Q: I’m a happily married 30-year-old woman. A co-worker pointed out a senior trainer at work constantly sneaking lustful glances at me. I was later assigned to his section. We quickly became close friends, and he began mentoring me. He’s married, too, with two children, so though we were extremely flirtatious, nothing inappropriate ever happened, and I told my husband about him. Recently, there were rumors that this man and I were hooking up. He freaked, saying he could lose everything, and cut off our mentorship and our friendship. This was a real slap in the face, as was learning that he’d never told his wife about me. Should I confront him about how bad it feels to be cut off by him?—Betrayed
A: Workers’ comp covers many on-the-job accidents—but unfortunately not the kind where a married man slips and falls into his co-worker’s vagina.
Granted, that isn’t what happened here. But you don’t have to have the fun to have the fallout, which is why some execs now avoid having closed-door meetings with opposite-sex co-workers. Also consider that when somebody has a lot to lose, they have a lot to fear. We all hope for life-changing experiences, but it’s best if they aren’t getting fired, going through a bitter divorce and having the ex-wife drop off the kids on alternating weekends: “OK, boys, time to put down the Xbox and go visit your dad at the homeless shelter!”
And no, he never announced to his wife, “Hey, honey, I’m mentoring this total hotbody. There’s a rumor that we’re hooking up. Believe me, I wish we were … .” Of course, he wouldn’t say that, but he probably senses what psychologist Paul Ekman has found—that we tend to “leak” what we’re really feeling through facial expressions and body language (especially if these include Gollum-like panting and slobbering: “Must. Have. The. Precious”).
You probably understand this intellectually. But the sting from being socially amputated comes out of what psychologist Donna Hicks, an international conflict resolution specialist, deems a “dignity violation.” Hicks describes dignity as “an internal state of peace” we feel from being treated as if we have value and our feelings matter. Because we evolved as a cooperative species and reputation was essential to our remaining in our ancestral band, we react to threats to our dignity as we would threats to our survival.
You patch up your dignity not by marching around all butthurt while waiting for him to repair it, but by calmly taking the initiative. Tell him that you miss having him as a friend and mentor—but that you understand. Counterintuitively, you should find that being the bigger one makes you feel better. Acting like the antithesis of the scorned work wife should help him ease up, too. Though it’s unlikely that things will go back to how they were, he should at least stop treating you like poison ivy in career separates.
Q: I’m a 34-year-old woman who’s been in a yearlong relationship with a wonderful man. I’ve caught myself several times almost calling him by my ex’s name. Surely, this means something, but what? I loathe my ex and regret spending seven long years with him. Still, could I have unresolved feelings for him?—Disturbed
A: It’s like when you pour orange juice on your cereal instead of milk, which surely only happens because you’ve been having sex dreams about fruit salad.
If your near name slips are a sign of anything, it’s probably that you need a snack and a nap. Your brain is an energy hog, so it likes to cut corners where it can, especially when you’re tired. Basically, like your web browser, it’s big on autofill. In researcher-speak, this means it makes “retrieval errors”—reaching into the right file drawer but just grabbing any old name and then going, “Yeah, whatever … good enough.”
Research by psychological anthropologist Alan Page Fiske finds that the biggest predictors for name swapping are the same “mode of relationship”—like here, where both names are from the boyfriend zone—and being “of the same gender.” Boringly reassuring, I hope. There’s also a boringly simple fix—from memory researcher David Balota: Asking and answering the question, “What is my current boyfriend’s name?” using “spaced retrieval.” This means setting a timer for, say, 15 seconds and then 45 seconds and then two minutes so you’re recalling the name on demand (as opposed to just reciting it over and over again).
You might also try to see these near errors as a sign of the rich tapestry of our bustling modern lives, or some bullshit like that. At least that’s what I tried to tell myself last week when I got off the phone with, “Love you!” and heard back, “Um, yes, ma’am. Thank you for choosing AT&T.”
This week in the Pacific Sun, our Home & Garden cover story, ‘Growth spurt,’ celebrates people in the North Bay who are living green lives—whether they are growing their own flowers or food, or making their own furniture from objects found in nature—and inspiring those around them to follow suit. On top of that, we’ve got a story on domestic worker law, a piece from our Dirt Diva on garden investment, a roundup of local farmers’ markets, an interview with Indie rock institution Rogue Wave, and photos from our Best of Marin party. All that and more on stands and online today!
