Montecito Moms

by Dalina Michaels Dalina Michaels worked as an award-winning television news producer for KEYT NewsChannel 3. She also served as a reporter for several years with “Inside Santa Barbara,” the city newsmagazine show. She now freelances for various websites and journalistic outlets. She is a native of Montecito and is grateful to be raising her own children here. If you are a Mama-Cito mama (or know someone!) who would like to be featured, please email: tim@montecitojournal.com

Fragrant Cane Supper Club

There is a new supper club in town – but it’s not your granny’s get-together of the ‘50s. This is a chance to experience a meal on a new level… a “high”-er level, if you will.

Just when you thought your Friday night couldn’t get more exciting, enter Melissa Petitto and Cynthia Abulafia. Both moms. Both health nuts. But both with a passion for bringing good, high-quality organic food to your table in a five-star restaurant sort of way, and with a cannabis twist: each meal item from the cocktail to the dessert will have some form of cannabis in it.

Now, before you go thinking that you’ll be serving dinner to get stoned, you need to know that these moms know what they are doing.

As a chef with a bachelor’s in Culinary Nutrition with a concentration in bio-chemical sciences as well

One of Petitto’s Fragrant Cane Supper Club dishes, garnished with a cannabis leaf

Melissa Petitto and Cynthia Abulafia hope to bring local guests together for a unique dinner experience

as a registered dietician, Petitto is the brains behind the menu.

Abulafia, a master yogi who leads packed classes at Yoga Soup each week, holds a master’s degree in nutrition.

So how did two culinary scholars with scientific backgrounds come up with this idea?

Says Petitto, “We wanted to elevate the dining experience and take away some of the misconceptions surrounding cannabis. The truth is, the leaves of the cannabis plant have more vitamins and minerals than kale!”

They decided on the name Fragrant Cane Supper Club by going old school, or rather, Old Testament. Petitto explains, “Some scholars believe the name ‘fragrant cane’ referred to cannabis in biblical times.”

Petitto knows her nutrition: After doing a dietetic internship at Emory University Hospital and then working as a celebrity chef for 13 years in New York City (creating dishes for clients like actress Lucy Liu, Danny DeVito, and supermodel Christy Turlington), she came to California to continue bringing wholesome organic-vegan inspired meals to the West Coast. “I wanted to use my degree to show people that food could be the answer to helping them lead healthier lifestyles; my motto is: ‘Food is Medicine.’”

Abulafia concurs, “I have always liked the community-building aspect of sharing meals. It has been a natural bridge between my yoga practice and my desire to want to help people cook better and eat healthier.”

The two women came up with a plan: a dinner party where you can let down your inhibitions and try something totally new: bringing together people who may never have tried cannabis. The goal is to enlighten and enjoy!

Says Abulafia, “This plant is worth exploring. We believe in the medicinal properties of cannabis, and the opportunity to share it with people in a relaxed fine dining experience.”

What can you expect when you show up for dinner?

First, you’ll be handed a special

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” – Albert Schweitzer The dinner table is set and ready for guests to arrive for Fragrant Cane’s Friday night supper

ty cocktail, perhaps a Thai iced tea crafted with coconut milk and a CBD tincture.

Petitto explains, “CBD is not so psycho-active. It’s very calming as opposed to THC, the bio-active part of the plant, which would make you high.”

The meal starts with an amuse-bouche – a single bite to tickle the palate.

According to Petitto, “Think of this as your starter or an appetizer. Something to amuse or kick off the evening.” She likes to create a theme for the evening, so she tries to pair items that are seasonal and flow together.

The first course may be pan-seared king royal trumpet mushroom “scallops” with cannabis infused dash broth (made from Kombu, a type of seaweed). With each item, the chef comes out to share the meal and the ingredients used to create it.

Dessert sounds heavenly, for example, salted caramel pots de creme with shisho (a Japanese inspired sweet leaf), and candied ginger with cannabis infused dark chocolate sauce.

