Fall Gardening

It'll seem strange to many of you, especially those from colder climates, but I spent last weekend (September 16th and 17th) sowing seeds!

Whether you’ve got a few pots by the front door, or an extensive backyard garden, one of the fun things about green thumbs in the Bay Area is our year round growing season. As we move into the fall, here are some things to think about. It’s a great time to plant greens: lettuces, kales, chards, and spinach are all great fall and winter crops. In late October and November, you can plant peas again. Other great fall and winter crops include brussels sprouts, broccoli, leeks, Onions, and radishes. It’s also time to think about cover crops to enrich your soil; fava beans, winter rye and hairy vetch are all candidates for fall or winter planted cover crops.

If you’re interested in gardening with native plants, fall the time to introduce new plants to your garden. The fall and winter rains will help them get established before next summer’s dry season. It’s also the time to think about planting many landscape plants. Trees, shrubs and ground covers should all be planted now for the same reason – our winter rains will help them establish root systems that will sustain them through the dry summer.

The Ecology Center store has a great selection of gardening books and products. If you want more information on gardening in our neighborhoods this fall and winter, check out Pam Pierce’s Golden Gate Gardening, Katherine Grace Endicott’s Norhtern California Gardening: a Month-by-Month Guide, and Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region produced by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. If you don’t have dirt in the ground to play in, you should also check out McGee & Stuckey’s The Bountiful Container, a comprehensive guide to all sorts of gardening in containers.

Out of season seeds are on sale! Come into to the store to get seeds for next season for 50% off.

Organic Cotton Baby Stuff!

You probably know that the Ecology Center stocks a fun selection of organic cotton t-shirts, but unless you’ve been in the store in the last few weeks, you don’t know about our great new selection of organic cotton baby stuff!

I’ve been looking for organic cotton baby items for years. At my last big trade show, I literally went around to every single baby vendor, and no one had anything organic. This month, the market is definitely booming. I have clothing coming in from seven different vendors – t-shirts, onesies, footies, many with matching hats, bibs and blankies. The sizes range from newborn to 4T, and I can order some styles in 6T. Just as exciting is a fantastic line of organic cotton stuffed animals. They’re adorable!

Switching from conventional to organic cotton products is one very important move for those of us looking to live more sustainable lives. Conventional cotton farming uses more insecticides than any other crop, and, according to the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) “epitomizes the worst effects of chemically dependent agriculture” (Organic Cotton Breifing Kit, PANNA, http://www.panna.org).

Both the volume and the toxicity of pesticides used on cotton are particularly bad, many of the chemicals used on cotton were developed during WWII as chemical weapons – they’re nerve agents. While much of the world’s cotton is grown in the global south, pesticide intensive cotton growing is certainly not a removed problem. Also according to PANNA, in comparing pesticide linked illnesses of farm workers in California, conventional cotton is the third worst offender. In addition to purely chemical problems, Monsanto introduced Bt cotton, a genetically engineered plant in 1996. All of the strains of genetically modified cotton have had serious problems wherever they are grown, many actually showing signs of significantly lower resistance to pests and disease than non GM cotton varieties (Myers, Adrian, Organic Futures: The Case for Organic Farming).

Organizing for a Simpler Life

Ok folks,

We've been in a flurry of activity down here. In August, I attended a great trade show, and found a bunch of wonderful new products. The winning category was definitely organic baby! Many of you know that I've been looking for good organic baby products for quite a while now, and all of a sudden there are tons of options. I've got products coming in from seven new vendors, so come on in and see what we have!

I'm also in a flurry of organizing activity. It has to do with the 2nd Annual Simplicity Conference that I just got to attend in Oakland. As usual for these events, I bought some books that I thought would intrigue that audience in particular.... and we've got a collection of Organizing books by Donna Smallin.

Here we have "Organizing Plain & Simple" which, if you're a beginner is great, but if you're an old pro (like I am) at trying to get organized, you'll have heard most of these suggestions before. My favorite so far "The One-Minute Organizer." Because, while I have heard some of these suggestions before, it's great to have them in little bite-sized pieces that you can squeeze into that 15 minutes before lunch, when you don't have time to do anything big... but those small things can really add up! Finally, I'm very much looking forward to "Unclutter Your Mind," which, for me, is the biggest organization project of all!

