ecocentric|blog

Material board_Pacheco Valley Residence

2011-04-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

After completing the design for the new kitchen remodel I worked with the owner of this Pacheco Valley post modern condo to create a more...

See more at EcoCentric Design

The Color of Flight

2011-04-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

For Jan Southworth, it began with monarchs. When she was an East Bay Regional Parks naturalist at Ardenwood Historic Farm near Fremont in the 1990s, she led tours to the eucalyptus grove where...

Learn more at Bay Nature

10th Annual Green Festival Features Green For All Fellows

2011-04-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

The largest sustainability event in the world celebrates 10 years, one million attendees at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center April 9 – 10. This one-of-a-kind weekend experience offers...

Read more at Green For All

Design Finds: Ebay 1_30_11

2011-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Mid Century Madness and a Darling French Sideboard

More at EcoCentric Design

How Organic Is Organic?

2011-01-30T07:31:00.000-08:00

The use of hexane in soy processing threatens the organic cred of many energy bars and veggie burgers.

The Art of Storage

2011-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

Composition on the wall, who's the fares of them all?

find out at EcoCentric Design

West Oakland Group Wins Major Grant for New Urban Farm and Park

2011-01-24T22:33:00.000-08:00

Last year, City Slicker Farms grew and distributed almost 7,000 pounds of pay-what-you-can produce in West Oakland. That number may double in coming years, thanks to a...

Learn more at Bay Nature

Happy Hollandaise!

2011-01-23T11:28:00.000-08:00

A perfect Sunday brunch: Eggs Florentine with Asparagus

Eggs Florentine consists of poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, steamed spinach, and usually an English muffin although I think next time I'm going to try...

Learn more at EcoCentric Eats

Design Finds: Ebay 1_22_11

2011-01-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

Original Papa Bear Chair found on Ebay!As you may or may not know, I had the privilege of spending a little time in Denmark studying architecture. What struck me the most about their culture was...

Read more at EcoCentric Design

Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California’s Green Jobs

2011-01-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

From January 2008 to 2009, the most recent observable year, jobs in the green sector grew more than three times faster...

Learn more at Next 10...

Recipes From the Box: Spicy Eggplant and Cauliflower

2011-01-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I am getting a little tired of greens... SO I decided to spice things up a bit. Last week, in the Veggie Only Box...

Get the recipe from EcoCentric Eats...

The Green Rush

2011-01-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

The business of medical cannabis is definitely an East Bay growth industry in 2011.

Learn more at East Bay Express...

Sustain that Look: Bathroom Sanctuary

2011-01-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

You can probably tell by the amount of press that I am giving to this image that I really like it. We've talked about the tansu chest many times, and about the innovative vanity, now it's time to...Sustain that Look: Bathroom Sanctuary style...

Read more at EcoCentric Design

Recipes From the Box: Beets and Greens with Goat Cheese Salad

2011-01-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

Healthy Village Model improves community health and builds local green economy

2011-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

How do people in low-income communities ravished by joblessness and public health crises become the drivers of their own green economic development? Green For All Fellow Selim Sandoval migrated from the rainforest farm life of Guatemala to the inner city streets of South Central Los Angeles...
Go to Green For All to learn more....

Local, Organic, and Fantastic – Farm Fresh to You Delivers

2011-01-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

I, like many, have made a New Year's resolution: To eat more organic food in 2011.

And because my resolution involves eating rather than dieting, I felt I had a good shot at keeping it. Who knew it would...

Learn More...

Design Finds: Ebay 1.7.11

2011-01-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

Ebay never ceases to amaze!
A set of six Mid-Century Hollywood beautifully restored lattice back chairs. The sharp black lacquered finish and newly tufted seat screams...

Read More...

Innovative Vanities

2011-01-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

In our modern 24/7 connected world it's nice to wake up and come home to a calm bathroom sanctuary. The images below, although different in style, have on thing in common...

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Sustain that Look: In the Kitchen

2011-01-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

This is a great kitchen for going sustainable because it already as one important attribute...

Find out more...

Souley Vegan: Soulful Sustenance

2010-12-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

For soul-food lovers, soulful food lovers and especially solely vegan foodies in search of inspired eats in the SF East Bay, we strongly urge you to...

Find out more

Sustain That Look

2010-12-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to "Sustain That Look" a new series from ecocentric|design

This series combines the classic "get the look" or "look for less" with sustainability! In "Sustain That Look" I will...

