Category — Peninsula

I recently started to watch KQED’s new series, QUEST. I love this show–it’s all about the Bay Area and how we are dealing with different environmental and science issues. It’s in high definition and you can download free videos of previous episodes on their website. Some of the ones that I like include: plug-in modified hybrid cars that carry 100mpg, a biodiesel road trip from LA to San Francisco, Earth Day in the Bay Area, green building, and Silicon Valley’s investments in green technology. If you have high definition, definitely check this out. Disclaimer: I am a KQED member, but this is still an interesting show to watch.

There’s a lot going on this weekend to celebrate Earth Day. Here are some events that look interesting to me:

• The Green Apple Music and Arts Festival, a three day series of fun Earth Day events in SF
• Digital Be-In 15: Biomimicry, mixing green techies demos and talks plus food, fun and music in SF
• Earth Day Fair in Berkeley
• Plant an Earth Day Herb Garden in Palo Alto
• Spring in Guadalupe Garden in San Jose

But you can find many more events in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Earth Day listings.

With the sunny weather now in season, it’s a great time to start growing some organic plants and vegetables. I was inspired by the farms I had seen in Uganda especitlly their ability to do so much with very little AND using organic practices. Try to buy organic seeds and fertilizers for your garden. If you live in an urban area, here are some local community gardens you can use:

• Brisbane Community Garden, Brisbane
• Hayward Community Garden, Hayward
• Oakland Community Gardens, Oakland
• Garden for the Environment garden list or San Francisco Park Department Community gardens, San Francisco
• San Jose Community Gardens, San Jose

I decided it was time to change the carpet in the bedrooms. The previous owner had dogs and after trying to remove the odor of the dogs, I still had no luck. So, I started a quick hunt for environmentally friendly carpet. I wanted a low VOC carpet, one that would emit less chemicals. Wool was the preferred type (wool doesn’t emit as many VOCs into the environment, is biodegradable, and filters though nitrous oxide).

My first stop was Eco Design Resources in San Carlos, a showcase of environmentally friendly home products and green building. I found a big selection of wool carpets. But everything was too pricey. If I had made it big in a dot com, this place would definitely have furnished and decorated my entire home. The cheapest I found was $45-50/yard of wool carpet medium grade, uninstalled. This was too expensive for me.

Then I decided to go into a normal carpet store, called California Carpets in San Carlos. I walked in, and they had a ton of carpets to choose from. The sales agent was friendly and when I asked her for low VOC carpets, she quickly directed me to wool and gave me a lot of information on wool and its benefits, including a takeaway card. On sale, I found remnants of wool carpet for $40-$50/yard installed, a much better deal than Eco Design.

Finally, I walked into Home Depot just to check them out. They also had a ton of carpets, but when I went to their carpet specialist to ask for low VOC carpets, he had no idea of what I was talking about. He said he had stainmaster carpets, but didn’t understand what low VOCs were. That was too bad, because Home Depot had the cheapest selection of around $30/yard installed, but I had no clue to which ones were environmentally friendly. Talk about customer service!

I think I’ll probably go for California Carpets…it’s just too bad that the ecofriendly focused stores are so pricey, otherwise I would definitely support them.

One of my all time favorites in the Bay Area–the Rodin sculpture garden located at Stanford University. At the Cantor Arts Center, you can sip organic lemonade, have a nice organic salad at Cool Cafe, an outdoor cafe in the museum, while looking at Rodin’s famous Gates of Hell and his other works nearby. The menu is a little pricey for students, but worthwhile checking out at least once. The admission is free into the museum and there are guided tours as well. Don’t miss this place located at Stanford!

Yesterday, I got my CSA box for the month from Capay Farms’ Farm Fresh to You program. All the produce is organic and locally grown through Capay or one of their partners. I’ve been with them for about half a year and so far I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. You just let them know what box size you want, and whether you want the mix of veggies/fruits. They come and deliver straight to your door each month or week depending on your preference.

For $21.50 a box (I get the smaller box), you get 4 veggies and 2 fruits. This week I got about 1 lb of heirloom tomatoes, 2 lbs of star frinson red pears (see picture to the left), 1.5 lbs of organic grapes, 2 lemon cucumbers (never seen this before!), and organic bok choy. In the picture below, I stir fried the bok choy for dinner today in fresh ground garlic and ginger and then tossed some salt, soy sauce and sesame oil to complete the dish. Give this CSA program a try! They deliver to most of the Bay Area.

I usually throw out junk mail right away. But today I started looking at the grocery ads from my mail and was surprised at Mollie Stone’s insert. It seems like they’ve finally caught on to the buy organic, buy local campaign. In their ad for this week, they’re selling organic produce from local California farms and labeling some of the sources. $1.99/lb organic heirloom tomatoes seems like very good price (compare to Whole Foods at $3.99/lb). Although Mollie Stone’s is not my top choice of supermarkets, this is a great step and it makes me to consider stopping there. Mollie Stone’s has seven locations in the Bay Area.

