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Sunday Drivin Car Service

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917-478-1370 or joannalake@yahoo.com

November Only!

Back to NYC

I would have never imagined that after just two months of living out of a car, with the pleasures of a camp stove in the trunk, white gas to refuel the tank, a cutting board the size of a romance novel, two folders of Cd's, one camera, some basic tools....and a road map, that I would want to abandon all of my possessions, setup the tent on the roof and call the outdoors my home.

I spent the first night thirsting for the cool breeze almost freezing to pull me into the deep nethers of the sleeping bag that also doubled as a pillow while driving. I awoke through the night, looking for the clouds through the tent roof, wondering if fall leaves were falling or if the clouds were passing bringing in a morning drizzle.I was no longer sleeping outdoors however to find such things. It would take a small bit of time for my sense to change.

We arrived back to the city with a sense of pure freshness. We has cups of raw milk in our system, holding us over till our arrival at my apartment where 8 friends gathered in our honor, creating a feast billowing with raw caraway cheese, macoun apples, roasted beets, watercress salad, wine and fresh bread. There were welcome back letters lining the stairway to the top floor apartment and banjo and ukulele picks in the room of masked and joyful friends.

This whole trip, we would arrive in towns, homes and coffee shops wondering how the fine art of food and sustainability could be combined into a community of people that cherished togetherness. Here we had it instantly, and in the comforts of a home still spotted with familiar wall hangings and flourishing plants.

It has been just two days back from the journey. I had to take a ride to the park to feel the essence of space and the coolness of the earth beneath my back and dream of running out to collect grains for the goats.

Here, I take on a whole new way of a sustainable life and daily path, that has begin with exerting less energy to conquer desirable needs. For the first time in 2 years I brought my largest mug to the coffee shop, sipped organic coffee and enjoyed the company or roommates while settling into the home again.

Just three days ago we had nestled into the bounty of Jonas and Judy's Homestead. They had been there for 35 years and were thrilled to have our visit partially because Jonas was so excited to see the prospects of his garage Mercedes going grease.

We arrived during the week when they still had plenty of chores to do, milking and feeding the animals at the break of dawn and before night settled in. Other important tasks included the preparation of the winter cook stove, fired up with extra pieces of apple wood that were chopped down to fit. The frost was also coming and harvesting the last of the summer vegetable was a big priority. We helped make spaghetti sauce, picked and strung chillies and foraged some wild edible plants that grew beneath their clothesline and apple tree.

Milk was brought in and strained right after milking and stored with dates written on the glass jar. It was raw, unpasteurized and the dates helped milk to be drunk with the dates in mild so that it didn't spoil after a day or two.

Judy and Jonas both made time for sharing, almost any information, insight and topics of conversation that could be of learning to us or them. They learned as they went and humbly knew that information would come and change.

We made fresh butter, learned how to grow Kefir, make breads, milk, herd a milking cow, identify the electric fence, and enjoy the graces of a meal harvested from one's backyard.

It was truly a gift to be in their company. It was the best way for our journey to end, at their homestead.

We look forward to highlighting the many topics and places that have not yet surfaced in out journaling.

But for now...here is to being able to find everything you need in a 20 block radius. Oh how the city provides! Thank goodness we have manicured our attentiveness and willingness to find it.

Falling leaves and other things

With beams of light through the front cafe door, we made it into the little downtown of Thomas, West Virginia. We have nestled into a little state park, pouring down yellow and red fall leaves into our shoulders with just a morning sip of coffee. We thought we would stay a few days here and gather our photographs and writing to post to you all, but there is not a fresh produce stand for miles. We have a half of a cucumber, one lemon and and a knuckle of ginger. As the season changes, as does the inner workings of our bodies and diet, but we are not yet ready to relinquish the freshness of some leafy kale and a cold and crunchy apple.

We have just one week left of the journey. We were delighted to have the invite to an extended friends wedding, tucked into the hills of West Virginia in the hamlet of Helvetia, a village of craftsman and artisans. With the spinning and calling out for square dancing steps, we partner danced into the night, accompanied by the whimsical fervor of passionate string musicians. An evening drive into the mountains, planted us into the welcoming home of the bride and groom, who have created a simple and beautiful homestead. Their porch was filled with friends, family, farmers and their
great big HUGE pumpkins. There farm is in it's first year. It is rich with their labors and their dreams, sprinkled with winter kales and the amazing chia seed from South America that may be able to help any runner up any hill with just a handful.

The evening and morning passed with tastes of homemade black walnut bread, fresh from the tree, popped amaranth and the warmth of a toasty wood stove that also toasted morning breakfast bread for a group of 15. We chatted about pasteurization, raw milks, art in Pittsburgh, recipes for amaranth and cover crops, browsed at the Small Farmers Journal and reveled at the chilies drying all throughout the house, just harvested before the first winter frost arrived.

