Food Not Lawns

read this book. I own it. you can borrow it.

I bought vegetable and herb seeds this week. planting next week. thrilling! I would love to have a seed swap this season. free seed sharing = ideal.

also: chickens would be great. fresh eggs every day. and they're kinda like pets. the yard is big enough... it's perfectly legal. and maybe bees? we'll see how far the landlord lets me go.

have you heard this prediction? it better happen. elected officials need to step it up as role models towards sustainable best practices in their daily lives - for the sake of everyone's daily life.

I firmly believe that many of society's problems are caused by our disconnect from food. food not lawns!

xo
'la

Insulting All Umbrellas

Today:

Slept until 10:45am, got up, and showered for the third time in 30 hours. Realized that my OCD has been getting out of hand lately. Fixed a broken couch while wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed my unshaved armpits. Realized why people think I'm a dyke.

Grabbed a cup of coffee and walked past the super cool bicycle messengers on my way to the BART. Jealous of their career, but not of their attitude. Embarassed of my paper Starbucks cup, but not of the holes in my pants.

Headed to Berkeley and scoped out four more bike shops (I've been to 14 shops in 3 days). Only one shop has a bike suitable (and dope enough) for me. It will be purchased tomorrow, thanks to the loving generosity of my big brother. So thankful.

Rain and sun on and off all day - making great rainbows and very soggy sneakers. With nothing better to do, and my mind on my poverty status, I decided to walk the several miles home instead of pay to take the subway and bus. My ipod was tuned to my Cozy Like Cats // Cats Like Cozy playlist. Fresh to death. Regardless, I got chilled to the bone walking the several miles / hours home. It was a typical windy and rainy Bay Area winter day. The kind with sideways rain, insulting all umbrellas.

Chose the most uphill route to my house (health is wealth). Bedroom. My nest. Cozy clothes on. Cancelled a date I was anxious about all day. Reading $pread, Unlikely, and Craigslist Missed Connections (a wonderful weekly ritual) on my tilted couch. Realized that almost everything I have is old, broken, and frayed. Realized that doesn't bother me. Smiling.

My housemate James is listening to great 70s Turkish rock records. Inspires me to eat Armenian food. Yoghurt (<3), eetch (armenian-style tabouleh), hommus, raw vegetables, ak-mak crackers, beer. Half a beer. Realized that poverty has improved my health and helped curb some bad habits. Still smiling.

Snickerdoodle cookies can be made with lard? I want to try one. Instead, I will watch brain-melting videos and read ridiculous articles provided by my favorite gchat / wrestling friend.

Wondering if my insomnia will persevere tonight since I am sober and without spooning companion. Just remembered last night's strange dream in which I was hoarding Snickers and other candy bars in an old plaid makeup bag my mom gave me when I was a little lady. Maybe I should treat myself to a candy bar tomorrow after I go for a much-anticipated bike ride. Undecided.

Thinking of the Sesame Street records I used to listen to religiously as a kid in my old bedroom. Oscar the Grouch has a song about how much he loves the rain. That bedroom was also the laundry room. The tumbling dryer creating pleasant white noise that I could use tonight...

nom nom nom

I've had a few successful interviews and I'm starting to train and work this month in two restaurants.

One is a 17 year old local-foods daily-changing-menu spot near the Mission in San Francisco. I'm going to be covering manager duties during busy shifts and generally "floating" around helping the service staff. I'm very much looking forward to training with the General Manager (a position I would love to hold in the next few years).

The other spot is a brand new Gastro Pub located on Lake Merritt. I really enjoy opening restaurants - you get to set the tone and culture of the entire space. The sense of ownership makes me feel proud and enthusiastic about going to work. It also helps me visualize what amounts of strength and stress go into opening a restaurant for the owners and chefs.

I've also started reading "Heat" by Bill Buford, which follows his culinary studies under the wings of Mario Batali and then on further to Italy. It is straight-forward and amusing. It is hitting all the nerves in my body that want me to cook for a living, but I think I'll stay in the front of the house where there is considerably less pressure (and sweat).

George Orwell says in The Road to Wigan Pier:

"A human being is primarily a bag for putting food into; the other functions and faculties may be more godlike, but in point of time they come afterwards. A man dies and is buried, and all his words and actions are forgotten, but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children. I think it could be plausibly argued that changes of diet are more inportant than changes of dynasty or even of religion. The Great War, for instance, could never have happened if tinned food had not been invented. And the history of the past four hundred years in England would have been immensely different if it had not been for the introduction of root-crops and various other vegetables at the end of the middle ages, and a little later the introduction of non-alcoholic drinks (tea, coffee, cocoa) and also of distilled liquors to which the beer drinking English were not accustomed. Yet it is curious how seldom the all-importance of food is recognized. You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners."

Love your local farmer / chef / waitress.

<3
"Hello! How are you? I'm well, thank you for asking. My name is Carla and I will be your server tonight."

new-to-me comic!

I love comics. I'm still very new to this one. it's challenging and the author is at times painfully self-deprecating, but it's well-done. enjoy.

xo
Carla

Providence People

Go to Local 121 tonight to see a documentary about the local food movement!

6:00 speakeasy doors open
6:30 optional dinner for $12 (made with local foods, silly goose!)
7:00 'Tableland' plays on the dope a/v system, discussion following

Tableland is a culinary expedition in search of the people, place and taste of North American small scale, sustainable food production. Director Chris Noble argues for the re-location of North American food systems and a return to fresher, healthier ways of feeding ourselves. From the orchards of British Columbia, the inner city gardens of Chicago to the Napa Highlands and everywhere in between, Tableland celebrates the successful production of tasty, local, and seasonal food from field to plate.

-PDD

Personally, I feel that a lot of unrest and displeasure in this society is caused by how we consume food instead of nourish ourselves. I lot of life change can happen when one begins to eat with (personal and global) mindfulness. When a lot of lives change, we get a community shift, and then a societal trend, no?

Forget having the status symbol of a pristine green lawn... Grow food in that plot of land and cook with the fruits of your labor!

Eat, drink, think local!

<3
Former Local 121 Employee

Milk and Cheese

Years ago Jesse shared Evan Dorkin comics with me. Milk and Cheese quickly became my favorite.

These "dairy products gone bad" had some of the most thought-provoking and subversive concepts to which I had yet been exposed. I was 14 years old and in 9th grade.

Evan and his wife Sarah Dyer do some other pretty cool stuff, too. Educating kids about pop sub-culture via Nickelodeon? Badass history lessons.

Sarah is also a bomb-diggity artist with the cloth. Through her I found Spoonflower, a DIY craft group that will print your designs on fabric (if you're invited). Check them out, DIYers!

As you might know, I am a nerd. I have a baby comic book collection including some great Archie comics from the 1960's. I recommend going into a comic book store this week and checking it out.

Try new things!

R-E-A-D-A-B-O OK?!?!

Anyone want to start some sort of a book club?

I have so much I want to read, but with no deadlines, I am not getting it done.

Anyone?

Beuller?

<3
poindextress