APPLES got finished off today. I made up 2 gallons of unsweetened applesauce, after putting it through the Foley mill, I canned the first batch as plain unsweetened applesauce and the second with a ton of fresh grated ginger and a scoop of Succanat.
YIELD:
Unsweetened applesauce
5 - 16 oz
2 - 8 oz
Ginger applesauce
4 - 16 oz
2 - 8 oz
PYTHON: This evening, there is an extra heartbeat in my home. After my friend Jon and I walked back from dinner on Piedmont, we rounded the corner from 40th toward past Mama's Royal on Broadway to the sight of a man and woman looking at the sidwalk, or wall, or something. "What kind of snake is that?" the man asked. "It can't be anything bad, maybe a king snake." I looked closer -- "It's a ball python!" I knelt to get a photo and a closer look -- I could feel the heat from the brick wall that attracted this large, beautiful snake but the smell of urine was dreadful (there is a gap between building and retaining wall where patron's of the the corner bar avail themselves). Jon tried to pick up the snake but she turned her head under her body quickly, so I reached down and picked her up just as FOUR Oakland Police cruisers pulled up.
Apparently, the bartender had called the police. I stepped toward them and offered the snake, curled around my left arm, for examination. Did you ever see four cops levitate backward 5 feet? I did.
I decided to bring her home, put her away safely and find her owner on craigslist. I will put a note up on some posts in the neighborhood, too. She clearly is a man's snake - she liked Jon's big hairy arm better than mine, and she gave him her throat to stroke but freaked out when I tried the same thing. The kitties have varying reactions - Dobs is a bit scared, George is curious, and Carmine is completely noninterested. Snake is safely in a large kennel with some tissue and a water dish, a heating pad on medium under one end of the cage. I left a message with the East Bay Vivarium and hope to find her owner soon -- I know I'd be freaking out if I couldn't find my 4.5' long ghost ball python.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Apple pie...
I have a love hate relationship with pie crust. When I try to follow directions, I end up with something I don't like as well as when I follow my instinct. I got everything - marble board, marble rolling pin, shortening, flour, water super cold, cold, cold. The first pie crust was such a bitch to roll out.
The second was better - the last two I let set out of the fridge longer and they were much easier. I think the first one didn't work so great because there were too big patches of shortening resulting in a few gaps in the crust. I didn't want to do double crust or lattice, I just rolled out the leftover pie crust dough and cut out heart shapes, putting 5 hearts on top of each pie.
After mixing the apples with the flour, sugar, spices and lemon, I let them set and then put them in the crust with a slotted spoon, leaving the juice in the pot. None of the pies overboiled and messed up my oven.
I cut up the rest of the pink apples for a batch of apple sauce which is a gorgeous light shade of pink.
YIELD:
4 - 9" apple pies
7 - 16 oz jars of unsweetened pink applesauce
Friday, August 08, 2008
Canned Apple Pie Filling
The test batch of apple pie filling on Wednesday went well but I was shocked at the shrinkage after 20 minutes of hot water bath! I had packed the apples flat to the bottom in layers, but ended up with about 2/3 of a jar of apple, 1/3 of syrup after the bath.
Friday, my dear friend Jonathan came over to visit and he helped to quarter and core the apples which I sliced and left the sliced quarters together so that I could pack them vertically in the jars. I got a lot more apple in the jar this way and am very satisfied with the results.
Jon was delighted with the apples from Lawrence's batch which he said tasted just like the apples from the tree in the backyard of his childhood home. He was rewarded for his efforts with a cache of jams, jellies & chutneys and a promise of apple pies for his birthday/housewarming party on Saturday.
YIELD:
2 - 1 qt Larissa's red flesh apples
5 - 1 qt Lawrence's tart-sweet green apples
Friday, my dear friend Jonathan came over to visit and he helped to quarter and core the apples which I sliced and left the sliced quarters together so that I could pack them vertically in the jars. I got a lot more apple in the jar this way and am very satisfied with the results.
Jon was delighted with the apples from Lawrence's batch which he said tasted just like the apples from the tree in the backyard of his childhood home. He was rewarded for his efforts with a cache of jams, jellies & chutneys and a promise of apple pies for his birthday/housewarming party on Saturday.
