We’re sharing this week’s recipe from a fabulous local organization run by an Episcopal priest friend of Rev. Melinda. You can check out their website by CLICKING HERE!

Harvest Fatoosh Style Salad

At our 8th Annual Harvest, in August, we were treated to a delicious salad made with blistered whole grain Hourani berries. The salad was created by Chef Dominic Machi, Director of Food and Nutrition Services at one of California’s largest school districts, Mt. Diablo Unified School District, along with his Culinary Manager, Chef Joshua Gjersand.

Since then we’ve had many requests to share the recipe (Harvest Fatoosh Salad) and offer whole Hourani berries to our customers. So, here we go!

Harvest Fatoosh Style Salad

Serves six

Ingredients:

1 cup Hourani whole wheat berries, soaked and cooked
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup good olive oil
2 teaspoons flake salt
½ cup sheep’s feta, crumbled or diced
2 minced scallions, white and green parts
1 bunch or about 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 bunch or about 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 firm cucumber, unpeeled and chopped
2 cups seasonal tomatoes, chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Soak the Hourani berries in water for 6-12 hours. Drain and rinse the berries. Place berries in a saucepan with a 1⁄4 tsp salt and enough water to generously cover them. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer for about 20 minutes until al dente. The grain should be plump and chewy, not hard or mushy. Drain well and place in a large bowl. Drizzle the olive oil, 1 tsp. salt and pepper while still warm. Let cool.

While the berries are cooling, chop the scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, 1 teaspoon flake salt, and more pepper. Gently mix the herbs, vegetables, and feta into the berries. Squeeze lemon juice and more olive oil if you wish and mix. Season, to taste. Serve at room temperature or cover and refrigerate. Tabbouleh is best enjoyed at room temperature. If refrigerated, let sit for 30 minutes before serving.

Optional - boost nutrition and digestibility

Sprouting the berries

As with all wheat berries, sprouting them before cooking unlocks loads of health benefits.* The germination process breaks down some of the starch, which makes the percentage of nutrients higher.

It also breaks down phytate, a form of phytic acid that normally decreases absorption of vitamins and minerals in the body. So sprouted wheat has more available nutrients than unsprouted grains. Those nutrients include folate, iron, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, and protein. Sprouted grains also may have less starch and be easier to digest than regular grains. It may help people who are sensitive to digesting grains.

Method
It’s easy. Use a 64 oz. glass Mason jar. Place the berries in the jar and fill the jar with water. The water line should cover the berries by 2-3 inches.

Let sit at room temperature for 12 hours. Drain the water and rinse with clean water, drain again.

Turn the jar on its side. Spread the berries out for maximum air circulation.

It can take anywhere from 6-12 hours to sprout. Depending upon the time of year–warmer temperatures will reduce the amount of time it takes to sprout the berries. Every 6 hours, turn the jar upright, fill with water to wet the grains and drain. Set the jar on its side and spread grains out again to continue the sprouting process.

The berries are considered sprouted when the tip of the root (the radicle) emerges from the berries. When you see tiny white tails emerge, the grain is ready to cook.

Once sprouted, cook immediately per the directions above, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Sprouted, uncooked berries can be frozen for up to two months.

*Harvard Health Blog

In The Community

Meet Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain, Pastor of The Good Table, & Community Volunteer, Elli Nogal-Rothe. Pastor Melinda talks with Elli about the history The Good Table Cafe and her hopes for the possibilities it will bring to the El Sobrante community.

Special thanks to Jacob Day for taking the video, Nicole Morin for editing, and Pastor Melinda and Elli for chatting with us.

Join us for our next Work + Fun Day!

When: Saturday, September 24th from 12-3 PM

Where: 5166 Sobrante Ave, El Sobrante 94803

Sat. September 24 will be our Community Work + Fun Day @ 5166 Sobrante Ave, 12- 3p. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing and bring work gloves and favorite gardening tools. And please bring a good quality mask so we can all stay safe from COVID and construction dust.

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

Most houses try to divert water from gutters into the street as quickly as possible, which then goes into storm drains and in our area, eventually into the Bay. What if we thought about our watersheds as a water capture system. Your house can be part of an effective water capture system returning thousands of gallons of water to the local environment.

Let’s Rethink Rain Barrels:

Typical use of rain barrels is to store rain to be used later.  

House roof area - 1000 sq ft - most single story houses will be twice that.
1” of rain = 625 gallons of water.

Average rain barrel - 50-65 gallons so you could refill one barrel 10 times with 1” of rain. 

A low annual rainfall, 10” = 6500 gallons. Average rainfall, 20” = 13,000

The most efficient way to store thousands of gallons of water is in the ground. 

