farm books and bills

i'm loving farm together now: a portrait of people, places, and ideas for a new food movement, a book that just came out by amy franceschini and daniel tucker.

it's beautifully designed, with gorgeous photographs by anne hammersky and illustrations by corinne matesich. and the text! it consists of interviews with the hero farmers who are reinventing local food systems (plus sidebar definitions of things the farmers mention that the reader might not know about—organizations, legal acts, etc.) i've only just started reading it, but i'm already moved by these folks' wise words.

about the farm bill, the first farmer interviewed, Jim Knopik, says,

The Farm Bill—and I'll put this very bluntly, as clear as I can—is like a bull with a ring in its nose. The Farm Bill leads the farmers in whichever direction big industry wants them to go. If the Farm Bill is set up by big industry, or the big packers, or whoever has the most influence, then that's the direction the farmers will go. And that's the direction the farmers are in now in conventional farming. They are where industry and the big guys want them to be....But I do think it would be best if the change happened through the Farm Bill—a better farm bill. I think it almost has to, because it's so far out of hand. If it isn't going to happen there, I think it's going to be by a revolution.

this year i'd like to somehow get involved in the movement to get a fair farm bill.

here's the farm together now site with a great list of inspiring links.

surprise!

surprise packages, with surprise eggs inside=double delight!

bigger

take a walk with me

on this glorious SF day. (they don't get much more beautiful weather-wise.)

buy a tasty morsel at knead (second choice of treat since they're no longer making persimmon chocolate chip scones—their persimmon tree is done for the season) and use all willpower to wait until we are atop bernal hill to eat said morsel.



take a blurry photo of custardy goodness whilst a dirty white poodle tries, with poodley charm, to snatch treat.




marvel at the day! the view. the dogs of all stripes with their dog walkers.




walk over to past cortland avenue and meander by the houses...



with big numbers on their sides.



walk around holly park (which is in the shape of a circle, roughly), back to cortland avenue to see if our friend jeff is working at the video store. he is not, but the succulent part of the store has expanded into the video part and is super pretty.





talk with succulent guy in the sun. feel a bit guilty about not buying any plants from him. next time.

over to church street, through noe valley, and back over to the mission district and the corner natural foods store to buy some straus ice cream for later. soon it will be later.

here is amelie walking with the blind man.

speaking of cows

went on another hike in wildcat, but the cows didn't howl today. moo, yes. howl, no.



you would not believe how loud the frogs were in this pond/puddle. it seemed like there must have been a whole fleet of very loud frogs in there. the water was rippling with them. but as soon as jen and i got out our gadgets to document their talking, they went quiet. all at once. except for one frog, who apparently didn't get the message that it was time to be quiet. so the slow one ribbeted once more, but then silence and stillness on the water. and they didn't start up again. i was glad to hear them though as it seems i hear frogs less and less these days. there used to be frogs in the valley behind the house i grew up in. i would hear them in the evenings and at night, but no longer.

bigger, more

more old homework

bigger poster, bigger scene

while i'm at it, i'll upload some other old homework assignments to flickr. the above was for photoshop class.

my excellent photoshop teacher loved (and presumably still loves) shocking/twisted/gross images; he often has as an assignment portray your fear (real or fake) and include yourself in the scene. the results generally are blood and guts-filled. because i knew i'd be staring at it for a while, and i preferred not to be spending hours zooming in on snake scales or the like, i chose a fake fear: fear of woodland creatures. (who doesn't love woodland creatures—aside from those woodland snakes?)

for the above assignment, we were to create a persuasive political/topical poster and then include the poster in a scene. my poster was about (surprise!) sustainable agriculture and industrial agriculture: sacred cow vs. mad cow. in the scene, the independent farmer (my classmate) is vanishing in a wasteland, america's heartland soil dead from the destructive farming methods employed by industrial ag.

the poster is another piece of mine that i didn't like at the time. i thought the poster was too literal. it is pretty literal, with a lot of text, but now i can see that it is also emotional/powerful—i feel sick about that poor jailed cow (even though it's not showing the actual brutality of a CAFO) {which again, i didn't want to stare at for hours while completing the assignment, and which would have been even more literal}).

new to read, to listen, to see anew

love it when i am excited about my reading list:

housekeeping by marilynne robinson
the devil's teeth by susan casey
a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan
i know you're out there by michael beaumier
freedom by jonathan franzen
by nightfall by michael cunningham

and got some new (to me) music from the library—the latest the national album.

i say it again: the public library is where it's at.

since i have no new photos to post, i'm posting the above stamp i made over a year ago for an illustrator class assignment (stamps about a social/political issue). at the time, i didn't like my stamp compared to my classmates' stamps, which were much more technically advanced. but i found it printed out at stamp size recently, and now i think it's pretty cute. i wouldn't mind getting it on an envelope.

my seed saving US stamp rant:

This stamp commemorates and encourages seed saving and trading. Seeds connect us to our heritage and to an unbroken chain of people who have saved seeds over hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years. Immigrants from all over the world have brought their countries’ seeds with them to the United States, preserving and integrating a vital part of their cultures into the greater American culture.

