. For someone who can’t digest raw vegetables a light sauté may be the way to incorporate those important veggies. If someone runs too hot but still wants spicy food pairing that dish with something cooling in nature is a way to eat those spicy treats. When you start to look at foods as a balancing act you begin to understand how to create the perfect harmonious plate.

When we use food as medicine it is important to think of food in terms of energetics. All foods and herbs are composed of three elements – Energy, Movement, and Flavor.

The energy of foods relates to a foods ability to either create heat or act as a coolant. When a person generates too much heat in their body we can see things like hot, itchy skin issues or a hot red face. In these cases its beneficial for that person to eat foods cool in nature. Bamboo shoot, chrysanthemum (a staple Chinese herbs) and bananas all have a cooling effect on the body. Contrarily a person with arthritis that is exacerbated by a cold and damp day would do better with warm foods: pumpkin, onions, peppercorns, etc.

When we think of movement of foods we think in terms of guiding the “Qi” of certain foods. Food and herbs have the ability to move inward, outward, up and down. For example when at first sign of a cold you can make a strong cup of ginger and garlic tea in efforts to induce a sweat (an outward motion) to expel pathogens and help body recover from the cold more quickly.

Finally, there are five flavor categories that food falls into – salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and pungent. Each of these flavors has a specific action in your body and are often used in conjunction with each other to create a balanced meal. Understanding the flavor relationship can enhance your digestive assimilation of nutrients as well as help guide you to the food your body needs. The flavors of foods are often associated with specific organs and related processes.

Using food as medicine is a primal and instinctive way to get in touch with our bodies and reconnect with our health. Food should be fun and interesting and used a way to nourish not only our bodies but also our heart and souls. Bon appetite!

Sustainable Danville Area and The Danville Library present The Essence of Herbs on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 6:30pm  at The Danville Library, Mt. Diablo Room 400 Front Street.  With Joey Erwin Mazzera, Green Apple Acupuncture a  Diplomat of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine with the NCCAOM and a licensed Acupuncturist with the state of California we’ll explore the five food categories and dozens of herbs that delight the senses, enhance food and your health.  For more information, visit www.sustainabledanville.com and follow us at www.facebook.com/sustainabledanvillearea

For Love of ….Chickens

Tip of the Month – February 2013 By Cynthia Ruzzi

To everything there is a season, even food. Incorporating seasonal, local, whole foods into your daily diet provides a healthy balance for you and the environment.  Eating vegetables and fruits soon after harvest maximizes the nutrients in the food.  Besides being better for the environment, seasonal, local food is usually more cost effective and generally tastes much better.  My husband and I certainly think so.

We love trying new, local foods and so, we were delighted when Jake, our 11 year old neighbor and self-professed Chicken Farmer invited me to learn more about ‘growing’ fresh, local eggs.  Jake has wanted to raise a brood of hens since 2^nd grade when he hatched chicks as a classroom project.   Roadie, J.J., Chevy, Hazel and Fluffy make up Jake’s clucking crew.  He started off with six chicks, but Scrambles was retired to a rural farm when one morning, the family heard crowing.  Apparently, crowing is the first identifier that a chick is a rooster and not a hen.  Danville keeps the peace by banning roosters within city limits.

Jake’s brood started laying eggs when they were just under 5 months old and will continue to offer eggs for about 2 years.  It takes a chicken 24 hours to produce an egg, and production is dependent on having at least 13 hours of daylight – so maximum production is 35 eggs per week. Jake basically knows which chicken has laid which egg because he has different breeds that lay different colored eggs; including a Rhode Island Red, two Brahmas and Hazel and Fluffy his Americana chickens.  These girls lay green eggs!  Yes, there really are green eggs – just like in the Dr. Suess book, Green Eggs and Ham.  The family picked these breeds because they can handle both our hot summers and cold, wet winters with aplomb. 

Jake spends between 10 – 30 minutes a day caring for his brood.  The chickens greet him when he opens the screen door to give them their feed or a special treat of cantaloupe (in season of course).  The girls mostly ignore the family when they sit out in the backyard.  Jake says the chickens have a great relationship with his cat, Nutmeg – especially since the chicks have grown larger than the cat.  Jake recommends adopting chickens all at one time to limit competition (pecking order) between the hens. 

