Local People

Gardening to save water

2009-07-18T07:26:17Z

Each morning, Amy Parker and her husband Michael Palmer step from their front porch into a sanctuary nestled among flowers and rocks shaded by trees, luring butterflies and bees to stop and pollinate.

The Sacramentans recently transformed the front yard of their 10-year-old home into an inviting rock garden. Before it became a garden, the space was a lawn with fruit trees. Now it is abundant with colorful plants that require short watering sessions throughout the week.

Currently, city code allows Sacramento residents to water their yards three times per week during the summer. The Sacramento City Council passed additional changes to the outdoor water conservation ordinance, which took effect in June. Maurice Chaney, spokesman for the city of Sacramento, said water waste calls have increased by 70 percent in comparison to last year during the same period.

The Sacramento Department of Utilities projects that landscaping accounts for 50 percent or more of all residential water use. With a garden instead of a lawn in their front yard, Parker and Palmer use less water.

The couple’s sprinkler system is scheduled to turn on twice a week for half an hour to 45 minutes in the summer, and once a week throughout the rest of the year. Watering could be potentially cut to once a month in another year after the garden has had time to mature and the plant roots have deepened, Parker said.

"It is work maintaining it but so is mowing your lawn," she said.

Maintenance includes pruning and weeding about every two weeks. She sticks to hand tools for maintenance and avoids herbicides altogether. "I don't put any kinds of herbicide on plants. If a plant doesn't make it, it doesn't make it," Parker said.

Using western, drought-tolerant plants in her garden requires less water and less work for Parker. It makes sense to maintain a garden of plants native to the region, rather than trying to grow foreign plants unsuccessfully, she explained.

Moonbeam, yellow curry, lamb's ears, pride of Madeira and echinacea are all thriving in her front yard under her low-maintenance care. She also maintains certain plants to support various native species — she said the monarch butterfly favors the milkweed and fennel.

Once a year, Parker will distribute a composted manure or alfalfa meal blend over the garden and provide it with a light feeding in the fall and spring.

Parker and Palmer transformed their lawn into a garden less than two years ago. Like any ambitious idea, Parker said she and Palmer had considered a rock garden in their front yard for a long time but continually put it off.

The majority of the work was finally done over a weekend three or four years ago while Palmer was gone on a scuba diving trip, Parker said. With the help of two others, within two eight-hour days, Parker dug six inches deep into the grass, threw down weed cloth and soil and let the remaining lawn mulch. The rock was delivered from Silverado Nursery and the soil from Hastie’s Capitol Sand & Gravel. She estimates that the project, including the rock, cost approximately $2,000.

Parker explained that there are other advantages to having a rock garden, aside from preserving water. "The thing about a garden is that it creates a space and mood [that] a lawn doesn't," she said.

The addition of a garden can add a lot of character to an ordinary home, Parker pointed out. "It [can] give the impression of a funkier, cooler or more unique house [where] people pull up and say, 'This is a really nice place,’ " she said.

Parker and Palmer’s garden was primarily inspired by a visit they had made to San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico, where they saw botanical gardens designed with rock and drought-tolerant plants.

Parker said she hopes others will adapt similar eco-friendly front yard alternatives, otherwise, “people will react when they get the bills and start paying through the nose [for water].”

The Sacramento Department of Utilities provides services to households interested in decreasing their water consumption — most recently, it has begun offering water conservation workshops. See link for more information.

Additional Resources:

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/u-media/pubs-imgs/Overwatering_Brochure.pdf

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/u-media/pubs-imgs/Water_Wise_Gardening.pdf

Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates

Riding Cool?: fixed-gear bikes without brakes

2009-07-06T00:53:38Z

Jonathan Smalley, an employee at City Bicycle Works, said he has been stopped three times within the past five months for riding his fixed-gear bike without brakes, but has managed to evade a citation each time by playing the "ignorance card."

