Learn How the Godmother of Urban Gardening Grows Hope and Sustainable Food

Karen Washington, farmer, urban gardener, food advocate, activist, and New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) Trustee was a distinguished guest recently on my Ladies Who Lunch Conversations monthly talk and interview show. 

I’m so very honored to host such extraordinary, inspiring women to explore their captivating, candid, & inspiring stories about their life journeys. These great dames are surely our time’s “women of rank and dignity”; thought-leaders who share their challenges, grit, optimism & more to help turn a talent, hobby, or dream into a well-lived life  

Karen was long a community activist who has been referred to as "urban farming's de facto godmother" by The New York Times. 

A Fantasy Tea Party Celebration Interview Showcases How to Balance Family, Career, & Community, Plus Tablescape & Menu Ideas

 

It seems like almost yesterday that my dear Homegrown friend, Nancy Valarella, reached out to me to suggest that she and her culinary cohort, Myra Naseem, be interview guests on my recently-launched Ladies Who Lunch Conversations show on Facebook. 

She had me at Tea Party!

Nancy suggested our upcoming interview segment feature a Mother’s Day Tea Party theme. 

Oh the possibilities!  I was transported to visions of elegant Bridgerton, Barry Lyndon, and whimsical Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter for a fantasy tablescape and fashions ....

Meanwhile, Nancy was explaining that Myra is affectionately known as “Mama” Myra by her family and close friends. This prompted me to invite my own Mother, Virginia, to co-host the special Mother’s Day Ladies Who Lunch tea party with me. 

This was to be my first "Double Feature" interview, meaning two ladies to interview on the guest side, and in turn, two at my table: Me and Mother. Just to balance things out. And allow me to showcase my beautiful Mother :)

I know Nancy from my Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook. As you will see and hear in the Ladies Who Lunch interview, we have had a few Thelma & Louise adventures! 

From the start, Nancy was abuzz with the food and drink possibilities and ideas about their pretty table design to highlight the springtime tea party. See, Nancy possesses not only a culinary cachet but also a “look-book” styling talent that embellishes an entertaining composition, in every season. From the get-go, the stars were aligning portending this was going to be a truly elegant episode. 

From her first postings on social media, Nancy showcased the incredibly beautiful, antique china sets her father-in-law brought back from Japan where  he was stationed while in the service.  

 

I was gobsmacked. Not only for their delicate charm and macaron colors but also because they are still in pristine condition. Not a broken handle or chip in any of the pieces!  That’s surely tender loving care and respect for the entertaining tableware…

You can view Nancy’s china art sets on her Facebook page: @What’sCookinLongIslandLocavore and at her Instagram: @lilocavore495 to see her museum-worthy china art. 

We also owe deep gratitude to SerendipiTea   

Flavour Fields, and Hither Brook Floral & Gift Boutique. Nancy, Myra, and me thank you from the bottom of our homegrown hearts for sharing your exquisite products - the best ingredients ~ that elevated our cocktail and food recipes. We unabashedly recommend these tea blends. And don’t get me started about Flavour Fields’ microgreens, herbs, spices, and be-still-my-finishing-touches heart: edible flowers. Please check out these inspired growers and small business wonders. 

Speaking of wonders, during the Ladies Who Lunch episode, we learned how Myra acquired her “Mama Myra moniker.” (Wow. I always love a kind of alliteration but I think this is a first for me to showcase three!) and how her B.S. in Home Economics from SUNY and a master’s degree from NYU, and teaching job in Patchogue High School all continue to contribute to what is now her decades-on success in her catering and cooking classes career. Listen to how she describes her teaching and instructional pedigree… 

Along with her partner, Neil, Elegant Eating has been a catering gem in the Smithtown/Stony Brook area for over three decades. 

Nancy noted that “Elegant Eating food tastes as good as it looks. In addition to putting food in our bellies and smiles on our faces, both Neil and Myra have been actively supporting the community. In 2017, Myra and the team were honored by the Smithtown Children’s Foundation for their effort and support within the Smithtown community.”

This fall, 2021, the Smithtown Historical Society is honoring “Mama” Myra for her steadfast support and will be recognized with the “Rockwell Award.” 

