Mar Vista Mom » Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee

Mar Vista Farmer’s Market Wrap-Up 2-21-10

Mar Vista Mom — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:26:13 +0000

Today’s shopper is my friend Donna Blazwich, who’s going to make Sole with Bundled Vegetables. She starts by parboiling her vegetables a few minutes to get them tender: asparagus and carrots from Maggie’s Farm.Then she slices them very thinly and 2″ long, along with some red onion and finely chopped garlic. Then she takes the Dover sole filets from the Smart Fish company and rubs them with butter and tarragon, lays in the sliced veggies and rolls them up into bundles, hence the name! To cook, she takes lemon slices and places them in a layer on the bottom of the steamer and then lays the sole bundles on top. They steam in about 3-5 minutes, so be prepared with your side dishes! Donna’s going to make alittle arugula salad and some rice to go with it. Thanks, Donna! I’m going to try this dish!

Today in the Green Booth, Ava Sadripour of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics was on hand to keep us aware of what we’re putting on our bodies.

Mar Vista Farmer’s Market Update 2-14-10

Mar Vista Mom — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:36:36 +0000

Today’s shopper is Caroline De Vita, a talented designer and illustrator. She’s going to make pasta primavera to celebrate this lovely warm weather. She’ll start by oven-roasting this Romanesco cauliflower in chunks with a little olive oil drizzled over top. While that’s in the oven, she sautes some chopped broccoli, zucchini, garlic, and halved cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil — and boils the salted water for the pasta (she uses penne). When the pasta is almost done, she takes a half cup of the pasta water and adds it to the saute pan with the veggies to make the sauce. Then, when the pasta and the cauliflower are both done, she puts all the ingredients in the pot together along with chopped parsley and hand-ripped basil, and mixes it all up. Ready to serve — sounds delish!

Today in the Green Booth, Plug-In America had an prototype electric car on display, the Mitsubishi iMiev.

And the Valentine’s concert for the kids was a big hit! Here’s Birdie’s Playhouse in action.

Weekend Plans

Mar Vista Mom — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:51:31 +0000

Sunday at the MV Farmer’s Market, The Green booth will host the founders of Your Daily Thread, an online magazine for the eco-curious, and I totally recommend coming out to meet them.

Oh, and I understand there’s some sort of sporting event on Sunday as well.

Mar Vista Farmer’s Market Wrap-Up 1-31-10

Mar Vista Mom — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:17:42 +0000

Today’s shopper is Elise Derby, who writes Elise’s Ramblings, and she’s going to make Potato Leek Soup. Start with leeks — clean them and separate the white parts from the green. Boil the green parts with chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you prefer) for about 20 minutes, then remove the green leeks from the broth. Meanwhile, saute the white parts of the leeks with chopped onion, a little garlic, a little thyme and diced potatoes until soft. Add the leek and potato mixture to the chicken stock and boil down for another 15 -20 minutes until the potatoes are super soft, then blend it all up and serve with a lovely baguette. Today at the Green Booth, Sherri Akers and Jeanne Kuntz were spreading the word about the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase, coming up on April 25th. There’s more information about adding your garden to the tour on their website.

New at the market today — raw cane juice. And just in case you have some knives or scissors that are in need of sharpening, Gary’s Knife Sharpening service is at the market each week and they do a great job. Here’s Mike sharpening my knife today!

Free Sustainable Works Workshop In Mar Vista Starts 1/28/10

Mar Vista Mom — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:00:43 +0000

Yes, you heard that right — FREE. The Mar Vista Community Council’s Green Committee received a grant from the MVCC Board in order to be able to offer this hugely popular — and very informative — workshop here in Mar Vista at no charge to participants. Sustainable Works has been running these 6-week workshops in Santa Monica for years, but not in LA until now. And if the response is positive, I’m sure this won’t be the last time, either.

The workshops will be held from 7pm – 8:30pm on 6 Thursdays, beginning on January 28th and running through March 4th at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 11000 National Blvd., 90064.

Check out the MVCC Green Committee’s blog for more info, and you can sign up by clicking here.