YIELD:
2 - 1 qt Larissa's red flesh apples
5 - 1 qt Lawrence's tart-sweet green apples
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
HOLY CHIPOTLE!
APRICOT-CHIPOTLE JAM is going to be a big hit. Small yield, but I'll do a batch of peach chipotle, too. I let the jam cool overnight on the stove with one chipotle pepper (it softened to about 3" in length).
This morning, I reheated it, added 1/2 c. lemon juice and 1/2 c. boiling water before adding the sugar and pectin to get it moving because it was very dense. I added the sugar and pectin, let it heat up and added a bit more water and boiled it to about 195 degrees. At this point, it tasted good but not too spicy -- smoky chipotle and a tiny bit of spice.
I simmered about 5 minutes more (hey, I'm on a schedule here, I gotta get to work!) and put it in the jars. I tasted it after I put it all in the jars and, let me tell you, that extra couple of minutes really added some zing!
It's not as spicy as the Plum Habanero Jelly, but it's got a bit of kick. I snipped up the chipotle pepper into 9 pieces into each of the jars to ensure a bit more zing.
YIELD:
5 - 8 oz jars
4 - 4 oz jars
I still have 3 cups of juice in the fridge, so plan to experiment a bit more. Apricot Chipotle sorbet, anyone?
This morning, I reheated it, added 1/2 c. lemon juice and 1/2 c. boiling water before adding the sugar and pectin to get it moving because it was very dense. I added the sugar and pectin, let it heat up and added a bit more water and boiled it to about 195 degrees. At this point, it tasted good but not too spicy -- smoky chipotle and a tiny bit of spice.
I simmered about 5 minutes more (hey, I'm on a schedule here, I gotta get to work!) and put it in the jars. I tasted it after I put it all in the jars and, let me tell you, that extra couple of minutes really added some zing!
It's not as spicy as the Plum Habanero Jelly, but it's got a bit of kick. I snipped up the chipotle pepper into 9 pieces into each of the jars to ensure a bit more zing.
YIELD:
5 - 8 oz jars
4 - 4 oz jars
I still have 3 cups of juice in the fridge, so plan to experiment a bit more. Apricot Chipotle sorbet, anyone?
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Green with Envy
GREEN GAGE PLUM JAM: The Green Gage plums are so GOOD! I finished up the jam and added as little sugar as possible because they were so sweet:
YIELD:
6 - 8 oz jars
9 - 4 oz jars
3 c. puree for sorbet
JUICER: I did test out the new juicer -- I'm not sure it's the one for me. Bits of apricot went flying off into the pulp area from the spinning knife/strainer basket that are still quite juiceable. It did a great job on lemons, though, once I cut off the peel with my knife (didn't try it with peel on).
JAM: I got the apricot-chipotle jam started, but 2 tsp of powdered roasted chipotle pepper didn't add much flavor to 4 cups of fruit, so I put a whole chipotle pepper in the warm fruit over night to soften up and flavor it.
APPLES: The apples I got on Sunday from the lovely Larissa -- same place as the plums -- are all a nice light yellow outside and when I cut them open to try them in the juicer, they are a nice red-pink inside! I have never had red flesh apples before and these are beautiful and delicious.
YIELD:
6 - 8 oz jars
9 - 4 oz jars
3 c. puree for sorbet
JUICER: I did test out the new juicer -- I'm not sure it's the one for me. Bits of apricot went flying off into the pulp area from the spinning knife/strainer basket that are still quite juiceable. It did a great job on lemons, though, once I cut off the peel with my knife (didn't try it with peel on).
JAM: I got the apricot-chipotle jam started, but 2 tsp of powdered roasted chipotle pepper didn't add much flavor to 4 cups of fruit, so I put a whole chipotle pepper in the warm fruit over night to soften up and flavor it.
APPLES: The apples I got on Sunday from the lovely Larissa -- same place as the plums -- are all a nice light yellow outside and when I cut them open to try them in the juicer, they are a nice red-pink inside! I have never had red flesh apples before and these are beautiful and delicious.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Zucchini Madness
ZUCCHINI FRITTERS: After perusing several recipes this afternoon, I decided to make up my own zucchini fritter recipe and it came out darned good.
