Hiking trails are wet and unstable, be careful

Do you know where this is?

Solar Road in France

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/12/worlds-first-solar-road-opens-in-france/
Let's see if this can work! And if so, can the costs come down enough to make it feasible?

#France
#Solar
#SolarRoadways

Yeah Vancouver!

The City of Vancouver does an amazing job of recycling and protecting bicyclists.  The convention center uses reclaimed water to flush the toilets, the coffee cups and lids are compostable and the roof is planted.  Bikers are very well protected with lanes separated by curbs or planters between them and cars, and bike lanes are marked with street signs and their own street signals. Fabulous!

Sharon Sand

Reduce, reuse and recycle

My friend turned me on to ThredUp, an online store to buy clothes you want and sell what you don't. What a perfect way to recycle! In their package insert they explain, "We know shopping secondhand helps the world in some small way, and we're proud to be a part of that. We know being a conscious consumer matters. It matters to us, it matters to you, it matters in the whole big picture of the world."  Cool!
#reducereuserecycle
+thredUP

Rats! Time for a new compost system

Well, I don't know for sure it was rats, but I'm thinking that's who was burrowing into my compost pile at night, eating all the organic bits of fruits and veggies trimmed from my bell peppers, cantaloupes, and watermelon. Cookie, our dog, had gotten a little too excited about these supposed rats and was digging in the compost and/or barking at them in the middle of the night.

So my dear husband went to Costco and bought a double barrel compost bin that unfortunately is made with so much plastic that I'm not sure if we're in the 'sustainable zone' here but nonetheless, may help us to compost more, and peacefully at that.

I took all of the compost from my pile and sifted it with this old yellow milk crate giving me quite a lot of fresh compost for my fall vegetable seedlings, and deposited the larger uncomposted pieces into the barrel on the right. Once that's full, we will use the compost and start using the one on the left.

Don't feed the landfills

Subaru had been a zero landfill plant since 2004. Check it out! @subaru.com

and check out #dontfeedthelandfills
What can I do every day to reduce the trash going to the landfill? Can I use less disposables? Can I recycle more? Can I compost? Can I reuse or pass stuff on to someone else who wants to reuse?

(Not) for the Birds

Winter crop: kale, spinach, Swiss chard

Another garden mystery solved for me! I have tried and tried over the years to grow vegetables from seed, with little success. I have carefully planned out spacing, depth and design, planning for taller plants in the back, and shorter plants in the front. I have carefully prepared the soil with organic fertilizers, my own compost and worm tea, figured out companion plantings, etc. I have carefully watered to keep the seeds moist and at the same time not blast them with any streams of water.

I could not figure out where I was failing, but finally, I found the culprit - birds!! These cute little birds were visiting my pots and garden beds with fresh warm soil ripe for scratching, dirt baths and maybe even finding a worm or two. Great for them, but not for me. I recently purchased this black netting and draped it over my pots and voila! I have a bounty of winter vegetables springing up!

I love these organic seeds from Botanical Interests, and now I know I can get them to grow!

+Botanical Interests, Inc

@ebstoneorganics

#birdnetting #organicgardening #organicseeds #wintervegetables

Trail Etiquette

Had a lovely hike on a clear blustery, chilly (for California) Christmas and was thinking about writing on trail etiquette, but LNT does a great summary. Bikers yield to everyone, hikers yield to horses, and downhill yields to uphill, but there are some considerate exceptions in this article. Leave No Trace Trail Etiquette 101 And I would add that around here there are a lot of mountain bikers that have a ton of fun on the trails and I love it when they hang bells on their bikes so others can hear them coming! And of course it never hurts to be considerate and not expect that everyone will know the rules.
#trailetiquette
#mountainbiking
#hiking
#horsebackriding
#lnt
@leavenotrace

EZ-PZ Compost Bin

Check out this EZ-PZ turning compost bin made by a high school student! You can purchase one for $150. It's currently on display at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles as part of an exhibit on going green. https://swagcompost.wordpress.com/

Fresh cabbage and cucumber salad

So I'm getting the tail-end of the cabbage (winter vegetable?) from Muir Ranch organic garden CSA and the beginning of the cucumbers (definitely summer vegetable/fruit?). So I dug through my fridge tonight and came up with a fabulous recipe, if I do say so myself.

1 head of green cabbage, sliced and diced into dime sized pieces
2 cucumbers, peeled, sliced and diced
1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts from Trader Joe's, including the juice
5ish jalapeno-stuffed olives from Trader Joe's, diced (add more to taste)
Rice vinegar to taste
Sesame oil to taste
Salt to taste
Divine!

+Trader Joe's
@MuirRanch.org
#eatlocal
#eatseasonal
#organic
#eatwhateveryoufindinthefridge

I love artichokes (aka garlic butter delivery mechanism)

Harvesting seeds from the artichokes I let go to seed last year. I hope it's not too late to start the seeds for this year. Notice the difference between the infertile pieces on the left and the two fully developed seeds in the middle. Be careful if you try this, because you could get the worst splinter ever from something on this plant. I think I still have a little irritating piece in my thumb, but it is all worth it for fresh artichokes.  I learned last year that artichokes do come back from the root left from the previous year and the second year was way more productive for me - possibly because I added worm tea.

