Mountain Lions and Community Radio

After almost nine months of delivering “X Marks the Spot with Central Coast Foodie,” a weekly live radio show on the new community radio station broadcasting out of Morro Bay, California and around the world via EsteroBayRadio.org, we’re feeling pretty good about having learned the board and developed a unique voice on live radio in support of sustainable, exceptional food and drink. As we approach the Winter Solstice and our 4th anniversary of launching this insider’s foodie field guide, it seems appropriate to reflect a bit on the preceding year with this project.

Say Yes to Community Radio

What an enriching thing it has been to be involved with our local community radio station that airs our Biodynamic Gardening Report and “X Marks the Spot” show every week. After suffering almost 10 years of—let’s face it—an extremely limited radio landscape, we were excited to hear that a group of SLO County citizens had spent 2+ years jumping through all the hoops to get an official license for a low power frequency community station.

I went over to the studio on the day they threw the switch and KEBF began broadcasting the live radio feed to the greater Estero Bay region on the radio dial (while continuing the largely live internet stream they’d been running in advance of this big day). I said, “I want a show” and founder Hal Abrams said, “Ok, what time?” That’s community radio for you! It’s been so much fun to spend as much time as we have over the past months immersed in music and connected to so many interesting foodies who enjoy sitting for an interview and, when possible, a live tasting of wines, cheeses, honeys, artisan vinegars, and more.

Highlights from the first year of “X Marks the Spot”

• interview with Morro Bay Guerrilla Gardening Club representative and Zero Waste advocate Taylor Newton [foodie tune: “The Motorcycle (Significance of the Pickle) Song”]
• our May Day show where we read the short story “Breakfast” by John Steinbeck and played a pretty angry version of “Do Re Me” by Ani DiFranco as well as “El Carretero” by Eliades Ochoa and Buena Vista Social Club and more worker songs
• interview with Martha Van Inwegen of TheraBee culinary honey paired with songs related to honey as well as plants pollinated by bees
• sitting in the audience at Central Coast Music for the outstanding 97.3 The Rock free concert to thank our new fans after 50 days of fundraising for the station
• interview with fellow air talent Uncle Zaslow where we got the recipe for his famous meatloaf [foodie tune: something from Meatloaf, of course]
• making the station’s website usable, informative, and effective for fundraising so we can avoid the tedium of pleading pledge weeks

Mountain Lion Days

Did you know that my totem animal is a mountain lion? When I read a description of this type of person at Winter Solstice 2002, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck—especially lines like “When mountain lion shows up as a totem, much of the trial has been worked through. Now is the time to assert.” That message came at an important time in my life, which happened to be the time when I adopted this cat and our resident mountain lion symbol, Mingus (named after jazz musician Charlie). With the therapeutic long nights at this special time of year, these feel like mountain lion days, full of powerful and moving-forward energy. We’re playing some cool songs for almost Winter Solstice: do tune in and thanks for listening, reading, and sharing. Peace. Rawr.