RIP

bummer

even more Recent Dinners

ricotta; good tomato; serata basil; zuke, kale, and broccoli shoot saute; with pumpernickel bread (not ideal)

my plate, same night
corn, too. summer is good

tasty salad

I just love ricotta and tomatoes during the summer. Ricotta is tasty plus milk is always 1/2 price during the summer at the co-op...

NBA Lockout / Bon Iver

I saw this on the Basketball Jones blog. Pretty Epic!

Goleta Representing

I found the black Goleta hat in the pic in the free bin a while ago and sent it to my friend James, who lives on the Big Island. Modeling it is another friend from the UCSB dorms. Goleta in the islands...

Emmylou Harris / OnionAV

Love her

Dolly Parton / OnionAV

Great

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution -- LA

I just watched the two LA episodes that have aired. The first one ('Maybe L.A. was a big mistake') is a little dry and depressing -- the LA school board doesn't want him in a school, and the fast food restaurant that he'd like to make healthier isn't very receptive. The second one ('I think I found a loophole') is a little more hopeful. The problem is no one is watching it, so ABC has the show on hiatus for a month. I really like the idea of the show, childhood obesity is a terrible problem, heck obesity in general, and getting kids to change their relationship with food at a young age seems like a no-brainer.
He's talking about using beef from cows where you know the provenance of the cow and you know what cut of meat is used to make ground beef. None of that 99 cents a pound crap...
He drives an 80s Toyota Landcruiser Wagon in the show. Bit of a gas guzzler, but you can't tackle obesity and climate change all at once :) This is from the second episode where he got the fast food restaurant to augment their menu with healthier/tastier menu items.

Update:
I forgot to write about episodes 3&4 when I watched them, and it's never fun to review from memory... basically he got the fast food restaurant styled up, and helped a single father and his kids to start to cook. They were good.

Episode 5 was classic. Support from UCLA and the American Heart Association. The visit to Carpinteria High was very inspiring. More shutdowns from the LA school district. Seems like I cry watching every episode... the food situations he is documenting are so messed up...

Episode 6 was uplifting. Too bad the show was cancelled, he was having some success, I'd be curious to learn what changes will occur. Here's the page to access all 6 episodes.

Ingredients Movie

I heard about Ingredients a little while ago because the Wild Garden Seed guy is in it. It's a documentary about local foods, mostly in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and a couple of farms in NY. It's a nice overview of some facets of organic food -- lots of interviews with farmers, farmer's markets, school gardens, organic wine, free range meat, CSAs. It streams for free on Netflix, so check it out!

Santa Cruz Island June/July 2011

Spent 8 days on the island with Sara. We went to her Sauces and Upem Bishop Pine sites, camping some and staying at the field station some. Used a bunch of different vehicles, a 4x4 toyota pickup, a jeep, a Landcruiser, and a Kubota - basically a 4x4 golf cart. 'Twas my 2nd time there; she has spent over a year on the island all told. Lots and lots of photos, full album here. The highlights are a little disjointed because it was such a long trip, c'est la vie:

Scorpion, the NPS landing

Sauces, calzone and Black Butte Porter, fog coming over the saddle

predawn XPP measurement set up

lichen on old fence post from the ranching days

Bishop Pine

Sauces weather station

other side of the valley

the saddle, fog-free late afternoon

solar panel, anemometer, wind vane

later in the afternoon the fog came in...
...though the opposite ridge was still clear, Sara watercoloring

dinner 2nd nite

we had Tassajara gingerbread and yogurt for breakfasts, so good

toyota 4x4 pickup, parked at the field station to recharge the nitrogen tanks and recharge us, too...

Upem weather station, fog collectors lower left of image
chamise, it grows prostrate on the island
chamise with lichen


lots more sunset pics on picasa... I love sunsets into a fog layer

Upem site overview

from the pier at Prisoner's, while picking up Doug and Jasper

Doug and Sara, road out of Sauces, jeep

from Ridge Road, fog offshore but most of island hot and sunny

next day, looking down the valley at fog, but middle of island was sunny

Cruiser at Upem

Upem, fog in the channel, Santa Rosa in background

Bark beetle trails

Cruiser

Toys

What's up, Tiger Lily?

Kubota at Upem

SCI buckwheat

dirty, at pier at Prisoner's