I love jewelry, so this is an easy one for me. In my travels over the last couple of years, I’ve come across some interesting jewelry designers and concepts, some of which are really gorgeous in addition to being a feelgood style. Here are just a few I would recommend:

 X-NYC Traffic Light Jewelry!
I met a woman (whose card I’ve lost) last summer at an eco-event @ Lincoln Center who had purchased literally tons of the old glass that used to be used for NYC traffic lights. When they changed to LED-style lights, she heard that all this glass was headed for the landfills. She asked if she could have it, and arranged to have it delivered to her instead! She has a method of breaking them down and tumbling them smooth to make some wonderful jewelry. Visit her web landing page to find out more - SoleArts.com

More Beautiful Eco-Jewelry . . .

 
Recycled Bicycle Chain Bracelet
I first saw these at a green event in Brooklyn last summer and there were different styles of jewelry and accessories made from old bicycle parts. Of course, the first thing I thought of was the greasy struggle with one of these bad boys as I tried to get it back on the spokes while sitting on the side of the road as a kid. These of course, aren’t greasy at all! The one pictured here is available through 3R Living, a fabulous store in Brooklyn and website with innovative and stylish sustainable, eco-products. There is also a wonderful organization that helps New York City youth learn about environmental issues in various after-school programs. They also work with kids to make some of these items, while teaching them about various sustainable practices, including how to fix their own bicycles. Check out Recycle-A-Bicycle.

Recycled Daisy Garland
These lovely necklaces are all about fair trade and celebrating women globally through the Women’s Multipurpose Cooperative in the Philippines, which employs artisans who create a variety of products, often recycling and repurposing materials that would otherwise be headed for landfills. I was particularly enamored with the recycle newsprint in these bright daisy garlands. Go to Ten Thousand Villages to find these and other items made by these resourceful women.

 

Untreated, Natural Brazilian Amethyst Necklace
These delicate and beautiful creations are made from fair trade gems. Moonrise Jewelry carefully tracks each untreated gem from its original mine to their studio to ensure the integrity of adherence to strict environmentally and socially responsible standards. These gemstones are mined by hand, minimizing the environmental impact, protecting watersheds, and restoring the land after mining is completed. These gemstones are also processed at a cutting factory with fair labor standards, healthy working conditions, and fair wages. To see this and similar eco-jewelry, visit Moonrise Jewelry.

Recycled Booze Bottle Glass Earrings
These pretty brilliant blue earrings are made from recycled Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle necks! Fortunately you don’t have to drink a whole bottle to get these cool earrings. These hand-crafted beauties are made by cutting the neck of the recycled bottles, then subjecting the rings to the churning motion of Gulf waters and coarse beach sand collected from Captiva Island, Florida, and finally they are suspended on sterling silver and adorned with a fresh water pearl. My friends at Sweet Organics and Naturals carry these and other wonderful eco-conscious products.

Some other great GO posts on Eco-Jewelry
Recycled Elements: Traditional Jewelry gets an Eco-Friendly Makeover
Conflict-Free Diamonds and Recycled Gold are a Girl’s Best Friend
Eco-Chic Beaded Necklaces Make Sustainable Stylish

Images are used with permission from associated artisans and/or organizations.

Landi, pictured here in her ‘bee bikini’, got together with fellow, bee buddy, Joe Treimel to show off their live bee apparel and accessories. Joe sported a bee beard. This all took place last weekend at the Essex County Environmental Center.

Read more about Landi and what is happening to honey bees in one of my earlier posts. Here’s a crazy story I saw yesterday morning on CNN.com about 12 MILLION honey bees that swarmed a Canadian highway after a truck carrying them flipped over!

My favorite honey & herb sauce . . .

We usually put this on grilled tuna, but it could go on a variety of things, including grilled tofu. It is a wonderful sauce that I can never make enough of! It is great this time of year because I have most of the ingredients in my garden, and of course I get the best honey from my local bee lady . . .

Ingredients

1 c. parsley
1/4 c. dill
1/4 c. olive oil (I usually mix 1/2 flax seed oil)
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
3 T. honey
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground blacks pepper

your favorite capers

Wash and pat dry the herbs and throw everything but the capers in a blender or food processor. Voila! Spoon it onto your favorite fish or veggie protein and add capers.

