Monthly Archives: November 2008

Eco Turkey Day

Posted on November 17, 2008 by | 3 Comments

rockwell1Thanksgiving is fast approaching.  Are you Eco Warriors ready?

Recycla has a challenge for you this year:  She wants you to only serve foods that are available to you locally this time of the year — if not the entire meal, then try for just one or two parts of it.

Sounds difficult, doesn’t it?  It won’t be.

Recycla majored in American history in college and one thing that has always fascinated her is the so-called First Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation, which was a simple harvest festival that was held in 1621.

(The reality is that harvest festivals and meals of thanksgiving have been held for centuries and no one knows when the first such meal occurred in what is now known as the United States.)

For their festival, the Pilgrims ate what they had available at that time of the year.  In that part of Massachusetts in 1621 those foods were:

  • fish (cod, bass, herring, eel) and seafood (clams, lobsters, mussels)
  • birds (wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge)
  • venison
  • grains (wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal, barley)
  • vegetables (squashes, beans, and possibly peas)
  • nuts (walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts)
  • dried fruits (raspberries, strawberries, grapes, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries)

Hmmm, no cranberries on that list.  Or green bean casserole.  And definitely no sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

The foods that Americans now traditionally eat for Thanksgiving are actually the result of a national day of thanksgiving that Americans celebrated in 1863, and which has been celebrated annually ever since.  Again, foods that were either readily available or had been stored for the winter were eaten — turkey, potatoes, cranberries, pumpkins, and more.

Since that time, Thanksgiving dinner has evolved and become much more a matter of personal taste and family tradition than a meal that celebrates another successful harvest and features seasonal foods.  There are debates on the different kinds of stuffing (cornbread, chestnut, etc.) and the different ways to prepare the turkey (roasted, deep fried, and even grilled) and one’s preferences are highly personal and usually based on family traditions.

So, what about eating seasonally?

Well, that’s going to vary, depending on where you live.  For example, Recycla lives in Virginia, where cranberries would not normally be found, so she would eliminate cranberries from her meal.  Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins are readily available.  Apples are plentiful in the Old Dominion, so it would make sense to have homemade applesauce, cooked apples, and/or apple pie.   She could make a butternut squash soup, roasted acorn squash, and/or cauliflower gratin.  Late fall greens, such as collards, spinach, and even some hardy lettuces would also be possible.  Pumpkin pie would definitely be on the menu.

If you are interested in learning more about eating seasonally and locally, Recycla encourages you to read Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful book Animal, Vegetable Miracle (click here for a review), which talks about her family’s year-long experiment with eating locally.  She writes honestly about the challenges and pleasures of their endeavor.  She talks about Thanksgiving, of course, and devotes a very humorous chapter to turkeys, which is we all know is the most important part of the meal.

For five “100 mile” Thanksgiving menus for different regions of the country, click here.

A hot topic in recent years is heritage vs. conventional turkeys.  The typical Thanksgiving turkey is a Broadbreasted White that has been raised on a farm, force-fed grains that are not part of their natural diet, and pumped full of antibiotics.  Broadbreasted Whites are grown for size, not flavor.  In fact, they grow so large that they cannot move themselves easily by the end of their short lives and cannot even reproduce without outside help.

Heritage turkeys are the exact opposite.   Heritage turkeys are breeds that have been around a long time — generations.  They are not kept crammed in cages, nor are they stuffed full of feed and antibiotics.  They get much more exercise and have a varied diet.  These turkeys take longer to reach maturity, but the resulting bird has more fat.  Fat = flavor.  If you are interested in finding out more about heritage turkeys, go to Heritage Foods USA, The Daily Green, and Plenty magazine.

Unfortunately, heritage turkeys do cost more per pound.  A lot more.   More budget-conscious alternatives would be to check out your farmers’ market or your organic grocery store for an organic locally-raised turkey.

So that’s the low-down on how to re-think your Thanksgiving meal.  Recycla challenges you to try to make your meal more seasonal. How you do this is entirely up to you, but she hopes you will make at least one change, great or small.  And, don’t forget to give thanks for the farmers who grew your potatoes, corn, and more.

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Posted in eco holidays, food

Less Plastic!

