T H E

V I L L A G E G R E E N

J U N E, 2 0 0 9 Volume 1, Issue 2

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STARTING STORMIN’

GOIN’ GARD’NIN

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IT’S WALKING TO YOU

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BE GLAMOROUS

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Page 2 The V i l lage Green Vo lume 1, I ssue 1

SHARE

A Little Green Apple

Share your family recipes with your community

by sending your 100 to 150 word

submission to

thevillagegreen@gogreendaytonabeach.com

Little Green Apples Summer Corn Salad by Ken Rohla,

FreshandAlive.com

Serves 4 For the Salad:

3 cups fresh corn kernels 1 cup roughly chopped celery 1 cup chopped scallions 1 cup chopped parsley, stems removed For the Dressing: ½ cup water ¼ cup fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons agave nec-tar 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons sea salt 1 tablespoon curry powder ¼ cup raw pine nuts Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a Vita-Mix high speed blender and blend until smooth. Combine all of the salads ingredients and toss to mix thoroughly. Pour the dress-ing over the salad, toss well to mix the dressing with the corn, and serve.

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From The Editors Shannon McLeish and Ciana Maglio, co-editors

Is it possible to live in the city and still live green? We sure think so, and we’ve packed The Village Green with ideas to show you how. Rain gar-dening, storm water manage-ment, herbs perfect for your urban gardens, accidental wa-termelon crops—ideal for va-cant spaces, trendy raw food recipes, green glamour, the connection between walkabil-ity (What in the world is that, anyway?) and sustainability, we have it all in your June issue of The Village Green.

We also have some news for you as we extend congratula-tions to all of our members on a job well done. It seems that Go Green Daytona is making headway in our little commu-nity, and we have you to thank for it. Our first public presen-tation was a fantastic suc-cess—and we have requests to present to various groups and officials in the near future. We now have three locations eager to distribute copies of The Village Green: the Day-tona Beach Downtown Farm-

ers’ Market, Ocean Walk Shoppes & Village, and the Volusia Mall. And there’s more to come, starting with some of the other services of GoGreenDay-tona.com, such as

• The free calendar where you can post all of your green events;

• Forums where you can post your “green” ques-tions— either Gripe or another green expert will be happy to answer;

• An upcoming Green Busi-

ness Directory (Be sure to sign up quickly as there is only a $5 per month charge to be listed.); and

• Very reasonable sponsor-ship opportunities.

Remember to tell your friends about GoGreenDaytona.com, and be sure to send us your comments and suggestions. We would love to hear from you. As always, Green Wishes! The Editors thevillagegreen@gogreedaytonabeach.com

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COVER ART

“Morning

on Beach Street – Angell & Phelps” oil on canvas 30x40ins

by Lesley Giles

Lesley has exhibited exten-sively in galleries in London, Europe, the US & in China following a Visiting Painter Invitation in 1996. Her work has been published in two Harper Collins books Water-color Master Class & The Challenge of Landscape as well as in several magazines. “The boldness of Lesley’s

color is matched by a

strength of design that is all

too rare in contemporary art.

Here is an artist with a down-to

-earth sureness of vision that is

immensely beguiling” Andrew Lambirth, London Art Critic You can see the complete series of Beach Street oil paintings & more at Beach Street Blooms where her work is on sale 206 S Beach St T: 386 236 9940. Also visit her extensive website at www.lesleygilesart.com

© Lesley Giles, June 2009

Leslie is an International artist from London and a Masters graduate from the Royal College of Art. She has lived in Ormond and Daytona Beach since 2003 where she has painted her experi-ences of Florida through a series of journeys along A1A & Beach Street. Her prevailing theme is the color and light that illumi-nates the architecture. “Whether it is strong sunshine or threaten-ing thunderstorms, the light in Florida is always tropical.”