In something like Quentin Tarantino’s version of That Darn Cat!, Keanu’s Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele make a sublime comedy team. Key is Clarence, an anxious suburban family man in a madras shirt. He’s called up by his cousin Rell. Peele is the cuddly, furry-brained type, honoring the tradition that a good comedy team is one person trying to keep order, paired with a partner whose grip has long since gone. Rell has just been dumped by his girlfriend, who told him he wasn’t going anywhere in life. “I don’t even know what that means!” he whines through a mouthful of bong smoke.
Heaven sends Rell a stray silver tabby, scratching at his door. The cat completes him—they share milk from a saucer. Keanu the kitten is the lone survivor of a bloodbath. Two monstrous gangsters from Allentown (also Key and Peele) shot and carved up a lair full of drug-dealing rivals in the best John Woo style. After burglars strike Rell’s house, the kitty vanishes. Clues lead to a gangsta named Cheddar (Method Man). To impress this downtown criminal and his cohorts, the cousins pose as the deadly Allentowners.
Like the baby in Raising Arizona, Keanu the kitten stirs up everyone’s emotions without having any of its own. Wearing a bitty do-rag, and tiny bling around its neck, the little mite is a symbol of fragile, finer feelings threatened by the heavy boots of the urban world. Another instance of tenderness: The prelude to a thwarted kiss on a rooftop between Rell and Hi-C (Tiffany Haddish), during a fireworks party. The explosions give the would-be gangbanga PTSD after the gunfights he’s been witnessing. And Haddish, like guest-starring Anna Faris, gives this endearing trifle everything she’s got.
Formed by Bay Area songwriter Zach Rogue in 2002, Rogue Wave has become an indie rock institution known for emotional and experimental music.
After five albums, Rogue and longtime collaborator Pat Spurgeon went in a new direction, setting up a home studio to record their excellent new album, Delusions of Grand Fur, the band’s first album in three years.
“Like a lot of things in music, it was born out of necessity,” Rogue says of the home-recording process. Rogue wanted to stay closer to his children and to explore his musical impulses.
“I wanted to trust my first instincts, because if you trust your instincts, it’s not a refined emotional response, it’s very raw, and I wanted raw,” Rogue says.
Rogue also liked all of the happy accidents, the bizarre sounds that came with recording and experimentation, and he wanted to include them on the album.
“I wanted it to be really what we are,” he says. “I’m very much a seat-of-my-pants kind of artist, and I don’t want the album to be anything that I’m not. I feel like if I can have an honest relationship with people that listen to our music, that will make me happier.”
Thematically, Delusions of Grand Fur balances Rogue’s sentimental side with his angst. The album contains two of the band’s most distinctive love songs to date, “Falling” and “Curious Me.” On the flip side, Rogue’s penchant for disgruntlement appears on songs like “Endless Supply,” where he ponders the question of living a life in a music business that’s fraught with stress.
Still, in spite of his frustrations, Rogue has thrived in the business for more than 15 years. He credits his success to his relationship with Spurgeon, who acted as producer and engineer on the album, as well as Rogue’s musical collaborator.
“I’ve always said he has the patience of Job,” Rogue says. “He’ll hear something that’s not even a song, and he has the will to let it sound like a mess and work with me until it becomes a song.”
Spurgeon’s ability to deconstruct Rogue’s acoustic foundation and add musical elements like piano and even tape delay transforms the album into an expansive palette of sound that encompasses new wave and Krautrock.
“I can be really vulnerable with him, and he allows me to express that,” Rogue adds. “I could never do that on my own. And when that energy and openness [spreads] throughout the band, it just feels worth it.”
Rogue Wave plays on Friday, May 6, at Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley; 9pm; $25–$27; 415/388-1100.
Here’s an interesting essay question for some future college entry exam. If a literary work (novel, film script, opera libretto, play) is based on a historical event or person, how important is it for the author to remain close to accepted facts? Given the number of times this is ignored, the answer is clearly, “Not very.”
Of course, there are exceptions. A Holocaust denier will be subjected to legitimate complaints. Photos and testimony bear witness. But, if the persons and events lie befogged in the distant past, purveyors of historical fiction are free to roam at will. For them, the only thing that counts is whether these creative excursions can find a receptive audience.
This brings us to Anne Boleyn, English playwright Howard Brenton’s revisionist account of King Henry VIII’s relationship with the second of six wives who enjoyed that questionable distinction. The play is currently having its first West Coast run (through May 15) at Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company (MTC).
