Mexican Lentil Soup

Dec 15, 2023

Ingredients:

2-3 Tablespoons olive oil 
1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
2 medium carrots (peeled and diced)
½ – 1 jalapeno (seeds and membranes removed, and chopped) – optional
1 teaspoon dried coriander pods/seeds (crushed)
1 ½ to 2 teaspoons chili powder (New Mexican, Ancho or Guajillo)
½ to 1 teaspoon ground cumin
5 cloves of garlic (peeled and minced)
½ pound (or around 8-12 oz.) soy chorizo
2 ½ cups dried lentils (brown or green)
8 cups of stock (vegetable or chicken), plus more stock or water if needed
Salt & pepper, to taste

Toppings that will take your soup over the top!
Lime wedges
Avocado (sliced)
Crema Mexicana
Crumbled cotija cheese
Tortilla chips
½ cup cilantro leaves

Cut onion, carrots and jalapeno as directed above and set aside in a bowl.

Crush coriander seeds with a mortar and pestle (or a spice grinder) and place them in a small bowl;
add chili powder, cumin, and minced garlic, and set aside.

Heat a large (4 quart) soup pot over medium heat. Add 2-3 Tablespoons oil, then the onion-carrot-
jalapeno mixture. Saute until softened and onions are translucent.

Add the dried spices and garlic; saute for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add the soy chorizo and
saute for 2 minutes, until hot and spices start to darken in the pan.

Add the broth, bring it to a boil, then stir in the lentils. Reduce heat so soup is simmering, cover
partially with a lid and cook for 15-30 minutes, depending on the type of lentil you are using (see
package directions). As the soup cooks, stir it occasionally. When lentils are soft, it is done.

Taste, adjust seasonings with salt and pepper, and serve with toppings.

Serves 6

Recipe by Chef Lisa Núñez-Hancock

Download a printable version of the recipe here

Learn about this recipe by watching the cooking class below

Winter at the Pace of Nature

Dec 13, 2023

By Jazzmin Ballou, Solano Gardens Program Manager

Every winter I find myself overwhelmed with the need for rest. This comes regardless of how busy I have been, how much sleep I have, or what my calendar looks like for the next week. It shows up as an inherent, unignorable need to slow down and retreat. When I process this in the context of the human world, I feel kind of crazy. Everyone else is continuing on as normal, working and attending social gatherings … and some people are doing even more of those things considering the holidays are upon us! It all seems so surreal to me: the way the human world never seems to slow down, often appearing to just move faster and faster. And then I look to nature. Nature, with her ability to tune in directly to her needs and move at a pace that serves all of her inhabitants. When did we lose touch with this process?

In the winter when I tune in to the pace of nature I find myself face-to-face with myself in all of my slowness. The fog soon clears and I realize my body as a member of nature is asking to move at the pace that the rest of the natural world is moving at. This need for rest is not necessarily because my body is tired from my life, but because my body is taking the hints from the natural world that this time of the year, winter, is intended for slowing down, hibernation, and stasis. I’m reminded of a quote from the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May, who writes “In winter, I want concepts to chew over in a pool of lamplight — slow, spiritual reading, a reinforcement of the soul. Winter is a time for libraries, the muffled quiet of bookstacks and the scent of old pages and dust. In winter, I can spend hours in silent pursuit of a half-understood concept or a detail of history. There is nowhere else to be, after all.”

As we enter into the holiday season, a time that for so many of us signals travel to see loved ones, time off of work and school, and cozy time spent indoors, I wish you rest. Rest that is so sacred and full of ease, it mimics the process of the leaves surrendering to the wind, carrying them from their host tree to be composted back into the Earth. Rest that is so intentional it allows space for your own internal composting process, preparing you for the rebirth of spring.

Community Action Plan to Create a More Breathable Future in Fairfield

Dec 4, 2023

By Alex Lunine, Resilient Communities Program Manager

Fairfield residents will come together to create a path towards cleaner, healthier air in their community at a public community action plan workshop 12-3 pm Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Fairfield Adult Recreation Center.
Register here.

This indicator map through CalEnviroScreen shows the high asthma rates in Solano County 

Solano County, on the whole, has the ninth highest asthma rate in California, with the majority of Fairfield neighborhoods east of the I-80 having a more severe asthma burden than 90% of other census tracts. To address our air pollution and empower the community to tackle the air quality issues afflicting their city, Sustainable Solano will be facilitating the creation of an Air Quality Community Action Plan with Fairfield residents in a public workshop Jan. 28.

