On New Ground

If it weren't for my wonderful friend  Britt Bravo , I might never have started this blog. But Britt made it easy as pie with her  Juicy Blogging eCourse . So, I wanted to let the world know that she is offering her great class again at the end of June! The course lasts for one month and can take you from blog illiterate to expert in no time. Or, if you already have a blog, the class can help you gain focus, style and more readers. If you know of someone who might be interested, pass the word along. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Last December, eyes glazed over from teaching a semester of writing to 100 undergrads, I walked into a fancy shoe store in downtown San Francisco , tried on these amazing, red boots and bought them. For $250 dollars. Or rather, I charged them. Strange things happen to your mind at the end of the term. I was feeling haggard, and everyone in the store told me I should have them—and not just the salespeople! So, I took them home, feeling propped up by my purchase, tried them on one more time and then came to my senses. I returned them a couple days later. Just last week, at the end of the spring semester, I wandered bleary eyed, again, into a department store this time, and bought these. It was the same thing all over again: red boots, other customers in the store told me I had to get them, and I took that as a sign that clearly, I should have some variation of a stylish red, cowboy boot. And these were $100 less than the last pair! Still, the same thing occurred: I brought

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend time with two very special mothers: mine and big mama nature. We took my mom to the University of California Botanical Gardens , which grows an extraordinary collection of plants from all over the world. The plants are organized by region, and walking through the different landscapes is like going on the It’s A Small World ride of the plant kingdom. We began in Southern  Africa and saw some of the most bizarre and coolest plants. This cycad looked like it had a pineapple base, succulent  leaves and a pine cone growing out of the middle. Apparently, cycads, which are scarce now, used to  dominate the landscape during dinosaur times. This sweet plant from the western cape province of South Africa  had little Christmas tree lights around the edges of its leaves. This one, from Namibia, was a little intense. The we moved on to the Mediterranean... At first I thought this plant from southern Europe was  covered in

Last weekend, two of my favorite activities came together: yoga and growing food. (Yes, I’m from Berkeley .) As part of a year-long yoga immersion I’m participating in, a group of about 20 of us aspiring yogis went on a daylong retreat to Fully Belly Farm , located northwest of Sacramento in the Capay Valley .  While practicing yoga outside for the first time was completely invigorating—it’s hard not to feel peaceful with the sun hitting your mat, the wind moving through the walnut trees and the birdies chiming up above—I was secretly eager to explore the farm. Full Belly produces fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers, herbs, wool from sheep: a true bounty of biodiversity, all of which contribute to the equilibrium of the farm, the ability of the farm to (re)generate what it needs, when it needs it. No bees trucked in from distant lands here. This equanimity was something we were striving for in our yoga practice, too. In fact, that was sort of the whole point: to visit

An interesting article was published yesterday about the challenges of rapid development in the Honduran coffee industry. Farmers are now growing more coffee than they can process. The article states, "... if Honduras cannot improve infrastructure fast enough, quality could fall below standards demanded by exporters."  Read more here .

Last January, my boyfriend and I visited Honduras . Since my boyfriend works in the coffee industry, the purpose of our trip was twofold: to visit a few coffee farms and vacation on the beach. While we simply chose Honduras because it had both of these things, it turned out our timing was pretty good. Honduras is extremely dedicated to developing its coffee industry right now: at the US ’s largest coffee convention recently held in Portland (where else?), Honduras was not only the featured country, but both the President and Vice President of Honduras were in attendance. After spending a night in San Pedro Sula, the two of us were picked up by Omar Rodriguez, the manager of Capucas Coffee , a coffee cooperative of roughly 100 members, located in western Honduras. Over the course of two days, Omar introduced us to a handful of farmers, most of whom were masters of sustainability. Their practices were partly out of necessity (in a place where families burn fires in the kitchen