elgin eco house

shiny new countertop finish

2012-01-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

the refinished countertops last year we renovated our kitchen, and we used reclaimed bowling alley lanes as our countertop material. they looked beautiful, but we didn't use the right finish on them, and they quickly became worn and scruffy. here's a pic of the countertops at the beginning of our refinishing project, worn and with wood putty applied to fill in the cracks.

beautiful look-see for the day

2011-12-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

photo from jeffrey bale's blog i love peeking in at jeffrey bale's world of gardens blog. today he features mosaic whimsy from Barcelona. photo from jeffrey bale's blog this one reminds me of a gingerbread house. his blog fuels my fantasy of having lots of beautiful mosaics in the garden. lots of fun, check it out.

beautiful menorahs

2011-12-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

photo from nelles etsy shop last night many friends gathered here for a winter holiday vegan potluck. yum! i love this season - celebrating life and light in the midst of the darkness and depth of winter. today design sponge lifts up a whole feast for the eyes of beautiful, modern menorahs. hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

my general store

2011-11-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

a year ago we were in the midst of our kitchen remodel. this morning, as the sun was streaming in through our big kitchen windows (free from craig's list!) and i was putting vegan pumpkin bread into the oven, i was filled with a sense of abundance. i'm so lucky my basic needs and beyond are taken care of. we have food to eat (too much, really). a beautiful, warm, safe home.

disco garden

2011-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

photo by blake gardner photography we finally got to use our yard in the way it was intended! weeks of cleaning and prepping yielded a lovely pre-ordination casual dinner party, underneath the LED light canopy and disco ball hung by ryan. photo by blake gardner photography you can see the disco ball hanging way up amidst the LED canopy. photo by blake gardner

ryan's cleverness = bowling alley table

2011-09-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

ryan can do pretty much anything. he made a beautiful table out of bowling alley lane over the weekend! i'm so excited about it. i've wanted a nice, long table for outdoor dining for a couple of years. the one he made sits 12. last fall, when we used bowling alley lanes for our kitchen counters, ryan had in mind he would use the left-over wood for an outdoor table. the

jammin' & cannin'

2011-09-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

Friend Jackie and I had the best time today making jam! i felt like such a homemaker puttering around in the kitchen, making the jam and canning it in those sweet little jars. and i kept thinking "we're doing this for fun - just think about the times when women had to do this in order to have food in the winter." a humbling thought. jackie and i started at the pasadena

strawberry pie!

2011-09-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

i'm back! 7.5 weeks away this summer. but home long enough to make a no-bake strawberry pie. and to take pictures that give it an eerie glow. i'm a minister, not a photographer, what can i say? in the midst of my summer travels we had some house work done: - drip irrigation installed - exterior of the house painted - a french drain installed along the side/back of

cinnamon rolls

2011-08-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

today i did something i've wanted to do for a long time - bake cinnamon rolls from scratch. last fall my sweet honey man gave me the cookbook vegan brunch by isa chandra moskowitz. this week i am getting reacquainted with my home life after being gone for almost 6 weeks, and i dove into this cookbook. her recipe for cinnamon rolls is straightforward, and made it relatively easy and downright

edible landscape, redlands, CA

2011-08-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

kat and geoff saturday i returned home from my "summer 2011 unitarian universalist tour"the way i fondly refer to my travel-heavy summer work schedule. at our UU family camp, 7000 feet in the san bernardino mountains, i connected with kat, keith, and geoff. we bonded over our edible landscapes. they live on my way home, and generously offered to give me a tour of their place. i fell in love!

root simple book signing!

2011-06-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

kelly and erik, creators of root simple blog and authors of two books! i had a great time tonight at kelly and erik's book-signing at vroman's bookstore in pasadena. they are do-it-yourselfers, and their blog chronicles their journey toward self-sustainability, in their very urban neighborhood of Los Feliz, or is it Silverlake, or it is HaFoSaFo? (apparently they are right on the boundary).

farmers' market flowers

2011-06-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

fell for these at the south pasadena farmers' market yesterday. they are exuberant. and fill the living room with color and summer-time grace.

summer office

2011-06-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

it's not totally finished yet, but here's my summer office. under the pomegranate tree. my office mates are the neighborhood kitties, squirrels, and lots of birds. the occasional bee buzzes by. you can't tell here, but the pomegranate branchesdroop toward the ground, so this is a little hideaway space. love it!

