by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Photo Credit: Glenn Beltz

California has been on fire for the last three weeks, and now, so is Oregon.  During a year where we’ve all been staying home (hopefully) as much as possible to avoid contracting COVID-19, having fires fill the air with smoke has been especially hard on our resilience and mental health.  With just COVID, you could exercise outside, open windows, and there was just more space and literal breathing room available.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had moments of profound grief and helplessness the past few weeks.  It’s not been easy, especially since I’m currently pregnant, with the birth of my second child imminent.  But one thing that helps me during these times is activism.  Being able to do something, no matter how small, really makes a difference to my mental health.  With this in mind, I’ve compiled some resources so we can all start to make an impact to stop such massive wildfires in the future.

First of all, a note: wildfires are a part of California’s natural ecosystem.  I grew up in Southern California, and we had a regular fire season, and managed it pretty well.  However, according to my research, there are three major factors contributing to the firestorms and massive wildfire growth we’ve been seeing in recent years:

1. Climate Change

2. More People Moving Into the Wildland-Urban Interface

3. Forestry Management Practices

Climate change is creating hotter, drier weather for longer, and changing existing weather patterns, leading to hotter, faster spreading fires.  That’s an observable pattern that climate scientists have been trying to alert us to for years.

It’s hard to know why many more people have moved into the Wildland-Urban Interface, the transition zone between wildlands (forests, grasslands and scrublands) and human development, but many have — there are 25 million more people living in these zones in 2010 than in 1990.  It’s dangerous to those homeowners, as their homes border the areas most likely to burn.  Plus, many wildfires are caused by humans, so not an ideal wildfire safety situation all-around.

Forestry management took a strong fire suppression tack for a very long time, with their spokesperson, Smokey Bear touting “Only you can prevent forest fires.”  This made the general populace believe that forest fires are always bad, when in fact, they’re an essential part of good forest management.  The result is “a tinderbox of unharvested timber, dead trees, and thick underbrush.”  Basically, decades of fuel load that is now up in flames.

So, given all this, what do we do?

To get the biggest results in the shortest amount of time, we need to turn our activism towards management of California’s fuel load, and advocate for better forestry management practices.  Selective harvesting, thinning treatments, brush removal, and pruning are practices used to thin out wildland close to the urban interface, typically.  For broader swaths of land that have bigger fuel loads, prescribed burning is an effective way to clear out heavy vegetation, prepare new seed beds, and prevent the fuel load from getting too high.  

The idea of controlled fires often meets with resistance, but these fires really do have an important place in forestry management.  Done during winter, with firefighters setting and controlling them, they are safe and efficient, and can prevent the massive fires like the Creek Fire currently burning uncontrolled in the high sierras, growing by tens of thousands of acres per day.

In my research on how to advocate for better forestry practices, the best advice I found is to reach out to a specific landowner (at the lowest level of the organization possible - for example, an individual State Park vs CA State Parks as a whole) directly, and ask to be added to that agency/offices project mailing list for fuels reduction/prescribed burning projects. Oftentimes, if you ask to talk to a “Fuels Specialist” or someone who is “managing the fuels program” you can talk to those people directly.

So, figure out where your closest State Park is, and who is managing the fuels program, and either try to talk to that person about their strategy for fuel management/controlled burns in the winter, or failing that, get on their mailing list so you can reach out when they release details about the project.

In addition, here’s a few websites where you can find out about upcoming projects/opportunities for comment and engagement:

Forest Service, Schedule of Proposed Actions - https://www.fs.fed.us/sopa/

Bureau of Land Management, National NEPA Register - https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/home

National Park Service, Planning, Environment, and Public Comment Site - https://parkplanning.nps.gov/

CalFIRE - pretty difficult to figure out how to comment on anything. I’d recommend checking out the Governor’s priority project list and seeing if there are any projects going on near you, there may be a point of contact identified - https://www.fire.ca.gov/about-us/45-day-report/

CA Air Resources Board - these folks have tremendous power in determining when “burn windows” are allowed - https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/board-meetings

The Nature Conservancy - they are one of the biggest nonprofits doing prescribed burning projects and prescribed burning advocacy. Recent article about the 2020 CA wildfire season and a bill they are supporting: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/california/stories-in-california/californias-wildfire-future/

Also worth noting: The Nature Conservancy does a ton of training to bring diverse people into the prescribed burning workforce (which is predominantly white/male) through TREX (training exchange) programs. So that’s a point in their favor as well.

