Bee-ings altar

It's been a while since I have written. I have no good excuses, simply that I've been busy and unmotivated to write. Today after I heard Obama's speech on the attack in Tucson, I felt moved to write again, his words summed up what I have been feeling and have not been able to express.

There is a lot to tell about what has happened at the Algarden and what I did this fall. I taught a Foodscaping 101 class at the Algarden, built Zonotopia at burningman, taught a Social Factors in Design class at UC Berkeley Extension. But today I will focus this blog entry on the bee altar for Dia de Muertos that Rob and I built at Garfield park. While an altar might seem like an unrelated post to Foodscaping, I will try to explain.

Last year was a difficult year for me, it was a year of hard decisions that kept me up at night. I had the opportunity to move back to my home town in Mexico and pursue a long time dream of researching the work of my grandfather while teaching Landscape Architecture at the State University, in the very same Architecture Department started by my grandfather and my great uncle. At the same time I was personally confronted with the reality of the devastating war on drugs. Something that had seemed far and unrelated to me became a reality check when my 15 year old cousin, Miguel Ramon "Mike" was abducted by members of organized crime.

As I grappled with this reality and tried to make sense of the situation I realized that there are tens of thousands of people feeling like me, frustrated and powerless against a headless monster, victims of this senseless war and there is nothing we can do.

There is a tradition that bee keepers should always communicate good and bad news to theirs bees, so I have been doing that. I find it therapeutic, and during the most difficult part of my grief, it became a routine, a meditation, I would talk to my bees almost every day. Nothing made sense, but during my time with the bees the world would stop. I could tell them anything and their buzzing calmed me down.

Interesting anecdote: I have rarely been stung by the bees, but on the day I told them I was considering moving to Mexico I got attacked like never before. Coincidence? or can the bees actually understand what I tell them? I don't know...

Then, in July the bees at Hayes Valley Farm were massacred. They were sprayed with pesticides at the entrance of the hive, wiping out two thriving hives and killing about 60% of a third hive. I was quite shocked by the news, I still cannot understand why anyone would do such a thing. It is bad enough to be losing our bees to Colony Collapse Disorder but this saddened me even more as I saw it as a vicious criminal act against innocent creatures.

We had a ceremony for the lost bees at HVF shortly after it happened.

I recently became reacquainted with the term social ecology which holds that "present ecological problems are rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in dominatory hierarchical political and social systems." I thought about this as I grappled with the realities of organized crime in Mexico and the real reasons behind Colony Collapse Disorder. It became apparent that they are similar, both my cousin and the bees are victims of corruption at different magnitudes; victims of a big headless monster.

The bee altar was my best attempt at building something beautiful to honor and celebrate the tradition of Dia de Muertos. I wanted to build an altar for the loss caused by organized crime in Mexico and for all the victims of this senseless war. I had a hard time conceptualizing the altar, I had a lot of pain on my heart, but I wanted to keep the festive mood of the celebration. 

And so the altar became a hive, and it was dedicated to bees; to all the bees that we have lost due to Colony Collapse Disorder, and even more so for the bees that were killed at Hayes Valley Farm. 

One might say, metaphorically, the bees represent the souls of the innocent victims of senseless wars and conflicts.

 We still don't know where Mike is. This altar was built thinking of him. I hope that he is at  peace where ever he may be.   

This was hard to write, it is actually the third time that I have written it. The first time I wrote it, I was cynical and angry, but as I said in the beginning, I got inspired by Obama's speech and rewrote it because "we must speak to each other in a way that heals." I have had a lot of reflection on many fronts and just like Obama, I urge you not be discouraged and I ask you to look forward, to live your life to the fullest even when confronted with things that are beyond our understanding. See the beauty that surrounds us, and nurture the relationships of those who are still with us. Have kindness, generosity and compassion for all bee-ings.  Let's live up to our children's expectations. 

I leave you with this inspirational music made by bees

and I ask you to sign this petition to ban the pesticides that are killing our bees

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bees_usa/?rc=fb

I wish I had a petition for you to sign that would stop the killings in Mexico...

New Chefs at the Algarden Cafe

My great friend, wonderful baker and parter in the Algarden Lunch Julia, decided to move away with her husband, who got a job in Connecticut. I was quit sad to say goodbye to her, especially as I thought of the incredible adventure and learning that had been working with her to create the Algarden lunch. 

But today, I'm happy to start a new chapter in the Algarden cooking adventure, and want to introduce the new members of the Algarden Lunch, our wonderful chefs Rachel Brand and Anna McGaraghan.