Here is a condensed version of what we know for sure about Anne: A courtier during Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, she caught the king’s eye when he grew tired of waiting for the queen to bear him a male heir. The refusal of Pope Clement VII to grant an annulment was one of the factors that led him to dissolve the English Church’s ties with Rome and declare himself ruler by Divine Right, a move that profoundly affected Britain and all of Christian Europe. Three years after Anne became queen, the continued absence of a bouncing baby boy spurred Henry to move on to another courtier, Jane Seymour. To clear the deck, Anne and four men were charged with treasonous adultery and incest (one of the men being her brother, George). Between May 17-19, 1536, all were beheaded in full public view on the Tower Green.
Brenton turns the story on its head. Anne (vigorously portrayed by Liz Sklar) becomes the revolutionary instrument instead of Craig Marker’s unexpectedly benign Henry. Anne meets with William Tyndale (Dan Hiatt), who personally delivers a copy of his translation of the New Testament from Latin to English, an achievement that strikes at the Catholic clergy’s control over religious matters. It’s Anne who pressures Henry to break with the Pope. It’s Anne who conspires with her cunning fellow reformist, Thomas Cromwell (David Ari) to bring about the downfall of powerful Cardinal Wolsey (Charles Shaw Robinson), opening the door to Britain’s version of the Protestant Reformation. Almost 70 years after her death, it’s Anne’s belongings, contained in a newly found chest, that influence King James I’s determination to solidify the unification of England and Scotland.
That, my friends, is quite a load for a lady to carry, especially when none of it is substantiated by historical research. But the relevant issue is still whether Brenton’s re-imagining results in good theater. Certainly, the greatly enlarged role assigned to his protagonist addresses the feminist complaint that history is written by men, for men, and Brenton’s revisionism is provocative. But the script, at times, feels like a tongue-in-cheek polemic, not meant to be taken seriously. Modern vulgar slang is mixed with Shakespeare-like poetic prose. Connections between Anne’s actions and their wide-ranging effects are often laughably simplistic. The brief over-the-top scenes between sybaritic James I and his giggling “playmate,” Lord Cecil, that bookend the play add to its sense of unreality.
MTC’s production, staged by artistic director Jasson Minadakis, is mostly solid. Anchored by a strong group of principals, the performance clips along at a good pace despite its length. Designer Nina Ball’s false perspective cutout version of a Gothic great room that extends partway over the audience is ingenious. Kurt Landisman’s lighting serves the action nicely. A single discordant note is struck by designer Ashley Holvick’s costumes for the court’s ladies-in-waiting, whose short skirts and heels are—like the script’s occasional spurts of present-day trash talk—at odds with the period atmosphere.
In sum, if one doesn’t mind the tinkering with the historical record, Anne Boleyn could turn out to be a stimulating evening’s companion.
NOW PLAYING: Anne Boleynruns through May 15 at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley; 415/388-5208; bo*******@ma**********.org.
The North Bay is full of creative people living green lives—whether they are growing their own flowers or food, or making their own furniture from objects found in nature—and inspiring those around them to follow suit. Here are a few of their stories.
Art by nature
When did succulents become so fashionable? Perhaps since the California drought turned the spotlight on their water-saving qualities, or since boutiques, restaurants and Apartment Therapy masterminds decided to treat them as the sophisticated decor items they were always meant to be. One way or another, every big city runs succulents swaps these days, and the Instagram hashtag #succulents yields more than a million images. Flourish, a creative floral design studio based in Marin County, is all about the sturdy plants. “Every succulent is a piece of art made by nature,” says owner Jodi Shaw on the studio’s website. Shaw and her team specialize in artistic, intrinsic arrangements, featuring succulents, ceramic dishes, metal structures and natural additions like logs and segments of tree barks. Air plants, an impossibly trendy item of late, are also featured—floating on sticks, resting in palm leaves and hanging in vintage cages.
Shaw started the business two-and-a-half years ago. “I’ve been personally growing succulents for over 14 years, and was encouraged by a real estate agent to turn it into business,” she says. “I thought about it, and decided to go for it.” Coming to the field with a design background, Shaw was drawn to the succulents’ sculptural abilities. “To me, they just lend themselves to a different form of art,” she says. On top of their natural beauty, Shaw is well aware of the succulents’ “drought tolerance” and of-the-moment appeal. “I just think people are discovering them and their ways of growing, and that they’re also self-sustainable,” she says. “You can grow them and they propagate profusely, so it’s nice to share them with your friends and family.”