During the creation of this community-driven action plan, residents, governmental agencies and air quality experts will highlight the vulnerabilities they see in Fairfield’s short- and long-term air health, and identify priority actions they wish to see taken by the city to ensure that current and future generations in Fairfield have equitable access to clean air.

The Youth Air Protectors led a sustainability walk through Fairfield that highlighted air quality concerns in the city

This event will build off of earlier roundtables hosted in Fairfield, where a few of the key concerns raised by community members included air pollution in relation to traffic, improving Fairfield’s walkability and bikeability, air quality concerns regarding agriculture, setting up a community air monitoring station in Fairfield, and Travis Air Force Base’s impact on air quality.

By participating in the creation of a community action plan, residents can have a voice in how important issues are addressed within their communities. We’ve seen the value of such community engagement in Suisun City, where a community-driven action plan around flood risk and resilience continues to inform city decisions and future planning. We hope to see a similar impact in Fairfield around air quality.

 

Expert Panel to Explore Ag Land, Development, Zoning & Orderly Growth in Solano

Nov 14, 2023

Nov. 3, 2023
For immediate release

Media Contact: Allison Nagel
805-512-0901
allison@sustainablesolano.org
Interviews, photos and other materials available upon request

Quick facts:

  • Ag Land, Development, Zoning & Orderly Growth: How Does It Work? 4-6 pm Thursday, Nov. 16 on Zoom
  • Informative and educational online expert panel presentation on planning, zoning, farmland and cities, with discussion specific to Solano County
  • This is one of the Solano Local Food System Alliance’s quarterly educational forums
  • Audience questions will be taken in advance: https://forms.gle/PwhV7WXukpx8nFAF9

 

Expert Panel to Explore Ag Land, Development, Zoning & Orderly Growth in Solano

A panel of experts will present information on zoning, planning and what steps have to take place when development is proposed on farmland in an online educational event hosted by the Solano Local Food System Alliance from 4-6 pm Thursday, Nov. 16.

Panelists for “Ag Land, Development, Zoning & Orderly Growth: How Does It Work?” have knowledge of county planning, regional planning, orderly growth initiatives and environmental/public interest law. The conversation will be specific to Solano County and will focus on sharing information, rather than focusing on a specific project, though the Alliance recognizes that there is a lot of interest in this topic at the moment. 

Flannery Associates’ land purchases in Solano County’s Jepson Prairie and Montezuma Hills agricultural regions (more than 55,000 acres purchased in southeastern Solano, including parcels in and around Fairfield, Suisun City and Rio Vista, and around Travis Air Force Base) and marketing of its “California Forever” vision have made national news, but there has not yet been a formal proposal or plan submitted to the county. Because of this, the forum will focus on educational information around what guides planning and zoning in the county now, the process of re-zoning ag land, the county’s orderly growth initiative in its general plan, regional planning and the impact of various forms of development, and what legal questions arise around land use and water rights.

The Alliance holds educational forums on a quarterly basis that are open to the public and offer insight on topics that intersect with the local food system. This is the second panel discussion of planning and zoning. A previous panel last November discussed rural and urban land use.

The public is welcome to register for and attend this free panel. Attendees can submit questions in advance of the forum, which will be grouped by topic and asked of the panelists as time allows. Since a lot of questions are anticipated on this topic, registered attendees are encouraged to submit their questions by Nov. 10 for a better chance of having their question addressed during the event.

Register for this event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/planning-zoning-farmland-cities-tickets-738178029357

Submit questions in advance here: https://forms.gle/PwhV7WXukpx8nFAF9

About the Solano Local Food System Alliance

The Solano Local Food System Alliance includes a wide variety of stakeholders committed to fulfilling the mission of creating an environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially just and equitable local food system in Solano County. Its vision is to diversify, expand and safeguard a local healthy food economy that will preserve farmland, its integrity and biodiversity in Solano County, and ensure food access for local communities.

For more information, visit sustainablesolano.org/alliance

About the panelists

Harry Englebright, retired Solano County Planner

Englebright was a planner with Solano County from 1977 to 2006, retiring from the Solano County Resource Management Department as a principal planner overseeing Policy Planning and Special Projects. Much of his career focused on agricultural and open space issues. He has worked as staff for the Solano County Planning Commission, Local Agency Formation Commission, Airport Land Use Commission, Solano County Housing Authority, and Community Development Block Grant program and managed a number of planning programs, including the 2008 General Plan update. Englebright also oversaw the formation of the Rural North Vacaville Water District and was project manager for the design and construction of the district’s new water system. From 2006 to 2011, he was a consultant for Solano County completing the 2008 General Plan update and updated the Suisun Marsh Protection Plan and elements of the Solano County Zoning Code and Integrated Waste Management Plan. He served on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council from its founding in 1989 for 22 years and co-chaired the Solano County Bay Area Ridge Trail Committee.

