The Green Beet: Got Garden Fever?
With all this uncharacteristic warm weather we’ve been experiencing the last few weeks, I’ve found myself with a serious case of garden fever, one of the subsets of cabin fever that strikes so many Alaskans during our non-summer months.
Garden fever is usually one of the last fevers to rise during the cabin’s duration – earlier bouts include holiday fever and, hopefully, a bit of Hawaii fever, which isn’t really a fever at all, but more like a reprieve from the cooped-up-ness that we all know so well. Garden fever is usually diagnosed by the absence of all sense that there is actually still snow on the ground, and therefore planting starts and all other things gardening is really a little premature, and yet you long to do so anyways. Many whom this illness hits find themselves visiting a greenhouse in subzero weather, or just regularly walking through the plant section at the grocery store, cursing and coveting the earliest batch of daffodils shipped up from those sunnier states of the union. I myself almost purchased a batch just yesterday, but refrained: the thought was to not bring my carbon footprint up another notch by having a second round of shipped fresh flowers in my house in February. It’s all about moderation, people.
The good news is garden fever does not have to be a negative experience, though your loved ones may tire of trips to the garden section. Sure, actually digging into the dirt sounds a lot more fun, but the great part about gardening is that you can start very very early, if you start in the right way. By right way, I mean by beginning to begin to plan this year’s garden. Order some seed catalogs, surf the internet, head to the Alaska Cooperative Extension (ACE) office the next time your in Soldotna or Anchorage and pick up some literature. Get your green – or, if you’re like me, your brownish-green – thumb working by taking the time to plan out what your gardening adventure will look like this year.
Need some help and inspiration? This and the next few green beet columns will cover some of the basics before the actual planting begins. This, of course, is one of my ways to combat my own case of garden fever.
First, you’ll need to figure out the location of your garden plot. If you’ve had a garden in previous years, this may already be determined. I know my “regular” plot location, but I’m hopping on the planning bandwagon by determining where another bed, this one for red and black currants, will be. (In this case, more-gardeny friends than I have explained that early a.m. sun and then shade is best for these tasty perennials, and so the east side of my house will do). But for those who are planning a new garden, Ann Robert’s Alaska Gardening Guide Volume One: Alaska Vegetables for Northern Climates suggests taking these two things into consideration this early in the game: sun exposure and slope.
Sun Exposure: For more plants, you’ll need at least six hours of direct un-shaded light daily. Take into consideration shade from all sorts of things: buildings, trees, even fences can shade a garden.
Slope: Level land makes tilling easy, but if you have a slope, southern facing is ideal. Any slope provides drainage, but southern has better sun exposure. Personally, my garden plot is on level ground ( I work with what I have), but I have heard time and time again that if you want to grow strawberries, a southern facing hill is best – so much so that many gardeners create a small sloped area specifically for these berries.
So spend some time in your yard and figure out where will work best for your garden. A word to the wise: just because a location is chosen doesn’t mean the soil there will instantly work for gardening; plan on the possibility of having to purchase some topsoil or at least doctoring up the soil present with compost and peat moss. But with the snow still on the ground, there’s not much that can be done about that (I’ll highlight soil and soil testing later this spring). So for now begin cooling your fever by picking a spot. I’m so excited I could dance to a green beet…
The Green Beet: The 3/50 Project
While vacationing last month, I came across an article in a local newspaper that introduced me to a grassroots campaign launched early last year named The 3/50 Project, an innovative call to strengthen your local economy by shopping at brick and mortar businesses in your area. While The Green Beet typically focuses on a different kind of green, I was so motivated by this modest request from a former independent retail store owner turned motivational speaker and writer that I thought I would share the idea to keep our local economy rolling with very little effort on your part. And with a little innovative thinking of our own, many of us can make the environmental green a priority in this project as well – more on that later.
The 3/50 call is simple: identify three independent businesses in your local area that you would hate to see fail, and spend at least fifty dollars a month combined in those three stores. Not fifty dollars at each, only fifty amongst the three. Not too difficult, right?
Not difficult, but according to a Civic Economics 2008 study in Michigan, spending money in these types of stores packs a powerful local punch. For every $100 spent at one of these “brick and mortar” stores, approximately $68 goes back into the local economy through taxes, payroll and other expenses. The same money spent in a national chain only brings back $43, and ordering online brings home nothing. It doesn’t matter what kind of independent business – grocery market, bookstore, movie theater, retail shop, restaurant – the idea is that if it’s independently owned and you love it, shop there.
What is independently owned mean in this case?
+ The majority of the business is owned privately, by employees, a community or an area cooperative
+ The business is registered in its home state
+ It has a physical storefront (no home-based businesses)
+ Decisions are made by the owner
+ The business is responsible for expenses
+ The business is not a vendor selling wholesale
+ It relies on its own name and reputation – not a “brand name” store
I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about what stores I’d like to stick around in my own community, and then it dawned on me how this project could also be environmentally green too: I plan on spending my fifty a month at some of my local businesses who’s owner(s) and culture espouse some of the same green values that I hold true. One of my favorites is an independent second hand store: recycled clothing and just about anything else I can find, if I wait long enough. Another business offers much of the environmentally-friendly toiletry and cleaning products I tend to purchase online. No more: I’ll spend the extra buck or two to by them near home. And a brewery that feeds farm animals with the spent grains after the beer is done? Yup, I’ll get my growler filled there.
Not sure if your favorite local businesses are green? Go find out. Peruse through the product selection. Do they offer green products or services? Ask what the business does to help the environment. If the answer is nothing, ask if they would be willing to make some changes, especially to keep a loyal customer who is committed to come back month after month.
Learn more about The 3/50 Project here:
http://www.the350project.net/home.html
Learn more about the Civic Economics study here:
http://www.civiceconomics.com/localworks/GR_Local_Works_Summary.pdf
Happy St. Valentine’s Day!!
Jen Ransom was born and raised in Seward and now resides and gardens with her family in Soldotna, Alaska.
The Green Beet: Design with recycle in mind
By Jen Ransom for Seward City News
My husband and I recently took a whirlwind trip to visit some friends down in Los Angeles. Leaving the little one at my parent’s Oregon home, we flew down to visit America’s sunny city during the worst rainstorm LA had seen in probably 15 years.
Skipping a trip to the beach, we spent the weekend driving around the famous and infamous sites of the area. While not exactly low-impact (I’m sure my ecological footprint is quite large for this week) at least we didn’t hit much traffic: We were often the only vehicle in the carpool lane and had an open road in a city of millions.
The greenest part of the trip, however, was seeing how my girlfriend – a costume designer at Paramount – created outfits and accessories from bits and pieces of recycled clothing. While much of her designing for True Jackson, the show she designs for, comes from new articles of clothing purchased from big name stores, her own lines of hair pieces and clothing are more eco-friendly, created from both vintage and just-plain-used clothing.
The guest bedroom is also her “home office” and is filled with “found” items and cloth so that she has her materials at her fingertips. Not only is the organization of the items green – buttons in used coffee pots, pins in octagon-shaped plastic candy bins – but almost everything she uses already has lived one “style-life” already.
