April Eco-Poetry: Earth Keeper

by Janine Bedon, Communications Manager at The Good Table

 
 

Book Highlight

April is both Earth Month and National Poetry Month, so in honor of these two celebrations, I’d like to share with you a poetry book that contemplates on our ecological legacy to future generations.

Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land, by N. Scott Momaday, is written in free verse and interspersed with art that Momaday created himself. The book is split in two parts: “Dawn” and “Dusk.” “Dawn” is the first part, where he recollects childhood memories in Oklahoma and the earth-centric consciousness instilled in him by his Kiowa heritage. Meanwhile, the verses of “Dusk” lament what was lost and what we will lose if we continue to sever our connection to the earth. Spiritual in its essence, the Kirkus review for the book describes each verse as “almost like prayers to the natural world.”

 
Will I give my children an inheritance of the earth?
Or will I give them less than I was given?
— Earth Keeper, page 40
 

Earth Keeper is available to buy online or to borrow through the Contra Costa County Library. It is also available as an e-book and as an e-audiobook.

What’s on your Earth/Poetry Month to-read list? Let us know on our Facebook page or through our Instagram!

 

“Celebrant” by N. Scott Momaday, Earth Keeper page 13

 
Meet Your Tablemates: Soheila Bana

by Janine Bedon, Communications Manager for The Good Table

 
 

In the Community

The Good Table is possible because of the many hands, minds, and hearts that have gone into the project. We want to highlight their contributions through our video series, Meet Your Tablemates. Let’s meet one of them today!

Soheila Bana is a Good Table volunteer and the founder of 94803 Emergency Preparedness Alliance. She's an incredible resource for our project, and we're happy to have her! Watch the video below to learn why she joined the Good table cause.

Special thanks to Kelly Knight for taking the video, Nicole Morin for editing, and Soheila Bana for chatting with us.


Do you want to become a Good Tablemate? 

Join us on our next Work + Fun Day!

When: Saturday, March 26th from 12-3 PM

Where: 5166 Sobrante Ave, El Sobrante 94803

We host Work + Fun Days on the last Saturday of every month. Get a chance to tour our new 1.3 acre location, meet fellow Tablemates, and help get the site closer to Opening Day-ready!

Since a lot of construction is taking place at the site, we ask that you wear sturdy shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, and a face mask for dust and covid protection. Plus, don’t forget to bring your favorite gardening gloves and tools if you want to get down and dirty with us!

Help us share the Good word by following us on Facebook and Instagram


P.S. Hello there, I’m one of your new #goodtablemates! My name is Janine and I’m helping the GTUCC with their blog, newsletter, and other communication needs. I recently graduated from UC Berkeley where I studied climate justice and global development. I joined the Good Table team because I share their passion for food justice, alternative economies, and fostering community spaces. Feel free to send me a message via the Good Table Facebook or Instagram.

Spanish Tortilla for Spring

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

 

Image: Kelly Knight

 

From the Kitchen

Tortilla Espanol or Spanish tortilla is one of Spain's most popular national dishes, and it is pretty much eggs, potatoes and onions cooked gently in olive oil. It’s basically an omelette, but denser, and used as an appetizer or snack.

I ate it fresh out of the pan, but I’m told it’s even better at room temperature. I’d have it with a side green salad, or breakfast meat if you want a heartier meal.

SPANISH TORTILLA
Recipe adapted from The Mediterranean Dish

INGREDIENTS
10 medium eggs
Salt
1 teaspoon sweet Spanish paprika, optional
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ lb russet potatoes (or 2 to 3 russet potatoes), peeled, halved and sliced cross-wise
1 large yellow onion, peeled, halved and sliced cross-wise
4 scallions, trimmed, chopped (both white and green portions)
Optional: a handful of greens like baby spinach or baby kale

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a big bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, and paprika. Set aside for now.

  2. Prepare a 10-inch oven-proof nonstick skillet or a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Heat the olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking.

  3. Add the potatoes, onions, and scallions to the oil (at first, they won't all seem to fit, but with a little stirring, they'll compress as they cook). Lower the heat immediately to medium-low and watch to control the heat and make sure it continues to gently bubble. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are very tender.

  4. Use a heat-safe strainer over a heat-safe bowl to drain the olive oil (reserve the oil aside for now).

  5. Season the potatoes well with kosher salt and add them to the egg mixture in the bowl.

  6. Turn the oven broiler on.

  7. In the skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the reserved olive oil over medium heat. Pour in the egg and potato mixture, and gently press to even out the top. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until you see the edges of the omelet begin to set and firm up then put the pan under the broiler to finish cooking. Broil for about 5 minutes, watching carefully until the eggs are cooked through and the top of the omelet browns slightly (see notes if you prefer to finish cooking on stovetop).

