CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Rotary Club of Clearlake is preparing for its primary fundraiser of the year.

The annual “Seafood Boil and Auction” will be held on Saturday, Feb. 26, at the Clearlake Senior/ Community Center on Bowers Road.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; dinner served at 6:30 p.m.

“This is a well-attended event with people coming from all around the lake as well as from out of the area to participate,” Marvin Carpenter, promotional chairman said.

The $60 ticket price includes salad, bread, tri-tip, single lobster tail plus an all-you-can-eat seafood boil including crab, shrimp, fish, clams, mussels, crawfish, sausages, corn-on-the-cob and potatoes.

Dinner tickets also include dessert, two cocktail beverage tickets and limitless soft drinks, bottled water and coffee. Shannon Ridge Winery will be offering wine tasting from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. for an additional charge as well.

“This is our primary fundraiser of the year. We depend on the proceeds from the event to ensure that our club can continue the many wonderful contributions we make to the community,” Carpenter said.

“We maintain the baseball fields, give away dictionaries to our third graders and award scholarships to our college-bound high school seniors,” Carpenter said. “We also support a Rotaract Club at the college and an Interact Club at Carlé High School, which will provide the primary servers for the Seafood Boil.”

The Rotary Club of Clearlake also was instrumental in the creation of the athletic field at Lower Lake High School, participated in the development of Austin Park and continues involvement in projects benefiting Southshore Little League, Big Brothers and Sisters, the senior/community center building and Anderson Marsh Historical State Park.

The club also participates in a student foreign exchange program and is assisting with funding for the Safe House project for homeless teens.

“In addition, there are numerous contributions made annually of both dollar contributions and contributions of time to service projects by the Rotary membership, which is comprised of local business persons,” Carpenter said. “We’ve also been involved in many international projects through Rotary International, which has existed since 1905. The motto of Rotary is ‘Service Above Self’ and we have made a difference in our community following that motto.”

The event will include live and silent auctions. Rotary Club President Terry Stewart will once again be serving as the evening’s auctioneer.

Advance ticket purchase is advised as the event usually sells out before the date.

To buy tickets or contribute auction items contact any Rotarian or call Ginger Kite at 707-349-0122, Serena Stona at 70-994-0294 or Marvin Carpenter at 707-994-5650.

Checks payable to Rotary Club of Clearlake may be sent to PO Box 549, Clearlake, CA 95422. Credit card purchase is also available.

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Michelle Scully (left) and Lorrie Gray stayed warm with help from the folks at Umpqua Bank in Lakeport, Calif., as they distributed boxes for the Bountiful Gift Box Fundraiser in December 2010. The effort raised nearly $5,000 to help fight hunger in Lake County. Courtesy photo.

The goal was to sell 100 boxes at $40 each and it was achieved.

“From the outset, the response was incredible,” said organizer Michelle Scully. “We received emails for orders the very first day.”

The gift boxes contained two layers of Comice pears and apples, a bottle of Lake County wine and walnuts.

“We were blown away by the immediate response of Six Sigma Ranch and Winery,” said Scully. “The very first day Christian Ahlmann offered us all the white wine we would need.”

Wonderful red wines were donated by Brassfield and Wildhurst Wineries as well as local growers Randy Krag and Erica Lundquist who made a personal donation of Steele Wine produced from their Round River Farm.

“People stated whether they wanted their gift box to contain red or white wine, so the surprise was in which winery the wine would be from. It was awesome to know that people would be receiving product of such high quality,” said Scully.

Paula Bryant, community relations director of Umpqua Bank in Lakeport, expressed enthusiasm for the project early on and offered the bank's use as the delivery site.

“Umpqua Bank always strives to support our local communities,” Bryant said. “By purchasing the 'Bountiful boxes' it gave us the opportunity to give wonderful Lake County grown products to our customers as well as being able to support a very worthwhile cause. We certainly hope this program will be continued every holiday season.”

Scully said of the bank, “Umpqua's enthusiasm helped us realize early on that this idea could be successful.”

The staff at Umpqua continued their community support in small ways as well. “It was so cold the day of the deliveries we were freezing in the parking lot where we'd set up the deliveries so they'd be easier for people to pick up,” Scully said. “Everyone in the bank was super kind and they brought us hot coffee to take the chill off.”

Little did they know how successful the Bountiful boxes would be – the total amount raised for the HTF was $4,766. Donations were made in addition to box sales.

Lorrie Gray of the HTF was amazed at the support. “Michelle Scully and Scully Packing, the Lake County Winegrape Commission and its members, Lake County Walnuts and Seely Farm Stand established a limit of 100 'Bountiful boxes,' and all were sold within a brief two-week span. The revenues gained from this wonderful collaboration will help our community garden program, as well as our canning program for many years to come.”

Amazingly, demand exceeded supply, Scully said. “We could have sold more boxes if we had continued on past the Dec. 17 delivery date but we’d pretty much wrapped it all up by then.”

The boxes included locally produced pears, wine and walnuts and got a warm reception from recipients. Courtesy photo.

Gray added, “It is gratifying to live in a place where such generosity exists. The public response to this effort was overwhelming. Lake County produce of all kinds makes 'eating local' a no-brainer. We have some of the best fresh food in the world at our doorstep, and folks responded to that.”