NOTE: you can adjust any of the seasonings AND the oil and vinegar to your own taste. I’ve actually done this with cilantro, parsley and used lime juice.

Check out these other sweet GO posts
Oh Honey. Eat. Drink. Better Series This Week
Honey - The Cure for Just about Everything
Pollen - The Bees Knees?

While we cook almost everything on the grill during the summer months (and quite often the rest of the year), we have a few rainy-day summer meals we like to fall back on. It was an extremely stormy Sunday this past weekend, so we had a pizza night, which is why you are getting the pizza post.

You don’t have to have all the home pizza making bells and whistles, but they do help. We have a wonderful wooden pizza ‘peel’, which is the giant wooden spatula thing that helps get the pizza in and out of the oven. We also have a pizza stone, which is a great cooking element that you put in the oven rather than putting the pizza directly on the rack. Pizza peels and stones aren’t very expensive.

Easy Crust

Pre-made While you can usually find some frozen brands in the supermarket, we are fortunate enough to live in New Jersey, where there are perhaps as many pizzerias as there are bars or Starbucks (or bars & Starbucks combined!). We have a couple of local pizzerias that we are friendly with and they will sell us (or give us) dough. We obviously don’t do it often enough (or probably well enough) for them to feel threatened by the competitive aspect.

Ready-to-use, pre-cooked  Here’s an interesting category. I’ve tried some of these and am usually excited by the concept and disappointed in the results. However, we just tried one this past weekend that was a winner - Rustic Crust. We tried the All Natural Tuscan 6 Grain Old World Pizza Crust and loved it.

do-it-yourself  NOT really an easy crust . . . you are on your own with this one. Haven’t gone this rustic yet, but I hooked you up to a mess of good recipes, including a gluten-free one.

Sauces & Toppings

Here’s where things can get really colorfu. Depending on your taste - you could have a GREEN pizza, by using some type of pesto or by creating a ’salad’ pizza (see recipe below). Aside from the traditional RED tomato sauces, you could try my very favorite BBQ sauce pizza (see recipe below). You could go for the WHITE variety by using mostly cheese.

They types of cheeses, vegetables, meats, fruit, etc. are an endless list based on your favorite combinations. Of course, soy cheese can be used, vegetarian sausage and meat substitutes are available so that vegetarian versions of old standbys can be produced.

The Basic How-To

When using raw-dough(either homemade or from your local pizzaria)

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. have fun with the rolling, pounding, and stretching it to whatever shape you want - and whatever shape you need to use to fit either your pizza stone or a baking sheet or your oven!
3. brush on a little olive oil and pre-bake just the crust for about 8 minutes, but don’t let it get too brown.
4. slather on sauce and toppings and bake again for about 15 minutes, watching to make sure things aren’t burning.

With pre-made crust

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. slather on sauce and toppings and bake again for about 15 minutes, watching to make sure things aren’t burning.

Green Diva Pizza Recipes

BBQ Style Pizza
This is a variation on some of the delicious BBQ Chicken pizzas I’ve had in Massachusetts and California.

Ingredients
BBQ Sauce (I like a nice smokey type sauce - my personal favorite is Annie’s Naturals Organic Smokey Maple BBQ Sauce)
Roasted Garlic (about one head)
Smoked Mozzarella (thinly sliced)
Carmelized Red Onion (carmelized or just raw, but thinly sliced)These are the basics, but you can add some organic, free-range BBQ chicken bits or use BBQ’d veggie/fake chicken bits too.

Just spread the BBQ sauce on the crust generously, add toppings as per your taste, bake, and yum!

Salad Pizza
My kids’ favorite!

Ingredients
Your favorite green salad
Basic tomato pizza-style sauce

Spread the tomato sauce on generously, bake for about 10 minutes, then add salad and bake for another 5 minutes to wilt the lettuce and slightly cook other veggies and let everything kind of fuse to the pie a bit.

Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil
Very simple, traditional, but always good . . .