My rain barrel method:

Divert gutter downspouts into 65 gal rain barrels. When the rains come, I attach a garden hose to one of the spigots on the barrel and run the end of the hose into the yard, preferably an area with mature shrubs and trees. Especially good if you can heavily mulch the ground. From time to time, I move the end of the hose to different areas. Even if all you can do is move the the end of the hose a short ways from the house and into the ground, it will have plenty of benefit. At the end of the rainy season, I close the spigot on the barrel to store some water for the dry season.  Rain barrels are designed to have a spill over area. In a heavy rain storm, you might get water overflowing the barrel because the hose can't divert it fast enough.  That doesn’t happen often in my experience..
That water not only can soak deeper into the ground and send roots deeper, thereby protecting them from the hot, dry surface in the summer.  An inch of rain falling on the ground only goes about 1” deep into the ground.  With enough water, it will slowly seep deeper into the land, hydrating and nourishing all the living soil organisms which will in turn store more water in your soil.  

Basic permaculture principle regarding water - slow it, spread it, sink it.  Capturing it in rain barrels (slowing) long enough to divert it to the land (spread it) where it can slowly sink.  If enough water is sent back to the land, we could begin to refill our water table.  It will also return to creeks and rivers more slowly and over time so more water stays on the land, supporting a steady habitat for wildlife! Water is life - capture more life for our yards, our communities, our planet. A virtuous cycle!

Click HERE to view the entire Newsletter!

In The Community

Meet Darrel DeBoer, site architect at the Good Table. Darrel talks to us about his history working with The Good Table and his hopes for the possibilities it will bring to the El Sobrante community.

Special thanks to Jacob Day for taking the video and conducting the interview, Nicole Morin for editing, and Darrel for chatting with us.

Join us for our next Work + Fun Day!

When: Saturday, August 27th from 12-3 PM

Where: 5166 Sobrante Ave, El Sobrante 94803

Sat. August 27 will be our Community Work + Fun Day @ 5166 Sobrante Ave, 12- 3p. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing and bring work gloves and favorite gardening tools. And please bring a good quality mask so we can all stay safe from COVID and construction dust.

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

Dreaming the Future of The Good Table

By Melinda V. McLain

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt

“Futuring” is a special discipline within the humanities that is used a lot by businesses trying to get ahead of new market opportunities.  It is also a fairly complicated and incredibly inexact science with high stakes outcomes for companies seeking to remain profitable in a rapidly-changing world.

While studying for my doctor of ministry, we did study some of the disciplines of futuring and imagined ways to apply these insights in a local setting such as a church or community service organization. Amongst many startling things I learned from this course work was that “the future is plural, not singular”.

I remember thinking that while it is easy to say the future is plural, not singular, it is very hard to live with that idea. It’s much more comfortable to think that life will progress in a more predictable fashion. But if we haven’t learned anything else from all the unexpected shifts that have happened these past few years, we now know that the future is truly unpredictable! I know I didn’t have “global pandemic” on my bingo card! And five years ago when I first met Gavin Raders of Planting Justice, I didn’t really have “constant threat from wildfires” and “global weirding” weather patterns due to climate change on my future possibilities radar.

Although some of these big cultural and weather shifts have been surprising, fairly ordinary and predictable events often lead to different futures too. For example, a cancer diagnosis changes everything for a particular family - at the very least in the short term - and sometimes forever. Similarly, new neighbors can bring gifts and skills into the community that are dazzling and delightful. And unexpected kindness from friends and even strangers can sometimes change everything.

When I meet people in the community who are peripherally interested in The Good Table project, I am almost always asked, “when will you open?” And if I found Aladdin’s lamp tomorrow - I assure you this might be my first question! It is definitely a question when I wake up in the middle of the night worried about how to get this construction process finished. What I don’t worry about is whether we will eventually open and that this project will be a great boon for our communities.  It’s just a matter of when and how, not if or maybe. We will finish the renovation and we will someday open The Good Table Café and Planting Justice Nursery! We will see this beautiful dream come true and we are so grateful for all of you who have helped in any way.

Still, we have some big stumbling blocks to overcome. As many of you know, we had a major break-in in mid-June by wire thieves that destroyed or removed all our rough electrical from the building resulting in a loss of over $100,000 and time that we cannot ever get back. But this isn’t the only burglary we have had since we acquired the property in April of 2019. An electrical generator was stolen in 2019, one of our contractor’s trucks (which he managed to recover!) in 2020, and Planting Justice has had two trailers stolen in addition to the major break-in in June.

We did foresee that our site would be a target for crime and we did - and do have - security measures in place, but those efforts clearly have not been adequate and our whole security system was stolen as part of the big burglary in June. I have also lost count as to how many padlocks we have lost that have been cut by thieves.

The security system and locks have been replaced, but there are other unexpected consequences too. What I didn’t expect was how depressed and broken-hearted I would feel after so many burglaries. I suspect I was just lucky by virtue of social privilege to not have been a regular crime victim before. And perhaps I was naïve to think that doing something “good” for the community would lead to a “good” set of future outcomes. And yet, I’m tired of bad news, exhausted by grief, and yet ready to make progress instead of constantly being in recovery mode from yet more bad news.

The art and craft of futuring has become more and more challenging - even for businesses with tremendous resources - let alone community-based groups like ours. But I still believe in our dream and have hope that we will keep moving forward and faith that we will open eventually.