Jake’s chickens have plenty of room to ‘eat local’ roaming around a large part of the backyard eating bugs.  Thanks to Jake’s dad, Chris, these hens have a chicken palace to rival anything offered in the William Sonoma catalog.  Chris admits he didn’t save much money ‘DYI’ – though he used reclaimed wood for all the construction.  Chris said one of the most important architectural elements for the coop is to include lots of ventilation in the design and to secure on all sides, including underneath the coop, to protect from raccoons and other predators.

As a ‘parting gift’ – or perhaps in exchange for the chocolate chip cookies I brought with me, Jake gave me eggs that were laid that day.  Excited, I picked some spinach from my garden and cooked up a simple omelet that very night.  Can you get more seasonal or local than that?

At EMBRACING THE SEASON FOR A HEALTHY, BALANCED DIET, Sustainable Danville Area’s forum – February 20^th forum 6:30pm – 8:00pm  Veterans Memorial Building  400 Hartz Avenue – you’ll learn how to savor local flavors from our guest speakers as they talk about the inspiration they gain by embracing the seasons.  Sebastian Miller, Executive Chef of Piatti’s Danville, is known for bringing contemporary flavors to the plate using seasonal, local ingredients prepared in a simple, unpretentious manner.  Sebastian reveals how he creates the ever changing ‘market menu’ at Piatti’s and how you can do the same at home.  Angela Stanford, Registered Dietitian and Holistic Food & Nutrition Advisor, Vital Nutrition & Wellness, holistic approach to eating combines 20 years of working in the food and health industries with roots on her family farm and love for cooking and organic gardening. For more information, visit www.sustainabledanville.com and join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/sustainabledanvillearea).

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

Want to learn how to raise your own chickens?  Check out Papa John’s Chicken-Raising Workshops in Lafayette.

Chicken-Raising Workshops with Papa John
February & March Raising chickens has never been easier. The popular workshops with Papa John Keifer are the best way to get started. Close to 300 people have attended in the past three years. Classes are on Sundays from 1-3:30 (2/10, 2/17, 3/2).  Free, but registration is required.See more information on our Chicken Workshop flyer or email Papa John at khkiefer@comcast.net.

Food For Thought

Tip of the Month – January 2013   By Cynthia Ruzzi

Food For Thought   Having just concluded the ‘Thanks-ukah-mas-year’ eating fest, many of us are facing the first week of our New Years’ resolution to stop eating convenience foods filled with empty calories, fats and chemicals. Perhaps our indulgence – or hard work – during the holiday makes us shy away from the thought of more family meals, but it is now more important than ever to eat together.

Eating as a family weaves the fabric of the relationship.   With everyone in the family heading in different directions during the day, family meals at home are a perfect time to work together to enjoy simple pleasures and connect on a regular basis. Family meals provide more than enhanced nutrition.  A shared family meal provides nourishment, comfort and support for those we love. Our children learn about the world every day from many sources and the dinner table is a perfect opportunity to provide a routine time to share within a family space.  Celebrate your family and come together at your table to explore family culture, food, teach your children dining and conversational social skills and get in touch.

Eating as a family is less expensive, more efficient and healthier.  Avoiding convenience foods and cooking at home is often more economical, healthy and tasty. Serving organic, fresh foods that are minimally processed and locally sourced guarantee improved nutrition and because they have more natural flavor, whole food can be prepared simply – saving time in the kitchen.  Incorporating herbs, vegetables and fruit from your garden or the farmers’ market enables a child to learn about where our food comes from.  You’d be surprised how much broccoli a kid will eat when the child has tended and picked it themselves.

Eating as a family teaches children food sustainability.  As part of the evenings’ blessing and discussion take time to recognize where the food on our table comes from to encourage understanding and appreciation of the bounty.  Few of us know where bananas come from or have traveled the distance one has to take to come to our table.  Exploring the origin of foods as part of the evening meal provides an opportunity to discuss everything from farming, to manufacturing, packaging and even disposal – or hopefully, composting.

Eating as a family takes practice.  With every new practice, there are sure to be some difficulties and adjustments.  Professionals say that the less time a family spends eating together at home, the more awkward those first few experiences will be, so first, try setting a goal for two times a week. Here’s two suggestions critical for success:

• Turn off the mobile/texting devices.  View the family meal as a time to ‘plug into each other’ and avoid the distraction of phone calls and text messages that remind everyone of the world beyond the family.
• Get the whole family involved in the planning, shopping and preparation.  Learning to plan, shop and cook a meal are invaluable skills for children when they leave home.  You’d be surprised how impressed girls will be when your son cooks a meal instead of going to a restaurant for a date.  Engaging everyone in the shopping helps each member appreciate what food costs.  Even young children can be helpful in the kitchen given a little direction. You’d be surprised how quickly the time flies when all hands are engaged making a family dinner.

