Farm Food is More Fun

When Friday rolls around, the excitement begins.  No, it isn't a fancy restaurant, but a trip to the farm is so much better.  The thrill of discovery is real!  What will we pull from the baskets this time?  What is that thing?  I wonder how you fix it?

Upon returning home I start to plan when and how I am going to prepare each item.  I try to use everything.  Our guinea pigs are eager to help with leftover greens.   They have already devoured the tops I cut off the radishes this evening.

After putting everything away I washed the Jerusalem artichokes, chopped them, tossed them with fresh garlic and olive oil, sprinkled them with sea salt, and roasted them in the oven.  We had never had these before and were pleased with the taste - a little like a potato with a bit nuttier flavor.  

Now, what to use next...perhaps the mushrooms.  Aren't they cute?

Reasons to Use Wool Dryer Balls

Well this post didn't come out on Wednesday!  It has been one of those weeks - school, work, kid meltdowns, illness, etc.  I did manage to do one thing greener this week and that was to purchase the yarn to make my own wool dryer balls.

Reasons to use wool dryer balls  -

1. Wool dryer balls can save you money on your energy bill over time because they cut down on drying time by separating the wet clothing so the hot air can circulate better.
2. Wool dryer balls can be used over and over versus the single use dryer sheet thereby decreasing our weekly trash.
3. Wool dryer balls can be used to fluff the laundry for a few minutes that was hung outside to dry making line dried clothes feel softer.
4. Wool dryer balls do not impend towels absorbency the way fabric softener can.

You can buy wool dryer balls or make your own.  In fact my daughter and I have decided to make some extra ones through the year to have available at the farmer's market.  Here is the link to the tutorial we used http://www.motherearthliving.com/healthy-home/diy-projects/how-to-make-wool-dryer-balls-zv0z1312zdeb.

Caution:  Remember to decrease the drying time when you start the dryer otherwise the clothes will continue to dry long after they are actually dry. This rubbing together of dry items will produce more static in the clothes.  So be sure to check the clothes often the first few times you dry using the wool dryer balls.

Pretending to be a One Car Family

When I was a little girl in the 1970's my family had only one car.  I don't remember much about it other than it was white.  My father drove it to work while my mother stayed home and cared for me.  When I was very little she worked nights after my father got home and car pooled with a group of women from town.  On days I had a doctor's appointment Dad found a ride to work or my mom dropped him off and picked him up.  In my early teens we got another car and became a two car family.

Unlike my parents, there has never been a time that my husband and I have been a one car family.  We both work away from the home and we put a lot of miles on our vehicles.  Last year we often rode together trying to save money.  This year my goal is to live a more environmentally friendly life and once again carpooling makes sense.

My husband works 25 miles from our home.  I work 23 miles from our home.  The distance between the schools we teach in is only 5 miles.   I used a  carbon footprint calculator and determined that my husband's truck is responsible for 0.16 metric tons of CO2 and my car, 0.8 metric tons of CO2 per week.  So in one year of working if we both drive daily that ends up creating 7.68 metric tons of CO2. Just remember this does not include weekend travel or summer travel.  

Now let's pretend to be a one car family and use my Nissan Cube to commute to work and see how those emissions drop. If we use just my car to travel to work and include the additional miles between schools, then we will be responsible for 0.10 metric tons of CO2 per week and 3.2 metric tons of CO2 per year.  That is definitely greener!

Reasons to car pool:

1. More time together as a family
2. Less CO2 emissions
3. Saves money                

For my family these are three really good reasons to pretend we are a 1 car family.  

Goodbye Disposable Water Bottles

1,872 plastic water bottles!

This is the number of bottles we threw away last year.  This isn't including the number of 2 liter soda bottles just water bottles like Dasani, Aquafina, Nestle, etc.  Did we recycle them? No!  Instead they were just tossed in the garbage.  Our 1,872 bottles are taking up space at the landfill and will be there for the next 450 years at least.  No more!  Goodbye Disposable water bottles!  

We had been drinking water from disposable bottles for so long I can't remember why we even started. Was it convenience? Was our water bad?  Were we just trying to not drink so much soda?  No matter, it was time to change.

The first thing my husband and I did was to purchase a water test kit to check our well water.  This is the one we got H2-Drinking-Water-Analysis-Kit.  I purchased it from our local Lowes store.  Testing was not difficult and the steps were easy to follow. The only thing wrong with our water is that it is hard water meaning that it has a high amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium.  I discovered this is in no way a health risk but actually has been linked to having strong bones.  So our water is actually good for us even though it is not good for the faucets in our home.   I keep wondering why it took us so long to do this.  We have been spending about $400 per year on disposable water bottles for absolutely no reason.