Scully seconded Gray's observations. “Lorrie and I met a couple of years ago when we were serving together on a committee. Over time we realized that although our life experiences and direction of approach might be different, we shared a common passion – the issue of hunger.”

She said the HTF approaches that issue by helping people grow and preserve their own food.

“We're on the farming side in our family business and to me, those of us in farming are in it to feed people,” Scully said. “It's a natural relationship, just approached from different angles. I'd much rather work with someone towards a common goal than sit around talking about how we're different.

Scully called Gray “a wonderful person and she knows how to get things done,” adding, “I appreciate that in a person. There's so much need and anguish in the world, it's easy to become overwhelmed by that pain and not know where to begin.”

She added, “Although this project is just a drop in the bucket as far as that goes, I keep a quote from Mother Theresa in my head which says 'If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.' In my mind I sort of thought of each box as one person.”

So the question is: Is this a one-time effort or will it be back again next Christmas season?

“People's heartfelt response to the project just touched me deeply,” Scully said. “The best part, beyond almost $5,000 being raised, was that it was just a win-win for everyone. Everyone we had contact with was happy about the boxes – happy to purchase them, happy to know what a good cause the funds were going towards, and happy to give them. People who received them were thrilled to receive them.”

She said the feedback they received was that people were dismayed at how commercial Christmas gifting had become. “They were thrilled to give a gift that did something positive for their community.”

Scully said most people do want to help, to reach out, and they are just looking for an avenue to do so that speaks to them personally. “It was a wonderful experience and it created a network of people who want to remain connected for future efforts,” she said.

So to answer the question, Scully said they're definitely considering bringing the boxes back for Christmas 2011.

“But first I want to ensure that all the producers who donated their products are in a position to continue on with that,” she said. “I do think it’s an idea that can sustain itself and accomplish two very worthwhile goals – supporting a beneficial hunger outreach in our community and showing off our awesome Lake County products too.”

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The effort had a powerful message:

The carcass of a red-winged blackbird from Beebe, AR is being examined by USGS National Wildlife Health Center wildlife pathologist Dr. David E. Green. Courtesy of USGS.

Large wildlife die-off events are fairly common, though they should never be ignored, according to the U.S. Geological Survey scientists whose preliminary tests showed that the bird deaths in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve and those in Louisiana were caused by impact trauma.

Preliminary findings from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center's Arkansas bird analyses suggest that the birds died from impact trauma, and these findings are consistent with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's statement.

The state concluded that such trauma was probably a result of the birds being startled by loud noises on the night of Dec. 31, arousing them and causing them to fly into objects such as houses or trees.

Scientists at the USGS NWHC performed necropsies – the animal version of an autopsy – on the birds and found internal hemorrhaging, while the pesticide tests they conducted were negative. Results from further laboratory tests are expected to be completed in two to three weeks.

“Although wildlife die-offs always pose a concern, they are not all that unusual,” said Jonathan Sleeman, director of the USGS NWHC in Madison, Wis., which is completing its analyses of the Arkansas and Louisiana birds. “It's important to study and understand what happened in order to determine if we can prevent mortality events from happening again.”

In 2010, the USGS NWHC documented eight die-off events of 1,000 or more birds. The causes: starvation, avian cholera, Newcastle disease and parasites, according to Sleeman.

Such records show that, while the causes of death may vary, events like the red-winged blackbird die-off in Beebe, Ark., and the smaller one near Baton Rouge, La., are more common than people may realize.

And Sleeman should know – he directs a staff of scientists whose primary purpose is to investigate the nation's wildlife diseases from avian influenza to plague and white-nose syndrome in bats.

“The USGS NWHC provides information, technical assistance, research, education, and leadership on national and international wildlife health issues,” Sleeman added.

According to USGS NWHC records, there have been 188 mortality events across the country involving 1,000 birds or more during the past 10 years (2000-2010).

In 2009, individual events included one in which 50,000 birds died from avian botulism in Utah; 20,000 from the same disease in Idaho; and 10,000 bird deaths in Washington from a harmful algal bloom.

Mass mortality events occur in other animal populations as well, according to the USGS NWHC. For example, prairie dog colonies in the West can be destroyed by sylvatic plague, which can then kill off the highly endangered black-footed ferret that preys on prairie dogs exclusively.

The USGS NWHC is involved with developing vaccines, delivered through bait, which can immunize prairie dogs against plague.

In the 1970s and 1980s, most USGS NWHC die-off investigations involved large numbers of waterfowl deaths from avian cholera, avian botulism, and lead poisoning; in the 1990s, the USGS NWHC was highly involved in investigating the emergence of West Nile virus in North America.

In 2008, the USGS NWHC discovered the cause of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has devastated cave hibernating bat species in the Northeastern U.S.

Public reporting of wildlife mortality events is important, and in 2010, the USGS Wildlife Disease Information Node initiated an experimental reporting system to facilitate this. Visit http://www.whmn.org/wher/ for more information.

More information on the USGS NWHC and its involvement in the recent bird die-off events can be found on the NWHC Web site, www.nwhc.usgs.gov/ .

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Dennis Rollins, left, with Henry Anderson, who recently donated $5,000 to the Westside Community Park effort in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Westside Community Park Committee recently received donations totaling $10,000 from local supporters, the committee has announced.