Of the people in Sacramento who ride brakeless, knowing that it's illegal, Smalley suggests some do it as a "f--- the cops" gesture, while others do it because "they know what they are doing." Smalley said he rides without brakes because he, too, "knows what he is doing."

"It's a purely cosmetic thing for me," he said. "I like the minimal look."

Wayne Sigmund, service manager at Mikes Bikes, said that by subtracting brakes from fixed gears -- bikes where you are already constantly pedaling -- ups the risk factor, and coolness factor in the younger community, of the bike.

"It can help you reach a different level of riding, it elevates the danger of the bike ... you have to be more aware, otherwise you put yourself in a lot of trouble very quickly," Sigmund said.

Sgt. David Valdez of the central bike unit of the Sacramento Police Department said that although fixed-gear bikes are becoming a trend, it is against the law in California to ride without a brake.Valdez explained that riding without a brake system is considered dangerous by the police department, even if brakeless, fixed-gear riders use alternate stopping techniques such as side-skidding or pedaling backward.

"I'm sure that there are people that are talented on them, but ultimately [riding without brakes] is not safe" he said.

He added that with an increase in the number of people riding without brakes there will likely be an increase in the number of accidents, which has prompted police to "move away from education and closer to enforcement." He said that a failure to comply with the biking regulation could result in either a fix-it ticket or a violation citation, based on the officer's discretion.

Smalley said although he recognizes the potential danger of riding without brakes, he said he avoids dangerous situations using foresight, making sure to prepare for stops well in advance.

"I just don't put myself in a situation where I need brakes," Smalley said.

Sigmund said he has noticed a large increase in the number of people who get cited for not having bike brakes. "They come in looking for brakes and wanting to get their fix-it ticket squared away," he said.

"Honestly I think it's just cops that just have nothing better to do, so they look for people with bikes that don't have brakes and then they pull them over and give them a ticket," said Jason Martel, a mechanic at Bicycle Chef.

Martel said one his friends got a ticket three or four months ago, and another friend got a ticket just the other week.

When asked what the advantage is to riding a fixed gear without brakes, he said, "Nothing, really, it's actually a lot less safe." Like Smalley, he said that brakeless bikes offer a cleaner look. "I think [it] is why people like fixed-gears so much...When you have a regular road bike there's all these gears, all these cables, all these extra things on there to add weight to the bike," he added.

Martel said he has also been riding a brakeless fixed-gear for fours years and has never gotten a ticket. "I've just learned how to be able to control the bike without needing a brake. I definitely have had my accidents in the past. You have a whole different level of awareness to cars and stuff like that because you have to be more cautious knowing that you can't stop as fast as you would with a brake.

"It's good that people are getting on bikes, in my opinion, even if it's starting to become the trendy thing to do...It's still better than driving a car," Martel said.

Local author shines new light on Lincoln

2009-06-26T07:15:54Z

As Sacramento hosts With Malice Toward None this week, the Abraham Lincoln exhibit commemorating the president's bicentennial birth, local author Larry Tagg is traveling to Los Angeles to promote his book The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President at the San Gabriel Valley Civil War Round Table in Pasadena.

While many project Lincoln as one of history's greatest and most honorable presidents, Tagg has something else to say on the subject.

The former musician, who currently teaches English and drama at Hiram Johnson High School, spent the last six to seven years researching for and writing his second book, which he released in stores just over a month ago. Tagg said he has had a fascination with Lincoln for a long time, and the "spectacular animosity against Lincoln" seemed irresistible subject matter for a book.

Contrasting the enormous white marble replica of the nobly seated man in Washington, D.C., so often associated with Lincoln, Tagg said that during Lincoln's time, his contemporaries viewed him in a very different light.

"Across the board, all the newspapers were writing 'Here comes this cowardly president arriving like a thief in the night, sneaking into Washington, D.C., the nation's capital.' Right from the get-go he was digging himself out of a hole [and] had no prestige," Tagg said.

It is this unfamiliar view of the president that Tagg opens his 473-page narrative with and poses the question: "How could a man elected President in November be so reviled in February?"