In conclusion, we may not be able to stop forest fires, but there are many things we can do as individuals and a community to mitigate how large and destructive they become.  Fuel management is a big part of this, and I hope you’ll join me in reaching out to local officials to advocate for better fuel management (and if needed, prescribed burns) in your area.  It’s too late for this year, I’m afraid, but let’s keep this top of mind this winter so that next year may not be as devastating.

Wildfire with Deer, Source: Project LM

SF skyline, on a clear day, and then seen through fire smoke

Spiritual Touchstone

By Rev. Melinda McLain, Pastor for The Good Table UCC

As we continue to contend with wildfires in California and dreadful air quality locally, many beloveds are in the midst of a horrible hurricane season, including our regular Good Table UCC attendee, Dr. Lila Anderson who lives between Houston and Galveston, Texas.

Lila and I lived in the same residential college when we were students at Rice University in Houston back in the early 1980’s. She was a Gulf Coast local and “knew the drill” for hurricanes, but when hurricane Alicia hit Houston in 1983, it was my first experience with that sort of storm.

Growing up in the Texas panhandle in “tornado alley”, I was no stranger to violent weather, but the thunderstorms that spawn tornados tend to develop quickly and the damage happens rapidly, and then you clean up. The same is true for earthquakes: they happen without warning, last for a very short period of time, and then you clean up.

Hurricanes, on the other hand, develop slowly at some distance, and so there is an interminable waiting period when meteorologists try and predict where the storm will make landfall and with what force so that coastal residents can prepare to ride out the storm and/or evacuate. If you’ve been following the tracks of hurricanes Marco and Laura through the Gulf of Mexico the past few days, you no doubt have heard meteorologists talk about the “cone of uncertainty” as they show an elongated balloon shape on the map outlining the probable path of a given storm.

This hurricane tracking tool has since been applied to project management processes (especially in software development) in order to manage expectations for a client, while taking into account the rapidly changing business environment.

Right now, our project to create The Good Table has been reducing the cone of uncertainty and increasing the cone of probability that we will actually begin construction by the end of the year, and perhaps even in October! This is very good news, indeed, although we still have to work through the uncertainties of getting a building permit in September.

At the same time, living through these catastrophic wildfires and super smoky air is an exercise in living with the cone of uncertainty every day — everything from not knowing if our homes will survive to wondering if we can do something as simple as walk the dog, given the wind direction and air quality index numbers.

Personally, I don’t enjoy living in so much uncertainty and chaos and I think most folks find it stressful. Plus, as our climate continues to rapidly change, we will experience more wildfires, extended droughts, and strong hurricanes extending the cone of uncertainty for disaster-free living for longer periods each year.

Fortunately, we are not simply at the mercy of mathematical models to manage our ability to thrive in chaos. We can, through spiritual practices such as meditation and prayer, learn to calm down and be at peace, even in the midst of raging storms and fires. We can also become more resilient by being connected to one another in community through civic groups, faith communities, or through projects like The Good Table.

What helps you thrive in times of uncertainty? How do you stay connected to your neighbors and community? What are you doing to improve our community’s resiliency? Would you like to learn more? Click here.

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

In The Kitchen

It’s very rare that a recipe stops me in my tracks, but this one did. It’s from Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy, which is an amazing cookbook that focuses on each of the vegetable families and what pairs well with each. I could go on and on about Deborah Madison, but I’ll just say this: this cookbook is a gem.

So… the recipe.

Photo credit: an endless banquet

Comforting Tomatoes in Cream with Bread Crumbs and Smoked Salt
Serves 1

INGREDIENTS
- 4 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 fresh basil leaf
- 8 oz ripe tomatoes, preferably a mix of the ripest, tastiest heirloom varieties you can find
- Fresh bread crumbs toasted in olive oil until light brown*
- Smoked salt* and freshly ground pepper **
- Optional: fresh bread on the side

* You can do this in a skillet or in the oven — I toasted some Panko breadcrumbs I had in the toaster oven.
** If you’re unfamiliar with smoked salt, you can find it at your local gourmet/organic food shop. I got mine at Berkeley Bowl, and it’s an Alder Smoked Salt, which is really good. Or use a flaky sea salt, like Maldon.

