Naps for All

Alley napping on a comfy paper bag

I come from a family of nappers. My mother could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, likewise my sister,  my cat is a well documented napper and I am no exception. My friend Andrew claims that Winston Churchill maintained his edge in WWII by daily napping. Naps are delicious. And now our penchant for dozing is encouraged by none other than the authoritative Dr. Andrew Weil, a world-renowned leader and pioner in the field of integrative medicine. I receive Dr Weil's "Daily Tips" via email and rarely is there a post that is not informative and fascinating. Even though his daily emails clog my inbox and I resist, I can't skip a day. My husband Dean saves the tips in a Dr.Weil folder because all the information seems too important to erase. Most articles like "Five reasons to eat raspberries" or "Wondering how to use witch hazel?" can be relegated to the  the Dr. Weil folder, but some posts like "The warning signs of heart attack or stroke for women, I keep on my desktop... Anyway, yesterday he addressed the question "Is napping healthy?" and to my delight, here is what he said:

"Studies on sleep and the opinions of sleep experts are convincing: napping has value. People who nap generally enjoy better mental health and mental efficiency than people who do not. The quality of their nighttime sleep tends to be better as well. Unfortunately, finding opportunities to rest during daylight hours in our society is not so easy - the North American culture is actively opposed to the whole concept, bombarding us with stimulation in more and more places and times.

If you want to embrace the concept of napping - as many cultures worldwide do - consider the following:

1. Accept napping as a positive thing. Remind yourself frequently that napping can make a day more productive - it is actually the opposite of being lazy.
2. Do not fight the body's desire to nap. This will result in unpleasant or unproductive naps.
3. Take naps when you can. If your schedule does not permit a nap every day, consider taking productive naps as a passenger in cars, trains, and airplanes.
4. Consider time and duration. Napping for too long, too often, or at the wrong time of day can be counterproductive. See what length and schedule works best for you.
5. Napping can mean just taking a break. Lying on a hammock or just staring into space is the essence of rest - it is not doing that refreshes you in body and mind."

           "I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so it's not a waste of time"–Martha Stewart
                       Dr . Weil, my cat and my grandnephew Jonah view napping quite differently:

Take naps when you can, in cars, trains, planes and-----boxes

Accept napping as a positive thing, it's the opposite of being lazy

Take naps with a friend

Farewell Scharffen Berger Store

Sadly, the Scharffen Berger Chocolate store closed it's doors in the Ferry Building on Sunday, June 9th.

Watercolor by Raymond Martinez

The brand will continue, the bars will be available at other locations, but the only Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker store in existence has sold it's last bar of exquisite chocolate. The long-time staff, myself included, who worked in the cozy space for 4, 7, 8 or even 10 years, will scatter, and the local  products that were made for that store, i.e. truffles, the best selling  sea-salt bark, mint and almond bark, chocolate-dipped figs, ginger and orange peel, may disappear forever, along with our famous ultra-thin chocolate chunk cookies and fudgy bittersweet brownies. Some customers have been warned of the closure, but many others will visit with anticipation, only to find another vendor occupying space 14 across from Golden Gate Meat and Acme Bread. Many will be disappointed, having made the trip primarily to indulge in some of the world's finest chocolate and chat with the friendly staff.

The Scharffen Berger shop was among the first to rent space in the renovated Ferry Building when it opened ten years ago in 2003. The reasons for the closure are still unclear. but it's a fact that the store no longer exists. In memoriam, I want to share some photos of my colleagues and myself taken in happier times in our beloved space in the Ferry Building.

Approaching the Ferry Building as we did each workday---a glorious sight!

Main table in front of store featuring variety boxes ribboned by the staff

Full view of the interior space with Jenny hamming it up for the camera

Our store photographed from the corridor by Cy, our manager. 

Allison, Taya, Andrew and Jenny on Halloween 2010

Taya, Jenny and Andrew

Andrew and Jenny in (extra)bitter shirts standing in front of ( bitter)sweet, (semi)sweet & ( extra)bitter T-shirt shelves

More Halloween fun with Hali, Jenny and Andrew the Scot

Jenny ribboning a gift with me, taken by an appreciative customer

Dick Berendt visiting the store  taken by Ricki Pollycove 

Annual "Food from the Heart" poster  and event,  held Valentine's  weekend at the Ferry Building. I have this framed poster hanging at home to remind me of many sweet Valentine's
Days spent here.

Welcome Jonah

On April 28th my niece Hannah had a baby boy. His name is Jonah Silver Ard.  My sister Lucia, the proud grandmother, described him as " cute as a button, bright as a shiny penny, sweet as a bonbon"

Madonna and Child

He lives in New York City, or I would be holding him right now. Still, he looks pretty happy with his Mama Hannah.

Adorable snapshots arrive every day. Here he is asleep under the new blanket Lucia knit for him. And below, he is caught in another blissful pose.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Jonah at three weeks

Each picture is cuter than the last, so I'll publish this now and save the rest for later...

