About the Owner
Farhad and Muggs
It all started the Summer of 2005, when I graduated college in Santa Cruz, where I studied Molecular Biology. I had a sudden epiphany and decided not to finish my applications to dental school, and told myself that I’d rather study organic chemistry in graduate school. I figured I would take a year off before applying to graduate programs. I’d spend the summer in Santa Cruz with my new best friend, Omri, then figure out the rest of my year off from there.
Omri called it “The Summer of George” (He is obsessed with Seinfeld). We lived together, ate together, surfed together, and tinkered on cars together. We were by no means mechanics, but together, we converted our diesel Mercedes cars to run on waste vegetable oil. First we converted our own, then we started helping others do the same. We worked hard, played hard and met lots of interesting people that were in the brave new veggie world. People you would expect to meet living off the grid in the hills of Santa Cruz, Northern California.
Everyday, we used our brains, our hands and our hearts. We would end our days grabbing dinner somewhere downtown, proud of what we had accomplished that day. We had helped someone with their car, made a new friend, and also made some money! Though our skills were at the novice level, we felt like true craftsmen, and it felt good. For the first time, I had everything I never knew I wanted. I bet Omri did too. That summer ended, but my veggie-fueled adventures had just begun…
I moved back to Portland, my hometown (OK fine, I grew up in Beaverton) that fall. At the time, I figured the fun I had that summer was just a phase. I kept hearing from all the adults that soon enough I would have to grow up and get a real job, or go back to school. I still wasn’t ready to enter the real world quite yet but I needed to make some money during my time off. With the help of Craigslist, I found people who wanted my services as a vegetable conversion specialist. Before I knew it, I found myself at the heart of the veggie mini-cult here in Portland.
4 years, hundreds of veggie conversions, and countless meaningful human connections later, I finally accepted that this part of my life was my “grad school.” Instead of preparing for life later, I was living my life, with all its ups, downs, gains and losses that were associated with what I chose to do.
Those transcendental years opened my eyes to the magic that happens when work stops being a job and starts becoming an expression of potential and love. When what you do is just an afterthought to how you do it.
Green Drop Garage
The Summer of George, for life.