  8. Allow the tortilla a few minutes before serving.

  9. To serve, invert the tortilla onto a large serving platter (you may need to loosen the edges using a spatula). Cut into 6 slices and serve.

Friday Favorites

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Community

One of my favorite things these days is Substack, a platform for journalists and writers to distribute and get paid directly for their writing. It takes out the middleman, and allows that community to benefit from the folks who’d like to support them.

In honor of this, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts on social justice and community from the last couple months. I’m hoping you’ll discover some writers you like, and some communities or movements that are new to you.

Link roundup:
How to Build a Rugged, Resilient Society, by Anne Helen Petersen
It’s Time to Stop Panic Giving, by Virginia Sole-Smith
The Antidote is Always Turning Deeper Towards Each Other, by Garrett Bucks
"I had been hating my body like it was a job for years and I wasn’t happier, healthier, or thinner. I was just…tired." , an interview with Regan Chastain
"Our collective courage is flagging and there is no time for that”, by Chris LaTray (this is from 2020, but it’s still really good.)

Melinda's Favorite Gluten and Grain-Free Bread

From the Kitchen

In our spiritual - and soon our café community - we have a strong commitment to serve foods that are delicious and nutritious, but also meet the various allergy limitations of some members. Of course, one of the most difficult and challenging items on our menu is bread.

Bread is an ancient human food that has significant liturgical significance in Jewish and Christian communities, but it is now a challenging food to offer when so many folks have developed gluten intolerance or are choosing to eat vegan, paleo, or keto.

Amongst clergy colleagues, we’ve had a lot of conversations about how to provide a single loaf that most, if not all, could share together for communion. Here’s my favorite that I regularly bake for our Good Table church community that I found on the blog:  An Edible Mosaic.

It’s basically an egg bread made with almond flower, arrowroot, tapioca starch, and flaxseed meal. It is leavened with salt and apple cider vinegar. You can use coconut oil or ghee, almond milk or cow’s milk if you want to make it vegan. While you may not have all these ingredients in your pantry, they are easily sourced in bulk in natural groceries and may even be readily available through some chain stores. But best of all, it is easy and delicious! And unlike many gluten-free breads, it isn’t “crumbly” or dry and holds together well, making it versatile for many uses.

Image courtesy An Edible Mosaic

Best Paleo Sandwich Bread
by An Edible Mosaic

Prep Time: 10 mins. 

Cook Time: 40-45 mins 

Yield: 1 (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch) loaf or 1 8” round, or 4 mini-loaves

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour

6 tablespoons arrowroot starch

4 tablespoons golden flax seed meal

2 tablespoons tapioca starch

3/4 teaspoon fine salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly, plus more to grease the baking pan

4 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or cow’s milk

1 1/2 teaspoons apple sider vinegar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, generously grease baking pan

2. Whisk together the almond flour, arrowroot, tapioca starch, flaxseed meal, salt and baking soda in a large bowl

3.  Whisk together the slightly cooled ghee or coconut oil, eggs, “milk”, and vinegar in a medium bowl or large measuring cup. (I melt the ghee in the microwave)

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once and stir until combined, but do not over-mix (if you stir it too much, it will not rise)

5. Immediately pour batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes our clean, about 40-45 minutes (depending on the pan.)

6. Cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving. Freezes well and keeps in the fridge for up to five days.

Enjoy!

An Epidemic within the Pandemic

by Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain

Woman befriending a pigeon from her apartment window

“Isolation” by Fabio Barbato

Spiritual Touchstone

During my 25+ years as a pastor, one of the most common worries I hear from parents with regard to their children (no matter what age!) is about friendship. Will my child make friends? Will those friends be a good influence? And, of course, what can I do as a parent to help my child make good friends?

There are no easy strategies for parents confronting this problem on behalf of their children. And the problem of loneliness and a lack of friends is certainly not limited to children. We recently learned from The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, the book our Mindfulness Circle is reading that at least 10% of Americans say that they don’t have any close friends at all.

Not surprisingly, as we move into the third year of a global pandemic, loneliness appears to be on the rise. A new report from Harvard states that: “36% of all Americans—including 61% of young adults (18-25) and 51% of mothers with young children—feel ‘serious loneliness’.” And not surprisingly, loneliness appears to have increased substantially since the outbreak of the global pandemic, although a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study in 2019 found that at least 1 in 5 Americans reported feeling lonely or socially isolated.

Rising loneliness and social isolation are serious health problems with real world consequences. Human beings are social animals like all primates, and we are meant to be in relationship. But somehow, we’ve lost the art of being in community. It might be that we honor rugged individualism too much. Or that we are distracted by media and technology. Or it could be that we’ve just forgotten (or never really learned) how important it is to take time for friendship and to be in community.

