Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, December 9, 2023

9


Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 9, 2023 


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges [www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

[Nyerges is an educator and author, who has written “Urban Survival Guide,” “Foraging 
California,” “Extreme Simplicity,” and other books. You can learn more at www.SchoolofSelf-
Reliance.com.]

Jingle with 
“GRINGO”


Yes, all will be 
calm and bright 
with this awesome 
guy! We featured 
Gringo a while 
back but he’s 
still waiting for a 
furever home. 

Gringo is just about purr-fect: he sports a 
gorgeous flame 
point fur coat, exotic green eyes, and is cuddly and friendly 
with everyone—even other cats. Besides that, he’s healthy 
and totally vetted and microchipped. He would do best with 
someone who works from home to give him lots of cuddles 
and attention. A couple or single person would be ideal. 

A friendly resident cat would be nice, too. Age 5. 

See more pictures of Gringo at www.lifelineforpets.org/
gringo.html or just use the QR code.

LOCAL BACKYARD “FARMER” PUBLISHES HER 
FIRST BOOK

Urban farmer Julie Balaa sells unique plants at the local 
farmers market

Her first book just released: “LOW COST EMERGENCY PLANNING.”

 Foreword by Actor Ed Begley Jr.

Urban farmer Julie Balaa has 
just produced her first book, 
an in-depth guide to being 
prepared for emergencies and 
life’s crises without breaking 
the budget. Her book, “Low 
Cost Emergency Planning: A 
Do-it-Yourself Guide to Family 
Disaster Planning,” (Skyhorse, 
2023), covers the basics 
of water and food storage, 
home food production, making 
things, and how to live a 
more self-reliant life without 
spending an arm and a leg. 
The book is fully illustrated 
with color photos. The actor 
and environmentalist Ed Begley 
Jr. wrote the optimistic foreword.

She is scheduling book readings, lectures, and classes based around her book. 

Balaa grew up in San Marino, and now lives across the Arroyo Seco in Highland Park, where 
she does urban farming. Besides growing things in the greenhouse she built, she farms the 
one acre urban sanctuary of the non-profit where she works. 

At the Tuesday Highland Park Farmers Market, Julie Balaa has been teaching her customers 
how to create sustainable gardens in their own yards for several years now. Balaa’s booth at 
the market caught my attention because she was selling less-common foods, and instructing 
people how to grow their own.

At her farmers market booth, she sells New Zealand spinach, lamb’s quarter, California 
pepper seeds, cactus pads, as well as a variety of potted foods, such as purple tree collard, 
sapote, and ficus trees. 

Balaa is always engaged in conversations with customers, explaining that these are all the 
plants she grows and sells can be used to create sustainable gardens. Her book will be one extra 
tool that her customers can use as a guideline to creating their own self-sufficient home.

 Her book addresses all the basic needs of any urban or suburban dweller who doesn’t 
have a lot of land, but wants to still be prepared for emergencies and wants to be a bit more 
self-reliant.

Balaa begins with a chapter on water, and since she’s in the Los Angeles area, she lets readers 
know that only 26% of the water that Los Angelos use is local – all the rest comes to the 
city via 3 aqueducts from sources about 300 miles away. Thus, Balaa encourages her readers 
to do as she does: conserve water, don’t waste water, and lots of grey water recycling. She 
describes what it takes to collect rain water, and how to store water in plastic buckets in case 
of emergencies.

Next, she explains how to store food, and that you can have some food in your yard if you 
grow food producing trees and vegetables. She discusses even the common wild foods – 
such as pricky pear cactus, lambs quarter, and purslane – which are common and have great 
nutritional value.

How do you cook when the power goes out? Balas shares some simple methods, including 
how to make a low-cost solar oven. She also addresses the basics of first aid in emergencies, 
how to create a simple backyard “survival camp,” and all the very important economic considerations 
that are all too often ignored in “survival” books.

The book is a pleasure to read, with lots of common sense coming from someone who had 
to work with a limited budget.

When she is selling her products at the local farmers market, one of her popular foods is the 
prickly pear cactus pad, or nopales, which have been used in Mexican cuisine for centuries. 
She sells the pads ready to be cleaned and eaten, as well as the potted pads which can be 
grown as a border plant. The prickly pear cactus has been demonstrated to be effective for 
treating high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, as documented in such books as “Prickly Pear 
Cactus Medicine” by Ran Knishinsky.

At her table at the Farmers Market, Balaa had a list of all the plants that her clients could 
grow in their yards to create a perennial, sustainable garden for the least amount of work. 
The list included trees, of course, like olives, citrus, and figs, and grape vines, asparagus, 
onions, Jerusalem artichoke, potatoes, tree collards, and, of course, prickly pear cactus.

As part of the permaculture philosophy which is embodied in Balaa’s new book, she and her 
family also recycle all of their kitchen and yard scraps by composting them into soil, rather 
than just tossing it all into the trash can. “It’s very rewarding to do these techniques,” said 
Balaa, “because I feel it’s what we should all be doing. Sometimes it’s hard, but it makes 
you feel good for doing it.” She 
also practices safe grey-water recycling, 
where she sends all her 
kitchen and bath water into the 
garden.

[Her book is available from Amazon. 
Balaa can be reached for 
consultations, and the hours of 
her nursery, at juliebalaa@gmail.
com. The Highland Park Farmers 
Market occurs every Tuesday 
from 3 to 7 p.m., at Avenue 58 and 
Figueroa in Highland Park.]


Pet of the Week

 Tina is a sweet girl with a big heart! This two-year-old 
black lab mix can be a little shy with new people at first 
but give her some delicious treats and she’ll be coming 
up to you to say hello (and get some more snacks). She 
even enjoyed cuddling in bed with her foster parent!

 Tina’s love of food means she really enjoys learning new 
things in exchange for treats. She has a hunger for knowledge 
(and hot dogs) that could make her top of the class 
in any training session!

 Tina is an active girl who enjoys playing fetch and chasing 
after toys. She’s often seen having the zoomies in the 
Pasadena Humane play yard and rolling around on her back. However, she always takes 
a break for snuggles with her favorite people.

 This gentle pup is seeking a patient adopter who can give her a little time to come out 
of her shell. Tina would prefer to be the only pet in the home so she can get all your affection 
(and as much room as possible on the bed).

 The adoption fee for dogs is $150. All dog adoptions include spay or neuter, microchip, 
and age-appropriate vaccines. 

 New adopters will receive a complimentary health-and-wellness exam from VCA Animal 
Hospitals, as well as a goody bag filled with information about how to care for your 
pet. 

 View photos of adoptable pets and schedule an adoption appointment at pasadenahumane.
org. Adoptions are by appointment only, and new adoption appointments are 
available every Sunday and Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. 

 Pets may not be available for adoption and cannot be held for potential adopters by 
phone calls or email. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com