Abulafia is quick to point out the cannabis is optional on all items, “If someone wants to skip the cannabis on any course, the chef can accommodate. Sometimes you may want to have it on the main course, but not the dessert. It’s easy to pull it for someone who prefers to leave it out.”

You can sign up for private dinner parties on Friday nights; if you want to do a full buy-out you can, otherwise just sign up and see who else is on the guest list as a surprise. The Club recommends you have guests Uber to your location: “Just like if you’re going to a restaurant and plan to order a bottle of wine, you wouldn’t drive home. This is the same thing. If you’re going to have cannabis in your meal, you’ll be able to enjoy yourself more if you can catch a ride home.”

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LETTERS (Continued from page 11) ing government accountability and getting special interest money out of politics in Santa Barbara County. I also agree with her commitment to protecting our environment and fighting climate change. I appreciate Laura’s willingness to work on lowering our county’s high poverty rate and advocate for women, families and children. As a long time Santa Barbara County resident I have become very concerned with Das Williams listening primarily to his constituents who contribute large sums of money to his campaign. I don’t feel he is representing or listening to the concerns many of his constituents, including myself, have regarding the regulation of marijuana, the proximity of the greenhouses growing marijuana to our local schools, and the adverse effects the odors have on both the Carpinteria/Santa Barbara County residents and the environment. Laura has listened to these concerns and has indicated that she would be an active advocate for increasing the buffer zone of where marijuana could be grown so that it won’t be in such close proximity to schools and residences.

I believe an endorsement of Laura Capps, in the Montecito Journal, would greatly improve her chances of becoming the next Santa Barbara County District 1 Supervisor.

Thank you for time and consideration.

Sincerely, Jill Stassinos 25+ years resident of Carpinteria 32+ years Santa Barbara Special Education Teacher

President of Santa Barbara/Weihai Sister City Association

2nd Vice President of Santa Barbara/ Puerto Vallarta Sister City Committee

Support for San Ysidro Pharmacy

When I read about the Pharmacy’s run-in with the DEA I wanted to weep. Steve Hoyt is the best pharmacist in town, possibly the state. The service he provides to the community is vital and irreplaceable. He is more

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knowledgeable, empathetic and wise than most M.D.’s, and is always willing to listen and try to find an answer to whatever problem you may have. His staff are wonderful, and for those of us with limited mobility their delivery service is a blessing. If Steve needs community members to stand up and vouch for his honesty and integrity, count me in. Sheila McNeill Montecito

The Need for ‘I’

Thanks, Gwyn, for your thoughtful editorial comments on the importance and need for more, “Sorry” these days. I couldn’t agree more. However, I would like to add a bit more to your wise comments.

Saying “sorry” is one thing; adding to it, and preceding it with the personal pronoun “I” – “I am sorry” – is an additional step toward reconciliation when we have hurt or somehow wronged another person. Usually when a parent has instructed their child to apologize for some childhood crime, what usually follows is a perfunctory, “sorry.” I’m not sure, but I suspect that leaving out the “I” provides some sort of quasi self-protection and the avoidance of being any more vulnerable than is necessary.

More difficult yet is adding to the tail end of, “I am sorry,” the question, “Will you forgive me?” This really opens ourselves up to being vulnerable since we are asking for a response – and we don’t know what it will be. “Forget it!”, “When Hell freezes over!”, “You’ve got too earn my forgiveness”, “Now it’s my turn to get even.” And the most painful possible response of all: “No. I will not forgive you.”

Or – and hopefully – we might hear, “of course I will,” which then opens the door to healing and reconciliation, and also gives a clear picture of where we stand with the person we have hurt or offended. Forgiveness can come immediately, or asking might just be the beginning of the healing process.

Either way, owning our error with “I,” and actually asking for forgiveness in addition to simply acknowledging we goofed (“sorry”), is more likely to bring about true closure and healing than simply uttering-often muttering-a vague, “sorry.” And when true closure occurs, it minimizes the likelihood of holding a grudge by the person we have somehow offended.

