Letters
I found sweet, tender, green leaf lettuce, young and tender zucchinis, crisp string beans and sweet, large red onions from local farmer Chuck Majors. Also from Chuck, I steamed up the sweetest red beets whose skin just fell away to the glorious smooth taste and silky texture that I have never experienced before eating beets. To this I added fresh radishes and cooked an artichoke that I bought from Olivia, who works at Chris Bonser's organic farm. The artichoke's flavor was different than those I buy in the store – less bitter and more "oakey." The texture was tender and the heart was firm and plentiful. I sampled a few of their organic strawberries, thanks to a woman who came to the market especially for these.
For fruits this week, I found the sweeeetest cherries i have ever had! Reggie Dewsnup comes to us from Gridley and arranged boxes and boxes of pluots (a cross breed of apricots and plums), juicy, ripe white and yellow peaches, and those cherries ... speechless! I'm still enjoying the fresh oranges from Gail Dyne's farm in Buckingham and she has fresh herbs, garlic and onions and will have more this week. I slurped on a fresh fruit smoothie and have missed out on the fresh fruit kabobs (because they always sell out before I have the chance to get to the booth!) that the Hot Spot youth group is selling as a fundraiser. I even picked up a white sage plant from Ken Fountain at Jaguar Nursery who specializes in plants and starts.
The bounty is here and brought to you by our local and regional farmers and there is more coming! This Friday, goat cheese comes fresh to us from Shamrock Goat Cheese in Willits, and Amy Reyes, owner of Cactus Grill in Clearlake, will be cooking up tacos and fresh mex salads for the visitors soon. So, if you haven't visited the market yet, now's a good time; and if you have, come on back, because there is more food and farm-fresh produce to feast your eyes and stomachs upon!
This is a good time to give special thanks to the City of Clearlake, the VIPs, the Rangers and the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce for coming together with the co-op to create this special event for our community. A great mention need be made to the musicians who have added that extra special ambiance to the market last week – free of charge, I might add; Don Coffin, this week, Dan Meyer and Jim Leonardis, and next week David Neft. And an extra special thanks to the community – well over 200 people showed up in the first hour of our first day! What a display of support for our efforts and a confirmation that our goals are what community wants and will sustain.
JoAnn Saccato is chair of the Lake County Community Co-op.
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- Written by: JoAnn Saccato
I will leave my personal religious beliefs out of this, and simply state that religions that try to affect the “same-sex marriage” movement in either direction are violating their own desire for religious freedom by undertaking political ordeals, thus mixing state and religion.
Now, what "same-sex marriage" is really mostly about? The gay community got behind the "domestic partnership" union, in hopes of obtaining civil rights equal to those given heterosexuals in regards to taxes, insurance, job benefits, death benefits, etc. California is one state who got behind it quite well, however, many religious groups consistently fought total equality.
The efforts of these groups successfully stagnated the efforts of the domestic partnership movement for equality – it became a farce. Also, they claim to be fighting any mixing of state and religion, and then they spend millions in lobbying federal and state politicians. These efforts are naturally doomed because the various religious groups cannot even agree upon what is right or wrong! (An interesting fact usually ignored is that a "domestic partnership" was not only for homosexuals, but for any combination of two people for whatever reason they chose to live together and share expenses as a heterosexually married couple does.)
The stumbling block in obtaining equal rights for gays is that we have two types of "marriage." One is the religious type, with every religion making its own rules regarding it. The other has unfortunately been the civil union, in which the government adopted the word "marriage" to describe it. This led to the state defining the term marriage based upon religious beliefs, and allowing various benefits and rights accordingly! Therefore, instead of a domestic partnership movement, they are now attempting to define the "civil marriage," not the "religious marriage," as a union of straights or gays, in order to receive equal rights. This eliminates having to pass special bills over the next umpteenth years to accomplish the goal of equality required by our constitution. So now the churches even tried to change the Constitution!
We have gay couples sharing expenses, and raising children properly.
We have gay single parents who are raising their children properly.
We have unmarried heterosexual couples sharing expenses, and raising their children properly.
Our constitution requires that the above should all receive equal tax benefits, insurance options, job benefits, death benefits, etc., and religious beliefs should not determine them. It is the religions that pushed the movement to the extreme limit of having to use “marriage” to obtain these benefits and rights.
This is not about religion!
Howard “Duke” Holtz lives in Lakeport.
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- Written by: Howard Holtz
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