HOUSEGUESTS

In mid-April, two chestnut-backed chickadees came to call.

One of our visitors

 Instead of demanding the master bedroom, they settled for the birdhouse—a recycled dwelling made from reclaimed barn wood, with a rusty tin roof and pink flowers painted on the front. I found it years ago at a booth devoted to hand-crafted bird houses in the Marin Farmers Market. It now hangs from a beam above our deck.

Our rustic birdhouse

The birdies set about building a nest inside the small house. They busily flew in and out, lining the floor with fine, soft animal fur, hair, decomposing redwood bark and needles from nearby pines. Then stillness descended while the female laid and hatched her eggs. The dutiful male flew back and forth bringing takeout treats (seeds, insects and larvae) while the female brooded.

Male chickadee peeks out briefly before exiting

In a few weeks we heard peeping sounds and noticed new activity in the swaying birdhouse. Both adults reverted to their active, acrobatic selves, flying back and forth, to and fro in a whirlwind of activity, bringing seeds and other morsels to the new chick(s).

Camouflaged chestnut-backed chickadee keeping watch on a branch near her chicks

 One bird stood guard on a nearby branch, noisily calling, while the other tirelessly flew in and out, bringing food to their new chick(s). Then they would switch roles.  

One parent nervously keeps watch on deck wire

When I filmed the family from the deck, the parents sang out their warning calls, hopping from  railing to  roof and back again in nervous agitation. It takes time and patience to catch these birds in a still moment. As William Leon Dawson, a leading ornithologist of he early 20th century wrote, "the chickadee refuses to look at any one thing from any one direction for more than two consecutive twelfths of a second...be it a pine cone, an alder catkin, a bug-bearing branchlet, top side, bottom side, inside, outside, all is right side to the nimble chickadee." Mr. Dawson wrote the respected four volume set The Birds of California, published in 1923. The sets are now rare and go for thousands of dollars, if you can find one.

Baby chickadee visible inside the cozy birdhouse

We enjoyed watching the parents tirelessly care for their young, and after many attempts I finally caught a glimpse of a new chickadee peeking out the opening. I wanted to get a photo before the chicks left the nest and early Sunday morning I succeeded.
                                                                                

Empty Birdhouse taken down for cleaning

                     Empty Nest Syndrome

Good thing I photographed the chick on Sunday; by Monday the fledgling and parents had flown away without warning. The birdhouse was silent and empty.

We miss our little guests, and speculate about how many young they produced. We had seen only one offspring for sure, but chickadees are supposed to lay five to six eggs. This discrepancy is puzzling.

Chickadees do not reuse their nests, and they clean out the old debris when they're ready to start a new family. So I felt safe raiding the deserted birdhouse, to investigate. When I pointed a flashlight inside, I saw one unhatched egg and furry, matted material lining the floor. I carefully extracted the egg and then dug out the soft fur and small strips of redwood bark and moss.  It resembled the dusty contents of my vacuum cleaner.

Nesting material with one unhatched white, speckled egg

So ends the saga of our  chickadees. I tucked away the nest and egg, rather than throw them in my green bin, and I returned the birdhouse to its customary hook where it once again sways in the breeze, cleaned and ready for a new set of visitors.

*To hear the distinctive calls of the chestnut-backed chickadee and to read more about them, go to this amazing website: All About Birds

Pucci dresses are the subject of one of my favorite blogs, Eat, Drink and Garden by Valerie Rice. In her April 11th post, Val discusses her friend Justine's obsession with Emilio Pucci's vintage creations, Pucci Inspired Flowers.  According to Val, Justine puts her friends to shame by wearing her designer dresses when picking up her kids from school and at other equally informal occasions. This reminded me of my dear sister-in-law Ricki, who also has a penchant for Pucci. She is pictured above in her Pucci attire, walking on Baker Beach with BJ and her dogs Ella and Petunia (out of view). Her daughter Leah, visiting from New York with her beau BJ, took this stunning photo with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Ricki originally bought the dress for a trip to Rome, but here she is in her finery, strolling on the beach with her pooches.

Pucci designs are out of my price range at this point, but in the psychedelic sixties I owned some purple and white undergarments, a towel set designed by the master, and some bright paisley Pucci-inspired bloomers, pictured below. Of course, at this point, all my Pucci's are vintage!

Thanks, Valerie, for your reminder of all things Pucci; and to Ricki for her inspiration, and to my mother, Isabelle, who lovingly snapped the picture of me in her garden in the summer of 1967.

Here I am in my Pucci-inspired pants in the Summer of Love

Cranberries in April

Last year on November 12th I wrote:
Hooray! Cranberries are back. Since they are my staple winter smoothie fruit, I've been waiting for them for months. I absolutely love cranberry sauce as a condiment with holiday fare, but my dependence on this tart red berry goes way beyond that. Although there is an abundance of delectable fruit from late spring to mid-autumn to perk up my morning drink, when the last peaches and strawberries disappear there are no fresh fruits to replace them until cranberries come along.