The Harvard report suggest three immediate strategies including “raising awareness”, such this blog post or by simply thinking about your friendships or lack thereof. Their second recommendation is to “increase and improve our social infrastructure”. The Good Table is designed to do that for folks in El Sobrante, but we can all take advantage of existing social infrastructure such as volunteering with a local organization or becoming part of a spiritual community such as a temple, gurdwara, church, mosque or synagogue. And the third recommendation is to work “to restore our commitments to each other and the common good”.

From a spiritual perspective, the best antidote to loneliness is to develop a warm and compassionate heart toward others. There are many meditation and prayer practices that can help anyone to become more aware and connected to one another. These practices also help us turn away from focusing on our problems and become more compassionate. This “turning” then helps us to make new friends and strengthen our existing community connections.

My own view is that the fastest way to decrease our own loneliness and self-centeredness is to actively choose to becoming a helper and volunteer. This can be hard for young adults and parents trying to juggle a challenging schedule, but the results can be miraculous.

Try doing one new thing “out in the world” once a month such as participating in a community work day. Here in El Sobrante, there are many opportunities including our monthly “clean-up the town day” every 3rd Saturday (including this Saturday, Feb. 19) from 10a-12n (meet at the library) or come to our site (5166 Sobrante Avenue) on the last Saturday (Feb. 26) from 12n-3p.

Here is some final wisdom to ponder from Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the subject of loneliness.

Much depends on your attitude. If you are filled with negative judgment and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely. But if you have an open heart and are filled with trust and friendship, even if you are physically alone, even living a hermit’s life, you will never feel lonely.
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

May we all find happiness and friendship.

Fertilizing the Future

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Plum blossom season!

Spiritual Touchstone

Depending on where you live, it may be the first breath of spring. Where we are, in the East Bay, it’s been in the windy, sunny 70s the last week — nearly summer. (Thanks global warming. Okay not really, rain please?) In any case, it’s a good time of year to fertilize your garden. If you’d like a primer on how to fertilize, here you go: Garden Fertilizer Basics

To be honest, fertilizing intimidates me. I have this weird aversion to it. I wasn’t really sure why; it is, after all, good for the plants, good for the ecosystem. I know I should be fertilizing my own garden, but I can’t seem to drum up any enthusiasm for it, when really all it is is feeding your plants.

And then I realized: I am terrible at remembering to feed myself, so why should it be any different for my plants?

My life is really busy — I have two kids, work, friends, community. It feels like everyone needs something from me all the time. If the kids aren’t shouting, the cats are. And if everyone’s quiet, a friend is texting or my mom is calling. I love my community, but wow, does it consume my time and resources. As a consequence of that, self care can sometimes (often) go out the window.

The old adage of “Put your own mask on first” comes up a lot for me, but it feels trite when so many other peoples’ needs are greater than mine. My therapist admonished me this week though and reminded me that if I burn out, I’m actually going to be less available, less able to care for those who need it. So the question becomes: what next?

How can we fertilize our own experience so that our future becomes sustainable?

How do we take care of ourselves so that we can continue to sustainably show up for our communities?

For me, that looks like:

  • Saying no a lot more often. I am quick to raise my hand for things, without thinking about the true cost associated with it. I need to carefully tend my own resources with an eye to sustainability.

  • Rest. I often get frustrated when I want to just nap or read or watch something of no substance, but those activities replenish me.

  • Spend my time with folks that uplift me, rather than drain me. Everyone’s going through it and certainly, I want to be helpful to people I care about, but I can’t continue to have folks suck me dry with their unmanaged drama.

What does fertilizing your future look like? How will you tend to your garden of self in 2022?
Rainy Day Biscuits

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

From the Kitchen

I love a biscuit. Flaky, buttery, warm from the oven… there’s nothing better than a fresh biscuit. My partner though is gluten-free, and that makes biscuiting rather tricky. Until I discovered this amazing, one-bowl recipe from Zen Belly! The biscuits are denser than a wheat flour biscuit, but really delightful as a base for eggs benedict, or even just butter and jam. If you’re gluten-free or paleo, I’d recommend giving these a try. I made some today, and it was a lovely treat!

Paleo biscuit with butter and jam

Paleo biscuit with butter and jam

Rainy Day Biscuits
by Simone Miller of Zen Belly

Yield: 6 large biscuits/12 small biscuits

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups almond flour
3/4 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cold butter (frozen if possible)
2 tablespoons honey
2 eggs

Ready to go into the oven!

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk to combine the almond flour, arrowroot, salt and baking soda. 

  3. Cut the butter into 4-5 pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or 2 knives. You’ll want the result to look like coarse crumbs, no larger than pea sized. (Kelly’s tip: I freeze the butter, then grate it with a box grater. It’s fun and easy, and I get great results.)

  4. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey and eggs.

  5. Gently mix into the dry ingredients, but try not to over mix. You want it just to come together.

  6. Drop the batter onto your prepared sheet with a large spoon. It helps to dampen your hands to shape them a bit- the dough is sticky. 