Sustainable Danville Area feels so passionately about food that along with The Danville Library we present a three-part speaker series FOOD FOR THOUGHT to nourish our spirit, our mind, our body and the environment.  Our January talk Get Your Family Back to the Table – with Real Food – January 23^rd 6:30pm at Veterans Memorial Building 400 Hartz Ave. brings you two speakers: Heather Clapp, Co-owner of Jules Organic Thin Crust Pizza who understands there’s time when you need to eat outside the home without forgoing nutrition. Heather, dedicated to educating her three active boys on where real food comes from, will provide inspiration to create organic vegetarian meals that will sustain and nourish your entire family and Lisa Evaristo, Co-owner of Back to the Table Cooking & Baking School, also a parent of three children, teaches families that spending time cooking together, then sitting down and sharing a great meal is where the magic happens.

Food is also the topic of our first 2013 Green Your School Summit.  Join us January 15^th 4pm at SRVHS, special guest, Town of Danville Mayor Newell Arnerich kicks off the afternoon with speakers, Cindy Gershen, Founder of Wellness City Challenge and Dominic Machi, Director of Food Services, SRUVSD.  Cindy will share the importance of nourishing our children with whole, healthy food and Dom will update us on “What’s Cooking in the Lunchroom”.  For more information, visit events on http://www.sustainabledanville.com or join us on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

 

 

Let There Be Light

Tip of the Month – December 2012 By Cynthia Ruzzi, President

Could that be the inspiration for the many holiday lights that fill our community throughout the season?  Or perhaps it’s just our resistance to the daylight savings time change, plunging us into the dark an hour earlier each winter evening.  Whatever the reason, the post-season electric bill is probably the one gift you wish you could return.

While I’d like to recommend you consider saving the energy and hours of untangling and hanging thousands of blubs outside your house, I don’t really want to take the chance of becoming known as the ‘Environmental Scrooge’.  So instead, may I suggest you trade-in your outdated incandescent holiday lights and ‘deck the halls’ with LED holiday lights?

Switching to LED lights can mean a higher initial investment, but the real savings comes from reducing your holiday energy costs.  As this year’s holiday advertisements rolled in, I noticed many stores offering trade-in and discounts on LED holiday lights.  Do a little legwork, comparison shop wisely and you’ll save yourself some green for your pocket. Also, don’t forget to look for sales after the holiday – it’s a great way to gain additional savings for your holiday wonderland.

A quick search on the Internet points to a multitude of cost savings models demonstrating what can be realized by switching from incandescent bulbs to LED lights.  Most comparisons start with the assumptions that the average home holiday light display contains at least 500 light bulbs (a conservative estimate for some spirited neighborhood competitors), that the light strings are turned on from sunset to bedtime (6 hours per night), and that the season lasts a minimum of 30 days.  In the average holiday light string each incandescent bulb (C7) uses 6 watts.  When we compare the LED bulbs usage of .08 watt each, it’s not hard to imagine the savings boost for your holiday decorating fever.  So not to completely bore you with the price of kilowatt hours in the PG&E 3, 4 and 5 tiers, let me just say that the larger your holiday light tradition, the more dollars there is to save.

If saving green for your pocket or ‘doing good’ for the planet isn’t your thing, then consider that LED lights are more durable and safer to run than incandescent lights.  LED bulbs generate less heat improving the life span of your holiday twinkle.  You can expect LED light strings to last up to 100,000 hours – using our assumptions above at 180 hours a season – your LED lights will outlast Santa! The limited heat output of LED bulbs that contribute to their lifespan also provide safer illumination.  Definitely worth considering as you trim your family Christmas tree this year.

Of course, there are advantages of LED lighting over traditional bulbs and CFLs beyond the holiday season.  While incandescent 100-watt bulbs have been phased out throughout the US, the cost savings of replacing these inefficient blubs still in your home with LED or CFL is over 75% energy savings.  PG&E has a simple efficiency chart online that shows the watts for different bulbs at various lumens (brightness) which can be found at http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/rebates/light/products/index.shtml.

