4 days left to support Little Bee Pops

For a year now, I’ve been dreaming about making popsicles. Literally. I wake up, and need to go get ingredients because I have to try using avocado, olive oil, flax, or spinach in my latest pops recipe. Today, the dream of making pops for a living is closer than ever. We are just 4 days away [...]

In defense of the childhood treat

helenpop2-web

Today, the amazing blogger, activist, and author Sarah Wu (aka Mrs. Q) published my guest blog on her site, Fed Up With Lunch. It is such an honor to be featured there, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

In defense of the childhood treat

It can be painful sometimes, being that “mean mom.” The one saying “no” [...]

Beat the winter blues

I have always been effected by SAD (seasonal affective disorder), ever since I was a kid. November and December were the “Heart of Darkness” where I struggled to stay awake, think straight, or get much of anything done.

Today I just realized that it’s “that time” and for the first time in my life, I am totally [...]

It’s so hard to say goodbye…

This picture still makes me tear up. It's the farm and its magical spell, in a single image.

I was both honored and anxious when Full Circle Farm’s ED Wolfram Alderson asked me to write something about being the co-founder of Full Circle Farm. So many unresolved feelings, such a sense of loss – it’s hard to describe what it feels like when you voluntarily walk away from something, and yet that something is [...]

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes

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Yesterday I went to the world premiere of America The Beautiful: The Thin Commandments by extraordinary filmmaker Darryl Roberts. In it, Roberts is newly diagnosed with heart arrhythmia and high blood pressure, and told to go on multiple medications (that cause, ahem, erectile dysfunction). Undaunted and unwilling to take the cocktail of anti-party pills, Darryl embarks [...]

How do you measure the value of an education?

With a graduate degree from Oxford, I think I have proven myself exceptionally good at “the testing game”. I have no anxiety around tests – but I strongly object to the sense of self-worth that these test scores represented for me for the first 20+ years of my life. It’s a lot to unlearn.

This year, we’re enrolling Ms. H [...]

The gifts of creativity

brownyarn

Yesterday, I watched Ms. H have her friend R teach her how to crochet. Sitting on a bench at a local park, the two girls were rapt with concentration as Ms. H’s fingers slowly but surely figured out how to loop and pull. Her movements were clumsy, her results loose and ill-formed. I cringed at her [...]

When vegetables are outlawed, only outlaws will grow vegetables

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A movement is unfurling…

Fresh food for family, friends and neighbors. A verdant garden in a city blighted by foreclosure. Neighborhood kids picking sun-ripened tomatoes.  A prison sentence.

Sing it with me: one of these things is not like the other one, which one could it be?

For one mom, gardening in her front yard has landed [...]

Farm-to-consumer food assistance – wow!

producescale

As part of my new position with FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, I had the privilege of speaking to the program manager of Maine Senior Farmshare. They generously extended their time to share information about this incredibly innovative program, which will eventually be published as one of several case studies that will be used to create a [...]

New Adventures

Recovery from a broken elbow (clumsy+roller skating = ouch) has made blogging these last few weeks nearly impossible. Just now, I’m getting enough use of my right arm back to type for 10 minutes at a time. Brevity -not my strong suit – has become imperative. On the other hand, being wrenched away from writing gave [...]