  7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown and done in the center.

Yum!

Drip Irrigation

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

Raised planters with drip irrigation (black tubes)

In the Garden

It’s been a pretty dry couple of weeks, and I was just thinking about turning on my drip irrigation again. If you don’t have drip irrigation installed yet, it’s a pretty straightforward thing to do and it has many benefits:

  1. You save water — drip irrigation uses lots less water than sprinklers or watering with a hose. It also prevents evaporation. You can save 30-50% water using drip irrigation over conventional watering systems.

  2. Much more focused watering — since drip irrigation aims water at the roots, your plants get a longer, more concentrated watering time. The water goes where it needs to go, without getting on leaves (risk of burning in the sun, or getting a fungal disease) or around the plant (more risk of weeds taking water, not your plant).

  3. Very adaptable — more conventional systems are hard to move around. Drip irrigation can be moved easily and customized to whatever plant system you’ve got.

According to this guide from Green Thumb Nursery, there are a couple types of drip irrigation components:

  • Porous Soaker Hose: these are made from recycled car tires, and are great because all the water goes right into the soil. They’re especially suited to plant beds and rows of shrubs.

  • Raindrip Drip System: “The beauty of the Raindrip Drip System is that you just have to set it up and forget it. You simply attach the timer to the faucet, connect the supply line, lay it around your garden, and let the automated system do the rest. It distributes water more efficiently than traditional watering and saves water, time, and money. It is a great method to use to water your plants during a drought, and when there are watering restrictions.”

  • Micro-sprinklers: these can mist or be run to specific plants, and they use much less water than conventional sprinklers.

Main line hose (black), with drip hose (brown)

You can get drip irrigation systems at all major home improvement stores. My system is from Dripworks and I really recommend them — it was an easy setup and has been very straightforward to maintain over the years.

Happy dripping!

Gentle January

by Kelly Knight, Marketing Manager for The Good Table

From the Kitchen

Something I’ve been thinking about this week is about how rude New Year’s resolutions are. After the indulgence and coziness of December, the expectation that we’ll all just jump into goal-setting and capitalistic productivity just seems like a vast disconnect. No disrespect if that’s your vibe, but it’s always just seemed so weird to me that we’ve collectively decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that January is the time to optimize for our best selves.

It’s winter. Winter is a time for hibernation, for rest, for nestling ourselves in blanket forts with good books. One of my favorite writers, Helena Fitzgerald of Griefbacon, writes:

Winter … offers permission to turn away, to nest, to build forts and climb into the imagined worlds within them.

In winter I remember all the movies I always mean to get around to watching. It’s a good time for sitting down with multi-part epics and three-hour grand undertakings. I make up little thematic film festivals in my own home and drown the day in them. It’s easier to focus on a screen or a page indoors when outdoors is a cold, blank void. The sense of waiting that winter offers is sometimes a comfort. This is a time to plant and plan and not yet expect anything from the frozen ground. Here, work and love can be interior and unseen, burrowing through a long night, keeping warm and making plans for when springtime comes. Winter is comforting in a perverse way, but it’s still comforting all the same, huddled up in small spaces, making blanket forts and cooking a spicy heavy stew so that the house smells like an embrace, and then watching all the Matrix movies in one day without even feeling a little bit guilty. 

Instead of hopping right back into an exercise routine, a diet, or a bunch of habits I’ll probably leave behind by March, I’m going to embrace the concept of Gentle January.

I’ve seen this term around Instagram. It’s best encapsulated by this post:

My own Gentle January project is making toast. Toast is my coziest food - when I’m sick or sad, I reach for toast. But to make it interesting, I’ve been exploring toppings. As it turns out, toast is the perfect vehicle for pretty much anything! (Open secret: it’s basically an open-faced sandwich.)

Here are some of the toasts I’ve made during Gentle January:

From left to right, in rows, from the top:
1. Boursin garlic & herb cheese spread, homemade pickled red onions, manzanita olives, skipjack tuna
2. Cream cheese, roasted red peppers from a jar, crispy chickpeas
3. Cucumber, cream cheese, Trader Joe’s “Everything But the Bagel” seasoning
4. NuttZo nut butter, raspberries, hemp hearts
5. Goat cheese, beluga lentils, chives
6. Avocado, homemade pickled red onions, crispy chickpeas
7. Boursin garlic & herb cheese spread, homemade pickled carrots, fresh dill
8. Cream cheese, Fig & Apple tart cherry & white tea preserves
9. NuttZo nut butter, banana, shaved chocolate

There are endless variations, and it’s a pretty low barrier to entry to try this. You probably have a bunch of things on-hand to try. So if you’re looking for a snack or easy meal, try toast. Also, keep your twinkle lights up for January, if you haven’t taken them down already. Why not?

Have a great Gentle January everyone!