Ingredients
Your favorite tomato/pizza sauce
Fresh mozzarella (grated or sliced)
Fresh basil leaves (washed)
Sliced tomatoes (your favorite kind - we usually use sweet grape tomato halves)

Variations: Red Onion (thinly sliced); Black Olives (sliced)

Additional Seasonings
Of course, you can further personalize based on some dry additions at the very end, such as hot pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, maple pepper (our family favorite!), salt, pepper, etc.

The variations are endless, which makes pizza one of the more creative things you can prepare in your cocina. Kids can get into the action at almost any age. So, have some pizza fun when you can’t get outside to grill dinner this summer.

After going through a rough post-partum depression, my reaction was to get pregnant again pretty quickly and immerse myself in research so that I could be more empowered the next time. I had been shocked into a state of alertness about my body and had a strong intuitive knowledge my next baby and I didn’t need to go through this same situation again.

I had done my homework and knew that what happened with Carly and I was unusual and not likely to repeat itself. I also learned everything I could about VBACs (Vaginal Birth After Cesereans). If my doctor had done a good job of patching me back together, and I believe that she had, my uterus and I stood a good chance of having the strength to give birth naturally.

Of course, this was 1985 and most OB/GYNs were not interested in risk-taking and were still not used to women and expectant parents empowering themselves to make these kinds of decisions. It was SOP (standard operating procedure - literally!) and understood that once you had a cesarean, you would ’schedule’ your next one.

After confirming my pregnancy when Carly was only 8 months old, I started to search for an able and willing doctor who would work with us on a VBAC. To add to our young dramatic lives, we had just moved from New Jersey to Massachusetts, so I did not have access to the wonderful doc who had saved Carly’s and probably my life, AND who being the relatively rare woman OB/GYN, was more in tune with the whole VBAC thing.

My husband and I ‘interviewed’ many doctors, most of whom were not used to being asked detailed questions about their cesarean rates and feelings about safe VBAC options. I had one doctor actually say, “If that baby so much as farts, I’ll take it by c-section.” Needless to say, he was not our choice.

We finally found a wonderful man, Dr. Haling, who was really a midwife in a man-suit. He ran a beautiful and busy birthing center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which was right next to the hospital (which was a 45-minute ride from our home). We knew that because of the dangers associated with VBACs we were not candidates for the birthing center, but we accepted that quite readily and were thrilled to find Dr. Haling who understood our concerns and wish to have the most natural birth possible.

I found a wonderful natural childbirth educator named Debbie Lipp, who instilled a rock-solid foundation of knowledge and belief that my body could do this naturally and if intervention was necessary, we would know we did everything we could. She would later become my mentor as I also became a natural childbirth educator and labor support coach working specifically with VBACs.

Carly had come a month early, but had threatened to come even earlier, so we really weren’t sure how this one would go. My mother came up a month before my due date and camped out relatively patiently as we waited. We had a couple of false alarms, so we were good and ready when labor started in earnest one week early. Unlike the first time, it was kind of text-book normal - the early stage progressing slowly, but steadily. It had started late at night and we went to the hospital in the wee hours. I diligently practiced all my breathing, relaxation and coping techniques as things progress, but after 12 hours, my cervix was stuck at about 6 cenimeters and we decided to break the water and see if that would precipitate some action. Oh BABY! That little tired cervix responded by taking me from 6 to 10 in about 3 contractions - short but INTENSE transition!

We prepared to meet our tiny new babe. We had only had an initial sonogram and had opted not to learn the sex (if it were knowable at that time) and chose not to do any additional tests that could’ve revealed the sex.

Now it was time to do the work I had never gotten to do with Carly. I had done all I could to prepare. So, I started the pushing stage with excitement, focus and determination. I was planning to take a squatting position, but I quickly became aware of severe back pain in between the pushes, which rendered me nearly paralyzed and almost breathless and definitely speechless with pain. My husband wouldn’t have been able to support me properly between, so we propped me up on the bed and got busy. Pushing was relief. But after an hour the whole thing was getting exhausting to say the least. We had an external fetal heart monitor on and the baby was holding up well and presumably was in no hurry to meet us.

