Category — San Francisco

The other day, I hosted an organic Indian dinner for my team that I volunteered with me in Uganda with on a microfinance project. I went shopping at Rainbow Grocery, which had a wonderful array of local organic vegetables and food. I bought local cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes and onions for an aloo gobi dish; local fresh paneer (I was really surprised to find this in Rainbow Grocery!), Straus plain nonfat yogurt, organic frozen peas and organic cumin seeds and coriander for a matter paneer dish. I served this over organic basmati local rice (also from Rainbow’s bulk section) and ended the dinner with Tom’s Cookies, a local San Francisco company which sells frozen natural cookie dough. Yummy!

So I finally made it to the de Young Museum in San Francisco today. I had tried to go before during the first weekend it opened and its anniversary when they had free admission, but could never get in. The first Tuesday of each month is free admission to the de Young Museum, and almost all the other major museums in San Francisco, such as the MOMA.

I was really excited to go in the museum, especially since today was free, as the first Tuesday of May. My friend Doris and I went straight to the observation deck (see photos above) and the views were amazing! I could see downtown San Francisco, to the Golden Gate Bridge to UCSF to Ocean Beach.

We then walked around several American art exhibits and grabbed a quick bite at the de Young Cafe. Inside, they had a nice eating area, with modern design and local, organic food. I spotted yogurt from Straus Creamery, Niman Ranch meat, and local, organic farm produce. I ordered an asparagus, mushroom risotto, and my friend had a vegetarian sandwich with grilled eggplant, mozzarella cheese, and hummus on foccacia bread. To be honest, my risotto was a bit hard to eat and I wish the rice was cooked softer. I noticed that the cafe sold local organic bear ale, something I’ve never seen at a museum cafe before! We ended our tour with more exhibits, and a special showing of Vivian Westwood’s fashion designs. Definitely check this place out!

One of my friends from high school started a great food company, Hodo Soy Beanery. It’s an all organic, fresh, locally produced soy product company–from tofu, to soy milk, and special textures of soy that you typically can’t find at a market. They sell at farmers markets such as the Ferry Building in San Francisco, the Berkeley Farmers market, the Marin Farmers market and recently in Oakland and San Mateo. I’ve tried their tofu, soy milk and other products and it all tastes very fresh and light.

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.

What happens when you mix the founder of Burning Man, the founder of Odwalla, scientists, techies, organic farmers and JP Morgan as a sponsor? You get Digital Be-In: an artsy event with speakers, organic food and a party. Over 10 speakers came, with booths, drinks, and later a big party. It was definitely an eclectic mix; I couldn’t see that well in the dark, but about 200 people came to hear the speakers, and more were entering. Urth.tv did a live broadcast of the event on the internet. Here were some interesting things I saw:

• The first public unveiling of Wiser Earth, a nonprofit social networking site focused on activism and issues, very similar to Care2.com. It already has a community going and active membership.

• Urban Alliance for Sustainability, a nonprofit that focuses on environmental sustainability and building communities, was selling the Green Zebra, SF based coupon book. I took a look inside the book, and it was full of coupons from green businesses like natural food, yoga, spas, and travel. Here’s an example of a coupon inside from one of my favorite places to shop for groceries:

I bought the book for $25, and I know that I’ll already use several coupons inside that payoff the initial fee. If you’re in San Francisco or go often, I recommend buying this. But if you live outside of the city or don’t come often to the city, it won’t be worth it for you.

Other interesting talks included Autodesk’s sustainability design consulting, a group that helps design large scale things like buildings and PAX Scientific, a green research and development tech group.

To be honest, I’m not sure whether I’d go next year, I think the Green Festival and other conferences are a little more organized, but this is definitely a good attempt to get more people in the Bay Area aware of environmental issues by making it fun.

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 just got back from Africa, and am recovering from travel sickness. But am feeling almost back to normal enough to post these events! Check out free cooking demonstrations and information straight from farmers at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, sponsored by CUESA. All events take place in the Dacor teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building’s clock tower.

• Saturday, March 17 ~ Market to Table events
  10:30 am - Meet the farmer Maria Catalan of Catalan Farms
  11:00 am - Cooking demonstration & book signing Ann Cooper, Renegade Lunch Lady and author of Lunch Lessons* Books for sale courtesy of Book Passage

• Saturday, March 24 ~ Market to Table events
  10:30 am - Meet the farmer Roscoe Zuckerman of Zuckerman’s Farm
  11:00 am - Cooking demonstration & book signing Charles Vollmar of Epicurean Exchange

The Organic Trade Association has these suggestions to give as gifts during Valentine’s Day which includes organic chocolates, organic flowers and organic fibers. Here are some local ideas:

Flowers

• Flatland Flower Farm a local flower farm near the Bay Area, with ordering online
• Organic Bouquet one of the largest organic flower delivery companies
• California Organic Flowers another Californian flower grower with online shopping

Chocolates

• Dagoba Chocolates, one of the leading organic chocolate companies
• Chocolate Covered Sweets and Gifts, a local store on 3977 24th Street in Noe Valley highly recommended with organic and vegan selection