As a honest disclosure, I am not a big fan of CFL bulbs.  Each of these bulbs contains a small amount of mercury which means used bulbs must be treated as hazardous waste.  That means it is against the law to put these bulbs in your landfill or recycling bins. Instead, please bring them to your local Ace Hardware or Home Depot that as a courtesy to their customers, will properly dispose of your residential CFL bulbs. Also, PG&E has a fact sheet, Recycling CFLs: What You Need to Know http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/myhome/saveenergymoney/rebates/factsheet_recyclingcfls.pdf including important information about proper clean-up procedures for broken CFL lights.  Please keep your family safe and follow these valuable instructions.

Sustainable Danville Area hopes the joy of connecting with your family, friends and neighbors over simple meals and activities will light your holiday season and all the days of the New Year.  As ‘tradition’, there will not be a forum in December, so that we can devote time to our loved ones.

We hope to see you next year, when The Danville Library and Sustainable Danville Area host a three-part speaker series, FOOD FOR THOUGHT, to nourish your spirit, feed your mind and body and help the environment. For more information, please visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com  and on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

 

ECO-TRAVEL, FAR OR NEAR

Tip of the Month – November 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President, Sustainable Danville Area

Often the telltale sign of a person’s recent vacation is the burnish on their face from the suntan they acquired during their travels.  Last week, renewing my car insurance with local Danville Area Sustainable Business, William White Allstate, I couldn’t help but notice owners Bill and Teresa had a glow that went beyond the color on their face.  Teresa explained to me that their family had just returned from an eco-tour to Borneo, Malaysia.

The family chose to spend their vacation visiting the tropical rainforest as Teresa shared, “As a family we have a balanced perspective on environmental protection – we’re definitely not tree-huggers – but we wanted to visit Borneo because rainforests offer so much to people and our planet.  We wanted to learn more about the impact irresponsible development has on endangered species both within the forest and the surrounding ocean”.  The Whites’ avid scuba divers who have long practiced “taking pictures, but leaving only bubbles,” applied the same philosophy to their land-based eco-tour.  This time they “hiked the miles, left no trace – except the smile on their face”.

While rainforests absorb a great deal of carbon dioxide from the air, help make rainfall and are home to more than half of the worlds’ plants and animals, I wondered if this was the cause of Bill and Teresa’s collective glow?  Bill chimed in that their time spent together in Borneo was other-worldly filled with animals, birds and plants that they had never imagined.  Bill shined, “it was really meeting and talking with local people and learning some of their customs that was most humbling and heart-warming”.

With the holiday season just around the corner, and my husband and I eschewing ‘things for the sake of things’, I had to ask – what is eco-tourism?  Eco-tourism, along with eco-travel, responsible tourism, sustainable tourism and a bunch of other expressions commonly used, defines travel that is environmentally, socially, culturally and economically aware, that strives to appreciate, to nurture and enhance – not exploit – the visited destination.

A search on the Internet brings up numerous examples of ‘green-washing’ within the travel industry, with every other hotel chain touting a green veneer to market their weak sustainability efforts to gain sales. Organic shampoo and body wash, but offered in mini-plastic bottles?  Honestly?  Due diligence is necessary to research the tour operations before committing to your trip. Write or call to ask direct questions about the tour company’s ecological practices, lodging, activities, transportation and how they involve local communities and economies.

While eco-tourism doesn’t necessarily mean roughing-it, it is important to understand how water, heating, food and transportation are supplied for visitors’ convenience.  What measures do your accommodations take to reduce waste and conserve local resources?  How do they heat water and provide electricity?  The Rainforest Lodge in Borneo, where the Whites’ stayed, is an ‘off-the-grid’ lodge hosting a maximum of 60 guests.  Solar panels connected to batteries provide most of the electricity and full-house nighttime demands are met by various staff members hopping on bicycles (guest participation is optional) rigged to generate additional power.   Teresa assured me that this unique system was reliable and that we have more electrical blips locally then experienced at the lodge.

When visiting local sights, does the tour company use low-impact forms of transportation?  Often the best way to experience someplace new is to take the bus or the train and meet the people. Respect the customs and try the food. However beware that endangered species may be on the menu without your knowledge, so in preparation check with local conservation organizations to know what to avoid.  Bill and his family believe to gain the best experience from an eco-tour one must also be a good eco-tourist.  Responsibility begins when you start to plan your trip.  Consider travel to World Heritage sites where conservation, nature and culture are the key attraction. Visit UNESCO World Heritage at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list and Protected Planet at www.protectedplanet.net to gather ideas before researching specific tours.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature has a useful top-ten list for eco-tourists at www.iucn.org/?uNewsID=7253.