Her line of moderately priced hair pieces, tate maDe, includes vintage buttons from her great aunt’s collection. A shelf full of vintage sheets she’s found in thrift stores wait to become detailed sun dresses once her show goes on hiatus this summer. I loved hearing about the children’s clothing line she has designed in her head – fun, soft, inexpensive pieces of girl’s clothing that looks girly, not, as she puts it, an almost sexy child version of adult woman’s clothing that one can find at so many department stores these days. I was glad to hear it – I recently saw a “child’s bra”at Fred Meyer that had black lace, leopard print and absolutely no support, because it was made to go on a little girl with no chest! Shocking to me, but I digress…
I guess I enjoyed hearing about and looking at her designs because I myself have been involved in a recycled-sewing project for the last couple years. Made from wool clothing picked up at the five dollar bag sale at Bishop’s Attic and other thrift stores, I volunteer with other ladies from our church making warm, fun, artistic wool quilts. These quilts are prizes at a yearly bingo event. I love ripping the seams out of what some might think are useless clothing and piece-mealing together a quilt that I know someone will use and love. This year I am foregoing a large quilt project (too hard with the little one at home) and am instead using recycled wool to make gloves and hats. I love the pattern, which can be made into basic single color items or thrown together into more of a crazy-patch collection of different prints, and it will be good to use up all my small scrap pieces of wool from the last two quilts. Some of the items will be used in the bingo during our Oktoberfest celebration, others I’ll send to a mission we support in Russia.
Do you long for a creative outlet? Do you enjoy painting on a Saturday afternoon, or do you think you might? Are you considering a Valentine’s gift that is homemade? It’s so easy nowadays to run to your closest art store and purchase everything you “need” for a weekend, or winter, project. I’m not saying that new cloth or paper are not sometimes fun to use, but so many times part of our creative outlets include a trip to the store and a lot of packaging. Why not take some inspiration from my friend and try recycling items for your next project? If your incredibly creative like her and can come up with an idea off the cuff, great – go do it. If you’re a little more like me and need some outside inspiration (and possibly a pattern), try checking out the websites that follow. Have an idea that other’s might enjoy? Please share them here.
FUN RECYCLED ART PROJECT IDEAS
Lots of recycled art projects, I especially like the search engine for this website:
http://www.makingfriends.com/recycle.htm
Not specific for recycled cloth, but would work with used clothing:
http://sewing.about.com/od/homedecprojects/ht/pillowcover.htm
The Imagination Factory has lots of great ideas for kid’s art projects:
http://www.kid-at-art.com/
Learn more about tate maDe here:
http://tatemade.com/Home_Page.php
The Green Beet: Eco-Travel Action Plan
By Jen Ransom for Seward City News
During the next few months many Alaskans escape the dark and cold for warmer weather and much-needed vacations. But vacation time doesn’t need to be a vacation from green living. Just a little bit of preparation, a few changes in mindset and some innovative thinking can make a vacation a bit more eco-friendly: especially when you create a green action plan.
Green action plans can be used in numerous situations, whether it’s travel to another state or how your family recreates each weekend. Simply brainstorm what you’ll need and would like to have/do in a situation, and then brainstorm ways to implement a greener slant on such activities. Decide what works best for you and the environment, and write it down. Writing it down in a five-step (or three-step, two-step) plan makes it easier to follow and brings accountability to the table, especially when more than one person is involved.
An example of a green action plan follows, this one created for an upcoming trip to visit friends and family on the west coast:
First, we are bringing a handful of cloth diapers with us. Certainly, I will have to use some disposables during parts of our trip, including when Granddad is watching over the little one: he doesn’t do cloth, no matter what. Actually, he claims he doesn’t do diapers at all, but then offered to watch our little one while hubby and I take a much-needed weekend retreat to visit some friends a state over. I suppose we will have to deal with the no-diaper policy before then; Grandma can’t be there to change them all the time. But while visiting places where a washer is easily available (and where it’s actually warm enough to line-dry for a few weeks) I’ll limit the amount of disposables wrapped around our daughter’s bum.
Second, we are bringing our own reusable cups. While there are limits on sippy cups, travel mugs or reusable water bottles filled with liquids as we go through security at the airport, we can have them with us empty and then ask them to be filled in-route. [For more information on airline traveling with children and liquids, see http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/children/formula.shtm ]. The cups will also come in handy during the driving parts of our trip, whether from town to town or just grocery store to hotel room.
Speaking of hotel rooms, this brings me to the third step in our action plan. We do have a few hotel nights planned, but are planning on not using any of the little soaps, shampoos or lotions they provide. We are bringing our own from home, re-filled many times over the years, so to conserve the plastic needed to provide each new hotel guest with their very own toiletry kit. We’ll also pass on daily fresh sheets and cleaning during extended visits.
The fourth step is a hard one for me: I will resist the urge to collect brochures just because they are free. I don’t have to take the paper ads with me to get all the information. If I am really interested in attending an event, maybe – or I could write the info on scrape paper – but I will not collect up a ton of brochures, ads and menus “just because” I am traveling someplace new.
The fifth and final step focuses on eating out. This vacation my husband and I have already decided we will share several meals (minimizing food waste), ask for things we don’t like on a plate to be left off (if a baked potato comes with a side of butter and you don’t plan on using butter, why have it on there in the first place?), and bring our own “to-go” container in case we have left-overs we’d like for later.
Are you planning a vacation sometime in the near future? Why not take a half-hour and come up with a green action plan for your own family? It can include ideas from above, or be an entirely different focus – all that needs to happen is that you are thinking about what you can do to be more environmentally-friendly while traveling. Pick five, or even three, things you will do to make your trip more environmentally friendly, and then stick to them. Plan on doing a lot of sightseeing? Book a hotel close to the action and walk instead of driving from place to place. No idea where to visit? Try traveling to a community that prides itself on being eco-friendly, such as Austin, Texas or Bolder, Colorado. Get the kids involved in making the plan and they may be more apt to follow it – the same goes for spouses. Good luck – and enjoy your green travels!
The Green Beet: Green Resolution
By Jen Ransom for Seward City News
2010 is the start of a new year and a new decade. Why not make them a little greener by focusing your new year’s resolution on living a more sustainable and green lifestyle? This could be a life-altering resolution, like giving up one’s car for a bike this year, or a smaller but still relevant one, such as committing to bring reusable grocery bags to the store each and every time you shop – and then making it easy to do so by storing extra where you’re most likely to grab them. I’d like to hear what your green resolutions are, and I’ll plan on checking in on them – and updating you on mine – during the next few months.
I’ve given a lot of thought as to what I might give up or add to my life in 2010 and I keep coming up with the same conclusion: My resolution is to be nicer to my dog. This doesn’t necessarily seem green at first glance, but once examined it creates a lot of eco-sense.
First, I want you to realize I’m not a mean pet owner. Roamer, named after he “roamed” onto my porch one day half-starved for food and attention, is a big, dumb-but-lovable yellow lab with a tendency to pass gas around respected guests. For the first seven years together, Roamer and I walked almost daily when it was time to be active and chilled together when it was time to be calm.
But then a few changes in the family dynamic were thrown in, namely a new baby and a once-spry pup now aged to an old dog; complete with sleep-inducing anti-seizure meds and a tendency not to take to toddling children climbing up and over his aching, arthritic bones. And so more often than not, with him in complete agreement as he sniffs at the door each morning, Roamer spends much of his time outside in our backyard or inside our garage, sleeping.
He’s feed well and comes inside after the baby goes to bed. It’s not animal cruelty, but I hate that a creature so loyal to me could spend the last years of his life in such a depressing manner. He just doesn’t get out and exercise like he use too, and he spends much of his life alone. So for 2010 I pledge to be nicer to Roamer by taking him on more walks and by simply petting him more.
