Local Valentine's Contest in The Concordian Newspaper. Win $100.00 Toscana Ristorante Gift Certificate...

Pick up the January 2010 issue of The Concordian newspaper. The Lemon Lady receives Jefferson Award story appears on page 24, back cover.

Also in the Concordian, another fun, easy contest for Sweethearts to win a $100.00 dining certificate at Toscana Ristorante. Must enter by January 15, 2010. Find your sweetheart, find a neighbor's fruit tree. Write a story and fall in love under a partridge in a pear tree. :)

To enter the The Concordian Romantic Story Contest, CLICK HERE.

The Concordian is available FREE at over 280 locations throughout Concord by the 1st of each month, and avaialable at EVERY 7-11 store, Blockbuster Video and K-mart. To find the location nearest you CLICK HERE.

For further info: http://myconcordian.com

Somebody mentioned chocolate and $10,000?...

Woohoo! Now this is a fun idea. Enter the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest to win $10,000. Back in my gourmet cooking days, I remember when this little chocolate company came to town, an old brick building in Berkeley, California. Once upon a time, I even stopped in for the factory tour. I was the kid in a candy store! Ahh, the memories. Now, the only adventurous dessert I can whip up is hot cocoa and and a big mess, compliments of my sweet Angel Ava, the baker!

Enter for me. Have fun. Do good and be inspired. Hurry! Contest entries must be submitted by January 3, 2010.

Love, The Lemon Lady

One Person Can Make a Difference - win $1,000

Poster Contest for High School Students

High school students in grades 9 through 12 are invited to enter the Christophers Poster Contest for High School Students by creating a poster interpreting the theme One Person Can Make a Difference.

PRIZES:
First Prize – $1,000
Second Prize – $500
Third Prize – $250

Up to five Honorable Mentions of $100 each

CLICK HERE for an entry form & complete rules

DEADLINE: Posters must be postmarked by January 15, 2010.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: April 30, 2010

"We can do it by each of us lending a hand."

Photo courtesy: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, New York Times
This article appears in the New York Times

By RACHEL L. SWARNS
Published: March 10, 2009

Michelle Obama’s Agenda Includes Healthful Eating

“Collect some fruits and vegetables; bring by some good healthy food,” she said. “We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.”

CLICK HERE to read entire article.

Volunteers Needed Immediately. Help spread sunshine to others...

Volunteers needed immediately - to order FREE SEED CATALOGS.

Promote Literacy.

Support Education.

Inspire Gardening.

We can really use donated seed catalogs for our community garden projects. If you have any old seed catalogs around the house, please give me a call! Not everyone has access to gardening books and textbooks. Books cost money, you know.

Seed Catalogs are FREE, and they're the next best thing. Not only can a seed catalog inspire love of gardening, it can inspire love of reading. You never know until you open the pages, dream, garden, grow. Seed catalogs are valuable educational tools which I redistribute to children and adults who are just beginning to learn the joys of growing their own food.

It only takes a minute of your time. Afterall, they're free. Please, Click HERE, or call the toll-free numbers listed HERE to order today!

The Lemon Lady thanks you for your help today.

AnnaAndAva@gmail.com

Cell: 510.406.1625

Concord, California - The City that brought you the Concord Christmas Tree - Makes Lemonade out of Lemons...

Virginia Thomas, AVP Branch Manager Sonoma Bank, Concord, CA

The spirit of Christmas is all year long at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord. Sure, we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, a practical alternative given the economy. We also have a town filled with angels behind the scenes. Concord Farmers' Market is where the Lemon Lady spends half her life - making friends along the way.

Virginia L. Thomas, AVP, Branch Manager at the Sonoma Bank and member of the Todos Santos Business Association has allowed the Lemon Lady to park in the bank parking lot during the hustle and bustle of the farmers' market. For that privilege, I am thankful all year long!

Another really sweet thing, Sonoma Bank hosted the STAND blanket drive - in the spirit of Christmas. I hear over 100 blankets have been collected so far. Way to go Virginia and staff! Linus would be pleased. And, The Lemon Lady is touched by such warm-spirited angels helping others in our own backyard - Concord, more than just lemons and frail Christmas Trees. Happy Harvesting and Happy Holidays.

Interview with The Lemon Lady, Jr.

Read to your children. Teach them to be caring, sweet as meyer lemons! Ava's Mommy reading January 2010 Diablo Magazine.

Mommy: Is that The Lemon Lady on page 15?

Ava: No. That's Mommy!

Mommy: What is Mommy doing?

Ava: Picking Lemons!

Mommy: What is Ava doing on page 16?

Ava: Picking Lemons!

Mommy: Where does Ava take the lemons?

Ava: My friends. *Big smile*

True Story.

Now, let's all go out and save the world today, one little lemon at a time. One person. One Tree. It all begins somewhere. Lead by example. All children need fresh fruit to grow healthy and strong. Share fresh fruit with a food bank or local food pantry today!

Check out the new issue of Diablo Magazine. Another fantastic article spreading hunger awareness, specifically fruit to food banks. "Meet The Lemon Lady", by Peter Crooks, January 2010 Diablo Magazine available at newsstands.