purples

2011-06-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

purple is one of my favorite colors (ok, i like them all)and we have lots of purple happening right now. above, a lily of the nile. one of the artichokes we didn't eat, so we're enjoying the flowers instead. lavender. love these always. happy flowers by the front door. and finally ... dutch door in the kitchen, painted it over memorial day weekend. we're almost ready to have the

new fave blog - green girl next door

2011-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

this is my week of new favorites. and my new favorite blog is green girl next door, and that fabulous green girlis vanessa meier. vanessa's just starting out, but she already wrote an honest, compelling post about the 180 degree turn she took with her shopping habits. if you're still buying all your clothes brand-new, and all your furniture brand-new, read it now! fabulous photos +delicious

new fave magazine

2011-06-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

lucky me, i got to spend almost the whole three-day weekend out in my garden. while i was picking up some seedlingsi ran across urban farm magazinefor the first time. i flipped through it and fell in love! lots of great articles on growing food in the city, keeping bees, container gardening, crop mobs, pretty photos.

garden serenity in the midst of the city

2011-05-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

yesterday i enjoyed a "wow" garden momentat max and steve's house in LA. ryan knows them from beekeeping activities, and we stopped by so ryan could wax his new bee frames (his hive is thriving, so much so that he is adding in another box). we were led through a garden gate, and the sound of rushing water filled my ears. the view in front of me was so inspiring -a delightful stream tumbling

incredible mosaic blog

2011-05-28T17:25:00.001-07:00

photo from jeffrey bale's blog even if i didn't read any posts on jeffrey bale's blog, the header image alone would make me happy enough. i read about his blog on root simple. thanks for the introduction! jeffrey has beautiful photos of his mosaics and garden designs, and gorgeous images of the inspirations behind them, both natural and human made. photo from jeffrey bale's blog above is

parkway plantings

2011-05-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

the parkway in front of our house left a lot to be desired. in the spring, the grass had to be managed, and in the summer, it was a dry, brown mess. ryan, bless his heart and strong arms,got out there with a pickaxeand removed all the grass and top layer of clay dirt. we decided on a mix of california poppies, lavenders, and artichokes. we wanted to keep with the theme of our edible landscape

under the magnolia tree

2011-05-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

when we first saw this house in april 2008, i immediately fell in love with the large, shady magnolia treein front of the house. it reminded me of arkansas, where i'm from. in terms of landscaping, we didn't want any grass in the yard, and our goal is an edible landscape. so i wondered what to do underneath the magnolia tree, which sits at the entrance to our home. i was thumbing through

space between beds

2011-05-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

we have raised garden beds in our front yard, where we grow our veggies. we bought our first one from conor fitzpatrick, who is featured in the june 2011 issue of sunset magazine! i added in a round stone bed, followed by another square one made by ryan, using our friend denise's old fence. i haven't been able to decide what to do in between the beds. mulch? straw? decomposed granite? stones?

malted waffles

2011-05-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

i'm so impressed with people who blog regularly - how do you do it? this was a waffle morning - the recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. this was my first time using malted barley as a sweetener. it's pretty mellow - the waffles aren't overpoweringly sweet. they cook up a beautiful golden brown color. ryan served up these with almond yogurt and organic strawberries from the

c'est la vegan cooking class

2011-04-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

photo by jackie saturday afternoon i hosted a cooking class here. the lovely kim garr of c'est la vegan bakery taught us how to bake fruit bars, pudding cake, and chai spice cookies. yum! she wrote about it on her blog, with beautiful photos taken by jackie. it was such a delight to be able to host a vegan cooking class. when we bought the houseone of our dreams was to host events just like

spring blooms

2011-04-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

after a month of wonderful things to celebrate (i passed my ordination interview! we went on the california college tour with adrian!), i thought i'd spend time this easter and earth day weekend posting on the new life in the garden. the garden is green purple and orange right now. lavender, nasturtiums, alyssum, poppies, thyme, rosesand more are all coming alive. the sugar snap peas grow at

finding hope

2011-03-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

the past couple of weeks i've had no extra mental or spiritual bandwidth. one reason is last weekend, i organized a trip for 20 unitarian universalists to go to the Arizona/Mexico border. it was a very meaningful trip (you can read more on my work blog). even though this blog is more for posting about our green home renovations and all things vegan, it's hard to post this week without lifting

wisteria rosemary wreaths

2011-03-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

as our yard wrangling continues, copious amountsof wisteria and rosemary branches pile up. this morning ryan had a brilliant idea: make wreaths out of it! he is enormously clever, and went right outside and started making them. i love the bits of rosemary flowers peeking out. they couldn't be sweeter, and we want to make enough for friends.