“How is this green?” you might ask. Here’s my answer:
1. When I walk more, I drive less.
We live in town, and pre-baby many walks were duel, or triple, purpose: Exercise for me and for the dog, and running whatever errand I needed to make nearby that day. Now that I feel confident in doing these things with child and dog, I can once-again lower my carbon footprint.
2. Spending time in nature helps me appreciate it more, and thus want to protect it more.
When I don’t have errands to run, I walk a trail near my home that gets us out into “urban” nature. Sure, I can hear vehicles drive by and see a few homes here and there, but I can also admire the many birch and spruce trees, listen to the birds squawking on the Kenai River and occasionally hold strong on the leash when nearby moose drive Roamer crazy. I’m willing to fight, and make due with less, to protect these things.
3. I am practicing compassion and respect for other-than-human beings one animal at a time.
I may not be the poster child for PETA, but I am committed to making sure my pet has a decent life. To me, that’s something [shrug].
What’s your commitment? We can all resolve to lose weight and get stronger – and heck, both those things probably will happen to me just from being nicer to my dog – but what resolution is tugging at you that could help make this world a greener place? I’d love to hear your ideas, and I promise to check in and see how you are doing, as well as focus some Green Beet columns on the green commitments you make this Friday to help you on our journey to a greener new year. Cheers!
The Green Beet: Christmas Trees
“Christmas has, so far, withstood the threat of artificial trees and plastic ornaments.” – Eugene McCarthy
We always get a live tree. It’s fun to hike out into the wild (or, this year with a young one in tow, a few yards into a friend’s property) and find that perfect tree. I suppose some extra-greenies might chide me for “wasting” a living tree; after all, once cut it can no longer help clean the air, keep an ecosystem healthy, etc., etc. But I love the sight and smell of the Christmas tree in our living room. It’s no waste. It’s a very tangible reminder to focus on the true gifts of this holiday, including the gift of the Earth. I love the way we humans use things like trees to celebrate important moments: I cut down a Christmas tree this year to celebrate the birth of Christ, but last year I planted an apple tree as a celebration of my daughter’s birth.
“The life without festival is a long road without an inn.” – Democritus of Abdera
For many, Christmas is foremost a religious holiday, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The evergreen tree is a well-used symbol in celebrating the religious Holy Day of Christmas. Trees are also prevalent in Scripture, along with branches, vines and leaves. Noah is handed an olive branch, Abraham meets the Lord while sitting in the shade of an oak tree, Moses parts the red sea with a stick, and Genesis begins and Revelation ends with the Tree of Life. For inspiration to become green, one can look to Christianity and Jesus. Care of the Earth, or creation theology, is part of the Christian mission. Basic rights such as clean water are not only required for our human brothers and sisters, but the more-than-human population in the natural world. The needy and poor include damaged environments and endangered populations. Many see God in nature, sometimes more than in a church building.
“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”- Martin Luther
HarperOne recently published a New Revised Standard Version Bible coined “The Green Bible”, where, similar to passages when Jesus spoke printed in red, passages which focus on creation theology are printed in green. The Bible also has several essays on creation theology, or eco-theology, including a message from Pope John Paul II called “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation”. Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for a “Green Christian”? The Green Bible is an idea. Just try to get one printed on recycled paper! Merry Christmas.
“When the sage, Honi, was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked him, ‘How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?’
‘Seventy years,’ replied the man.
Honi then asked, ‘Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?’
The man answered, ‘I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise I am planting for my children.’” – Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a (second or third century)
The Green Beet: Giving Thanks
By Jen Ransom
One of my favorite Thanksgiving holiday menus lacked the typical turkey and stuffing fanfare one associates the upcoming holiday with. Living out in Bush Alaska with no family around and little need for a huge meal, my husband and I spent one Thanksgiving with a friend and his dog at our home in Iliamna.
We gave thanks by consuming foods we had either gathered, grown or hunted during the previous year. The smell of salmon, berries, caribou and grouse filled the kitchen as we prepared our meal. It was somewhat meager, more of a buffet-style snack than a thanksgiving feast. Being a damp village, even our choice beverage was local – a raspberry beer we had brewed earlier in the fall season.
After the food was eaten – some recipes better than others – I sat back and listened to the blues concert coming from my living room. Our thanksgiving guest plays a mean harmonica, and hubby isn’t too bad at the guitar, either. Later we talked about what we were thankful for: Simple things like decent wages and our loyal canines, always there to be a friend when village living got a little lonely.
The subsistence-style feast also gave me a chance to reflect on my own connection to our food supply: The evening boat rides to our fish site, the slim-producing garden. Even the thought of my own mortality came to mind as I recalled the knife wound that went septic on my husband’s hand after an all-night fish processing fiascos. We couldn’t find any of the village medical personnel as the line of red began to travel up his arm; we were blessed to locate one practitioner just before flying to Anchorage for medical help. Penicillin was another thing I was thankful for that year.
But I do love the typical Thanksgiving feast. I don’t feel the need to recreate the Iliamna meal the fourth Thursday of each November. I do, however, prescribe now to the idea that one’s Thanksgiving meal should include something that doesn’t require a grocery store visit.
Now that we are back “highway-side”, we visit my in-laws for the Thanksgiving holiday. Cranberries, picked in early fall by my father-in-law, usually make it into the holiday meal. I always smile when serving up a scoopful, imagining him out picking and enjoying his day. This year we are bringing salmon we caught back on the menu, only as a smoked appetizer instead of Iliamna’s main course.
There are plenty of ways to go green during Thanksgiving, from purchasing wine with a true cork (instead of plastic) to packing leftover food with aluminum foil instead of plastic wrap – a prudent guest may even bring there own reusable container from home. But going green isn’t just about consuming wisely; also worthwhile is fostering a connection to the wonderful gift called planet Earth. This year, consider adding to the menu a food item that bears witness to our tangible connection with the food chain. Giving thanks for creation, for the planet that sustains us, is done with more ease when you can close your eyes and remember the fish you pulled in, the berry you picked, the moose you harvested or the carrot you planted. When our food tells a story, we are more apt to be thankful for it. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
The Green Beet: Avoiding the “Dirty Dozen”
By Jen Ransom for Seward City News
As snow begins to settle and the broken ground of my garden freezes in place for the winter, I am once again forced to think about purchasing food items such as lettuce and carrots, and whether the price of organic beats out the cheaper, yet more contaminated, produce items in the grocery store.
Pesticides, formulated to kill living organisms such as insects, fungi and plants, are known to have nervous system, hormonal system and carcinogenic effects, and can cause skin, eye and lung irritation. Children are especially susceptible. You can help keep your food safe by purchasing fruits and veggies low in pesticides and by buying organically-raised produce as frequently as possible.
The Environmental Working Group www.ewg.org/ is an excellent online resource when you are preparing your organic/non-organic shopping list. Avoid the “dirty dozen” by either not eating the listed fruits and vegetables, or by purchasing the organic counterpart, and one can reduce their pesticide exposure.