Duane Kromm, Solano Orderly Growth Committee

Kromm has been a resident of Fairfield since 1975. A native of the Detroit area, he majored in accounting and moved to California to work at a CPA firm in LA in 1968. After marrying and moving to Fairfield, he worked for about 25 years as a local CPA/consultant, mostly with local governments and nonprofit organizations. He started working with the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee in 1984, the year it was founded, and is still an active, dedicated member. The Solano County Orderly Growth Committee serves as a watchdog for the county’s orderly growth land-use policy, which advocates limiting growth to the county’s seven cities, protecting farmland, and preserving natural lands. He was elected to the Solano County Board of Supervisors in 1998, and spent eight years as a county supervisor.

Sadie Wilson, Greenbelt Alliance

Wilson is the director of planning and research at Greenbelt Alliance, which seeks to educate, advocate, and collaborate to ensure the Bay Area’s lands and communities are resilient to a changing climate. Wilson manages the organization’s Resilience Hotspots work, advocates for climate-smart planning and policies in the East Bay, and conducts research to make the Bay Area more resilient to a changing climate. She has a background in urban planning, equitable climate adaptation, and innovative public finance solutions, having completed her Masters in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley where she contributed to a broad range of research efforts with Bay Area institutions, including the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, The Center for Cities and Schools, and The Terner Center. Before going to graduate school, she worked at an Oakland-based consulting firm, Economic & Planning Systems, where she worked on housing, transit, and open space analyses for communities throughout the state.

Osha Meserve, attorney, Soluri Meserve law firm

Meserve’s law practice has focused on land use, environmental and water related law since 1999. She has experience preparing and commenting on environmental review (CEQA and NEPA) and a variety of permitting documents, as well as litigating the adequacy of those documents at both the trial and appellate level. She represents public entities, nonprofit entities, neighborhood groups and project applicants, and also has experience advancing clients’ interests through public relations efforts and political processes. Prior to becoming a shareholder at Soluri Meserve, she was an associate at Remy, Thomas, Moose and Manley, LLP and at Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo. Meserve has a special interest in and experience working on legal issues related to water resources, land use, air quality and greenhouse gasses, agricultural and forest resources, solid waste and energy use.

The Vision for a SuSol Education Center

Oct 26, 2023

By Sustainable Solano

Sustainable Solano has had a vision for a while now: To have an office space that serves as a place of education around the many things we teach about, such as sustainable landscaping, water capture and reuse; cooking with seasonal, sustainable local food; and building community resilience.

We have been lucky to spend the past few years in our office at the Global Center for Success on Mare Island. This office space puts us near nonprofit partner organizations and the beauty of the Vallejo People’s Garden and the Pollinator Pathway garden we installed with them and Solano RCD in front of the building. But as our team has grown in number, we find there are limitations in a one-room office, both for our team members’ needs as well as ways we would like to interact with all of you in the community.

And so we are returning to that original vision.

We would love to find a safe and beautiful place where we can create and exhibit the solutions we’ve been teaching and demonstrating for nearly 25 years. These may include a permaculture garden or farm, sustainable water techniques, solar energy and maybe even chickens. There could be a commercial kitchen space for teaching classes and preparing food (or the potential to add such a space). We also need a shared workspace and a place to gather around a table for large team or partner meetings, and an area to house tools and equipment, promotional materials and office files. The property would need to be zoned to allow for office space and would need to be able to support visitors coming to the site for meetings, classes and demonstrations.

We’ve seen creative and innovative ways individuals, organizations and cities have supported such projects. In Berkeley, the Ecology Center runs EcoHouse, which was founded in 1999 when a group of individuals “collectively purchased and transformed a small, dilapidated North Berkeley home into a demonstration house and garden.” In American Canyon, the city offered up an old public works yard to be transformed into the Napa River Ecology Center in partnership with the American Canyon Community Parks Foundation. Santa Cruz Permaculture now stewards a 26-acre farm under a 30-year lease as part of its operations.

We’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions for supporting this vision! Reach out to us at info@sustainablesolano.org

Even with this active vision for an education center, Sustainable Solano is committed to continuing hands-on sustainable landscaping and resilience-building workshops, cooking classes, and internships within Solano communities, because these are the very heart of our work. Our goal is to bring neighbors together in ways that help them connect with each other, the Earth, and themselves.