Finding affordable mental health care can be a challenge, especially during COVID. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see a mental health professional, right in your primary care office? If your primary care physician is part of the collaborative care program at Saint John’s Physician Partners (SJPP), you can. In the collaborative care program at SJPP, mental health professional work closely with primary care physician and, when medication is needed, off-site psychiatrists. This holistic approach prioritizes wellness. Check out the SJPP blog to read about how this collaborative program works ..read more

The Costa Mesa Farmers’ Market. Photo courtesy of @photosbybobke Joining the local food movement is exciting: farm-fresh produce, a lower carbon footprint,  and a community of small producers! There are many great options for local procurement, but they can be a bit confusing if you’re unfamiliar with the landscape. Farmers’ markets, CSAs, and co-ops are the three most popular ways to support local producers – but what’s the difference? Allow us to break it down for you…  Farmers’ markets Let’s start with the option most near and dear to our hearts at Sprouts of Promise – farmers ..read more

There are a couple controversies in the compost community. One is old and the other new. Both are centered about what can go in the bin. These issues are so fraught that many composters avoid them altogether. I’m talking about meat and plastic. Can Meat be Composted? There is a rumor that meat cannot be composted. Let me clear that up. Any organic material—I’m using organic in the original sense of the word, meaning carbon-based—will eventually break down. From dust you came, and to dust you will return. This applies to all meat everywhere: cows, chickens, people, you name it. So why do many t ..read more

What do melons, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins have in common? They’re all members of the cucurbit family! Cucurbits are high in B vitamins and can be found all over the world (the oldest cucurbitaceae fossil was found in Montana and hails from the Paleocene epoch). They thrive during the warmest months and their high water content keeps us cool as a cucumber! Best yet, this family is versatile! From cantaloupe to zucchini, cucurbits can be found in sweet and savory dishes! Ready for inspiration? Start scrolling! Recipe Courtesy of Bon Appetite Photo Credit: @devan.grimsrud INGREDIENTS ½ 6 ..read more

What's a Vegetable?  What is a vegetable? I'm serious. Smarty-pants like to point out that tomatoes are a fruit, but so are eggplant and zucchini. If carrot is a root, and celery is a stem, broccoli is a flower, and yes, tomato is a fruit, then what exactly is a vegetable? According to Wolfgang Stuppy, the research leader in Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew & Wakehurst Place: “the term vegetable doesn’t exist in botanical terminology.” Simple as that. Veggies might not exist botanically, but they’re not going anywhere culturally. So we're b ..read more

We’ve heard the statistics… In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day. 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away. The average American throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year. We currently recover only five percent of the plastics we produce. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located off the coast of California is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This floating mass of plastic is twice the size of ..read more

Finding affordable mental health care can be a challenge, especially during COVID. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see a mental health professional, right in your primary care office? If your primary care physician is part of the collaborative care program at Saint John’s Physician Partners (SJPP), you can. In the collaborative care program at SJPP, mental health professional work closely with primary care physician and, when medication is needed, off-site psychiatrists. This holistic approach prioritizes wellness. Check out the SJPP blog to read about how this collaborative program works ..read more

The Costa Mesa Farmers’ Market. Photo courtesy of @photosbybobke Joining the local food movement is exciting: farm-fresh produce, a lower carbon footprint,  and a community of small producers! There are many great options for local procurement, but they can be a bit confusing if you’re unfamiliar with the landscape. Farmers’ markets, CSAs, and co-ops are the three most popular ways to support local producers – but what’s the difference? Allow us to break it down for you…  Farmers’ markets Let’s start with the option most near and dear to our hearts at Sprouts of Promise – farmers ..read more

Did you know that your gut is responsible for much more than food digestion? Our digestive tract hosts trillions of organisms like bacteria, fungi and viruses that break down the food we eat while producing brain chemicals that affect our mood, cravings and even overall behavior. Unfortunately, Americans today consume a high intake of processed and fast foods, sugary drinks, high-calorie snacks and refined grains—all foods lacking in nutritional content like fiber, vitamins and valuable plant chemicals. Our diet, combined with a decrease in physical activity, has caused an uptick in diabetes ..read more

Sludge, we don’t want no sludge… Smelly, slimy, if this describes your compost, then it’s time for a little TLC. Stinky compost is not only unpleasant, it creates an inferior finished product for our farmers. Nitrogen, the stuff that helps plants grow, is volatile. It can leach from compost (liquid in the bottom of your bucket?) and float away as a gas (think: stink). If you want the science you can read more here but you don’t have to geek out to keep a balanced bucket. Just implement 1 —maybe 2—step(s) and you’ll be building healthy compost in no time! Step 1 Just Add “Browns!” In compost pa ..read more