DIRECTIONS
Warm the cream with the garlic and basil in a small skillet over gentle heat.  When it starts to simmer, turn off the heat and steep while you prepare the tomatoes.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Score the tomatoes on the blossom end (the “bottom”), then drop them into boiling water for about 10 seconds.  Transfer them to a bowl of cold water to cool, then peel.  Cut the tomatoes into quarters if large, into halves if smaller.

Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with a generous pinch of smoked salt and some freshly ground black pepper.  Turn the heat back on and allow the cream to bubble over the tomatoes and mingle with their juices for 2 to 3 minutes.

Ladle into a bowl.  Adjust the seasoning, if need be.  Scatter the bread crumbs generously over the tomatoes.  Devour, making sure to have some delicious bread close at hand to sop up all the juices afterwards.

NOTES
This recipe is late summer comfort food at its best. If your garden is overflowing with tomatoes and basil, like mine is right now, it’s a great way to use up those things. It’s great for a simple supper with loved ones (and quarantine buddies), paired with wine or iced tea and good conversation.

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Brian Campbell-Miller wears a lot of hats: he’s the Moderator of The Good Table UCC (President of the Board of Directors), and recently was hired as a Contact Tracer for Contra Costa County.

Contact tracers are a very important resource in a multi-pronged approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.  Contact tracers need to quickly locate and talk with the patients, assist in arranging for patients to isolate themselves, and work with patients to identify people with whom the patients have been in close contact so the contact tracer can locate them.

I interviewed Brian to learn more about contact tracing, how it works, and the service it provides to our community.

How did you become a contact tracer, Brian?  This is something relatively new that we’ve not had to do a lot of before, so I’m curious.

It actually started because I got laid off from my county job — I’m pursuing a Masters in Library Science, so I was working as a Library Assistant in a county library.  When the pandemic started, the library changed its model to only be open for book pickup and dropoff, so a lot of the staff was laid off.

Fortunately, the county has a program that matches laid off county workers with hiring managers for other county jobs.  I had four or five interviews with hiring managers for different jobs before finding my contact tracing position.

How has the contact tracing program grown since COVID-19?

It’s interesting: it started with eight workers who were doing outreach for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases originally.  But since the pandemic, the department has grown to over two hundred workers in Contra Costa County alone.

Wow!  So what was the training like to become a contact tracer?

UCLA has a two week training program that is mostly done via Zoom, and standardizes contact tracing all across the state.  We had lectures in the morning, then labs in the afternoon where we practiced interviewing and learned the skills and systems we’d need to be successful.

I really liked practicing interviewing — I enjoy acting, so pretending to be the interviewee was really fun for me.  It also taught me how to best disseminate the information we want our interviewees to hear: how they need to isolate, wear masks, and social distance.

Also, we use the FEMA framework, and that was really interesting: to see how FEMA handles emergency situations.  We did some job shadowing as well, to see how folks were doing this in the field. 

The last piece of training was in-person at the Public Health building in Concord.  Desks were 6 feet apart, and we all wore masks.  

What’s it like now that you’re working at this full-time?

I work from home, which is ideal of course.  There are 3-4 schedules you can work; mine is Sunday through Thursday, 8 am - 4:30 pm.  During that period, we make calls that can last from 2-30 minutes.  

How it works is that if there’s a confirmed case of COVID-19, a Case Investigator will call that person directly.  They will ask the person to identify their potential contacts during the infectious period.  Then Contact Tracers like me will follow up with those contacts, encourage them to get tested, then quarantine for fourteen days.  This can help stop the spread if people follow the protocols.

Got it.  So Brian, what has surprised you most about being a contact tracer?

So, most people are very friendly, but I got one interviewee that was really angry, because she’d gotten different, and inconsistent information from different sources.  It makes sense, honestly, because we’ve got a lot of information flying around right now, and she was frustrated because she didn’t know what to do.

Something else that surprised me was how easy working with a translator was.  We have a phone system where the interviewee can select the language they’d prefer, and it filters what I say to a translator to the interviewee, and what they say back through the translator to me.  And it’s quick!  I was honestly surprised at how fast it was.  Plus, all the different languages available: Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Aramaic, and several others.  It’s all just really cool.

That’s awesome!  What would you say is the most difficult part?

For me, it’s that I really like to follow things through until the end.  The problem with contact tracing is that you don’t get to find out how things worked out for the people you’ve interviewed.  It’s hard for me to let go sometimes.

