"In the heart of the Earth

Buried deep so deep

A dear little seed lay fast asleep.

Wake!  said the sun with the morning light

Wake! sang the birds taking morning flight.

The little seed woke and peeked to see

What a wonderful world outside to be."

(author unkown, shared with me by Mary Bowen, Waldorf Educator)

Welcome to the growing Sono-Ma.com

Sono-ma is a growing on-line resource and community for "sharing the art of mothering in Sonoma County."  On May 13, visitors to Sono-Ma.com will find a newly imagined, fully-featured website offering a wealth of support to local, conscientious families.

You can be a part of Sono-Ma in almost any way you please. Sign up for our Newsletter service and you'll be sure to get all article posts and local updates. 

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You can show your support and read articles through Facebook, Networked Blogs, or by going right to http://www.sono-ma.com/.    Leave comments, suggest stories, and join our "Sonoma Sharing" group on Big Tent.  Share the seeds of your inspirations today!

Planting Your Organic Cilantro Seeds

Sono-Ma finds gardening to be a wonderfully fulfilling, and healthy family activity.  Get your kids outside and plant a "kitchen garden" or garden that brings food from your own tiny farm to your family table.  These organic, hand collected cilantro seeds can be planted today. Set aside some family time to tend to your new plants, and in just a few weeks you'll harvest your reward!

Local gardeners from "A Sonoma Garden" share the many useful properties of cilantro here.  This Sonoma family says cilantro is a mainstay of their cooler season garden (aka Spring and Fall), and shares how to keep your supply going by re-planting your seeds every few weeks.

In warmer weather, your cilantro plant will "bolt" or develop flowers and then seeds (shown in A Sonoma Garden's photo above.)  These seedpods are often called coriander - a key ingredient ground in many Indian curries. 

Carrie Grosvenor of How To Do Things.com also provides great details for "How To Grow and Harvest Cilantro."  She suggests planting your seeds a few inches apart and about 1/4 inch deep.  Choose an area that gets both sun and shade, and try keeping the soil moist with a layer of mulch.   Wait about 8 weeks, and your plants should be ready for harvest!  Select outer leaves first, and you may get as many as three harvests.  For more ideas and gardening tips, see Sonoma County's igrow site.


The Seed that Started Sono-Ma
Just where did Sono-Ma come from? Let's just say that the seed of the idea was planted when I first became a mother, and I began to see Sonoma County through the new lens of a parent. While I'd moved to Sonoma County in 1995, I blamed that fact on chance and circumstance, and planned to find another home where I would settle down to perhaps raise a family.

However, I started to develop a fondness for the place where I built trails in dozens of gorgeous green spaces with the teens from the Youth Volunteer Corps. I found a growing respect for the many innovative and civic minded folk who worked with me to create healthy communities through my job at the Health Department. Then we bought a house in downtown Santa Rosa, and I found I could live my whole life without driving a car. I walked to the Farmer's Market, the library, my doctors' offices, and the happening fourth street. Later, I signed up for Business School and found I could easily commute to Market Street in San Francisco to get a first rate education while enjoying the city life in weekly, bite sized durations.

It hit me... I live in the center of the best place on earth! As we all say, Sonoma County is a gorgeous green space, is home to local innovators and artisans, sports a lovely coastline, and is a hop, skip, and jump from the world class metropolitan city of San Francisco.

Becoming a mom opened my eyes to an even more powerful and unique characteristic about Sonoma County: this place is home to tons of local parents, health practitioners, and educators who are committed to raising a new generation of eco-concisous, multi-cultural, initiative-taking chidlren. From the people at the Women's Health and Birth Center, to my friend the late Reverend Coffee, to the moms I met at the Waldorf Roots and Shoots program, to the farmers who open their farms to our children, to the hundreds of mom-prenuers who are popularizing the homespun, I found a tremendous amount of local inspiration for a new way of raising families.

Sono-Ma began to grow in my mind as I saw this new way of parenting by living local, being earth-centered, living on a rhythm around the core elements of hearth and home, and nourishing families' bodies and souls... I wanted to capture and document this growing "Sono-Ma style" mothering movement, and provide resources to local moms who were also hungry for support in creating a this grounded, healthy way of raising families.

One year later, Sono-Ma is turning out to be a real community and showcase for the art of mothering in Sonoma County. Join in and share today!

Sound your air horns and grab your lawn chairs, families.  Parade season just started in Sonoma County!

While I've never missed an opportunity to sit on the curbside and watch a local parade, this year will mark the first time I've ever walked in a parade.  No, I don't need to practice my "princess wave."  But I will get to delight crowds by handing out tons of cool freebies!  Sono-ma is providing seeds to help encourage families to get outside and garden (yes, we love igrow!) AND we'll be helping Whole Foods pass out samples from generous locally based vendors.

Petaluma's Whole Foods Market invited Sono-Ma to participate in the Whole Foods parade unit, which will proudly march in the 29th Annual Butter and Eggs Parade this Saturday April 24, 2010.  Building on the theme "Petaluma's Shining Moments", Whole Foods pulled together a community parade team to demonstrate Whole Foods shining community building efforts in Petaluma.  From teaching kids about worm bins to Earth Day puppet shows and more, Whole Foods Petaluma has much to celebrate when reflecting on bringing community together.

I adore the way Whole Foods Market works to be a family friendly store, and I am thrilled to join in their parade team.  Bryles and I will be representing Sono-Ma - perfect since this whole gig is about being a mom and loving it!

So what does a crafty mama do when preparing to be in a parade??  She gets creative about decorating a mini-float, making Sono-Ma "costumes", and creating a fun take home treasure! 

Pull out the wool felt, the photo transfer paper, commandeer a few underused hats, shop for a couple of white t-shirts, and you've got the makings for a ton of fun branding materials.

I know Vista Print offers t-shirts and hats for pretty cheap, but mine are homemade with love!  We also made some giant flowers to decorate his float (aka Radio Flyer wagon pictured above) You too can take your mom-made business and get it out there by using photo transfer paper and an iron. 

Next, I wanted to join in with the other Whole Foods vendors and have something to pass out to the crowd.  What does an eco-centered, health food lovin' mom give local families?  Balloons and plastic gizmos are out, and suckers or candy are off the list....  Why not seeds?  Sono-Ma's aim is to "help grow local families," so Bryles and I created 300 seed packets to gift to parade goers.

We used coin envelopes and mailing labels to package our hand gathered cilantro seeds (thanks Nina Bleue!).   My hope is to inspire families to go on-line to get information about starting a kitchen garden, while checking out Sono-Ma.   The new site is due out on May 13, and I can't wait to share this Sonoma County mom on-line resource and community.

   
We hope to see you at the Butter and Eggs Parade!

For information about this parade and all of the other fabulous community marches slated for coming weekends, please read this Sonoma County Parenting Examiner Article: "Parade season in Sonoma County showcases community, culture, and family fun at its best."