scleaver's blog

Green Gifts for Little Foodies

scleaver — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:54:45 -0500

Looking for something for your toddler or young child this year that will satisfy their desire to cook and play pretend, but isn’t BPA plastic? Look no farther.

These green toys, including cooking and dining sets, are produced in California, using minimal packaging that’s recyclable. So, when they’re opened on Christmas day, they’re easy to open and ready to play with.

Pick up some play ice cream from Oompa Toys, you’ll get two double sided scoops of ice cream with two cones. Or, check out Lilly Bean for handcrafted play food, sandwiches, pita sandwich, pizza, doughnuts, and more.

For the real deal, Think Baby has kids’ tablewear that’s BPA free and their newly released six-piece feeding set has stainless steel bowls and storage containers covered with polypropylene covering.

Image from Eco Child's Play.

The Department of Ag Wants Your Opinion

scleaver — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This week, the Department of Agriculture is starting to make it easier to grow corn that’s genetically engineered to be used for ethanol, but safety advocates are concerned that some of that genetically engineered corn might end up in the food we eat as well as in gas tanks. The corn (developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc) would be designed to produce an enzyme that makes it easier to convert into ethanol.

On one hand, the Department of Ag insists that there won’t be any environmental, food, or human safety concern with the corn. On the other, the Center for Food Safety argues that the gene in the corn could impact allergies in humans. “This is the first crop proposed for industrial use,” Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, told the Associated Press, “and in a widely used food crop, we need to be extremely cautious.”

The good news, by 2009, the U.S. will be using at least 9 billion gallons of alternative fuel, thanks to new federal mandates. And, already, 30 percent of U.S. corn goes to producing ethanol.

As the The Detroit News and the AP reported, before it makes a final decision, the Department of Ag is asking for public comment. (Here’s more information from The Department of Agriculture about the request for comment.) Leave your comments before January 20, 2009 at Regulations.gov.

Image from the World Community Cookbook.

Shop Sustainably This Black Friday

scleaver — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:27:32 -0500

Recession or not, this year’s Black Friday promises to include the usual long lines at 4:00 AM at your favorite department store, piles of coupons, and rock-bottom prices. But, whether or not you’re heading out the door early, late, or not at all, on the day after Thanksgiving, it’s official and inevitable: the holiday shopping season has begun.

If you’re interested in protesting consumerism this year, you can observe Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day instead of working off your Turkey Day feast via shopping. But, as Sarah Kuck discussed on WorldChanging.com, especially in this economy, wanting to live with less, can be a challenge. Perhaps the best thing you can do this holiday season, rather than give up shoppin entirely, is to shop local. Supporting local, independent businesses, and buying locally produced items, keeps money in your community, supports small businesses, and keeps the market going for locally products well into the new year.

As you head into the holiday shopping season, what are your local shopping tips?

Image from WorldChanging.com.

From The Bog To The Table

scleaver — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:41:41 -0500

It’s Thanksgiving, and that means its cranberry time! What holiday meal isn’t complete without a splash of red cranberry sauce? But, cranberries are more than just colorful, they’re also good for you.

We all know about cranberry’s power when it comes to preventing UTIs. According to OrganicAuthority.com, cranberries are a major source of antioxidants, and phytonutrients that protect against cancer, heart disease, and more. A study from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, found that compounds in cranberries were toxic to a variety of cancer cells, from breast cancer to leukemia cells.

So, you want to incorporate these prize-fighting fruits into your holiday meal? Make sure your cranberry sauce is chemical free by buying organic cranberries from Cranberry Hill Farm in Massachusetts (or find a local organic cranberry blogger by using the Local Harvest tool on the River Wired Home Page).

Get any and all cranberry recipes from Ocean Spray. Here’s an easy cranberry sauce recipe. Epicurious.com has cranberry recipes for the advanced cook. And, here are cranberry bread recipes to help you use up the cranberries that don’t make it onto your Thanksgiving table.

Photo from VegPod.com.

Save Water This Holiday

scleaver — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:12:55 -0500

This holiday, for the eco-minded Mr. Fix Its, or for yourself if you’re looking to save water and money, check out the Niagara Conservation’s Water EcoKit to reduce water consumption (recommended by ReallyNatural.com).

