Torturing Annette in Paris

An amazing Day with Annette, I got Veronica and Annette on the Metro!!!!! SCARY!!! for them..... They were great troopers and I now know they are more Taxi girls

On top of my Game!!!

Shooting from the sky...........

Some bodys gotta do it :-)

Thanks Daniel for the great Pics

but lets not forget  January 2010

Abundance

Crazy ¿Right?, Amazing what Patrice and I picked from the garden today! Incredible flavor and nutrition , I am so happy and Thankful

and just for scale....I mean wow... It went unseen and grew a little too big 

Here the latest image of the Garden.... notice we added the gravel and see the bee's down there :-) 

If you can I would encourage everyone to start some kind of garden. Its the best way to help the planet and appreciate and really enjoy the food that you eat.

Thank you :-)

minifarmBox

and 

Ardenwood Edibles

Check Out PBDorm :-)

This was a really fun shoot we did here in LA.... really great new concept for Pottery Barn and some cool stuff! I mainly did the lifestyle work for the project, like these here :-)

check out PBDorm website

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

We have been enjoying the bee's so much! 
Everyday at about 4pm they all rush to get back to the hive. It's so interesting to watch. Patrice noticed today that there seemed to be one bee guiding all the traffic in the door

Surprise.... Send in the Bee's

I have wanted to keep bee's  for a while so I was surprised  to find out Conor's friend Andrew, a local beekeeper,had a hive that needed a new home. I volunteered immediately!!! They came the other night and seem to be adjusting well to their new home :-)

Sustainable and Chic

Thank goodness for Nysha of Ardenwood edibles! She came by to check out the minifarmBoxes and help plant some late growing summer vegetables. Nysha has her business landscaping and sells organic non-genicically modified heirloom seeds for gardening. Her plants have really grown SO well at our house. She pointed out that the seeds are a healthier stock and normally you get more plants per seed pack and stronger better producing more nutritious plants as well. Our garden has really been a testament to that.

We had a great time planting. Nysha gave us some tips like when planting the cucumber and the squash  that you should be very gentle with the roots ....don't break them up or disturb them too much. She also reminded us what Conor had pointed out about planting tomatoes. If you look you can see like little hairs on the stem, those are roots,if you remove the lower leafs of the plant it can allow you to plant the tomatoes deeper into the soil giving the plant more stability and a stronger root system :-)

Looking GREAT... notice the beautiful platform Conor built at the end for me??

Hopefully I will have a surprise coming :-)

Check out Nysha's site Ardenwood Edibles

Are you ready for more Garden :-)

It is so amazing and then Conor and Jose came and built this brilliant box along the wall! 

A Custom minifarmBox! 

SO Awesome !!!, It's really making that old unmanaged and never used area such a  fun  and relaxing place to go and see how things are growing and what's happening! 
thank you
minifarmBox and Conor and Jose

Garden Growth

Some things have just exploded in the garden ... remember I got things in late and wasn't sure what might do well in the area or with my wind and strong sun . I am so excited to see what is happening and watch the daily growth. My friend beth came over the other day to help me manage some of the plants ... for example the tomatoes have gone insane (which I am really excited about) I learned from her that I can prune it back some by looking for the elbow joints and if you see a runner coming from the middle, clip it off ( not all but most) plant may be smaller and produce slightly fewer tomatoes she said but the ones it it does will taste better :-) 

some exciting things I am looking forward too :-)
all these tomatoes, squash and eggplants

thank you

 minifarmBox

 and

 Ardenwood edibles

Happy 4th of July

:-)

Cheer's Dirty Pickled Green Tomato Martini

Happy Fourth of July!

We broke out the pickled green cherry tomatoes and WOW! They turned out Amazing !!!! Pickle recipe really worked from the previous blog post. I am anxious to try with cucumbers as well :-)

Enjoy the Holiday and be safe
Cheers!

Welcome minifarmBox Garden :-)

Ok sorry I'm a little late for this but its never too late to start a minifarmBox garden!!! We were lucky enough to have our friend and neighbor Conor of minifarmBox put in an official minifarmBox garden in at our house

Here is where we started:-(

 here is the dry sandy soil we are dealing with on the hill which is a great reason for raised beds

ready to Plant :-) We purchased some amazing heirloom varieties from Ardenwood edibles nursery...LOVE them Organic and Non GMO plants

A healthy watering and I will let you know how it goes 

Marie Turnor Shoot with Raphaël

Also Shot the new Idea Bag  from Marie Turnor with our friend Raphaël. 
So Great He took us to Marché des Enfants Rouges. This amazing farmers market in Paris,where we did some shopping and then had the best African food at  Corossl ,a restaurant in the market. The owner was so sweet and made Patrice and I vegetarian meal. Thank you Raphaël for such a Great afternoon!

Marie Turnor Shoot with Manou

 I shot our friend Emmanuelle with her handbag for Marie Turnor. She was a "natural" in front of the camera.We had a great morning in Paris with her and her husband Julien.
The Picnic and Dinner are such great bags , Manou and her girlfriends were in love with its simple sophistication from the moment they saw them!
 Made in the USA and with extreme elegance it worth checking out at Marie Turnor.com 
Plus Beth is a Friend and neighbor .......she makes some cool @ss stuff :-)

Pickled Green Tomatoes:-)

Well time came to pull up our faithful 3 year old cherry tomato plant along with a 2 year or heirloom mystery tomato. While they have been great providers we needed to replant and give some new young varieties a chance. In taking them out they had plenty of green tomatoes on them and Patrice and I thought to try and pickle them (so not to waste out favorite plants) and thought that what a great send off, maybe in a summer martini :-)

I looked on line and found some recipes, we made a mix of what sounded logical and good .

So we did 

one part vinegar

two parts water

half part salt 

brought to a boil

and in a clean jar added

cleaned green tomato

bay leave

smashed garlic

dill

and peppercorns

Poured the boiling water into the jar (preheated to be carful it doesn't shatter) over the mixture and shut the lid :-)

Then we let it cool to room temp and now its in the fridge for 2 weeks

I will let you know how it turns out :-)