orange nasturtiums

2011-02-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

two weeks ago i spied the first nasturtium blossom in the yard. spring is here! by now we have a few more bright orange blossoms gracing the yard. the artichoke leaves are getting long and lush. the barbie pink guava fruit is ripening. my alpine strawberries have sweet little white flowers peeking out from behind the green leaves. purple blossoms fill the rosemary bushes. this will be our

chocolate raspberry cupcakes

2011-02-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

In the midst of a few really full days (preaching, ministerial installation, officiating a wedding, flying to phoenix for meetings) Valentine's Day rolled around. Even though Adrian is almost 17 (!!!) I wanted to do something a little special for us to enjoy together. Kim over at C'est La Vegan totally inspired me with her absolutely beautiful photographs of her chocolate raspberry cake. My

favorite banana nut chocolate chip muffins

2011-02-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

last week it was cold (for us in LA), and one afternoon we decided we needed a tasty warm-up. banana nut chocolate chip muffins were exactly what we needed! these muffins were one of the first things i learned to bake when i became vegan. i love these because they are easy, and there is no added refined sugar (except for whatever is in the vegan chocolate chips). 3-4 bananas, mashed5 dates,

kind kreme - all sorts of yummy

2011-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

today vegan tickles posted that kind kreme, gourmet raw vegan organic ice cream shop, is now open in Pasadena (second location). pic from vegan tickles blog can i hear a hallelujah? i'm so excited we have a vegan ice cream shop so close to home! (wait a minute - am I really? this is in direct opposition to my liking my pants fitting a certain way.) i went in today for a scoop after my whole

vegan pizza day party!

2011-01-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

last night we hosted a lovely vegan pizza party, in honor of vegan pizza day. lots of friends came over, and got creative making pizzas. seems like vegans will take any opportunity to create an occasion that is all about the good food. gluten-free and regular crusts, pineapple, garlic, brussels sprouts, pesto, red sauce, peppers, onions, jalepenos, vegan sausage, mushrooms, artichoke hearts,

vegan pizza day, january 29!

2011-01-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

i didn't take this photo, but i have eaten that pizza finally, vegan pizza day is almost here, woohoo! we're having a pizza party at our house that night to celebrate the divine glory of vegan pizza. if you want to find vegan pizza near you, check out the official vegan pizza day website. they have a listing of all the places serving vegan pizza this saturday. quarrygirl.com (best vegan blog

bees buzzing

2011-01-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

photo taken by roberta of backwards beekeepers could ryan be any cuter? ryan has wanted a bee hive for a long time. not so we can eat the honey (we're vegan!), but so they can pollinate our fruit trees and other food growing in our yard. and we want to do our part to help keep a healthy, local bee population. last weekend everything came together beautifully with the help of craigs list, the

Vegan Tea Party Baby Shower

2011-01-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I hosted (with a huge amount of teamwork and assistance from Jackie) a baby shower for dear friends Denise and Mike. Last June, dear friend Jackie had a vegan tea party for her birthday. It was a day of loveliness, and Denise mentioned that she would love something similar for her baby shower. Jackie and I decided this would be a great opportunity to do some serious baking so we jumped

let it rain! our new roof: ready for action

2011-01-09T23:13:00.000-08:00

our new roof! Two years ago when we bought our house, we knew it needed a lot of work. It had been in the same family for 129 years, and there were (still are!) decades of delayed maintenance and repair. One big job was a foundation - the house was sitting right on the dirt! The other big need was a new roof. We tackled that in the fall. We aren't sure when the last roof was put on, but

my forgotten blog

2011-01-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

catalina island hey, there's a blog here! someone should post neat things about an eco-house renovation, or about yummy vegan food, or about organic gardening. it would be me, but i traveled during the holidays (for work and pleasure - hence the catalina island trip), and jumped full speed into work and more work-related travel after. so this little blog is feeling ignored, and forlorn. and

cave city quilts

2010-12-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

adrian and i are visiting family in cave city, arkansas for the holidays. yesterday my dad took me out to see walyce, an 83-year-old quilter and gardener. she is pretty amazing. for starters, she makes quilts, throws them in the back of a large moving truck, and drives them 6 hours north to st louis or 6+ hours south into texas, where folks can't get enough of her quilts. above is a flower

sophie pegrum painting

2010-12-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

Our dining area is now graced with a beautiful painting by our dear, lovely friend sophie pegrum. this is a painting from her helios series, which she says "represents the power of sun and light on life." you can perhaps see the layering effect in this photo - newspaper, etching, and paint. she put a really glossy finish on it, so if you look carefully you can see some upper cabinets reflected

waffle pudding, anyone?

