I was present for a green business meeting hosted by BTG this Tuesday. The focus was food waste and the ways to improve. Bella Napoli is a family restaurant that thrives off of the threads of relationships it has weaved throughout the years. Bella Napoli is more than a conversation or one plate of pasta. It is a moment we share together that gets us through the lesser days. Behind these moments are the details of the work place. Making lists, ordering products, organizing, prepping, serving, and of course loving. There is however more to our story, and that story continues in our trash bins. As much as a passing smile can carry itself through the day, so too does our trash carry itself way beyond our bins. Food waste is one of our beautiful problems. Sending food to the landfill creates methane. Creating a conversation about composting the wasted, and donating the left overs is not only something we can benefit from as a family who cares about their ho...
Posts
I have landscaped for over 10 years ranging from residential to commercial. I have worked heavy machinery to weeding of yards. I have worked in teams to plant thousands of mature plants, irrigation, 10 foot trees, weed barrier, mulch. I have worked by myself, bare hands, leveling a foot of dirt, loading/unloading trucks with hundreds of pounds of rock, dirt, mulch, plants. I am effective in my time. I am educated in what stays and what goes. I know the details in spacing, depth, light, water, nutrition. I not only plant with power, i plant with love. I personally speak to the flowers and the worms and I tell them thank you. My belief is not in a perfect yard but a healthy yard. I believe in native plants and a couple of weeds, I support and specialize in butterfly gardens, rain gardens, and of course gardens. I love beautiscaping but I love even more educating on topics of soil health, native plants, and yards that support eco systems vs work against th...
Tuesday morning- April 24th I will be traveling with a Orion down the west coast with a final destination of Arizona. Orion works for a farm to table concept called SweetGreen. He builds personal relationships with the farmers to learn their system and values. We will be leaving San Francisco and visit farms throughout the west coast and the south states. Orion and I begin on the road this morning towards a mushroom farm , high production high scaled. I want to focus on the education aspect of this but I can’t help pulling an emotional human experience with it. Orion and I visit Global Mushroom. Most everything is automated. Our guy Chris tells us that before they expanded he told the boss man about automation. Implementing this system into an old system doesn’t work. You can’t stop production to create a new way. You need to expand in to a new system as to make the old system obsolete. The equipment mixes, weighs, drops the agricultural waste into wooden crat...
Carbon Storage sinks trees soil 1% leaves 40% trunks/branches 45% soil/organic matter 13% roots 1%debris Total soil carbon ecosystem storage around 80tons /acre Plants grow by making sugar(carbohydrates) from carbon dioxide (co2+h20)- sharing theses sugars with soil microbes who in exchange feed the plant. Sugars- fed to mycorrhizal fungi which give minerals Fungi attach to roots to exchange in a symbiotic relationship. The relationship builds better soil with aggregates to maintain moisture by a sticky protein called glomain(soil carbon) Feeding bacteria colonies whose enzymes break soil into nutrients.` Plastic is made from PETROLEUM, derived from petroleum > these raw finite materials come from a “Cracking process”- breaking hydrocarbons- oil- a carbon rich material. Polymers are made up of carbon hydrogen (links of monomers) 2015. 9.1 billion tons ^ of plastic have been produced since 1950. Those are still in our environmen...
Re-cap on Bay Area Applied Mycology Monday night at Omni Commons in Oakland Ca. Large group, many first timers. Discussion ran around scheduling hikes to go check on current fungi based projects. One such project is to monitor eucalyptus tree stumps that have been inoculated with mycelium. This is to test strength of mycelium in breaking down the stump and reusing new sprouts vs commercial chemicals which are a hazard to wildlife. A march for science in April, BAAM is approved to set up a mushroom booth to sell product and raise funds. Mike directed the meeting while Jill, who has a degree in mycoremediation requested help teaching kids about mushrooms. Seth, who works the lab in the omni commons in Oakland, talked about pay for teaching mycelium workshops to raise funds as well as hold an income. Great collaboration among fellow BAAM members. Within the Omni Commons there are dozens of groups working to make the world a better place. From Free Access to WiFi, open source...
I just awoke , Thursday at 1am, from a dream that had my focus and attention. When i have panic attacks, I feel as if Olivia as i know her is fading away. In my dreams however she remains real and conciously present. The dream is a Birdseye view of the highways, all the traffic in the rain, slowly making its way. I hear Elon musk speaking, he says soon there will be off ramps where pods are stored. Soon automation will be the main form of movement... My history and love of Jpods (an alternative transportation system) comes into my mind. I find myself parked on the side of the road in the piece of shit honda my mother owns. Two absolute chunk ugly cars pull up next to me. The first car is filled with a family of 4, the fathers energy calls to me. A second car, same situation. I turn around in my backseat, to where i have somehow manifested both fathers. I look them both in their eyes and say “We are all here for a purpose “ i squeeze my eyes tight as i feel ...
When I left public high school, I found myself searching for education in nontraditional ways. This desire led me to volunteering.. I have been an avid volunteer for over 12 years. This is not for curriculum or requirements, I volunteer because it's the most direct action I can take. Donating money is the next best thing, but it's a dry exchange that limits engagement and ability to see where the help* goes. I began with recycling events, tree planting, invasive plant removal, and recycling education. These events and actions put me face to face with my community and my communities core issues regarding consumption, waste, and pollution. It's a practice to do something for nothing. These days instant gratification in social media or consumption leaves us hungry and hopeless to do something that pays off for future gain. To invest in the future may leave our hands empty for now, but the payoff is always greater than the initial handout.