A few Concord Food Pantries listed here: CLICK HERE.

Dear Lauren in New York...

These photos Courtesy of: smokeysmountain.blogspot.com

I wonder what the rest of the country thinks of Concord, California?

Recent national news reports snow in the City of Clayton and Concord's scraggly Christmas Tree. An internet search will yield hundreds of pictures of a cold, dreary winter, dead trees lacking Christmas Cheer.

Well, the Lemon Lady is here to report contradicting evidence! Concord, Clayton, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek and the entire San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area have streets lined with riches...fruit in abundance, literally dropping from trees...an urban Garden of Eden lined with bountiful harvests of oranges, sweet meyer lemons, eureka lemons, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit, persimmons, pomegranates. Sounds beautiful, except that most of it will soon go to waste, rotting on the ground.

This is the real Concord, California. And, these are only front yards. Imagine what colorful fruit peeks above 6 foot tall fences...

CLICK photos to see greater detail in high resolution.

These photos Courtesy of: smokeysmountain.blogspot.com




P.S.
Our Clayton snow was once in 30 years and the city snowmen have long melted away. Business as usual at neighborhood markets selling locally-grown produce. California grown tomatoes are ripe and red - even in December! Concord residents can visit the scraggly Charlie Brown Christmas Tree while shopping the year-round Farmers' Market in the same town square.

The Lemon Lady continues to harvest fresh fruit from local streets named: Orchard, Grove, Chestnut, Walnut, Lemonwood, Orange, Pear, and Citrus Circle. These are the streets that line the neighborhoods of Concord and Clayton, CA - home of the infamous Charlie Brown Tree and home to the Lemon Lady.

PG & E Payment Assistance, The Salvation Army on CBS5 Television...

I first blogged about the PG&E payment assistance administered by The Salvation Army and REACH in November 2009. If you need help paying your PG&E bill CLICK HERE for that story.

CLICK PHOTO BELOW to watch CBS5 newscast:

"Thousands Losing Electricity in the Bay Area."

The Salvation Army
Lauri Vint
Director of Social Services
3950 Clayton Road
Concord, CA 94521

Postcards from Concord, CA - The Lemon Lady Jr. at the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...

Concord, CA - Christmas Tree 2009

"I will hold Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." ~ Charles Dickens

"There's more, much more, to Christmas
Than candlelight and cheer;
It's the spirit of sweet friendship
That brightens all year.
It's thoughtfulness and kindness,
It's hope reborn again,
For peace, for understanding,
And for goodwill to men!" ~ Author Unknown

Happy Birthday. You're three today. Love, Mommy.

Ava on her 1st birthday



“Most of us can remember a time when a birthday - especially if it was one's own - brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.”

Robert Lynd (Irish Essayist and Journalist, 1879-1949)

Weather Report...

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart might desire." -Irish Blessing

CBS5 Tonight at 6pm Jefferson Awards - Anna, The Lemon Lady

CBS5 Television:
Wednesday, December 9th at 6pm
Thursday, December 10th at noon
Saturday, December 12th at 7am

Radio: 740 & 106.9 KCBS
Wednesday. December 9th at 6:50pm, 9:40pm, 11:50pm
Sunday, December 13th at 11:50am, 3:50pm

Jefferson Awards For Public Service

The Jefferson Awards are a prestigious national recognition system honoring community and public service in America. The Jefferson Awards are presented on two levels: national and local. They began in 1972 to create a Nobel Prize for public service. Today, their primary purpose is to serve as a "Call to Action for Volunteers" in local communities. - http://jeffersonawards.org/

To view the CBS5 telecast, Anna Chan, The Lemon Lady Jefferson Award:

http://cbs5.com/jeffersonawards/Jefferson.Awards.Chan.2.1360119.html

Snow on the peas, frost on the pumpkins, Lemon Lady Jr.'s first snowman...

Carrot nose, green bean smile, lemon drop dreams.

Welcome to our pumpkin patch, meet our snowman friend.

Lemon Lady Jr., snowman builder.

It snowed this morning in Clayton, California.

You really can change the world if you care enough...

Anna, 1972

“You really can change the world if you care enough.”
-Marian Wright Edelman


“You have made people listen. You have made people care, and you have taught us that whether we are poor or prosperous, we have only one world to share. You have taught young people that they do have the power to change the world.”

-Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.

Claycord's Lemon Lady wins Jefferson Award...

Hi Soccer Mom and Friends,

Thank you for a year of many kind words. Thoughtful journalists such as yourself have helped further the hunger cause with your honest to goodness excellent community reporting.

Click on over to Soccer Mom at Crazy In Suburbia's blogspot to read about this new milestone in the Lemon Lady Fruit Harvesting Adventures.

I am truly honored to be a recipient of this prestigious award. I humbly continue to serve and thank the Farmers and our Community for your generous support and placing your trust in me. Together, we are making a difference in bringing healthy produce to those who are hungry.

http://crazyinsuburbia.blogspot.com/2009/11/claycords-lemon-lady-wins-jefferson.html