For more ideas and tips on eco-tourism Sustainable Danville Area invites you to our Thursday, November 8^th forum, 6:00pm at San Ramon Valley High School Career Center, lower level of the administration building.  Our evening speakers, Judith Scott, Travel Consultant from Alamo World Travel and Tours & Alma Megeath, President Eco-Adventures along with hosts William White Allstate will have lots to share – including fun snacks and beverages.  For more information about Sustainable Danville Area and upcoming events, visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com and on Facebook.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

WHEN IS A TOMATO NOT A TOMATO?

TIP OF THE MONTH – SEPTEMBER 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President  Cynthia@sustainabledanville.com

Do you eat those mealy, tasteless slices of tomato tucked into your sandwich or like me, open and remove immediately?  I can’t eat the anemic looking fruit that graces the side plate with bits of lettuce from the deli and I definitely will not buy artificially ripened supermarket tomatoes.

While the tomatoes in our supermarkets are seasonally grown in California, they are picked when considered “mature green”, just starting to turn color but still firm. Discovery News recently did a story reporting that the modern tomato has been cultivated to ripen evenly to uniform the harvest and it is this gene mutation that is to blame for tasteless tomatoes. I’m sure it doesn’t help that these green, firm tomatoes are packed into ethylene (a flammable gas derived from petroleum) storage for 3 days to change the starch of the tomato to sugar forcing it to turn red. While visually appealing, this process does nothing to enhance the taste.  The blandness is further cemented by shipping tomatoes in cold storage putting an immediate end to further ripening.

How do you get a tomato that tastes like a tomato?  One solution is to shop the local farmer’s market for organic produce.  Look for tomatoes grown sustainably since farmers that use these practices haven’t depleted the soil with chemical products.  These tomatoes are sure to be rich in magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc – trace minerals that help maintain our good health and give our fruits and vegetable their flavor.  When selecting tomatoes, sniff the blossom end, not the stem end, for a rich aroma.  Store fresh, ripe tomatoes stem-side down in a cool, dark place and use within a few days.  Please don’t put them in the refrigerator.

With so many varieties of tomatoes, you can grow your own tomatoes in any 5 gallon container with lots of sunshine.   However, with our wacky weather this summer, I am still tomato-less waiting for ‘real’ pasta sauce while my San Marzano beauties vine ripen.

Considering the journey out-of-season tomatoes from Arizona and Mexico take to get to our grocery stores and my uneasiness with BPA in most aluminum cans, I’m going to can my summer bounty for the winter season.  Now where to get the tomatoes….

Inspired by our summer days picking unwanted Danville and Alamo backyard fruit for the local food pantries, we longed for more time ‘on the farm’ before the seriousness of autumn.  So, we decided to take a road trip and we’re inviting you to join us “On The Road” as we tour Wild Boar Farms on Sunday, September 9^th 11am – 2pm.

WILD BOAR FARMS: Sun, Wind, Dust & Dirt, GOOD FOOD & GREAT TOMATOES

BRING: Hat, Flat shoes, Camera, Re-usable bag for tomatoes and an Appetite

Wild Boar Farms is not just any farm – it’s a tomato breeding ground for 12,000 certified, organic tomato plants located in ‘tomato terroir’ Suisun Valley.   They are growing a rare, exotic gourmet collection of heirloom and future heirloom tomatoes.  Our special day will include an exclusive tomato tour and talk by Farmer Brad Gates, tomato and wine tasting, lunch provided by Fume Bistro & Bar, Napa and 1 lb. of tomatoes as a parting gift to you.  Come and enjoy an informative and fun day at the farm with your friends and family.  The event is accessible for all ages and benefits The Urban Farmers Fruit Gleaning Program (www.theurbanfarmers.org).  Please visit the Sustainable Danville Area Events page www.sustainabledanville.com for more details and a link to purchase tickets.  Adults $25 / Children $10

There will also be time to pick & purchase enough tomatoes to preserve for the winter season.  If preserving tomatoes is what you have in mind, but you don’t know where to start, join us on Saturday, September 8^th 9am-noon at The Garden at Heather Farm for a class on canning & preserving your seasons’ bounty.  Patrice Hanlon, Garden Director, who has been canning her favorite vegetables for over 25 years, will introduce us to different methods of preserving, with a particular focus on water bath canning.  It’s a hands-on class with each participant making a jar of dill and a jar of sweet & sour pickles to take home. $35/$10 materials. Register at http://www.gardenshf.org/adult-classes.html or call (925) 947-1678.