That being said, the most rewarding part is educating folks about the county resources available to them.  I’ve helped connect people with food and rental assistance, and that feels really good.

That must feel really great, absolutely.  One last thing: what would you, as a contact tracer, want people to know?

That we’re just trying to keep our community safe and get through this together.  I think people are really worried when we call that they’re in trouble or something.  Contact tracers aren’t law enforcement — we’re public health.  It’s never punitive; we’re just trying to get you services you need.

And also, being part of a community means that you make sacrifices for the community, so please: wear a mask. 
The risk to other people that you’ll get them sick vs. the small discomfort for you is out of proportion.  Do your part to help keep our community safe.

By Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Gavin Raders

I sat down with Gavin Raders, Co-Founder of Planting Justice and Co-Manager of The Good Table, to discuss how the pandemic has affected his organization, what he’s looking forward to at the new Planting Justice Organic Nursery at The Good Table site, and his hopes for the community in the future.

Hey Gavin, thanks for meeting up with me.  So, can you tell me how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Planting Justice?

Yeah, it’s been interesting: in many ways, I feel like this is something Planting Justice has been preparing for.  We’ve been able to respond in a really strong way as an organization: we got a small business loan that allowed us to keep everyone on staff, for one thing, and we were also able to actually expand our staff with seven new hires!

That’s incredible!  How did that come about?

Well, in part, it happened because the pandemic got everyone refocused on gardening, food security, and creating sustainable food systems in local communities.  We saw how the pandemic impacted the food supply chain, with lots of items being unavailable, so everyone turned back to gardens as a way of creating that food security for themselves and their neighbors.  

The sales in our nursery more than doubled, and sales of our edible starts have been the highest ever.  That speaks to a real need in the community for gardens and accessible food.

So when it comes to the organic plant nursery at the new Good Table site, what will that space provide for the community?

We’ll have certified organic heirloom crops at the new site, including 1,200 varietals of fruit trees and perennial plants.  We’ll be able to offer things that other nurseries don’t have, which will contribute to the overall food diversity in the El Sobrante community.  

Another thing I’m excited about is the commercial kitchen on-site.  This will provide additional culinary value, with an offering of locally made foods.  We’ll have collaborative workshops on how to plant and care for edible starts, which will allow us to leverage the knowledge already in the El Sobrante community—we’ll encourage everyone to participate in community group sharing to all learn together.  

And lastly, but also important: we’ll be creating jobs, since this will be a brick and mortar location.  

What are your hopes for The Good Table and Planting Justice Organic Nursery site?  What will make this space so special?

I feel like the community really needs a place like this.  There are so few community gathering spaces in El Sobrante that don’t require a purchase or admission fee to get in.  The pay-as-you-can model is not widespread, and pretty unique for this area.  That allows folks to just come hang out, which is really valuable from a social isolation perspective.

Absolutely.  I’ve been reading a lot about the diminishing amount of “third space” in the United States — places you can go hang out that aren’t work or home.  America doesn’t have a lot of civic spaces for people to congregate that are free.

Yes, and that’s a huge issue!  You’re likely to get ticketed for trespassing or loitering, which is a social justice issue.  The Good Table and Planting Justice Organic Nursery can be that third space for the community; a place to gather and collaborate for communal sharing, knowledge and celebration.

We all hope that too—and that we’ll be able to open in 2021.  Thanks Gavin!

Note: if you’d like to help us open in 2021, please consider donating to our Go Fund Me campaign: Donate

About Gavin: Gavin Raders is a co-founder and co-director of Planting Justice, a father to two amazing daughters, a social justice activist, and a permaculture demonstrator/teacher. Rather than fighting against the things that we don't want and continuously reacting against the onslaught of oppressive systems, Gavin decided at a young age to build solutions that bring healing, health, peace, opportunity, and justice to those around him, using his privileges strategically for reparations and redistribution, and creating space for those most impacted by structural violence to live out their own dreams and enact the solutions they know to be necessary, while simultaneously supporting themselves and their families.

In Our Community

Wildfire season is upon us, as evidenced by the Mineral Fire in Coalinga and other smaller fires around the state. What can we do, both individually and communally, to prepare?