Here’s a bit of context for the Rockwell Award: 

The Rockwell Award honors the memory of Charles Embree Rockwell, who through his generous donation of Roseneath Cottage and the surrounding property has enabled the Society to grow and become an integral part of the community. This year’s recipient Myra Naseem, co-owner of Elegant Eating demonstrates this same generous spirit through her contributions of goods and services to the Smithtown Historical Society’s many events. By donating numerous culinary creations and exquisite tablescapes as well as providing top level service, Myra has helped to make our events beautiful and successful. It was because of Myra’s generosity and talent for adapting during the pandemic, that the Historical Society was able to hold a compliant celebration of our 2020 honorees this past October. Myra has also generously provided delicious treats for other events such as our Honoree Breakfast and our Evening with a Star Interview series; garnering praise and appreciation from attendees. Additionally, Myra has brought many new sponsors to the Historical Society and it is for this generosity of spirit and willingness to work for the good of the Society that we wish to thank Myra.

Please view the Ladies Who Lunch episode to understand better Myra’s advice for female entrepreneurs looking to start and grow a burgeoning business…“If you are willing to put the time and effort into it, anything is possible” are some of Myra’s pearls of wisdom and inspiration.

Nancy, too, is an inspiring woman. After a career in technology, Nancy became a full-time Mother and caregiver to her three daughters. When the youngest entered middle school, the desire to re-enter the world was fulfilled by food writing and volunteer work.

While writing for hyper-local publications, she was asked to chair fundraising events for Stony Brook University’s Nutrition Department and the Smithtown Children’s Foundation. Nancy later became an Advisory Board Member and Public Relations contact for the Smithtown Children’s Foundation.

You can purchase Myra’s cookbook and help support this effective community Foundation. In 2015 Nancy was honored with the Inspirational Community Leader Award given by the Smithtown Children’s Foundation.

Nancy is proud to note that she has had the honor of cooking alongside regionally renowned Chefs Guy Reuge and Tom Schaudel, has rubbed elbows and has shared banter with culinary icons Martha Stewart, Chefs Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio, Michael Symon and restaurateur extraordinaire, Danny Meyer.

Nancy’s foodie chops include: recipe development, cooking contests winner.  I regret that I only recently learned she had a recipe featured in the Wall Street Journal!  

Nancy also had a recipe featured in Newsday for her Spiralized Zucchini Noodles with Poached Chicken Tenders.  

I so love that Nancy wrote that she has stopped counting the number of cookbooks in her collection. We all need more cookbooks!

In fact, as you’ll hear on the Ladies Who Lunch Conversations I am going to strongly advocate that a smart publisher take on Nancy to create a Polish inspired cookbook, with a kind of deconstructed or derivative take on some classic dishes.  I think this style of ethnic recipes is ready for its moment! All good, healthy, traditional comfort food with a twist of updated elegance and style. 

Don’t you agree? 

Nancy has also been a catalyst for all things local in her environ as a Farmers’ Market Manager & Cooking Demonstrator at Long Island Greenmarkets. In addition to numerous local publications, Nancy’s writing has been published regionally in Edible Long Island and the Long Island Press. 

Nancy and Myra are truly inspirational: managing family, career, and community. We salute these great dames and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to explore their journeys.  Not to be outdone, my mother Virginia also shares her ability to balance a career as a registered nurse with raising a family.  

I’ve always admired that Ginger Rogers’ quote about “doing everything backwards in high heels” to emphasize that ladies make it look easy in spite of difficulty.  

I bow to you inspired ladies. I salute you.  And really ~ every day is Mother’s Day.   Thank you, Nancy, Myra, and Mother!  It is a lovely Tea Party indeed. And you not only inspired my early-May tablescape but you also prompted me to showcase my childhood tea party set! Girls love tea parties.

This episode fueled a unique, fun, Bridgerton meets Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter tea party tablescape! You all can see a video capture on my YouTube. (and subscribe too, please.) wink. 

Entertaining table decor and inspiring women is a potent combination for fun and fantasy and all good things…. Cheers. 