We are headed to pittsburgh for a small imtimate interactive installation in collaboration with a new friend who is involved in one mile food installations. After that... to a small cheese making operation to learn the basic of raw milks and a large scale CSA farm whose operation is getting big enough to question small scale organics.

We look forward to giving you the full picture of the south. We have seemingly passefd from Santa Fe to West Virginia with a big of silence. Not to worry..we have many stories and discoveries to share.

Is Valero Local?

We knew that if factories arrived in our path we would seek out the opportunity to view what was happening inside. We have passed many industrial facilities. Some signed heavily and others lighting up the sky scape with an ambiguity of what could be anything from a toxic nuclear power plant to an incinerator. A few nights ago, as we attempted to get as close to the Texan border, we arrived in the thick of the night to the most majestic and frightful sight. The castles of glowing lights were a Valero oil refinery. It was somehow refreshing to know that the Valero, whose deisel fuel we used on occasion was being processed right here in the neighborhood. We had wondered if Texaco fuel was from texas. Now one seemed to know.

We were looking for camping within the SABINE wildlife refuge, but instead found a sign for the coastguard and drove passed the billowing smoke of this Factory........we could hardly escape. This was an expedition where we drove two hours later than expected, following coastal roads that became flooded, turning around we felt we would never be able to find our way out, so we stopped and took pictures instead. We also ended up sleping in the car that night, and in the morning, when passing the factories, it seemed normal again. Delivery trucks and stop signs, smoke that billowed into clouds and the exit of Texas. Now the question lies, in Valero local?

Seeds of Change in the West

Through sunny skies and passed pecan orchards, we have arrived in this thriving little hamlet bustling with the rigor and the vivacious spirit of a large city. We are in Marfa, Texas, tucked in the back couches of a coffee shop after being on the deserted highways and old ocean floor of the Guadalupe Mountains.

We have 15 gallons of veg oil in our trunk that we look forward to filtering, although the striking sun of the plains blew thick with storm clouds and we await another day when the heated sun will ease our process.

We just finished the satchels full of tomatoes, kale, arugula, sweet bell peppers and radishes from Seeds of Change farm tour. We spend an entire afternoon there. We were welcomed by their generous staff, and invited to view, wander, look and collect. Seeds of Change has been in operation for some years now. Mars (you know the candy bar) bought them out and now are the most financially stable investors that keep Seeds of Change afloat. Luckily, Jackie Mars, the wife of the Mr., truly supports the cultivation of a sustainable culture. Sustainability being better than organic and fair trade, because it encompasses the entire means from which the ethics of a company should implement alternative measures.

We began our tour identifying and harvesting seeds. Each row was carefully labeled and available for identifying. Joe was hard at work, pleased to be extracting sunflowers stalks and jovial in his regard to the pleasant nature of the company. Seeds of Change runs this research farm to produce quantities of seed for drying and selling, as well as to grow varieties that visitors view from their extension collection. Farmers all throughout the US are supported in part by their contribution of providing seeds to their 250,000 catalogue patrons. These seed growing farmers often additionally gather income from running a CSA to their local community. Inside the seed lab, are multiple large industrial sized equipment. Seeds that have casings and wind propellers like the gentle fliers of a dandelion are carefully placed through equipment to process just the seed alone.

We walked through gardens rows and greenhouses, tasting and choosing. How delightful for us to be able to taste the variety that we wish to grow, to be able to eat three different types of kale and write down the ones that are intoxicated with flavor. Would you ever think that the seeds packets that you choose from the hardware store. 3 for 99 cents would be any less than good. Is it more the success of being able to grow them? So at what stage does a farmer or a lay man desire the variety of a better tomato or a heartier lettuce. Who ever knew there was more than cherry, roma and vine tomatoes? When does the education begin? Just this last year, I grew 6 different types of lettuce, and to my surprise visitors were shocked! 4 more varieties than they have ever seem outside of the grocery store.

When did the grocery store begin to become the school of agriculture? How will we ever know that there is more out there? Does having a variety always have to become a luxury for high-end markets?

Having finished the last of our local produce, except from the sizzling hot chili pepper that we can eat only one at a time, we emark to the next town, San Antonio and Austin Texas, to meet a friend and explore the inner working of an urban oasis, maybe we will even see Willie Nelson?

As for now, our writings are more of daily occurance than of theory, in a time when we are developing views of progress, mutilations of land and intoxication of creeks and the over chlorination of public water, we are stayin bright. We will seek out the aromas of local and homemade food, either with our campstove or with the smell and seeking eye of a homemade Mexican food restaurant, or a torterillia, providing the freshest. Stay tuned! The west has given us many gifts of seeds, good new friends, welcoming cities, generous mechanics and great theories and thoughts.