A gift of $5,000 was made by an anonymous donor in memory of Emilia Gahret.

“The donor wished to contribute to a lasting community endeavor that Mrs. Gahret would have supported,” said Committee Financial Officer Jeff Havrilla.

The second donation, also in the amount of $5,000, was made by Henry Anderson of Lakeport, a member of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association chapter.

“Anderson has been a financial supporter of the park since construction first began in the late 1990s,” Havrilla said. “His continued support is greatly appreciated.”

These funds will be used to finish the portion of Westside Community Park’s phase two development that is currently under construction.

Havrilla said the committee plans to have three soccer fields, a regulation baseball field and a Little League field completed by this fall.

The park is accessed from Parallel Drive via Westside Park Road in Lakeport.

In announcing these donations, Havrilla said, “The majority of the funds used to construct the park have come from individuals in our community. This truly is a grassroots community effort.”

The Westside Community Park Committee consists of 17 community members. The officers, in addition to Havrilla, are Dennis Rollins, chair; Hugh Mackey, vice chair; and Carol Thorn, secretary.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the park construction can do so by sending a tax-deductible contribution to Westside Community Park Committee, 440 Main St., Lakeport, CA 95453.

Information about the park can be obtained by calling Dennis Rollins at 707-349-0969.

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An aerial view depicting the Lake County Land Trust's Big Valley Wetlands project. The project area is outlined in red, with tributary streams and wetlands identified in blue. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Land Trust.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two of Lake County’s most active and visible conservation groups – the Lake County Land Trust and the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch – are working toward complementary goals in an effort to protect the natural beauty and wildlife of Clear Lake.

Longtime Lake County conservationist Peter Windrem – instrumental in the 2004 passing of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, the 1984 creation of the Snow Mountain Wilderness Area in the Mendocino National Forest, and president of the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch – spoke last week about the historical and environmental importance of the hitch, also known as the chi, a large minnow endemic to Clear Lake.

“It’s as spectacular as any salmon run,” Windrem said to the Hidden Valley Lake Rotary Club about the yearly upstream migration of the hitch to spawn, which typically occurs in March.

“I’ve been giving talks about the hitch for several years,” Windrem continued, noting its precipitous decline in Clear Lake in the last 20 years, in an attempt to raise awareness of its plight and save the species from extinction.

That goal dovetails conspicuously with the land trust's recently-identified No. 1 priority, the Big Valley Wetlands project, an effort to protect a nearly five-mile stretch of largely undeveloped shoreline extending south of Lakeport to just west of Clear Lake State Park.

According to Lake County Land Trust President Peter McGee, part of the goal of the Big Valley Wetland project is the protection of Adobe Creek and Kelsey Creek, two tributaries that feed into Clear Lake and still experience significant yearly chi migration.

“The acquisition of these lands is like a pipe dream,” McGee said, adding, “It’s going to be a piece-by-piece deal that’s going to take 150 years.”

The land trust, which manages the 123-acre Rodman Slough Preserve at the north end of Clear Lake, identified the Big Valley Wetlands project as their No. 1 priority after facilitating the Bureau of Land Management’s purchase of the Black Forest on the northeast side of Mt. Konocti.

The group also owns and operates Rabbit Hill, a seven-acre preserve located in Middletown and acquired in 1999.

McGee, who said the land trust has some 400 members, noted his organization has just finished a biological assessment survey of the Big Valley Wetlands project area, and recently finalized a priority list for the property involved in the conservation site.

“We’re still at step one,” McGee said, “but we’re making progress.”

Noting the cooperative nature of the land trust in working with landowners and stakeholders to achieve common goals, “You don’t want people to be frightened; you want people to buy into the goals,” McGee said.

“It’s not a conservative/liberal thing,” McGee said about county conservation efforts, adding, “It cuts across the political spectrum.”

Both McGee and Windrem cite the extinction of the splittail – another fish endemic to Clear Lake – in the 1970s as cause for concern about the plight of the chi, with Windrem adding, “the hitch is on an extinction trajectory.”

In his talk, Windrem mentioned six potential causes for the steep decline in the hitch population: creek levees built in the 1950s which caused gravel backup in the streams; gravel mining in the 1950s and 1960s; weirs built in Clear Lake tributaries to protect bridge footings and inhibit chi from swimming upstream to spawning grounds; the introduction in the 1960s of the non-native silversides, which eat

zooplankton, a primary chi food source; the introduction, also in the 1960s, of Florida largemouth bass, which eat chi during their spring migration; and the introduction in the 1980s of threadfin shad, which also eat zooplankton.

Windrem noted that, unlike salmon, chi cannot jump over barriers to travel upstream, and need clean, plentiful gravel beds to lay their eggs.

“Everything that harmed the hitch was introduced because of economic gain,” Windrem said, calling it “a death sentence.”

In addition to removing or modifying barriers in creeks that would allow the hitch to reach historic spawning grounds, Windrem cited completion of the Middle Creek Restoration Project as a goal beneficial to the chi, saying it “could be extremely helpful because it would give more area for protection of the young hitch and protect them better against those predators.”

He also noted local American Indian tribal involvement in protecting this natural resource. “The tribes have been aggressively seeking some grant funding through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” he said, adding “that has happened just recently, within the last three or four years, so that’s encouraging.”