Are you signed up for the Contra Costa County Community Warning System (CWS)? If you register your cell phone here  you will get important information in an emergency situation, such as a wildfire event. The site also has excellent preparedness materials and videos. You can also follow them on twitter @CoCoCWS. Pastor Melinda also invites you to attend meetings of the El Sobrante Municipal Advisory Committee (now online!) on 2nd Wednesdays of each month at 7p. Send an email to: James Lyons in Supervisor James Gioia’s office to be added to the email list to receive an agenda and meeting details.

Prepare Your Family & Your Home for Wildfires

• Make a disaster supply kit and have a family emergency plan

• Design and landscape your home with wildfire safety in mind: select materials and plants that can help contain fire rather than fuel it

• Use fire-resistant or noncombustible materials on the roof and exterior structure of the dwelling, or treat wood or combustible material used in roofs, siding, decking or trim with fire-retardant chemicals evaluated by a nationally recognized laboratory, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

• Plant fire-resistant shrubs and trees (for example, hardwood trees are less flammable than pine, evergreen, eucalyptus or fir trees)

• Regularly clean roof and gutters

• Inspect chimneys at least twice a year. Clean them at least once a year. Keep the dampers in good working order. Equip chimneys and stovepipes with a spark arrester that meets the requirements of National Fire Protection Association Standard 211. (Contact your local fire department for exact specifications)

• Use 1/8-inch mesh screen beneath porches, decks, floor areas and the home itself. Also, screen openings to floors, roof and attic

• Install a dual-sensor smoke alarm on each level of your home, especially near bedrooms; test monthly, and change the batteries at least once each year

• Teach each family member how to use a fire extinguisher (ABC type) and show them where it's kept

• Keep handy household items that can be used as fire tools: a rake, axe, handsaw or chain saw, bucket and shovel

• Keep a ladder that will reach the roof

• Consider installing protective shutters or heavy fire-resistant drapes

• Clear items that will burn from around the house, including wood piles, lawn furniture, barbecue grills, tarp coverings, etc. Move them outside of your defensible space

• Identify and maintain an adequate outside water source such as a small pond, cistern, well, swimming pool or hydrant

• Have a garden hose that is long enough to reach any area of the home and other structures on the property

• Install freeze-proof exterior water outlets on at least two sides of the home and near other structures on the property. Install additional outlets at least 50 feet from the home

• Consider obtaining a portable gasoline powered pump in case electrical power is cut off

---

In the Kitchen

It’s plum season! My plum tree is thick with fruit around this time of year, and if I get a bumper crop, it’s prime time for making and canning plum jam! I always thought canning was hard, but with the right tools, it’s absolutely not — basically, you make the jam while sterilizing the jars in hot water, then fill the jars, and pop them back into their boiling water bath to process.

Kelly’s Plum Jam

Note: my tree makes these amazing golden plums, but you can use any kind. Plums are a medium pectin fruit. Some recipes call for no pectin, and over time you may want to play with the amount of pectin to get the right level of “gel” or thickness.

Golden Plums

Ingredients
6 cups prepared fruit (washed, pitted, and chopped, don’t peel) — you’ll need about 4 lbs fully ripe plums
1/2 cup water
1 box pectin (I like the SURE-JELL or Ball brands — look for specifically fruit or jam pectin)
8 cups sugar, measured into a separate bowl

Jars: You’ll need about (10) 1 cup jars, with rings and new flat lids.

Instructions

1. Fill a big stock pot with water, enough to cover all the jars, bring to a boil. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water, then place in the boiling water in the stockpot. Take some of the boiling water and pour over flat lids in a separate saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. (The flat lids just need to be clean and their seals a little sticky.  Everything else should be boiled to sterilize it before canning.) Drain well before filling.

2. Pit plums. Do not peel. Finely chop or grind fruit; place in saucepan. Add water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 min. Measure exactly 6 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-qt. saucepot.

3. Stir pectin into fruit in saucepot. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 min., stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with a metal spoon.

4. Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly enough to keep on the jar, just before airtight (this gives things a little room to expand/contract as they cool). 

5. Place jars on an elevated rack in the boiling water stock pot. (Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if needed.  Keep them off the bottom of the pot, or they’ll scorch) Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min (meaning, let them sit in there). 

6. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lids with finger. (If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)  Tighten the rings on the jars as necessary and label with their amazing contents.  Then give yourself a pat on the back for making something that will last through the winter and bring a little zing to your toast, scones, and pancakes!

