The barren branches of the orchard in front of the Granary reach upwards to the winter sky, a sign that pruning will begin soon. If you’re in the neighborhood, you might see Charles out on the ladders, snipping the French prunes and apricots. His technique seems to be working as we have had quite bountiful harvest through the years!

You can also see the fava beans, mustard and vetch starting to sprout. They are all dry farmed, so this year the lack of rain has impacted growth. This cover crop is much more than just beauty and beans. The entire site was originally a parking lot and driveway. We have done no tilling of the soil, relying instead on the cover crop to build the soil and reach down below the old parking asphalt and rock. The fava beans help break up ground and fix nitrogen, the mustard has deep roots to break up the soil, and vetch is a great nitrogen fixer.

If you look up on the roof you may notice there is a solar- photovoltaic array. The design of the building dictated the solar location and this time of year some of the panels are in shade, which is not ideal. We have 99 panels, a 16 KW system. By clicking “Our Carbon Footprint” at the top of www.wmarchitects.com, you can see the system in action. Although the panels are an important part of our energy system, we view them as secondary to the Granary’s well-insulated shell. Many people walking through the building look up, see the original underside of the metal roof, and deduce that the building is not insulated. It is actually quite well insulated using a unique system that we developed during construction. Building a new roof on top of the original roof let us fill the cavity in between with 99% recycled newspaper insulation. Because the blown-in insulation was so viscous, it was able to fill in all of the nooks and crannies of the existing roof and insulate really well. We also used the same material in the walls and are amazed at how quiet the trains rumbling by are. Insulation has many uses!

We always look forward to sharing our vision and invite you to learn about green building, sustainable living, and organic farming when we give tours. We will have two tours scheduled in the new year (check our website for updates) – we hope to see you there.

“What do two great schools like Brownell Elementary and the Gateway have in common besides being educational facilities? They are both certified sustainable (eco-friendly) building projects in Gilroy by Weston Miles Architects.

The Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters (SCCLCV) is proud to announce the selection of Weston Miles Architect (WMA) as our Green Business of the Year. The WMA husband and wife team of Charles Weston and Lesley Miles will receive the honor at the SCCLCV’s 18th Annual Environmental Awards and Fundraiser Event on Wednesday, October 5 at 5:30 pm in Monte Sereno.

WMA’s eco-friendly remodel of Brownell and Gateway speaks to the environmental stewardship they bring to their work. In fact, for their own offices WMA transformed the historic feed granary in Morgan Hill from an abandoned industrial site to a thriving commercial complex including a small orchard earning them the coveted LEED Gold building certification for that project. The SCCLCV recognizes the value of their certified sustainable work they bring to the southern Santa Clara community.

In addition to the WMA as our Green Business of the Year recipient, an award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to former County Supervisor Dianne McKenna and the Environmentalist of the Year award will be conferred on former County Parks and Recreation Commissioner Larry Ames.

Recognizing Environmental Heroes in our county at our Annual Awards event comes as a result of the SCCLCV’s primary function which is to endorse election candidates for local public office that demonstrate environmental leadership. This year the SCCLCV has also chosen two candidates running for local office that merit our endorsement – one each in Sunnyvale and Cupertino where City Council elections will be held this November.

The SCCLCV Board is comprised of Santa Clara County residents with a wide variety of public and private sector backgrounds and former public officials with a strong interest in environmental issues. More information about the October 5 event is available at the organization’s website, www.scclcv.org. The community is welcome to attend. For reservations call (408) 535-8656.”

written and submitted by SCCLCV Board Members:
Beth Wyman (former Mayor of Morgan Hill)
Julie Hutcheson (Committee for Green Foothills)

CAPITOLA — The Board of Trustees for Soquel Union Elementary School District are considering an alternative construction plan for a school at Jade Street Park.

Original designs called for modular, portable buildings.

On Wednesday, architect Lesley Miles of Weston Miles Architects presented a design incorporating more permanent structures.

The alternative design would offer structures with better insulation, saving on energy costs, and better acoustics.

While the originally proposed modular buildings have a life expectancy of 10 years to 15 years, Miles said, the alternative structures have a life expectancy of 50 years.

Modular buildings come in fixed sizes, while the new proposal would offer greater design flexibility.

The district has earmarked $1.75 million for the project, and the alternative design falls within that budget.

“This gives us a much better opportunity to get a school that we can be proud of, with a far greater useful life and much better environmental conditions, at a cost that is similar,” said Assistant Superintendent Harley Robertson.

The new design calls for insulating concrete forms, in which blocks of insulating foam that fit together like Lego building blocks are constructed over a web of rebar and then concrete is poured over the structure. It is a type of construction that Miles said can be done relatively quickly and is sustainable.

“With solar panels these buildings could be at net Advertisement zero for energy consumption,” she said.

In April, the California Coastal Commission approved plans for a full school on 2.5 acres of the 9.8-acre park. That school would be K-5, and while the district says no plans are in place for the larger school currently, under state law they have to address that possibility along with the smaller project.

Current plans for phase one, the pre-K to first grade school, call for placement of two portable buildings, new play areas and expanding parking from 26 spaces to 46 spaces.

The district believes the alternative design would comply with the phase one plans that were already vetted by the commission.

The district leased the park, which it has owned since 1956, to the city in 1982, and the city built a community center, soccer field, basketball courts and other amenities.

