Green Options

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This may be slightly premature, but we are having a very rainy Friday out here in the New York metro area and thinking about Summer berries cheers me up! I didn’t think I would be able to get a recipe out today, but here it is!

The great thing about this recipe is that it is simple and you can get creative with your ingredients! It is a colorful and delicious part of our summer and I can’t attend certain family parties unless I show up with this dessert.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter – softened
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
4 cups (approximately) of various berries – washed and cut as needed. (depending on what is in season and available locally, my favorites are blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and sometimes I throw in a pear or two)

Instructions

I’m relatively new to this crazy Farm Bill thing. I was invited last Summer to an event at Paul Newman and local food activist chef Michel Nischan’s restaurant, the Dressing Room in Wesport CT, to listen to an amazing panel of speakers and participate in a dialog about the 2007 Farm Bill. This incredibly informative and passionate panel included, US Representative Rose DeLauro (D-New Haven, CT); Gus Schumacher, the undersecretary of Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services during the Clinton Administration; Daniel Imhoff, author of Food Fight: A Citizen’s Guide to the Farm Bill; and Annie Farrell an advocate for sustainable and organic farming and manager of Millstone Farm in CT.

I was stunned by what I learned last year - more importantly, I was stunned by what I didn’t know, and I consider myself a sustainable agriculture supporter! I’ve been trying to track the progress of this Bill in its fits and starts and controversial moments, but still find myself quite ignorant and ever-more surprised when I hear or read another piece of this hulking bulk of legislation.Today is my ‘recipe’ day, not that I’ve kept up with the schedule lately AT ALL, but after reading the NY Times article about the latest on the Farm Bill, I just had to write something about this. Sorry. Look for some lighter fare (perhaps easier to digest than the Farm Bill) Monday!

Lovely Lokta is naturally died paper made from the Daphne or Lokta bushes that grow in the Himalayan mountains. And it IS lovely . . . but it also is made quite sustainably - no trees were harmed in the production of this paper!

Here’s what makes it so groovy and green:

Lokta paper is handmade and sun dried, so there are no machines or chemicals involved;

The bush grows quickly and actually needs agressive pruning or it would die, but the bush also helps stabalize the soil and protect rural Nepalese villages from mudslides during the monsoon season;

As a former publisher of a regional sustainable living magazine and as a perennial editor, writer and content producer, I get a lot of products to review. This is definitely one of my favorite parts of what I do. Not that they are all winners, but honestly most of what I’ve gotten has been truly interesting and largely useful.One of the cleverest new products to hit my doorstep lately is a new concept called ReProduct from a company called C2C, a cradle-to-cradle design company.

Re-Usable greeting cards?

When I first heard about the idea, I mistakenly thought it involved erasable ink and a new envelope. Wrong. I’m not as stupid as I sound, but this was not an easy concept to grasp initially, but now that I’ve seen the cards and read a little more about the process (if you’re anything like me, reading directions isn’t always the first thing I do), I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.

The cards in the pic here were designed by singer/songwriter John Mayer for ReProduct! So, not only is he hot, he’s talented in more ways than just the tunes AND he clearly cares about creating a more sustainable way of being.

Back to the cards and how it works . . . it’s a little like Netflix, and if you love movies and haven’t tried it yet - DO IT!!! The idea of mailing movies back and forth seems cumbersome and awkward or something, but they make it so easy, that once you try it, you are sold.

ReProduct has taken the idea of making re-mailing very simple and easy and applied it to the all-American custom of sending greeting cards. By the way, the cards are beautiful. First of all, the cards are made from healthy, non-toxic materials that minimize chemical waste in the manufacturing process and if folks follow this new concept, they don’t end up in landfills - or at least not for a VERY long time.

Here’s how it works:

Having just taken a new job which requires me to be on-site about 10 hours per day, I’ve had to make some serious adjustments as I have been working from a home-office primarily for the past 8 years.

I’ve been very spoiled in terms of my ability to stroll into my kitchen, open the refrigerator, and prepare any type of lunch from the bounty of leftovers or whatever I happen to have stocked at that time.

Now I have to be more strategic about the whole thing. Because I’m used to preparing most of my meals and don’t eat too much take-out or processed foods, I am a bit more high-maintenance when it comes to what many folks consider a simple lunch break.