4 c. grated zucchini
1/2 c. grated onion
1/4 c. grated carrot
handful chopped squash blossoms
Usual directions about salting the zucchini and leaving it set in a colander for 10-20 minutes apply. I used my potato ricer to squeeze out the juice right into a bubbling pot of veggies that I later turned into a zucchini-golden chanterelle bisque.
For the batter:
1 c. flour of your choice
2 T. baking powder
2 T. crushed black pepper
2 T. fresh, chopped thyme
2 T. fresh chopped oregano
handful of fresh chopped parsley
Add enough water until it starts to resemble a thick batter instead of a dough, then mix in the zucchini and veggies. Stir in more water until it reaches a consistency that will form nice 1/4 cup globs that you can pat flat on the frying pan with your fingers. Brown on both sides until done. Eat with some delicious Pottsfield Relish* or chutney or fresh salsa. Maybe an almond-lemon pesto.
ZUCCHINI (Golden Chanterelle) BISQUE: I had a monster zuke from the new friend who has opened her yard to my foraging for apricots, green gage plums and apples. Big zukes are good for zucchini bread, fritters and bisque.
If you did not know, a bisque is a soup that uses rice (and potatoes, sometimes) to create a nice creamy, starchy consistency. No dairy, cheese or bizarre thickeners required, I swear.
Cook up 1/4 c. of arborio rice and let sit in the hot water.
Cook over med-high heat until tender:
5 c. zucchini, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 c. carrots, chopped
2 c. fingerling potatoes, chopped
In the dutch oven, heat enough water or vegetable broth to cover the veggies (start low and add more once the veggies are done sauteeing). I added 1 packet of dry sauteed, sliced golden chanterelles and about 1 c. of golden chanterelle broth to the pot. Once the water is hot, add the rice, too - what the heck. Also added 1 T crushed black pepper. Don't add any salt yet -- remember, you added miso!
After adding the softened veggies to the pot of broth, I added about 3 T of miso, along with 1/3 c fresh parsley leaves, some fresh oregano and thyme. I let everything cook until it was very soft.
Cool the veggies and broth. Process in blender or food processor. At this point, I pulled out two more 8 oz (before dry sauteeing) baggies of chopped golden chanterelle and let them defrost in the bisque. It tastes pretty good -- I will let it cool and check the seasoning tomorrow when I heat it up. This bisque will be great to freeze in individual portions for lunch!
PLUMS: James pitted most of the plums -- I had to stop him so we'd still have some to snack! Even then, we were plucking plums out of the pot as they warmed up, these are the tastiest plums we've ever had. The plums are resting - skins and meat - I am going to strain some and just make jam out of the meat tomorrow. I think I may pull out plum skins with tongs if it is easy enough, otherwise I will just leave the in.
APPLES: Apple sauce requires a lot more peeling and paring than I think I have time this week. I now have a whole big milk crate of apple from my friend Lawrence -- when I called to check on our morning carpool he said, "I have a surprise for you - you're going to hate me!" So, I have apples from Larissa's house on Sunday - light yellow, and a crate full of tart green beauties (much bigger) from Lawrence's place in Danville. I'm thinking I should make some canned apple pie filling -- he had told me he was going to make a rum raisin apple pie, so I think I should make at least one batch of rum raisin apple pie filling. I can leave on the peels and just slice up the cored apples, cover them with the syrup/batter and hot water process them. Any other ideas on what to do with apples and limited appendages and waking hours?
APRICOTS: While the plum jam is cooking tomorrow, I may focus on the apricots since they'll go off earlier than the apples. I wish the solar dehydrator was done! Hoping my brother will finish it off on Tuesday, then I can do some dried apples!
*Recipe for Pottsfield Relish coming soon. I promise. I just opened my last jar in anticipation of a bumper tomato crop. I swear - pictures are coming soon for everything!
Easy Plum (Habanero) Jelly
PLUM JELLY can be easy or difficult -- if you don't have freestone plums, the best way I've found is to clean and cook the whole fruit.
First, wash/sterilize your jars and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 125 or 250, whatever makes you feel good. If you don't keep the jars hot - the boiling hot jelly may make your jars crack and break, causing a big unhappy mess. Boiling hot jelly will sizzle in the jars kept at 125 and you won't be able to grab the jars with your hands so have pot holders ready.
