Did Someone Say, Homemade Bagels and Strawberry Jam?

admin | May 2, 2012

Have you ever asked a child what part of the chicken is the nugget? I can guarantee there would be some very clever responses from our little ones. In a society full of choices, food should be a simple one. Farm to Fork is a program at The Ecology Center that is a perfect opportunity to bring awareness to kids and empower them in the kitchen. Even better- it is fun, messy and always tasty!  With that said, it is with great pleasure that we introduce our new instructor, Head Chef Erika Tucker of The Cellar in San Clemente. Just to get better acquainted, we asked Erika a few silly and general questions…

Favorite meal of the day?
Breakfast! More specifically crepes with French brie and orange butter.

Why did you choose to be a chef?
It was either professional race car driver or chef. I chose the latter but still pretend I’m both.

What brings you to The Ecology Center other than your love of food and children?
My dear friend Jeff was the one to bring me over.. immediately I fell in love with the entire concept of the center and wanted to be a part of it.  I would come here as a kid when it was an empty lot for pumpkin patches and produce stands. Very special to see what it has evolved into today.

Why do you feel that it is so important to buy local/fresh?
Where do I start? The concept of buying local is all too underappreciated in my opinion. Though obvious that transporting food long distances uses a tremendous amount of energy, why must there be such a strong demand for it? By adding processing and transportation to the equation we are adding a significant and unnecessary amount of stress to the environment. The fewer steps it takes to get your food from the farm to your table the better. Not to mention the fact that local food tastes better! The crops are picked at their peak and are much fresher and nutrient packed.

If you could teach the kids of Farm to Fork one thing…what would it be?
Not to be intimidated to cook at home! To be able to use kitchen tools, knives and equipment safely and effectively. After they get that, the possibilities are endless as to what they can make.

Say I was headed out for date night at The Cellar…Any new creations at The Cellar we shouldn’t miss?
Yes! Chocolate filled beniets with cherry jam.

What clever way would you get kids to eat their vegetables?
I think bringing them here to the farm or any local garden and having them interact with the produce will give them a better appreciation and less negative outlook on vegetables. Having them pull a carrot out of the ground and making carrot bread with it. That’s special. Some fun seasonal recipes with vegetables that I’m making in my kitchen now include carrot and zucchini bread, carrot soup with mango honey, fresh basil and thyme infused lemonade, and a spring vegetable quiche.

Thank you Erika! We can’t wait to see what you will be creating in the months to come.

There is still time! Be sure to join us this weekend for Farm to Fork, Saturday, May 5th from 10:30-12. On the menu:   Homemade Bagels and Strawberry Jam.  Mmmm.

Calling All Gardeners

admin | April 24, 2012

It is most certainly garden time!  Come get refreshed on the benefits of composting in our
Tools of the Trade workshop this coming weekend April 28th, 1-3pm.  In addition to learning composting basics,  you can reap the benefits of our compost efforts and stock up on seedlings to take home to grow your own.

Tools of the Trade: Compost Production and Use
April 28th, 1-3pm
Cost: Free

Hurley Posts an Interview with Evan Marks

admin | April 13, 2012

Here is what Hurley wrote…..

Evan Marks checks in to give us the scoop on this year’s festivities at The Ecology Center. Read on below and be sure to join us Saturday, April 14th for some Earth Day fun.

Hurley.com: Hey, Evan. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s going on at the center on Saturday?

Evan Marks: We’ve planned an exciting scavenger hunt that will be fun for the whole family. Beginning at the palm tree where a Barn Owl lives, friends and family can dissect the pellets to better understand the lives and habits of our winged friends. The rambling journey proceeds through all five of the Center’s Eco Labs to give you a chance to explore The Water Shed, plant seeds, feed the chickens, observe a working farm and much more. To top it off, organic food and drinks will be offered, including a mouth savoring menu of “Mex-eco” fromLa Sirena Grill and other goodies like refreshments from Sambazon , VitaCoco, Guayaki andKéan Coffee. Also, Moonsville Collective will play their lively Bluegrass music that will be sure to get you up on your feet. Just in time for the gardening season, the Spring Plant and Seed Sale features organic heirloom vegetable and herb starts, available exclusively at The Ecology Center.