While the arrangements Flourish sells online are first and foremost impressive and decorative, they are also efficient. “I like the idea of offering arrangements that last beyond the traditional cut flowers,” Shaw says. “Even if they’re not planted, the succulents will last at least four-to-six weeks, and once you’re done with the arrangement, you can take the succulent off and plant it—and it will [bear] fruit and keep going.” Reusable, value-for-money plants that happen to be right on trend? You got it.
Photo courtesy of Flourish.
The Flourish Pop-Up Shop is now open at 290 Bon Air Center in Greenbrae, through June 30th, offering succulent arrangements, gifts and home decor items.—Flora Tsapovsky
Flourishsucculents.com.
The curly-burly man
Chuck Oakander dreams of waves intermingling with wood. The dreams will be so vivid that they’ll wake the arborist-sculptor from his slumber and send him to his notebook, where he’ll scrawl out the vision—and then he’ll create it.
The Bolinas arborist makes functional, fun sculpture from tree trunks, and one of his signature creations is the long, carved-out wave benches, rendered mostly from Monterey cypress. These designs are as sculptural as they are functional, and sync well with Oakander’s passion for surfing—where he’s strictly of the longboard persuasion. Oakander is all about the curls and the burls.
He has carved about a half-dozen of the benches in his 25 years working as an arborist-sculptor. Oakander doesn’t get up in the trees much anymore, he says, leaving that work to a younger, more nimble crew—and sometimes he’ll leave the crew at a worksite and head home for a few hours of sanding and grinding his latest work. No matter how tired he is, Oakander marvels at how working on one of his sculptures is a kind of instant rejuvenator. He also sport-climbs redwood trees up on the Bolinas ridge, for kicks.
The 56-year-old is a friendly and ruddy-faced icon in Bolinas, known as much for his surfing skills as for the functional sculptures that populate his property—and at some homes around town—and which take many months to complete, from initial rough-out to the final, smooth and sculpted product.
Oakander looks for trunks and trees that speak to his swirls-and-curls aesthetic, adding that he’s not interested in standard woodworking conventions when he’s designing or dreaming up a piece. He’s also not interested in milling wood, and hard-angled table corners seem to bore him—or at least he doesn’t dream of them.
“I am drawn to things with interesting curves,” Oakander says.
Asked to name an artistic inspiration, he immediately identifies his across-the-street neighbor, fisherman and clay sculptor Josh Churchman. Also his mom, Oakander adds, who was a night-owl, an art teacher and a maker herself, mostly of clothing.
The pieces he renders take many months to be fully realized, and there’s often a long waiting period before he even gets to work on a piece after he’s secured the tree. Depending on the wood and where it was growing (in the shade or in the sun—it makes a big difference in how the wood ages and decomposes), he
Chuck Oakander, a Bolinas-based arborist-sculptor, makes fun, functional pieces from tree trunks.
will age the wood for between six months and six years before bringing the tools of his trade to bear on it.
But don’t call Oakander a chainsaw artist. The chainsaw comes out only at the very beginning of the process, when Oakander is roughing out his latest vision—for example, a massive and gored-out trunk that presents a tempting place to rest one’s head, and whole body, after a vigorous Bolinas ramble. After the rough-out and after the wood is aged, it’s on to various adzes and power grinders and Oakander’s favorite tool of all, the gutter adze (it was once used to make wooden gutters, he explains), which he deploys and demonstrates with obvious glee.
Oakander is committed to using sections of wood that might otherwise wind up in the dump. When he started out as an arborist some 25 years ago, there were lots of people in West Marin who burned firewood for heat; that business has dropped off considerably in recent years because of county regulations and other factors.
“We used to burn a lot of this wood up,” Oakander says. “I feel some responsibility here, too, that the wood is not wasted.”
In addition to Monterey cypress, Oakander also uses bluegum and redgum eucalyptus, black acacia, California bay laurel and coast live oak. “Each has sculptural qualities of its own,” Oakander says during a tour of his workshop and grounds. He’s still working with Monterey cypress trees that were downed in a storm about 10 years ago, and which he hauled to the shop from nearby Dogtown.