Lincoln polled less than 40 percent of the popular vote, Tagg said. To put the figure in perspective, he added that Lincoln was at a 25 percent approval rating coming into office, which is a lower rating than President George W. Bush had going out.

The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln guides the reader from the president's unpopular entrance into the presidency and the political climate surrounding him, through Seward and Sumter, the Emancipation Proclamation, his reelection and his assassination shortly afterward.

Though it is a historical piece, Tagg expressed that his approach extends beyond simply restating history. "I really tried to write in a way that brings the times to life," he said. "It's a story for people that like history but want to read a good yarn."

Sketches and cartoons of Lincoln throughout the book, some characterizing him as a harlequin or vampire, provide a true sense of the opposition that Lincoln faced. In addition to newspaper sources, the book relies on what Tagg calls the "social observers" of the time, using their diaries and letters to express the sentiments of that time period.

Tagg emphasized that it is the media, however, that was Lincoln's most ruthless critic, and stated that there was no such thing as fair and balanced reporting during that time. "These are tame times. As hard as it is to think of an Ann Coulter or a Rush Limbaugh, or for the other side, a Keith Olbermann, as really kind of tame and toned-down, compared to these guys back then, [they are] tame," he said.

Although he was reelected in 1864 following the Emancipation Proclamation, Tagg explained that Lincoln's reelection was not a result of love for "The Great Emancipator," rather, the votes were "for the cause and not the man." To prove his point, Tagg referred to a quote he pulled from the Wisconsin Democrat that reads, "If he is elected for another term, we hope somebody will plunge a dagger into the tyrant's heart."

As he was finishing his book during the recent campaign months, Tagg noticed that his feelings toward Sarah Palin as a "fringe character who talked funny and didn't really know anything," were not too different from the sentiments found in many of the scathing newspaper articles about Lincoln.

The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln is more than just a catalogue of insults to Lincoln, Tagg reassured. He said as readers flip through the chapters they ask where the animosity stops. "I hate to say it, it turns around when he's assassinated," Tagg said.

Tagg explained that the contemporary view of Lincoln changed in one weekend. Assassinated on Good Friday, by the time what is referred to as "Black Sunday" came about, the preachers' sermons "cast him in a martyr role" saying he was the "American Moses who led the nation out of slavery."

Reflecting on the book's ties to today, Tagg touched on the notion that some might say President George W. Bush's reputation could be reversed just as easily in the future. "The unpopular Mr. Bush is next, right?" he said jokingly.

The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln is currently sold in bookstores, as well as on amazon.com.

You can order a copy of the book here: purchase book.

Larry Tagg is also the author of The Generals of Gettysburg.

Local entrepreneur is first to bring exotic fruit wine from Thailand to the states, and Sacramento

2009-05-11T06:19:17Z

Meet 34-year-old local entrepreneur Makiko Yamashita from Kobe, Japan. Makiko has been living in the United States since 1999 and is freshly graduated from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Traveling, business smarts and networking have inspired her to incorporate her exotic fruit wine business, Radee Wine, Inc. She is not only the first person to introduce the wine from Thailand to the United States and is the only distributor in the country—she has brought the exotic potion right here to Sacramento.

Yamashita incorporated Radee in August. However, she said she just received her first shipment of the products and began operating just over two weeks ago. As of last week, she said Tower Cafe, Kru, Azul, the Cellar Wine and Cheese Bar in Folsom and Corti Brothers Italian grocery store are now carrying Radee wine.

Yamashita had been studying at Kellogg until last year and said she was especially interested in social entrepreneurship and economic development. Her interest led her to participate in a 2007 summer internship with the NGO One Acre Fund in western Kenya managing a passion fruit-growing program with farmers.

"That's where I first really got to know passion fruits, and I loved it...It's hard to get in the U.S., but I wanted to do something with those fruits," she said.