Page 4 The V i l lage Green Vo lume 1, I ssue 1

Green Gems The Watermelons are In Town: Part 1 of 2 by Dana Venrick

Almost everyone loves red, ripe, sweet, juicy watermelon. In fact, when the weather turns hot many people have an insatiable craving for this juicy delicacy. Watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris) is particu-larly popular in Florida and is easy to grow in Florida’s hot, semi-tropical climate. Water-melon is king in Florida, out-producing every other state. Watermelons are ripening in the fields of local growers at this time, with harvesting expected to start in July and

continue through September. Leon and Adam Braddock have 30 acres of Crimson Sweet and Jubilee watermel-ons being grown with drip irrigation in Seville. The mel-ons should be ready around the first week of June. Huck Tomazin has a field of melons in Samsula that will ripen around the first part of July. Lester and Linda Wiggins (L&L Farms) have two fields of melons in Samsula sched-uled to ripen in late July or early August. J.D. Howland also has a field of melons in

Scottsmore. How can you tell when a wa-termelon is ripe? It’s easy when you know how. Ripe watermelons should feel heavy for their size. Turn it over. On the underside you should see a creamy yellow splotch. If the splotch is white or green, the watermelon was harvested too soon. The best watermelons I ever tasted were grown by my brother and me, almost by accident. We disked a section

The Green Light District What Will Fuel Downtown Growth? by Kelly White

ATTENTION READERS! There is a new method of transportation sweeping the nation! This new alternative transportation now captivat-ing the country, ironically, has existed since the dawn of time. And it doesn’t even re-quire a parking space.

What vehicle has no

environmental impact,

costs nothing, and in-

creases physical and

mental health?

It’s called the human foot. Once again, getting from point A to point B can be ac-complished on foot. Imagine that! I have always valued urban neighborhoods according to their fluid grid pattern and “walkable” nature and have often wished there was a way for downtowns to calculate and measure their relative strength based on their “walkability.” My wish was granted with a simple email forwarded by my friend Mike Ciocchetti, a fellow loft resi-dent, who found an article in the News-Journal about Walkscore.com. Finally, I am not alone in rating neighbor-hoods on their walkability. Walkscore.com rates neighborhoods on their walk-

able proximity to restaurants, parks, theaters, fitness, mov-ies, shops, hardware, and even grocery stores. You won’t believe it, but Downtown Daytona Beach scored an unbelievable 97 out of 100. I couldn’t find a better score from here to downtown Or-lando, which scored a perfect 100. One doesn’t have to be a for-tune teller to start putting the pieces together. New govern-ment regulations making it more difficult to exist on the fringe, the “green” movement, obesity, air pollution are all incentives to make walking, that good old form of trans-portation, “new” again. I’d like to leave you with a challenge. Consider this: If you had to survive without a car, where would you live? If you had to walk to a public transportation hub to ride a bus to work, where would you buy or rent an apartment? These pressing questions are

of a pasture covered by Ba-hia grass (and cattle by-products) in February, fertil-ized, and planted Jubilee watermelon seeds. Jubilee is a long, oval shaped fruit with very tasty, crisp, and deep red flesh. We were expecting a bountiful har-vest of watermelons some-time in May. Well, the crop fizzled; the melons were small and misshapen. They had soft ends, weak red flesh and were barely edi-ble. Perhaps it was the dry spring. There was no irriga-

going to be coming to mind for people more and more in the future, but you have the chance to beat the crowd, so “Think Downtown Daytona Beach!” You don’t have to just take my word for it, visit Walkscore.com. Kelly White is co-owner of the

Jack White Land Company, an

urban real estate brokerage

firm. Her mission is to aid

people in moving their homes

and businesses to urban

neighborhoods, most notably

Downtown Daytona Beach.

Visit her blog at

BeDowntownDaytona.com.

