Winner Winner!

We want to thank everyone for stopping by our booth at the 2013 CPRS conference in San Jose!  We had a blast meeting new people as well as catching up with those we haven’t seen in a while!

A big thank you to all of those that entered our drawing for our Nike Fuel bands giveaway.  A student from Humbolt University and a City of Roseville employee won!  Congrats!

We hope you enjoyed the conference as much as we did and look forward to seeing all of your smiling faces at the next one in Northern California!

Adventures in Urban Homesteading: Homebrew!

When I first started working at Callander Associates I lived in the city just up the street from Anchor Brewing – one of the first and oldest microbrewery’s in the country – and as I walked to and from the train station to work, I could often smell the barley, malt, and hops in the air. As a beer drinker, I appreciated that smell and was happy to live near the brewery (and have a next door neighbor that worked there – on occasion supplying me with free cases of Anchor Steam, Porter, Old Foghorn, and the like). In addition to living near and touring a number of breweries over the years, I also started running into homebrewers and sampling their product. For the most part, I was extremely impressed with the beer they brewed and decided that I would try my hand at homebrewing.

When my wife and I bought our house in May 2012, that gave us the little bit of additional storage space that we didn’t have in the City and therefore, the opportunity to begin our homebrewing adventures. Through my conversations with other homebrewers that I met, I knew of a beer supply store in the City – Brewcraft – and a few beer supply websites, including Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies. I started with some research on what type of equipment I needed and what type of ingredients I thought would fit my beer tastes. Then I went up to Brewcraft and spent some time talking up the staff there, got all the equipment and ingredients I needed, and went home and set to it. The first beer that my wife and I brewed – a brown ale – was a success. As was the 2nd beer we brewed – a stout. Then we got a little cocky and ahead of ourselves and had a couple failures (due to our inexperience) before we got back on track.

To date, we’ve now brewed 25 different batches ranging from brown ales, red ales, stouts and porters to white ales, hefeweizens, kolschs, and other french and belgian beers. We’ve even brewed a batch of mead now using our own honey. We bottle all of our beer and typically get a yield of about 2 cases per batch – which is about 5 gallons of beer.

The brewing process is actually fairly simple and straight forward, but the details and methodology are critical. The following is a simplified version of the process:

• sanitize every piece of equipment you are going to use to brew
• boil water, typically 2-3 gallons of it, in a 5 gallon pot,
• steep your grains in a bag of cheesecloth (like you would tea),
• add in your hops at specific times – depending on the recipe – and add in your specialty ingredients if you have them (honey, spices, etc),
• allow to boil for about an hour and then rapidly cool the water/ingredients – now called wort.
• we create an ice bath in our kitchen sink that we lower the pot into.
• for most of our beers we let the wort cool to a temperature of 100 degrees or so and then we pour it into the primary fermenter (basically a 5 gallon food safe bucket with a spigot).
• we pour slowly as all the grains and other ingredients you want to leave behind have settled into the bottom of the pot in a thick layer of sludge. We pour until we hit the sludge layer (which we save and put in our compost bin)
• and then add more water so the entire amount is 5 gallons
• we then aerate the beer for 4-5 minutes by placing the primary fermenter on the upside down lid of the 5 gallon pot and rocking it back and forth (the fermenter needs to have an air tight lid, airlock, and stopper at this point)
• once the beer is aerated, we add in the yeast (the beer needs to be less than 80 degrees now), put the lid back on, and put the stopper and airlock on
• then we let the beer sit and let the yeast go to work

Depending on what type of beer you’re brewing, the fermentation process might be one stage or two stages. The beer could ferment from anywhere to as little as a week (for hefeweizens) and as much as a few months (for belgian beers and other specialty beers). If it’s a 2 stage fermentation that the recipe calls for, you simply open the spigot in the primary fermenter and pour it into the secondary fermenter – leaving the sludge at the bottom of the primary fermenter. If it’s a single stage fermentation, then you are ready to bottle. You add a little sugar to the fermenter and little it sit for a while (this is what gives beer the carbonation). In our case we have a pump, sanitize all our beers, pump the beer into the bottles, cap them, and label the caps with the batch and the date it was bottled. The beer needs to sit in the bottle for as little as a week and as much as a few months or even years, depending on the type of beer once again.

Once the bottling period is over the beer is ready to drink (and delicious).

Do you know your way to San Jose?

Then come see us at the CPRS Conference!

So, our firm is all about community. You can see it in our website, the projects our firm was built on, and the ones we are most proud of. Essential to this is our work on park and recreation projects, and the annual California Park and Recreation Society (CPRS) Conference is one of the ways we connect and learn with others in our industry. This year, the conference will be held in San Jose, one of our studio locations as well as home to a number of our projects. We invite you to visit us at Booth 1046 at the conference Expo on Wednesday and Thursday, March 6-7, where you will have a chance to win a Nike FUEL band and meet some of the folks behind our projects. Feel free to contact Jen Hung (jhung [at] callanderassociates [dot] com) for more info! See you there!