Oakander may have one of the more popular front-yard gawk-sites in the county. People pull up all the time, he says, out of curiosity and occasionally to make a purchase. He says that for every 50 or 60 who take an interest in his sculptures, one will follow through all the way to the end.
There’s a really cool carved-out chair in the garage that he’s been working on and that reminds me of Game of Thrones by way of an Ent-approved furniture store. The cutaway inside the flagellated trunk looks like it was burned out by a sculptor, a popular technique. But that’s all-natural damage to the wood, done by a fungus, Oakander explains. He fashioned a separate lift-off seat for the chair, which he says could sell for around $15,000. Oakander has also sold simpler hand-hewn pieces in the $1,000 range. He did carve a neat wooden spoon from a lemon-tree branch on the property for his wife, Cass Hicks—a labor of a different kind of love, and one that he’s not going to do for you.
Oakander has also carved out some pieces on commission, but prospective clients should not expect him to sit down and draw out the specifications. This is an all-natural process, in an all-natural town, and Oakander has a dream for how this should go.—Tom Gogola
Oakander.com.
Simple solutions
“A non-disposable life” is Ambatalia’s slogan, opposing all things temporary, casual, unintentionally thrown-together and plastic—both in material and the attitude that they are produced with. The focus here is modern ecological textiles, designed and manufactured in San Francisco—and, worth noticing, endorsed by lifestyle maven and cookbook extraordinaire Heidi Swanson herself (she features Ambatalia products at her San Francisco-based online shop, Quitokeeto).
Multi-functional and minimalistic, Ambatalia’s are the kind of creations that Kinfolk Magazine editors and design bloggers salivate over. Molly de Vries, the creative force behind the brand, started the business in
Photo courtesy of Ambatalia.
2004 in Mill Valley, and hasn’t stopped creating ever since. These days, the brand is active online and locally based in a chic brick-and-mortar location at the Mill Valley Lumber Yard. The store is offering, along with clever textiles, local pottery, kitchenwares, beeswax candles, market baskets, laundry essentials and other seemingly mundane objects that get an elevated, eco-friendly touch.
“Our mission at Ambatalia is to bring awareness and simple solutions to the harmful and wasteful single-use disposables that go along with buying food and other daily necessities,” de Vries states on the business’s website. “It’s not just about plastics but moving towards less waste and more caring about how our daily choices not just affect ourselves but the whole world.”
Along with the environmentally friendly message, Ambatalia’s products happen to be comfy and handsome. Consider, for example, the Furoshiki Bed, a unique Japanese bedding system which replaces the fitted sheet with a flat sheet with knots on the corners. Or the Bento Bag, a simple piece of cloth, at first sight, that turns into a bucket-shaped container ready to be filled with grains, beads or anything you might dream up. Never too loud or colorful, the textiles are durable and sustainable, and the small, carefully curated shop is a natural extension of de Vries’ winning aesthetic. Visit here, and dare leave empty-handed. De Vries, who was born in Mill Valley, can often be found at the store, too—and will gladly help you pick out the perfect gift, which in most cases you’d want to keep.—Flora Tsapovsky
According to Modern Farmer magazine, we’re in the midst of a flower-industry boom, the biggest since the 1990s. As delightful as flowers are to smell and admire, in Sonoma County they are part of a timely conversation about local farming, commerce and community.
“A lot of people don’t realize around 80 percent of flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from other countries,” says Nichole Skalski, a floral designer and member of the five-year-oldNorth Bay Flower Collective. More often than not, she says, “the imports come from farms that treat workers poorly, and use pesticides and chemicals not regulated by the U.S.”
The collective of 15 local farmers, florists and floral designers living and working in Sonoma County calls its approach “slow flowers,” borrowed from the international Slow Food movement. Just as Slow Food underlines the importance of seasonality and locality, the flower collective strives for a deeper understanding of the
Front Porch Farm is part of the North Bay Flower Collective, a group of 15 local farmers, florists and floral designers. Photo courtesy of North Bay Flower Collective.
flower market, its place in the community and its environmental impact. This focus flourishes when growers and designers are brought together.
“I think it’s important for the designer to hear how the farmer tended those seeds until they were passed on to be included in an artistic design for a wedding ceremony or gift to a loved one, carefully selected and arranged,” Skalski says.
The collective also supports its members in what Skalski calls “an essentially tough industry” by providing resources, and educational, marketing and business opportunities. The value of “local,” too often a marketing buzzword, is front and center with collective members.