Inside you’ll find, an Earth Massage Showerhead that provides good force at low pressure, and saves 40% more energy and water. A kitchen swivel aerator for your kitchen sink and two bathroom aerators. A toilet tank bank and toilet water saver help reduce the amount of water you’re using, up to ½ gallon per flush, that’s up to 2,700 gallons each year.

And, to help you seal up any leaks or other drips, the kit includes a flow meter bag to help you identify where water is being wasted in your house, leak detection tablets, and tape to seal water leaks.

Buy the Niagara Conservation Water EcoKit at Amazon's Home Improvement section.

Photo from Riverina Water Council.

Thanksgiving 101

scleaver — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:49:58 -0500

Top 10 Things to Try This Thanksgiving

10. Set Your Table

Outfit your table with these bright, autumn-colored hemp tableclothes, napkins, and placemats. All you have to do to find a great centerpiece is head outside, collect a bunch of pinecones, leaves, and evergreen sprigs to the table and you’ve got yourself some Thanksgiving décor.

9. Visit a Local Bakery

As you plan your dessert table, make at least one dessert hassle-free by checking out a local bakery at BakeryFinder for your pumpkin pies, carrot cakes, and turkey-topped cupcakes.

8. Get a Green Wine

Take a tip from Treehugger and put a bottle of sustainable wine on your table. Some options: the carbon neutral winery Mendocino Wine Company or LEED certified Stratus Winery.

7. Start Right

Get your Turkey Day off to a tasty start with a host of appetizers, from cheese balls to sugar coated pecans to the inevitable (in my house anyway) olive bowl.

6. Prepare for the Day After

Store leftovers in reusable, biodegradable storage containers from GreenHome.com. Then, get creative with your leftovers by trying out some creative turkey recipes, like Turkey and Black Bean Soup, a turkey or veggie pot pie, or the Moistmaker late-night turkey sandwich with enough tryptophan to put you right to sleep.

5. Save Room for Dessert!

Get organic baking ideas (or a delicious treat if you’re in the Los Angeles area) from Ghalia Organic Desserts or try one of the healthier treats from Eating Well, the pumpkin pie with rum sounds especially amazing.

4. Don’t Forget the Sides

As important as the turkey is, the sides are just as vital. Get an array of side dishes that will wow every guest. Try winter fruit salad with lemon poppyseed dressing, bread stuffing, or sourdough dressing with truffles. Browse even more sides at The Food Network.

3. Celebrate the Pumpkin

Pumpkin is the featured veggie at Thanksgiving, so take yours to new heights with pumpkin turnovers or curried pumpkin soup. Or, choose one of the many pumpkin recipes from the Pumpkin Nook's Cookbook.

2. Make Tubers Terrific

Thanksgiving comes with two potatoes—sweet and white. My suggestion, keep the white potatoes the way they should be, mashed. And make something delicious with the sweet ones, sweet potato cassarole or mashed with maple butter anyone? Or, go for a total spud surprise by adding Roasted Fingerling Potatoes With Dried Figs and Thyme to your table.

1. Make the Perfect Turkey

Follow the cooking directions at Organic Authority to cook an organic turkey and you’ll find that there’s more than one way to cook a turkey—in an oven, grilling, frying.

Here are the answers to every turkey question you could have on the big day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo from Vanelsas.wordpress.com.

The Future of Fish

scleaver — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:02:12 -0500

Forget the image that you have of hundreds of fish swimming downstream, waiting to be caught by an eager fisherman, then ending up stacked on ice in the grocery store. According to The New York Times, by 2050, most of the farm we eat will be raised on huge aquaculture farms, and our favorite species may be harder to find. Thanks to over-fishing, many of our favorite species demand more energy, money, and equipment to produce the same amount of fish (85 million tons each year) even as demand is sky-rocketing—global consumption has doubled since 1973.

But, fish-lovers, all hope is not lost! Well-managed fisheries can bring around a declining species. How to help the world get its fisheries under control so that your favorite maki roll is safe?