Posted on November 14, 2008 by | 4 Comments

In the past year, Enviro-Girl has really, really tried to reduce her use of plastic–both the credit card kind and the packaging kind.  She recognizes that she lives in a world rapidly self-destructing and her contributions matter.  She does a lot of fine things–she plants trees, grows some of her family’s own food, and stays away from the mall.  But purchasing and throwing away less plastic, that was hard work.  But her family has done it–they drag their recycling barrel to the curb once a month these days and have actually reduced their garbage output dramatically, too.

How?

*  Buying milk in reusable glass jugs.  (This was the biggest space-saver in the recycling bin.)

*  Refusing plastic shopping bags and bringng their own reusable canvas or paper bags to the store.

*  Reusing plastic bakery bags from bread and hot dog buns for wrapping all kinds of things:  to-go food for school lunches or picnics, double-bagging open bags of chips/cheese/crackers, wrapping up gifts of homemade bread or cookies rather than using new plastic ziplock bags.

*  Buying frozen concentrate juice and making their own juice at home–saving both money and packaging.

*  Buying blocks of cream cheese and storing it in a glass jar for morning bagels.

*  Buying sticks of butter instead of plastic tubs of margarine.

*  Leaving the plastic hangers behind at the store when they buy clothes.

*  Packing lunches in reusable containers rather than ziplock baggies.

*  Freezing garden produce in jars and reusable containers instead of freezer bags.

*  Using bar soap instead of liquid soap.

*  Using fewer products altogether–Team Testosterone never cared much for bubble bath anyway and how many hair care/skin care products does a person need to buy?  For housekeeping, bleach works well in the laundry and for cleaning toilet bowls, so Enviro-Girl no longer buys a separate toilet bowl cleaner.

*  Declining the cheap plastic crap toys offered at restaurants and stores–Team Testosterone has learned that their good behavior is it’s own reward–and ice cream cones work quite well, too!

*  Reusing plastic containers for all kinds of household jobs.  Old Cool Whip container lids make great saucers for potted plants–protecting wood surfaces from scratches and water damage.  Clear plastic containers work as excellent “greenhouses” when placed over young plants in the garden.  Gallon ice cream buckets hold toys, seeds, dirt, berries, compost, and Halloween candy.

*  If a product can be purchased wrapped in paper (for example, cat litter, baking soda, birdseed), that’s the product Enviro-Girl buys.

*  Enviro-Girl’s family brings their own water rather than buying bottled water/soft drinks.

*  Nixing any individually wrapped food–it’s as easy to buy a whole box of cracker and shake out how many you want to eat.

*  If a metal or wood version of a product is available (lawn chair, garbage can, child’s toy), Enviro-Girl always goes for the higher quality metal or wood version.  It may cost more, but she’s all about quality over quantity.

How about you, reader?  How have you reduced your use of plastic lately?

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Posted in 3 Rs, house stuff

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Baby’s first Thanksgiving – making it special

Posted on November 13, 2008 by | 2 Comments

With Thanksgiving around the corner, many of us are planning our menus. What will it be this year – traditional fare or something new? Whatever it may be, effort and care will often go into the preparation. After all, it’s a special day that centers around a special meal.

So why not make it just as special for your little one? Which would you prefer on Thanksgiving Day – a meal processed months ahead of time, or one that was made from fresh vegetables and produce? If you’ve never made your own baby food, please take a look at an earlier post I did on how easy it really is, not to mention a lot less expensive than what you buy in stores.

Did you know that so many fruits and vegetables can be made so easily by just steaming them in a steamer basket and then pureeing them? Why not consider giving your baby any of these listed below on Thanksgiving Day (remember to always give your baby a new food for 3-4 days in a row to test for allergies – this will mean planning ahead if your child has not had any of these foods yet).

Simple steamed vegetables:

  • sweet peas
  • sweet potato
  • broccoli
  • green beans
  • carrots
  • cauliflower
  • corn
  • parsnips
  • pumpkin

Or, make some combinations:

  • carrots and squash
  • apples and squash
  • carrots and parsnips
  • corn and sweet potatoes
  • cranberries and apple juice

To make turkey:

  • Saute 1/2 cup of chopped carrots and onions in olive oil.  Brown 6 ounces of boneless, skinless turkey breast in the same pot along with a little bit of low-sodium chicken broth. Simmer until the turkey is cooked. Puree to the consistency you want.