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Central Conta Costa Solid Waste Authority and the Town of Danville are hosting a public workshop at the Danville Town Hall, September 19^th 6:30 – 8:30pm to gather feedback on current and future services.

Did you know that as of July 1, 2012, California businesses are required to recycle, including multi-family homes? (AB 341)  Did you know that as a Danville or Alamo resident our separated yard clippings is used as daily alternative cover in the landfill and not composted?  Do you know that neighboring communities from Lafayette to San Ramon keep food scraps out of the landfill by putting them directly into their green waste bins, but we can’t?

Help us improve waste and recycling services for businesses and residents in Danville, Diablo, Blackhawk and Alamo. http://www.wastediversion.org/   If you cannot attend, please take a moment to answer the simple survey (nine questions) online by October 1, 2012. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CCCSWA_feedback

 Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

MOW NO MORE

tip of the month – august 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President

My family has always been grateful for the ‘dog day afternoons’ of August.  Sure to be filled with hot, sunny skies its’ time to leave lawn chores behind and head to the beach.  For years, we made sure to lighten our burden by following prudent grass growing techniques to make our escape easier and less guilt ridden.

Long ago we stopped using synthetic fertilizers because they are a threat to the bay as they wash down storm drains. Of the 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem and others are toxic to birds, bees and humans, htttp://beyondpesticides.org/lawn/factsheets/30health.pdf .   Additionally, these chemicals are formulated to stimulate a lot of grass growth quickly, demanding more water and even more mowing! Using organic products and grass clippings that work with the soil and feed the lawn slowly over the season makes for less work.  Every spring until after Labor Day, we’d set our lawnmower blade higher to leave our grass at least 3 inches long after each ‘haircut’. The taller grass shaded the surface of the soil preventing crabgrass and other weed seeds from taking root, helped conserve water and thus, encouraged deep root growth to allow our lawn to become more drought-tolerant.

When my youngest son shared EPA statistics learned in his high school AP Environmental Science class about gas powered lawnmowers representing 5% of the US air pollution before 1997, we had our excuse to look for alternatives.  Unregulated for emissions until the late 1990’s, gas powered garden equipment emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide – in other words pollution in your backyard. In fact, the EPA states that a new gas powered lawn mower produces enough air pollution in one hour as 11 new cars each being driven for one hour. http://www.epa.gov/air/community/details/yardequip_addl_info.html

The solution seemed apparent after a trip to the local hardware store where my husband ‘oohed’ over the latest ‘push’ mowers that definitely are not your father’s lawnmower.  Touting high-grade plastics, lightweight metals, precision blades that rarely need sharpening and promising the cutting of grass cleanly and evenly, we were almost there.   And then, the water emergency of 2009 hit us.  EBMUD penalized any resident that didn’t cut their water usage by twenty percent.  Given that we were already using an on-demand water heater, a high efficiency washer and dryer and a foot peddle that controls the water faucet in the kitchen sink to turn off the water when not needed, it was up to our garden to give up ‘it’s drink’.  This only made sense since more than 30 percent of all urban fresh water is used for watering lawns.  Imagine how much is wasted because of inappropriate timing, dosage or misdirected sprinklers.  I went outside and explained the situation to the grass and plants, “Look guys it’s been lovely, but you either flourish on once a week watering or be composted”.  More than half the garden made it, including my favorite rose bush, now entering its 32^th year of precious yellow blooms.  However, I needed replacement for the other half of plants and the ‘California Golden’ lawn.  Luckily that’s when I came across an EBMUD program to convert my garden grass to a native plant landscape.

The EBMUD rebate program (extended to December 31, 2012) provides up to $500 dollars to help transform your lawn into water permeable and drought-resistant landscape.  Converting our front and back lawns through the EBMUD program was very simple.  The first step is to measure the lawn area you want to convert than complete the application form which can be found online at https://www.ebmud.com/for-customers/water-conservation-rebates-and-services/watersmart-residential-lawn-conversion.