What’s up with the Hobie installation?
We have had the honor to partner and collaborate with local friends and advocates to make this Earth Day unforgettable. As usual, we’ve partnered up with Hurley to co-brand our We Are Earth Day tees. Mobile veggie gardens have been planted and distributed around town to our key partners, Hurley, Yoga Works, La Sirena Grill, Hobie Surf Shops and about a dozen restaurants. Our goal is to inspire everyone to grow their own!

How can people get involved?
To celebrate and support our collective effort, each participant will be asked to pledge an action like growing a veggie garden, conserving water, or riding a bicycle. From there, The Ecology Center will help make these pledges a reality by keeping in touch with you, offering solutions and encouragement throughout the year.

Thank you Hurley for your continued support and the shout out!!!

Grow Your Own!

admin | April 4, 2012

Have you ever grown your own?  Ever served your own vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes?  Have you ever flavored a family meal with herbs straight from the earth in your own backyard?

Now is YOUR time to grow your own!
Annual Seedling and Veggie Box Sale

We are Earth Day- April 14th,  10am to 4pm

Welcome Peggy and Marge!

admin | March 30, 2012

Welcome Peggy and Marge!

Marge, an Ameraucana chicken, dark in color- A.K.A  the Easter Egger will hopefully be laying by the end of summer beautiful green or blue eggs!

Peggy, our French Black Copper Maran is the lighter of the two and is known for laying chocolate eggs…color that is.

Meet the rest of the crew…

Red, our handsome rooster always looks over his ladies.  Such a provider!  He actually picks out the bugs and leave them for the girls to eat.  So sweet!

Sweet Carmen, Red’s favorite; a passive peacemaker who actually was born here at The Ecology Center.

Heidi, our black and white chicken is always dressed for a party, sporting her fancy pant suit.  Sweet natured too!

Oh…and our Addy. Every coop needs a little drama, she keeps everyone looking over their shoulder.  In the end though, we love her just the same.  She is family!

Want to start raising your own chickens?  Mark your calendar for our  FREE Tools of the Trade workshop on Backyard Chicken Basics- May 12th, 1-3pm hosted by our very own Vicki Marks.

For those of you who can’t wait! Here are  a few rules to know before you get started:

•The following cities do not allow chickens: Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, and Laguna Niguel.

•San Clemente and Dana Point allow 6 chickens without a permit, but they must be housed 100’ away from other residential structures.

•San Juan Capistrano allows chickens without a permit on a lot over 15,000 sq. ft.
•Laguna Beach has the most lenient codes that require that the chickens be confined, not roaming and that the coop kept in a clean and sanitary condition.

Note:  Be sure to check with your HOA to see whether they have restrictions. It’s always good to check with your neighbors, too.

Plant Dye Workshop Captured on Camera

admin | March 23, 2012

They say a picture says a thousand words….So what does this gallery of photos say?!

Gorgeous! Amazing!  Fun! Inspiring!

Last Saturday we had the honor of having Kristin Morrison of Colour Plantae teach us the art of dying with plants and flowers taken from just outside our doors.  Kristin walked us through the basic steps of natural dying and then let us experiment on our own.  Harvested from both our grounds here at The Ecology Center and her ventures through her own community in San Clemente we learned that art supplies do not have to be ordered through a catalog but can be found all around us in nature.   Thank you Kristin for an amazing workshop and for sharing your talents with our community here at The Ecology Center!

For more photos see to our flickr account.
Need more info: Feel free to see Kristin’s short version on “How To” use Plant-Based Dye.
…and special thanks to Scott Sporleder for capturing all of our wonderful moments on camera.

Water Down the Drain

admin | March 21, 2012

Have you ever mapped out exactly where the water from your faucet really comes from?  Wondered how complicated the process is to get it to your home?  What about where it really goes when it literally, “goes down the drain”? Given thought as to how much water we need as a household, a city, a state, or just our country alone? 

As for myself, water has always seemed so easy to come by.  It is at my disposal, whenever, and however much I need just comes right out of the tap or hose.  If  my water source allow me as much as I want, then there must be enough for everyone?  That is the general consensus. Right?

