How My Garden Grows

My garden is very happy. The peas, cilantro and chard are delicious. Next up is lettuce and tomatoes. The poppies are blooming like crazy. We have a crop of other wildflowers, nasturiums and potatoes coming up too. We've planted a few vines to start leafing out the fence. Mark keeps the patio and walk tidy. And we finally got a little table and stable chairs for somewhere to rest our drinks!

I had no idea how much I would love fresh cilantro. I made salsa a few days ago with it.

Salsa Fresca Tradicional Recipe
Finely chop:
2-3 ripe, local farm grown, heirloom tomatoes
1/4 onion
2-3 sprigs cilantro (use scissors)

Sprinkle 2-3 pinches of salt.
Squeeze on 1/4 lime.
Add 1 tbs sugar if needed. (I didn't need it, because the tomatoes were sweet enough.)
Stir.

I used to HATE cilantro and anything that went along with it - ie mexican food. I'm really glad taste buds get refreshed every seven years, because now I enjoy mexican one-two times a week - either at home or out.

The diseased australian tree has finished dropping it really sticky pollen for this year, so we will no longer have a cat with filthy paws coming in all the time.


Orson is still loving the garden. He goes out all day and then comes is and sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. Except when he's on crack - or maybe that's the cat nip. I planted cat nip out in the yard a few weeks ago, it was lush and about eight inches high. I checked yesterday and it was a nub. If Orson ate it, it's the first time he's ever been interested in cat nip. We've put it out for him multiple times with no effect.

Here's a couple of pictures of a tired kitty!

The evolution of an "Environmentalist" - Part 2

Continued from Part 1...

So, as I declared my major in Environmental Economics, I became a Consumer Activist, even though I had no more money than every other starving college student. What this meant was that I started shopping at Wild Oats/Whole Foods Markets, buying organic food, cooking less meat, and thinking long and hard about purchases of new items. The idea is that when we buy products that we believe in, that are good for the environment and society, even though they may be more expensive, we'll create a demand for those products, and eventually the supply will increase, the price will go down and more people will be able to afford the healthier items. AKA voting with my dollars, putting my money where my mouth is. I was out to save the world with shopping.

After college, I moved to California, got a job in fundraising, then as an office manager, then fundraising again and now as an executive assistant. You can read about these experiences in a previous post.

During the 2004 presidential election, I realized, along with many other people, that more than just environmentalists had a problem with communicating their issues in a way that could be heard. All liberals and liberal issues tended to have this trouble. I read Don't think of an Elephant by George Lakoff and went to the Spiritual Activism conference in Berkeley. I began to see that a more integrated, thoughtful and inclusive approach to all of our issues was needed.

Around this time, the controversial essay Death of Environmentalism by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Norhaus was released. Shortly thereafter, Adam Werbach gave his speech Is Environmentalism Dead? at the Commonwealth Club. He concluded it was and I agreed, so I didn't pay it much attention.

I'm paying attention now.

Next up...The Birth of Blue...

I heart SF

...for many reasons.

Here are a few:


Pillow Fights - This is what we did on February 14.

St. Stupids Day Parade

Pie Fights

Burning Man was founded at Baker Beach.

Golden Gate Park.

Mission Pie

Halloween is a MAJOR holiday.

The Kitty Condos and Pet Shrinks at the SFSPCA.

Good Tacos are everywhere.

I can have a garden all year.

Same-Sex Marriages

An infinite diversity of people.

The evolution of an "Environmentalist" - Part 1

Am I an environmentalist?
Originally, no.

I came to "environmentalism" through a belief in the value and worth of human beings. The logic is thus:

*I like humans. I like living.
*Humans need water, air, food, shelter to live.
*Humans are destroying the very things on which their future existence depends - nature.
*So, protect nature to protect the future existence of humans.

Growing up on a farm, I had a closer relationship with the water, air and dirt that made our food than many people, which is probably why I came to this seriousness as young as I did.

In junior high, I started turning off the water facet anytime it absolutely wasn't necessary, like when brushing my teeth, and seeing how short I could possibly make my shower to conserve as much water as possible. In high school, I joined the environmental club, became president of the club, and helped implement a school wide recycling program and planted a tree in the courtyard, so we wouldn't have to get a cut one every year for christmas.

At the age of 15, I decided that I wanted to save the world. Since I liked the trees and nature and saw their importance to human survival, I adopted the label "environmentalist" and the movement "environmentalism" because it was the closest fit out there.

Since then, my understanding of environmentalism has evolved. It is no longer just the protecting of trees. (Ironically, I work for an organization that does precisely just that.) Early in college, I got tired of being considered the "enemy" by my family, namely grandparents, still on the farm. To them, environmentalism was a dirty word, and I'd succomded to the dark side of the force as a city-slicker who just wanted to take away all of their land from them. Being the enemy upset me, in large part, because I got a large part of my love for nature from them.

So, I set out to build bridges. I recognized that many environmentalists and environmentalism did a very poor job at communicating with and understanding people who weren't already card-carrying tree-huggers. This was not a good strategy for a movement that needed as many supporters as possible to affect the scale of change that was necessary to make the earth a place still inhabitable for current and future generations.

Around that time (I'm still in my first or second year at university) I came across and read The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken. What he wrote made so much sense to me. Basically, that business, consumers, economics and money could be used as a force for positive change for the environment. Because of this I minored in microeconomics, to give me a solid understanding of markets, supply and demand, cost-benefit ratios, and externalities. Combined with my major of Environmental Policy (of course), I called my course of study Environmental Economics, as there was no such major. The idea was that I could translate between environmentalists and businesses so that they could see the benefits to the bottom line and the environment of working together and accounting for the externalities of doing business.

At this time, I was also integrating the idea of the consumer activist...

-end of part 1-

It's now past my computer curfew, so you'll have to wait a few days for the next installment.