Rachel and Anna came to the lunch a few weeks ago, they are friends of friends, who came to eat lunch and experience the garden. Serendipitously they were there as I was talking about Julia leaving and needing to find some one to help me out with the lunches and they both were interested on jumping on board. 

They bring new creative ideas for recipes and great energy and I'm happy to have them be a part of the team. Here's a little something about them:

Rachel grew up in Berkeley not far from the Algarden and is thrilled to be a part of the Algarden café.  A local foods enthusiast, Rachel has taught cooking at The Edible Schoolyard, farmed on the Central Coast, helped to develop school and community gardens, completed a pastry internship at Chez Panisse Restaurant and wrote her Master’s thesis on garden based education.  Rachel currently works to develop community college Sustainable Agriculture programs, and can often be found in her backyard with her flock of beautiful chickens.  The kitchen tool that Rachel can not live without is a lemon zester.

Anna has always loved to garden and cook, and is excited to be a part of the Algarden Café. She has tended small gardens in every place that she has lived, includinggrowing tomatoes, herbs, and squash on the tiny balcony of an urban studio apartment. She was raised to think that it’s perfectly acceptable to run out in the garden and check on the vegetables while still in pajamas. Anna developed a school garden program in an elementary school on a small Maine island, and also helped to design and implement a community garden on the island. Anna loves to cook for family and friends, and is looking forward to creating healthy and creative meals with Algarden produce! The kitchen tool that Anna could not live without is her cast iron frying pan.

Come and meet them in person and try out their recipes.

Here are a few pictures of the wonderful foods they have been preparing.

  

  

  

I hope to see you there!

Pasta from scratch

Speaking about the pasta that we made, here's the process of making pasta.

Julia and I made this pasta about a month ago. It was a lot of work but it was worth it.

All you need to make pasta is flour, eggs, salt and patience!

Our eggs came from the garden chickens, patience was a little harder to find.

We made our pasta the old traditional way, mixing it by hand.

Started out by shaping the flour into a volcano and slowly pouring the mixed eggs in the middle

 being careful of not to destroy any walls of the volcano, or else you have a big mess of eggs. Trust me on this.

This is where patience comes in

Once the eggs and flower are integrated is time for kneading. Julia was a pro at this - I still need practice, and patience...

The secret of kneading dough is to use a well floured surface, press and stretch the dough with the heel of the hand, fold over, and rotate 90º repeatedly until your hands are about to collapse

Kneading is important because it mixes together the ingredients and adds strength to the final dough

Once the dough is ready, the rolling begins.
We borrowed this pasta machine from our friend Maria. She got it in Argentina, she claims everybody in Argentina makes their own pasta.

The dough has to be divided into small balls that pass through the machine 7 times, each time at a thiner setting, turning the dough into longer strips.

After that, the strips go through the machine one more time to be sliced.

et voilà we got fettuccines

The dough was still kind of sticky so we carefully hung the fettuccines to dry on a cloths rack

The problem was convincing the cats this was not a toy for them

They look so beautiful no?

After some time drying we were able so safely arrange them for their final drying

Is this beautiful or what?

The next day they were cooked al dente and tossed with sautéd New Zealand spinach, oyster mushrooms and the Moroccan lemons and herbs that I had preserved a few months ago (recipe coming soon) 

It was outstanding!

Thanks to our wonderful photographer Steve Pon

Spreading Seeds in Mexico

A few months ago my good childhood friends Lizy & Leslie came to visit me from Mexico. I was very excited to see them and show them my life in the Bay Area and take them to some of my favorite places. But I was mostly excited to show them the garden and have them over for the lunch.

Leslie, who is originally from Irapuato, a city know for its strawberries, actually harvested them for the first time and learned how the flowers look before they turn into strawberries. I was so proud of my strawberry patch for being so instructional to a native of the land of strawberries.

Lizy loved the home made pasta even though she does not eat wheat. 

To my surprise Leslie went home and made pasta from scratch herself - with cage free eggs. Vamos nena!

It was really nice to have both of them at the garden. But beyond that, I'm continued to be amazed with the impact that it had on their lives. A Buddhist monk once told me to spread seeds everywhere, you never know where and when they will sprout, some times in the most unexpected places and he was right.

Lizy went back home and got her husband and kids to help her tear up a patch of lawn to start their own "huerto familiar"  I'm so proud of her.  Following is a set of pictures of the work that she did. I hope it inspires you to start your own "huerto familiar"

One week later she sent me this pictures. The seeds have germinated!

If you are interested in reading more on small & urban farming in Mexico, La Jornada (a national journal) has this interesting supplement: Harta Milpa 

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/07/17/delcampo.html