Windrem called the plight of the hitch urgent. “We will lose something terribly important about Clear Lake and our history if we lose the hitch.”

“The hitch are, in many respects, like lots of other species that are under assault,” Windrem said, “and how we try to deal with that and save them is what we as humans are having to do around the globe, and this is ours. This is ours.”

For more information about the hitch and the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, visit http://lakelive.info/chicouncil/index.html, where you can sign up to receive email updates about the spring chi migration.

For more information about the Lake County Land Trust, go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org/index.htm, where you can obtain volunteer information or donate online.

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Richard Persons, chief executive officer of the Lake County Fair since 1996, said the fair is potentially facing “draconian” funding cuts that could both hurt operations and improvement projects at the fairgrounds.

The 78 fairs that have been supported by the state since 1933 are targeted to lose 100 percent of the $32 million budgeted for operational support and capital improvements on fairgrounds in Brown's proposed budget, said Persons, who explained that the $32 million is used at seed money.

He cited a state economic impact study completed last year that found fairs generate more than $2.55 billion in economic impact to California's economy each year, creating 28,000 jobs, and generating more than $135 million in state and local government tax revenues.

The Lake County Fair has an annual budget of $650,000, and operates with four full-time employees – including Persons – and two half-time employees on a year-round basis, he said.

During the annual Lake County Fair – visited by more than 38,000 people annually – more than 750 people are employed on the fairgrounds, about 100 of them by the fair itself. Persons said hundreds more can be found volunteering in a variety of jobs.

The fair also has an eight-member board of directors, appointed by the governor.

In a nod to Brown's executive order this week to have state employees turn in 48,000 cell phones – at an anticipated savings of $20 million – Persons said that no fair staffers have ever been provided cell phones.

The Lake County Fair is a state agency that operates state-owned property, in this case the 34-acre fairgrounds property, located at 401 Martin St. in Lakeport, which has 30 buildings, most of which are available for public use, he said.

The fairgrounds' activities directly or indirectly created the equivalent of 75 full-time jobs and more than $10.9 million in local economic impact, including approximately $2.4 million in salaries and wages, Persons said.

In addition, he explained that the fairgrounds generates more than $102,000 in tax revenues like sales tax, local possessory interest tax for use of government property, and a variety of other licenses, fees and permits.

Persons said the fair's mission is to be Lake County’s local event center.

He said the fairgrounds hosts local activities nearly every day of the year – sometimes with several events in a single day.

Of those activities, 96 percent are produced by Lake County individuals or organizations, and 64 percent are produced by nonprofit organizations, mostly for fundraising, he said.

During the county fair event at the end of summer, more than 85 percent of the commercial spaces are filled by organizations from Lake and Mendocino counties, Persons said. More than 90 percent of the thousands of competitive exhibits that fill the buildings and barns during the Lake County Fair come from Lake County residents.

The state's fairs run on a calendar year budget, rather than the July through June fiscal year budget observed by the state, Persons said.

The fair has received three-quarters of its 2011 funding, and Persons said he expects to receive the entire budgeted amount by year's end. “The Department of Food and Agriculture says they have it,” he said.

However, the outlook ahead is far more uncertain for 2012 and beyond.

In the 2011-12 state budget cycle, which would cut into the second half of the fair's 2011 budget, Persons said the Lake County Fair was set to receive $172,000 in operational funding, or approximately 25 percent of the annual operating costs, with the rest being derived locally from the annual county fair event and rentals of the fairgrounds during the year.

The fair also would lose 85 percent of its capital expense funds, which Persons said range between $30,000 and $150,000 annually, depending on projects.

He said the fairs compete with one another for state capital improvement infrastructure grants, with fairs getting additional points if they put up some of their own money.

Such money has helped improve the Lakeport fairgrounds, said Persons. “We had a series of projects that we started this year.”

In the first of three proposed phases, he said they tore out 60-year-old horse barns, installed new water lines to feed the Baldwin Pavilion area at the back of the property, then put in a street so there is a circle around the racetrack, at a total cost of $122,000, he said. The second, $75,000 phase included a new horse barn.

The third phase, estimated to cost $125,000, would include asphalt repairs and seal coasting that would help the fairground's asphalt surfaces to last another decade. But Persons said that project is now in limbo due to the proposed budget.

“In some way's we're fortunate, because decades ago the state provided more than 80 percent of operating funds, so the slow shift away from state funding over the years may allow us to keep the doors open,” he said.

“But if the governor's proposal passes the legislature, it's going to be painful for the local community. And of course, the loss of capital funding means no construction work, no asphalt, no new roofs, no paint. Virtually all of those jobs are done by local companies,” he added.

Persons said he and the fair's board of directors will watch the state budget process closely over the coming months, and examine the entire fair operation for both expenditure cuts and increases to revenue.

He said possible changes could include reductions in staffing, reduced operating hours and increases in rental rates.

“We have to start planning now,” he said.

This year's Lake County Fair, scheduled for Sept. 1-4, has “Make Some Magic!” as its theme.

Visit the fair online at www.lakecountyfair.com .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – With months of preparation and coaching behind them, some of the county's best young minds will be putting their wits to the test in the county's annual Academic Decathlon competition.