Cell.386.566.6788 Of-

fice.386.257.5105 Email:

kw@bedowntowndaytona.com

Page 5 The V i l lage Green Vo lume 1, I ssue 1

Fresh Greens

Vacant Spaces, Growing Places by Joel Tippens

Now and then I am reminded of just how powerful a stereo-type can be… I noticed the blue lights in the rear view mirror and that the police officer was talking into the radio, probably running my tag number, so I pulled over to the curb. He had been following me closely and it was no surprise to be “profiled” this way. He was just doing his duty and his suspicions could have actually been valid. After all, the neighborhood was his regular patrol and certain things at-tracted his attention, such as a white male, long pony-tail and mustache, driving a VW bus slowly around a histori-cally Black neighborhood. After looking at my license and registration he asked, “Do you know where you are?” The question offended me because I most certainly did know where I was and I knew that the neighborhood was filled with long-time residents who own their homes, work hard, pay their taxes, raise their families, send kids to college, and attend church every week at one of the

many houses of worship nearby. But I also knew that on several street corners in the area the dope boys try to earn a living – and by all stereo-typical appearances I fit the profile of a “customer.” It was offensive to me that he might believe that the only reason a White guy would drive around a Black neighborhood was to buy dope as not only would it stereotype me, but also the community. When he asked me what I was doing, my answer didn’t seem to fit the profile. He just sort of gazed at me for a moment and then must have decided I was telling the truth: “I am driving around looking for vacant lots that have enough sunlight for folks to grow vegetables in community gar-dens,” I told him. The fact is, our city is filled with vacant lots and unused spaces. Some folks look at vacant lots and think “urban blight,” but I look at vacant lots and think “urban farm!” You can definitely fit a farm in the city. Even the U. S. Department of Agriculture has finally recognized urban

agriculture as a sustainable solution to many of the prob-lems with our food system. Community gardens are a proven, time-tested, success-ful model. The community garden move-ment grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and the resulting increase in the price of fresh produce, much like today. Community gardens have many social, economic, and environmental benefits and, once begun, become cru-cial to the quality of life in a city, transforming vacant lots into productive green spaces and providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development. Imagine the ‘hood as a valuable resource for local food! As we consider ways to go green, organizing community gardens is one low-tech, cost effective method for bringing people closer to nature and to one another.

Isn’t that what going

green is all about?

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Green Gems continued…

tion. Perhaps it was cheap fertilizer. After all, it was mostly ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride (a.k.a. muriate of potash). It was a disaster, after all that trouble and expense. We fed some to the cattle and we thought that was the end of our water-melon growing days. Well, I went back and disked the melons back into the soil in

the middle of August to re-turn the field to pasture. Guess what? The melons returned with a vengeance. The vines were beautiful and the melons were huge and solid. When I cut the first ripe melon in November, I could-n’t believe how good they tasted. They were dark red, crisp, sweet, and juicy. The best melons you could ever

imagine! This is truly an ex-ample of taking a mess and making a success. In this situation, it also showed the power of organic matter from the decomposing melons to produce excellent quality melons when the chemical fertilizer had failed. (Part 2 continued in the July issue of The Village Green.)

Dana Venrick is an Exten-

sion Agent II, UF/IFAS &

Volusia County Commer-

cial Horticulture Agent.

To contact him send an

email to dvenrick@ufl.edu

or call (386) 257-6012

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Feature-on-the-Green Even Salons are Going Green by Eme V. M.

It seems pretty natural that a woman who comes from a family of cosmetologists would become one herself, but what makes Carol Solaas so progressive are her unique interests and talents. Carol Solaas, owner of Salon So-

laas, has studied fashion de-sign, makes her own clothing (or costumes if the occasion calls for it), has a passion for organic ingredients, and has been a cosmetologist for 31 years. Though she appears classically composed, she speaks passionately about her interests. She is currently endeavoring to make Salon

Solaas into an all natural/organic full-service salon. How do you work all of

your interests together? It all ties together. … If I wanted to do fashion shows, I could take a look at the people and what they are doing and immediately know, ok, you need this kind of hair, this kind of makeup. This would go great with that outfit … it all ties in to-gether.

What was it like using or-

ganics as a child? Way back then in the 70s there weren’t a lot of unnatu-ral products going around, so it was mostly organics prod-ucts. And when I was in school, my sister and I al-ways used to use henna on our hair because it was a natural and organic hair dye.