Find out more

The Margarido House: The Beauty of Sustainable Design

2010-06-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

For those who haven’t heard ... developer/builder Michael McDonald and his wife Dr. Jill Martenson have decided to sell their 4,600-sq.-ft. LEED-H Platinum home, Margarido House at 5950 Margarido Drive in North Oakland. And, lucky for me, there was an open house last Thursday night to check it out!

Now you know I could go on and on about the home’s energy-savvy features -- such as its passive geothermal system and in-floor radiant heating -- calculating how much energy, money and water the owners have saved, but you could probably Google that sort of info. Instead I’d like to rave about the features.

The L-shaped, split level Margarido House and its sustainable design does more than just conserve energy at the end of the month; by its very nature it sits lightly, elegantly and proudly on its steep Upper Rockridge site that had been ravaged by the 1991 fires.

Features to Drool Over

This house respects its place with native, drought-tolerant plants that don’t need more water than our climate can give. It allows rain to flow down to the earth quickly and cleanly through passageways in the permeable drive and walkways. Its fifth facade, usually unkempt and rarely thought about, in this case gives back some of the land that the house’s design has claimed by providing habitat to the birds and bees via its rooftop garden. The design also works with the sun by allowing just the right amount of light to penetrate windows to warm floors while its eaves jet out and protect inhabitants from the harsh heat of the mid-summer sun.

And, finally, the house opens wide to allow a seamless transition between the outdoors and indoors -- inhaling cool gusts of night air and exhaling the heat that has been stored upstairs throughout the day to bring the internal temperature down markedly.

At the end of the night, the house’s modest concrete walls still slowly radiate from the heat of the day, holding the building materials and their “stories of the past,” such as the coal-combustion process that is contained within the fly ash in the walls. The house takes those stories and gracefully holds them close; its inspired facade not ever letting on that it contains such dirty secrets.

The Margarido House has found a way to thrive within our system as a living, breathing element and, in my opinion, has done so quite beautifully.

-- CL

Additional Links

Vetrazzo: True Counter Culture

LEED AP+ WHAT!

David Brower Center: LEED Platinum Pending

Recipes From the Box: Spicy Eggplant and Cauliflower

2010-03-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I am getting a little tired of greens... SO I decided to spice things up a bit. Last week, in the Veggie Only Box, we received amongst other things, a lot of potatoes and cauliflower. I had a eggplant that I had bought from the farmer's market and organic cherry tomatoes and an extra can of garbanzos (chickpeas) from T'Joes.
I had all I needed for the spicy dish I had been craving (wink wink)...

The Recipe
2 Tablespoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
couple dashes of ginger powder
Oil, I used peanut because that's what I had.
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt
1 large eggplant (or 4 small) big chunks
1 medium size head of cauliflower florets
1-2 hand fulls of cherry tomatoes or 2-3 chopped tomatoes
1 can of garbanzos, rinsed
3/4 C water
A splash of cream
plain or goat milk yogurt

In a big soup pot over medium heat add curry, and garam masala; toast, stirring until spices begin to brown. **don't space out! The spices can burn easily.**
Add oil, onion, garlic, ginger, and salt to a pot and cook until soft; 3-4 minutes. Add water, eggplant, cauliflower, tomatoes, garbanzos and spices. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook til tender, 15-20 minutes add the cream as desired. Top with a dollop of yogurt and serve.

Caution!
Very spicy!! The yogurt helps a lot. And if you haven't tried the goat milk yogurt at T.Joes, now's your chance.

This is one of my favorites. Spicy, healthy, and even better the next day. Organic and fantastic veggies locally grown, you just can't beat it.

Additional links
FFTY
More Recipes From the Box

What are R values and why you should care

2010-03-05T07:32:00.001-08:00

According to Wikipedia, an R value is a measure of thermal resistance used in the building and construction industry. Under uniform conditions it is the ratio of the temperature difference across an insulator and the heat flux (heat flow per unit area, Qa) through it or R=(change)^T /Qa. *The bigger the number, the better the building insulation's effectiveness. R-value is the reciprocal of U-value.

Wake up! This is the fun part...

Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In the winter this means, heat flow moves directly from all heated living spaces to adjacent unheated spaces such as attics, garages, basements, and even to the outdoors through walls, ceilings, floors and especially windows. During the cooling season heat transfers the other way, from the outdoors, where it is warmer to the interior, where we would like it to stay cooler.