The Lake and Mendocino College-Going Initiative Academic Decathlon will take place on Saturday, Jan. 29, and Saturday, Feb. 5, at Lower Lake High School.

This event is modeled after the Olympics by stimulating academic achievement and honoring “athletes of the mind.”

Approximately 75 high school students from 8 teams in Lake, Mendocino and Colusa counties will compete, and each county will send their top-scoring team to the state competition.

The first portion of the competition – not open to the public – will take place Jan. 29 and will consist of a series of academic assessments including written tests in eight subjects, an interview, prepared and impromptu speeches, and an essay. Fifty volunteers from the community will judge these competitions.

This will be followed by the Feb. 5 Super Quiz and awards ceremony. The public is invited to attend on Saturday, February 5, at 3:45 p.m., in the new Lower Lake High School Gym.

In addition to the Super Quiz and awards ceremony, five Lodge at Blue Lakes Scholarships in the amount of $250 each will be awarded.

The Lower Lake High School jazz band and concert choir, The Blue Notes, will perform, and there will be a Poster and Poetry contest display.

Additionally, there will be a 50/50 raffle with proceeds going to the winning Lake County team to help with travel to the state competition.

Sponsors of the event include The Lodge at Blue Lakes, Rosa d’ Oro, Steele, Fetzer, Moore Family, and Six Sigma Wineries, University of California San Francisco, Lake County Office of Education and Cecil’s Take N Bake Pizza.

For information on the Lake and Mendocino Academic Decathlon, please visit www.lakecoe.org/cgi or call 707-262-4162.

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Fresh fennel sometimes gets confused for other vegetables. Photo by Esther Oertel.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with fennel lately.

A few weeks back I noticed a white bulbous vegetable with feathery green fronds in a local supermarket and thought, “Ah, they have fennel!” Much to my surprise, it was labeled anise.

Doubting my own produce identification skills, I promptly went home and did a bit of research. According to the Internet and my reference books, what I saw was, in fact, fennel. The mislabeling of this somewhat unusual flora set off a flurry of investigation on my part to see what other markets called it.

Of the five or more markets I visited (both here and in Napa and Sonoma counties), only one correctly identified fennel as fennel. The other markets called it either anise or, in one case, sweet anise.

Fennel and anise do have some similarities, perhaps spawning the misnomer.

While they’re members of a different genus, they’re both from the same plant family, apiaceae. Along with licorice, they share the aromatic compound anethole, so have similar, licorice-like tones in their flavor profiles.

As well, both have lacey flower heads made up of many smaller blossoms, and both have edible seeds.

The difference is that with anise, only the seeds are used in cuisine, while all parts of the fennel plant are eaten: root, stalk, leaves and seeds.

Anise seeds are used to flavor many traditional European cookies, such as Italian pizzelle or British aniseed balls, and a variety of liquors throughout the world, including Greek ouzo and French absinthe.

To further complicate matters, anise can sometimes be confused with a Chinese spice, star anise, which, though unrelated, contains the same aromatic compound and strongly resembles it in flavor. Star anise is the beautiful star-shaped seed pod of an evergreen tree.

And don’t confuse Chinese star anise with Japanese star anise, which looks similar, but is poisonous.

In short, since anise roots are not sold as food, feel confident that any bulbous roots so labeled in your local market are fennel in disguise.

Dried fennel seeds. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Fennel grows wild in most parts of temperate Europe, but is generally considered indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean region, where it spreads eastward to India. A hardy perennial, it’s closely related to parsley, carrots, dill and coriander.

The dried seeds of the fennel plant (or, more correctly, its fruits) are used in Italian cuisine (it’s a favorite for flavoring sausages), and function as a key ingredient in a variety of spice blends, such as Indian curry, Herbs de Provence and Chinese five spice.

They’re used to flavor savory breads such as rye, as well as sweet baked treats, in much the same way anise seeds are.

The Puritans dubbed fennel the “meeting seed” and chewed it during their long church services to ensure fresh breath. It’s often chewed after a meal in India and Pakistan to ward off indigestion.

Fennel pollen has become popular in recent years as a sweeter, intensified alternative to infusing fennel flavor into dishes. Since it takes many blossoms to make a small amount of pollen, this spice is almost as costly as saffron. Thankfully, only a minuscule amount is needed because its flavor is strong.

Fennel leaves strongly resemble those of dill weed; however, unlike dill, their flavor is quite mild, with the barest hint of anise-like flavor. They can be sniped into a salad or used as a garnish to add bright color to soup.

The Greeks and Romans enjoyed chewing on the fennel stalks, considering them a sweet treat. Along with the foliage, the stalks make a wonderful bed for baking fish, which is one of fennel’s favorite flavor pairings.

Fennel bulbs quartered and ready for roasting. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Fennel bulbs are mild and crunchy, with an almost sweet flavor and celery-like texture. Adding them raw to salads is my favorite way of using the bulb, and with the abundance of fennel in my home in recent weeks, I’ve enjoyed many a salad topped with thinly sliced pieces of this mild root. I’ve discovered that my favorite combination is mixed organic greens, red onion and fennel topped with sprouts and a simple balsamic vinegar-olive oil dressing.