The staff was amazing. My husband and I were left alone a good part of the time. My husband was brave and never left my side and was enormously encouraging, but it was one female nurse who really saved me. Somehow looking into her eyes and hearing her say, “you can do this,” I knew it was true. I can’t remember her name, but it was this more than almost anything that led me to want to help other women through these intense moments, when a loving husband or well-meaning male doctor cannot with any REAL certainty say with authority that they understand.

By hour 3 of pushing, the doctor suggested that we use forceps, but he emphasized that he was only using them to turn the bean a little to help out. It seems in breaking the water we caught the wee one before the head was turned in the correct position and it needed a little help turning in the birth canal (Most babies are born face down, but if they come down face up or Octiput Posterior, that back part of the head is much harder and can be difficult to get past the tail bone).

He made an incision I’m not sure I even felt (later I learned that it went all the way to my anus and off to one side - ouch!) and then he barely touched the baby with the forceps and I heard them crash to the floor and within seconds I was holding my sweet little baby girl - Jessie. It was 6:06pm March 20, 1986, which also happened to be my sister Lisa’s birthday. So we named her Jessie Leigh (Lisa just didn’t work after Jessie, so it was close!). She was gorgeous (as all babies are to their parents) albeit wet and squishy from her trip into this world, and she was perfectly healthy. I kept her in my arms while the doctor did the grim task of sutchering me back together - honestly, I’m not sure which was worse, the c-section post surgical pain or the extended ‘hockey stick’ episiotimy I sported after Jessie’s birth!

It was well worth it. An entirely different experience. Jessie had brought a lot of healing power with her and I developed a new or renewed confidence and trust in my body and the birthing process, which would help me later when I gave birth to yet another beautiful baby girl, Mary, completely naturally 7 years later, and would allow me to help other women as they faced similar birthing decisions.

That’s one of three of my stories. It was therapeutic to write it. We have fallen into a tradition of my telling each of the girls their birth stories on their birthdays. They all love hearing it, although it doesn’t really change from year to year! but, I don’t think I’ve ever written it out. A different process of storytelling that brings a slightly different perspective.

If anyone has any questions, I’m still fairly educated about these issues although it’s clearly been a few years since this birth event.

Photo credits: TOP - Not my belly! Photo used with permission from Relevant Times; BOTTOM - Proud daddy John Heissenbuttel with 1-day old Jessie Leigh Heissenbuttel, born March 20, 1986.

When a talented friend and associate, Marcia Yerman, who happens to be an advocate for women’s issues insisted we consider featuring Jody Weiss, founder of PeaceKeepers Cause-Metics in Relevant Times last year, I paid attention. There are so many reasons to be amazed by Ms. Weiss and the wonderful ’cause-metics’ she has produced - great, natural AND benefiting women and the world in many ways . . .

Then, when we got some samples to play with, and I was really impressed! 

First of all, it was obvious that Jody had done her homework and diligently researched the truth about safety in cosmetics and is dedicated to providing safe, natural, non-toxic and even some vegan make up products. Read more details on her philosophy and the ingredients used in her cause-metics.

Jody Wiess’ passion for philanthropy shines through every glimmering lip gloss. I absolutely love the idea that I can enhance my inner beauty with some healthy make up knowing that by doing so I am (through PeaceKeeper of course) contributing to women’s health and human rights organizations. The statement on the homepage of the website says that they give ‘all of the after-tax distributable profits’ to these types of organizations!

You can also donate directly online.

I’m quite attached to my Peackeeper V-Day Lip Gloss. Read about V-Day and how it was launched to help raise awareness about violence against women and raise funds for causes that help women around the world escape senseless violence.

Read what GreenOptions writer Rebecca Carter said about PeaceKeeper!

Photo image courtesy of Relevant Times.

Needless to say, I was excited to see a message in my inbox from Willie Nelson!  Having met him and interviewed he and his wife last year (briefly), I was sure he was writing to tell me how great I am . . . but, while personally a little disappointing, I was glad to see that he was writing on behalf of Farm Aid Disaster Fund which is kicking into gear to help family farmers in the Midwest that have been by the disastrous floods.

I became involved in Farm Aid last year because I feel very strongly about the need to support family farms. I think regionally and responsibly produced food is perhaps the cornerstone of creating a healthier more sustainable existence. Farm Aid is doing some great work not only to help raise awareness about these issues, but in raising money to directly assist farmers as they grow and work to change the big agricultural system that is so dominant.