Kelly’s Golden Plum Jam

Notes:

• Having some canning tools can make this process easier. I like this canning set from Ace Hardware — I find the jar tongs, canning funnel, and lid lifter especially helpful. The jar tongs help you move jars around in the boiling water to keep them on/around the rack. The canning funnel gets jam into the jars really well, without having a ton of drips where you don’t want them (a drip on the jar rim makes for a bad seal — you want those jar rims clean!) And the lid lifter means you don’t have to touch hot metal — you use it to grab the lid from the water and place on the jar without touching anything, which is also good for keeping everything sterile in the jar.

• If anything goes wrong during this process, no worries! You can always turn your jam into refrigerator jam, which doesn’t have to be sterile, just clean. In the fridge, the jam will last a couple of weeks. Canned, it should last a year.

Happy Jamming!

Spiritual Touchstone

Just Another Blog about Beauty?
by Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain

As an undergraduate music major in the early 80’s, I first became acquainted with a remarkable book entitled, “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” or the “GEB”. This Pulitzer Prize winning tome continues to challenge and excite folks from many fields because it makes connections between mathematics, art, and music in an effort to find the links between them. The book also anticipates the algorithmic thinking that underlies much of our digital world, and is a well-thumbed volume among those working in artificial intelligence.

When I first read it, I was fortunate to have friends who understood the math of it. Even then I wondered if mathematically “perfect” music is more beautiful. As an organ major, I was playing a lot of Bach and it did seem to exhibit a certain perfection. Still, there was so much music I loved that did not exhibit “the golden ratio” in a way that could be easily discerned, so it failed the “perfection is beauty” test for me. Ancient philosophers also tended to think of beauty in mathematical terms and “GEB” put that notion to rest for me.

And yet, most of us find some measure of beauty in nature whether it is gazing at the ocean, a flower, or a fully-ripe peach. In GEB, Hofstadler includes many calculations of “perfection” in nature from the precise proportions in a stalk of grass to the beautiful calculations that describe the harmonic series that undergirds all music. This is often referred to as “the golden ratio” or sometimes the “divine proportion” because it is so common in nature.

Dahlias are an example of flowers that often have the golden ratio

So what constitutes beauty in the world? Certainly it is in the eye of the beholder. But is there another way to define beauty that cuts through our individual preferences and touches the transcendent even if it doesn’t conform to the golden ratio?

For Christian mystics such as Julian of Norwich, beauty is found when we seek the holy and remember that no matter what our outward appearance or circumstance, we are all beloved in the eyes of the Creator. For zen practitioners, no belief in a God or Creator is required, but the effect is still the same: all beings are beautiful without exception and our separation from one another and creation is an illusion.

Where do you find beauty? What role does beauty play in your spiritual life?

Our worship and study series entitled “Beguiled by Beauty” continues this Sunday at 12n in Zoom. Send Pastor Melinda an email to receive login credentials and materials.

A Note from Pastor Melinda

The difficulty and crisis of the world is overwhelming. It is virtually impossible to bear it without very deep resources. - Dr. Wendy Farley

The Good Table spiritual community will begin a six-week worship and study series this Sunday entitled “Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion”. Email Pastor Melinda if you’re interested in joining us. Find out more about the series here.

---

From the Garden

Bonnie’s Flower Power
Flowers are like children to me. Their faces change as they grow, their personalities come into focus. They can be silly, like bunny-tail grass, or saucy, like a Julia Child yellow floribunda rose. They can pop up suddenly, like an amazing three-foot tall lime-green Puya mirabilis. And they talk to me when I visit them in the garden. One says: "Here I am! Aren't I beautiful today!" Another says, "Hot hot hot. Water. Please." Another says "I wish I could move into the light."

Sunflower that came up in Bonnie’s Strawberry Patch!

Over the past few years, I've grown vegetables as well as flowers. They are good companions. Flowers attract native bees and other beneficial insects. Bees congregate by the star-shaped blue borage flowers and the long purple flower tufts of Wild Magic basil, then fly on to help pollinate the zucchini, squashes, pumpkins, and watermelon.

My oldest favorite child is the rose. When I was nine years old, recovering from pneumonia in the children's ward of a Georgia hospital, my mother brought me a single rose in a make-shift vase, a soda bottle covered in tin foil. My father could not visit at all: he was stationed in Iceland that year. My mom had two younger children at home so she could not stay long. The rose was her present and presence. Currently I am training a princess (Crown Princess Margareta) to climb up an arbor. She has a ways to go. I imagine her in full bloom, taller than me.