“Locally grown flowers aren’t grown strictly for shelf life and sturdiness for air travel,” Skalski says, “so we see lots of heirloom, fragrant and more delicate varieties than imports will ever provide.”
Fresh bunches of those delicate varieties, and many more local blooms, can soon be smelled and purchased at Skalski and partner Kathy Green’s new flower shop, California Sister. Named after the butterfly Adelpha californica, the shop will open in Sebastopol’s The Barlow shopping center later this month.
“Our mission is to grow and support our local flower farms, our local economy, and make locally grown flowers more accessible,” Skalski says.—Flora Tsapovsky
Before bestselling garden author Mel Bartholomew began writing books on growing food, he had built his own consulting engineering firm specializing in site and utility design. At age 42 he retired as a successful innovator and took up gardening as a hobby. From his “hobby,” he developed a more manageable and efficient way to garden called the Square Foot Gardening system. His first book, titled Square Foot Gardening and published in 1981, became America’s largest selling gardening book ever.
Bartholomew is also the founder of the nonprofit Square Foot Gardening Foundation, which has an innovative school garden program named “Square Yard in the School Yard.” In addition to that, he has started projects to eliminate world hunger in Africa, South and Central America, Haiti, the Philippines and other third-world countries, by teaching local communities how to grow their own food more efficiently.
This spring, Cool Springs Press published Bartholomew’s latest book called High-Value Veggies: Homegrown Produce Ranked by Value. His latest passion is helping gardeners save money by growing crops with high value. Most gardeners want to grow what’s easiest to grow in their yard, but Bartholomew encourages readers to take a closer look and keep in mind that what’s the easiest to grow is likely to be the most widely produced and the lowest priced at the local supermarket.
“Let’s face it, anything you grow and eat is something you don’t have to buy,” says the author. “Even though you’ll put a good deal of work into a garden, along with tangible investments including plants or seeds, soil amendments and gallon upon gallon of water—you’ll usually get a decent return on your investment.” But this isn’t always the case. “It depends on what you grow,” he adds. “The time to figure out the real value of what you grow in your garden is before you ever drop a seed into a hole you’ve made in your sun-warmed soil.”
Being a trained engineer, Bartholomew says to trust the numbers. His “garden investment” theory is a thoughtful approach to edible plant selection with an eye to which plants represent the best use of your time, money and effort. Amen! His formula uses an average price-per-pound to determine what a season’s worth of produce from any plant is worth. That value is measured against the cost of inputs to grow the plants over a season to calculate an overall ROI (return on investment). In simple terms, the calculations take into account what you put into each individual plant subtracted from what the harvest from that plant is worth.
Here is what he found: The homegrown veggie with the highest ROI is … herbs! The runner-up is parsnip. Parsnip? What?! You’ll like third place more. Coming in third is the Cherry Tomato.
Bartholomew’s team looked at 59 edible plants in the competition. The top 10 high-value garden winners were:
Herbs
Parsnip
Cherry Tomato
Garlic
Heirloom Tomato
Turnip
Leek
Winter Squash
Spinach
Hybrid Tomato
His research team found that the veggies that make the least sense to grow were:
Potato
Brussel Sprouts
3.Bell Pepper
4.Swiss Chard
Asparagus
Okra
Bean
Pole and Bush Bean
Celery
Green Cabbage
Let’s talk about our winner: Herbs. I always recommend novice gardeners to begin gardening by finding a sunny spot and growing an herb garden. Most herbs are fairly easy to grow here in California, so this allows new gardeners to feel like winners and fall madly in love with gardening! Then we have them for life; fellow plant junkies, or as I like to call myself, a hortiholic.
Bartholomew recommends growing a variety of kitchen herbs and to keep any unused portions by freezing them. Both thyme and rosemary are edible but can also be used as exceptional filler plants for rock gardens. And then there’s mint. Most gardeners hate it because it grows like a weed, but if grown in containers, mint will not take over your yard. You’ll just grow enough to put in your summer Mojito.
As for basil, Bartholomew believes that there is no such thing as too much basil. In Marin, basil will keep producing until the first frost. Parsley is an herb rarely bothered by pests and will reseed itself in your garden. Flat-leaved varieties are more tolerant of our dry summer weather. Cut off a small handful of outer leaves to use or shear the entire plant if you need a larger amount. It will quickly regrow.
As for parsnips … Well, maybe it’s time we learned to love them.