The best time to start the physical work of the project is mid-to-late September since new plants will benefit from the approaching winter dominancy and rains.  However, August is the perfect time to start the design process by familiarizing yourself with drought tolerant plants that will thrive in your microclimate.  A wonderful resource is EBMUD publication Plant and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region.  EBMUD also has a resource list of bay area nurseries, demonstration gardens, classes and books where you can learn about and view native plants.

As part of the lawn conversion program, an EBMUD representative will meet with you both pre and post-conversion.  The representative shared great resources and explained that using the process of sheet mulching would spare us the hard work of tearing out the lawn.  Sheet mulching is a layered mulching system that suppresses weeds and in the case of a lawn conversion, grass.  This process also made it possible to plant over 60 small plants in the front yard in one afternoon – alone.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Death of My Lawnmower: One Homeowners’ Journey to Replacing Our Lawn, visit https://sustainabledanville.wordpress.com/save-water-and-energy-with-a-lawn-conversion/.   And if you’re not quite envying our mow-free weekends, then consider this watering guide for water smart tips for landscape: http://www.ebmud.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/WateringGuide_0.pdf

Remember to visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com and on Facebook for more tips, information and upcoming events, like:

Kathy Kramer of Bringing Back the Natives has organized a series of fall events including two workshops on how to sheet mulch your lawn and install native gardens.  Dates: September 16 in Livermore and October 21 in Lafayette and Concord.

Read more at the Bringing Back the Natives website.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

COME PICK MY FRUIT – PLEASE.

TIP OF THE MONTH – JULY 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President Sustainable Danville Area

When I was young I walked to school.  Every day seemed like an exploration, especially when passing the front yards of two special neighbors.  They welcomed school kids encouraging us to pick apples in the fall, and strawberries in spring and carrots almost year round.  The amazing thing is I didn’t grow up in a rural community in California where the sun is plentiful and the earth easily bears sweet bounty – I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

Wanting to ‘pay forward’ these wonderful memories I have planted three heirloom apple trees in my front yard. While experts advised me that the trees would not bear fruit for passing school kids for at least three years, I was delighted recently to find three golf ball sized apples growing on one of those baby trees. I can’t wait for apples grown for taste and not commercial criteria such as ease of shipping, uniform harvest times and long shelf-life.

Did you know one mature fruit tree can produce 100-500 pounds of fruit annually?  With only a handful of apples this year, the neighborhood kids may have to plan other snacks for fall.  I plan to keep the trees trimmed between 6-8 feet which will reduce fruit production, but make it easier to pick the fruit.  Even at this size, I’m sure to have plenty organically tended, nourishing fruit that is chemical-free, safe to eat and family healthy and I’ll avoid the high premium of store-bought organic fruit.

Planting a tree is also one of the best ways to help the environment because trees sequester carbon from the air and into the soil.  One tree can process up to a ton of carbon in its lifetime!  Fruit trees condition the soil, provide shade, attract pollinators to your garden, provide wonderful compost material when their leaves drop in the fall, and are a fun and rewarding way to cut your carbon footprint by eating local.  And did I mention that even with the trees limited to 6 feet, I expect to have more than enough apples for my family, neighbors and passing school kids?

Growing your own fruit trees is a great way to help the less fortunate providing a flavorful, healthy alternative to usual processed, canned foods available at a shelter or food bank.   Sustainable Danville Area, in collaboration with The Urban Farmers (http://theurbanfarmers.org) are kicking off a community based effort to glean (pick) unwanted fruit from local home gardens and backyards. The fruit is then delivered to the local food pantries so it can be distributed to needy people in the community. In the summer of 2010, thanks to Eagle Scout Drew Holland with the help of friends and family, Lafayette donated over 1,400 pounds of fruit to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.  What can we achieve if we connect in our community to stem local hunger?

Siamack Sioshansi (in orange jacket) and The Urban Farmers volunteers.

Whether or not you have fruit trees, we invite you to learn more about our community fruit gleaning project. There are many ways you can help and have fun with friends and family doing it – picking fruit is just one of them.  Spend the evening with us at Sustainable Danville Area’s July forum when we launch our Alamo / Danville community fruit gleaning project.  Our guest speaker, Siamack Sioshansi, founder of The Urban Farmers, is a true urban farmer that will help us understand why we need to change our food system and how together we can help others enjoy healthy, whole food.

