From Slow Food to Soul Food

Julie started off the day at Slow Food Nation, a festival to raise awareness about how we can create a sustainable food system for America. I specifically started off the day in the festival's amazing Victory Garden, planted in the shadow of San Francisco's town hall. See all the pics.

Our friend, Jen Hagerman, who is studying healing through whole-food nutrition, joined me for a tour of the market. Some of the remarkable moments for me include meeting Javier of the Bodega Goat farm - along with the random women standing by. Javier talked to us about raising goats. The woman talked to me about her 2 nubians and 1 sheep that she keeps on a couple of acres about an hour outside of town. She says the goats are sassy - as all goats are, and that she thought she would harvest milk and wool but never got around to it. Now the animals are pets and lawn mowers. Still, she wholeheartedly encouraged me getting goats. My sister Jen spins wool and is a fantastic knitter, so my dream scenario involves us owning a goat farm together. Javier said the farm is open for visits.

I also met a woman from Marshall's Honey. They sell honey varieties cultivated from locales throughout the bay area. When I asked if they had anything from Oakland, she pointed out to me the Oak Town Neighbor "Hood" Honey - which was delicious. Beekeeping is another interest of mine, and could be a very necessary hobby if the bee die-offs keep happening.

At the booths, I saw Neil, who is the grandson of a woman who lives on our block. Neil is an amazing, blazingly smart kid who visits us regularly and even helped out on some of the tile cutting for the bathroom. He his apparently also a very good businessman. He sold me some rosemary and dog biscuits made by Obug - a youth business summer camp.

Jen and I headed over to Ft. Mason to pay our $45 each to enter the "Taste Pavilion" but neither of us knew that you had to have tickets. So we were denied food and had to settle for a picnic on the lawn. Lovely.

From San Francisco, I traveled to Oakland to meet up with Craig for the Art and Soul festival. This is a HUGE event with 5 stages of music and performance, 3 full days, and several city blocks cordoned off. Definitely worth the price of the $10 ticket per day to get in. We particularly enjoyed a smokin' band - Birdleg and Tightfit Blues Band. The Indigo Girls were headlining, but we ended up digging B&T much more. Bonus, we ran in to Tasha and Arthur and their extended family.

The most amazing thing I saw at Art and Soul, besides the lovely diversity of the city I call home, was a fried twinkie. Well, it's a toss up between the fried twinkie and the funnel cake piled high with an ice cream sundae. I can't help but notice the differences of my day - the contrast of a meal of fresh melon, organic brown rice, artisanal goat cheese - with the funnel cakes, kettle corn, and fried twinkies. Still, I had a great day and came home feeling that all was right with the world, and that I was lucky to have sampled the best of both cities.