Unfortunately, water may seem to be easy and extremely accessible to us but for most of our world, access to clean drinkable water is hard to come by and most certainly, not  going down a drain.  It is important to remember while turning on our faucets, access does not mean excess.  We need to be good stewards of our resources; water especially.

A few things to consider:

Your washing machine has a pump that discharges graywater from the wash cycle to a standpipe that carries it to the municipal water system and away from your home.  That’s a shame because the thing about graywater is, you pay for it once, but you can use it twice. Why not keep graywater around and use it to give your lawn or garden a nice drink? With a few basic materials, you’ll be conserving cash and water in no time.

Just by harvesting the rain from your roof, you could possibly water everything you want when you want it in your yard. Harvesting rain reduces storm water runoff, provides high quality irrigation water from your garden and lowers your utility bills. But best of all…That water happens to be FREE!

So where do we start or even begin to learn?  Join us on March 24th at 1pm.  Our very own Director and founder, Evan Marks will be hosting a FREE, “Tools of the Trade” workshop on Household Water Retrofitting. Specifically Evan will be cover how to design simple water re-use strategies for the home and how to install both a rainwater catchment system and a greywater system.

Craving more information? Learn more water facts and be sure to reserve your spot for this upcoming Saturday.

Recap on Bee Talk and Tasting

admin | March 15, 2012

Another Tools of the Trade workshop success!!!! Whether people came to get a deeper understanding of our lady bees or it was simply for the sweet honey tasting- it was an incredible turnout for The Ecology Center.

Thank you everyone who came and thank you Diane. As always, we are so incredibly appreciative for offering up you time and sharing your wealth of experience and knowledge.

For anyone who missed the bee talk- here is the handout with some great resources.

The next Tools of the Trade will be on Saturday, March 24th from 1-3pm. This class will be hosted by our very own director, Evan Marks on Household Water Retrofitting – Greywater and Rainwater. Be sure to reserve your spot now!

Celebrate World Water Day! Thursday 3/22

admin | March 14, 2012

Southern California's water pathwayWater. We wash our hands in it. Shower our plants with it. Bathe ourselves and our clothes in it. We drink it all day long. But, do you know that the majority of the world does not have access to clean, drinkable water, let alone have it coming from every spigot in their home?

The lack of this basic need in the world has been such a concern for the UN that they designated March 22 as “International World Water Day” back in 1993. Since then, countries all over the world have focused energy and advocacy in March to raise awareness about freshwater and water stewardship. This year, The Ecology Center is bringing World Water Day to Orange County along with our partners at Hurley International, and we want you to join in.

“When somebody dies from lack of clean water, it’s so senseless because there are solutions… water is life” – Jon Rose, founder of Waves for Water.

We will start our day at Hurley HQ for a Water Summit with global clean water advocates Waves for Water, whose mission is to get clean water to every person who needs it. The Ecology Center will have The Water Shed on-site at Hurley, and we are thrilled to get to present and again share our interactive, educational exhibit with the sponsor who made it possible. Employees from Hurley, Waves for Water, and TEC will participate in a skill-share series to cross train each other in water advocacy and ecologically-sustainable practices such as container gardening.  We’re grateful to our friends at Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine of Irvine, Sambazon of San Clemente, and Kean Coffee of Newport Beach for their participation with us!

From there, we and The Water Shed head to Huntington Beach High School from noon-1pm to engage the student body there with what they can do for World Water Day.  Students will have the chance to see how much water their everyday actions consume, and then learn skills and simple choices that can make a huge impact on their water consumption. We’ll also be encouraging students to make a pledge to take their water usage seriously by choosing a specific action that they can do to make every day World Water Day.

After that, we are excited to bring World Water Day to YOU at the Nike/Hurley/Converse concept store 225 Forest in Laguna Beach from 4-7pm for The Water Shed demo’s and participation with Hurley’s H2O program.  Everyone is welcome to join us to learn about water stewardship and also to Print Your Own Hurley Tee in honor of World Water Day.  (A nominal fee will be charged for the tees – all sales will go toward good water efforts.)

So mark your calendars for next Thursday, March 22, from 6-8pm.  Join us in the evening for functional fun and entertaining education, and think about what YOU can do about your water consumption. Need a place to start? Visit our Water Resources page to learn about water safety and good stewardship.