If your baby is a vegetarian, for protein sources, you can serve any of these:

  • tofu
  • egg yolk
  • Quinoa
  • cheese
  • beans
  • yogurt

For dessert, how about some:

  • steamed apples and cranberries
  • steamed apples
  • rhubarb and apples
  • pumpkin and apples

So consider a home made meal for your baby’s first Thanksgiving – you just may end up sticking with it long after the holiday is over.

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Posted in food

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Trash vs Toilet

Posted on November 12, 2008 by | 3 Comments

Captain Compost sees the signs in public restrooms asking her not to flush her *ahem* feminine products.  She understands that they clog toilets and now that Joe the Plumber is in high demand, it’s hard to find a plumber available to fix such situations.

But she never thought about the eco side of things until she received an Ideal Bite tip not long ago, urging her to never flush sanitary products, condoms, facial tissues or anything else besides her recycled toilet paper.  When making the choice to flush or throw away, Captain Compost learned that it’s always better to throw away.  You see, the things that we flush don’t have time to biodegrade and a sanitary worker has to fish them out of the water (eww!) and send it to the landfill anyway.  But what about the things the sanitary workers don’t catch?  Well they end up back in our water supply or clogging pipes along the way.  They can also end up at the beach, where hungry animals might mistake our trash for their food.

And so, Eco Warriors, when faced with the decision of trash vs toilet, please choose trash!

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Posted in house stuff, issues

What does our president-elect have in store for the environment?

Posted on November 11, 2008 by | 1 Comment

1105_obama_460x276Excellent question!  Now that the ballots are counted and the confetti has been swept away (and composted or recycled, of course), let’s review Barack Obama’s plans for the environment.  As expected, his environmental policy is closely intertwined with our nation’s energy and economic future.

According to the Guardian, we can expect him to shred the Bush admiinistration’s policies and implement the following:

*  reduce US greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and cut them by 80% by 2050–by using a cap-and-trade system.

*  kickstart the US energy economy with $175 billion to create 5 million new “green” jobs with a focus on fuel-efficient car manufacturing, research funding for clean energy, and improving energy conservation in houses & buildings.

*  obtain 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2012.

Additionally, Barack Obama wants to eliminate our oil imports within 10 years by increasing fuel economy standards, promoting hybrid vehicles, and requiring oil companies to develop the 68 million acres of land they already lease but are not currently drilling on.  (This last point begs the question of why why why the Republican party screamed for opening up new territory for the oil companies to drill in…)

So, climate change and energy conservation–including a re-evaluation of the transportation funding process and public mass transportation projects.  What else?

According to his website, he’d like to reduce tropical deforestation, fully fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, place tougher regulations on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (which raise more than 40% of US livestock), support the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the Wetland Reserve Program in the Farm Bill.  He’d increase funding for the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program and reform the USDA crop insurance rates so organic farmers are not penalized.  Finally, Barack Obama will continue to protect National Parks & Forests by increasing their funding, increasing funds for the Land & Water Conservation Fund and the Conservation Security Program/Conservation Reserve Program to create additional incentives for private landowners to protect and restore native habitats.

Enviro-Girl sure hopes everyone has rolled up their shirtsleeves, there’s a lot to tackle–but it all looks like good stuff and should address many of the root causes of our environmental problems.  To read Barack Obama & Joe Biden’s entire environmental plan, click here.

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A cup of hot cocoa

Posted on November 10, 2008 by | 6 Comments

cocoa1Now that the days are chilly, Recycla and her children have revived their tradition of having a hot cup of cocoa after school.  This gives them a chance to warm up a bit and talk about the day’s events.

When Recycla and her children first started drinking cocoa, they went to the grocery store and bought those ubiquitous boxes of hot chocolate with the individual packets inside.  The resulting product tasted a bit, um, flat.  And fake.  Definitely not chocolatey.  So Recycla tried adding milk instead of water.  Marginally better, but still not good enough.

Thus began the Great Cocoa Experiment.  Recycla tried a variety of cocoas in an attempt to find the one that would result in a yummy thick chocolate drink.  It was a difficult task, but she persevered.

y317000008After many attempts, including trying cocoas made by various major chocolate companies, Recycla and her daughters decided that their favorite was made by Lake Champlain Chocolates.  They make several flavors, including Mocha Hot Chocolate and Aztec Hot Chocolate, but the family’s favorite is Traditional Hot Chocolate.  It’s thick and chocolatey and utterly delish.