To cook artichokes, I cut off the smallest end of the stem I can, and then steam in a large pot with a steamer basket for about 30 minutes (longer for larger artichokes). For the sauce, when I was little we used mustard mixed with mayo, which I absolutely loved, but now I prefer garlic butter. Mince fresh garlic and brown in butter over a medium low heat with a dash or four of salt. Any leftover garlic butter can be refrigerated for future recipes.

To eat artichokes, come over to my house and I'll cook them for you. Or, serve one to each person, or cut in half if they are large. Pull off one leaf at a time, dip in sauce, and use your teeth to scrape off the flesh from the inside of the leaf. Keep doing this until you get to the very center where the leaves are very soft - you can pull these all off at once and nibble off the tender ends. Then comes the best part: scoop out all of the furry center with a spoon until the artichoke heart is smooth and concave, dip in sauce and eat, stem and all!

Using what I've got

Saw this in a book this weekend and decided to try it for breakfast on Sunday. I used from my organic garden: red ruffle bell peppers, one little tomato, a tomatillo and cilantro (basically picked everything clean). The leeks and cabbage were from Muir Ranch and the celery was from Vons. All organic, except maybe the eggs.

So, the way the picture looked in the book was mostly red bell peppers and onions, but since my pepper harvest was not yet bountiful and I had no onions on hand I improvised by adding in the other veggies to fill the pan. I sauteed all of the veggies together in a teaspoon or so of garlic butter I had left from the last time I made artichokes, and then I added in a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt. Once the veggies were soft, I cracked the eggs right on top and it looks absolutely delicious, which it was, but it would have been even better if I had left the eggs just a little runny. I put a lid on at the end to speed up the process and that completely cooked the eggs. I'll try it again and let you know.

@MuirRanch #sustainable #organic #eatlocal

Chopped salad

I almost bought a bag of chopped kale and other cruciferous veggies the other day and then realized I had most of the same veggies already at home. So today I chopped lacinato Italian kale, purple cabbage, fennel bulb, broccoli (including the stem), Asian pear and dill and added a little mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar,  olive oil and sea salt and voila! I had a #healthy #chopped #kale salad. All of the veggies came from my weekly box of #organic veggies from @Muir Ranch.

Article: The Political Battle Over Red Meat

The Political Battle Over Red Meat

http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/the-political-battle-over-red-meat-20150203

Worms are busy and garden is happy = Black Gold

Okay, I'm calling this worm tea stuff 'Black Gold!' I have plants blooming in my garden that I had lost all hope for - cymbidiums I've had for over 5 years that have never bloomed again are jumping! Creeping fig on my shady back side wall that was barely hanging in there is now developing bright new growth, and I have tomatoes in a pot surviving the cold on the sunny wall along with Swiss chard that is exploding! The red bell pepper plant I was harvesting mini peppers from a year ago is thriving at about two feet tall and producing good-sized peppers. 

I purchased my worm bin for about $65 after taking a neighborhood class LA County hosted. It came with the worms and coconut coir, which is the bedding for the worms. There are also plenty of options online. My worm bin looks just like this but I don't use the legs as I have it on my gardening table, and I only use two trays instead of three - I may advance to three trays later on. Once you get it started with fruits and veggie scraps and some shredded wet newspaper you can leave it alone for a week or so at a time as long as it doesn't dry out. Make sure to keep it in a shady spot.

This is a great option for those with limited space or who don't have a sunny spot for a compost bin. It is also a great option for parents or teachers who want to share the nutrient cycle with kids.

LA County Worm and Compost Bins

Trees in Pasadena

If you live in or around Pasadena and would like to provide feedback on the tree program? What do you think about having fruit trees on City property?

To participate in the survey, please visit the City of Pasadena website at www.cityofpasadena.net/publicworks/urbanforestsurvey. Residents, businesses, and visitors will also be encouraged to participate in the survey via a media release, Neighborhood Connections, social media, Field Representatives, and direct outreach to key stakeholders including, but not limited to the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and business districts. The survey will be available until February 1, 2015.

Green homes, off the grid!

http://www.dwell.com/green/slideshow/dwell-homes-grid-part-two#2

Check out these off the grid homes - vacation home anyone? Actual home where you live? Or are there adaptations we can make to our current homes so that our current homes can be more green? What have you done to make your home more green? Please reply and let us know.

Pasadena's new seed library

This is so cool - Pasadena has a seed library! Can't wait to try it. 

http://coloradoboulevard.net/sat-april-19-pasadena-1st-seed-library/

#interstellar #whydowekeepbuyingmorestuff

Saw Interstellar on Saturday - loved it! What a twist, and what a reminder that we are not doing enough to protect this earth. We've got to somehow get to a net-zero impact. There are too many of us living on this non-infinite planet to not do something major right now: save water, save electricity, buy less disposable goods, buy local, drive less, plant more, get outside more. What can I do today to make a smaller impact on this earth?

Rain Barrels - LA Rebates

Check this out! I'm waiting to find out if my water company offers rebates.
Top 5 Reasons to Harvest Rainwater!

• Protect our rivers, streams, and ponds from runoff pollution
• Divert water from the municipal storm drain system
• Conserve this vital natural resource and reduce your water bills
• Use the nitrogen-rich rain water to grow healthy and lush plants
• Control moisture levels around the foundation of your home
• Hey! Tanks LA

http://rainbarrelprogram.org/la



#savewater
#rainbarrels
@Hey!TanksLA