I do not purchase all organic – but there are certain foods, especially out of the dirty dozen, that I spend the extra dough on to ensure my family’s safety. Celery tops the list of pesticide-ridden food in the vegetable category. Most grocery stores carry organic celery; shopping this past week I found the price to be anywhere from a dollar to $2.20 more per pound. But when you consider the EWG’s independent study that found 94.1 percent of tested non-organic celery had pesticide residue, to me it is worth the extra buck or two. Lettuce, carrots and bell pepper also make the dirty dozen list.
For fruits, peaches and nectarines are the greatest pesticide offenders. We don’t eat much of these in my home, except when they are in season [for a list of in-season fruits and veggies, visit here http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/?page_id=794 ]. But apples are the third worst fruits for pesticide exposure (94.1 percent) and we consume plenty. I typically have not purchased organic apples in the past, so this week I decided to do some price comparisons to see what the switch is going to cost our family budget.
The difference wasn’t too bad, depending on the apple. I tend to purchase apples in bulk when they are on sale, then store them in a basket in the garage so they keep cool and fresh for a good month or so. With prices ranging from $1.79 to $2.79 at Safeway/Carrs in Soldotna, I don’t see myself throwing out the 69-cent apples we still have in the garage, but I will probably watch for the organic to go on sale and stock up the next time. In the mean time, I will continue an excellent way to lessen pesticide exposure: wash my fruits and veggies!
It’s worth noting that there are other ways to lessen pesticide exposure besides purchasing organic. Avoiding the dirty dozen, and eating instead what the EWG calls the “clean fifteen”, will typically reduce one’s daily pesticide exposure from 10 to 2 pesticides per day. Onions, broccoli, and grapefruit are foods my family purchases and consumes regularly from the non-organic section of the store; onions tested less than 10 percent for pesticides.
Download the dirty dozen and clean fifteen food guides to your computer or as an iPhone app. here: http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php
The Green Beet: Green Halloween
It’s a fun night of goblins and ghosts, but can sometimes be less than earth-friendly. Here are a few tips for greening your Halloween celebrations:
Decorate with green in mind
All the fun, without the plastic! Much of the Halloween store-bought decorations available are made from petroleum-based plastics or virgin paper products. This year, why not decorate your home with dried or decaying plants you find around your neighborhood. Tall grass reeds coming out of the sleeves and feet of a homemade straw-man will spruce up your front porch (use your own clothes and stuff mostly with pillows and other clothing; the reeds add the extra punch in strategic places). Leaf piles and pumpkins welcome any trick-or-treater up your driveway.
If you want a bit more of the creepy crawly look, why not create it yourself using recycled goods? Let your children paint big monsters on sheets of newspaper, cut them out and hang in the windows for a pint-life-sized group of Halloween creatures! Newspaper also works great for three-dimensional decorations when made into paper mache. (learn how to make paper mache here http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/papermache/ht/PaperMache.htm ). Imagine a group of grossly painted eyeballs hanging in your trees or on your front porch. Encourage your kids to come up with grossest, scariest and funniest Halloween decorations out of recycled goods. Join in, and soon you’ll have a full set of environmentally-friendly Halloween decorations.
Green your Halloween goodies
No, I’m not suggesting switching broccoli for chocolate, but I am suggesting using a little bit of green sense when purchasing your Halloween candy. Look for the fair trade label, perhaps get candy in compost-able cellophane baggies (instead of petro-based plastic) and try for products made with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. If you’re willing to spend on the shipping, The Natural Candy Store, http://www.naturalcandystore.com/ , has a great selection of allergen-free, environmentally-friendly candy for Halloween. Bulk purchases decrease shipping costs, so get with some friends to place an order (order today to get it here before Halloween). Also check the natural foods section of your grocery store; some are carrying greener Halloween selections.
If your one who likes to hand out handfuls of candy to each kid, as opposed to just a piece or two, consider purchasing candy bars as opposed to smaller packaged Halloween candy. The kids get excited about the full-sized bar, and the packaging requirement is less. Purchase the bars at a warehouse store in bulk for the best price.
Consider handing out non-candy items that are environmentally friendly, such as organic fruit leather, juice boxes, homemade bean bags (use Halloween material, a good price is fetched when purchased after Halloween for next year’s treats), recycle-themed temporary tattoos and recycled-plastic toys such as whistles.
I live in a high traffic trick-or-treat neighborhood, and each year the yard is full of wrappers from candy eaten on-the-go by excited trick-or-treaters. This year, we are putting out a spooky trash can and encouraging trick-or-treaters to deposit used candy wrappers into the trash, instead of creating litter.
Conserve energy on Halloween
Trick-or-treating in the dark is fun, but some sort of luminary devise is usually needed. Instead of regular battery-powered flashlights, this year hand your kids shakable flashlights instead for a battery-free light. It’s fun for kids and earth friendly.
A jack-o-lantern is fun, and the lighting is environmentally friendly if you use 100% soy or beeswax candles. Paraffin candles are made of petroleum and burn less clean.
Since you know the porch light will be on all night, it’s a great time to switch your outdoor lighting to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Get a green costume
Encourage the children, and Halloween-friendly adults, in your household to think green this year when it comes to costumes. Don’t just run to the store and purchase a cookie-cutter costume! Look at what you already have around from the years’ before (when we were kids, one year’s homemade Tinkerbelle costume the next year became boogerina – don’t ask – with a little green paint and caulking glue.). Thrift store finds and mom and dad’s closet can become all sorts of fun costumes at a very low green, and economic, cost. This also fosters creative thinking in your children, another added bonus. And for adults, well, raid your friend’s closets. Thank goodness a girlfriend of mine use to love to go to country dancing in her early 20s – and thank goodness she never throws away clothes. On her a decade ago, the boots, hat and wranglers looked like a regular Friday night, come this Halloween, they become my cowgirl costume. Yee-haw.
The Green Beet: Winter Gardening Prep
So it’s fall, and time for gardening to come to an end.
Following the direction from The Victory Garden Kids’ Book (hey, I’m all for learning from a guide that a child can follow, and author Marjorie Waters breaks down gardening in ways I can even understand) I have begun to pull out the leftover plants of broccoli, lettuce, kale and peas as the frost kills them off. The carrots I’ve left and pulled only as needed; so far the advice that carrots can survive a lot of frost before being damaged has rung true.
For those planning a garden for next year, this could be a good time to plow up a space, and then follow the rest of the Victory Garden’s advice for prepping for next spring. Now that my local food is in the freezer, or already consumed, I’m following the kid’s guide step by step to winter my garden plot.
Once the beds are cleared of the major plant life – a feet in itself with a toddler – a soil test is next. I’m having my test done through the cooperative extension services. They also have a bunch of great newsletters online, from information regarding potato rot to planting peonies: http://www.uaf.edu/ces/newsltrs/
I’ve read that a coffee can is a big help in distributing lime or sulfur to fix the pH. Just fill the can with the appropriate mineral, and while distributing the contents hold it close to the ground to help keep it from blowing away.
My attempts at composting were mostly eaten by our dog – I cannot believe how much fencing he can break through and dig under. Recently he’s begun to break the planks on our back fence to get out and run through the neighborhood. With the compost pile, he dug under the fencing and got at all the goodies so often that I gave up for this year. A friend does earthworm composting in her garage during the winter, and has offered to teach me how. I’ll have more on that later this fall. With composting a failure for this year and the need for organic matter still great, I’m relying heavily on leaves. We have some that fall in our yard, but our parish’s Oktoberfest celebration includes a kid’s carnival with leaves spread throughout; I’ve requested to use some of the leaves after the celebration is over. Two or three inches of mulch is best, I’m told, and shredded leaves (or other organic matter) works better than whole – but I’m trying whole this year. Digging these into the ground with a spading fork, or whatever you have that can turn the ground a bit, is key so that they don’t blow away with the fall winds.
