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

We are members of the Slow Food Movement which is dedicated to enjoying "the pleasure which this world can give." This is not a simple concept — for pleasure is found in balance, in working with nature, respecting bio-diversity, local cultural heritage and practice. Beyond this the Slow Food Movement respects distant cultures and heritage. For example, many of us drink coffee, which has long been a part of Western culture, but does not grow in Northern California. In respect of the traditional cultures where coffee is grown, we specify fair trade, organic coffees for our blends.

When we first opened the Ravens, we created a "trademark," - Inspired by our Certified Organic Gardens -. We were also inspired by locally crafted and harvested foods including sea palm, wild mushrooms, and foraged foods such as miner's lettuce, huckleberries, and blackberries.

What we have learned over the years is that what matters are the small decisions in the purchasing and preparing food: which oils to use, what produce, spices and herbs. We carefully select only the finest, healthful organic ingredients. We are dedicated to creating cuisine based on seasonal regional ingredients and basing our flavors on organic herbs grown here. THis is an important aspect of Slow Food.

But this concept cannot end in the kitchen, but must be represented in every aspect of what we do. We continue to reexamine all that we do including all the products we use in order to present to our guests and Inn experience based on a series of small decisions, each in line with what is best for guests and for the environment. Long ago we discovered that these are mutually inclusive goals.

We thank you for respecting this work.

It is one our coldest nights this year, it’s late and two raccoons, a mother and her baby, who visit every night, are watching us - or that is our dogs, Gypsy and Murphy who are intently watching them. The stare-off reminds us of our love for animals. We contribute to their wellbeing by not in anyway supporting feed lots, piggeries, over fishing and so on. We eat a whole foods, plant based diet.

It occurs to us this winter solstice that “keeping Christmas” is perhaps easier for us because each day we have to think about what we eat – particularly if we are traveling. Thinking about what we eat reminds us of our commitment to other species; our commitment to supporting sustainable agriculture and it reminds us of our hypocrisy - we wear leather on our feet and leather around our waists. We are not offering you righteousness: Jeff is often angry, blundering into the others’ feelings. But we are offering our experience – that eating kindly benefits us in ways we never imagined. We have more energy than others much younger, we feel energy moving through us, we feel connected to this wonderful earth and we have taken it for granted. We simply have had no need to announce these experiences. Until now.

Now we know that our way of eating has unanticipated benefits from reducing global warming and pollution to averting chronic diseases. With regard to chronic disease, check out http://drmcdougall.com/. John McDougall is a leader in treating a variety of chronic diseases with diet. If you know someone with MS, you might check out Dr. Roy Swank's site at http://www.swankmsdiet.org/ and for specific recommendations regarding heat disease, check out Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's site http://www.heartattackproof.com/. All three doctors share a passion for healing and found that the methods they had learned often failed to treat more than symptoms. They sought to reverse disease and increase vitality. Although the Dr. Swank and Dr. Esselstyn are now retired, Dr. McDougall continues his practice in Santa Rosa, California.

Follow this blog for additional information regarding the reduction of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalents by adoption of a vegan, whole foods diet.

The first day of fall and we are looking forward to the coming change in seasons more than a month away - usually beginning at the end of October.

Joan and I remember many Halloweens walking along Mendocino's streets with our neighbors and then standing on the sidewalk as our kids trick or treated at front doors while we were pelted by raindrops. The first rain! The end of the Mendocino Coast's long seasonal drought. This rain is the harbinger of Mendocino's great bounty: wild mushrooms. The virtually pop out of the forest floor days after the first rain.

Mendocino County celebrates the beginning or rains and mushroom season with the Mushroom Festival which is now a part of Mendocino County's "Eco-Fest" and our Eco Tourism program.

The Ravens' restaurant celebrates the season with a special tasting menu based on Mendocino's wild mushrooms from porcini and boletes to chanterelles and candy caps. Candy caps are small mushrooms with an incredibly intense sweet maple syrup flavor.

