More sunny-foggy Marin days.

I think Mill Valley should officially change its name to Fog Valley.

This is what happens in Marin when you put a McDonald’s next to a trail.

Thanks Wordless Wednesday!

More info about hiking in Marin.

PS. Please become a fan of Sally Around The Bay on Facebook.
Thank you!

My favorite frozen yogurt place is Swirl. Swirl is one of the newer kids in the neighborhood but I love the self serve concept. The yogurt is sold by weight so you can eat as much or as little as you want and you can mix your yogurt and toppings as crazy as you’d like. For instance, I had a little of each of these toppings on top of my last yogurt: mango, strawberry, raspberries, chocolate chips, gummy bears and chocolate syrup. It’s like a salad bar of yogurt and toppings. (I know I should have totally taken a picture of my concoction but I was too busy eating it.)

Something else I love about Swirl is the atmosphere. It’s fun! Swirl is owned and operated by a local Mill Valley family. When the owner is there he walks around with his camera snapping pictures of all the happy frozen yogurt eaters. Those pictures get uploaded to the big screen TV so the next time you come in you can watch for your picture on the screen. I’m up there at least twice.

This frozen yogurt is great fun for everyone!

Mill Valley Swirl
417 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA, 94941
415.388.2636

Hey Mill Valley what is your favorite yogurt place and why?
I know we’ve all been doing a lot of comparison tasting.

Please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” — no longer the products of nature but of food science. –Michael Pollen, In Defense of Food, An Eaters Manifesto

Leslie Citroen of Mill Valley is teaching the Bay Area how to get back to eating real food one chicken at a time.

Leslie and her children run Mill Valley Chickens. They sell chickens and teach classes on everything you need to know to keep your backyard flock happy and healthy.

I really enjoyed visiting with Leslie and her daughter Logan. Being in Leslie’s backyard with the chickens and talking with her adorable daughter about 4-H brought back a lot of memories. I grew up with chickens in my backyard and was a 4-H member! (Yes, we had chickens in Orange County.) I was impressed with 6 year old Logan’s knowledge and handling of the chickens.

Leslie has a multitude of different types of beautiful chickens. (I did say beautiful chickens – some of these chickens were beautiful!)

I saw chickens of all shapes and sizes. I even discovered a new chicken called a Naked Neck (see photo below). I learned these Naked Neck’s are popular among the boys… I think it is their almost Sci-fi creature like look. I have to admit when I first saw the Naked Neck I thought it was a hen that had been pecked by the others. I assumed she was at the bottom of the pecking order. Leslie seemed to have a weak spot in her heart for the Naked Necks, she talked fondly about how sweet they were.

The chickens are actually great animals for kids. As you can see, Logan was carrying the chickens all over the yard and they seemed perfectly content in her arms.

Since Leslie’s chickens are truly free range (pastoral) meaning they are free to roam around her yard they’ve started playing Easter Bunny. According to Leslie and Logan everyday is like an Easter Egg hunt. They find the eggs hidden behind trees, under bushes, in holes…

There are many benefits to having your own backyard chickens; here are a few:

• Fresh eggs.
• Chickens are easy enough to take care of that a 6 year old can manage it.
• Kids learn responsibility.
• Something fun for bored kids to do.
• Getting food from the source and avoiding the use of oil to ship the food to the grocery stores.
• Not supporting factory farmed chickens.

Even though I’ve focused on kids and chickens you do not have to be a kid or have a kid to reap the benefits of your own backyard chickens.

Fun facts about chickens:
Chickens lay more eggs when there is more sun light. You will get more eggs during the summer months.

You can determine egg color by the color of a chicken’s ears. ie. white ears equals white eggs, brown ears equals brown eggs.

When your chickens eat scraps and forage in your yard for bugs -eggs are far healthier and chock full of vitamins —  than commercial raised eggs.

Not so fun fact about chickens:
Factory farmed chickens are often stored is small cages where they can’t even move and the lights are left on 24 hours a day to encourage more egg laying. Besides the cruelty to the bird imagine what the stress does to the quality of the egg. I’m not going to go in to the gory details of our food industry… I’ll save that for another time and place.

Looking for something fun and unique to do this summer?
How about visiting Leslie and her family at Mill Valley Chickens? Just contact Leslie and set up a date a time. You can purchase your own backyard chicken and take one of her classes to learn all about taking care of your backyard chicken. The chickens run from $15 -$25 each. Chickens range in age from 3 weeks to 3 1/2 months so they are already past the critical chick stage and well on their way to be egg laying hens.

You can also purchase ready-made chicken coops from Leslie or arrange to have her build a custom one for you.

In addition to the chickens, I was very impressed with Leslie. She’s a licensed general contractor. It’s not every day that you meet a female licensed general contractor!

On top of taking care of the chickens, her business and her kids Leslie has a fantastic garden full of fruit, vegetables and flowers. I was lucky enough to be sent home with a bouquet of fresh cut flowers from her garden, a handful of eggs and some lemons.