To keep the weeds down in the spring, I’m spreading hay from Cad Re across the whole plot. I already do this in my bulb flower bed against the house – it also serves a nice resting spot for my dog when he feels like lying in the winter sun. In the spring I’ll move the hay just to the paths between the raised beds, perfect for keeping the weeds down all summer long.
I’ve really enjoyed reading about other’s inspirations to plant next year – I can now honestly tell you it’s not nearly as difficult as it appears from the outside looking in, and having all that local harvest is worth the effort. While the gardening ends for the year, however, the Green Beet hammers on. I may not be eating so much local harvest (I purchased lettuce for the first time in months this week) but I still will keep at the attempt to live life a little greener. Look for information on winter gardening prep (such as the earthworm composting) and other greening efforts – next time I’ll tackle greening Halloween – and please, if you have suggestions or ideas you’d like me to research, just let me know.
Green Beet: Cold Remedies
A sore throat, a Nickelodeon-goo cough and a full range of fever, body aches and some other unmentionables have been all-consuming my time the past week and a half. A test to make sure it wasn’t “the flu!” was fortunately negative (word of caution, the test requires a large cotton swab thingy shoved all the way up your nose to the back of the nasal passage. It hurts. The second test, with a teeny tiny swab thingy shoved in your other nostril, stings even more), but I’ve still been pretty laid up for a while.
Enter tons of antibacterial wipes, hand washing and coughing in “the wing” (your inner elbow, it spreads less germs than coughing in your hands) and luckily neither daughter nor husband has come down with the same sore throat fate.
While many remedy suggestions have been rather easy to adhere to – Vitamin C, check; humidifier, check; eat tons of garlic, double check – other suggestions are a bit difficult, such as lots of rest (do you know how fast a 14-month-old can move!?) and twice-daily foot baths with 2 liters hot water and 1 Tbsp. mustard powder (though at this point, I may take the time to try this tonight).
So for this week’s green beet topic, I’d like to start a discussion on your best home remedies for curing the common cold; any specifics on soothing a perpetual sore throat are especially welcome.
Here are a few suggestions I’ve tried during cold season in times past; above all, I’m finding that lots of rest does the most:
- Drink warm water with honey
- Vitamin C
- Echinacea
- Zinc Lozenges
- Warm water humidifier at night
- Salt water gargles (be ready to gag, but it does help)
- Drink lots of fluids…
- …But not the caffeinated or alcoholic kind
- Mild (as in slow walking) exercise sometimes has helped, as long as I’m not too fatigued
- Saline solution draining of the nasal passages with this nifty thing called a neti-pot. Any person who regularly has sinus or throat issues may want to invest. I love mine! The website is: http://www.neti-pot.com/
So if you’ve got a home remedy that works wonders in your household, do share with the rest of us. Tis the (cold) season…
Green Beet: Eating Local
With hubby gone one a four-day hunting trip, I thought attempting to eat locally would be a good green activity for the week. Others have tried it and succeeded, many websites now tote the eating efforts that draw one’s menu from within a 100-or-so mile area. Check out:
http://100milediet.org/
My initial plans and menu started to sound a bit like a pretentious Martha Stewart ad: fresh greens, even fresher salmon with sprigs of dill, etc. etc. And while a tasty menu, to be sure, there were still a few details I needed to deal with. One, since I was only attempting to eat locally for a few days, as opposed to a year or more, what would I do with the left-overs in my fridge? Worse than consuming tomatoes and fresh mozzarella from thousands and thousands of miles away would be letting them rot and throwing a good meal away. Second, I was to entertain at least one guest, and was a guest at another’s home. Sure, salad greens and salmon could work for my luncheon, but could I expect my host to change her menu plans? I think not.
Finally, my local eating menu was looking a little too elaborate. Between work and a 14-month-old I don’t have much time to cook food from Washington, how would purchasing it from Sterling make it any easier?
And so my menu changed over the course of the long weekend. I still purchased duck eggs locally, instead of the prepackaged chicken eggs from Fred Meyer; and a lot of food came out of my garden, the garden of friends and our freezer. But the tomato and cheese were devoured guilt-free; and while I brought local food to the dinner party, I also enjoyed the lasagna made from different ingredients literally from around the world. The remaining menus were simpler than initially planned; I ate and served a lot of canned salmon, sans dill.
Last night, while eating a half-loaf of bread with my salmon (the bread ingredients weren’t produced locally, but the bread was baked from scratch by a good and local friend), it occurred to me that while my attempt at eating locally was only half-serious, the results still made an impact. Mostly, I became much more conscious of what I was eating. Much of the food had a memory: I imagined my friend kneading the bread, remembering our conversation about the spiritual aspects of making bread. The raspberry jam, made from berries out of a patch I use to pick from as a girl, brought back fine memories of the woman who made the jam when we were small children. I also choose to just make do with what we had in the fridge one night, instead of running to a drive through, because of my commitment to eat as local as possible. McDonalds is not local. Period. I ate healthier because of my commitment.
If you are interested in learning more about local eating, the Beartooth in Anchorage is having a Local Film Festival from October 3-8. Several movies about local food production are being shown, including “Fresh”, “Food, Inc.”, “Eating Alaska”, a movie about oceans. For more information and to watch the movie trailers, visit: http://transitionalaska.ning.com/events/event/search?q=anchorage. It’s further than 100 miles away, but it might be worth the trip.
The Green Beet: Flower Power
By Jen Ransom
Most are familiar with the old saying “patience is a virtue”. When it comes to my flower garden, the waiting has paid off.
A friend with a spectacular perennial garden promised last year that when her plants began to crowd, I could come and help her separate – and take home the leftovers. And so while I’ve dreamed of soft, miniature-flowered ground cover in the front and sprays of tall flowers and greens in the backyard, I’ve kept my pocketbook closed and settled for the few annuals I could muster up purchasing, a dash of fireweed, the columbine loved by the home’s previous owner, the oh-so-easy nasturtiums and a mind’s eye view of what my flower beds would someday look like.
But not now! This week I received a call from my blessed friend stating that her plants were ready to split and I now find myself with enough delicate ground cover that I’ll be the one sharing in a few years, and those lovely purple delphiniums that every Alaska garden should have are now part of mine.
With fall planting, it’s a matter of mismatch placement based on my remembering of what her plants looked like in full bloom – with attempts to combine colors and heights in a sort-of artistic manner. But moving plants next year will be fun and so I’m not too terribly worried about “planning” things just right. I’m filling in the bare spots with some of the native species I’ve been coveting along our neighborhood trial system – easy to do with a small hand shovel and a baggy during my afternoon walk. My mother gathered ferns one Seward spring more that a decade ago, and when I drive by our old home on Phoenix I can still see that they are thriving on the north side of the house. Not bad for a couple walks and a few digs of the shovel. The nice thing about welcoming native plants to your garden is that they require very little care – they do great in the climate and conditions you live in! Just be careful not to accidentally bring home an invasive species, especially one of the ones listed in the USDA’s Selected Invasive Plants of Alaska booklet:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/spf/fhp/weed_book/index.htm
If you’d like more information on gathering native species, or would like to purchase seeds of native plants, check out the Alaska Native Plants Society webpage:
While I’m an advocate for including native plants in your flower garden – and there’s much, much more out there than the fireweed that made it into my front bed – I’m loving the many hardy perennials that may not be native to this area, but tend to thrive regardless (without the over-the-top spreading an invasive species has). Solstice Light’s flower slideshow and Gardening, Alaska Style’s top ten Alaska plants both have a good “hardy plant” list:
http://www.solsticelight.com/aks/gallery/gardens/ourgarden/slideshow/
http://home.gci.net/~goodgame/top10.html
Fritz Creek Gardens near Homer, though closed for the season, specializes in Alaska Hardy Plants. If your heading that way in early August, be on the look out for great deals; last year a friend managed to make it to a dollar plant sale and her perennial garden is full of long lasting color that last winter’s cold climate couldn’t destroy.