2010-11-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving morning we hosted the first annual "Thanksgiving Vegan Waffle Breakfast." Yum! It was also like a kitchen housewarming party since it was our first gathering in our updated kitch. We made tons of waffles, and ended up with about 2 quarts of leftover waffle batter. Friday afternoon we went to a Thanksgiving Leftover potluck (vegan!), and I knew I had to make use of the waffle batter

countertops finished!

2010-11-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

The kitchen remodel took over all my extra bandwidth the past 10 days. But we are finally on the downhill slide and we are so happy with it. We hired someone to spend a whole day sanding the countertops, and they were so smooth when he finished. Lots of the imperfections got sanded out and their beauty started shining through. Once they had been machine sanded, we spent some time hand sanding

stripping and sanding, oh my!

2010-11-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

i am getting to know these bowling alley lanes intimately. in order to use them as countertops, we needed to strip off all the existing finish, then sand them, and eventually we will seal them. saturday afternoon i got busy with my lane. it took me an hour, 45 minutes to get one lane stripped of the finish (you can see the strands of old finish next to ryan's knee). ryan got home and did his

my forgotten garden

2010-11-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

my poor little garden. with all the excitement of the kitchen spruce-up, the roof going on, and the bowling alley lanes arriving, I completely forgot about all my sweet little seedlings in my fall/winter garden. the red chard was planted earlier this fall, and it is thriving despite my cold shoulder. so are the artichokes and fennel. we've had weird fall weather (it rained in october!), and

bowling alley as countertops

2010-11-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

we've been sprucing up the kitchen (new cabinets, paint color, sink) and we were hemming and hawing over eco-friendly countertop options. well, ryan was pretty certain from the get-go what he wanted - bowling alley lanes! what? i asked. sounded crazy! well, ryan does all sorts of crazy things and they turn out beautifully. he was invested in using reclaimed bowling alley lanes because - maple

the reveal

2010-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

when we bought our house, it came ensconced in a layer of old siding. we knew there were original wood shingles underneath it, because they were exposed in one area of the kitchen. (kitchen was added in the '20s or '30s). over the past two months, we've been slowly taking off the siding. you can see the siding to the left of the window (painted yellow) and the wood shingles to the right (dingy

more autumn orange

2010-11-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

We grew a persimmon this year! Yes, one beautiful, deep orange, delicious persimmon. Our tree is small, and I probably should have clipped off that persimmon when it was tiny. But it was so cute, and the pleasure and anticipation of a persimmon from our yard was too much and I let it grow. Hopefully it wasn't too much energy for our small tree. And score one for us - we did get to share the

crazy orange flower

2010-11-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

I love these orange flowers. Problem is - I never know when the plant will bloom, and most of the year it is just a scraggly bush right in front of our house. It seems like it blooms when it wants to, with no rhyme or reason. earlier this fall, I was almost ready to pull it out, but got busy with other things and didn't. And now I'm glad it's still there. Today the color is glorious!

vegan mofo, take 2

2010-11-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

our generous friends kit and hannah invited us over for a super yummy vegan feast last night. we haven't had a working kitchen in a few days, and our tummies were ready for a delicious home-cooked vegan meal. I was so excited about the menu (african peanut stew, brown rice, roasted root veggies, broccoli, and corn muffins) that i forgot to take any pics until the very end. decorate your own

four Ps for front yard farming - from freedom gardens

2010-11-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

I love the philosophy of the Path to Freedom family. They have an urban homestead in Pasadena, and grow thousands of pounds of food on their property every year. They were part of our inspiration to create an edible landscape in our yard. Maintaining an edible landscape frustrates me on some days, and provides me so much joy on other days. I'm still figuring out placements for beds and growing.