 

 

Learn How Lava MaeX CEO Doniece Sandoval Brought Dignity To Her Community: View My Ladies Who Lunch Conversations on Facebook Live Interview & Discover What Radical Hospitality Is

 

Forget the Ides of March; its spark of a civil  war. 

While the month of March is named after the Roman god of war, Mars, I find the month really one of the happiest months of the year. 

There’s an abundance of things to celebrate: It’s the start of spring, the traditional partying surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, and then there’s Pi Day -- and the premiere of the year’s celestial Supermoons. 

And of course, we salute Women’s History Month and International Women's Day.

But after some thoughtful introspection, I got to thinking… 

Then a wee bit more research to support a burgeoning theory. Ultimately, I came full circle to very much embrace the March moniker and its war myth as it related to this blog post. 

I found that not only was the Mars altar in Rome dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome; moreover, I read that there is a connection to “a kind of life force or virtue that is an essential characteristic of Mars.”

And then I saw this: “As an agricultural guardian, Mars directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature.” 

I added the italics to mark the correlation of where I’m going with this.

Clearly, I was feeling ~ and seeing ~ more of the connection and cosmic link to my March 10th, Ladies Who Lunch Conversations special guest.   

The incredibly inspiring, visionary community advocate who triumphs over such systemic adversity that would stymie, thwart, or even freeze lesser spirits is Doniece Sandoval, the Founder & Advisor, LavaMaeX 

I hope she will forgive me but I now see that Doniece was indeed at a kind of “war” with the lack of providence and care for those not living in a structured home. The “those” are the folks we most often refer to as “homeless.” I recoil from this label. There is so much more to their human condition than a lack of housing but that’s what these people are called so I’ll honor them and the reference in this way. 

The point is, Doniece is an acknowledged idealist and activist ~ a warrior ~ who has been consistently recognized for her work “restoring dignity to Californians experiencing homelessness.” Amen. 

She talks about when the idea was born and as noted on her James Irvine award, “When she encountered a woman on the street crying, “I will never be clean!” Learning that San Francisco has only 16 public showers for as many as 7,000 people living on the streets, she got to work.

She discovered that San Francisco planned to replace old public buses and promptly crowdfunded $75,000 to secure and retrofit the vehicles with showers and toilets. 

Together, we laughed about how when she first reached out for her Go-Fund me campaign, she asked for monies for a “little project” she was starting. I was all in. 

Little project? Now look where that little project is. 

So impressive. Networking and good karma matters… 

You can do it too.

Photo, courtesy of CNN.com

Sanguine Solutions and Radical Hospitality

On my Ladies Who Lunch Conversations Facebook video interview you’ll hear and see how Doniece’s assiduous efforts to conceive, create, and construct a means to demonstrably change her community’s streets is no less that kind of life force and essential characteristic of the god, Mars. And that the god ~ or shall we say, Goddess, created conditions that may include warding off hostile forces of nature, well, that’s Doniece! (see how the connections really do resonate?)

Doniece single-handedly produced a concept that she’ll be the first to praise her team for, yet she, nevertheless, brokered the way for the community to become part of the solution.

You will hear and see her journey from idea to overcoming seemingly insurmountable hurdles to achieve success. Granted, it’s a success that needs to be achieved over and over, every day. But Doniece created the template from which her team at Lava MaeX ~ and other committed, socially responsible candidates can follow. 

 

Ladies Who Lunch Conversations on Facebook live event. 

I have been abundantly blessed to know Doniece for many years. Her elegance, strategic thinking, and ultimately, her compassion, are indeed heroic. 

Doniece is a true “She-Roe!” 

She always has been. It’s been a privilege to know her and work with her. 

I am so very proud that her story will ennoble and elevate your own perspective. To spur you to take action. To better your community. And in doing so: yourself and your family.  

Doniece offers practical advice, networking options and hope…  Enjoy her perspective and style. 

And her concept of Radical Hospitality!

As in every genuine Ladies Who Lunch experience ~ just like we all did meeting up at our homes, gardens, local restaurants, or museums, Doniece and I share some laughs, near-tears about some of her experiences with her “clients” and the unfairness of so much… And a Lightning Round of favorite things. Plus our champagne toasts. I’m still smiling. 