Lake Champlain Chocolate hot chocolates are labelled as “all natural,” which Recycla assumes does not mean organic.  Since chocolate is second only to cotton in pesticide use on the crops, Recycla realizes that she should look for a good organic cocoa.  Luckily  Ideal Bite recently did a post on organic hot chocolates, which she plans to use as a basis for further taste testing.

On a related note, Recycla would like to mention that while regular marshmallows taste excellent in hot chocolate, old fashioned marshmallows are DIVINE.  Her family buys them at Whole Foods and could eat them all in one sitting.  Old fashioned marshmallows are made in pans and then cut into small squares.  The ingredients are high quality and, in the ones that Recycla’s family buys, you can taste the vanilla bean.  Yum!

What about you fellow Eco Warriors?  What is your favorite hot chocolate and why?

The Eco Women are not employed by Lake Champlain Chocolates, nor were they paid to do this review.   Image credits:  Top, Flickr.  Bottom, Lake Champlain Chocolates.

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Posted in food

Be green while looking cool

Posted on November 7, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Recycla recently discovered that it is possible to buy eco-friendly eye glasses.  She had no idea that this option exisited, although to be completely honest, Recycla had never even thought about the eco possibilities for eyewear.

glasses1

ICU Eyewear recently launched a line of 14 styles of reading glasses and five kinds of sunglasses.  They offer three kinds of glasses:

  • glasses that contain recycled metal that originated from garbage
  • those that contain reclaimed plastic derived from the company’s factory floors
  • glasses that come in sustainable bamboo, which meets EU/CE standards and do not contain formaldehyde

glasses2

The glasses come in a range of styles from cat’s eye frames to rectangles to ovals.  The reading glasses range from 1.25 to 2.50 depending on your vision needs.

glasses3

Recycla just ordered new eyeglasses yesterday and did she remember this information from a post she had just written?  No, she did not.  *sigh*

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Posted in Uncategorized

Quick Link: 30 ways to save $$$ when going green

Posted on November 7, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Check out this article at the Daily Green!

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Posted in Uncategorized

The Greener Art of Letter Writing

Posted on November 6, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Enviro Girl loves mail — with a huge pink puffy heart she loves getting cards, letters, postcards and jotted notes sent to her mail box the old-fashioned way.  She’s also a huge fan of sending mail — thank you cards, birthday greetings, the occasional long-winded letter to an old friend hand-written on both sides of stationery with current photos of Team Testosterone enclosed.  She keeps boxes of old cards and letters received over the years and on occasion even pulls them out for re-reading.  Enviro-Girl mourns the passing of letters in a world of email and texts and keeps to her retro ways of communicating with friends and family across the miles.

The business world brags about going “paperless” in an attempt to be “greener,” but is mail really all that environmentally un-friendly?

There are ways to “green up” your mail — and most save you money in the long run as well:

*  Use an embosser instead of return address labels.  Embossers are ideal for people who live in one spot for a very long time.  Enviro-Girl ordered hers from Crane & Co. years ago — the embosser never runs out, it doesn’t add a sticky label to jam up recycling machines, and the embossed return address looks very classy on her envelopes.

*  Instead of buying boxes for shipping at the post office, re-use a box.  Enviro-Girl saves old shoe boxes and shipping boxes for this purpose — and in a pinch she can usually find a free box at the grocery store.

*  Recycle your mail by reusing it — Enviro-Girl uses old envelopes to save seeds over the winter, she writes grocery lists on the back side of form letters, and she cuts the fronts off of received holiday cards to use for Christmas gift tags.

*  Don’t buy bubble wrap or packing popcorn — recycle newspaper, plastic bread bags or plastic shopping bags to pad packages.

*  Reduce or eliminate incoming junk mail by going to Do Not Mail to learn more.

*  Buy stationery from sustainable sources at places like Acorn Designs.  Etsy has many unique options as well.

*  Buy stationery made from recycled products — everything from sustainable banana fibers to elephant poo is used to make stationery.

borch_60curio“Curiosity” by Gerard ter Borch

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Quick Link: Organic sales decline

Posted on November 5, 2008 by | Leave a comment

According to an article in the New York Times, many families are cutting back on organic purchases due to budget constraints.  While this is not surprising, it’s still disappointing that people are being forced to choose and that organics are still more expensive than conventional options.

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Posted in issues, living green on a budget, quick link