Here's to organizing!
Jill

Blithe Tomato: An Insiders Wry Look at Farmers' Market Society

Blithe Tomato: An Insiders Wry Look at Farmers' Market Society
by Mike Madison
Heyday Books
2006
$15.00

I love this book. It's a collection of great little stories about farming, farmers, and markets. The author tells a great story, delves into a somewhat odd obsession with old tractors (perhaps not so odd to farmers, but it is to me), and has a great eye for character. His prose speaks quickly and eloquently, sometimes telling a beautiful tale in less than a page. Opinionated (in a good way), funny and poignant, this is a great selection of scenes and essays, at times requiring me to read out loud to my co-workers (whether they wanted me to or not).

One of my favorite paragraphs in the book is from one of Madison's frequent political forays: "When I checked my e-mail, an image popped up on the screen of an idiotic man dressed in red, white, and blue bunting, deliriously happy over the victories of the Republicans in yesterday's election. I voted, too, but for the most part my candidates did not win. Perhaps democracy in this country is by now a complete failure, with elections openly for sale to the highest bidder. Even worse, democracy might be a success, and the election shows the true character of our people as they cast their votes for a violently exploitative attitude toward the planet and its creatures."

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
js

A flood of new books

It's been a crazy year so far, and we're starting to get a flood of great new books in. I've decided that instead of trying to organize, categorize, and prioritize which I want to tell you about, I'm just going to start writing. So, keep your eyes on the blog, I'm hoping to give you quick updates on a bunch of 2006's best titles.

js

Top 10 Books in 2005

Top 10 Book list in 2005

I thought it would be fun to publish some top 10 lists – Here’s the first in the series…

Top 10 bestselling books at the Ecology Center Store:

10. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins. This is a startlingly honest memoir of one of the world’s biggest moneylenders, and an insider’s look at international infrastructure and development financing fraud. It’s also very readable!

9. Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach. First published in 1975, the 30-year anniversary edition was very popular last year. It’s a fictional, inspirational vision of an ecologically, politically, and humanly workable future.

8. Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, by Greg Pahl. This is the first of three biodiesel books on the list. It discusses the history, technology and future prospects of biodiesel.

7. Alternative Urban Futures, by Raquel Pinderhuges. A great book by a local professor, author, and Ecology Center board member, it explores sustainable urban development through appropriate technologies in water, waste, energy, transportation and food systems.

6. Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home scale permaculture, by Toby Hemenway. A great gardening book for those of us interested in permaculture for urban and suburban plots of land.

5. Diet for a Dead Planet: How the Food Industry is Killing Us, by Christopher D. Cook. Another local author who’s produced a fascinating, readable, and intense document exposing the inside of the industry that feeds so many of us.

4. Biodiesel: Home Brewer’s Guide, by Maria “girl Mark” Alovert. A locally produced, home made guide to home brew biodiesel from local biodiesel teacher and activist girl Mark.

3. Earth Art Coloring Book, by Sue Coccia. A series of coloring books with intricate animal drawings based on the traditional artwork of the pacific north west.

2. From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank by Joshua Tickell. Always a favorite, this is a complete guide to using biodiesel or straight vegetable oil in your diesel car or truck.

And…

The number one bestselling book at the Ecology Center Store in 2005 was…

1. Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California, by Pam Pierce. Our perennial bestseller, and the one gardening book you really need to read if you garden in or around the Bay Area.

Now Selling... Bugs

Ecology Center Store: Now Selling Bugs. (Seriously)

Beneficial Nematodes are microscopic critters that prey on a wide variety of insect pests. The Nematodes and bacteria that they bring with them enter and infect the bodies of their hosts and grow and reproduce rapidly, consuming the host as they do so. Because they kill so quickly, they’ve evolved to prey on a wide variety of insects. Most important to a lot of us, they are an effective outdoor control for fleas! In addition, they kill thrips, fungus gnats, weevils and cutworms among many others.

Nematodes do have specific condition needs to survive, with a range of limitations including availability of prey, soil temperature, dampness, light, and others, which means that it’s most effective to replenish their population buy re-introducing them every 4-6 weeks while insect pests are a problem.

The Nematodes are packaged on a refrigerated sponge, so you have to ask for them at the cash register. Use one package per 3,000 square feet, or one per 1,500 square feet for controlling fleas. $13.46 per package.

Cool!