Having read a couple of scary stories within the last week (none of which I can find right now - sorry!) about food supply issues and how the recent flooding in the Midwest is NOT helping, I thought this call to action was timely and perfect.

Hope you do to. Please do your own due diligence and if you feel good about it, please pass it along!

I’m sure there are other organizations helping these farmers, but in my limited research, I didn’t find any. If you know of any reputable ones, please post them here.

What is your favorite summer kale recipe? 

Here’s one of mine . . .
Kale is not one of my favorite veggies, but somehow Green Diva Jen, (AKA Jenifer O’Neill) has been slowly converting me. She contributed this recipe as well as the actual dish for our wonderful staff picnic last year (photo was taken on my back deck!). She seems to find great ways to get more kale into the mix!

Ingredients

1/2 head kale (any variety)
1/2 head green cabbage
1/2 head red cabbage
4 large carrots
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or umeboshi plum vinegar
1 cup your favorite mayonnaise
1 tablespoon honey
Freshly ground pepper
Splash of water

Instructions

Wash, pat dry and finely shred kale and cabbages. Peel and grate carrot. Put vegetables in a large bowl. In small bowl or measuring cup whisk together mayonnaise, honey, vinegar, pepper and water. Pour dressing over vegetables and toss. Refrigerate. Best if it sits a bit before serving. Lasts several days in the refrigerator.

got any other cool kale ideas for summer?

photo by Daryl Ann Filandro for Relevant Times

While lurking around the food tent, I found myself engaged in a friendly conversation about just how wonderful the whole event was with a dude in this exact same shirt. I raved about the shirt and he told me where he got it, but I don’t write it down, so . . .

Later when Dave Matthews came on stage, there came my buddy with the great T-shirt with the powerful message ‘Stop Wars’ - it was Tim Reynolds! First, I felt stupid for not recognizing him, then I was glad because while I try not to be star struck, I’m a huge fan of Mr. Reynolds (obviously knowing his music better than his face!) and who knows what idiotic thing I might have come up with.

Other than their amazing musical talent, I admire most of the musicians that day for their effort to help raise awareness about the realities and challenges facing small and family farmers. Using great music to activate a crowd is a beautiful thing.

So, it goes along these same lines that using wonderfully designed rags to shout important progressive messages is another great form of creative activism.

Clothing Of The American Mind (COTAM) is a brilliant organization who brought that Farm Aid moment together for me so beautifully.

COTAM is a non-profit organization dedicated to political activism by spreading progressive, socially conscious ideas through the use of eco-friendly T-shirts primarily. On the backs (and fronts) of supportive celebrities like Natalie Portman, Jamie Lee Curtis and of course Tim Reynolds, they’ve helped to broadcast these simple, but powerful messages. It worked for me!

Not to mention that these shirts are all made in the US, 100% organic and fair trade. AND a percentage of the proceeds go to progressive causes that support social, political and environmental justice.

Visit their kickin’ blog!

I was flattered when the PR rep offered to send me one and asked me to photograph myself in it. Really, a wonderful way to promote these simple progessive messages, but I decided to use my kids instead. Here’s my oldest daughter, Carly making her statement!

Somehow my middle daughter escaped this one . . . but, she’s a budding designer, so she’ll have her day I’m sure.

As my father used to say, peace on you!

Growing fresh berries may be the most exciting - especially if you have a local bear that becomes familiar with your crop! Until our current house, I’ve always had some berry bushes and enjoyed the picked-off-the-bush freshness of berries for breakfast AND dessert! I tried container strawberries on the deck in the last couple of years, but it was such an unbelievable chore to keep them from the critters, that I gave up, surrendered my succulent beauties to some very happy chipmunks and whoever else was enjoying them.

I love to buy fresh local berries or even pick them myself from some of the U-Pick farms in my area (Northern New Jersey). Knowing that berries often get the worst kind of pesticides sprayed on them, I’m kind of careful of how they’ve been grown. I almost never buy them non-organic out of season in the grocery store as they often come from South America, where they are allowed to use more pesticides. (not sure about current trade laws, but it used to be that we (US) weren’t allowed to use DDT on our own crops, but we still produced the stuff, sent it down to Mexico and S. America, where THEY used it on various crops, and turned around and sent it back to us - this may not be the case any more, but it is so emblazoned in my little mind, that it is very difficult for me to buy any berries from the supermarket that are NOT organic).