To augment and give you more context to our lovely conversation - and do note Doniece’s charming hat and sublime tablescape!  Doniece Sandoval inspired Lava MaeX’s work to transform the way communities see and serve people moving through homelessness. 

She founded the organization in 2013 as a solution to the lack of showers and toilets available to her unhoused neighbors in San Francisco. 

According to her incredible bio (trust me, I can’t write this story any better than this! So here is her bio as provided by Lava MaeX: “The nonprofit, then called Lava Mae, started out with two retrofitted city buses and has grown from a three-person team to a staff of 24, with operations in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Los Angeles. In early 2020, Doniece restructured it as LavaMaeX, a nonprofit accelerator that trains communities around the world to deliver street-based services. 

Early in LavaMaeX’s development, Doniece conceived the philosophy of Radical Hospitality—delivering an unexpected level of care—based on her belief that opportunity unfolds when people are treated with dignity and that people everywhere will rise to the level of respect they receive. The concept continues to guide LavaMaeX’s work.

Today Doniece is focused on giving communities around the world the tools and knowledge they need to serve their unhoused neighbors. The LavaMaeX DIY tool kit, which launched in 2017, has been downloaded more than 3,000 times from the nonprofit’s buildIt platform, and LavaMaeX has trained, advised, and inspired more than 170 communities to build their own mobile hygiene programs. 

A former marketing executive with a long history of community involvement, Doniece moved to San Francisco following two years of volunteering with the Red Cross, helping the survivors of 9/11. 

Prior to starting LavaMaeX, Doniece was chief external relations officer for ZERO1, an organization dedicated to showcasing the work of some of the most fertile minds in art, science, design, architecture, and technology. Before that she was head of marketing at the San Jose Museum of Art, where she grew a young adult audience and raised the museum’s brand profile regionally. 

Doniece also led communications for the Family Violence Prevention Fund (now Futures Without Violence), worked with corporate brands such as Coca-Cola and ToysRUs.com, and helped brand a host of small San Francisco–based design companies. 

She has earned numerous awards and honors for her work with LavaMaeX, including Nonprofit HR’s Women to Watch (2019), a 2017 CNN Hero award, a 2017 James Irvine Foundation Leadership award, and the KIND Foundation’s KIND People Award (2016). In March 2019 she was a Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford University’s Haas Center.

In 2020, Doniece stepped away as LavaMaeX’s CEO into an advisor role. As an expert source, Doniece brings street-seasoned insights to topics such as scaling and replicating a social enterprise or nonprofit; solutions for ending the cycle of homelessness; and how communities can harness the power of collaboration and partnerships to address pressing challenges.”

Pick me up. I’m fainting with pride and bristling with respect for this extraordinary Lady. Cheers to you, Doniece. I humbly thank you for being such an exceptional guest at my Ladies Who Lunch Conversations. 

If you are as inspired as I am, and perhaps want to reach out to Doniece, you can find her here on LinkedIn and her Instagram or Lava Mae’s Facebook 

Next up: Wednesday, March 31st, I will host the artist and humanitarian, Jordan Robinson. 

Cheers to Ladies Who Lunch and our incredible networking and support of our glamorous gal squads.

Cheers to Ladies Who Lunch ~ that's me taking a photo of a Madison Avenue store window on my way to a ladies lunch! Talk about Karma! 

Some of The lyrics to Ladies Who Lunch: 

Here's to the ladies who lunch

Everybody laugh

… Choosing a hat

Does anyone still wear a hat?

I'll drink to that

Here's to the girls who stay smart

Aren't they a gas?

Rushing to their classes in optical art

Wishing it would pass

Another long exhausting day

Another thousand dollars

A matinee, a Pinter play

Perhaps a piece of Mahler's

I'll drink to that

And one for Mahler

… Just to keep in touch

I'll drink to them

Let's all drink to them

Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch

Everybody rise

Rise

Rise, rise

Rise, rise

Rise, rise

Rise

Thank you. Cheers, my dears.