vegan mofo take 1

2010-11-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

vegan mofo has officially started! but i'm in the midst of a pretty huge kitchen reorganization, which includes having the walls painted and getting new lighting (woohoo), and all my kitchen things are scattered around the house. this means my kitchen mofo mojo is pretty limited until next week-ish. but ... there are tons of vegan mofoers creating incredible, beautiful vegan food and posting

eye candy that's ethical

2010-11-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

don't you love it when you fall in love with something that is beautiful, functional, and good for the planet? and no, i'm not talking about my sexyveganecoman ryan. my dear friend amy zurcher of shopscad turned me onto the artful lights created by tanya clarke of liquidlight. from her website, tanya describes her work: Liquid Lights are custom built, industrial designed light

lovely vintage exterior light

2010-11-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

ryan loves salvage yards, and yesterday he came home with the sweetest exterior light. Silverlake Salvage is one of his favorite haunts, and where he found this. we go in there and Ryan comes alive, and I feel like I'm gonna fall asleep. bless him for loving all the salvage yards. it saves us a lot of money, helps us stay green, and maintains character in the house. can't wait til the light is

happy halloweenie!

2010-10-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

this all saint's eve we were ready with treats for neighborhood goblins. the candles were lit to guide their way toward the candy bowl. And before we knew it, a scary tiger cub and his mama appeared! Ronan and Suzanne All too soon, the scary tiger cub got his fill of swinging upside down and eating candy, and it was time to call it a night.

my new blogcrush

2010-10-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

this morning i found a new favorite blog - the gardener's cottage. the tagline is simplicity, vegan cooking, gardening, beauty. YES!!! these photos are from her lovely house. my own house is a bit chaotic right now (getting ready for the new roof, woohoo!), so i look at her house and feel instantly soothed. totally fantasizing about a picture-perfect house, now. Don't you wish you had an

new book about Garvanza

2010-10-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

A new book is out, all about our little neighborhood of Garvanza! Charles J. Fischer, local historian, wrote it, with input from members of Highland Park Heritage Trust. There's a sweet photo of our lil' house in it. It's a fun, informative read about the history of Garvanza. Lots of photos of area houses. Thanks, Charlie and HPHT for making sure treasures like Garvanza are not forgotten!

c'est la vegan

2010-10-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite vegan bakeries and vegan blogs is c'est la vegan. Her baked goods are amazing. Her blog has beautiful food photos and great recipes. And Kim herself could not be lovelier - inside and out! I learned about vegan mofo from her blog. Can't wait for the fun to begin, and I'll definitely be checking her blog for inspiration every day.

vegan mofo!!!

2010-10-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

I just learned about the fantastic event coming to us in November ... Vegan Mofo!!! A whole month of blogging about vegan food, from bloggers all over the world. How utterly fantastic! I'm signing up right now. I believe the greenest part of our house renovation is the (vegan food-filled) fridge. Looking forward to reading lots of vegan-food posts!

eastside ecohome tour

2010-10-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday ecohomes on LA's eastside opened their doors for all us looky-loos to wander through and get ideas for our own homes. What we liked most about this tour is that most of the homes were incorporating green elements that regular folks with regular incomes could do. It wasn't a showcase of the newest, most expensive "green" products. We saw things like greywater systems, rain barrels,

lush and green in Arkansas

2010-06-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

We are in Arkansas visiting family, and yesterday my dad toured me around his backyard garden. The deer are fans of his plum tree, and the plums are sweet and juicy. Smart deer! My dad always grows tomatoes. He puts a small plastic tube around the bottom of the plants so he can direct the water more directly toward the roots. But a friend of his suggests spraying water all over the plant,

early summer harvest

2010-06-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

This may be my favorite time of year in the garden. My hard work of digging in beds and removing spring weeds is over. The little seedlings have taken hold, and they are jubilantly reaching for the sun and growing strong and proud. I'm still thrilled and amazed by the flowering plants - the beautiful lavender flowers of the eggplants; the bright yellow flowers on the tomatoes and cucumbers. The

Old fence = new garden box

2010-06-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ryan, in his infinite cleverness, created a new garden box out of an old fence (generously given to us by best friend Denise). When we started the Memorial Day weekend, our front yard looked like this: Ryan cut the salvaged fence boards into 4' long pieces. He also used redwood posts that were salvaged from underneath our house during the foundation project, and voila! One hour later

Look at these artichokes!

2010-04-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

In only one short year, these tiny little artichoke plants ... Grew into these monstrous artichoke plants! They are over five feet tall (I'm 5'2" and they are taller than I am). We enjoyed our very first homegrown artichoke today - the taste was fresh and delicate. So good in fact that we scarfed it down sans any kind of dipping sauce. And I have to say - with slugs having their way with my bean

homemade rice milk, oh yeah.