Roasting or grilling the bulb is another way to use it, and is a particularly popular accompaniment to pork dishes. Pork loin is often prepared by roasting it atop a bed of fennel bulbs. The texture of roasted fennel reminds me of roasted onions, though with a milder flavor.

To roast fennel, trim the bulb and cut it into quarters or slices. Coat it lightly with olive oil (and balsamic vinegar, if you wish), add a sprinkle of salt and freshly ground pepper, and place in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet. (I like to line mine with parchment paper to aid in the cleanup.)

Roast in a 400 degree oven until tender and beginning to caramelize, usually between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the fennel. In my slow oven it takes a bit longer.

Fennel is considered an effective carminative, that is, an herb or preparation that aids in the prevention (or, otherwise, expulsion) of gas in the digestive system. Fennel tea may be made for this purpose by pouring a cup of boiling water over a teaspoon of bruised fennel seeds.

The Roman naturalist Pliny ascribed 22 remedies to fennel, including strengthening of eyesight. Through the years herbalists continued this belief; even Longfellow alludes to this virtue in one of his poems:

“Above the lower plants it towers,

The Fennel with its yellow flowers;

And in an earlier age than ours

Was gifted with the wondrous powers

Lost vision to restore.”

Anethole, the primary component of fennel’s volatile oil that gives it its distinctive flavor, is a phytonutrient that has repeatedly shown to reduce inflammation and prevent the occurrence of cancer.

The fennel bulb is a good source of vitamin C, which is important for immune support and antioxidant protection. It also contains healthy stores of fiber, folate, and potassium, which aid in cardiovascular and colon health.

Below is a recipe for a roasted fennel and cauliflower soup I created last night for dinner. Though the process is amazingly simple, I found the soup to be rich and satisfying. I hope you enjoy it!

Roasted fennel and cauliflower soup

1 head cauliflower, cut into small pieces

2 large fennel bulbs, trimmed and quartered or sliced

4 medium shallots, peeled and roughly chopped

Olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 quart vegetable or chicken stock

½ cup milk of your choosing

First roast the vegetables. Toss them with olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Place in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet and roast in a 400 degree oven until tender and caramelized, about 20 to 40 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the vegetables. (Allow them to thoroughly roast to ensure good flavor.)

Simmer the roasted vegetables with a quart of stock until extremely tender and falling apart. Once they reach this stage, puree the soup using an immersion blender. (A food processor or blender may also be used. If using a blender, be sure to hold the lid tightly closed with a towel or the vacuum created by the heat may cause the lid to explode off!)

Off heat, stir in the milk. I used a product I just discovered: a coconut milk beverage made by “So Delicious” and stored in a carton in the refrigerated section of the store. This product is very different than canned coconut milk and doesn’t have a coconut taste. Any milk or milk substitute may be used.

Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. (I added a bit more salt, but used enough pepper when roasting the vegetables that adding more was unnecessary.

Thin with a bit more milk if soup is too thick.

The vegetables may be roasted ahead of time and stored in the fridge until soup is made.

Recipe by Esther Oertel. Makes six – eight servings.

Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel teaches culinary classes at Chic Le Chef in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., and The Kitchen Gallery in Lakeport, Calif., and gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Joshua Isaac Wandrey Sr., 36, of Rohnert Park is expected to be released next week after the motion to dismiss the charges is heard Jan. 21.

Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe filed a motion Friday which stated, in part, “it is my professional opinion that there is currently insufficient evidence to proceed with this matter” against Wandrey.

He announced his intention to dismiss the case at Wandrey's trial readiness conference Friday in Lakeport.

After court Grothe said he had no further comment on the case in advance of next week's hearing.

Grothe's decision was “the correct thing to do,” said Wandrey's attorney, Stephen Carter.

Carter credited District Attorney Don Anderson and Grothe for recognizing and realizing that the dismissal should take place.

Wandrey was arrested in November 2009 following the attack the previous month on 49-year-old Ronald Greiner of Lakeport, who was shot, beaten, hogtied with barbed wire and robbed of 10 pounds of marijuana at his home, as Lake County News has reported.

Wandrey and co-defendant Thomas Loyd Dudney, 60, of Fulton, were charged with attempted murder, mayhem, torture, home invasion robbery, burglary, assault with a firearm, assault likely to cause great bodily injury, a special allegation for alleged gang activity and another special allegation for use of a firearm.

The case had been handled since its inception by former District Attorney Jon Hopkins, who left office last month after losing his reelection bid last year.

Grothe's motion explained that on or around Dec. 7 he received Wandrey's case file “as part of a reassignment of cases” that resulted from Hopkins' departure.

“Following that reassignment I reviewed all reports, evidence, and prior hearings conducted in this case,” Grothe stated.

Based on that review, as well as discussions with witnesses, investigators and other District Attorney's Office personnel, Grothe said he concluded that he didn't have the evidence needed to move forward.

Carter said Wandrey will have no further risk of any prison time associated with this case after the dismissal takes place.

“Of course he is pleased with that outcome and glad to put it behind him and move on,” Carter said.

However, Grothe's motion indicated the case could be taken up again in the future, as the investigation regarding Wandrey is continuing.

Grothe's motion goes on to note, “if further evidence is secured, then the case will be reevaluated upon its merits at that time.”