Next, gather your plums and wash them really well to get off all the bird poop and bugs. Or not - it's all going to get strained anyway and you might like the protein. Cut out any bad blemishes or parts you wouldn't want to eat. Your plums should look all clean and pretty:
After you've smashed up all the plums and they've filled the pot with juicy goodness, turn them into a big colander or sieve lined with 2-4 layers of cheesecloth over a big bowl or pot to collect the juice.
You can stir the plums to release more juice, or pick up the corners of the cheesecloth from time to time to give a wiggle and shake. Once you've collected all your juice, you can store it and finish it another night or put it back in a pot and start thinking about flavor accents -- like habanero or jalapeno pepper or lavender.
In this picture, you can see the jars I used to store the juice in the refrigerator - you can also freeze the plum juice if you want to make it much later or really have a lot of plums.
Adding pepper can be tricky - so you have to start with a little, bring it to a simmer for five minutes and then taste it (let it cool, first!). Add more chopped pepper if you want more heat.
Simmer a bit and then strain out all the pepper (or lavender or other herbs) and put back in the pan.
Add the lemon, sugar and pectin as instructed by your pectin manufacturer. I use Pomona's pectin - so I put the lemon juice & calcium water into the pot, and mix the pectin in with the sugar really well using a wire whisk before adding. Then I follow the instructions for bringing back to temperature and testing for set.
Pour into hot jars and put the lids on and process in hot water bath. Then, set the jars out to cool and wait for the sweet plink of success (some people skip hot water bath with jelly -- this isn't recommended by the folks at Ball but it's done often since the simmering jelly is hotter than boiling water anyway).
First, wash/sterilize your jars and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 125 or 250, whatever makes you feel good. If you don't keep the jars hot - the boiling hot jelly may make your jars crack and break, causing a big unhappy mess. Boiling hot jelly will sizzle in the jars kept at 125 and you won't be able to grab the jars with your hands so have pot holders ready.
Next, gather your plums and wash them really well to get off all the bird poop and bugs. Or not - it's all going to get strained anyway and you might like the protein. Cut out any bad blemishes or parts you wouldn't want to eat. Your plums should look all clean and pretty:
I never add juice to the pot for the plums -- but I squish them hard with my hands as I put them into the pot -- I use both hands and squish a small handful of plums. Once the bottom of the pan is covered, I turn on the heat on low and continue adding smashed plums to the pot. This helps the juice release more quickly.
After you've smashed up all the plums and they've filled the pot with juicy goodness, turn them into a big colander or sieve lined with 2-4 layers of cheesecloth over a big bowl or pot to collect the juice.
You can stir the plums to release more juice, or pick up the corners of the cheesecloth from time to time to give a wiggle and shake. Once you've collected all your juice, you can store it and finish it another night or put it back in a pot and start thinking about flavor accents -- like habanero or jalapeno pepper or lavender.
In this picture, you can see the jars I used to store the juice in the refrigerator - you can also freeze the plum juice if you want to make it much later or really have a lot of plums.
Adding pepper can be tricky - so you have to start with a little, bring it to a simmer for five minutes and then taste it (let it cool, first!). Add more chopped pepper if you want more heat.
Simmer a bit and then strain out all the pepper (or lavender or other herbs) and put back in the pan.
Add the lemon, sugar and pectin as instructed by your pectin manufacturer. I use Pomona's pectin - so I put the lemon juice & calcium water into the pot, and mix the pectin in with the sugar really well using a wire whisk before adding. Then I follow the instructions for bringing back to temperature and testing for set.
Pour into hot jars and put the lids on and process in hot water bath. Then, set the jars out to cool and wait for the sweet plink of success (some people skip hot water bath with jelly -- this isn't recommended by the folks at Ball but it's done often since the simmering jelly is hotter than boiling water anyway).
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Squash Blossom Brunch & more fruit...
SQUASH BLOSSOMS: I've been dying to make these. Somehow, James and I never got around to making dinner after we got home from The Trappist on Friday -- we found ourselves busy with non-food preparation related entertainment.After the picnic in Dolores Park with the green bloggers, I took him to Ristorante Bacco for the first time - we had a fantastic dinner with the same server, Lucca, who was there the last time I had dinner with my friend Samael7.
