I don’t know about you, Marketeers,  but I am still trying to catch up on my sleep after a whirlwind o’ graduations, promotions, celebrations and elevations of all ilk and stripe. Lovely family suppers, barbeque of all varieties, and an all-night grad night chaperone stint had me so muddled that I forgot entirely that I was the host for the June meeting of my book group.  I was reminded of this happy fact late in the day and well after the Market closed, so I had to figure out how to clean my house, mow 5 acres, repair a fence, change the tires on a tractor AND make a dinner for 12 rather discerning women (the next night!) on a shoestring budget of both cash and time.

I was out of luck on all things machinery related, but Thank Heavens for the collection of " I don’t know what I am going to do with this…" type items that I picked up as the Market was closing.  These odd gleanings, a bag of rice, and the fine example of a long gone Italian chef from the dark past saved my bacon, and that of the fine women who arrived chez moi the next evening requiring nourishment before diving into a rousing and ever so elevated conversation about the superior grace of a well turned phrase to a gam of the same description, and the problems that cultural misapprehensions about silverware can wreak on social intercourse.

Risotto is a boon to the clock and pocketbook challenged.  This is what I have learned over the years.  I am convinced that somewhere in Italy , some resourceful chef absolutely blew it while cooking the rice for the Majordomo. He did everything backwards to begin with, then tossed some wine, onions and olive oil to cover up the evidence, plopped a few perfect peas and the last smidgen of lobster into the mix and poof!  Presented as a masterpiece, it was.

New Leaf Half Moon Bay Celebrates First Year! Saturday, June 20th from 12pm - 2pm with a BBQ to benefit Senior Coastsiders..

Please join us at the Half Moon Bay New Leaf on Saturday, June 20th from 12 to 2pm for an outdoor BBQ celebration in honor of New Leaf’s first year in Half Moon Bay. We’ll be grilling and serving up a delicious cake from Moonside Bakery. The BBQ includes hot dog or veggie dog, and a bag of chips or drink.  $1 donation requested, all proceeds will be given to the Senior Coastsiders. Cutting of the cake at 12pm with New Leaf’s owners, employees and the community.

New Leaf Half Moon Bay is located at 150 San Mateo Rd, at the corner of Hwy 1 and 92.

Victoria Cormack

The Half Moon Bay Whatevering group is meeting in Princeton this Saturday to celebrate the Solstice while taking a hike over the bluffs onto a protected beach. We will be walking about 4 miles on the beach, and more on the bluffs. Expect to see seals, sea lions and pelicans.

We’ll be giving a nod to the Solstice/Litha by lighting some candles and celebrating what we have. If you like, bring any thing portable to eat and share (fruits/veggies/bars/cookies/bread/pop tarts- whatever.) Or don’t. Either way, it’s all whateveringly good.

For more information about this hike, please see http://www.meetup.com/whatevering/calendar/10651202/

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is holding a regularly scheduled board meeting in Half Moon Bay on June 24 to consider the purchase of two properties on the Coastside from the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).

The 32-acre Roberts property is located at the end of Miramontes Street, 1.5 miles east of Half Moon Bay in unincorporated San Mateo County. The property is adjacent to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Mills Creek Open Space Preserve.

The 260-acre Bluebrush Canyon property is located on Purisima Creek Road, seven miles southeast of Half Moon Bay by road in unincorporated San Mateo County. The property is adjacent to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Community United Methodist Church
770 Miramontes Street
Half Moon Bay                    

POST is a private, non-profit land trust that protects local land in order to preserve it as parks and open space. When POST acquires a piece of land, the organization’s goal is to transfer it to an entity who can manage it in perpetuity, often to public agencies like the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Prior to the meeting, additional information and the agenda will be posted to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Web site at www.openspace.org.

The longest-serving private physician on the Coastside not only runs, but is expanding, our free Rota Care service, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

Dr. Josefina Enriquez will never have to worry about going hungry, like some of her patients.

That’s not because she charges an arm and a leg — in fact, she charges many patients nothing at all. In return, they bring her what little payment they can afford: the fruits of their labor on the Coastside.

"That’s how I survive. I don’t have to go to the market. The only thing I buy is milk because the fishermen give me fish, and the people who work in the fields give me vegetables, and tomatoes, and lemons," said Enriquez, pulling a bag of lemons out from under her desk on a recent visit to her private practice in Half Moon Bay. "What can you do? They don’t have any money, and I promised to follow the Hippocratic oath; and if somebody is ill, you have to help them."