The reason for (going to) Seasons!

From HR Guru and Marketing rockstar, Sonja Ditto:

Our Callander family ended 2012 right with our annual Holiday Party! I have heard that some people dread going to their annual company holiday parties…but not Callander…we look forward to it every year! Who wouldn’t want to spend a little time with the amazing staff we have at Callander! With having 3 offices, we really do not get to see each other on a day to day basis, which makes our annual holiday parties even more worthwhile!

This year we decided to have the party at the Seasons in the beautiful bike capital of California….Davis!! With almost all employees (and their significant others) in attendance, the “recycled” white elephant game and the superb service staff at the Seasons, I would say this was our best annual holiday party yet!

Katrina shows off her white elephant score!

…but not for long! Our own urban homesteader, Matt, is the final owner.

An Indelible Mark (Happy 25th!)

from Pete

Creating and improving outdoor spaces is simple: listen to the client, draw some plans and get it built!….in your dreams!!!

Not withstanding the regulatory, technical and creative part of the entire process, it takes a cadre of personnel to pull it all together.

When Mark Slichter walked in the door 25 years ago, it really did get a lot easier for our clients (and certainly me!!) at Callander Associates. Here was a talented guy who thrived on making sure everything was clear, that it worked, and the project team understood why. And it got better every year that went by, with every new regulatory guideline, and with every new added twist to the mix.

Most of us, those of us that are human, would “tweak” the design or change something along the way on every project we did. You just cannot get that done without seasoned design professionals like Mark – he remembers those things and gets it done.

Thanks for the guest post, Pete, and thank you, Mark, for continuing to make CALA what it is today! 

1st Annual Callander BBQ

Saturday, August 11th was a scorching 104 degrees but that didn’t stop Callander Associates staff and their families from getting together for the 1st Annual company barbeque.

The event was held at the recently completed Cordelia Community Park in Fairfield. The park was chosen not only because of its equal distance between the three Callander offices (about 60-70 miles) but also because it was designed by our staff in the Rancho Cordova office. This is the reason we do what we do – what better way to celebrate a job well done than to go out and recreate at a park you designed?

After indulging in some delicious local BBQ from Kinder’s and gourmet cupcakes from Colleen (San Mateo office’s resident baker), we took advantage of all that the park had to offer. We tried to burn off the tri-tip, potato salad, and cupcakes by exploring the park and dog parks, testing out the bocce ball court, and playing at the two large playgrounds and multi-use field. Finally, we fired up some intense matches of corn hole at the horseshoe pit. Due to the heat, the group decided to forgo the planned kickball game, but it is definitely on the schedule for next year!

Design observations: We love the tangible aspects of our job and are always eager to see what works and what can be improved upon for future projects. While taking cover from the heat under the picnic shelter we were able to really see how a great design can make all the difference. The shelter not only provided shade but also had great ventilation thanks to the perforated roof panels and the two tiered roof. We didn’t anticipate how fast a playing surface the outdoor carpet at the bocce ball court would be, and, no matter how awesome a design feature or play structure, nothing will keep a toddler’s attention better than a cooler full of ice!

Thanks to everyone who attended, to Sonja for coordinating the event, Melissa for bringing the park designs to life, and to the City of Fairfield for the facility rentals.

Adventures in Urban Homesteading: Growing Your Own Garden

As a landscape architect working on public works projects, I tend to focus on hardy, low maintenance, low water use ornamental plants. BUT, when this Spring rolled around, my wife and I shifted focus to something else that we love…the delicious and amazing array of edible plants!

In preparation for the upcoming garden, I built a raised bed out of inexpensive cherry wood and rebar bought from Home Depot. My wife and I also removed a large portion of turf to make room for the garden.

Then we set to work planting seeds and containers of potatoes, beets, peppers (12 different types because I love peppers), tomatoes, onions, corn, kale, carrots, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuces, green beans, squash, zucchini, basil, thyme, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, pumpkins, strawberries, radishes, rhubarb, lemon verbena, cucumbers, and peach and citrus trees (whew!). Sounds like a lot, right? Well, with good space management and timing you can get a lot of bang for your buck.

This picture of the garden hod I built in my woodshop displays our haul from one day of picking. My wife and I grew everything on about a 600 s.f. plot, although you can grow a lot on a much smaller plot.

There are a couple plants that are still a season or two away from producing fruit (the citrus and peach trees), but otherwise we’ve been able to reap the rewards of our (mostly my wife’s) hard work.

So, if you’ve dreamed of growing your own fruits and vegetables but have hesitated because of a lack of space or fear that it wouldn’t be successful, don’t dilly-dally any longer! Many delicious things can be grown in small spaces – pots, even – and late summer and fall edible plants are still out there waiting to be planted by someone just like you, a fellow urban (or suburban) homesteader!