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

The Rev. Dr. Charles Harlow and wife of 66 years, Marian, visited the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lake County in Kelseyville, Calif., on Sunday, January 16, 2011. Harlow's topics included Dr. Martin Luther King, with whom he attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Photo by Kathy Windrem.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – It was a moment of simple kindness that turned out to be the beginning of an important and lasting friendship.

A young Charles Harlow arrived in 1949 at Crozer Theological Seminar in Chester, Penn., to take his place at the school.

The father of two had traveled cross country from Portland, Oregon, with wife, Marian, and their two children who became sick with chicken pox. Harlow's children and wife stayed with his mother-in-law on the East Coast as he went on to report to Crozer.

When he arrived at seminary, Harlow was late, had no money and was worried, as he had only six months left on his GI Bill for school.

The first person he met was a young man three years his junior who also was a student there.

The young man's name was Martin Luther King Jr.

“He put his hand out and said, 'May I help you?'” Harlow, 85, and now a resident of Clearlake, recalled.

Together the two young men made their way up to the main lodge, King helping tote his fellow seminarian's bags.

It was the start of a deep and true friendship, one in which the two young men would discuss spirituality and God, faith and humanity.

They wrote papers, studied and prayed together. And Harlow, like other of King's friends, would watch King's majestic and ultimately tragic trajectory as a leading voice in the nation's civil rights movement.

To friends like Harlow, King would remain “Martin,” a man who when he prayed did so “as if he had a personal acquaintance with God,” and cared enough for people to risk – and ultimately lose – his life, a fear his friends had had for him for many years.

King was in Harlow's prayer chain – as was his wife, Coretta – exchanging occasional letters and phone calls with Harlow until King's life was ended by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968. He was 39 years old.

While the assassin may have cut short the life of the dreamer, the dream survived, with King leaving his imprint on the nation's heart. The civil rights movement of which he was a part would continue forward under the leadership of many young men and women who shared his vision, ultimately impacting the sensibilities of people of all ethnicities.

Harlow was one of those who worked for equality, a man who says he's radical “but not really” and points out that Jesus of Nazareth never demanded worship, but asked people to follow him on his difficult path, which included loving one's enemies.

“It's far easier to worship Jesus than listen to him,” said Harlow.

Harlow, now retired from ministry with the United Church of Christ, shared his memories of King with Lake County News in an interview on Sunday, the same day that he spoke at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lake County in what one member described as a mesmerizing talk.

Different backgrounds, but a heart for truth

Harlow and King had very different backgrounds, but intellect and interest brought them together.

King was the son and grandson of ministers, raised in the faith and devout. He was a man of huge intellect matched by an equally deep spirit. But the world in which he was born judged him more by the color of his skin than by his abilities.

Harlow was a young white man from the streets of Chicago. He wasn't raised a Christian which, he reflected, was in many ways a benefit. He said it meant he didn't have to unlearn beliefs that may have made his journey of faith more challenging.

“I didn't have anything to unlearn other than the streets,” he said.

At 16 he found himself in the Marines, stationed in the South Pacific before Pearl Harbor.

One night he was standing watch in a village, recalling, “the moon was bright, bright, and the beams of the moon showed the buildings below me.”

The church there was made from pounded sea shells, “and it just glistened” in that bright moonlight, he said.

Harlow was speaking that night to a native man about his belief in Christianity. The man told him that accepting the faith “means that I can stand up and be me.” Harlow said that, to a young man from the streets, that meant something – that he didn't have to be ashamed of who he was.

He started reading and got a New Testament from a chaplain. When he asked where to start, the chaplain suggested the earliest book, written by the Apostle Mark.

“I ran into the Jesus I wanted to follow,” said Harlow.

Later, he came to California on a hospital ship after having taken ill. He recovered, met his future wife Marian – they would raise three children together – and decided he wanted to go to college, although he hadn't attended high school.

He would go on to attend business college and college, with Harlow deciding to attend the seminary, which he did from 1949-1953. King was reportedly at the seminary from 1948 to 1951.

During their time together at seminary, Harlow said he and King talked about Harlow's service in the Marines, as well as more otherworldly questions.

“We talked back and forth a lot about spirituality – what was it, what is it,” Harlow said.

They also would study religious leaders and world figures like Mahatma Gandhi, an important influence for King, according to Harlow.

King was an excellent student, “I mean top drawer,” said Harlow, adding that while he was good, King surpassed him.

“He was always seeking out new approaches to life and to meaning,” Harlow said.

Harlow today remembers that the young King enjoyed life, always was attired in the best suits, and disappeared every weekend to visit Philadelphia.

Later, after seminary, they would exchange letters, Harlow noting regretfully that he didn't keep King's letters, not realizing how famous he would someday become.

King also called him once to ask him to come to Selma, Alabama, where King led marchers in March of 1965. Harlow said he couldn't get there because of his other responsibilities, which he said saddened him.

Harlow and other of King's friends from seminary kept in touch. “We all knew what was happening with him,” said Harlow, including the threats against King and the fears for his safety.

Working the dream

Even as a young seminarian, it was clear that King had big goals. “He wanted to help people be free, everybody knew that. How, nobody knew, neither did he,” said Harlow.

An important lesson King taught the world is how one can make a dream reality. “He worked his dream,” said Harlow. “Not many people work their dream. They just dream.”