It's that time again! Green Festival is this weekend

It's time again for that extravaganza of greenness called the Green Festival! A collection of great speakers, green exhibitors, and a nexus for the liberal political and environmental communities. The Ecology Center will, of course, be exhibiting, so come on by our booth and say hi.

This event always astonishes me with it's attendance. It's huge. There are people everywhere - and they're pretty much all engaging, and interested, and thinking about sustainability in big ways and in small ways. There are always new products, new ideas, and revitalizations of old ideas.

If you're into environmental issues, curious about them, or even dubious - come out and get the best info the bay area has to offer!

see you there,

jill

Serendipity

So, I just got a call from an author while I was reading her book. How Random is that? Well, maybe not random, because I do try to read at least some of the new books as they're comming out. And this one is on garbage - which is pretty central to our work at the Ecology Center. But still - It's nice to know that synergy is in play.

The book is "Gone Tomorrow: the Hidden Life of Garbage" and it's great so far! check it out.

Others that I've read recently and recommend:
"King of Fish" - a fantastic natural history of Salmon
"Introduction to Water in California" - a great history of California's water, human impact, dams, and water policy.
"Deep Water" - another Dam book - this one international, and written in a narative format about three people who work around dams.
"Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell" - but that's not an ecology book and we don't sell it (however it is wonderful!)


js

Here's to a little encouragement

Thanks to an encouraging e-mail from spain - here are some updated thoughts...

Whole Organic Food Book: A Guide for Growers and Eaters
By Dan Jason, a dedicated gardener, seed saver, and vegetarian. Jason owns Salt Springs Seeds, in B.C..

This is an interesting mix of narrative, activism, gardening, and cooking. With sections on organic growing, commonly (and uncommonly) grown backyard food crops, and the whole and organic foods community. It's a bit of gentle crusading... maybe that's the wrong word, but you definitely come out of the book knowing exactly what Jason thinks of industrial agriculture, big seed companies, and genetically modified organisms, and what he thinks should be done about it. Thankfully, I agree with him on all counts.

The Whole Organic Food Book begins with a 40 page discussion of organic growing methods. It has an especially good section on cover crops. In the food section Jason focuses on beans and grains, he covers wheat, barley, oats, quinoa and amaranth, and a bunch of different beans: cool weather and warm weather. For each, you’ll get everything you need to sow, grow, harvest, store and cook the crop, including recipes. He closes by discussing seed saving, threats to genetic diversity and GMOs, and other topics related to industrial agriculture. This is an easy to read and informative book for anyone, but it’s vegetarian back yard gardeners who are trying to move toward food self sufficiency will especially benefit. Jason’s focus on protein rich plants and his demystifying descriptions of grain growing, harvesting, threshing and storing will be extremely useful to those of us who have been intimidated by grains. There are also detailed descriptions of growing, drying, harvesting and storing dried beans.

Bottom line:
Especially recommended for intermediate to advanced back yard gardeners who are interested in organically growing more of their own food. Cover crops, plant rotations, green manure, the depth of coverage of grains and dried beans, and seed saving takes the gardener beyond beginner stage.
It is easily accessible, and would also be excellent for beginners who are ready to take their back yard gardening to the next level.
Finally, there’s a lot of information and informed opinion about seed saving, genetic diversity, GMOs organic growing and industrial agriculture. Gardeners who are interested in having more information about these issues will find some great substance in the book. I’m often asked about books that will help introduce others to these topics, so if there’s a gardener in your life who you want to gently introduce to sustainable agriculture, vegetarian eating or organic gardening, this would be a great gift book.

I hope you like it!
Jill

Events

Ok, so we've just finished the flurry of Earth Day events. Happy 35th anniversary! It's pretty cool to remember that the Ecology Center Berkeley began (along with many other Ecology Centers) with that first earth day. 35 years later, we're still around, still doing fantastic, visionary work, and still expanding!

Berkeley Earth Day was nice - but it rained. We were prepared, however, so there was no book wetting going on. It was a good excuse to bring out some stuff that doesn't usually get to go to the park with us. Glass - not only is it recycled, but it's water proof! So, we had a 'waterproof stuff' table that was not completely protected by our tents, and a book table that was. It was fun! I also got to go to Oakland Earth Day this year - a shorter event right outside city hall. Somehow, even though it was shorter, I feel like I got to talk to more people. So, if you're one of them, I hope you'll come in and see the Resource Center.