2010-03-04T19:02:00.001-08:00

My handsome hombre is a true eco-activist, always looking for ways to make our earth footprint smaller. He really likes to eat, and we go through boxes and boxes of rice milk. One day he said, "Enough!" and we went on a quest to make homemade rice milk. For about $40.00, we got a used soymilk maker on Ebay. It's pretty easy, and even though we are still figuring out a super tasty recipe, I

consider roofing materials

2010-03-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

We need a new roof, and we are narrowing in on our roofing choice. Today we are most excited about the metal roofs made by armor lite roofing. Why are we excited? First, the price! Their website quotes $110.00/square. A "square" in roofing lingo means 100 square feet of roof. Ryan thinks it is 1.8 times the square footage of the house. He guesses our roof if 25 squares. Tune in later to see if he

jackfruit fun

2010-03-01T20:15:00.001-08:00

Ryan is afraid of no fruit - including the jackfruit. We've eaten it several times in restaurants (our favorite - BBQ jackfruit, from Pure Luck or Nick's BBQ). Figueroa Produce, our beloved local market, had fresh jackfruit for sale and we had to try it.Ryan cracked that thing open and was so proud! We heard it was full of a latex-y material, but all we found was the fibrous fruity insides. We

sliced daiya vegan cheese at Figueroa Produce - delightful!

2010-02-26T18:51:00.000-08:00

Happy days are here again! Figueroa Produce, the small, independent grocer that specializes in produce in Highland Park, now carries sliceable vegan Daiya cheese in both mozzarella and cheddar flavors. Hooray!!! If you aren't a Daiya fan, they also carry Follow Your Heart, ready to slice. They slice it any thickness - we got our Daiya sliced paper thin. Oh my. It is delish. I never thought I'd

garden box time

2010-02-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

It's not even March and today I put a cherry tomato plant into the garden box. I love Los Angeles! We recently cleared out the winter veggies from our garden box. Today we planted broccoli, purple cauliflower, cherry tomato, bok choy, red lettuce, green lettuce, red beets, arugula, and marigolds. Before planting, we spread about a 1.5 inch layer of compost on top. Then we placed our little plants

sunflowers!!!

2010-02-24T17:18:00.001-08:00

These sunflowers bloomed today! Their bright yellow faces seem to say, "Hello, it's springtime!" That's one thing I like about using homegrown compost - sometimes flowers or vegetable plants volunteer out of it. So there are always surprises around the garden.Ryan and I love the crazy weeds with the yellow blossoms. Our yard is filled with them and gives it a wild, English gardenesque look.

the attack of the caterpillars

2009-11-30T15:09:00.001-08:00

My friend Jackie kindly pointed out the fat green caterpillars happily munching away on my broccoli and brussels sprouts plants. You can see one of them lazing in the sun on the broccoli leaf, in the lower left hand corner of the picture. They are sneaky! The green blends in beautifully with the leaves. How to get rid of them? That is the question. And thanks to facebook, I got lots of answers! -

i'm a believer ... raised beds

2009-11-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Until this week, I was not a raised garden bed fan. Seemed like a lot of work and last summer I couldn't tell that much difference between raised bed and in-ground veggies. Well, now I'm convinced!Here are two photos of broccoli I planted on the exact same day and they receive the same amount of water. These two plants are about two feet apart (note: the Storm Trooper figure is there to scale,

beginnings of our rose arbor

2009-11-26T09:38:00.001-08:00

Scott, the Burning Man Welder, put together this rose arbor for us. Ryan found the long top metal piece somewhere, had a vision of roses tumbling over it, and brought it home. Scott welded on leg pieces and some top supports. Once the roses are trimmed and guided onto the arbor, it'll be a nice entry point into the backyard from the side yard.