On November 15th, Ryane Snow PhD, an expert on mushrooms, will lead a Mushroom Workshop beginning with a seminar on identification and handling local species in the Big River Room followed by a foraging walk through the forest. After returning to the Stanford Inn, participants will experience a cooking demonstration and mushroom tasting.

- all of this for $45!

A short update: Gypsy is gaining weight, too much weight.

We have been feeding Gypsy his normal diet of kibble, PLUS 1- 2 rolls of nori (vegan sushi roll) - about 8 pieces per roll, PLUS the occasional sea palm strudel - about a ¼ serving. Gypsy seemed to be able to take this additional volume without gaining weight. We discussed this - "is he using the additional calories for healing?"
"Is he still sick?"
"Are we walking him too much? He still isn't bounding up the stairs."

While we thought about it, Gypsy slowly filled out and now he is definitely heavy as is Murphy who at only four years needs more exercise. Today, the sea palm and nori diet remain and we have cut back the kibble for both Gypsy and Murphy.

More than 10 weeks have passed since Gypsy was sent home for us to say goodbye. Every day he reminds us that life is precious, wonderful and ultimately mysterious.

"It's a matter of opinion!"

"No it's not opinion! It is a matter of life and death. Death is a fact: it's real. Suffering's real!"

"Well, it's a matter of opinion!"

Three women were in the lobby, two of them proud of their work in sustainable water use.

I said, "There's no greater sustainable action that one person can take than being vegan."

I had no idea what any of them eat. In fact, I knew who they were visiting - a vegan friend of our son.

I had no desire to discuss veganism - I assumed that they were literally living sustainably - for that was their passion.

But the tall one said, "There have to be options!" I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Options?"

"Yeah, options: A middle way!"

"But there's no sustainable middle way," I replied. "And what about the animals?"

"Everybody has a right to their own opinion," another one said, and began walking out of the building.

"Death is not an opinion. Suffering is not an opinion! Death is death! How is that an opinion?!!"

She walked out muttering, "Everyone can have an opinion," unwilling to discuss the issue of her opinion regarding the death of another being.

What I wanted to tell her is that everyone is entitled to opine about what ever they want. But do they have the right to take the life of another being - directly or indirectly? Do they have the right to cause suffering? How do they condemn others for polluting water when they eat meat? Check it out: the greatest source of water polution is the meat industry - the huge pig farms, feed lots, and chicken ranches.

I wanted her to know that it was her choice, not her opinion. I wanted her to know that choice was there, acknowledged or not. And I wanted her to take responsibility for her choice - just simply saying, "I choose to eat animals." It is not an opinion and it is not something that just happens to her. We have to eat and we can choose. This is all about the nature of our existence, of her existence. Choice is an essential aspect of what we are: We are "choosers" and we must acknowledge choice.

Recognizing that we make choices and that each of us is responsible for the choices we make is so difficult for some of us. But it is so necessary - and it's liberating. To look at your own life and grab it making decisions and rejoicing in your ability to choose - this is the nature being human! To hide from our existential nature is also within our nature, but somehow, somewhere we know deeply that we are flawed . And it is liberating to move toward wholeness.

Finally, recognizing that we choose and acknowledging our responsibility for choice is a movement of meditation. It is mindfulness.

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.

A "carbon neutral" restaurant opened recently in Berlin. It is slick with a diverse menu consisting primarily of animal products, meat, eggs, and dairy. The owners pay $3,000 a year for "carbon certificates" for a wind park in India.

I have no definitive information regarding how Foodorama is carbon neutral. It makes no sense that the restaurant helps to pay for clean energy to counteract the CO2 and CO2 equivalents created in the production and transport of the foods they use. Does Foodorama account for the nitrous oxide produced in the decomposition of animal wastes or the methane from the belches and flatulence that respectively produce 25 and 298 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide (CO2)?