In addition to my relatively high health & nutritional standards for my meals, I also want to maintain as much of my sustainable kitchen concepts as possible whether I’m home or not.

My co-workers think I’m a little nutty (earthy-crunchy I think), but that’s okay.

Here are some of the things that help me feel better about re-usable bagging it for lunch:

We periodically roast a chicken on a Sunday (will post that recipe another time). Depending on what time of year it is and how everyone’s health is, I use the leftover chicken to either make my famous chicken soup (famous to my kids) or my favorite curried chicken salad. It also depends on the quantity and type of leftovers!

If we can’t find an organic, cruelty-free, free-wheelin’ chicken, I don’t do the roasting bit and use some type of chicken meat substitute (soy or wheat gluten) to make this yummy salad. Works well either way.

Ingredients
Quantities are totally subjective - it is all dependent on how much chicken you are using. Use your best culinary judgment and do what suits you best!

Okay, if we are eating seasonally. it is a little early for zucchini, but this wonderful and easy recipe from Judy Sockwell in Bridgewater, NJ can also be used for banana bread by simply switching the zucchini out for bananas (I add some chopped walnuts for good measure). Of course, if we are eating regionally, most of us wouldn’t be eating the banana bread any time of year!

I was given this […]

When one stands before a hive of bees, one should say quite solemnly to oneself, ‘By way of the hive the whole cosmos enters man and makes him strong and able’

Rudolf Steiner

What is Happening to Our Honey Bees?
I have been fortunate enough to make friends with my local ‘bee lady’, Landi Simone of Gooserock Farm in Montville, NJ. Her place is magical and represents to me a sustainable lifestyle that is in harmony with nature. The flowers all around are of course amazing. She has helped to educate me and countless others about what is happening with the honey bees.

There has been a lot of concern for continued decline in honey bee populations. The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) Survey found the colony losses continue and the effects of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) have not abated. There was a 14% loss over the last year and this represents an unsustainable trend.

A little perspective on how important honey bees are: According to the AIA, Honey bees in the US are responsible for pollinating more than 100 different crops worth $15 billion annually.

“It’s disheartening to have to report that the honey bee colonies continue to die at unsustainable levels,” said AIA president and Häagen-Dazs® Ice Cream Bee Board member Dennis vanEngelsdorp. “At least 70 percent of all colony deaths can be attributed to non-CCD causes, underlying the need for research, not only into CCD, but into pollinator health in general.”

AHHHHHH - don’t mess with my Haagen-Daz!!!!

I know. It doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but trust me. This is delicious. We keep basil in the garden and pesto in the fridge during most of the summer season. By now (early Spring), we are ready, but the Basil is not.

When my friend, business partner, and the managing editor of our magazine, Relevant Times shared this recipe with me, I was skeptical too. I’ve learned to trust Green Diva Jen’s (AKA Jenifer O’Neill) recipes. She is not only a WiseWoman herbalist, she is an amazing natural foods and Macrobiotic chef.

Ingredients
2 cups raw kale
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup olive oil
1 cup Romano cheese, grated
4 cloves garlic peeled & chopped
salt & freshly group pepper to taste

Directions

A couple of years ago, I made a rare excursion to the doctor. A friend had recommended a holistically minded MD. I was skeptical, but was impressed as he seemed to have a healthy balance in his diagnostic abilities and his analysis of the best course of action, which may or may not include surgery, pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, or homeopathy. He is uncharacteristically knowledgeable about nutrition.

I was particularly impressed when my fiancé, who had seen a medical doctor about an abdominal hernia, went to Dr. Parvalescu for a second opinion. We expected the first doctor to push for surgery. He didn’t and said it wasn’t a big deal. When he went to Dr. Parvalescu, Dr. P insisted he take it seriously and go for surgery ASAP. He turned out to be right and I’ve trusted his judgment and knowledge of various aspects of medicine and health since then.

So, when he said I should start taking 2 tablespoons of coconut oil per day and insisted I get my daughters to do the same, I paid attention. He said he’s got his wife doing it and it has a multitude of health qualities, particularly for women.

I’ve been quite stunned by the things I’ve read. The Weston A. Price Foundation has a great paper, called, ‘A New Look at Coconut Oil’ on it that references a mess of studies. I highly recommend it.

Coconut oil is touted to have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system, it has antimacrobial qualities, and it may reduce the risk of some cancers, among other claims.

Virgin v. Refined