Harlow added that a dream “has to have a working edge on it,” otherwise it's mythological, and he believes people are responsible for their dreams and goals, which he said are part of the miracle process of life in which everyone participates.

He pointed out that the original version of King's famed speech given at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March on Washington in August 1963 hadn't contained the words “I have a dream.”

King was only supposed to speak about eight minutes, and it wasn't until the speech was under way that he decided to improvise and use the “I have a dream” theme. Harlow said it came from a stump speech – much as most ministers, including Harlow, have – that King had given at churches all over the South.

“He had a deep caring process in his life,” said Harlow. “He really cared, and that's a tough one because a lot of people voice terms of caring, but that's all it is.”

King put his life on the line in caring for others, Harlow said. “Not many people find that comfortable.”

He remembered King trying to calm people in January 1956 after his home was bombed in the wake of the Montgomery bus boycott, telling people not to react in violence because they shouldn't allow themselves to lower their expectations.

“He called me one time and I said, 'Martin, is your life insurance paid up?' And he said, 'I don't have any life insurance',” Harlow remembered.

King was aware of the dangers, as did those who knew him. But Harlow believed that King had confronted the idea of his death and was able to walk free of it. Based on their conversations, Harlow said, “Death wasn't bothering him.”

The day before his death, on April 3, 1968, King delivered his “I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tenn., in which he referenced threats and warned of “some difficult days ahead.”

“But it doesn't matter with me now,” King said. “Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Today, in light of so much strife worldwide – and especially in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on an Arizona congresswoman and the murders and attempted murders of several of her constituents – Harlow said King's message remains one of peace.

“The bottom line for Martin's life was nonviolence,” said Harlow, imagining that if King had lived – he would have been 82 on Jan. 15 – that he would have been actively engaged in the anti-war movement, and trying to help people live peaceful, meaningful lives.

While some people may want to wait to change the world, said Harlow, “There is no better time to build a peaceful place than right now.”

Special thanks to Kathy Windrem of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lake County for her help in contacting Dr. Harlow for this story, as well as for her picture that accompanies the article.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

An artist's concept of antimatter spraying above a thunderhead. Courtesy of NASA.

Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed inside thunderstorms in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF) associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected.

“These signals are the first direct evidence that thunderstorms make antimatter particle beams,” said Michael Briggs, a member of Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

He presented the findings Jan. 10 during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Fermi is designed to monitor gamma rays, the highest energy form of light. When antimatter striking Fermi collides with a particle of normal matter, both particles immediately are annihilated and transformed into gamma rays.

The GBM has detected gamma rays with energies of 511,000 electron volts, a signal indicating an electron has met its antimatter counterpart, a positron.

Although Fermi's GBM is designed to observe high-energy events in the universe, it's also providing valuable insights into this strange phenomenon.

The GBM constantly monitors the entire celestial sky above and the Earth below. The GBM team has identified 130 TGFs since Fermi's launch in 2008.

“In orbit for less than three years, the Fermi mission has proven to be an amazing tool to probe the universe. Now we learn that it can discover mysteries much, much closer to home,” said Ilana Harrus, Fermi program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The spacecraft was located immediately above a thunderstorm for most of the observed TGFs, but in four cases, storms were far from Fermi.

In addition, lightning-generated radio signals detected by a global monitoring network indicated the only lightning at the time was hundreds or more miles away.

During one TGF, which occurred on Dec. 14, 2009, Fermi was located over Egypt. But the active storm was in Zambia, some 2,800 miles to the south. The distant storm was below Fermi's horizon, so any gamma rays it produced could not have been detected.

“Even though Fermi couldn't see the storm, the spacecraft nevertheless was magnetically connected to it,” said Joseph Dwyer at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. “The TGF produced high-speed electrons and positrons, which then rode up Earth's magnetic field to strike the spacecraft.”

The beam continued past Fermi, reached a location, known as a mirror point, where its motion was reversed, and then hit the spacecraft a second time just 23 milliseconds later. Each time, positrons in the beam collided with electrons in the spacecraft. The particles annihilated each other, emitting gamma rays detected by Fermi's GBM.

Fermi was above Egypt on Dec. 14, 2009, when a burst of positrons emerged from an African thunderstorm. Courtesy of NASA.

Scientists long have suspected TGFs arise from the strong electric fields near the tops of thunderstorms.

Under the right conditions, they say, the field becomes strong enough that it drives an upward avalanche of electrons. Reaching speeds nearly as fast as light, the high-energy electrons give off gamma rays when they're deflected by air molecules. Normally, these gamma rays are detected as a TGF.

But the cascading electrons produce so many gamma rays that they blast electrons and positrons clear out of the atmosphere. This happens when the gamma-ray energy transforms into a pair of particles: an electron and a positron. It's these particles that reach Fermi's orbit.

The detection of positrons shows many high-energy particles are being ejected from the atmosphere. In fact, scientists now think that all TGFs emit electron/positron beams. A paper on the findings has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

“The Fermi results put us a step closer to understanding how TGFs work,” said Steven Cummer at Duke University. “We still have to figure out what is special about these storms and the precise role lightning plays in the process.”

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership. It is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

The GBM Instrument Operations Center is located at the National Space Science Technology Center in Huntsville, Ala. The team includes a collaboration of scientists from UAH, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and other institutions.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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