Wow. There’s a berry rant for you! Click on to see my favorite ways to eat berries!

1. Green Diva Meg’s Special Berry Breakfast
I eat this almost daily during the week - bring my glass container to work and savor it during a morning break (I hate eating first thing in the morning).

Ingredients

1/4 - 1/2 c. Plain Yogurt* (I prefer 2%/low fat - either thick greek or some good organic stuff)
1/8 - 1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 pkts. stevia plus powder (or sweeten as desired)
1/4 - 1/2 c. Granola (obviously your favorite - or NOT. this is optional)
up to 1 Tbs. Roasted, Ground Flax seeds (easy - spread out on cookie sheet, heat oven to 250 degrees and bake about 10 - 12 minutes. put in grinder or blender - voila!)
1/4 - 1/2 c. Berries!  (whatever mix you like)

*As you may have guessed, I like to make my own vanilla falvored yogurt, which cuts down on a lot of suger. I try to buy low-sugar granola too and sometimes, I cut out the granola all together, which cuts out a bunch of sugar, carbs, and fat . . . not often enough!

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the vanilla into the yogurt thoroughly, then add stevia or sweetner and mix well again. Then add granola (or not), fresh berries (cutting strawberries into bite-sized pieces, obviously), ground/roasted flaxseeds, and enjoy!

2. Green Diva Meg’s Easy Berry Crumble
I posted this prematurely (about a month ago). Please visit that post for the yummy details!

3. Elegant Fresh Strawberry Dessert
This one comes from my mother, who was well-known and loved for her dinner parties back in the 60s and 70s, when dinner parties were a more formal and regular occurance (at least in our household).

Ingredients

Fresh Strawberries
Sour Cream (could probably substitute with some good thick greek yogurt, but I’ve never tried it)
Brown Sugar

Wash the strawberries, but keep the green tops (unless they are yucky) and keep them whole. If you have enough small individual bowls for each guest, give them one each of a couple of tablespoons of sour cream and brown sugar. Small parties/groups can just share. The goal is to dip the strawberry into the sour cream, then into the brown sugar and eat the whole thing (double dipping isn’t encouraged in a shared environment unless you are all very close and comfortable with that sort of thing).

4. Old Faithful - Berry Fruit Salad
I like to mix up all kinds of berries (color is important - I’m not sure why, but it is - so, I like to make sure I have some red berries AND blue/black berries).

Ingredients

Berries
Peeled/Cored, sliced pears
Peeled, sliced up peaches
Fresh heavy cream (optional)

Obviously, this is a personalized thing. My daughter just LOVES to make whipped cream and so sometimes we go nuts and use it, but it really doesn’t need it.

5. Healthy Berry Smoothie
The basis of this is from Anne Louise Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan, but as always, I tend to alter recipes to fit my own taste.

Ingredients

1/2 c. Fresh Berries (can use frozen in winter)
1 Peach or Nectarine
1/2 c. Water
1 Tbs. Flaxseed Oil
1 Pkt. Stevia (or other sweetner - to taste)
Vanilla Protein Powder (I prefer Whey, but you can use whatever type you like)

Mix it all up in the blender and enjoy!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

 - the lower carbon impact of supporting food that isn’t ‘big Ag’ produced and shipped across the country

 - I personally enjoy meeting the farmers (whenever possible) and supporting their efforts

 - the food is so much fresher and tastes better to me

 - I simply get great satisfaction in knowing that I’m helping to move towards a more sustainable agriculture system by eating/buying locally

The following list of various ways to find and buy local food is an excerpt from a story we did last May/June in Relevant Times, by Tamara Jean Scully, who is a freelance writer, specializing in agricultural issues. She is a local foods advocate, working with the Foodshed Alliance to support local, sustainable family farming. Tammy is also a part-time farmer, growing perennials, raspberries and minor fruits. tamarajeanscully.com

A few different ways to find locally grown food . . .