In December, 2007, she embarked on an exchange program to Bangkok, Thailand, where she met Dominic Rivard—a French Canadian winemaker and founding director of the Fruit Wines of Canada Association—through her business professor. Rivard is an award-winning winemaker with more than 15 years of experience in Canada, the United States, Italy, Korea and China, and moved to Thailand to make exotic tropical fruit wines, according to Yamashita.

Yamashita seized the opportunity to introduce Rivard’s wine to the United States, and before graduating from Kellogg in June, Yamashita created her business plan to import and sell Rivard's wine in conjunction with her graduate work.

"We kind of partnered up. He knows how to make good wine, and I know how to make business plans," Yamashita said. "We were both really excited about this new concept and these new products."

After graduating from Kellogg, Yamashita moved to Sacramento last year with her fiancée and incorporated Radee wine.
As she states on her website, “Radee means ‘passion’ in Thai. Radee is our passion to transform a variety of delightful exotic fruits into distinctive and exquisite wine.”

So far Yamashita has imported three kinds of fruit wine from Rivard’s winery in Thailand: mangosteen ambrosia, pineapple ambrosia and passion fruit. The wines are sold at $25 to $35 retail. In her future shipments she hopes to import dry mangosteen and dry pineapple, as well as a sweet lychee wine.

According to Yamashita, mangosteen ambrosia is the most sophisticated of the three wines due to the fruit's delicate flavor. She said that although fresh mangosteen, also known as the "Queen of Fruit" in India, is common in Southeast Asia, it is difficult to grow anywhere else, making it otherwise a very rare fruit. Yamashita also said the fruit is perceived to have antioxidant properties.

The pineapple ambrosia, Yamashita said, is "so obviously pineapple that when you smell it you know it," and is nicknamed "pineapple lover." Since Azul is a Mexican food and tequila bar, she said she is trying to promote a mixture of the wine with tequila.

While mangosteen ambrosia and pineapple ambrosia are sweet dessert wines, Yamashita said the passion fruit wine is drier and the most exotic. She described it as sweet with a strong taste of citrus and said it mixes well with sparkling wine.

Yamashita said those who have sampled Radee wine so far "loved it."

"It's sweet so people who like fruity types of wine love it...but its not syrupy so it finishes really smoothly," she said.

"I was especially anxious about Darrell Corti [co-owner of Corti Brothers] because he knows wine. But he said it’s a great flavor; he likes it a lot," she added.

As of Friday, Azul co-owner Jose Ulloa estimated that the bar had already gone through five bottles of passion fruit and two bottles each of mangosteen ambrosia and pineapple ambrosia.

Yamashita intends to travel to the Bay Area and southern California in the next few weeks to introduce the wine. In five years, she said she wants to go to the major cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to sell Radee wine. She hopes to also eventually sell it in wine bars with retail stores and possibly create an online purchasing system.

"This is a new concept. It's high-quality premium wine but not many people take fruit [wine] that seriously...[because] wine means grape wine," Yamashita said, adding that she plans to focus on clientele who are interested in Asian fusion and are "eclectic, diverse groups of people."

"Potential customers have to open up a little bit," Yamashita declared with a smile. "They don't have to like it, but I hope they will at least try it."

Rivard began producing exotic fruit wine in Thailand last year and uses all locally produced fruit near Bangkok to make the wine, according to Yamashita.

Although the exact technique Rivard uses in making Radee wine is a trade secret, Yamashita said he applies techniques similar to those used for ice wine, a type of dessert wine mainly made in Canada and Germany that he also specializes in.

Yamashita said she is also looking into producing fair trade wine in the future.

Yamashita is participating in two wine tasting events this upcoming week. She will be providing samples Tuesday, May 12, at The Cellar Wine and Cheese Bar from 6-8 p.m., and Wednesday, May 13, at Selland's on H Street from 6-8 p.m.

For more information about Radee wine and the company, visit www.radeewine.com

Note: Accompanying photos were taken by John Onate. Promotional Radee advertisement borrowed from Makiko Yamashita.