A few of my favorites, and favorites of friends who’ve been gardening on the Kenai Peninsula longer than I, include Trollius, Snow-in-Summer, Forget-Me-Not (actually a biannual, but so prolific that it blooms flowers each year if planted mid-summer the first year) and of course those towering delphiniums. And don’t forget the lilies when it comes to planting bulbs this fall or spring – I’m ripping out the rest of the bulbs I’ve tried (my gladiolas are still just leaves) and sticking with what I know works – lilies of all sorts, especially Tiger Lilies, even when over wintered in a cold climate.
The Green Beet: Gardening Woes
By Jen Ransom
The last three springs I’ve begun gardening at full throttle. I spend every free moment (and every free penny) planning and preparing for a lush elaborate yard of ever-blooming flowers and edible greens. I spend way too much money and spread myself way too thin. Each year it’s more flowerbeds, more fruits, and more vegetables. “This is the year ‘my’ little slice of this planet will be the backyard haven my husband and I always dreamed of”, I think.
But taking care of a yard, vegetables and flowers is hard. It takes a lot of work. Weeding, watering, planting, pulling, clipping and just plain loving the plants takes time and takes a toll: especially when you aren’t willing to use chemical means to control the outcome. Every weekend is spent in the lawn, as opposed to playing in this great state. As I’ve previously reported, my thumb has a slight brownish tinge to it and it seems I have to work even harder than most to make sure my plants don’t just shrivel up and die. By the end of July I am exhausted. I start to self-sabotage. I “forget” to water. I no longer deadhead the flowers. I tell myself the lawn looks so pretty with all the clover – which I honestly think it does in moderation – so I don’t mow for weeks.
My husband asked me today if keeping my indoor tomatoes out of the sunlight was part of the growing process, as the blind hadn’t been pulled for days.
I laughed. A lot.
And then I started thinking about how my approach to gardening mimics my approach to a lot of things in life. When I first start something, I give it my all and then some, overextending myself without a thought about the future responsibility. When the enormity of it all finally hits I find myself either living a very stressed-out life or having to reel back in, much to my dismay and the dismay of others counting on me. In the past two decades I’ve done both plenty. In school I’d take on yet another responsibility or course only to find no time to get it all done without a lot of late-nights and crankiness. In work those “extra” get-ahead projects would pile up until I would cry myself to sleep at night. My volunteer work would become so overwhelming that I’d regularly start and then stop when I’d said “yes” one time too many. Even my home life has gotten the best of me at times, especially when I’d over-scheduled my cleaning and cooking to the point that not even superwoman could finish it in a reasonable amount of time. My attempts at green living have also fallen prey to this pattern: I become fully disgusted with the amount of work it takes to recycle every little thing in a house where it is not supported and in a community where it is not made easy. On days like that I’ve been known to take all the recycling and just throw it all at the dump together.
As the third decade of my life starts, I am pleased to say I’ve eliminated this lifestyle pattern from a lot of my day-to-day living. I say no to extra work regularly and I recycle what I can and throw away the rest – knowing that doing something is better than feeling hopeless and doing nothing.
But then there’s this darn yard to contend to – obviously habits die a lot harder than my plants.
Some things are growing very well. I harvested the first of the broccoli this month – less than thirty minutes from harvest to the dinner table and it tasted wonderful. The sunflower stalks grow higher and higher each day, and the columbine are blooming wonderfully.
But the four tiny tomatoes on six plants are not worth the effort, nor is the water-sucking leg of annual flowers on the front porch.
And so I’ll do what any brownish green thumbed woman would do. I’ll deal with the responsibility of them this year – though the tomatoes may end up in the compost pile – and vow that next year’s garden plan will hold true with my new life pattern: Less is more, even when it comes to vegetables.
The Green Beet: Compost Picnics
By Jen Ransom
This past week I threw a block party in our backyard. Our daughter turned one, creating a perfect opportunity to invite friends, family and neighbors to not only celebrate her life, but also to thank them for all they have done for us. Godparents, friends who lent us all the baby gear we could ever need and then some, even my green-thumbed buddies who helped with the start of our garden all stopped by. Much to my happiness, many of them walked.
It’s been a while since I last hosted anything that would pass for a party. At Christmas a couple families stopped by – but we all brought dishes, gifts, and toys to share. The planning wasn’t solely my responsibility. I just provided the location. Our group of friends has “parties” like that regularly. It’s fun, easy and a great way to get together with minimal effort.
But the block party – with about 30 RSVPs – was not that type of get together. I found myself inundated with all the planning, from music to food to clean up. Having just attended two weddings and getting ready to attend another this weekend, I realize that planning any type of large get together can get pretty hectic. What often also results is green lifestyle efforts get pushed to the wayside. My sister’s wedding – a woman who recycles religiously, walks way more than she drives and works in the woods – was not a “green” event. At one point I asked her whether we should try to green up things a little bit. “I’m way too stressed to even think about that right now. I do my part most days, this day I’m not going to worry about it,” was her response. Understandable. It was a single special day for the rest of her life and we didn’t worry about the disposable cups. We had a blast.
Weddings usually come once in a lifetime. Birthdays come once a year. I decided stress couldn’t be an excuse not to try to green up the event a little bit. A friend from grad school, Shawna McKinley, works as a tourism conference planner. In her blog, Green Destinations, she shares observations, ideas and inspirations about the possibility of Green Event Destination Cities. I love the idea – conference sites where “being green” is made easy. I used her inspiration for large conference planning to help make my smaller party a bit more environmentally friendly.
I used old sheets for tablecloths – no need to purchase new ones – and plywood, sawhorses and cords of wood for tables – no need to purchase new tables either. I considered purchasing a party pig for the drinks and using compostable drink cups or plastic cups that could be recycled locally, but I couldn’t find either in town. I chose glass bottles and a bucket for recycling instead.
Cutlery was an issue. There are great online resources to purchase cutlery made from everything from potatoes to corn. It’s important to remember that “plastic” wasn’t originally a petroleum product. PLA (plant-based) plastic is compostable and biodegradable; PET plastic (petroleum-based) is not. Sometimes the Soldotna grocer Save-U-More has PLA products available. The price is higher, but coming down.
In the end, we chose to serve foods that didn’t require forks and spoons, and so the few PET cutleries that I’ve had sitting in my house for years were set out for those who just had to have a fork. To my knowledge no one did.
I was able to purchase a set of compostable plates – it was great to tell the kids asking where to put their “trash” to just throw the left-over food and plate all in the compost pile. Made from bagasse, a byproduct of sugarcane pulp, the paper-like plates come from a more renewable resource than regular paper plates, made from trees.