Seeds that have been selected and saved over generations possess an invaluable genetic heritage and are often specifically adapted to the region in which they have been sown. Multinational agrochemical corporations are attempting to control seed supply worldwide, buying out smaller seed companies, dropping the regionally-adapted seeds and instead selling and distributing a select number genetically modified hybrid seeds and patented seeds, rendering the saving of their seeds useless and/or illegal and significantly diminishing the genetic diversity of seeds. By protecting seed diversity through the free saving and exchange of seeds, we honor those before us and protect ourselves, our culture(s), our future and life on earth.

colors and colors

annie of ALL for everyone makes me excited about color! the hat and tags above are from ALL knitwear.

the thing that looks like a matchbook above is a little pad of paper from krank press (also so colorful). i LOVE krank press' produce calendar, which shows you what to plant and what foods are in season to eat, while being pretty.

now this looks cozy and winter wonderlandish.

i am thinking about new year's resolutions. often i don't really make any, but this year i feel like making some. changes are in order!

getting darker

and darker. soon though, it will start getting lighter.

congratulations to ELK—you won the giveaway!

thanks all for checking out the book and for entering your names, veggies and books into the mix!

kale lovers unite

pinky leon on the heater and me reminding you (with a postcard) to enter to win a From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens book

i can't believe how many of you love kale. for all you kale fanatics, i made this delicious kale salad for thanksgiving. it's so good. my housemate, heather, turned me on to 101 cookbooks. lots of yummy recipes to be found there.

so this weekend i pull a name out of a hat, but there's still time to enter to win a book (until midnight tonight)! thanks for playing along, vegetable lovers. and thank you for the orders of late. i'll announce the winner on monday.

this week i saw low at the great american music hall. they were so in sync with each other. such perfect restraint and belting out. fantastic! when i go deaf.

santa's, i mean diana's workshop

there she is at the top in her red skirt, figuring. diana's studio is filled with shapes. it makes me hungry to look at them all. delicious in every way. and then there's the texture and the evidence of her drawing hand everywhere.

flowers spilling over the brim. an animal in black hiding underneath a bowl. cups lined up in rows. some wildness and some order—the best combo.

good things you want to touch and hold and look at and eat out of.

more (and bigger) photos of diana's studio here.

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remember to enter my book giveaway!

holiday giveaway!

i'm giving away of a copy of From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens—happy holidays! to enter to win the book, leave a comment by december 17. if you feel like it, tell me your favorite vegetable or the name of a good book. (if you don't have a website, please leave your email so that i have a way to contact you.) the winner will be chosen at random. good luck!

i put a ton more photos of the book here.
learn more about the book and the contributors here.

if you're purchasing a book, i'll be shipping them out through december 21 (and then again starting december 28).

cheers!
shash

that's my former housemate and completely awesome, beautiful woman, Tamara, in the bottom photo. she wrote a wonderful piece for the book. in her story, Long Live Negrita!, Tamara weaves together several memories. she recalls gleaning walnuts as a child in the orchard her grandfather managed, how some years ago, working with plants helped her recover from a terrible loss, and how more recently, she created a garden with the children at the public housing development library she manages in Hawaii.

into the holiday winter spirit

with some homemade glögg and kanel bullar (above)

wintery photo goodness
so cozy
reindeer
trees

goodness
i like sunken treasure's moon calendar and prismatic print shop's astrology calendar.
maria's come darkness scarves and book (scroll down) look gorgeous.
hanna konola's holiday cards

thanksgiving moments

looking at where the zip line from jen and bob's new house to nicole and jayn's future house will go—from the palm tree of course. i love this photo. bob imagining, nicole listening, kevin laughing.


feets


jen preparing delicious appetizers on the wedgewood (jealous) stove


makeshift dining room

it's so fun to see the transformation of jen and bob's house. every time i go over there, a ton of stuff has changed. that place is going to be SO awesome. i look forward to the day when it's close to done (guessing it will never be entirely done as there is always another project), and all of their fabulous art collection hangs throughout. it will be the coziest gallery (serving the yummiest treats), i've ever been to.

november

finally it feels like november in san francisco. last night a thunder, lightning, pouring rain storm passed over, leaving the air clear and crisp today. up on bernal hill, even off in the distance one could see the distinct shapes and colors of the houses lining the hills and streets. the wind blew cold, and the dampened ground made the green grass smell grassy. smelled like winter. i was glad to be bundled in scarf and jacket.