To top it all off Leslie joined Twitter after hearing me rave about it. You can follow her at @MVchickens.

To learn more about Leslie, Logan, Luca and the chickens visit: http://www.millvalleychickens.com

If you are thinking about getting your own backyard chickens contact Leslie! She knows her stuff.

Thanks to @SFDoug I got to try Mill Valley Beerworks. Last night Doug and I were talking tweeting about what to do for the next Marin TweetUp and Doug said, ‘we could do a TweetUp right now’ and I said, ‘I’ve been wanting to try Mill Valley Beerworks’ and Doug said, ‘see you in a half hour’. That is how my evening began. (I love my Twitter friends!)

I’ve been wanting to try Mill Valley Beerworks since I learned about it from Doug. Here is what he had to say about it on his blog:

Mill Valley Beerworks has opened up at 173 Throckmorton, almost hidden from view but well worth finding. The house brews won’t be ready for another month, but the really long beer list includes artisan brews — including a healthy selection of Belgian ales and lambics. The casual vibe gives me hope that Central or Southern Marin may finally have a civilized place where many of us can grab an excellent beer without feeling out of place.

Photo by Doug Levy

I ordered my usual favorite beer: a Hefeweizen. I can’t remember what Doug had but it was good… maybe he can comment here and let us know. We also shared a fresh hot pretzel with spicy sweet mustard made in-house.

After awhile our group grew and we all decided to head over to Small Shed Flat Bread – which I believe has the best Flat Bread in Marin County. We started with the Bolinas Beet Salad and a Ceasar Salad to share. They were both delicious! We then ordered 3 Flat Breads to share among the 5 of us. We ordered the special that had anchovies (because Doug loves anchovies). We also ordered The Q made with Golden Farms all natural, nitrate free pepperoni, pancetta, mushrooms, mozzarella and grana cheese, tomato sauce and herbs. I don’t remember what the 3^rd one was… I was too busy enjoying my Hoegaarden White beer.

Fun was had by all!

Saturday, June 5th – 8 a.m. – Mill Valley Bike Swap

Saturday, June 5th – 6pm – Women of Dirt: The Film
A great night of Film, Fashion, Food and Fun!

Access4bikes and Bicycle Trails Council of Marin Present:

Women of Dirt: The Celebration
Fairfax Women’s Club,
46 Park Rd., Fairfax, CA, 94930

Celebrating the mountain bike while celebrating the women who love them!

A special screening of Awesome Land: Women of Dirt. A Bicycle Fashion Show-featuring some of the best bike fashions in the west, by Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel, LUNA Sport clothing and My Alibi Clothing. Q & A with bike celebs, Marla Streb and Rachel Lloyd. Come on down and party, have a brew and wine, sponsored by Lagunitas and Peleton Cellars, and tasty food treats. Also, raffle-drawing and local live music!

A party and fundraiser for Access4Bikes, your local voice for trail access in Marin.

$20-donation advance tickets $25- donation at the door.

For more information visit http://access4bikes.com/events.htm

Sunday, June 6th – Tamarancho Dirt Classic

Wednesday, June 16th – Coed Special Downhill Clinic – Youth Only with Mountain Biking Marin

Saturday, June 26th – Coed Cross Country Clinic with Mountain Biking Marin

Saturday, May 1, 2010
3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
600 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley
415.746.6140

Meet the practitioners, including an integrative gynecologist, a naturopathic doctor, a fertility specialist, a life coach, a Reiki master, acupuncturists, massage therapists, and others.

Get your MOJO back with chair massages, green juice samples, edibles, music, meditation, a blessings altar, and more.

Don’t settle for being well.

Today I went on an adventure on Mt. Tamalpais (known as Mt. Tam to the locals) and hiked up ZigZag trail and down Tenderfoot trail in Mill Valley!

ZigZag is an intense technical uphill trail (all uphill) that starts right off of Cascade Dr. in Mill Valley and ends near the Mountain Home Inn.

When we reached the Mountain Home Inn we headed toward Tenderfoot trail and took that down. At the end of Tenderfoot we spotted this guy.

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I have come to realize that Marin County is full of great Sushi restaurants. This past weekend I tried an old favorite that I have not been to in years. I went to Robata Grill & Sushi in Mill Valley right off of Highway 101. I really like the atmosphere of Robata, they have lots of semi private booths to sit in so it’s a great place to go when you want to have a conversation with the person you are dining with and actually hear everything they have to say.

The service at Robata Grill & Sushiwas great, the food was fresh and delicious and the ambiance was nice. Can’t ask for much more. I was a happy camper.

I had my usual favorites: seaweed salad, sake salmon handroll and a rock-n-roll.

Celia had a hamachi handroll and decided to try their special pork lettuce wraps.

Robata Grill & Sushi
591 Redwood Hwy
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tel: 415.381.8400
www.robatagrill.com