Expand your palate. Right now, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, “”the maximum wild-capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached” (quoted in the New York Times). So, to give fisheries time to re-grow depleted populations of bluefin tuna, shark, Chilean sea bass, cod, and others, start buying lesser-known fish, like wild sardines or anchovies.
Buy wild fish, or catch it yourself. The aquaculture industry is feeding fish to fish, and it’s an inefficient industry. It takes five kilograms of smaller fish to produce one kilogram of farmed cod, and 20 kilogram of smaller fish to produce one kilogram of tuna. Not to mention that farmed fish hurts the surrounding water and doesn’t taste as good.
Support catch shares. Shares that allow fishermen to buy into an industry and the right to catch a sustainable harvest keeps the number of fish caught at a fixed number and has worked in Alaska.
For more info on fish, see the posts on sustainable sushi, seafood, and salmon.

Photo from Green Peace.

Winter Squash 101

scleaver — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:25:39 -0500

Squash can be intimidating to work with, and for good reason. Apparently, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, there are more squash varieties sold now than have previously been in supermarkets. And, with such varied textures, colors, and shapes, it’s hard to know just which you can cut up and sauté, which should have their insides scooped out and pureed, and which should be put on the mantel for admiring only.

Here’s how to buy and use your winter squash:

When you’re in the produce aisle, look for a squash with a rind that’s unblemished without any soft spots. And, it should feel heavy for its size, the sugars in the squash add weight.

There are many types of squash, here are four that you’ll likely come across:

Butternut: shaped like a large pear with cream-colored skin, orange flesh, and a sweet flavor.
Acorn: have green skin with orange speckled patches and yellow flesh, has a sweet, nutty flavor.
Turban: green and speckled or striped, orange-yellow flesh that tastes like hazelnuts.
Hubbard: a large squash with dark green, grey-blue, or orange-red skin, not as sweet as other squash. (From Homestead Farm.)

After you choose your squash, store them in a cool, dry place for a few weeks so some of the starch can convert to sugar, and they can dry out a bit.

Instead of buying pre-hacked chunks of larger squash, like butternut, buy a big squash, cut your own pieces, and keep the rest chilled until you need more.

One way to cook your winter squash, cut it in half, roast it, and add a pat of butter before eating. Or, try a squash soup recipe from Homestead Farm, cook up a butternut squash with a recipe from All Recipes, or bake squash pie from Seeds of Knowledge.

Photo from What's Cooking America.

Coffee Cup Catastrophe

scleaver — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you’re like me, you drink a fair amount of coffee and throw the cups away without another thought. Well, according to Eat. Drink. Better. I should rethink my drink-and-toss practices: disposable coffee cups are responsible for taking more than 6.5 million trees each year, and in 2006, 16 billion (estimated) coffee cups were thrown away, creating 250 million-plus pounds of waste.

Starbucks has gotten a bad eco-rap lately (see the post In The Blue) and the international coffee Co hasn’t fully gotten behind this green issue either. In March, 2006, disposable cup with 10% postconsumer recycled fiber was introduced. But, 10% leaves lots of room for improvement, considering that Green Mountain Coffee uses cups made from cornstarches that are 100% renewable and Tully’s Coffee Corporation uses a compostable cup and collects used cups in stores to make sure they’re recycled or composted (from Eat. Drink. Better.).

Of course, the best way to avoid filling land fills with your used latte cups is to use a travel mug: ReusableBags.com has a BPA free, stainless steel model, and EcoProducts.com has a travel mug made entirely from corn. Whether you’re using recycled paper mugs or a corn-made travel version, bottoms up!

Photo from ReallyNatural.com.

Green Your Happy Hour

scleaver — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Gust Organics restaurant in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village is now the world’s first 100% USDA Certified organic bar.

Among their sustainable practices: recycling, using wind energy and only wind energy to power the restaurant, solar lighting, biodegradable containers that are printed using soy ink, energy efficient and water conservation equipment, green cleaning practices, and a restaurant building that’s built using recycled woods. The servers wear organic uniforms, and you’ll have organic flowers at your table.

The menu (Buenos Aires style steak, homemade turkey meatballs, spinach fettucini) looks delicious, and now there’s a fully organic bar to go with it. Eaten at Gust Organics? What was the experience like?

If you’re not in New York, find a green restaurant near you and learn more at The Green Restaurant Association.

Photo from YumSugar and Gust Organics.