Being flexible about payment is just one of the ways Enriquez — also known as "Dr. Joy" — has endeared herself to legions of patients and kept herself in business since 1982, making the 69-year-old grandmother the longest-serving private physician on the coast. But it doesn’t explain how she has managed to serve a staggering annual case load of 5,000 patients — 85 percent of them uninsured or dependent on low-income state or county care — while maintaining her sanity, making a profit, and finding time to run a free RotaCare clinic on the side.

Larry Jacobs and Sandra Belin are expanding their Pescadero organic farm to meet growing demand, reports Julia Scott in the Mercury News.

When Larry Jacobs and his wife Sandra Belin bought a small Pescadero farm in 1980 with the intention of growing produce without pesticides, the farmers in the area laughed at them. Literally.

"They said, ‘It’s not possible to do that without spraying.’ One guy told me, ‘I put this stuff on my cereal. It’s not going to hurt you," recalls Jacobs. "Now he’s been asking me about how you get certified organically."

Thirty years later, the couple has had the last laugh. Jacobs Farm is the largest culinary organic herb grower in the country, with seven organic farms spread out across San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties as far south as Watsonville. Their other company, Del Cabo, imports 19 million pounds of sweet, organic cherry tomatoes and other vegetables from their partner co-op in Mexico, where farmers earn good profits for their work.

This is an interesting profile of a company that has made sound agriculture work on the Southcoast.

The Half Moon Bay City Council has approved a $15 million bond issue to pay off its settlement with developer Chop Keenan. The Review has an account of the acrimony at last night’s meeting, following council member Jim Grady’s lone vote against the bond and his expressed disapproval of the city’s April, 2008 settlement with Keenan.

"We weren’t responsible for this. Jim, you want this city to go down," she said, raising her voice. "I know you don’t want to pay this guy the money, but this was a judgment against us."

"Don’t sit here and lecture me, Naomi," Grady responded, citing his disgust with the settlement negotiations.

"I will lecture you," she shot back

The mayor banged his gavel repeatedly, calling a recess to the City Council meeting.

The Mercury News describes the measure approved by the city.

The city will pay the remaining $3 million out of a one-time fund provided by the Association of Bay Area Governments. In reality, though, the $15 million bond sale is projected to cost the city $32 million to $35 million, including payments of interest at a fixed rate of approximately 6 percent over the next 30 years.

Half Moon Bay owes $18 million to Peninsula developer Charles "Chop" Keenan by the end of August if it is to avoid paying large monthly penalties specified by the terms of the settlement. Keenan won a $41 million U.S. District Court decision in December 2007 after being denied the right to build a certain number of homes on a locally infamous 24-acre piece of property known as Beachwood. The city will own the property in return for payment.

It is a tough pill to swallow for a city with an annual budget of about $10 million. The City Council already has approved cuts of more than $1.75 million this fiscal year just to stay afloat and prepare for the widely dreaded possibility that the city will have to issue the bonds without any outside help.

Coastside Land Trust hosted a bird walk on Sunday afternoon June 14, 2009 as the second half of the Songbird and Seabirds Workshop.  The co-leaders on the outing were Alvaro Jaramillo, who lead the classroom portion of the workshop earlier in the day, and Gary Deghi. 

The trip began at the end of Redondo Beach Road where a group of about 30 people looked for birds out over the ocean.  A number of Western Grebes and Western Gulls were joined by Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Caspian Terns and a single adult Heerman’s Gull.  Pigeon Guillemot and Common Murre were scoped well offshore.  The best sighting here was not a bird but a mammal, as most in the group were able to see a Stellar’s Sea Lion just beyond the breakers, a rare sighting for this part of the coast.  Just as we were getting ready to start our walk towards the arroyo, we noticed two Black Oystercatchers flying north just offshore.

Once out in the Wavecrest grasslands we had a chance to start separating the different kinds of swallows present, and the group learned how to identify the Barn, Tree, Violet-green, Cliff and Northern Rough-winged Swallows that were flying around taking insects on the wing.  The group was able to study a variety of songbirds along the arroyo within the willow riparian habitats and adjacent coastal scrub including Mourning Dove, Anna’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds, American Crow, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Bushtit, American Robin, Wilson’s Warbler, California Towhee, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Purple Finch, House Finch and American Goldfinch.  We could hear Swainson’s Thrush calling from within the riparian vegetation.  A number of Red-tailed Hawks and a single Turkey Vulture were observed flying overhead.

Once back at Redondo Beach Road and walking toward the parking area, many in the group enjoyed close-up studies of several Savannah Sparrows along the roadside.  Shari met the group in the parking lot with refreshments to end the trip as a Red-tailed Hawk joined us on a nearby telephone wire and a Common Raven flew overhead.  This was a great outing with many beginning birders and a good number of very enthusiastic kids, great weather, plenty of birds and friendly people.

Gary Deghi