Last weekend, I also got out to a Simplicity conference. 'Living More With Less" good idea. Saw some of the usual EC crowd there, but many new faces, and I got a bunch of books specifically for the conference. Some of them are really good. Check them out online - I changed the 'sustainable living' list on our webstore to 'simple living' for a while to make thme more visible.

have a great May!
js

It must be spring

It must be spring, 'cause compost and seeds are flying off the shelves around here. I'm glad people are liking our seed selection... as you can see from previous postings, I spent a ton of time choosing which varieties to stock. There are some unusual things that seem especially popular: strawberry spinach, some cool red carrots, and our midget melons especially.

I've been working madly on our new store website. We'll be selling books on-line, hopefully by the end of the week. Also, we're getting ready for our spring round of tabeling and outside events. I'll be in downtown Oakland tomorrow, Berkeley Earth Day on Saturday, and the Living More with Less conference the next Saturday. In the meantime, we're hosting our very own Prof. Raquel Rivera-Pinderhughes here on Wednesday the 27th. Why our very own? She's on our board, was my undergraduate academic advisor, and as a grad student I worked as her research assistant (just before I came to the Ecology Center).

Anyway, I hope to see you at any or all of these events. Be sure to tell me if you've seen this! Someone asked me the other day... "oh yeah, you're the one that does that blog right?". It was my first in person indication that there are really people out there!

thanks,
js

Letters to the Valley: A Harvest of Memories

This new little book by David Mas Masumoto is a treasure of family, community, agricultural, American, and global insights. It's short, I read it in one morning, with sun beaming down and a hot cup of tea in my hand. It was perfect for this books style.

Slow, lush prose, beautifully accented with illustrations by Doug Hansen. It's a testament to good food, carefully grown: to family farmers, organic farmers and central valley agriculture, but it's also a deeply moving statement about community and family. The letters range from discussions about old time peach varieties, to farmworkers, to Masumoto's Japanese-American family's experiences of WWII: both from internment camps and from the battlefield.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
js

Seed Savers Exchange

This is the seed vendor that I'm so excited about. Most of the text is from their catalog:

Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization of gardeners and plant collectors who are saving and sharing ‘heirloom’ (handed-down) seeds that gardeners and farmers brought to North America When their families immigrated. Since it was founded in 1975, their members have distributed an estimated one million samples of rare garden seeds, no being widely used by alternative seed companies, farmers markets, chefs and CSA growers.
Heritage Farm is Seed Savers Exchange’s 890-acre headquarters near Decorah, Iowa. It includes preservation gardens, historic orchard, herds of Ancient White Park Cattle and several miles of hiking trails.
The Preservation Gardens are planted on 23 acres of certified organic land and are on public display. Seed Savers maintains 25,000 endangered vegetable varieties including 5,500 tomatoes, 4,500 beans, 2,000 peppers, 1,200 squash, 1,100 peas, 1,000 lettuces and more. Each summer 10% of each crop is planted on a 10-year rotation to renew the seed collection. Few gardeners have ever seen this stunning genetic diversity or realize how much of our garden heritage is in danger of extinction.
In 1900 there were 7,000 named varieties of apples in the U.S., but less than 1,000 of those still exist today and are steadily dying out. To halt this constant genetic erosion, Seed Savers Exchange has developed the most divers public orchard in the U. S., where 100 pre 1900 apple varieties are on display. The orchard also maintains about 200 hardy grapes developed by widely-known grape breeder Elmer Swenson.
Finally, Heritage Farm maintains Ancient White Park Cattle. This truly ancient breed roamed the British Isles before the time of Christ, but less than 1,000 now survive worldwide. Seed Savers Exchange’s breeding program began in 1987 and was the first in the U.S. Today there are about 300 of these extremely rare cattle in the U.S. with more than 80 living at Heritage Farm. They have distinctive white coats, black-tipped lyre-shaped horns, and black noses, ears and hooves.
Seed Savers Exchange and Heritage Farm have provided the models for genetic preservation projects and organizations in more than 30 countries.
While not all of their seeds are certified organic, they do have a safe seed pledge: “Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners, and consumers who want an alternative, we pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of the natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms, poses great biological risks as well as economic, political and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds.”

