creating an urban farm in downtown livermore

power to the coffee people

martin isenburg — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:44:22 +0000

Tommie’s cafe at the wonderful public library in Livermore makes yummy sandwiches and pours high-quality McLaughlin coffee. It became a wonderful example of how an outspoken sustainable (aka “annoying”) customer can encourage a business to become more green: Every time I went there for a cup of coffee I would purposefully leave my travel mug in the car and ask for a reusable cup. Every time I would end up walking back to my car to get my own mug—with a big, emotionally manipulative “sigh”. Usually the baristas would only charge me for a small coffee to make up for my “inconvenience”. Until today when they were all smiles pointing at a new sign that was advertising Tommie’s “House” mugs. A few weeks earlier I had a chat with the owner about offering at least one sustainable coffee with the result that “Sumatra Organic” has entered the six-coffee line-up. One more problem: the open ceramic mugs are not welcome inside the library. Tommie …?

new home for a baby chicken

martin isenburg — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:09:30 +0000

“Do you want a baby chicken?” asks the Mexican boy that lives across the street from me. I am not surprised by the question as my frontyard chickens are well-known in the neighborhood. He originally had two chicks but since the cat ate one he is not allowed to keep the other. “Yes! Yes!” I answer emphatically as I had promised my French friend Olivia (who recently lost her Bantam hen) to find her a new chicken. I give the thirsty “poussin” (which is French for “chick”) some fresh water and Olivia gives it a new name: pous-pous.

BART brutality arrives in Livermore … years before BART

martin isenburg — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:45:23 +0000

Despite public reassurances from Livermore Police Chief Sweeney, neighbors and patrons of the redeveloped downtown area saw their biggest fears confirmed. The mere mention of a BART station in the downtown area has started to attract the lowest and most criminal elements of society: at around 11:15 PM on Saturday, April 24th of 2010 Police Officer Ryan Kiefer with friendly support of a bouncer from the Sapphire Restaurant and Lounge assaulted an innocent & peaceful citizen who was proudly working on his new iPad after watching “The Producers” at the Bankhead Theater with the fabricated accusation of planning a “sniper attack”. The brutal beating of this innocent area man (who had never even touched a gun his entire life) remains under closed investigation …

the lion sleeps today

martin isenburg — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:33:18 +0000

Earth Day in Livermore gave local businesses and non-profit organizations an opportunity to gain healthy and earth-friendly exposure within the community. A poster child of green was Rising Sun Energy who were offering free exchanges for halogen floor lamps (which produce mostly heat and waste electricity) with fluorescent versions. But the green spirit seemed lost on some: The Lion’s Club, for example, was fund-raising with unhealthy snacks, paper plates, and plastic cutlery still double-bagged in disposable plastic bags. Do you want 500 plastic bottles of Walmart’s Great Value Purified Drinking Water with that … (-;

doubly green recycle monsters

martin isenburg — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:31:09 +0000

Because I had volunteered to take care of the recycling bins in my building at my LLNL job, bottles and cans had been accumulating at an alarming rate behind my house. With Earth Day around and my sister in town it was time for a trip to the Refund and Recycle Center on 2680 Old First Street in Livermore. The process is fast, the staff is efficient, and the reward is doubly green: green feelings & green bucks. We made plenty of the first and twenty of the latter.

angels of the dirt

martin isenburg — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:23:52 +0000

Weeks of anticipation are over and the big day has come: this morning I find the first two eggs in the chicken coop. They are small and have two wonderful shades of brown. I expect them to get larger as my three hens get used to “make me breakfast” … (-;

Which of all birds is more humble and more hard working than a chicken? They lay an egg every day, make everyone smile, and demand nothing but water and food scraps in return. They – literally – “poop it forward”. No bird is more deserving to be called an “angel” than the humble hen who cannot even fly properly. The proof is in the angel food cake.

taming a swarm of honey girls

martin isenburg — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:20:51 +0000

Dan the man called me @ work in just the right moment with long anticipated news. We had been waiting weeks for this opportunity – tens of thousands of beautiful girls with wings landed high-up in a tree in front of Dan’s house on S M Street. Three urban farm boys (Dan, his friend, and me) eventually managed to charm these feisty ladies into a wooden box, called nucleus or nuc. This felt like being alive … especially each of the 4 stings. After living like the “Na’vi” for two hours we had some well-deserved beers on Dan’s porch. The next day at night I moved the nuc into my backyard.

Easter weekend at the Googleplex

martin isenburg — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:08:27 +0000

This Easter weekend the laser chicken went camping at the Googleplex for Wherecamp 2010. Geo-spatial geeks seem to like chickens. No surprise, as they spend all day looking at our planet at various scales: images, maps, and point clouds of forests, oceans, mountains & continents. This connects them to the land they are zooming in and out of.

Invading the Googleplex made the laser chicken broody and it laid two eggs. Born like a peeps on Easter were (1) the geo-twitter-google-maps mash-up for citizen empowerment called http://cluck.us and (2) also The Farm Party for local citizen government where the really hip birds hang out. This party is little talk and lots of action: we look for problems that need fixing and we fix them. We have been a bit too bored with the lamenting at tea and coffee parties where lame ducks bicker and pucker for someone to do something. See a problem that needs fixing? Just fix it! Are you loving it? We give you wings! Please don’t pluck us. Cluck us!

dropping the “slow bomb”

martin isenburg — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:51:45 +0000

Earthlings, I am an avatar who has infiltrated one of the most guarded governments labs where they build nuclear chikkin’ weapons. I have secretly developed an absolutely lethal force that combines chickens with lasers. Today I will drop this “slow bomb” onto the American heartland. The core of beautiful downtown Livermore will become “green zero”. You will completely recover through this. My technology is so advanced it will slow bomb you back to the roots that you have lost. It will slow you down until you are Frencher than the French. You will drink a lot of wine and eat a lot of cheese and have two-hour lunches and three-hour dinners with all your friends all the time. Are you loving it? Demand me to cluster slow bomb you and I will deliver the mother of all slow bombs. Resistance will turn your own children against you—in particular your last born. Watch me Tuesday March 30th at 7 pm PST as I ignite this “slow bomb” of “green love” (slides, reloaded). Activation sequence initiated: “all your kale are belong to us” … (-:

Disclaimer: Please note that phrases such as “slow bomb” or “laser chicken” are meant in a cute, harmless, and non-violent manner. They are funny, catchy, thought-provoking word plays on opposites and express the conceptual similarity to “slow food”.

Barrel Tasting weekend in Livermore

martin isenburg — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:01:55 +0000

My friends sometimes ask me: “Why are you so obsessively happy in Livermore?” and the Barrel Tasting weekend was an adequate way to answer their question. It was a wonderful sunny spring weekend in Livermore and we visited many boutique wineries in the vicinity. An old proverb says “Always make friends with someone who pours wine by the barrel.” and another goes “An empty barrel makes the most friends.” or something like that … We made plenty of friends including Larry and his wife, the owners of Cuda Ridge, and Dane, the owner of Page Mill, while helping them to empty their barrels. One question remained: “Can one bad worm spoil the whole barrel?”