The 10th annual Los Angeles Triathlon will be held Sunday, 10/4, beginning at some ungodly early hour 7:15am, and the athletes will be riding their bikes east down Venice Blvd from the ocean all the way to Fairfax for hours after that, so you won’t be able to drive across. In fact, I wouldn’t even try running across, if I were you. (These athletes are pretty serious.) Be sure to check out the course maps here and make all the necessary arrangements if you need to get north or east in a car.
Stately.
Today’s shopper is Jaclyn Mullen, who calls herself a “Jaclyn Of All Trades”. She writes for Hollywire.com and YourDailyThread.com, and in her spare time she does marketing consulting for small businesses. She credits the juice recipe she’s going to share with us as the source of all her energy. I need some of that!
Jaclyn’s Juice: 
She uses one of those major juicer machines and adds 2-3 apples, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber, 
about 2 inches of ginger, 
and 2 tablespoons of aloe vera juice. It makes about 12-14 ounces and she starts her day with it. Thanks, Jaclyn!
New at the market today: Please welcome Givens Farms from Goleta! All organic and gorgeous produce.
Saturday, October 3rd, Mar Vista park holds its annual Fall Festival, and this year’s theme is Green!
The festival runs from 10am to 4pm, and there will be bouncy houses, face painting, games, prizes, an art show, a Kidz Go Green Zone, booths with Eco solutions, products and info, and live entertainment all day long. Food and drinks will be sold, or you can bring your own picnic.
Mar Vista Park, 11430 Woodbine Street, LA 90066. For more information, check out their website, MarVistaGoesGreen.
After you drop the kids off at school, come on by for a little coffee and a whole lot of community.
We may all send our kids to different schools, but we have common issues we confront every day. Let’s collaborate and share best practices for getting over hurdles and for achieving great goals. Venting is allowed (hard not to do it some days), but we can’t let it run the day. It’s about coming together to create something bigger than what we can do individually.
Plus we’re a pretty fun group. When all else fails, we can always tell LAUSD facilities jokes. That’s always a crowd pleaser.
Thursday, October 1st, 9am at the Venice Grind. The first Morning Meet-Up, continuing on the first Thursday of every month.
I’m kinda partial to this one.
Today’s shopper is Tracy Hepler, co-founder of YourDailyThread.com, this very cool online magazine dedicated to green, sustainable and local living. Their goal is helping people navigate the concrete jungle with a “green foot” forward. 
She’s going to make Split Pea soup, perfectly-timed for the beginning of Fall this week! It’s a recipe inspired by the one on the back of the Arrowhead Mills dried split peas package.
She starts by sauteing chopped onions in canola oil with some cumin, garlic powder and salt, for about a minute. Then she adds 2 quarts of water, split peas and soy sauce and brings it to a boil. Once it boils, she reduces the heat to medium and cooks it for an hour. At that point she adds chopped celery and carrots (and, optionally, some Black Forest Ham) and cooks it for another 1/2 hour. She serves the soup with a bit of black pepper and some parmesan cheese and hot sauce. Sounds perfect for a cool evening!
Today the Green Booth was hosting a “how-to” session: getting rid of your lawn and adding sustainable materials, native and drought tolerant plants. Christopher McKinnon and his wife, Pat, were on hand with photos from their own experience having transformed their lawn.
Apples are in season and are showing up in abundance at the market now! 
These nice mellow people from Mellow Water were on hand today, giving out samples of their new flavored water. 
And finally, did you know? The market hosts a craft booth for kids every week. Each week there’s something different. Come by and check it out! Here’s Alejandra Brandoli and her daughter helping the kids make kites.
Our LA City parks are a tremendous resource, and here in Mar Vista, we make great use of ours. Saturdays are all about soccer, with games starting at 8am and running all day long. 
This Saturday marked Mar Vista Mom’s debut as a Soccer Mom after all these years, and I must say, it went very well. 
Lots of kids enjoying the beautiful day and getting some exercise.
Best part? The 6-year-olds’ division doesn’t keep score.
Today’s shopper is Christy Wilhelmi, of Gardenerd. She’s going to make The Esalen Raw Kale salad. 
She starts with 2 kinds of kale: regular curly kale, left, and lacinaro, or dinosaur kale on the right. 
Then she bought red onions, 
raw pumpkin seeds and raw sunflower seeds, 
and Meyer lemons for their juice. 
She already has the other ingredients necessary at home: sesame seeds, soy sauce, Bragg’s and olive oil.
She starts by slicing the onions and marinating them in a mixture of the Bragg’s, lemon juice, olive oil and soy sauce while she quickly toasts all the seeds over low heat. She then chops the kale and removes the stems, and adds it all to the bowl with the onions. She uses her hands to mix it all together, and she says it can either be eaten right away or saved overnight and eaten the next day. The flavors just get better. Yum! Thanks, Christy!
In other market news, the flowers from Dramm and Echter in Encinitas were looking especially lovely today!
The Princesses Rose and Lily were set up and ready to face paint!
I saw these gorgeous berry pies (and other goodies) at Yvonne’s Gluten Free Goodies.
And in the Green Committee’s booth today, Dipak Patel, an environmental engineer from DWP, was on hand to explain to stakeholders just what’s possible and legal in terms of Greywater systems. Here he is, flanked by Albert Olsen, Mar Vista Community Council President on the left, and Sherri Akers, Mar Vista Green Committee co-chair on the right.
For those who want more information about the subject, here’s a website known as Grey Water Central. And at the Mar Vista Goes Green Fall Festival, happening Saturday, October 3rd at Mar Vista Park, Green Plumbers will be on hand to answer questions about installing a greywater system in your home.
At the Fanatic Salon! It’s a night of Female Comedy for all of us Female MarVistans, and for those who like to hang out with us.
Show starts at 8pm, and we’ll meet there at 7:30 for a little sip of wine in the lobby — and perhaps a few delicious nibbles of Argentinian empanadas from Empanadas Place next door (yum)…? Just a snack, mom!
There’s parking on the street and in their lot, and the comedy costs $10 at the door — Cash Only. Hope to see you there!
The Fanatic Salon, 3815 Sawtelle Blvd., just South of Venice on the West side of the street. (310) 622-2046