Yesterday, my family and I went to a secret orchard in Cupertino where we picked fresh apples and heirloom tomatoes. This orchard is not open to the public but you can find their apples sold by Irene at the Palo Alto Farmer’s Market. Their Macintosh apples and heirloom tomatoes were delicious and much cheaper. Plus, it’s a fun and more fulfilling experience to see where the food comes from.

Here are some other locations to pick organic produce in the Bay Area:

• Gabriel Farm, Sebastopol (apples), must make reservations in advance
• Mariquita Farm, Hollister (heirloom tomatoes), Saturday, September 16
• Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch, Nicasio Square (pumpkins, strawberries) Sunday, October 8
• Web Ranch Farm, Menlo Park (berries, flowers, apples, corn)
• Swanton Berry Farm, Davenport (strawberries, olallieberries, kiwi, Christmas trees). California certified Organic Farm.

Thanks to Om Organics‘ resource directory, here are companies that deliver organic meals to your door in the Bay Area:

• Aubergine Service: Catering, meal delivery Area: San Francisco & East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, Albany & El Cerrito) p/e: 510.704.8847, joan@auberginecatering.com Specialty: Vegetarian & meat options.
• Convergence Catering Service: Catering, meal delivery Area: Bay Area p/e: 831.469.4643, converge@convergencefoods.com Specialty: Vegetarian & vegan options.
• Cook SF Service: Meal delivery Area: San Francisco p/e: 415.513.5328, info@cook-sf.com Specialty: Vegetarian and meat options. Specializing in California cuisine.
• Dining In SF Service: Meal delivery Area: San Francisco, Marin, East Bay, Peninsula p/e: 415.255.2433, traci@dininginsf.com Specialty: Vegetarian & meat options.
• Marcus Rios Service: Catering, personal chef, meal delivery Area: Bay Area p/e: 415.350.3113, marcus@chefmarcusrios.com Specialty: Customized vegetarian or meat menus
• Peal Cuisine Service: Meal delivery Area: San Francisco p/e: 415.826.2133, pealweb@gmail.com Specialty: Gourmet vegetarian & vegan options.

I always wanted to try Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park. The owner, JZ Cool, had built a series of restaurants, including the Cool Cafe at one of my favorite museums in the Bay Area, the Cantor Center at Stanford with a beautiful outdoor Rodin sculpture garden, and JZCoolEatery in downtown Menlo Park.

With my boyfriend last Friday night, we decided to go to Flea Street. Once we stepped inside, the decor felt quite homey, and service quite fast and good. We were excited to see a variety of local and organic food, and Vivek ordered a heirloom tomato fettucine (see picture) while I tried the corn seasonal soup, baby lettuce salad, and red beat harley farms goat cheese ravioli.

Out of all of these, my red beat harley farms ravioli was the most original, beautifully presented and tasty. Unfortunately, the local baby lettuce salad was quite horrible. I definitely could have made a better salad at home. Inside the salad were leaves that reminded me of weeds, the least tasty and dry lettuce leaves I have tasted in awhile. In fact, it tasted like it came out of bag. Vivek’s fettucine was so-so, but felt like it wasn’t worth the price at $19. I also felt like they did not have a lot of vegetarian entree options, which made me opt for a series of appetizers.

I think I’d go back for lunch or brunch, but not back for dinner. Of note are special farmer dinner series where you can meet the local farm workers and eat their fresh produce. Otherwise, it was a mixed review–Greens Restaurant in SF makes salads that are definitely better than this. Located on 3607 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park.

Last Thursday I went back to an organic restaurant called Sirayvah Organic Thai in San Carlos. The food presentation and organic selection was not bad. Note not everything is organic, but they used organic tofu, rice, vegetables and had a good assortment of teas and wines. Since I’m vegetarian, I tried a veggie Pad See Ew and Penang Curry with a friend Amanda, who is trying to open healthy lifestyle restaurant herself. The food came out fast, the flavor good and service very nice. The only thing I have to complain about is the prices–definitely more expensive than the usual Thai. But if you’re willing to spend a little more, I’d say give this place a try. Located on 366 El Camino Real, San Carlos.

My boyfriend and I discovered a new market near our place in San Carlos yesterday afternoon. We checked out Sigona’s, a 20 year old local market with outposts in Stanford Shopping Center and a much larger one in Redwood City, across from Costco. Once we stepped in, we were surrounded by produce everywhere shipped in daily. They clearly had organic produce labeled with reasonable pricing and selection. The only complaint I have is that I couldn’t tell which farm or region the produce came from. There were some farm names, but not consistently labeled. Located in Stanford Shopping Center, Stanford and at 2345 Middlefield Road, Redwood City.

I had been hanging out at my high school friend, Nakako’s, living room and saw a flyer for japanese groceries on the floor. I picked it up and saw alot of specials on organic tofu ($1) and organic soy sauce, and produce. She told me Japanese people naturally have a lot of organic food. I went to the Nijaya in San Francisco and San Mateo. SF is much bigger, but San Mateo still had alot of Japanese staples. Some of the things I saw organic was ginger, broccoli, soy sauce, somen, soba noodles to name a few. Nijiya is located in San Mateo, San Francisco and Mountain View.