SUMMER 2008

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Pg 80 - GIVING BACK

Waste Not, Want Not
At The Oaks at Ojai, a California destination spa known for its healthily delicious cuisine, finding creative ways not to waste food is just part of the daily plan. If the kitchen has leftover vegetables, and somehow, even at a spa, there always are leftover vegetables, they're infused into the next day's veggie broth. That's one of the mini-meals that the always-working-out spa visitors here count on each morning for an energy boost. Leftover fruit is a possibility. The next day, it's part of the fruit smoothie, aka the afternoon fitness cocktail. Egg whites are used to add protein to many meals; fatty yolks are set aside. So, says Oaks' manager Cathy Cluff, "We give the yolks to the Ventura County Humane Society, and they mix them with pet kibble." And egg yolks, as most people know, help make for shiny coats on dogs and cats. The Oaks, located about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is one of the pioneer destination spas, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. So its owners, the Cluff family, have had decades to apply their practical wisdom. They've always grown a lot of their herbs in the adjacent gardens, for example. But in recent years, they've renovated too, and that means bedding and furniture were replaced. Old bedspreads can now also be found at the Humane Society, converted to animal bedding. Old furniture was donated to shelters and non-profit agencies.The one thing Cathy Cluff would like to see? "It'd be great if companies didn't consider small appliances to be disposable," she says. "We can find people to fix them, but it's hard to get the parts to do it. We always want to 'reduce and reuse.' The more conscious we can be of good practices, the better." www.oaksspa.com - Evelyn Theiss