Peace Lutheran, 3201 Camino Tassajara, Danville have graciously lent us space for this month’s forum on Wednesday, July 11^th 6:45 pm.  

Want to register your fruit trees for pick-up or volunteer in another way?  Then don’t wait until the forum, click here to visit The Urban Farmers. 

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News

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FOOD: Local, Free-Range or Organic?

Tip of month – june 2012

By Cynthia Ruzzi, President Sustainable Danville Area

Doesn’t it seem like feeding ourselves and our family has gotten a lot more complex in the last few years? Deciding on the best food options at the grocery store is time consuming and sometimes difficult. Is the fresh, organic broccoli trucked from thousands of miles away better for you than the conventional broccoli grown and frozen 200 miles from your home?

We want to feed ourselves and our family well. We want to do right by our farmers and their workers, our environment and our local economy. Yet, if we’re going to spend more of our paycheck on food, then don’t we want to make sure that there’s a payback in taste and nutrition? Hence the dilemma: when shopping, should you buy local, free-range or organic food?

So why is eating local a big deal?  According to the WorldWatch Institute, food consumed in the U.S. typically travels 1,500-2,500 miles to reach our plates.  In fact, the energy used for food production accounts for about 20% of all fossil fuel used in the United States.  A local-eating pioneer, Joan Gussow, once said that shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calories of nutrition. Based on that, what you eat may be as important as what you drive.

When you shift your diet toward local foods, you are protecting nearby farms, reducing carbon emissions and supporting your local economy.  Besides being better for the environment, local food generally tastes much better because it is picked when it is ripe and is much fresher when we eat it.  Eating fresh, local food allows you to capture nutrients that will have otherwise diminished over the many miles conventional foods normally take to reach your plate.  However, it seems to me that if the ‘fresh, local food’ is grown conventionally using chemical pesticides (or in the case of meat antibiotics and hormones) it defeats the benefits of buying ‘fresh’.

When I shop at local farmers market, I ask vendors, ‘How do you grow your vegetables (or raise your meat)?  These open-ended questions (instead of ‘do you spray pesticides on your crop?) usually reveal which farms are passionate about sustainable, healthy growing practices.   And let’s face it, if I’m going to pay more for farmers’ market products then I want to make sure I’m not just paying for atmosphere.

Is free-range the ‘wild west’ of eating? The term ‘free range’ implies that the animal is allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner.  However, USDA regulations apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been ‘allowed access to’ the outside. The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range, nor the duration of time that an animal must have access to the outside. So cowboy, free-range isn’t a guarantee that your chick has ever left the hen house – where they have been trained to find food and water.  Hence, that grass stomping hen may only be more nutritious for you when the term free-range is partnered with ‘no antibiotics, no hormones, organically-fed and/or grass-fed’.

Do you need to eat only organic food?  Did you know that if your food doesn’t say 100% organic it can contain unhealthy chemicals? If a product label says ‘Made with Organic Products’ it means that only 70% of the products need to be organic in that food item.  However, organic products can be twice as much as conventional items, so if you must make a trade-off between which products to buy organic then use a resource like the Dirty Dozen List from the Environmental Working Group.  They offer a downloadable list for your wallet and you can find the complete list at http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/.

In the end, it’s pretty basic.  The more you know about your food sources and the more you eat whole, unprocessed foods, the healthy you’ll be. If you are interested in learning more about how our food choices affect ourselves, our family and our community, then please join us Thursday, June 21^st 6:30 pm.

The Danville Library is sponsoring this month’s Sustainable Danville Area Forum with two special speakers.

Linda Riebel, author of ‘The Green Foodprint: Food Choices for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet’ will talk about the main guidelines to environmentally wiser food and share many options, so you can tailor Earth-friendly eating to your own lifestyle.  Linda Riebel, Ph.D., is an environmental educator on the faculty of Saybrook University, where she helped create the sustainability program. She serves on the board of Sustainable Lafayette (helping create the farmers’ market, Earth Day and Food Day events, among other things), and has published and lectured about sustainable food for over ten years.

Danville Area Sustainble Business leader Joey Mazzera from Green Apple Acupuncture (www.greenappleacupuncture.com) will reveal the ten most important herbs to integrate into your diet for a holistic approach to healthy living.  Joey is a licensed Acupuncturist and received her Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco.  For more information visit us at www.sustainabledanville.com and https://www.facebook.com/SustainableDanvilleArea.

Reprinted with permission from Danville Today News