Matt Gruber is a landscape architect and project manager at Callander Associates. He and his wife, Rachel, bought their first home in 2011 and have since put their interest in urban homesteading to practice. Look here for future posts by Matt on brewing beer, growing food, and other adventures!

Callander Congratz to…

….Rancho Cordova Assistant LA, Jon Bowhay!

When Jon brought his girlfriend, Sara, to Hawaii this past May, the office was abuzz with talk on whether a proposal was in the works. Well, we should have taken bets because…as you can probably guess…it was, and she said yes!

Jon and Sara are planning on a wedding date sometime in early summer of 2013. In the meantime, to capture their newly engaged happiness, Sonja Ditto, our HR/Marketing guru and freelance photographer (check out her great shots of Raley Field) met the two (and their doggies) in beautiful Coloma for a super fun engagement photo shoot.

We could not be happier for the happy couple! Congratulations!

Adventures in Urban Homesteading: Beekeeping

The plight of the honey bee has been greatly impacted by a number of factors over the last few decades – pesticides, colony collapse disorder, mites, and parasitic flies – leading to a decline in their population. As a landscape architect and human being, this causes me great concern as bees play a significant role in the pollination process and, thus, the production of food, seed, and flowers. (Plus, I love honey.)

I did some research and discovered there are beekeepers clubs for just about every county in the Bay Area. My local beekeepers club, The Beekeeper’s Guild of San Mateo County, offers a free class every year for beginning beekeepers. My wife and I immediately signed up for the class, joined the Guild, and researched our local city ordinance regarding beekeeping. Finally, I built a hive, bought a package of bees, and we were off and running.

A quick beekeeping fact: did you know that 95% of bees are females (with one queen per hive) and only about 5% males? The only responsibility that the males have is to reproduce with the queen; otherwise they just eat honey and lounge around all day. (Note: Guys, before you decide to cite this fact to justify your X-Box/pizza/beer binge and permanent residency on the sofa, just know that the male bees are often kicked out of the hive to die over the winter to conserve resources. Sorry.)

We are now four weeks into our beekeeping and are continually amazed at how interesting, efficient, and organized our bees are. I still spend a few minutes each day sitting and watching the bees build comb, bring pollen back to the hive, and go about their business pollinating the flowers of the world (actually, about a five- mile radius around my house). My dream of keeping bees has become a reality.

Beekeeping is a fun and fruitful hobby, providing enough honey for you and your friends while also pollinating yours and your neighbors’ gardens. Not to mention, urban beekeeping helps to replenish the honey bee population. If you’re interested in landscape architecture, plants and having a positive impact on your environment, urban (or rural) beekeeping could be your next hobby! Feel free to email me or check out the following links:

http://www.honeybee.com/beeclubs.htm – information on beekeeping clubs in the Bay Area

http://honeybeekeepingguide.com/ – general information

http://plightofthehoneybee.net/default.aspx – current factors affecting the honey bee population

Matt Gruber is a landscape architect and project manager at Callander Associates. He and his wife, Rachel, bought their first home in 2011 and have since put their interest in urban homesteading to practice. Look here for future posts by Matt on brewing beer, growing food, and other adventures, or feel free to contact us to be notified of new posts!

Pete’s Semi Retirement Party

In case you weren’t able to attend Pete’s Semi-Retirement Party on September 30, you missed out on some delicious home-made treats from our very own baking babe, project designer, Colleen Salveson.

But don’t fret – here’s a recipe from one of her featured goodies (in her own words):

Tasty treats enhance my life, and for that matter, everyone else’s! I love to cook and bake, especially for others!

One of my favorite recipes from the party was the mini apricot cheesecakes with mango jam…

MINI-APRICOT CHEESECAKES

You will need a miniature muffin tin (24 muffins) or a mini-cheesecake pan (with this, you don’t need papers, and the cheesecakes pop out, since the bottom of the tin is removable.
You will also need miniature muffin papers (available at Sur La Table)

Ingredients

Crust
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup sugar
12 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling
2 packages (8oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)
Mango Jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a ‘miniature muffin tin’ (24 cupcakes per tin) with miniature paper liners.

• Crush the graham crackers in a sealed zip-lock bag… or pulverize in a food processor…
• Mix all crust ingredients together with a fork. Place a teaspoon of graham mixture in each liner…
• press down slightly with your finger or the back of an ice cream scoop.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat softened cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla, until light and fluffy.
• Fill each cup with another teaspoon or so of filling, almost to the top
• Add half a teaspoon of mango jam to each cup… (Yes, such a small amount! The minis are so small and cute!)
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove and cakes cool for two minutes in tin, then remove cakes and cool completely on a wire rack.
• Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Yields about 48 mini cheesecakes.