A Season for Sharing
Have you noticed how people either love or hate the holidays? There isn't much middle ground. Clearly, one of the big hurdles or areas of resistance is the whole materialism issue, the sense of expectation around buying gifts. As a member of the Green Coalition, and also feeling the pinch of a tight economy, I began thinking about how we could approach this season with an eye toward ecological living and still have fun with giving.
I put on my thinking cap and came up with a quick list of ideas to celebrate the growing, cooking, and sharing of food.
Basically Free: Cook a meal for a busy person
Volunteer an afternoon to garden with a friend
Print some favorite recipes on notecards & tie with a bow
Offer to share your garden space with someone
Dried herbs from your garden, tied with a ribbon
About $5.00:
Organic pasta sauce from Westridge Market 
Bag of tangerines from Friends
Ranch or Churchill Orchards Homemade cookies Decoratively wrapped seed packs of extra organic seeds that you
didn't plant this year after all.
About $10.00:
A garden tool or great pair of gardening gloves
A jar of Ojai Honey or a bottle of
Ojai Olive Oil's fruity balsamic vinegar (my personal  favo rites are fig or pomegranate)
2 Lattes & a Chat at Bohemia's with someone dear.
About $20.00: Membership in Ojai Valley Green Coalition (201 2)
A bag of Malibu Compost to wake up your garden's soil life Randy Graham's new cookbook: Ojai Valley Vegetarian Cookbook
Dinner for two at Garden Terrace, mid-week pricing About $50
A couple of bareroot fruit trees
Cookware from Rains Dept. Store (20% sale this weekend)
3 hours of gardening/pruning from Irina Kim (290-3032)
Gift certificate to Farmer & the Cook (at any amount really)
Under $100
Killer gift basket from a local nursery
A living Christmas tree, to help replant the urban forest
Stock freezer with grassfed beef from Watkins (frmr.mkt)
4 Locally caught lobster for New Years Eve (Ideal Seafood)
About $200  Custom raised beds from Flora Gardens (left, cedar) or Ojai Lumber (redwood w/mesh bottom & soil)
Fun, huh? That's just a beginning, partial list of the many ways you can share the best of this Valley this holiday. Every dollar spent in local businesses recycles about 4-7 times in our economy before finally leaving. Every act of kindness or service is worth far more than dollars.
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Thanks for your continuing interest in making the Ojai Valley a more delicious place to live. Our food system is a vital part of our resilience and strength.
Growing food, growing community!
Dulanie Ellis, Food Council
Ojai Valley Green Coalition
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