Thanksgiving cranberry sauce

Now it's April, and I've just pulled out my last bag of cranberries from the freezer. This year I timed it right, because delicious early strawberries have now popped up in the markets, ready to replace the last spoonfuls of cranberry sauce in my fridge. Last December, when the markets still had an ample supply, I bought five extra bags to freeze and, sadly, I have just now exhausted my winter store. Because they are harvested in the fall, and are perishable, fresh cranberries are only available in November and December for the traditional holiday sauce. In early January  they completely disappear from market shelves. So, I've learned to stock up while I can. Even Trader Joe's, which sells an acceptable canned sauce, runs out shortly after Christmas. Am I the only one who needs cranberries all winter?  So now I buy extra bags and store them in the freezer to keep my supply going til spring. I prepare two bags at a time into flavorful sauce and keep dipping into my stash until it's used up... which is now!

Native Americans were the first to eat wild cranberries in North America. They added them to their preserved meat staple, pemmican, and used them for dye and as medicine for healing wounds. They probably introduced them to hungry English settlers who called them crane berries because the stem and blossom resemble the head of a sandhill crane. Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water. This dark red perennial plant  (vaccinium macrocarpon) grows on low-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes in the northern U.S. from Maine to the prairies. They are the largest fruit industry of my home state Wisconsin, which produces 4.5 million barrels annually and is the No. 1 cranberry producer In the U.S.

crane-like cranberry blossoms

Even in Berkeley, it's difficult to find organic cranberries. Sprays have traditionally been used to kill swampy weeds and brambles that compete with the fruit, and without resorting to sprays, organic growers must painstakingly weed by hand. This practice is costly and time-consuming, so non-organic cranberries, sold in plastic bags, prevail.

Yogurt, cranberry, soy milk and banana smoothie—my winter breakfast

Including cranberry sauce in my morning smoothies also bolsters my antioxidant and phytonutrient intake, according to The Cranberry Institute website. One of the most impressive health benefits of this plump, red berry is that it contains proanthocyanidins. These PACs, as they are called, prevent  adhesion of certain bacteria, including E. coli, to the urinary tract wall, thus alleviating bladder and other urinary tract infections. Cranberries also contain more antioxidants than nineteen other fruits, so I'm even more disappointed that my supply has run out.

Although the season is over (even for me), I'd like to share the recipe I use for cranberry sauce. It's unique because it uses a whole orange, rind and all, pulverized in the food processor. My dear friend Doris Wecsen developed the recipe when she was teaching cooking classes and buying lots of cookbooks at my store, Cookbook Corner. She assembled a collection of thousands of cookbooks which she used for her research and reading pleasure. Her recipe appears below, but over the years I've  simplified it, eliminating the wine and orange juice. I simply combine one package cranberries, one scant cup sugar, one and one half cups water, one whole orange or tangerine ground in the food processor, a bit of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I simmer the mixture about fifteen minutes, chill it and then store it in the refrigerator for use in smoothies or as a condiment. I've never found a sauce to compare to this one. And fortunately, orange season coincides with cranberry season.

Doris Wecsen's original typed recipe for cranberry relish

My last batch of  cranberry sauce

• According to the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association, cranberries are ingredients in approximately 1,000 food and beverage products on the market, and only 5 percent of Wisconsin's cranberry crop is sold as fresh berries.  I guess not everybody likes fresh cranberries as much as I do!

Miner's Lettuce

Early Miner's Lettuce in Tilden Park—February

Miner's lettuce, the tender, flowering wild green, shoots up in back of my Berkeley house, blanketing the hillside in early spring. My husband Dean, an East Bay native, pointed it out to me some time ago and explained that this plant, Claytonia Perfoliata, was nicknamed during the  California gold rush when the miners indulged in the soft, velvety leaves to  prevent scurvy while panning for gold. It's a great source of vitamin C. Other forms of the plant kept the British in greens during WWII.  I too have enjoyed the crisp yet buttery texture of this leafy plant on bike rides and hikes in the Berkeley hills when hunger struck. A few leaves can revive me and in minutes quell all hunger pangs or low blood sugar. And munching wild, native greens makes for a refreshing break.

Same patch in Tilden Park in mid-March

I gather clumps of the  delicate flowering leaves to add to salads. They are surprisingly hardy and can withstand a trip home in my bike bag. The growing season lasts from February to May, when they completely disappear. They make a delicious addition to other cultivated lettuces and veggies. Lately I have also seen them for sale in the Berkeley and San Rafael farmers' markets, but I enjoy foraging, as there is such an abundant supply near my house.

Salad of beets, spinach and flowering miner's lettuce

I discovered this must-have shirt on the Web, available in black or white from Cafe Press. Who could resist?

Miner's Lettuce T-Shirt