Sunday Berries!

It was time to seize the berry season! Somehow I missed June strawberry and blueberry PYO (pick your own) seasons and had to settle for farmers market and grocery store berries. Not the same! Yes, I know they are sometimes cheaper and even juicer at the store but they are filled with chemicals and completely removed from the dirt and land that nurtures them.

So today we went to Apple Jacks Orchard in Delano and picked some golden and red raspberries. We definity ate our share of juicy berries and sampled some of the almost-ready-to-pick apples lining the rows of berry bushes.

After picking, we visited the store and cafe filled with amazing baked goods and seasonal foods. I was tempted to buy the apple breads but convinced myself baking with my own berries would be more rewarding. We also toured the little crafty boutique and Dan said it reminded him of his mom's home boutique show they hosted when he was a kid.

On the drive home we stopped to get a raspberry shake from the famous Peppermint Twist Delano shop. I will let the picture speak for itself but TRUST me, the shake was AMAZING but the place is suspect.

After getting home to wash off the dirt and a few ants from the berries, I found a delicious recipe on pinterst to make good use out of our berries. I saved some for my spinach salads and froze a few, but the rest I turned into raspberry breakfast bars (more like raspberry crisp). It was a great way to end the berry Sunday as we enjoyed them from harvest - to the mixer- to the oven- to our mouths! Dan licked the crumbs from his plate so I guess he liked it too.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/raspberry-breakfast-bars/
Recipe for the berry bars (I used half wheat flour and cut the butter down to 1 stick)

My Career Journey

Time to reconnect with my blog.  I almost forgot my password it has been so long since my last post. No big news or adventurous vacation pictures. Just some some random (probably non-blog worthy) thoughts.

For the past six months now I have been working as a Health Educator coordinating nutrition, physical activity and tobacco cessation efforts across the county. It was the first job offer I received and if you know me, you know I get impatient with too much downtime and a lack of structure. So, I took the position eager to start building my new resume but a little worried about how I would adapt to county work! Yes, we all have our stereotypes about county employees and usually it doesn't involve cutting edge sexy entrepreneurial projects like the international development work I was previous providing.

My original logic behind getting my MBA was to strengthen my skills and portfolio in order to bring corporate logic models and structures into the nonprofit arena. My long term goal was to eventually start or direct a nonprofit organization with a specific focus on woman's health and/or immigrant health. I thought I would be bringing business into the nonprofit sector leveraging resources and maximizing philanthropic funds.

I still maintain those long-term goals and often peruse MCN for nonprofit leadership positions. I also occasionally find myself drawn toward big corporate career pages searching for ways to bring my community engagement values into the business world. Corporate social responsibility is typically viewed as a publicity effort to build positive brand recognition and maybe that is true, but the reality is that businesses do have money and usually nonprofits do not! Therefore, CSR work has a huge untapped potential to make a strong positive impact for underserved communities.

However, for now I will continue learning from my current temporary (but finally full-time with benefits!) health consulting position and networking with other like-minded people. My intention is to remind myself to think creatively about my future, never to be complacent with having unrealized goals and to always make the most of what I do between the hours of 9-5pm.

After all, maybe creating healthy eating and vending policies, improving safe walking routes to school, providing breastfeeding support for working mothers and promoting physical activity in the schools doesn't sound all that revolutionary to you but...I think its pretty cool!

My awesome co-worker promoting active commuting to work

Encouraging biking to work and healthy eating!