How do you slow the transfer of heat?

By increase your the R value with properly installed insulation in your floors, walls, and ceilings. Although this wont prevent heat loss, it will significantly slow the rate at which heat is escaping.

How do you get a higher R value?

Insulation is not the only factor that determines your R value, the overall value is determined by all the building and finish materials that make up the walls and ceilings, including windows. Therefore, it doesn't pay to install new insulation if you still have the single pane windows. Just as, if you have poorly installed insulation that leaves air leaks or old insulation that has compressed over time, you wouldn't feel the benefits of new highly efficient windows.

What is a typical R values?

For a home built in California in the 1950, when energy was cheap and abundant, California building codes didn't exist, and single pane glass was the only option, a typical R values was relatively low, around R12 maybe. Today, our California Building Code requires, as a minimum, R19 in the walls, and R38 in the ceiling. However, a house designed with passive solar strategies suggest R30 in the wall and 60 in the ceilings in a temperate climate and R40/R80 in the extreme climates.

(more on passive solar design strategies coming soon)

Weatherizing in any climate or any time of the year is a good idea, just make sure you are well informed before starting any new construction project.

Additional links

Passive Solar Design

Cold Comfort: Home Energy Audits

Recipes From the Box: Beets and Greens with Goat Cheese Salad

2010-02-28T13:05:00.000-08:00

Last week in the Veggie Only box from Fresh Farm To You, we received a bunch of greens: red chard, collard greens, and beet greens, regular salad greens and much more. Since I hadn't worked with beet greens before, I decided to try it...

The recipe:
-1 bunch of beets
-couple cloves garlic
-olive oil or butter
-1/2 red onion
-a couple splashes of vinegar, we used apple cider
-a dash of nutmeg
-salt and pepper to taste
-goat cheese (optional)

Remove the stalks and greens from the beets and wash the beets and greens thoroughly, especially if you get them from a farm. Preheat oven to 350 and roast till a fork can slide through the largest beet with ease. Roast for about 45-60min. Remove the skins after roasting.

When the beets are almost done, saute onions and garlic in oil or butter or both for about 1 minute.Add the rough chopped greens and until they are just slightly wilted. Place the greens, onions, and garlic in a bowl and add the vinegar, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cube the beets, add to the greens, and toss. At the very crumble the goat cheese and serve while the cheese is still white.

Few tips:

-Saved time and energy by roasting other veggies at the same time. We roasted potatoes and used them in another recipe the next night.

-Add the cheese at the very end so it doesn't turn pink.

-Remove the skins on the beets after roasting, much easier!

The outcome:

Although the recipe is a little time intensive, the outcome is a really impressive warm salad with lots of complex and complimentary flavors!Great by itself as the main coarse or serve with a heavy pasta or meat dish. Another locally grown, organic and fantasic veggie with limited waste because we used the beet and the greens in one meal.

Enjoy!

The warning:

Fiber count must be through the roof on this recipe! You've been warned....

Additional links:
FFTY
Baby Bok Choy and Broccoli Soup

ecocentric|blog

Material board_Pacheco Valley Residence

The Color of Flight

10th Annual Green Festival Features Green For All Fellows

Design Finds: Ebay 1_30_11

How Organic Is Organic?

Read more at East Bay Express

The Art of Storage

West Oakland Group Wins Major Grant for New Urban Farm and Park

Happy Hollandaise!

Design Finds: Ebay 1_22_11

Many Shades of Green: Diversity and Distribution of California’s Green Jobs

Recipes From the Box: Spicy Eggplant and Cauliflower

The Green Rush

The business of medical cannabis is definitely an East Bay growth industry in 2011.

Sustain that Look: Bathroom Sanctuary

Recipes From the Box: Beets and Greens with Goat Cheese Salad

Healthy Village Model improves community health and builds local green economy

Local, Organic, and Fantastic – Farm Fresh to You Delivers

Design Finds: Ebay 1.7.11

Innovative Vanities

Sustain that Look: In the Kitchen

Souley Vegan: Soulful Sustenance

Sustain That Look

The Margarido House: The Beauty of Sustainable Design

Recipes From the Box: Spicy Eggplant and Cauliflower

What are R values and why you should care

Recipes From the Box: Beets and Greens with Goat Cheese Salad