The Stanford Inn by the Sea - Eco-Lodge & Retreat Center

Ryane Snow will be presenting his From Forest to Table Seminar for the second time this season due to overwhelming demand. A Winter Mushroom and Gastronomical Experience will be held on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 from Noon until 5:00 PM and includes a two hour foraging adventure, a tutorial on mushroom identification and their place in the forest eco-system. The seminar will include explorations of mushroom's medicinal and culinary uses.

Additionally, Barry Horton, Chef of the Ravens' Restaurant will join the seminar to explain mushroom preparation followed by a tasting of local wild mushrooms.

Whatever I write here is of little consequence when considering the Iranian people's use of blogs, Twitter, Face Book to help let the rest of us know what is going on in their country. The Daily Show has recently reported on Iran - remarkably portraying Iranian's awareness of the rest of the world and their compelling passion for American ideals. Barak Obama's carefully crafted comments seem to me gauged to help shield pro-Democratic, pro-western, and particularly pro-American Iranians as targets of the Mullahs' anger about the protests to the irregular election.

Lately my blogs have concerned the lives of our animals. I haven't dealt with issues concerning the environment, health, and well being that dominate the newsletter we hand to our guests when they check-in. I haven't felt compelled to write in these areas - due to lack of real interest in so many of the people that are coming to the Inn. Many are interested - the "choir" as it were
- there are some who question our restaurant and ask why The Ravens' is vegan and give it a try. And there are far more who are uninterested or demonstrably annoyed by our "greenness." Many people won't stay because our amenities are costly and we are slightly more expensive than other inns - our food costs are two to three times that of inns buying standard commercial products; we have a heated salt-water pool enclosed in a heated greenhouse, we have extensive gardens, offer organic, house made desserts at Afternoons at the Inn. The average cost per guest is $20 per breakfast!

We recently provided complimentary accommodations to a travel writer. The writer had requested dinner at the inn and walked in declaring, "we are carnivores and don't understand the food." The staff sensed this statement to be ridicule not a joke. Perhaps they -we- are oversensitive. But we gave them information, spoke with them, providing opportunities for them to ask us to explain the cuisine. The point, and they didn't get it, is that the only sustainable diet is a whole food vegan diet and our job is to help make this diet accessible - easy to prepare, and a joy to eat.

I am whining about the lack of awareness of some of our guests and a writer. In the meantime, some news casts are covering the separation of Jon and Kate, who apparently have eight young children, and some very fine people have been killed or jailed in Iran. But just because these events are mentioned in the same paragraph, they are not equal.

Perhaps if we, I, can maintain perspective our, my, life will be less conflicted - i.e., no upset regarding guests and writers who don't get what we are about. It isn't important, except of course, with regard to oil. The American (and, for that matter, European and others) addiction to an animal based diet in part creates the context leading to the death of Iranian students on the streets of Tehran. Nearly half of all energy used is in the service of the production of animals for food - beef, fish, pigs, chicken. The American presence in the Middle East is a direct result of our need to control the flow of oil and our presence intimidates much of the leadership in the area.

A group of international writers who specialize in "green" visited our Inn this week. These were knowledgeable and interesting men and women from England, France, Germany, Holland, Korea, China and Australia. The writer from the U.K. was particularly astute, questioning a statistic I through out from memory which was incorrect. I appreciate critical thinking - challenging inquiry.

What I learned is that much of their work is to identify legitimate green enterprises. Many people are moving toward sustainability - and others simply create a veneer of green. But as I have gone deeply into this, I have learned that what we choose to eat has the greatest impact on the environment and that any "green" action is of little significance - in itself is "green washing" without combines with the effective action of eating a vegan, whole foods diet.

I very much hope that one or more of these writers advocate a truly green lifestyle based on a vegan diet.

Where else can it be?

In my last writing I noted the explosion of life in Manitoba - here's a field of canola:

And here are Dana's gardens at the Stanford Inn - she planted wildflowers, where last was a 4-H project - now in summer hiatus.

Nature in explosions of color is happiness. And nature is in continuous change - which is what I wrote about earlier in "The Weather". And embracing change, which is our very nature, is embracing our life and for the I Ching's "superior" man (or woman) leads to success/happiness. But the I Ching guidance is far stronger - embracing our lives is success. And sometimes one has to cross the great river to get to that realization - to that success. We are lucky. Here, in Matlock, the great river is the Red River and in Mendocino it is the Big River. So near and so meaningful.

I am on "vacation" and my ordinary days are broken by this interval which allows time to contemplate the nature of life and in particular the nature of my own life. Everything is "grist" for this mill of contemplation. And what I notice is that this process is identical to that 35 years ago in this very place.

I go away from home to come home. It doesn't have to be Matlock. It can be in a hotel in Scottsdale or Phoenix during a break with Alex to catch a few of the Giant's spring training games. Or, I don't have to leave at all - there is the mental space of the morning in our own bedroom in the Barn after Joan has gone down to feed Murphy - while Gypsy waits for me before getting-up.

These moments are precious and they are bracing, or embracing. And here is joy.

Joan and I have been innkeeping for 34 years. The average length of time in this business for "owner-innkeepers" used to be 7 years and we are certain that we have raised that average.

We remain innkeepers because we are essentially educators - in the truest sense of the word. The word educate is related to educere in Latin - "to lead out" or to "evoke." We are evokers - at least Joan is - I might be more a provoker.

The inn is our "campus" and every guest room, common rooms, the gardens, and the river are classrooms. Text books are our newsletter and the books that we offer for sale or inspiration (usually inspiring guests to order from Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon or, better, their local bookstore).

We would have left innkeeping years ago if it were not for our passion to show that it is easy, practical and delightful - even revelatory - to live sustainably. However we did not get into the sustainable movement: It found us. We pursued "sustainable" practices before anyone applied the word to what we do. We only wanted to live harmoniously and to create a life based on the premise "Do no harm" or practically, "Do the least harm." We started organic gardening because it is productive, healthy and less harmful than conventional. We recycled because we hate waste. We composted all organic matter - garden and food wastes. We separated California Redemption bottles from other glass and plastic bottles; we divided paper into newspaper, cardboard, and office paper. At first we hauled all of this to a recycling center and when Waste Management offered to pick up recycling, we said, "Sure!" After a while, we noticed that the driver was emptying the containers into a single bin on his truck. We asked why, "We've gone to single stream recycling." Apparently Waste Management caved to Northern California's laziness; too many people were unwilling to separate their waste. Now we single-stream and believe that we need to ask more of our neighbors so that we can return to multi-stream recycling. We store our old electronic gear - computers, cell phones, printers, monitors, etc., because we can't be assured that this equipment won't end-up poisoning children in India or China.

In other words, we think about what we do and we ask that our staff thinks about what they do for us. We anticipate that our inn guests, diners, paddlers, and bicyclers might pick up on the attention we give to the details of living in and operating a rural resort set in a garden. We don't know if we are particularly successful but we have touched a few guests, some of our staff and some members of our small community. We could do this no other way.