The next thing I did was to search for the best way to carry our own water when we leave the house.  I read numerous reviews and had to decide between glass and stainless steel bottles.  I ended up choosing the stainless steel because it could carry hot or cold liquids.  These are the ones I ended up buying Mira Vacuum-Insulated-Bottle-Double-Stainless.  I really liked the fact I could get a 12 oz. to use in my son's lunch box.  He is really going to enjoy having not just cold water but also cold milk. I got the 17 oz. ones for the rest of us.

I feel really good about this decision to get rid of disposable water bottles.   I may have spent about $100 to get us several bottles but we will still see a savings of $300 this year just by drinking our own water.  We are cutting down on the amount of waste we create and most important of all I can feel good knowing that my family is doing their part to be more green in their daily habits.

Reasons to Buy a Pressure Cooker

When I was a little girl my mother had an olive green pressure cooker. I didn't really know anything about the pressure cooker other than I was supposed to stay away from it.  I can't remember the exact meals she made with it but I can almost hear the knock knock of the rocker on top moving as the steam escaped while cooking.

My family is joining a local CSA (community supported agriculture) in an effort to become more green and healthy.  I have been trying to figure out how to make sure I have the time to cook the food that we get from the CSA since we have busy lives.  I started browsing the Internet for ideas and stumbled upon a pressure cooker.  And so I researched more about pressure cookers and decided this would be a great option for cooking.

Reasons to buy and use a pressure cooker compared to cooking on the stove -

1.  Pressure cookers cook food in 70% less time.  Which means the food gets to the table faster and after a long, hard day at work when you just feel like falling into bed. This is a definite plus!
2.  Pressure cookers use less energy.  Which means they are more economical and  environmentally friendly to use.
3.  Pressure cooked food retains 90%-95% of its nutritional value.  Which means the food is actually better for you.

I looked at two types of pressure cookers - ones used on top of the stove and ones which are electrical stand alone units.  They both have their advantages.  The ones used on top of the stove cook the quickest due to being able to reach higher pressures and temperatures.  The stand alone units take about 3 minutes longer to cook foods on average than the stove top ones but they offer a variety of extra features.  I decided to go with an electrical stand alone unit.  Here is the one Instant Cooker IC60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Programmable Pressure Cooker

Links to sites which helped me make my decision -
http://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/
http://www.consumersearch.com/pressure-cooker-reviews

Join a CSA

2016 is near its end and I have a goal to be greener in 2017.  I would love to say I will grow the food we are going to eat but that is not going to happen this year so I began researching CSAs, community supported agriculture.

What is a CSA?  A CSA is a way to buy local directly from the farmer.  The farmer offers a share, or membership to community members and in return members receive a certain amount of vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs,  and cheese weekly from the farmer.

Why join a CSA?  

1. Buy local in order to support the small farmer.
2. Protect the environment by cutting down on the distance your food travels to reach you.
3. Eat well and be healthy by eating a variety of the freshest food possible.

Questions to ask the farmer?

1. How long have you been doing CSA?
2. What happens if there is a bad season?
3. Can I talk to some of your current or previous members before I make the commitment?
4. What type of farming practices do you use?
5. Are you certified organic?
6. Do you work collaboratively with other farmers in the area?
7. How many members do you have?
8. How long have you been farming?
9. What kind of variety can I expect?

My family and I have found a local CSA that we are going to try for the remainder of the winter/spring season.  So I will let you know how things go.

Here are a few more links to help find and learn more about CSAs:
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

https://www.biodynamics.com/content/community-supported-agriculture-introduction-csa
http://www.groundworksfarm.com/  This is the one we are joining.

Kicking the Plastic Bag Habit

When I was growing up groceries were packaged in large brown paper bags and then along came the plastic bag.  Every time we went to the store more plastic bags.  When we put away the groceries we added the plastic bags to the mounting collections.  It seemed so great.  We could line the bathroom trashcan with them and use them again.  But.... plastic bags are a major source of pollution.  

According to theworldcounts, 5 trillion plastic bags are used per year!  Plastic bags are produced from fossil fuels in a process that requires a lot of energy and water.  

Reasons why plastic bags are bad for the environment:

1.  Large component of land and sea litter.  Look up Pacific Garbage Patch.
2.  Kill marine life that consume them.
3.  Release dangerous chemicals into landfills that get into the food chain.

To make the burrow greener I am determined to cut my dependence on plastic bags.  I will carry my own reusable bags to package groceries.  I have a couple already but I am eager to make some of my own since I love to sew.  I am still debating what to do about garbage bags.

Links to information about plastic bags -

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags_2.html

http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/environmental-policy/plastic-bag-problem-ze0z1302zwar

http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/kamaral/plasticsarticle.html