Thanks for the good times!

dear friends,

thank you for all the good times, and for supporting our little local, organic endeavor! for those who don't already know, we (aumatma and chris), after about a year of building up the juice bar from scratch, turned over operation of the bar to the restaurant staff, and are no longer directly involved. of course the spirit lives on in some way. and for all the loving energies that contributed, appreciated, joined us along the journey, we hold them with gratitude.

we visioned and created the bar from scratch, starting back in fall 2010. our primary intention from the start was to create a pilot juice bar within himalayan flavors, which was just opening back then, to see how a healthy drink bar might co-habitate with the new venture, and perhaps provide a positive nutritional influence. all in all, we feel proud of what we created, and are glad that himalayan flavors, though not committing to all organic, continue to have fresh fruit juice and smoothie options on their menu. we are grateful to our friends, dhruva-ji and rajen-ji for offering us this opportunity.

so that's the end of this chapter! we sincerely wish you all good health! we continue to be committed to wellness ourselves, and to facilitating wellness in other individuals and our communities in our own ways. many of you reading this probably know us personally, so feel free to holler about health/well-being if you want support or just to share perspectives.

with thanks and fond memories,

chris & aumatma

P.U.L.P. - People's Ultra Local Produce - Is Live!

...in the Bay Area!

P.U.L.P. is a 3-step, self-amplifying process:

1. Local folks bring in their produce,  
2. We juice/smoothie it up and offer it as a pay-it-forward gift,  
3. Any pay-it-forward donations then go back into local food project, thus amplifying local food activity.

If you'd like to participate, see this form: http://ow.ly/6sv9E

Check out our inaugural PULP juice, orange-loquat! With oranges contributed by our friends at Casa de Paz, and loquats gleaned from a public tree down the street from the juice bar. :)  Do you have ultra-local produce you'd like to contribute?

And do come taste the ultra-local goodness -- we generally have a PULP offering at our weekly Happy Hours, Fridays from 5-7pm. See our facebook page for more info.

Wondering Why Organic Matters? Watch This Talk

New Season, New Menu :)

We're excited to share our new menu for the new season! We're now getting even more of our produce from local, organic farmers and are always open to expanding that further -- like for watermelons for the new melon zinger juice. :) Check out the menu below, or online at the Himalayan Flavors website.

Special Event & Film Screening: Sunday, March 6

Dear friends,

This Sunday, March 6th at 4pm, Aumatma (of Karma Clinic) and Michael (of Teem with Life) will hosting a special event at Himalayan Flavors. It will include a film screening of Simply Raw, Q&A and talks, and more. Full program is below and tickets can be purchased here. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Healthy Food For All?

Can healthy, local, organic food become accessible to everyone?  Here's a good overview article about what some call the foundation of social justice: healthy food.

Quick summary:

Making delicious, nutritious, safe food available to all people inspires much of the passion of those laboring to reshape America's food system. We've met them in every region of the country. They are young people setting up diversified farms; chefs dedicated to local sourcing; ordinary citizens establishing farmers markets; mothers and fathers remaking public school lunch programs, and on and on. They come from all walks of life, all incomes and every ethnicity. 

…

Yet the [elitist] criticism resonates to an extent because sustainably produced foods are often more expensive.

Vegan Party (aka Michael Pollan Walks Into A Bar...)

When Michael Pollan walks into your joint and you happen to be focusing on local, organic produce, it's natural to get excited and, say, want to take pictures with him and post them online as soon as you get home. :) A friend visiting from L.A. remarked that she's around celebrities so much it doesn't even phase her anymore -- but, she admitted, it's different with someone like Michael Pollan. Perhaps it's his extensive career, including teaching at Cal, or his various books and films, or his straightforward, digestible manner of digging to the heart of a complex issue like food ("Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants." & "Spend more. Eat less."). Certainly he has touched and inspired many to lead healthier food lifestyles, for ourselves as well as for the land.

But the story of this night goes well beyond a kodac moment with a local celebrity.

This past Sunday was our second major party since kicking off Ambrosia Juice Bar at Himalayan Flavors a little over a month ago. The first, the "soft opening" party back in December was a blast, filled with well wishers and dear friends (including another local hero and inspiration after whom the "Nipunnnzzzer" drink was named ;)) and felt like a blessed way to start the project. That night we sampled a bunch of drinks that we were considering for the menu, and invited feedback both on the drinks themselves, as well as fun names for them, which eventually birthed the first season's menu.

This time we went a step beyond the juice bar menu and worked with Dhruva-ji, head chef and restaurateur extraordinaire, to introduce more vegan food options to the restaurant menu -- and then, why not, have a party to celebrate that! And to top it off, our friend David was kind enough to provide ambiance with live sitar music, as well as some ukulele I believe, from another friend of his. So it was shaping up to be a great night of ambrosia drinks, new veggie dishes, live music, and again good company, from both old friends and new.

And it's the story of new friends that really touched hearts that night.