Pledge online or in person to make every day World Water Day, and we’ll help you stick to your pledge with information, encouragement, and next steps!

Powered by Hurley H2O

Q & A with Plant-Alchemist, Kristin Morrison

admin | March 13, 2012

Dyeing or more likely, tie dying may be something we remember from summer camp as kids or maybe an inexpensive way to liven up our wardrobe back in college or high school. Regardless, everyone has an image that comes to mind when mentioning dying, but what comes to mind when we mention, natural organic dyes? Would you believe that the very plants or even bugs in your own backyard could produce the most intense colors to dye with? They can!  It is so intriguing to me the rich colors that we have been given from the most unexpected  things around us.  It is yet another wonder of nature.

Kristin Morrison of Colour Plantae has kindly offered to walk us through the art of making and using plant based dyes this next weekend, March 17th from 1-3pm. I can guarantee most of you will be amazed, inspired and determined to share your new craft with everyone you know!

So Kristin Morrison in order to entice our friends, will you answer a few questions like…

What prompted you to take an interest in the art of organic dyeing?

Well, I should preface with, I LOVE color.  All colors!  I studied fashion design previously and have always been head over heels for textiles.    I was actually going to do a tie-dye class at The Ecology Center years ago and a woman who grew up on “The Farm”, the intentional community in Tennessee, introduced me to dyeing with cochineal.  She knew how to harvest and process cochineal.  Besides design, I have a keen interest in herbology and have studied a bit of Chinese Medicine, for me the process of botanical dyeing is the synergy of art meeting science/botany, so a perfect outlet for me!  I am mostly self-taught, but have taken workshops with master dyer BJo Trimble and also Sasha Duerr up in Northern California.

What sorts of things do you dye, is it just fabric?  Do you use other materials to create different effects?

Yes, for sure.  I love using industrial objects to create a resist; there is something beautiful about the juxtaposition of metal and plants; urban versus nature.  I experiment with everything now from shoes, to wood and paper.  My next project is marbling with plant dye/ink.

What are a few plants or organic materials you dye with?  Is there anything you should not dye with?

Well…. there are so many!   I have harvested wild fennel, eucalyptus, sour grass, roses, scabiosa  flower (my new favorite!), elderberry, cabbage and the list goes on.  As far as materials not to use…I am weary of any “old-timey” mordants, i.e., chromium, tin, copper, etc., they are not necessary and can be highly toxic.  I really only use alum and occasionally, some iron and natural tannin to fast color.

Where do you find or harvest your dye sources from?

Around the San Clemente area where I live, I can forage quite a bit.  I will be gathering goodies from The Ecology Center garden for the workshop!

Do you have a funny story about the time when…. maybe something unexpected happened?

Oh yes, tons of stories!  After all, this is very much an experimental art; there are so many variables.  I once made a scarf for a friend’s birthday.  I decided to use lemon to bleach out some shapes in the fabric.  The resist was beautiful at first, but after an hour, it had bleached the entire scarf!  I learned from that one.

Simply put, why dye organic?

In the fashion industry, synthetic dye houses are one of the most destructive wheels in the system.  The effluent (run-off) from a synthetic dye bath is as toxic as anything.  The volume of water it takes to run a dye house is completely un-sustainable.  Even botanical dyes should be used in moderation to not upset the intricate balance of nature…. but in general, you can at least re-use the dye bath and then water your garden with the exhausted liquor.

What would you recommend someone do, other than take your class, if they wanted to explore the art of natural dying even more?

I would say, keep up and continually experiment with all sorts of veggies, fruits and plant matter.  I would definitely recommend Sasha Duerr’s book:  “The Handbook of Natural Plant Dye” and also “Harvesting Colour” by Rebecca Burgess; they are both inspirational ladies!

With all of that said- It is going to be a fantastic workshop and we cannot wait!  Be sure to sign-up now as space is limited.  Each guest will be able to dye there very own handkerchief and Kristin has also told us we can bring in a few extra things to dye from home if there is any dye left.

Definitions for those of us learning…
Cochineal-The dried bodies of a female scale insect, which are crushed to yield a red dye. (Believe it or not!)
Alum- A colorless astringent compound  in solution medicinally and in dyeing and tanning.

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