True love. Maybe. Norm doesn't look convinced.

Bike love… we got it in spades.  That’s why we find Traffic Solution’s Bike Challenge so alluring. For the month of May (or CycleMAYnia as it’s called in these parts) we’re competing with local businesses to see who can log the most bike commutes.  Not to toot our own (bike) horns or anything, but so far we’re in first place for companies our size.

Toad Team One

Winner gets to support their favorite local charity with a generous donation courtesy of Traffic Solutions… AND they get the distinction of being known champions.

Toad Team Two

Our friends at CycleMAYnia are keeping things lively this month with a list of cool events such as a charity fashion show.  Design team members Lindsay (below left) and Lucy (below right) modeled Horny Toad clothing for the event.  Lucy completely stole the limelight.

Photo of Lindsay and Lucy by Jeff Clark

Is there a commuter challenge where you live?  If so we’d love to hear about it.  And stay tuned to see if we are in fact commuter champions.  If so we’ll totally make a bumper sticker commemorating it.

Starting from top left and going clock-wise: Haas; Fuerte; Bacon and Pinkerton avocados.

On a recent trip to the Farmer’s Market we loaded up on several varietals for the purpose of discerning what’s what, taste-wise.  From top left, going clock-wise we sampled Haas (3 below), Fuerte (2 below) and Bacon (1 below).  We didn’t sample the Pinkertons (bottom left, above) because they weren’t ripe enough.

1. Bacon 2. Fuerte 3. Haas

The Bacon avos were either loved or hated, based on their creamy, fatty consistency.  The poor Fuertes were a little watery and got no love whatsoever.  Haas were the clear winners, eliciting comments such as “They’re smooth and a perfectly firm at the same time!”  And “This is the reason why I love avocados!”   A little tip:  adding salt takes the avo from delicious to sublime.

Opinions get strong around here when talking avocados.

Do you have a favorite avocado?  Tell us!

This is Meg – she’s one of our models.  If you visited the house of Meg and her husband Ian in the woods of Maine you’d probably find their (now) toddler in the front yard embroiled in a game of hot pursuit with some overly-friendly chickens.

You’d also see evidence of Ian’s affinity for out buildings  – he built their greenhouse, chicken coop, boathouse, woodworking shop and a sauna with his own two hands.

Meg and Ian grow as much of their food as they can in a big garden surrounded by a dilapidated but beautiful raw wood fence. And did we mention that they’re also teachers at the school Ian attended as a kid?

A five-minute commute along the rugged Maine coast gets the couple to work. “Our school is lucky to have access to acres and acres of woods and fields. The children learn to use their hearts and hands as much as their heads and to integrate the three. They spend lots of time outside in the garden, caring for the chickens, tapping the maple trees, learning to knit and blacksmith. We don’t use textbooks and the children create their own beautifully illustrated books on each subject they study,” says Meg. “I have 25 amazing 4th & 5th graders that I’ve been with since they were in the second grade. My husband teaches 8th grade in the classroom on the other side of the wall and, because of the vents, they can hear us singing every morning. Sometimes we take requests.”

Meg and Ian, we love your life!

courtesy of Phil Borges

As a sponsor of Mountainfilm in Telluride (May 25-28), we’re excited to be a part of an eclectic roster of guests, films and programs that encompass adventure and environmental, cultural and social issues.

Photographer Phil Borges will exhibit his work and share his experiences at this year’s festival. By photographing people in indigenous cultures, the artist aims to heighten awareness of the issues faced by citizens in the developing world. He has a particularly close and long-standing relationship with Tibet and its people, and his latest book, Tibet: Culture on the Edge, reflects this beautifully.

This conversation with Phil and the stunning photographs he’s generously shared with us offer a glimpse into a weekend of good things to come at this year’s Mountainfilm in Telluride:

courtesy of Phil Borges

Your work strives to heighten people’s understanding of the many issues faced by those in the developing world. There are so many. How do you decide where to aim your lens?

It’s been a process of discovery for me. At first, my main interest was documenting indigenous cultures. As I became aware of the external pressures these people were dealing with, I began narrowing my focus on the human rights issues they faced (e.g. China’s occupation of Tibet and oil spills in the Ecuadorian Amazon). Over time, I became aware that the one human rights violation that affects almost every culture is the discrimination and oppression of women and girls. Since women’s empowerment has proven to be one of the best strategies to address poverty, build peace and environmental sustainability in communities and countries, I started to focus on this. In fact, I had returned to Tibet in 2009 to document a program that was addressing the extremely high rate of maternal mortality within the nomadic community when I became aware that climate change was creating such devastating consequences on the Tibetan plateau.

You were an orthodontist until you were 45. What prompted your dramatic career shift?

I fell in love with photography, and it swept me away.

When you show up in a community, how do you initiate relationships that lead to capturing such intimate images?

It just depends on the circumstances. If I’m making films for NGOs, as I have been lately, the introductions are made by the organization working in the community. When I was showing up in tribal communities unannounced, I just started taking Polaroids of the kids. It wasn’t long before everyone wanted a photo of themselves.

courtesy of Phil Borges

How many shots do you usually take before you get one that you know will work?

When I was making portraits with film I usually shot about 10 to 15 frames. With digital I can see when I’ve got what I want, so I’m tending to shoot less. Even when I was shooting film I was noticing that I usually got it in the first 5 frames.

courtesy of Phil Borges

You seem to have a special bond with the Tibetan people. Is that an accurate assessment, and if so, how would you explain it?

I love the Tibetan culture. Having a population that addresses “self cherishing” and “self grasping” from cradle to grave on a daily basis creates compassionate people and a nurturing social environment. Not that there aren’t other cultures that work at building compassion, it’s just that such a large percentage of the Tibetan population does it and they do it every day!