Purple Dahlia

Orange Dahlia

My newest favorite is the dahlia. My first attempts at growing dahlias in only a sliver of afternoon sun were terrible, really, but were good enough to encourage me to try again. We will see what September brings.

Just as I took portraits of my children while they were growing up, I take portraits of flowers in my garden. And like any good grandmother, I show them off to all who are willing! During this season of covid-19, I have been sharing #somethingpretty on Facebook to the public. For me, this is a spiritual practice. I am thankful for the abundance in the natural world of my backyard, and I hope to provide a pause, however slight, in the stream of frightening news. I look forward to the day we can gather in mass among the plants and flowers at our El Sobrante Good Table home. That day will come.

---

In the Kitchen

We don’t know about you, but our zucchini is going gangbusters over here! One great way to utilize this squash is to turn it into noodles, or “Zoodles”! All you need is a spiralizer — a handy little tool that spins the zucchini into long threads. Here’s an inexpensive one: Cuisinart Spiralizer

My favorite recipe with zoodles is this one from Sugar-Free Mom: Zucchini Pasta Salad. It’s meant to be a mason jar salad, but you can easily eat it right after you make it. (Mason jar salads are fantastic if you want to make lunch to go, or prep a bunch of salads in individual portion sizes that will last the whole week in your fridge.)

Zucchini Pasta Salad with Avocado Spinach Dressing
by Sugar-Free Mom
Serves 2 (double the recipe if you’d like salads for the week or to serve more people)

INGREDIENTS

For Salad:
1 1/2 cups spiraled zucchini
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

Optional:
1/4 cup feta cheese
2 tablespoons kalamata olives

For Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh packed spinach
1/2 ripe avocado
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt plain, 2%
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Courtesy of SugarFreeMom.com

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Spiral or shred or thinly slice zucchini. Set aside.

2. In a high powered blender, mix dressing ingredients until smooth.

3. Pour 1/2 the dressing into the bottom of 2 mason jars.

4. Add celery on top of dressing.

5. Add peppers on top of celery then top with edamame.

6. Sprinkle feta cheese then add tomatoes and olives.

7. Last place 1/2 the spiraled zucchini into each mason jar.

8. Cover and refrigerate. Last up to 5 days.

9. Once ready to eat, shake the jar vigorously then pour onto a plate. Toss with fork if needed to mix dressing.

Courtesy of SugarFreeMom.com

In Our Community

Pride This Year

During this season filled with protest in the midst of a pandemic, we also are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of LGBTQ+ Pride. Not really sure how great it will be to “march” virtually, but it is an important milestone for our communities. The Good Table UCC (Mira Vista UCC) became an “open and affirming” church in 1994 and has been marching with United in Spirit for over 25 years!

Personally, I am delighted that my dear friend and mentor Rev. Dr. Janie Spahr is an elected community grand marshal! This honor for her is way overdue and I’m glad we finally got her voted in! I have so many wonderful memories of Janie, but one that sticks out this year comes from a civil disobedience action in San Francisco on May 27, 2009 after one of the many negative court reversals leading up to marriage equality.

Janie, and a whole lot of interfaith clergy friends, including me, gathered at St. Mark’s Lutheran and then marched to City Hall and then sat down in the intersection of Van Ness and Grove. I chose to “hold the bail money” for my friends, work the press, and lead singing around the circle. Also, it was really hot that day to be in liturgical garb and we were a bit concerned about some of our elder clergy, including Janie.

As I scanned through the really mellow detachment of San Francisco police, I saw that a female lieutenant was in charge. I went to her and asked when they planned to start making arrests. She told me soon. I then pointed over to the clergy group and asked if they could be arrested first. I knew that it would make better press to have them arrested first AND I was also hoping to spare some of our elders from developing heat stroke. The SFPD lieutenant then looked again and asked me, “Is that Janie Spahr?” I told her it was and the cop lit up and said, “She was my youth pastor!” and rushed over to hug Janie and thank her for being there for her when she was coming out in high school. Janie was one of the first arrested that day.