Farmers’ Markets
Different markets will have varying rules on the goods producers can sell. Many markets are emphasizing strictly locally-grown foods. Beware of markets which do not enforce a locally-grown, or vendor-grown, standard. Ask the market manager for this information.

Health and Natural Food Stores
Many of these types of stores have become advocates for local farmers, often attempting to offer some fresh produce in-season. Some may offer canned foods or baked goods made by local farms, or sell handcrafted home and beauty products made locally.

Supermarkets
Traditional supermarket chains are becoming more responsive to customer requests for local
produce, with varying degrees of success. Mostly, popular items which are grown in volume by some larger local farmers, are finding their way to the produce aisle.

GD Meg NOTE: Ask the managers of your local supermarkets to find out which ones are using locally grown produce - if they aren’t, encourage them to do it!

Alternative markets
such as Whole Foods Markets, have made efforts to source locally whenever possible. Whole Foods holds in-store events where local area farmers distributed samples and interacted directly with consumers. They have also sponsored events run by local foods organizations. Meanwhile, talk to the produce managers to see whether any produce is locally-grown.

GD Meg NOTE: Whole Foods is great, but don’t assume that everything is organic OR locally produced!

Food Buying Cooperatives
There are food cooperatives which are focused on sourcing organic products. Most of these are
not strictly purchasing locally-grown foods. Cooperatives order in bulk, capitalizing on the buying
power of many members, and deliver products on a regular schedule, usually to a central delivery location. Members purchase a share, entitling them to a portion of the week’s offerings. Usually, members have some flexibility in quantity and type of products they order. There are also some cooperative buying stores, where members go to shop, just like at a regular store. Co-Op America, is a great resource for finding local buying clubs and coops.

GD Meg NOTE: Some Food Coops, like my own ‘veggieheads’ DO look for local farmers and producers to purchase from.

Community Supported Agriculture
In a CSA, a farmer offers shares for sale, usually with weekly pick-ups. The consumer pre-pays for the season’s share, and in return receives a given amount of produce, eggs, soaps or other items offered by the farmer. Because CSAs allow the farmer a pre-determined customer base, the farmer can plan on planting a given amount of crop, knowing that he has already pre-sold it. This reduces the risk of growing food without an assured market. The farmer is able to know that he is growing for a receptive, appreciative customer-base.

Pick Your Own
These farms welcome you right out into the fields to pick everything from apples to berries, pumpkins and even vegetables.

On-Farm Stands
Many area farmers have on-farm stands, either seasonal or year-round, where they sell their product. Ask about growing practices (organic, natural, biodynamic or conventional). Inquire about which crops are grown on the farm, or come from other local farmers. Many farmers are now labeling their produce to help assist customers with this process.

Find CSAs & Farmer’s Markets in Your Area
localharvest.org and newfarm.org both have farm locator services to help find farms, farmers markets, cooperatives and other sources of local food across the US.

Wheatware is on a mission to save virgin forests and reduce our dependence on oil through the use of surplus wheat to create many items traditionally made from wood or plastic, such as: disposable flatware, guitar picks, golf tees, chop sticks, hangers among other items. AND, they are bio-compostable and are are designed to biodegrade in 45 to 90 days in microbially-active soil or a commercial compost facility. To bring things even more full-circle, Wheatware bio-compostable products are indeed recyclable and they are developing their own process to reclaim and create second generation products that originated from Wheatware.

The disposable flatware and golf tees particularly appealed to me at this time of year.

Does Wheatware have a negative effect on the wheat-based food supply?

According to their website, the answer to that question is ‘No. On average there is a 50 billion bushel wheat surplus annually (150 million metric tons) . . . There is a plentiful supply of wheat, an abundant, renewable resource. By future recycling of Wheatware™, each bushel of wheat in effect is reclaimed and reused over and over, thus one bushel can create a lifetime of products.’  
 
Photo used with permission from Relevant Times

We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.
Anonymous

Since we moved into our current home, we haven’t developed a serious vegetable garden. We’ve missed it, and every winter for the last 4 years, we have dreamed, planned, fantasized and even drawn pictures complete with fences (which are critical since we have a seriously hungry deer and critter population), vines, flowers and rows and rows of burgeoning edible vegetation.