If Foodorama served a principally vegan menu, they could still send $3,000 to the wind park - reducing carbon use - creating a "carbon negative" business. Consider the impact of a vegan menu - based on the average American diet - an unbelievable 3,740 calories a day - the impact is huge. Fully 72% of the calories for the average diet are from plant sources with the remainder from animals generating a global warming potential (CO2 and CO2 equivalents) of 2.4 tons per person per year. This is "average." Many Americans eat a diet where calories are more equally divided between animals and plants for more than 7 tons of CO2/CO2 equivalents.

Vegetarian diets that include dairy and eggs generate only 2,690 pounds of CO2/CO2 equivalents, while a vegan, whole food diet even at 3,740 calories per day produces only 419 pounds of CO2/CO2 equivalent per year! To put this amount in perspective, the average American diet produces 13 ¼ pounds of CO2/CO2 equivalent per day versus 1 1/8 pound for a vegan diet.

The single most effective action any single human can undertake to enhance the environment and to move toward sustainability is to eat a whole food, plant based diet.

For many people preparing food without the use of animal products is difficult. It is worth the effort. For New Years, give a gift to the planet - eat vegan.

Happy New Year!

To avoid disease and middle age weight gain, David Noonan adopted the 28 day program in The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan That Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds. The diet was developed by Rip Esselstyn to help his fellow firefighter adopt a vegan whole foods diet. Esselstyn has been vegan for more than 20 years and is an athlete and son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, of the Cleveland Clinic, who has long advocated vegan diets for prevention of disease. (Check out Rip Esselstyn's web site http://www.theengine2diet.com/)

Eating a vegan whole foods diet is a credible way to avoid weight gain and disease. Noonan's conversion is hopeful and perhaps he can affect other people. But this happy development may disintegrate like Oprah's brief foray into veganism providing a hiccup in her climb to 200 pounds.

I have noticed a distinct tendency by many people to be self destructive. Whatever diet they try, they go off it. I know this is true - it is true of me. But years ago I realized that I could not kill an animal for food and that it was not ethical to ask another person to do that for me (which made me sort of like a vulture or hyena). I became vegan to avoid adding to animals' suffering. I did it for myself in the sense that I wanted to avoid feeling guilty. I am vegan because I love animals. This is a diet I have stayed on because it isn't just for me! If it was for my health or to lose weight, I more than likely would have given up on it after a few months - like a former cigarette smoker trying just one and starting again.

For Noonan's article check out this link http://www.newsweek.com/id/189291 .

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.

We are vegan and are no longer challenged to find decent restaurants on the road with the explosion of Asian restaurants- particularly, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese. With the exception of East Indian restaurants, most other ethnic restaurants are animal based. Just twenty years ago, there were Chinese restaurants that did not serve "bean curd" - tofu.

A note on reviewing: Rarely do we discover restaurants worth reviewing. We are not interested in punishing restaurants, hotels, activities, etc. by writing bad reviews. That's too easy - in fact I used to negatively criticize just because it made me feel better about myself - that I was able to find something wrong with some aspect of some business, event. I felt "smarter" because I could identify someone's error, poor service. Reflecting on this, I found that I was damaging myself - residing in the negative and, really, in "pride." Thus, here are some positive reviews:

Last month, while on vacation, we experienced two "new to us" incredibly fine Thai restaurants - Sukhothai Restaurant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - which ranks as the best standard Thai restaurant we have found and Siam Thai in Billings, Montana, the second best. (The consideration "standard" is required to distinguish most Thai restaurants from the artistic Arun's in Chicago. More on that later.)

At Winnipeg's Sokhothai Restaurant vegetables are perfect - sauces complex, spicy and yet absolutely flavorful. Service is attentive and knowledgeable. We appreciated the menu's pricing - animal based dishes are $1 to $2 additional - partially reflecting the greater resource cost for animal foods. (There's no way to quantify the suffering.) Sokhothai is located at Osborne and Gertrude on the south end of Osborne Village.

Siam Thai in Billings, Montana is in the west end of the city at 3219 Henesta in a small strip mall. Although we only ate lunch, it was remarkable and this restaurant is our second favorite standard Thai restaurant in North America - the first being Sokhothai in Winnipeg. Admittedly we haven't explored Thai Restaurants in Montreal, Toronto, Kansas City, St. Louis, etc. But we have in California's major cities, New York City, and Chicago.