I won’t claim that we didn’t have a bag of trash sitting in our garage after the event. Some people didn’t recycle even with the bucket available, and not everyone made their way to the compost pile. But it did feel good to try to make a little less of an environmental impact while thanking those who have made such a positive impact on our lives.
Resources:
http://greendestinations.blogspot.com/
http://www.biodegradablestore.com/
The Green Beet: Driving Lesson
By Jen Ransom
When it comes to being environmentally friendly, convenience many times means more damage to the environment. There are exceptions; running a full dishwasher, for example, takes less water than hand washing. But much of the time if you want something done or in-hand quickly, it’s going to result in some environmental costs.
My environmental goal these past few weeks is to drive the least amount possible. Walking or riding my bike is best, but if I must take a car I’ve attempted to either a) carpool with another family, or b) avoid making several “one-stop” trips in a week, rather combining several vehicle-required errands in just one day.
In my early 20’s, I did not own a car, nor did I have any trouble getting around and getting things done. As the college-atmosphere regularly allows for walking, I trekked back and forth from dormitory to classes each day, and took the bus or grabbed a ride with friends when I needed to go grocery shopping or wanted to watch a movie.
Fast-forward a decade: I live in a much smaller community now, and yet driving seems more and more like a necessity. Especially with a young child, it’s been difficult to just spend the afternoon walking to the grocery store and back. What about the laundry, dinner, and a little writing time?
I’ve noticed that I’m more environmentally conscious when I’ve planned ahead what I want to accomplish in a day or week, especially when my to-do list is short rather than a never-ending list of tasks.
This past week I planned an evening ride to the ATM, walked to hit the prolific amount of yard sales Soldotna is known for, and carpooled to watch the Independence Day parade in Kenai. Sure, we were in a gas-guzzling Suburban, but every seat was filled. Feeling a little “eco-smug”, I woke this morning with my environmentally-friendly day planned to a T. Walk to Mass, bike tonight to work, I even set water and teabags out in the sun so I could have iced tea while writing this column this afternoon. No driving until Tuesday. Well, the thought crossed my mind, if everyone could just plan a little better, we could use a lot less energy, right?
Don’t puke yet. As life usually doles out at the appropriate time, I got a hard-knock lesson today.
My toilet is clogged. Not just a “little-plunging-will-do-the-trick” clogged, but “husband-plunged-and-plunged-and-plunged-before-work” clogged and still nothing. It’s been slowly flushing for a while now – we wonder if the previous owner flushed dental floss, a sure way to eventually clog a toilet – but we hadn’t planned for what we would do when “it” just wouldn’t go down anymore. Screw the environment. “I want my convenience and I want it now” was my mode of thinking at that moment.
My hubby left to do his business at work, and I left to do mine at our parish. [Yes, you can laugh right now, it’s pretty funny]. Upon returning home, I walked in the bathroom to find the toilet still clogged and myself wondering what in the world was I going to do? I called the hardware store down the road and found out that a “closet auger” would probably do the trick. I could walk, I thought, but my daughter would fall asleep on the way – a problem if I was going to get this column written this afternoon. Plus, the auger sounded pretty awkward, and I wasn’t sure about carrying it and a little girl back at the same time.
And so I broke down and drove. I did manage to stop at the grocer along the way – and so maybe I’ll be able to go without shopping on Tuesday. But it wasn’t a well-planned trip, and I may not have picked up enough to get us through another week. Then with all the extra time taken to fix the toilet, I doubt I’ll have time to bike to work.
But all is not lost when insight is gained. Sometimes we need little reminders that because of the way we live here in the U.S. – and I wouldn’t trade my freedom or my toilet in, I promise – we end up doing some damage to the environment. We each have to do what we can, each day. Today I drove, but I saw others riding their bikes. Tomorrow I may walk, but another person may drop off their recycling during their daily motor commute. We can all do our part, big or small, to make our community, our state, our country and our world a better place. Happy Independence Day.
Jen Ransom holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Raised in Seward, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Soldotna.
The Green Beet: Friends with Green Thumbs
It’s the time of year I love: Gardening time. I’ve managed to start now three different gardens, four if you count the plot of carrots I attempted to grow in my neighbor’s garden in Seward when I was home for college. I don’t typically count that one, because I didn’t realize I needed to thin the seedlings. At the end of the summer I had a bunch of tiny little orange slivers that didn’t amount to much in the food department. But hey, everyone’s gotta start somewhere.
My next garden was a bit more fruitful, having spent the first of the summer tending the spot that was located in an easement next to my rented duplex up in the Valley. I remembered to thin seedlings, I watered daily; I even weeded a few times. But by mid-summer I found myself needing to move out of town. So I had to bid the garden goodbye before much harvesting occurred. Our neighbor and friend promised to enjoy the fruits of my labor at the end of the season.
A few years later I attempted to plant another garden. I was living in the bush, and my neighbor was actually an empty fishing lodge. The lodge caretakers and I became friends, and I mentioned how much I loved to get my hands dirty with veggies, fruits and flowers. The lodge had an old garden site, hard as rock from years of neglect, but my friends offered to let me plant it if I wanted. I rounded up a rototiller from another set of friends, and with the help of my husband’s endurance we took turns tilling up the toughened soil into something a bit more manageable. I sent away for seeds, and when the first of June came I planted all sorts of cold-weather plants. A hose hooked to the caretaker’s cabin provided the daily watering, and I watched the garden begin to green up. I was so excited: Fresh veggies in the bush are hard to come by.
Come July, the caretakers headed off to fish camp, and, without thinking of the garden, turned off the water at the caretaker’s cabin before heading out for a month of fishing and processing. The first day after they left I hiked over to the garden, turned on the hose, and, nothing. A few years later I read the book French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in South France by Richard Goodman and thought of my own lack-of-water dilemma. In the memoir the author actually hauls water to his own patch of European paradise. I wasn’t that ambitious. We had some rain here and there, but not enough to really feed the veggies. At the end of the summer my friends returned and apologized profusely. At least the carrots this go around were a bit bigger, and so when my family came to visit at the end of August I picked the finger-sized veggies out of the ground and we shared one meal of delicious “miniature gourmet” carrots and broccoli.
So when I decided to try a garden in my own yard this year, I came to the whole process a bit skeptical of my own gardening skills. I’ve planted flowers throughout the years and done well enough, but broccoli, lettuce, radishes, kale? Could I manage such an endeavor, let alone attempting tomatoes in my back, south-facing sliding glass window? I was doubtful. But I was also driven by my attempt to live a greener lifestyle. For each head of lettuce I could grow myself, one less head of lettuce needs to be shipped from somewhere else, saving on greenhouse emissions. I took to the idea of planting my own environmental-victory garden; mimicking the call for families to grow their own food in World War II Victory Gardens to reduce the war-related pressure on the public food production and distribution. But this time instead of freeing up time and money for a war, I pledged to help eliminate some of the environmental costs it takes to get green veggies to me from outside my own town, borough and state. So this spring I borrowed another rototiller from a friend, and put my husband to work.
We’ve done a lot this past few months, first turning an 11 x 11 plot of established grass into a tilled garden, adding peat moss, lime, fish meal, bone meal and blood meal to a pretty nutrient-deficient site, and starting broccoli, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers and other veggies inside my home. A few of the starts thrived, others started and died quickly. I was a bit disheartened.