securing the fort

2009-11-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

Ryan found a metal gate somewhere. Then he found Scott the Welder (part of the Burning Man crew that was in our yard in August - that's Scott in action in the photo). Then we ended up with a gate in front of the driveway. Score! Our next move in the gate department is getting some kind of solar-operated automatic opener so I don't have to get in and out of the car to open/close it (lazy of me,

very vegan potluck

2009-07-02T10:09:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons we were so happy to buy this house was to have a space to hold events. Last night we hosted a "very vegan" potluck (in the words of Greg Harrison). About 25 people came together to share amazing vegan food - mashed potatoes, posole, brownies, chocolate cupcakes, rice dishes, cashew dip, fresh salad, chickpea/greens curry. Basically, all our friends rock when it comes to making

garden yummies

2009-06-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Last night I returned from the awesomely inspiring annual Unitarian Universalist General Assembly to my sweet man, house, and garden. And the garden looks lovely, if I do say so myself. After bring gone a week, I was ready to explore ...And found lots of veggies waiting to be harvested - beets, red chard, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and beans. And now I'm wondering what I should plant next, it

the bees' knees

2009-06-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Bees seem to be an integral piece of an organic garden. We've noticed more bees in the yard this summer than we noticed last summer when we were still looking at the house, before we moved in. It is possible to be an urban beekeeper, if you want to be more intentional about having bees around to pollinate flowering fruit trees, squash, etc. Check out the Backwards Beekeepers blog - these folks

are you really gonna eat that?

2009-06-23T20:51:00.001-07:00

For the past few weeks we've hosted a health and wellness class led by Dr. Matt, Dr. Alona and Chef AJ, from the Exsalus Health and Wellness Center, exsalus.com. Matt and Alona do a wonderful presentation on harmful foods that are in people's diets, and what it is about those foods that hurt our bodies (like dairy, meat, oil and refined, processed sugars).Then Chef AJ comes out and teaches us how

beginning bounty of the garden - stir fry salad

2009-06-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

The sun finally came out in so Cal, and the garden is starting to burst. I made this really simple salad, using some of the fresh garden veggies and the leftover dressing from the Kale salad. In the pic you can see the cherry tomatoes, one bean (there were more, really!), and the zucchini is hiding underneath all those spring greens. I sauteed them quickly and at the end added in the spicy citrus

vegan kale & red pepper salad w/ spicy citrus dressing

2009-06-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Summertime finally arrived, and Ryan requested "More salads for lunch, please!" I'm a vegan who isn't crazy about salads, so I took it as a challenge to find something to make that felt hearty and not like I was just eating a bunch of lettuce. There's a great salad recipe in the Candle Cafe Cookbook, name of which is the title to this post. Just a few ingredients, but a whole lotta tasty. I

quarry girl, how do you do it?

2009-06-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Quarry girl, you are *amazing!* If you are curious about vegan food in LA, stop reading this and go to www.quarrygirl.com. There are pics and in-depth reviews about SO many LA vegan restaurants. This is how we found out about the vegan pizzas offered by Cruze pizza in Los Feliz. There is a LONG list of LA vegan restaurants and places that offer a special vegan menu. Every day I check out the blog

traffic floor finish

2009-06-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

We wanted an eco-friendly floor finish for our snazzy reclaimed, remilled douglas fir bedroom floors that we installed. It needed to be readily available, easy to apply, and tough because Ryan and I are constantly moving things around and tracking in dirt from outside. I didn't want anything that would show a bunch of scuff marks. We found what we needed in Traffic, by BonaKemi. It went on really

my crazy yard

2009-06-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

honestly, the yard is looking better and better every day. Ryan is making heroic efforts in cleaning it up, and it's greatly appreciated. there are sinks, piles of lumber, a kayak, a scrap metal pile, a dozen really big weird lights ... but it is serving a purpose - the large pile of wood is now my lovely bedroom floor. OK. I'm getting it...a big puzzle piece that's coming together.

reclaimed wood floors

2009-06-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

We recently installed reclaimed and remilled douglas fir wood floors (thank you, Craig's List!) in the bedroom. I was Ryan's helper and did a great job (if I do say so myself) cutting wood pieces with Konstantine's amazing compound miter saw. The gently used insulation we got for free (thanks again, Craig's List!) is peeping up from the floors. Basically, Ryan knows how to do everything, very

electrical!