The district filed a lawsuit in 2003 after the city failed to heed its notice to vacate part of the park to make way for school facilities. A Santa Cruz Superior Court judge ruled the lease was terminated, but that the city could stay until the district was ready to begin using it.

Construction on the phase one buildings could start by April 2012 and finish in time for the start of the 2012-2013 school year, Miles said. The board will review the alternative plan and will hold a second discussion on the issue Oct. 5.

This new appreciation for the weather has come to bear on us here at the orchard too. The heavy rains we had this past spring did a number on the blossoming apricot trees. Stripped of their flower buds, the trees haven’t got anything to produce for us this year. Thankfully we’ve all got pantries still stocked with jam from last year, but it’s a sad thing for the dishes we enjoy with fresh apricots.

Here and there, especially up high, you can find ripe and almost-ripe apricots on a few of the trees, particularly the ones on the west most corner of the property.

But the reality is, most of the apricot trees have nothing at all on them but plain ol’ leaves.

The prunes are on a different schedule than the apricots, and while the trees enjoyed the heavy rains, there weren’t any fledgling flowers or fruits to be damaged by the deluge. As such, looks like we are going to have a heckuva bumper crop of prunes this season.

We also have a burgeoning collection of baby figs. I really look forward to the ripening of these guys – figs stuffed with pungent cheese and wrapped in prosciutto is one of my favorite indulgences.

Meanwhile, we will enjoy the few apricots we have. I posted an excellent pie-crust recipe to The Granary’s Facebook page. Some apricots will definitely go into a tart or some mini turnovers before the weekend is out.

What’s your favorite way to eat a fresh apricot?

Check it out!

More about Gateway School here:

More Pics of Gateway Fire Reconstruction!
Gateway School Under Construction
Buy a book, help the Gateway School

Check out our website for a short profile and some pictures of the completed school. The building has a 10.50 kWp system of “stick-on” photovoltaic panels on a standing seam roof. Now that the system is trackable online, we can see how much the school is saving in energy expenses. The website has only been tracking since late Februrary, and has calculated that already by mid-April the PVs have generated $2500 worth of electricity! And March was rainy!

Visit the Sunny Portal website to see how much electricity Brownell’s solar panels are generating.

You can check out other public “plants” on the website as well – there may be a building in your neighborhood churning out bright, clean, green energy too!

I generally do not like to have to buy or source specialty ingredients, which sometimes I would have to do to follow a Sunset Mag recipe to the letter. Often I work around this by using clever substitutions (what’s that about necessity and invention?). So it was a lovely surprise this month to see the most beautiful salad on the cover of the April edition, and to realize that what may have been a specialty ingredient to everyone else for that dish was as close as walking down the front steps of the office for me. Salad with fava leaves and flowers! Who would have predicted?!

Click through here to see Sunset’s version of Fava Green, Grapefruit, and Flower Salad.

Click through here to see the rest of Sunset’s salad suggestions – 16 ways with fresh greens

Our fava green salad, in the garden from which it was born. We added mustard flowers for color and bite (no grapefruit at hand on a Thursday afternoon).

Eat your colors!

Saturday, April 23, 2011 – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Held at the The Granary, 17500 Depot Street, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 , South County’s Premier LEED building.

* Children’s activities
* Pacific Corporate Solutions E-Waste drop off
* Congressman Jerry McNerney, noon-1PM
* Environmental Excellence Awards, 1PM
* Local Celebrity Chef Steve Caposio, 2-4PM
* Raffle Prizes: EcoSparc Scout, Specialized Crosstrail Bike, The Ford Store Gift Certificates, Cal-Color Bowls, …and more!

Projected Attendance is over 2,000 people from Santa Clara County, with a focus on South County. Download an event post here.

Admission and Parking is Free!

Organizers & Sponsors:
* The Environmental Affairs Council of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center
* Uesugi Farms
* Steven Stratton

The 2011 South County Earth Day will showcase:
* Affordable Roofing and Solar
* CHEER
* City of Morgan Hill
* Committee for Green Foothills
* Greenbelt Alliance
* Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center
* Morgan Hill Community Garden
* People and Planet
* Private Spring Water
* Recology
* Santa Clara County Farm Bureau
* Santa Clara County Open Space Authority
* Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
* Shaklee Products (Suzanne Barrett)
* Specialized Bikes
* Timptations
* Wilderness Education and Rehabilitation Center (WERC)
* Ynot Organics
* …and more!

More Info on the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce website.

It’s possible to make jelly from some crab apple varieties, but we’ve never attempted to do that with ours. So it’s easy to think we don’t get much from our crab apple trees. But I think the show they put on in spring is worth every inch of ground they occupy, every drop of irrigation, and every precarious lean off the ladder to prune them! They are just gorgeous.

Lesley planted lettuce a little while ago, and it’s looking pretty healthy.

The hard rains over the past two weeks knocked a lot of blossoms off the fruit trees. We are expecting fewer prunes and apricots this year as a result. Good thing we put up a lot of prunes in the freezer from last season.

The fig tree is teasing us with little babies popping up on mostly bare branches.

The favas have been in bloom for a little while now. I have been waiting for the blossoms to wilt away, because to me that would signal bean production is starting…

…but what do you know – there are beans already cooking under the same stalks that are waving their flowers around. I didn’t realize fava stalks could co-host flowers and beans at the same time, but they do. I am now on a daily easter egg hunt for beans under the flowers.

Sixty seconds of picking in a three foot by three foot area of the orchard. Which means: just think of how many favas are waiting to be picked!