James ordered a salmon carpaccio over a fennel salad, and I had a nice arugula and radiccio salad. For dinner, he had the fregola (tiny round pea shaped pasta) with seafood, and they made me a fantastic dish of rigatoni with truffle oil, green beans, asparagus, pine nuts, red pepper and carrots. Since we have liked the Layer Cake primitivo, we ordered another primitivo which had a bit more bite but which was delicious. We finished off with a mango sorbet that was creamy and delicious but not nearly as good as the WWOZ mango sorbet.
All this means is that we still had squash blossom sitting in my fridge when we got back to the east bay.
This morning I was determined to make up a squash blossom brunch. I made a nice nut cheese to stuff in the blossoms:
1/4 c raw pistachio nut meat
1/2 c raw cashews
1/4 c. raw pinenuts
1/2 tsp of chopped garlic from a jar
1/4 tsp chopped ginger from a jar
1 Tb white miso
1/4 tsp powdered cumin
dash of cayenne & salt
nutritional yeast to taste (optional)
dozen sprigs of cilantro (optional)
1/2 tsp lime juice (optional)
Whir in a food processor or high watt blender with a good knife-in-bowl system.The nut cheese came out pretty astonishingly good.
Next:
Stuffed 12 squash blossoms with the nut cheese, and roll in batter:
1 c. flour
3 Tb crushed black sesame seeds
salt and coarsely crushed black pepper to taste
1-1 1/2 c water to make a thick batter
Make sure you get the blossom ends and a bit inside the blossom ends to keep them stuck together when you fry.
Thinking a batter would cling to the blossoms better than if I dunked them in flour-water-flower. It worked stupendously -- we had the most gorgeous and delicious squash blossom fritters with a side of sauteed red pepper, mushroom, chopped squash blossoms and grated zucchini and one sliced, sauteed sage-apple gluten sausage (pictures are coming, I swear!). We made a sauce with some chili oil, soy and lime -- but I think I would try one of the fruit chutneys I have made or a fruit- chili based sauce next time.
FRUIT: I know - I was going to take it easy, but... after delivering jars of apricot jam (and I got a jar made from the same apricots by James' neighbors), I picked more apricots from the tree next door to James' apartment. We went and got some gorgeous green gage plums and some light green/yellow apples. The plums are so astonishingly tasty - it's all I have had for dinner so far. Dobson loves the bruised apricots and the squishy plums, too.
I put all the fruit out on trays so that the apricots and apples can ripen a bit more. Then I spent aobut 2 hours cleaning the kitchen - I pulled out the stove and cleaned behind as best I could without detaching the gas hose pipe. I took the top off and cleaned out all the gooey, caramelized, burnt jam from under the burners, pulled out the bottom shelf and scrubbed it and the inside of the oven door. The sides are clean, as is the side of the cabinet and I even vacuumed and got all the bottle caps from behind the stove. It is CLEAN.
After finishing in the kitchen, I spent about six hours re-staking and re-tying tomato plants. My brother arrived and worked on the solar dehydrator -- it's practically a whole box now! I'm pretty excited and feel very grateful that my brother has stepped up to assemble the solar dehydrator for me. I don't know when I would have had time to do it with all the other stuff I have going on with preserving and housework. Oh - and there's that quilt I'm trying to finish up for Samael7 before his birthday on 9/11.
Ah... projects. I am going to figure out the dinner project and find a book. The kitties are zonked (except Dobs) -- George found a neighbor cat to fight with (no scratches or blood) but he was so tired out that he has been asleep since eating dinner at 6pm. Even though all the doors were open until 8:30, he just curled up on the bed in a ball and won't even wake up when I pet him.
BANG: Oh - and - there was a shooting around the corner from me last night. I missed it because I was at my sweetie's house... the 2 victims crashed their car, taking out about 4 cars and totalling them. The neighbors say there were about 8 shots, semi-automatic weapon fire.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Fair, Sunny and Breezy with a side of juicer
Happily, lovely weather prevailed on Saturday! I first went to pick up a like-new (used 5 times) Breville Juice Fountain Compact from a craigslister in the Lower Haight for $80 - and got to meet her stunningly beautiful cat, Simon -- a medium-long hair, long flowing curly whiskers and the palest, green-white eyes. *swoon* Such a gorgeous cat and nice people.