I hope I haven’t offended you, Gwyn, by adding my two cents. If I have, sorry.

No, I am sorry. And, oh, yeah. Will you forgive me? Ed Wimberly, Ph.D.

Lab Leak?

Could the coronavirus have leaked from a lab?

At an emergency meeting in Beijing held last Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke about the need to contain the coronavirus. Good idea Xi!! A national system to control biosecurity risks must be put in place “to protect the people’s health,” Xi said, because lab safety is a “national security” issue. Xi didn’t actually admit that the coronavirus now devastating large swathes of China had escaped from one of the country’s bioresearch labs.

For full story Google “New York Post – Leaked from Lab.”

Maybe China could adopt Obamacare to “protect people’s health.”

Could the Russians (and Bernie Sanders) also be involved?

Cautiously rewatching The Andromeda Strain, Dale Lowdermilk Santa Barbara, CA Founder NOTSAFE(dot)ORG

Boot Das

I have had the great privilege of living in Montecito for close to thirty years. During that time I have looked to the Independent as my source for electoral guidance. I have trusted their voice.

No longer. With the Independent’s shocking endorsement of Das Williams, a man whom they quote as having “…serious concerns and significant reservations about…” and “who seems tone deaf and arrogant…” they have lost, for me, their stature.

Mr. Williams had his chance. He had the opportunity to provide true leadership – after the debris flow.

Instead, that fell to the inspired citizens who worked tirelessly to raise $5 million dollars to install ring nets to keep the public safe.

These private citizens fought tremendous obstacles at the local and state level.

Leadership from Mr. Williams from the outset could have made a tremendous difference.

In sharp contrast, Laura Capps embodies proactive, inspired leadership. She has a proven record at the national and regional level of not reacting, but being proactive. She surrounds herself with the smartest people she can find, soliciting answers to the most challenging issues, gaining consensus, and then making decisions (and action plans) from an informed, ego-less position.

That is the kind of leadership our county deserves and that is the only kind of leadership we should be settling for.

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” – Leo Tolstoy Das has had his time as supervisor, it’s time for new leadership. It’s time for Laura Capps. Bobby Shand Montecito

No Mas Das!

Supervisor Williams is not exercising control over the cannabis explosion in Carpinteria Valley. He is not protecting us! Contrary to what some letters here have suggested, few of us are opposed to the growth of cannabis. But it is the completely disproportionate density of this growing that is causing the problems... especially odor! This is not simply a figment of the media as other writers here have suggested. All you have to do is drive by on the freeway in the evening or on Via Real almost anytime. Perhaps these other writers do not live downwind? In any case we don’t oppose the cannabis business. And if the taxation were shifted to taxation on acreage and not hard to verify revenue, it COULD make a big difference in our community. But the odors are not only giving children and adults headaches and nausea, but it is affecting the value of real estate. You only have to talk to those Realtors attempting to sell properties! The answers are simple. Insist that permits be granted only when there is closed system carbon filtration installed. Yes we know this is more expensive but these growers should have no problem with the millions of dollars they expect to take in. Enforce your own ordinance Mr. Williams… read it.. it says “best available” odor control. NO ONE disputes that carbon filtration is better than Byers!! So I encourage readers to vote for Laura Capps, not only because she is ready to actually cut back on the density of these grows near schools and residences, and enforce and strengthen ordinances, but because she is also willing to go along with restrictions on campaign financing. Das’ PAC is largely cannabis $$! Seriously Mr. Williams! Whose side are you on! Jim Mannoia

Too Much Cannabis

I am a physician and a resident of Carpinteria. Today I met with the Director of the Santa Barbara County Planning Department Lisa Plowman with questions on how we have arrived at the current state of air pollution and the uptick of respiratory illnesses in Carpinteria Valley.

For example, why did the County Board of Supervisors ignore an assessment from an outside consulting firm, the Woods Group, stating that new cannabis grows would significantly impact air quality and needed an EIR.