2009-06-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

That's my son, doing electrical work. The master bedroom is being renovated, and the electrical outlets needed to be moved. Way to go, Adrian, for learning a useful skill! The bedroom, part of a 1930s addition to the house, was really wonky when we bought it, with sloping floors and a general feeling of quickly done add-on. We are slowly making it beautiful, and recently put in new wood floors

paul robeson tomato

2009-05-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Paul Robeson? He was a black actor, lawyer, athlete, and social justice activist. And he has a tomato named after him. A black tomato. He was an amazing man, google him.Will the tomato live up to his name? Time will tell, I'll let you know.

moving the big pile

2009-05-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today's the day they are moving the gigantic pile of dirt in the side yard - yippee!!! In the photo you can see the guy driving the bobcat toward the dirt, and Ryan is off to the side, wishing he were the one driving the bobcat. All the dirt came from underneath the house and was part of the foundation work. This is the 3rd or 4th pile that's been removed, and a lot of it has gone to people to

finished foundation

2009-05-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick pic of our lovely finished foundation. I can feel the house's happiness about having a firm place to rest it's walls. The yellow asbestos siding was removed from the bottom third of the exterior for the foundation work, and now the original redwood siding is exposed. My hope is we can eventually remove all of it and repaint the house.

Feeling tarty?

2009-04-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Veg News, for the coconilla cream tart recipe, featured on page 66 of the May/June issue. We devoured it pretty much immediately. This was my first foray into tart-making. My sweet Mawmaw gave me a tart pan over a year ago, and I finally got up the nerve to use it. I think I may be hooked now! Can't wait for more in-season fruit to get tarty with.

tomatoes, pomegranates, roses

2009-04-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Yippee yay! Today I saw the first actual tomato growing on the vine in our garden! Cutest thing ever!The pomegranate bushes are going crazy. And I know they aren't really edible, but the house came with wildly overgrown roses in the front. In early February I hacked away at them until the southwest corner of the yard was pretty well cleaned up, and

food forest gardens

2009-04-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, I thought Ryan made up the name "food forest garden," but I see it in common usage on permaculture-type websites. There are a couple of food forest garden permaculture workshops being offered in northern California soon, and northern California ADPSR (architects/designers/planners for social responsibility) recommends the above book for those of us who can't make it up to Petaluma on May 16-

growing veggies in a minifarm box

2009-04-16T09:50:00.001-07:00

We met Conor, mr. minifarmbox.com, at our greywater workshop in February. He creates 4' x 4 ' garden boxes. I knew we wanted to do some raised garden beds, so we ordered a box and here is the sweet beginning of it. I love the book All New Square Foot Gardening, which promotes the use of raised beds laid out in square foot planting spaces, and you can see the 12"x 12" squares we blocked off. The

finding insulation

2009-04-15T17:20:00.001-07:00

In the back of that fine looking truck and trailer is our haul of FREE insulation, scored from the house of A Famous Person who is doing a remodel (Ryan won't let me name said person). Ryan found the insulation on Craig's List, which he trolls continuously for bargains. The insulation is in great shape, is R-30, and it'll go either under the bedroom floor or in the attic. (The house has pretty

the concrete pour

2009-04-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

Our house was in need of a foundation, and thankfully it is happening this month. This house sat for over 100 years on posts and piers underneath, the walls nestled directly on the earth. For the past three weeks we've been immersed in the foundation work. Today the concrete guy came and they are pouring the west side of the foundation right now! Exciting! We are super happy with Tim Ryan

surprise present

2009-04-13T21:13:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago we found a sweet little gift tied to a bush out front - a praying mantis egg sack! Praying mantis are great in the garden because they eat all sorts of pesky little pests that nibble on garden treats. We have no idea who left it, but thank you so much! And thanks to wikipedia, I see that praying mantis are named that because of their "prayer-like stance."

Free mulch!

2009-04-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

While jogging the other day, Ryan and I came upon a tree trimming operation. Ryan asked them if they would dump all the resulting ground up tree twigs and leaves in our yard and they said, "Sure!" So there it is, the lovely pile of free mulch with Ryan standing proudly at its side. I can't wait to get it into the yard (and out of the driveway).

greywater system

2009-04-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

Back in February we hosted a workshop on installing a greywater system. The Greywater Guerrillas (www.greywaterguerrillas.com) trekked down from the Bay Area and taught 17 people how to re-use the greywater coming out from their washing machines. In the afternoon, folks braved the rain, dug trenches, and laid out the pipes for the system so the greywater will reach the fruit trees we have planted

all about our house

2009-04-11T18:48:00.001-07:00

I thought it would be fun to keep a blog account of the green renovation we are doing to our lovely 1876 house on Elgin Street in Los Angeles, in the historic Garvanza neighborhood. We have big plans for the house and yard - greywater system, urban food forest, and doing as much of the renovation using salvaged materials in order to have less environmental impact. Stay tuned!