What organic products do

you use now? Do you make

any of them? All of my skin care products are organic: organic lip balms, bath balms, lotions, cleansers, masks…. My fa-cial scrub is the best. I love it. It’s a glycerin (sugar) scrub, or a glycerin-sea salt scrub. I have rosacea and I used it for a week. My rosacea just faded down to nothing. No breakouts, noth-ing. Why do you think your

customers prefer you to

other cosmetologists? Do

your organic products play

any role in this? I’m open and honest with people, and they like that.

People that have skin prob-lems or allergies to fra-grances, essential oils and stuff prefer my products be-cause they are fragrance free. Are you excited about the

new green movement and

Go Green Daytona’s plans

for the downtown? I am, yes! Why a green salon? It’s a healthier decision not to use so many heavy chemi-cal products, and it’s a better choice for our children and our children’s children. What are your hours of

operation? Usually Monday through Friday from 11 to 5, but I take appointments for later hours or the weekends. Carol Solaas is the owner of

Salon Solaas, located in the

Kress Building at 140 Beach

Street, Suite 105 in Down-

town Daytona Beach. She

can be reached at 386-675-

0774 and also on the web at

http://salonsolaas.com/.

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Chasing-the-Green Medicinal Uses for Lemon Grass by Cory Trusty

My favorite medicinal herb for Central Florida growers is lemon grass, Cymbopogon

citratus, a perennial grass native to India. Lemon grass has a variety of uses and is easy to grow, making it a must have for the garden. Immune & Digestive System Booster: Workers at the Moretele Sunrise Hospice in South Africa have found that AIDS patients who drank lemon grass tea developed an appetite, put on weight, and became stronger. Lemon grass is high in citral and myrcene, which help to re-lieve cramps and stimulate the digestive system. Modern life is full of stress and hidden sugars that deplete the im-mune system and lead to di-gestive distress. Adding lemon grass tea to your diet is one easy way to help keep your body strong. Lemon grass is also helpful for allevi-

ating acute stress on the im-mune system. It increases urination and promotes sweat-ing to help reduce mild fe-vers. Cold Care: This herb is a good choice for soothing colds characterized by fever and sore throat. To make a tea, boil one handful of fresh leaves for 2 minutes in 1 liter of water, let stand 15 minutes, and strain. For sinusitis, colds, and bronchitis, a steam inha-lation can be helpful for clear-ing phlegm. Boil a handful of leaves in a liter of water and inhale. Place a towel over the head to make a loose tent to keep more of the steam in while taking care to avoid steam burn. Cancer prevention: Research-ers at the University of Negev

discovered that an ingredi-

ent in lemon grass called

citral was able to kill lab

cultured cancer cells at

a concentration equiva-

lent that found in lemon

grass tea. The researchers

concluded that lemon grass would be helpful for prevent-ing cancers. Hot Florida summers can be very frustrating to a new herb gardener, but lemon grass can take the heat in full sun or partial shade. You will need to water it from time to time, but it is much more forgiving than tender water-loving herbs such as mint and basil. Lemon grass does well in rich sandy soil and likes good drainage. You can begin harvesting from your lemon grass plants when leaves are 12 inches long. Use gloves when you divide or collect it, though, the grass can cause irritation or rash if handled roughly. Hang lemon grass in bunches if you wish to dry it.

Page 7 The V i l lage Green Vo lume 1, I ssue 1

Book Review Rain Gardening in the South by Helen Kraus reviewed by Robin Tierney

Rain Gardening in the South, by Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford, horticulture profes-sors at the North Carolina State University and Univer-sity of Illinois, respectively. (Eno Publishers, illustrated, soft-cover, April 2009) This practical guide shows you how to create an effec-tive, attractive rain garden, a plot of land that supports water-wise plants while help-ing the local ecosystem by filtering out toxins before they reach the groundwater. Rainwater is channeled from the house, thereby preventing