Thank you for your support in terms of kind words, volunteer time, talent, and your financial gifts too. It all makes a difference!

Mediterranean Summer Salad

By Melinda V. McLain

I recently made this salad for a tailgate at the Santa Fe Opera, but it is both perfect for any picnic potluck or substantial enough to serve as a main dish. It is also easy to substitute ingredients for dietary preferences or make it using the bounty of your garden! It keeps well and is easy to serve outside. Quantities below are general, but I try to make sure the ingredients are somewhat evenly distributed, so you get a bit of everything in each bite. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Summer Salad

Serves six

Ingredients:

1 cup Israeli pearl couscous (or farro) or gluten-free couscous

1 large cucumber chopped bite-sized

2 Large heirloom tomatoes chopped or a cup of cherry tomatoes halved

1 small red onion finely chopped

3 oz of Feta cheese (cheaper to chop the brick than buy crumbles)

3 oz Kalamata olives (half a jar from Trader Joe’s) or to taste

2 tbsp Chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp Olive oil

Fresh lemon juice from two large lemons (we use Meyer lemons from garden)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Optional: Add roasted or broiled chicken cut into bite-sized chunks or chickpeas for veggie and vegan-friendly extra protein. 

Instructions:

1. Cook the couscous. I learned how to do this from Bob’s Red Mill. Drain it, run cold water over it, and cool it in the fridge in a large bowl that you can also use to serve outside.

2. Squeeze the juice of two large lemons into the couscous and add a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil. Mix well.

3. Chop cucumber, tomatoes, feta, olives, onion and parsley. (or whatever veggies you have on hand or in your garden) and toss into the bowl of couscous.

4. Toss well and make sure ingredients are evenly distributed. Taste it enthusiastically to make sure it’s good! ;-)

5. Store in fridge until needed so that flavors combine well. It’s often better the next day.

Click HERE to view the entire Newsletter!

In The Community

Meet Joyce & Scott Hedges, community volunteers at the Good Table. Joyce and Scott talk about their experience working with The Good Table and their hopes for the possibilities it will bring to the El Sobrante community.

Special thanks to Jacob Day for taking the video and conducting the interview, Nicole Morin for editing, and Joyce & Scott for chatting with us.

Join us for our next Work + Fun Day!

When: Saturday, July 30th from 12-3 PM

Where: 5166 Sobrante Ave, El Sobrante 94803

Sat. July 30th will be our Community Work + Fun Day @ 5166 Sobrante Ave, 12- 3p. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing and bring work gloves and favorite gardening tools. And please bring a good quality mask so we can all stay safe from COVID and construction dust.

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

Watch Out!

By Bonnie Hariton (07/20/22)

Photo = Dan Hariton heading out to their Pinole garden

It's one thing to notice that last year's hollyhocks have sprinkled seeds here and there in the backyard. You know what they are even as seedlings and cheer them on. It's another thing to notice that your raised beds - neglected over the winter this time - have been densely re-populated with grasses, spiky weeds, and the indefatigable bindweed. You recognize them all and sigh, realizing how much work it will be to pull them out. It is another thing entirely to notice a plant that you do not recognize, one that gives you a distinctly uneasy feeling.

I encountered the plant in the bed where tomatoes grew last year: a sturdy stem about five feet tall, with small white flowers in an umbrella shape on the top, and ghastly, irregularly shaped, red purple splotches on the smooth stem. I instinctively felt warned and wary. Stop, I told my husband, Dan. We must check this out before we clean up the bed. It was Hemlock. Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), a deadly,  invasive species that has been spreading around the United States. Online research and a plant identifier app confirmed it. Looks sort of like Queen Anne's lace but not. Looks sort of ferny, carroty, but not. And there were more than one.

We wondered if we could eradicate it without dying. All parts - leaves, stem, roots, seeds, and juices - are dangerous and toxic if eaten, inhaled, or touched. We found help from KateVan Druff.

Dan put on a hazmat suit with a hood, wore thick gloves, a mask, goggles, and washable shoes. I stayed indoors and prayed. The largest hemlock was too firmly rooted to pull out by hand. Dan had to cut the stem and extract the foot-long, white-carrot-like tap root and lateral shoots with a five-foot-long, thirty pound steel pike used (with rope) as a lever. He put the plants in a thick black garbage bag, tied it tightly closed, and disposed of it in the garbage - not in the compost bin. Even dead, hemlock can remain poisonous for years. We inspected more of the surrounding area and had a neighbor's help, with a small bulldozer, to uproot a tenacious bush that had become encumbered with hemlock. Weeks later, we removed some three dozen young seedlings that had sprouted up in the general area. This time we could recognize them from their leaves alone. 

The moral of this story is: know your landscape, trust your instincts, get help. And, as always, Live Long and Garden!

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Sat. July 30 will be our Community Work + Fun Day @ 5166 Sobrante Ave, 12- 3p. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing and bring work gloves and favorite gardening tools. And please bring a good quality mask so we can all stay safe from COVID and construction dust.