Santa Fe

Just four days into our stay in Santa Fe, we have found the gift of family and friends so welcoming and extensive we have seized to research the town as intimately as we often do upon our arrivals in a new place. We have sunk our teeth into learning from the locals over daily conversations, afternoons and dinners brimming with the knowledge of local plants, food, local culture, art, wildlife. entomology,archaeology and seasonal occurrences. The momentum of our travels has reached a peak.

With juniper berries drying in the back of the car window, we have a full collection of hollyhock seeds in four different colors. Mesquite seeds were dissected and retrieved as were the loofah pods that were generously and informatively handed out as a local product in Tuscon. We stayed in the north south side of town and Tug, the Galisteo St. neighbor helped us track down the state flower yucca seeds. Wild amaranth was billowing from the sidewalks. Within the passing of a entire day, the seeds being collected and drying in the center console of our vehicle were carefully dried, extracted and catalogued for future use.

My uncle invited us to view the inner workings of the small yet profitable Aroma coffee roasters, sharing the basics and master minding of organic and fair trade roasting.

The Santa Fe Farmers Market was so large we needed the assistance of a few new friends to show us the recommended route. There was an overflow of local farms. We spent the entire morning, finding out about turkey eggs, and quill feather pen carvings, and finding Jerusalem artichokes, and freshly roasted green chili. We found 6 different kinds of potatoes, the cheapest and freshest baby kale and arugula, one stalk of millet grain,and onions marked with the remnants of organic soil.

Dinner invites brought warmth and welcome to the food before us. My first attempt at eating fresh buffalo tacos, and the fine presentation and rolling of homemade egg pasta, prepared in the traditional rolling method from the western Italian hills. Fried lemons and orange peels, olives and onions generously and tastefully provided us with a mere 2 pints of the best smelling oil for our car. The grain of the south arrived in two dishes of blue corn polenta, with freshly harvested mushrooms, and blue corn flour pound cake. We were excited to share our project with the array of new friends and excited to find out that the same research farm we are attending this Monday is where most of the produce arrived from and mutual friends of many.

The kindness, interest in out project and resourcing that has taken place here is Santa Fe has made our stop here magical.

We head out to the seeds of change research farm, tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Joshua Tree

With the second leg of our travels ahead of us, we retreated to the quiet solstice of Joshua Tree, to regroup and be in the still of the vast land of wild and dangerous cacti and the 15,000 year old Joshua trees. With dried fruit and nuts in the trunk, two gallons of water, some hot Thai food from only restaurant in site, beside the bustling Beatnik Cafe, we departed, arriving in when the fall of the moon sank beyond the Hidden Valley rocks. The local newspaper listed an array of art events, but it seems to be that the more eccentric, and organized array of activity is a bit more discreet.

The two days in the desert was a quieting of the spirit tucked beside the monolithic boulders of the Hidden Valley Campground. It is no wonder they have a residency program here, as the entire day unfolds for retreating, reading, breathing, walking, listening, and watching the quietness of the clouds as the cactus expose themselves.

Where is local food in the desert? We equipped the car with dried fruits, nuts and grains. There was hardly a tree in site that sprouted green leaves let alone fruit. Within a days of cumulus clouds and rock climbers scaling rocks, we uncovered the magic of the cacti. The prickly pear was just in fruit, but many of the fruits were not quit ripened for tasting. From spending time in Mexico, Joanna was accustomed to the red striking fruit, it's many ways of eating and the simple art of harvesting. I hadn't a very strong liking nor desire for harvesting or working for the green bean tasting from the nopales, the cactus paddles from which the prickly pear is produced. The Land of Little Rain book carried on the discoveries and uses of desert plants, particularly the mesquite tree from which Bar-b-q flavoring comes from, creosole, from which a sap emerges for Indian arrowhead points and the jumping cholla flowers, which are picked off with a large and safe distancing pole.

Within the days in the desert, we looked and discovered, burned a fire in the night to pass the moonrise and identified the variations of cactus pencas. We began to understand the cactus families and the subtleties and variations in species.

With a desert storm overhead, we headed back to the manicured and private mobile home neighborhood in Palm Springs to Joanna's Grandmother's house, to repair the obviously rough running vegetable filter in the car, so that we could use the remaining 10 gallons of oil we cleaned in Camarillo.

With 2 hours of car maintenace, manual reading and oil adjustments, we invested in the best 6 in wide wrenches to add to our Grease Girl car kit, changed the filter and prepared for the next leg of the trip through the south.