Check out some parsnip recipes (parsnip chips, fries, soup, cookies, cake!) from the Bay Area’s Mariquita Farm here: Mariquita.com/recipes/parsnips.html.
Ahhh … spring is here! That means asparagus, berries, beets, peas and spring greens are now at their seasonal best. It also means that the farmers’ markets that close for the winter are mostly back up and running. Several different organizations run the ever-growing number of markets—so don’t be surprised to see more popping up throughout the county. Support your local farmers at the local stands and markets listed below.
Mill Valley:
Mill Valley Farmers’ Market
When: Year-round, Fri., 9:30am-2:30pm
Where: CVS parking lot, Alto Shopping Center, 759 E. Blithedale Ave.
Tam Valley Farmers’ Market
When: May-December, Tues., 3pm-7pm
Where: Shoreline Shopping Center, 219 Shoreline Hwy.
Governor Jerry Brown signed the landmark Domestic Worker Bill of Rights into law in 2014, but there was some fine print: The law extended overtime benefits to a class of workers previously left out of wage-equity efforts, yet the rights will expire on Jan. 1, 2017, subject to renewal or rejection by the Legislature.
The many-thousands-strong state domestic-worker workforce is dominated by immigrant labor, much of it historically of the low-pay and often undocumented variety. The new bill was a great deal for those workers; it was always easy to rip off or underpay domestic workers, some of whom would just as soon stay in the shadows and not rock the immigration boat than fight with a chintzy employer over just compensation.
As the Jan. 1 sunset date looms, revisiting the 2014 law raises another question about a class of workers left out of the final language enacted by the Legislature and signed by Brown. Overtime reform is one thing, but how about worker protections for those who don’t work a whole lot of hours, the visible and casual workforce that does all kinds of work around the yard, grasscutters and yard-maintenance crews out in force as the fullness of spring unfurls?
As legislators considered the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2014, the first versions of the bill contained another reform directed at those casual workers, way down at the bottom of the text. The reform was designed to close a gap in workers’ compensation coverage for low-hour laborers, but it never made it out of committee.
The proposed language would have eliminated a section of state labor code, enforced under the aegis of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) that says short-term, casual employees are only eligible for workers’ compensation benefits after working a minimum of 52 hours over 90 days (workers have to make at least $100 in that time).
Casual workers and day laborers who fall below the line are not considered “employees” under state labor code. Under California insurance law, a homeowner’s insurance package has to include workers’ compensation protections for workers at the home who are deemed to be employees under state law.
The implications are obvious. If a casual worker who is not considered an “employee” under state law is injured on the job, the homeowner could be sued for whatever medical or other expenses ensue—even if such lawsuits are rare.
“The laws don’t match the daily phenomenon that has gone on for the past 20 years,” says Jesús Guzmán, program director at the Graton Day Labor Center. The past two decades have seen the advent of a visible day-laborer economy dominated by immigrants, and the establishment of places such as Graton.
The day laborer workforce has expanded, but the coverage gap still exists, and Guzmán says the liability almost always falls on the worker’s shoulders. He shares the story of an area day laborer who fell off a ladder and sued the homeowner, but because he hadn’t reached the 52-hour threshold, the homeowner’s insurance didn’t cover the injury, “so the worker carried the full brunt of the injury and couldn’t work for two months.”
The original language in the Domestic Bill of Rights eliminated the 52-hour rule, and thus closed the gap in coverage that leaves workers unprotected and homeowners potentially on the hook for medical bills. “Almost all of the risk and liability falls on the worker,” Guzmán says. There’s no indication that legislators will try and reinstate that language in a re-upped version of the bill.
The bottom line for homeowners? All the law firms that specialize in this kind of litigation say the same thing: As you tool around the home and garden, making the to-do list and looking for laborers, always work with a licensed contractor when one is required, and make sure that your homeowner’s insurance is up to date.
Guzmán says the Graton center will tell homeowners who call in looking for a worker that “if someone is injured, they are responsible for them. We make it clear that they are responsible for the worker. Homeowners can ask their agent about their coverage, but we don’t tell them that the insurance is covering them. It’s a challenge for us, because it exposes workers to a system where they are really vulnerable and they are the ones with the most to lose when they are injured.”
For its part, the Graton center goes the extra mile to keep its workers safe, Guzmán says. Before anyone goes on a job, “we communicate and do intensive training around health and worker safety,” he says.