Clergy protesters included: Jana Drakka, Michael Mallory, Jay E. Johnson, Dawn Roginski, Will McGarvey, Danika Askanidóttúr, Annie Steinberg-Behrman, Jane A Spahr (in purple cassock), Denis Letourneau Paul and Penny Nixon

Obviously, this is NOT the experience most people of color have with the police and this protest would not have been handled this way by most cops in most places. Like Janie, I know the value of white privilege — especially when dealing with cops. And plenty of LGBTQ+ folks have been brutalized by cops for years. But on that hot day in San Francisco, we saw a small glimpse of what “community-based” policing could look like, when cops look more like you and maybe even “know you” too. It was also a glimpse into what value diversity brings to all organizations. The church that allowed Janie Spahr to be a beacon of hope to a young lesbian was a better church. And the police department that put an out lesbian lieutenant in charge of an LGBTQ+ protest did a better job of serving the public, too.

This year’s Pride celebration will hopefully be more diverse than ever and will add a bit of rainbow to all of our protests for justice and peace.

---

Erasing Medical Debt Campaign Update

We are so pleased to be able to say that our combined efforts with other East Bay UCCs, and generous support from our national denomination, have erased $4.4 million in medical debt for our neighbors in Alameda and Contra Costa counties! In this effort, The Good Table UCC gave $3,500.

“As a diverse group of churches, we all knew that medical debt was a big problem for the most vulnerable in our communities: the sick, the elderly, the poor, and veterans. In addition, we learned that medical debt seriously impacts the middle class, driving many families who were formerly stable into poverty. By forgiving this debt, we hope to give struggling individuals, and their families, a fresh start. “

You can read the full Press Release from First Church Berkeley here: UCC Churches Erase $4.4 Million in Medical Debt in the San Francisco East Bay

by Rev. Melinda McLain, Pastor for The Good Table UCC, and Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager

Spiritual Touchstone

On Sunday, June 14th, we marked 90 days since the initial shelter-in-place orders were originally issued by Bay Area public health officials. As a congregation, The Good Table UCC actually stopped meeting in person on March 15th, which made June 14th our “Fourteenth Sunday in Zoom”. Now that’s a liturgical season I never learned about in seminary! Plus, many of us have been participating in sustained Black Lives Matter protests since the horrible murder of George Floyd on May 25th, while wearing masks, practicing physical distancing, and paying attention to the new dynamics for protesting during a global pandemic. 

The past few months have definitely tested our individual and collective spiritual endurance. And as a pastor, I have heard the grief, rage, and hopelessness that this season of pandemic and protest has produced in so many. So what do you do to increase your spiritual endurance? Is it possible to develop those muscles like an athlete might develop their physical endurance?

Muir Woods, by Tom Emanuel

When in need of a spiritual boost, I often find inspiration in nature. And when it comes to endurance, our beloved local redwood trees are without a doubt the champs! As most know, these trees are some of the oldest living things on earth, with many trees living from 600 - 2000 years. How’s that for endurance!

But how do they do it? Turns out, they succeed in part because they live in groves where they draw strength and stability from one another. They literally cannot do this alone. And this strategy of creating an interlocking web of roots below ground also allows these trees to rise over 300 ft. into the air (over 30 stories high) — a feat of tremendous stability too.

The lesson for me from redwood trees is to focus more on getting (and staying) connected to neighbors in the community in ways that increase our collective endurance and stability. This has been extra challenging during the pandemic, but with some creativity, we can continue to build these strong networks and connections and our spiritual endurance and stability as well.

For more on this, please listen to my recent sermon, “Enduring Hope”, on Soundcloud:

P.S. Taking care of yourself is paramount during this time. Burnout is very real, and the anxiety, grief, anger, and overwhelm we’re all feeling is very real. Here is a great resource from The Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley: Four Ways to Feel Good on a Hard Day in Lockdown

---

In Our Community

• We were sorry to hear the news that a real landmark business in El Sobrante, Thrift Town has announced that it will not reopen. Read more here: Thrift Town in El Sobrante Will Not Reopen

  Many Good Table members have been to protests in recent weeks. Rev. Theresa Hardy, Vice-President of The Good Table Café board of directors attended a Black Lives Matter protest in El Sobrante with her family. Several protestors were on horseback — very El Sobrante!

• One protest passed our site on Sobrante Avenue while Gavin Raders, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Planting Justice, our partner organization, was watering plants on the property. He turned off the water and joined in!

• Some good news: The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination, handing the movement for LGBT+ equality a long-sought and unexpected victory: New York Times coverage.

We’re proud of our members and our community for all they’re doing to make sure all people and all families have the same rights and protections. Stay safe out there!