My sweetie took me to Dolores Park to meet up with the visiting Arduous, and other Bay Area green bloggers. FakePlasticFish and Car(bon) Free in California were the first to arrive, scoring parking right on 20th between Mission D. and Church. We opened some nice wine, cut up some bread, and had some of FakePlasticFish's hummus and then realized -- hey! where's everyone else! Arduous, Kale for Sale and Green Bean Dreams were all standing on the corner, scratching their heads. We flagged them down the hill and we had a lovely picnic, opening up plum habanero jelly, pistachio butter, white peach jelly and apricot jam and wolfing down Dagoba lavender chocolate and red wine. We had a great view of San Francisco, and despite a bit of wind, it was still warm enough to be comfortable and we had a fine visit. I promise - photos and more recipes coming soon!
I do love a good picnic -- I wish we could do this once a month for the Bay Area green bloggers. At the very least, FakePlasticFish have vowed to do a monthly kitty visit & picnic at each other's homes, though it could be more often since we only live 1 mile apart.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Places you'd expect to be green...
Carrying a theme from Fake Plastic Fish, who is a great letter writer and who wrote a very inspiring letter to the Santa Sabina retreat center, I have noticed a few places I have patronized to be somewhat lacking in the green department on a few items. I did address some of the issues at two of the places, and only got feedback on one.
Melitta Station Inn (Santa Rosa, CA) - I adored this place and even went so far as to write reviews on Yelp and SustainLane. The inn runs entirely on solar energy and puts energy back into the grid. They draw on well water from the Annadel State Park aquifer and it's all UV irradiated and filtered (no messy chlorine or fluouride).
The hosts are darling, thoughtful and generous. It's a very comfortable place to stay and it's clear they do make a tremendous effort to be as green as they can. Except for one thing -- the house-branded lotion, shampoo, conditioner and liquid soaps available for use in the guest rooms all have SLS/SLES in them.
I raised this with the hostess -- she said that the manufacturer had assured her the ingredients were all "green" and I told her about some of the ingredients in the bottles and also why antibacterial liquid soap wasn't really green. She very graciously entertained my information, asked questions and said she'd look into it. I'm not sure, at this point, if I should e-mail articles to her or just wait til the next time I go up to visit to ask. I also have an extra copy of the Co-Op America Green Directory -- I hardly use it, but it seems like the sort of thing that might really be interesting to those folks. Thoughts?
Harbin Hot Springs (Middletown, CA) During my 3 day spa retreat, I noticed a lot of things that surprised me. First, the food at the restaurant is not terribly green -- it's not all organic, and they even have a $24.95 salmon dinner on the menu. Nearly everything is laden with butter, milk and cheese. For breakfast, they offer a vegan option of "chinese breakfast" -- rice and veggies. I understand they are trying to use as much organic produce as they can, but most of what is delivered is conventionally grown produce.
They have a large garden which is supposed to be for the residents. It's a rather haphazard affair -- the amount of land the use for the garden could be more efficiently planted and managed to provide quite a lot of local, fresh, seasonal vegetables to the kitchen. Shockingly, they don't even have drip hoses or drip lines set up in their garden -- they just have big fan sprayer sprinklers. Yes, I know they are probably tapping water from the spring that feeds the pools. A sprinkler is woefully inefficient for watering plants and a huge waste of water, no matter how unlimited you feel your supply to be. Shameful!
There are some small, lush lawns in front of the Azalea and Walnut guest houses -- you walk past them on your way up to the pools. They are shaded and very nice and soft. They are quite small lawns -- one should think them an ideal candidate for a reel mower. This would cut down on the noise pollution and air pollution generated by using a gasoline powered lawn mower -- again, I was just amazed that such a thing would even be permitted on the grounds. What next, a leaf blower?
Though the big community kitchen in Fern has composting and adequate recycling, it wasn't so easy to recycle in Dome 5's kitchen, and there was no place to put compost. Worse yet, housekeeping doesn't seem to be terribly aware of recycling, landfills and the problems with plastic. I had put a single Bumble Bar wrapper in my trash can and the next morning, the housekeeper had taken the entire trash bag out, knotted it loosely and had it by the downstairs door ready to go to the landfill. I adjusted and put the plastic bag back in my wastepaper basket. She also did not sort the recyclables -- so I did it after I spotted the bag from my Dome in the trash can outside the Dome area later.