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i really wish i was going to the loney dear concert in göteborg dec 3.

there is a sweet and delicate art show up at rare device right now. it's sarah mcneil's work. her drawings remind me a little of beatrix potter's illustrations.

holiday special

photo by jen hewett

For your foodie friends, your sustainable agriculture-interested friends, your arty friends, your grandparent-adoring friends, your gardening friends and for family members you want to pressure (ever so subtly) into moving away from eating so many processed foods—

now through December 31, 2010, you can purchase From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens: Art and rememberings celebrating sustainable agriculture and good food for just $25! (5$ off the regular price)

The book is a coffee table book with beautiful artwork, and it has some meat (or really, mostly vegetables and fruit) to it in the form of non-fiction writing and poetry. More info and a list of artists and writers included in the book can be found on the website.

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I'm starting to think about making my annual Pinky Leon holiday cards.
Here are some sweet cards for inspiration/purchase:

Shanna Murray's
Lena Sjöberg's (in Swedish)
Anna Emilia's
Gemma Correll's
Anke Weckmann's

(I know there were more cards I wanted to link to, but now I can't find them.)

Lightening is striking now, so time to get off of the computer!

jam for the people

shakirah simley, one of the contributors to my book, started and runs slow jams from la cocina, here in SF. her delicious preserves change along with the seasons. she can't keep her wares on her online shelves, they're so popular! i found these at bi-rite grocery. can't wait to try the brown suga pear butter. mmm.

(i think the graphic design for her treats is rad too.)

find a great interview with shakirah over at lettuce eat kale.

now, time for toast!

pdx ♥

from a fabulous portland weekend

so good, it canceled out losing the hat i had just special ordered to replace my other recently lost hat, flying (this is huge), watching a movie so bad we walked out of it, and being accosted/harassed by four drunks (on separate occasions).

some good parts
leaves in many shapes and colors (one that danced and flew like a bird)
a street where cats of all shapes and colors greeted passersby
little winter, a fantastic, small handmade market, so thoughtfully organized, with beautiful wares and art
unexpectedly running into jenny and her sister at little winter
so much good food and drink at clyde commons and at broder
so many friendly people (at little winter and at every restaurant and store we went to)
not very much rain, and quite a bit of sunshine
jen and liz and crazy giggling and talking talking eating talking walking

my photos
jen's photos

spinning from the metal

grateful for

midnight colored packages tied with twine, colored with a story of annamaria painting in canada. so much is curvy-curly in her world—birds, clouds, vegetables. (how appropriate that she wears a blouse with scalloped sleeves.) and inside the package, a rainy watercolor soaked in weather. her clouds roll heavy with water into my house.

laura veirs singing last night

looking forward to portland's little winter: a handmade market and to spending time with two friends, one of whom who will soon be leaving san francisco for colorado. a bittersweet weekend. we will eat a lot of good food.

sarah jessica parker in LA story in constant motion—(on the beach) is it ok to spin here?

(which of course reminds me of THE best spinning-related scene in a movie ever)

ice cream party

bay area people: come over for some ice cream this saturday!

this morning

bigger

all the rest waiting for the sun.

(i take this backyard photo all the time.)

yellow
from heather smith jones
from annamaria

web (the real kind)

at Gravel & Gold

i like that From OFG is right by one of my favorites, Gunta Stolzl.

the other day i stopped in at Gravel & Gold to document From OFG on their shelves, and Cassie, one of the store owners, happened to be talkin' it up with Severine von Tscharner Fleming! and introduced me (and the book) to Severine! Severine is an articulate and groovy young badass farmer-filmmaker-activist, for those unfamiliar with her. i missed the recent screening of the final rough cut of her film, The Greenhorns, but i will definitely not miss the undoubtedly awesome final version.

view part of the film

grey/green

our overflowing yard was cut to the quick recently. our downstairs neighbor takes care of the yard sporadically. i'm not complaining—no one else takes the time. but this last flurry/fury of clipping and trimming and weeding left the yard seemingly barren. the huge quince tree (a favorite of the birds and bees) was sheared in half and totally de-leaved. and my favorite rose bush is nowhere in sight. and my housemate's blueberry bush was transferred from a pot to the yard, though she had it in special soil.

i've actually been avoiding taking a close look at the damage. but on this grey day, the greens were so bright, i had to check them out. well, of course francisco does have a plan. there are new things planted, and they are spaced evenly around the edges of our concrete slab. succulents are being succulent, and a new pint-sized gargoyle in permanent roar watches over the growing. i still don't know how the tree or white rosebush will do, but i trust that the yard needed a makeover and that francisco has a vision.

more, bigger over here

sigur rós today: gong

beautiful photos of mostly bay area artists. found through serena's blog.