Mar Vista Farmer’s Market Wrap-Up 12/6/09

Mar Vista Mom — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:01:43 +0000

Today’s shopper is Sara Davenport, owner of Broadway Skin Studio, a full service medical spa specializing in skin rejuvenation and facial contouring. Sara is going to make guacamole. She takes 2 avocados, peels and chops them, but takes care not to mash them into a paste. She then chops 1 beefsteak tomato, 1/2 a red onion, and a habanero pepper (which is spicy-hot, so use at your discretion) and adds it all to the avocado. The she juices 2 lemons and does a final mix, again, trying to leave it chunky. Delicious!

And you can eat it with these chips sold right here at the market! Plus you can order your holiday tamales here, too — but hurry! December 20th is fast approaching…

Today at the Green Booth, the Master Gardeners (Sharon Moore and Sarah Spitz) were on hand to give out plant samples and seeds again, and to answer your gardening questions. They’ll be guests of the Green Committee once a month, so check back next time.

New at the market today: Lark farms from Fillmore, with Hot House tomatoes. Welcome!

Congratulations, Mar Vista!

Mar Vista Mom — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:30:47 +0000

Mar Vista has earned two honors this month, and they both deserve to be acknowledged. First, the Mar Vista Community Council was honored by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) during their Empower LA 2009: A Congress of Neighborhoods. The MVCC won one of only 8 First Annual Neighborhood Council Peer Awards given in four categories. (That’s out of 89 Neighborhood Councils in total.) The MVCC was chosen in the Environmental category, no doubt for the work the Green Committee has done this year on events like the Green Garden Showcase, the Wise Water Use Expo and the Rainwater Harvesting program. Keep going Green, Mar Vista! And Congratulations to the entire MVCC!

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The other notable honor Mar Vista can take credit for this month is the superior baking talent of another Mar Vista Mom, Barbara Treves. Barbara entered her Forever Favourite Apple Pie in KCRW’s 1st Annual Good Food Pie Bakeoff and it was deemed Best in Show! Congratulations, Barbara! And for those bakers in the audience, the recipe is available on request. Yum!

Mar Vista Farmer’s Market Wrap-Up 11/8/09

Mar Vista Mom — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:45:50 +0000

Today’s shopper is Kami Turrou, a Mar Vista mom whose kids go to Richland Ave. Elementary. She’s on the board of their booster club, RichlandBooster.com, and you can make a donation anytime on their site.

Kami’s going to make a carrot/yogurt salad. She starts by grating these multi-colored carrots and adding these honey crisp apples all chopped up. Toss in a handful of raisins, then mix with lowfat vanilla yogurt and a bit of honey to taste until it sort of resembles cole slaw. Delish!! And here’s a picture of it ready-to-eat: Thanks, Kami!

Today at the Green Booth, Sarah Pugh (and her daughter Hannah) of Outside Landscape Design were on hand to show examples of drought tolerant, California native and sustainable plants. New at the Market today: pomegranates and persimmons are in season. And for the kids: The Real Princesses were painting faces and at the ReDiscover booth kids could make these cool fuzzy felt balls.

Mar Vista Wants Clean Energy!

Mar Vista Mom — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:41:21 +0000

The Mar Vista Community Council’s Green Committee has unanimously approved a motion to make Mar Vista the first clean electricity neighborhood in Los Angeles, with a goal of 100% clean electricity by 2018. The motion must be approved by the Community Council Board on November 10, and your support is needed! Please sign this petition, which will be presented to the board. It will only take a minute, I promise!

And check out Open Mar Vista’s GoSolar initiative to find out how you can go solar on your roof!

See What’s New At The Mar Vista Farmer’s Market This Week

Mar Vista Mom — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:37:31 +0000

So much new stuff today! First of all, there is a shady dining area next to the Post Office, and the coffee cart, fish booth, lemonade and nachoshave all formed an open area.

Plus the kids’ craft booth is in a new spot, behind the Vegan section,and there’s also a new food booth: wood-fired pizza!The Mar Vista Community Council booth has moved down the street to the corner of Pacific Ave.,and the biggest news is that the Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee will now have a booth every week! Here’s Sherri Akers, co-chair of the committee,and here are John Ayers and James Brennan, of Open Mar Vista,who were promoting the Mar Vista GoSolar program, which launches next Saturday evening, 7/25, at 6:00pm. More info about the event can be found at Open Mar Vista.