Hero: One minute Jan and her hubby were enjoying a ride on their Vespa and the next minute they were lying in a ditch on Paradise Drive in Tiburon. The wipeout left Jan with a broken foot, and her husband suffered from sore ribs and road rash. A Tiburon resident, Joanne, arrived on the scene, called 911 and stayed with the San Rafael couple to ensure that they received the necessary care. Indeed, they did. A concerned bicyclist stopped to give them water, and soon personnel from the Tiburon Police and Fire departments and the CHP responded in force. The couple asked us to extend their gratitude to everyone who helped and to give a special shout-out to Joanne for her kindness and compassion.
Zero: In two days, two dimwit drivers stumbled into the open handcuffs of CHP officers. Last Tuesday, Donald Gendron, 44, of Petaluma, went to the Corte Madera CHP office to report a collision from the previous weekend. Officers noted that Gendron reeked of alcohol and had driven himself to their office. He was arrested in the CHP lobby. The following day, a CHP officer observed a car traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of 101 near the CHP truck scales in San Rafael. Peter Cerrutti, 49, of Willits, entered the scales driving the wrong way. Fortunately, a CHP officer blocked the exit with his vehicle and Cerrutti was arrested for a DUI. Hail to the CHP for taking these idiots off Marin’s roads.
By Amy Alkon
Q: I’m a happily married 30-year-old woman. A co-worker pointed out a senior trainer at work constantly sneaking lustful glances at me. I was later assigned to his section. We quickly became close friends, and he began mentoring me. He’s married, too, with two children, so though we were extremely flirtatious, nothing inappropriate ever happened, and I...
This week in the Pacific Sun, our Home & Garden cover story, 'Growth spurt,' celebrates people in the North Bay who are living green lives—whether they are growing their own flowers or food, or making their own furniture from objects found in nature—and inspiring those around them to follow suit. On top of that, we've got a story on...
By Richard von Busack
In something like Quentin Tarantino’s version of That Darn Cat!, Keanu’s Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele make a sublime comedy team. Key is Clarence, an anxious suburban family man in a madras shirt. He’s called up by his cousin Rell. Peele is the cuddly, furry-brained type, honoring the tradition that a good comedy team is one...
By Charlie Swanson
Formed by Bay Area songwriter Zach Rogue in 2002, Rogue Wave has become an indie rock institution known for emotional and experimental music.
After five albums, Rogue and longtime collaborator Pat Spurgeon went in a new direction, setting up a home studio to record their excellent new album, Delusions of Grand Fur, the band’s first album in three...
By Charles Brousse
Here’s an interesting essay question for some future college entry exam. If a literary work (novel, film script, opera libretto, play) is based on a historical event or person, how important is it for the author to remain close to accepted facts? Given the number of times this is ignored, the answer is clearly, “Not very.”
Of course,...
The North Bay is full of creative people living green lives—whether they are growing their own flowers or food, or making their own furniture from objects found in nature—and inspiring those around them to follow suit. Here are a few of their stories.
Art by nature
When did succulents become so fashionable? Perhaps since the California drought turned the spotlight on...
By Annie Spiegelman, the Dirt Diva
Before bestselling garden author Mel Bartholomew began writing books on growing food, he had built his own consulting engineering firm specializing in site and utility design. At age 42 he retired as a successful innovator and took up gardening as a hobby. From his “hobby,” he developed a more manageable and efficient way to...
By Tanya Henry
Ahhh … spring is here! That means asparagus, berries, beets, peas and spring greens are now at their seasonal best. It also means that the farmers’ markets that close for the winter are mostly back up and running. Several different organizations run the ever-growing number of markets—so don’t be surprised to see more popping up throughout the...
By Tom Gogola
Governor Jerry Brown signed the landmark Domestic Worker Bill of Rights into law in 2014, but there was some fine print: The law extended overtime benefits to a class of workers previously left out of wage-equity efforts, yet the rights will expire on Jan. 1, 2017, subject to renewal or rejection by the Legislature.
The many-thousands-strong state domestic-worker...
By Nikki Silverstein
Hero: One minute Jan and her hubby were enjoying a ride on their Vespa and the next minute they were lying in a ditch on Paradise Drive in Tiburon. The wipeout left Jan with a broken foot, and her husband suffered from sore ribs and road rash. A Tiburon resident, Joanne, arrived on the scene, called 911 and...