A few days later a friend showed up one morning with a bunch of extra lettuce and broccoli starts from her own greenhouse. As I planted the healthy starts in my freshly-turned rows my first gardening failure of the year turned out to be a reminder that while my thumb might sometimes be a bit brown, my many green-thumbed (or at least well meaning) friends throughout the years continue to help me in my attempts to grow my own.
The Green Beet: Thomas Berry and Dandelions
To the children
To all the children
To the children who swim beneath
The waves of the sea, to those who live in
The soils of the Earth, to the children of the flowers
In the meadows and the trees in the forest, to all those children who roam over the land
And the winged ones who fly with the winds,
To the human children too, that all the children
May go together into the future in the full
Diversity of their regional communities.
- Fr. Thomas Berry (1914 – 2009)
I was first introduced to the works of Thomas Berry at the Centre for Earth and Spirit on Vancouver Island. In a video showing the aging Berry walk along an Eastern farmland much of what I knew in my heart about the Earth and much of what I had been taught about my faith finally collided in Berry’s mode of living and thinking. I couldn’t wait to learn more, reading not only The Great Work (from which the above quote is taken) but also The Dream of the Earth and, my favorite, The Universe Story, which Berry authored with mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme.
I was saddened by Berry’s death last week, though I knew it inevitable; he was 94 when he passed away surrounded by family in North Carolina.
Berry believed now more than ever in Earth’s history we are experiencing a moment of cosmological grace. As we begin to comprehend the damage done to our planet by our present way of life we are challenged, gifted even, to be part of the creative process that will lead us into a more symbiotic relationship between we human children and all the other children of Earth. We are able to be co-creators of a new Earth.
I thought about this as I spent much of the afternoon pulling dozens of dandelion weeds from my front lawn. If they were growing with the grass I’d say ‘the heck with it’ and let them be, but years of the previous owner’s appetite for chemical fertilizers and the shock the lawn has endured now three summers without its chemical fix has left little in the grass department and a whole lot of weeds. Last night I picked well over 200 yellow heads before they had a chance to turn to seed; this morning there are 50 more blooming.
I’ll admit it. The temptation to use chemical fertilizers is great. My neighbor’s grass gleans a green shimmer every morning, mine a dead dull brown with a few sprouts of sickly green. But I know that the unnatural green comes with a cost – she’s let me know more than once how great the weed’n’feed chemical fertilizer from the hardware store down the road is. A soft green lawn can be had without such measures; I even have one in the back of my own home, as the previous owner did not use any chemicals there in order to protect her dogs, the canine children of the Earth. Even our wild space in the backyard has only a few dandelions, as wild roses, fireweed, lupine and trees like alders, birch and spruce allow little room for anything else.
We live a block and a half from the Kenai River, and the aquatic children are a regular reminder that what I put on the lawn ultimately comes to them, via the sewer system draining into the river. And of course my own child is considered: How could I put chemicals on the lawn and then let her crawl all over it, especially when she’s so apt to put blades of grass (or, more likely, dandelions) in her mouth at any given moment?
And so I practice patience as I work more organic means into our front lawn, knowing it will most likely be years, not days or weeks, before I can walk softly on a plush carpet of green, with only a few of the yellow flowers for my daughter to pick.
By the way, pulling dandelions, or any weeds, requires more than just haphazardly plucking away at any given section of your lawn or garden. It’s important to start in the area you most recently finished weeding so new weeds don’t have a chance to take, as they will live longer than the weeds you haven’t even gotten to yet. It can take a few years to fully eradicate your visitors, and even then, one neighbor with a batch of newly puffed dandies will bring seeds right back into your lawn. A better bet is to have a strong patch of grass, cut long, so that the weeds don’t have a place to grow in the first place. But how does one get there from here?
For our lawn, I’m having my soil tested, and depending on the Ph I’ll add either lime or sulfur to bring it to a more optimal level (dandelions love a Ph of 7.5, grass thrives at 6.5). I’ll continue to add organic fertilizer every three weeks or so for the summer, and this fall I’ll spread a thin layer of compost with hopes to revitalize the nutrient-deprived dirt into something that more closely resembles nutrient-rich soil. A fresh dose of seed will also help, but only after the soil nutrients is up. Baby grass isn’t going to grow very well in dirt even adult grass can’t thrive in. Until then, I’ll continue to take a flathead screwdriver to the dandelions, as both my husband (just let them grow) and my neighbor (kill them quick) shake their heads. At least it’s an excuse to be outside in the sun.
http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp
Jen Ransom holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Raised in Seward, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Soldotna.
The Green Beet: Dining with Baby
By Jen Ransom
The other day I found myself with a bushel of bruised apples, still edible but not so appeasing to the sight. Not one to throw out food, I decided that I would make some baby-wise applesauce (sans sugar and cinnamon). Six cored and peeled apples, about three-quarters cup of water and fifteen minutes later I had enough cooked apples (later blended in my food processor) to serve my 10-month-old breakfast for at least a week. I figure I saved at least seven plastic baby food containers from our local landfill in less than a half-hour’s worth of work. Plus, my house smelled super-yummy without any chemical-laden air fresheners.
I’ve cooked up baby-friendly yams (for several months the sweet, orange-fleshed vegetable were all her little tummy could handle), peas and green beans the same way. While I do find myself using the plastic-contained Gerber foods on days that I can’t seem to find the time to cook (the same days I end up eating something out of a can that resembles food), many days I seem to be able to cook just a little extra of whatever veggie I’m serving for dinner and, with the help of my food processor or the handy baby-food grinder I found at a thrift store, baby’s dinner is served.
There are a few tricks to make this easier: Convenience is necessary many days of the week (it’s why the pre-made stuff is so tempting). If you are already boiling up a couple apples, or whatever food of choice, go ahead and cook up a bunch. Mash and freeze serving-size amounts in ice cube trays, bag and label the frozen bricks and take out one or two at a time as needed. This not only saves environmentally (no small plastic or glass containers to take to the recycling bin) but can also help financially – especially when you befriend your local grocer. One can typically purchase slightly bruised fruits and veggies in bulk and cheap – fine if you are going to cook them right away. Our little girl’s taste buds just light up with broccoli, so I’ve been watching and waiting (and asking) until a batch of less-than-perfect but still good broccoli hits the back room of our local grocery store. Once I score, she’ll be eating broccoli `til her heart’s content. I’ve started about 40 broccoli plants for our garden too, but more on that next month.
Another mouthful of advice: Don’t throw out the apple cores, the potato or yam skins, or woody broccoli stalks. Throw any of your veggie or fruit “waste” all together in a big pot, add enough water to cover and your choice of favorite spices (I love thyme,
parley, rosemary and basil wrapped in a cheesecloth baggie) and let simmer on the stovetop for a few hours to get a tasty broth good for any recipe that calls for vegetable or chicken broth (poultry carcass and other meat bones make a nice addition for an omnivore broth). Even easier, especially if you work outside the home, is just take all “extras” from the evening meal preparations with the water and spices and throw them in a slow cooker or on top of the woodstove overnight. By morning you’ll have a broth ready for soup, stew or casserole the next day. No need for canned, dried or boxed broth from the store, and your so-called waste is useful before hitting the trashcan or compost bin. Bon appetit.
Jen Ransom holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. Raised in Seward, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Soldotna.
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