And in Chicago is a Thai restaurant that redefines Thai cuisine and is not at all "standard." In Chicago during the run-up to the presidential elections, Alex introduced us to a remarkable Thai restaurant - Arun's. The dishes here are incredible. Chef Arun Sampanthavivat is an artist. The vegetables and flavors are just right, the sauces amazing - and the plating - outstanding. Arun serves a prix fixe 12 course dinner and a night at Arun's is memorable. Each course - six appetizers, four entrees, and two desserts comprise an exquisite evening. Although Sokhothai and Siam Thai's flavors are outstanding and wholesome, a single dish is a meal where Arun's tasting menu is twelve dishes tailored to each diner. And Arun's is in no way "standard". I know of no other Thai restaurant like Arun's: it is incomparable and for this reason, perhaps, has received a Five Diamond Award from the American Automobile Association.

Vegan Icelandic? When in Manitoba, we stay in Matlock at Joan's cottage. Just up the road is Gimli, Manitoba, the largest Icelandic community outside Iceland. Here we discovered another dining "find" in a former jewelry store, Cronshaws. Joan's oldest friend introduced us - her husband did the extensive woodworking - darkly stained paneling to invoke an intimate British pub. Although in Midwestern Canada, Cronshaws features a menu with dishes created with organic ingredients. The creators of this rural miracle in a fishing village provide a number of vegan items. And they are concerned about health: the bake their "fries" - really potato wedges. They were only able to serve us nine small wedges - because they ran out . Wat we tasted were excellent. They also offer vegan sandwiches, soups, salads and a Turkish appetizer plate with humus and baba ganoush. Cronshaws is truly futuristic.... In the Midwest, in a fishing community populated by Vikings!

In summary - from north to south we recommend Cronshaws Pub in Gimli, Sokhothai in Winnipeg, Siam Thai in Billings, and Arun's in Chicago.

Yesterday, November 17th, a friend as well as a former employee called from across the continent. We talked for quite a while. During the conversation, he mentioned that he believed that I hadn't been happy with him when he last lived and worked here because he wasn't vegan. He told me that it takes some time to "digest" the information regarding the health effects of a vegan diet vis-à-vis the animal based American diet. He said that I had time to understand all of this but he hadn't had enough time.

He was wrong. First, I wasn't disappointed that he had not become vegan. I knew that he didn't understand. Second I hadn't become vegan for physical health at all.

I told him that it was a simple change: Twenty-four years ago, I injured myself and couldn't work for a couple of weeks and something - maybe a show on TV or a book - caused me to realize I could not kill an animal for food, yet I ate meat. "Aha," I suddenly knew that I was a hypocrite: Essentially I "asked" others to kill for me. This realization meant I was vegetarian and done with meat. I told him, that I grabbed this opportunity to reduce my hypocritical burden.

While we talked a 15 year old Bronx Latin student was shot in the back of the head down the street from the school. Our daughter, Kate, called to tell us, crying. The girl who was shot, Vada Vasquez was Kate's student when Kate was with Teach for America. A vibrant, talented musician and student, Vada is presently in an induced coma and not breathing on her own.

Vada Vasquez was shot by a 16 year-old boy when he fired a salvo of bullets at a 19 year old. Up to that time he had a "clean" record. His cohorts did not.

Of course, we didn't know this when we talked. But Vada's shooting reminded me how much we need to reduce violence in our lives - from the violence on the streets erupting from poverty to the violence which brings food to our table. We need to do this with love - as nurturers, helping to nurture one another, the animals who are in this world with us and the very planet itself.

I am unable to finish this post on an upbeat note. For too long we have tolerated violence. Perhaps our unwillingness to confront violence and the problems which underlie it comes from our failure to acknowledge the violence that feeds us - our treatment of all but a few dogs, cats and horses. Where is our outrage?! We have become inured to it and that is wrong.