structural damage and standing water that leads to mosquitoes, algae growth and other un-wanted activity. During rainfall, surprising amounts of toxins are shed by roofs and other parts of the average home. Rain catches air pollution as well. Rain gar-dens capture these pollutants. You’ll find clear instructions for making rain gardens, shap-ing beds for easy maintenance, choosing a smart balance of hardy perennials, shrubs and other kinds of plants, massing them for eye appeal (repeating form, texture and color),

amending the soil for optimal drainage and filtration, tricks such as using (and camou-flaging) gallon milk jugs for targeted irrigation without runoff, and troubleshooting (control and slow runoff with ground cover or plants with many branches that originate from the soil’s surface, such as carex and sedges). We like the lists of plants that produce flowers and fruits at various times of the year, making for a colorful presen-tation. Also covered: rock-ery, the savvy use of rocks.

Interesting points: * Plants are 80 to 95 percent water. * The rain garden differs from others in the amount of time it can remain flooded – 3 days – and still thrive, and the extent of drought its plants can with-stand. Very appropriate in the South, where rainfall is feast or famine. * Rain gardens capture rainfall flowing through your yard (runoff), store that water to nur-ture its plants, and cleanse run-off of pollutants. * Pollutants removed include copper, lead and zinc from roof shingles; phosphorus from de-tergents and fertilizers; and nitrogen and calcium from fer-tilizers. * Rain barrels must be a dark color to prevent sunlight from penetrating and fostering algae growth. * Driveways and patios can be eco-friendly. Such “hardscapes” need not create runoff problems if you use per-vious surfaces, such as porous concrete, non-mortared bricks, or bricks and pavers set in beds of sand to let water infiltrate the surface. As access to clean water be-comes a global issue, putting this knowledge into practice will move from nicety to neces-sity. Robin Tierney is a Health and

environmental writer for the

Examiner and other publica-

tions. For more articles from

Robin visit: KNOW at Robin-

Tierney.blogspot.com

Book Review continued...

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The Village Green is a project of the new community

group, Go Green Daytona .

The purpose of Go Green Daytona is to create a network

of like-minded people and organizations dedicated to im-

proving ourselves, our environment and our businesses

through conscious actions and choices about the way in

which we live.

If you would like more information on how to further the

mission of Go Green Daytona please contact Ciana Maglio

at 386-676-0011 or info@gogreendaytonabeach.com

Contact

The Village Green

The Village Green is a project of community group, Go Green Daytona

and is brought to you courtesy of Net Works, Inc.

GRIPE, the Green Guru Send your gripes to Gripe at GoGREENDaytona.com,

and he may respond with wit and humor, but always relevant information. Editors:

Ciana Maglio

GoGreenDaytona

386-676-0011

Shannon McLeish of McEditing

McEditing.com

386-672-5028

Publisher:

Dustin Ross

of Net Works, Inc.

DaytonaNetworks.com

(386) 868-7259

Printer:

P S Printing (386) 255-2767

Keep it GREEN! Sign up at

GOGREENDAYTONA.com to receive The Village Green online

Dear Gripe,

What is Sustainability?

Anonymous, Daytona Beach

This is a messed-up world in which we live were most of the “stuff” we buy goes right into the landfill. Our government is subsidizing ethanol from food crops. Everything is “designed” to be used once and discarded. I could go on forever. So, what is sustainability? The most popular definition is the “Brundtland definition.” According to the 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment & Development, sustain-ability means “meeting the needs of the present without com-promising the ability of future generations to meet their own

needs.” Another good way to describe it is cradle to cradle,

instead of cradle to grave. We need to work as a team if we are going to get out of this mess. We all just experienced a major problem with the flood-ing from the storms. This is a good example of a sustainability issue. Low impact development (LID) focuses on the develop-

ment or redevelopment that works with nature to manage storm water as close to its source as possible. LID has been adapted to a range of land uses from a high density ultra urban setting to low density development.

If you have any suggestions for making your community more

sustainable, please register at

GoGreenDaytona.com and

post your suggestions on the forums.

—Gripe, G.G

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