You founded Bridges to Understanding, an organization that connects students in Seattle, Washington with other students around the world. Through this program, you hope to build global citizenship. What have been some of the most rewarding results?

I could talk about this for hours. What I intended to happen in the beginning was a lot harder to do than I thought. We would pair up 14 photographers and writers (mostly from the U.S.) with 14 middle- or high-school students in small communities in Africa, Asia and Central/South America. Together in a workshop environment, we created a multimedia piece that addressed a social or environmental concern that the students had. In the process of creating the story, the students engaged in their community in a way that they never had before. They interviewed their community leaders and researched the issue —pollution of their rivers, teen pregnancy, etc. — then at the end of the workshop they showed the film to their community. I could share so many anecdotes demonstrating how this empowered the students.

We did the same digital storytelling training in Seattle classrooms and encouraged the Seattle students to share their stories online with the students in the developing world. We were hoping that this would lead to deep exchanges that would go on over time. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to keep the students communicating online across cultures. I started the program in 2000 when the Internet was hardly functional in the developing world and before Facebook and Google Translate. With these new tools it might be possible. The most powerful exchanges occurred face to face in the two-week long workshops. I learned that giving young people a voice around substantial issues in their communities was transforming for them and built their community engagement/citizenship. The online global piece was just a lot harder to do.

Learn more about Mountainfilm in Telluride and check out this year’s lineup of visionary guests such as Phil Borges here.

volunteers mobilized!

Every Spring Horny Toad closes its office for a day to participate in the Backyard Collective, an event by The Conservation Alliance that brings together regional companies and grantees for a day of environmental action. Last Thursday we headed out to the beautiful San Marcos Foothills Preserve with our friends at Deckers, Patagonia, Vapur, REI and Channel Island Outfitters for a satisfying morning of pulling invasive weeds and planting native species. The weather was great and so was the turnout: over 150 people!

Get the Conservation Alliance’s full scoop on the 2012 Santa Barbara Backyard Collective here.  Learn more about the rest of the Conservation Alliance’s mission here.

girls with gardening tools

This year Earth Day takes place on Saturday April 21st.  We’ll be at the Santa Barbara festival along with our friends at Sonos, who have put together this great playlist for you to enjoy.  How will you spend Earth Day 2012?

Our "What's in Your Bag?" contest winner, Megan (she's the tall one).

Through random lottery we selected a grand prize winner for our “What’s in Your Bag?” Sweepstakes, and now we’re hooking her up with the perfect wardrobe for a few days in Santa Barbara.  We’re super excited to meet Megan and her travel companion, both of whom we’ll fly here for a long weekend. We’re putting them up in one of our favorite local hotels, and we’re really hoping they’ll make it to Toad Headquarters for lunch.  We’re also hoping she’ll partake in a couple of our favorite activities while she’s here, such as wine tasting and whale watching.

There’s a lot of talk a lot about everyday adventure at Horny Toad.  But what good is talk with no action?  We held this contest because we wanted to get to know our customers better, and we also wanted to share the gift of our beautiful hometown.  In our minds, there’s no better place for soaking up simple pleasures like sun and salt air.

Stay tuned.  We plan to do these kinds of of contests occasionally.  It feels good to share the good.

 We love this photo from Megan’s “What’s in Your Bag?” Pinterest board.  You can check out her entire board here.

]]> http://www.hornytoad.com/blog/2012/04/16/our-whats-in-your-bag-grand-prize-winner/feed/ 0 http://www.hornytoad.com/blog/2012/04/13/green-velvet-smoothie-a-counterbalance/ http://www.hornytoad.com/blog/2012/04/13/green-velvet-smoothie-a-counterbalance/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:23:25 +0000 sohlson http://www.hornytoad.com/blog/?p=4046

Our love of all things cheesy, gooey and deep fried is obvious to even the most casual reader. That’s why we’re digging this Green Velvet Smoothie – we need something to counteract all that Queso.

Our model Luna Paige Smith invented this recipe for her forthcoming cookbook Nourished.  Get ready to be pleasantly surprised: the avocado and banana give it a creamy, rich texture while the mango and dates add subtle sweetness and the mint and cilantro provide a refreshing finish.  In Santa Barbara pretty much everything but the mangoes and bananas can be sourced locally year round.  You can substitute other fruits, but the brilliant green color is guaranteed with this particular combination.

Green Velvet Smoothie

1/2 ripe avocado

1 small banana

1/2 ripe mango

4 medjool dates, pitted

6 large mint leaves

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

5 large kale leaves, stem removed

Add all ingredients to a blender. Then fill the pitcher 2/3 full with water.  Blend until creamy smooth. Add more water if it’s too thick and blend well. Pour into a tall pint glass and be happy.

Week two winner of our What’s in Your Bag? contest did a great job of capturing the Horny Toad travel vibe – you can check out her Pinterest board here.  Little wonder she was able to win our hearts… Hannah’s pretty familiar with Horny Toad clothing.  Here’s a photo of her on a recent trip to D.C. wearing our Oolong Dress:

Hannah, the week 2 winner of our "What's in Your Bag?" contest rocking the Oolong Sleeveless dress.

Now we’re finished with the travel wardrobe giveaway part of the contest, but we’re still giving away the grand prize – a weekend trip for two to Santa Barbara!  There’s just a little bit of time to enter.  Like 24 hours or so.  So get moving whydon’tcha?  Enter here.

Emily Fette and her husband Rusty, in Chicago

If you missed out this week don’t despair! We’re picking another travel wardrobe winner this Friday, April 5th, and everyone who enters the What’s in Your Bag? contest is eligible for the grand prize (picked lottery-style): a weekend trip for two to Santa Barbara.  Now get pinning!