Aug 11th, 2010 by ComstockFerre
We’ve really been busy adding new products for sale in the gift shop of the Comstock, Ferre & Co. store including handmade braided rugs, handcrafted cold-process herbal soaps from Country Family Soaps and Bayberry Meadow Herbs and the above pictured lanterns that are wired for electric!
Aug 5th, 2010 by admin
Post by Sue Capella
Paul Greenberg NY Times Magazine and National Geographic Journalist
Maybe you don’t give fish a second thought. You shop for fresh fillets at your favorite whole food market and enjoy a salmon dinner now and then. But if you attended food journalist Paul Greenberg’s talk at The Seed Bank last night, you’ll most likely look at this ocean-born food source a little differently from now on.
Greenberg, who writes for New York Times Magazine and National Geographic, spoke about his new book “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food,” sharing some real eye-openers, like the fact that “90 million tons of fish come out of the sea each year—the equivalent in weight to the entire human population of China.
“Wild fish seemed to be a crop, harvested from the sea, that magically grew itself back every year. A crop that never required planting,” said Greenberg, who spoke to a good-sized crowd as part of a series of author events The Seed Bank co-hosts at the store with Copperfield’s Books.
Also, added Greenberg, “in the fifties, only a portion of our oceans were fished. Now, the whole world is a fishing ground.”
And another interesting fact from Greenberg: “Per capita, fish consumption has doubled in the past 50 years.”
You can see where this is going: Our wild fish supply is becoming depleted. Greenberg illustrates this depletion in his book by focusing on four fish he could always count on seeing at the Connecticut Fish Market near where he grew up: salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna.
At one time, he writes in “Four Fish,” as many as 100 million Atlantic salmon larvae hatched every year in the upper Connecticut River, making their way south to Long Island Sound, north to Greenland, and then back to the Berkshire foothills to spawn. Nowadays, due to overfishing and numerous dams, this healthy population is dwindling. The salmon we buy and eat today is all farmed, he writes. “Fifty percent of our seafood is farmed.” (And in a few years, this number will exceed the halfway mark.)
Attendees at The Seed Bank talk shared their experiences ordering salmon from restaurants here and on the East Coast from menus claiming “wildly farmed” and “organic” salmon. “There is no such thing as organic fish,” said Greenberg, (at least here in the states.) And as for “wildly farmed,” well, that descriptor got a big laugh from the crowd.
(Currently, a proposed pebble mine to be built near the waters of Bristol Bay, the easternmost arm of the Bering Sea, is threatening enormous Alaskan salmon runs, Greenberg also shared. Click here for more info.)
Greenberg's new book .
Greenberg, a life-long fisherman, is an enthusiastic, energetic speaker and a well-schooled expert on global fishing. His book provides land and sea reporting on the subject from Yukon to Greece and from Long Island Sound to the Mekong Delta. He shares stories of accompanying fishermen on fishing trips near and far as well as a plethora of information on aquaculture and the ecosystems of the wild oceans.
What needs to happen, stressed Greenberg, “is that we need to come up with a roster of farmed fish that don’t impede on wild fish.”
Wild fish need to be reframed as “something precious,” he added, just as deer are viewed as an “animal” and “game,” wild fish need to be redefined as “game.”
Paul Greenberg invited last night’s audience to continue the discussion and to direct questions to him at www.fourfish.com.
Sue Capella is a Northern California home and garden writer, photographer, and artist. She can be reached at SueCapella@gmail.com.
Aug 3rd, 2010 by admin
Post by Sue Capella
Kenwood beekeeper Randy Sue Collins with a honeycomb pulled from her Hex Hive.
Randy Sue’s newest creation is a hexagon shaped beehive. The only one like it in existence, she says. Called the Hex Hive, it consists of five “bee boxes,” an inner cover and a peaked roof. You start by placing the first two boxes on a stand with cover and roof and add on the rest as your swarm grows.
A beehive’s design—slightly offset hexagon‑shaped cells—is used in the engineering of airplane floors, says Randy Sue.
It’s designed for the comfort of the bee in the same shape as the hexagonal cells in a honeycomb, she explains. The popular Langstroth hive developed in the 1800s is rectangular for the beekeeper’s convenience, she says.
The densely packed matrix of hexagonal cells that form the front and back of the honeycomb are slightly offset, she points out. It’s such a strong design that it’s used in the engineering of airplane floors, she says.
Randy Sue’s first Hex Hive customer was John Lassiter, chief creative officer at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. She also recently sold two to a New York interior designer. But you don’t have to be a mover and shaker to purchase one or have a lot of beekeeping knowledge. They’re easy to maintain, she says.
Randy Sue, a member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association, will even come get your hive started for you, and she provides beekeeping services as part of her business
Randy Sue’s beeswax candles and skin care and bath products can be found at The Seed Bank
Bees are a great resource for your garden, she says. They pollinate your plants; they give you locally produced honey, which when consumed helps people with hay fever type allergies; the hive helps populate the diminishing bee population; and it’s great for teaching families more about nature.
Randy Sue says her bees have taught her a lot, including patience, a greater respect for nature, that there’s a purpose for everything, and, bee lieve it or not, to be less judgmental. There are so many ideas and theories about bees, and so much we don’t know yet, she explains, and she’s learned to better accept that everyone has different opinions and ways of looking at bees and at everything in life. This acceptance is another way, like her business card says, to “bee happy.”
Sue Capella is a Northern California home and garden writer, photographer, and artist. She can be reached at SueCapella@gmail.com.
Jul 30th, 2010 by ComstockFerre
We received our first collection of consignment antiques today…they are for sale in the second floor room, formerly the home of “Sit & Knit.” The owner formerly owned an antique store, so these are some beautiful pieces! We’ll be adding new items every week so please stop by often!
Jul 26th, 2010 by ComstockFerre
We’ve added some new photos from our first month here at the newly owned and opened Comstock, Ferre & Co., LLC! Stop by and look around our website: http://www.comstockferre.com/about_us.htm