I did fill out a comment form at Harbin but haven't heard back from them at all.
Club ONE (San Francisco, CA) I recently joined Club ONE and was pretty shocked at the lack of labeling on the products available for member use. There's no statement supporting the use of biodegradable, green or organic bath products. There is, however, a notice in the showers about water conservation. I was also pretty shocked at the way they hand out bottles of water -- I got coupons for free bottles of water when I joined and didn't notice recycling cans in the locker room for plastic bottles. You'd think it would be really easy for a gym to be green, right?
Melitta Station Inn (Santa Rosa, CA) - I adored this place and even went so far as to write reviews on Yelp and SustainLane. The inn runs entirely on solar energy and puts energy back into the grid. They draw on well water from the Annadel State Park aquifer and it's all UV irradiated and filtered (no messy chlorine or fluouride).
The hosts are darling, thoughtful and generous. It's a very comfortable place to stay and it's clear they do make a tremendous effort to be as green as they can. Except for one thing -- the house-branded lotion, shampoo, conditioner and liquid soaps available for use in the guest rooms all have SLS/SLES in them.
I raised this with the hostess -- she said that the manufacturer had assured her the ingredients were all "green" and I told her about some of the ingredients in the bottles and also why antibacterial liquid soap wasn't really green. She very graciously entertained my information, asked questions and said she'd look into it. I'm not sure, at this point, if I should e-mail articles to her or just wait til the next time I go up to visit to ask. I also have an extra copy of the Co-Op America Green Directory -- I hardly use it, but it seems like the sort of thing that might really be interesting to those folks. Thoughts?
Harbin Hot Springs (Middletown, CA) During my 3 day spa retreat, I noticed a lot of things that surprised me. First, the food at the restaurant is not terribly green -- it's not all organic, and they even have a $24.95 salmon dinner on the menu. Nearly everything is laden with butter, milk and cheese. For breakfast, they offer a vegan option of "chinese breakfast" -- rice and veggies. I understand they are trying to use as much organic produce as they can, but most of what is delivered is conventionally grown produce.
They have a large garden which is supposed to be for the residents. It's a rather haphazard affair -- the amount of land the use for the garden could be more efficiently planted and managed to provide quite a lot of local, fresh, seasonal vegetables to the kitchen. Shockingly, they don't even have drip hoses or drip lines set up in their garden -- they just have big fan sprayer sprinklers. Yes, I know they are probably tapping water from the spring that feeds the pools. A sprinkler is woefully inefficient for watering plants and a huge waste of water, no matter how unlimited you feel your supply to be. Shameful!
There are some small, lush lawns in front of the Azalea and Walnut guest houses -- you walk past them on your way up to the pools. They are shaded and very nice and soft. They are quite small lawns -- one should think them an ideal candidate for a reel mower. This would cut down on the noise pollution and air pollution generated by using a gasoline powered lawn mower -- again, I was just amazed that such a thing would even be permitted on the grounds. What next, a leaf blower?
Though the big community kitchen in Fern has composting and adequate recycling, it wasn't so easy to recycle in Dome 5's kitchen, and there was no place to put compost. Worse yet, housekeeping doesn't seem to be terribly aware of recycling, landfills and the problems with plastic. I had put a single Bumble Bar wrapper in my trash can and the next morning, the housekeeper had taken the entire trash bag out, knotted it loosely and had it by the downstairs door ready to go to the landfill. I adjusted and put the plastic bag back in my wastepaper basket. She also did not sort the recyclables -- so I did it after I spotted the bag from my Dome in the trash can outside the Dome area later.
I did fill out a comment form at Harbin but haven't heard back from them at all.
Club ONE (San Francisco, CA) I recently joined Club ONE and was pretty shocked at the lack of labeling on the products available for member use. There's no statement supporting the use of biodegradable, green or organic bath products. There is, however, a notice in the showers about water conservation. I was also pretty shocked at the way they hand out bottles of water -- I got coupons for free bottles of water when I joined and didn't notice recycling cans in the locker room for plastic bottles. You'd think it would be really easy for a gym to be green, right?
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