In the interim

Hello folks, it's been a while... I've been bogged down in end of year, then beginning of the year work.
The highlights:
- Inventory's over and I don't have to do it again for a year.
- I spent tons of time with seed catalogs, and besides now being extremely impatient for spring, we've got a new vendor that I'm excited about.
- Calendars have pretty much come and gone.
- The flood of book catalogs has slowed from a completely-out-of-hand rate to a still-can't-keep-up rate. I've got a stack about 2 feet high at the moment. All books, all the time!
- I had a blast at the San Francisco International Gift Show last weekend. Surprisingly, I found more eco-friendly products than I expected. I'm particularly looking forward to the jelle bath, but that's a whole nuther topic.
- We're starting to sell seeds, soil, fertilizer, compost etc., so the springtime struggle to have enough of all of the above in stock, while still having room to move around in the store is on again.

I'll tell you more about the seeds soon...
Happy 2005 everyone!

jill

Seed Buying

OK, I just gotta say that sometimes the buying part of this job gets old quick. Looking through 3 foot high stacks of book catalogs - not my favorite way to spend a week. However, the seed catalogs are different!

I love 'em. We're going with a new seed vendor this year... Seed Savers Exchange. For those of you who are seed savers, you probably already know them - they're deep into protecting genetic diversity of garden plants. They're a non-profit, membership organization, and they've got a fantastic collection.

I think I may have to become a gardener this year. I just need to find myself some dirt. So - if you have any dirt that you're not using (ie. your yard... in berkeley) give me a call, maybe we can work something out!

Spring - just around the corner when you start looking at seed catalogs!

js

Holidays

Hey!

We're having tons of fun around here this holiday season. We've passed our big outside events. We were at the San Francisco Green Festival again this year, and had fun talking to THOUSANDS! of people. We also got to go to Bioneers, which was inspiring in spite of the rain.

We've also had a couple of wonderful authors around - Starhawk was here a few weeks ago for a wonderfully uplifting discussion about her new book, politics, activism, and life in a complicated world. Also, just last friday, Michael Nagler, a professor of peace and conflict studies at UC Berkeley came to speak with a very involved crowd about non-violence, and his new book.

Our glass, as expected has been a huge hit with holiday gift buyers. We have a large selection of 100% recycled glass, and also a selection of glass that's even better. It's re-used. Bottles have been cut to form the goblets and tumbler, the necks of the bottles are heated and re-shaped, and both are decorated. They're beautiful and have a wonderfully minimal impact on the planet.

thanks for listening!
Happy Holidays!

jill

New Handmade Journals

I got the coolest new journals in yesterday.

They're handmade by a local crafter. She uses old book covers, and hand binds in found re-used paper to create them. They're georgeous, and one of a kind. I love them!

They take her about 2 hours each to make, so they're not cheap - $30 each, but if you have any writers or artists on your holiday gift list, come in and check these out!

It's a cold and rainy saturday, so I don't actually expect you to come in today...

stay warm!

jill

I love Magazines!

Hello out there!

I do love magazines, and every once in a while one of them has an issue that rises above... you know what I mean? Everything in it works for you. Well, National Geographic did that for me this month. Excellent articles, very ecologically focused.

You want to know the surprising effect of Wolves on the riverside ecosystem of Yellowstone? And did you know that the Sahara desert used to be home to that water loving giant - hippopotamuses?

Check out the article on Hawi"i Volcanoes Natural park, for inspiration and a description of the plants that thrive on barren lava fields.

Most spectacular, I thought, was an article on a ingenous community in Columbia. Their care for their mountainous home with a sacred respect and believe that "if this mountain is not cared for, the entire world will get sick." What a different state we would be in if we all cared for the land we inhabit with that thought in mind.

The Arctic foxes, in addition to the spectacular photography you'd expect of NG, discusses the boom and bust nature of Arctic fox populations.

Finally, an article on Louisiana's wetlands stunned me. Read it!

js

Miscellaneous thoughts

Hello everyone, it's another hot dry day here in the Bay Area, and our fire danger is super high - we've already had several fires start this week, and yesterday, the entire Bay was covered in a thick layer of smoke. So be careful!

A few interesting things just arrived on my desk. On is Crude: the Story of Oil by Sonia Shah, and the other is the Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in The Rhythms of Nature by Starhawk. We're lucky to have Starhawk in the area, and extremely excited that she's going to be at the Ecology Center for a book signing later this year!

Expect some thoughts on these two soon!

jill