The subsequent Springs have found these dreams beyond our capacity what with start up multi-media companies and other silliness occurring. However, we have managed to keep our perennial beds going and since I seem to have a flower addiction, these seem to expand a little every year.

For the last 3 years, we’ve been doing potted veggies and herbs on the deck, where our big scary guard dog (not), woody the wonder boy, our goofy golden retriever, keeps the critters from taking the entire harvest. We don’t mind sharing with the wildlife, but they tend to get greedy around here.

I’m a haphazard gardener that rarely follows any rules and learns by trial and error primarily. I do converse with the plants and from time to time catch myself singing to them (or to myself perhaps). I always speak to them as I’m planting or grooming them in any way and when I accidentally break or squash something, I’m horrified and make every attempt to apologize and make amends. My family thinks I’m nuts, but they’re used to me and humor me. Random visitors that catch me in the garden are generally puzzled and wonder whether I am speaking to them or the plants or to myself and when I finally realize they are there, I notice they have either an amused or extremely concerned look on their faces.

This long-winded intro is all to pre-explain why I cherish one of my holiday gifts from last winter - The Curious Gardner’s Alamanac: Centuries of Practical Garden Wisdom. I have a few dog-eared and dirty, well-loved and used books about gardening, and this one is on its way to being loved to tattered pieces. It is a little like my favorite gardens (might describe my personality too) - not too organized, clearly growing creatively with colorful tidbits peppering the great fertile foundation. How about that for a description!

The quote at the top of this post is from the book. There are some great ideas and wonderful pieces of wisdom and tried and true experiential tips. On page 32, there is a great list or ‘Six ways to conserve water in your garden’. There are also wonderful facts and word origin histories, such as the bit on page 60 about the ‘The Latin word for the chickpea is cicer. The orator and statesman Cicero took his name from it because one of his ancestors was thought to have had a facial wart that bore a close resemblance to a chickpea. Try to forget that fact the next time you dig into a chickpea salad.’ 

There is also a chapter devoted to herbs, which of course is filled with tips and lore about healing properties as well as poetic pieces about the uses, etc.

A rich book. Mental fertilizer for anyone even remotely interested in gardens - you don’t even have to be a gardener to enjoy it.

Here are the basic ingredients of the pre-season variety

2 – 28 oz. Cans of whole peeled tomatoes (in-season, replace with equivalent of fresh tomatoes and a little organic tomato juice)
¼  - ½ Red onion, chopped
1 – 2 Cloves crushed garlic
1 Medium cucumber, chopped
1 – 2 Roasted red peppers, chopped 
¼ Cup olive oil (have been using a Spectrum naturals Omega 3 olive oil blend)
¼ Cup balsamic vinegar
Parsley to taste (reserve some for garnish if you like)
Salt & pepper to taste

Get your food processor or blender ready!Mix everything up in a large bowl and using a small measuring cup or some type of mug, transfer into food processor or blender in small batches and transfer into another large bowl. Do it near a sink. It can bet messy!

Here’s a few of my favorites

GG2G – ReVynalized Bags & Accessories
Bringing their philosophy of recycle and re-use into their design world, friends Day and Alison have created a fun and beautiful line of bags and accessories made from recycled billboards lined with organic cotton. I have a couple of their bags and they always attract a lot of attention.

Ella Vickers – Recycled Sail Cloth Bags
Go nautical with these eco-friendly bags made from recycled sails from around the world. Ella, a sailor herself, started making the bags from old sails and friends started wanting them. Her ‘urban-chic’ collection includes a variety of designs and sizes from small cocktail cache’ to totes and duffel bags.

Bazura Bags(TM) – Colorful Bags Made from Packaging Waste
These bags are made by a women’s cooperative in the Philippines sing ‘Pre-Consumer’ waste packaging gathered from juice container manufacturers in and around Manila. Normally this material would end up in landfills. It’s so much more fun as a bag!

Rejavanate(TM) – Re-Usable Bags for Earth & Social Conscience
Okay, so these bags are burlap, BUT they are customizable and their story is a great one. On their website, I learned that 800,000 tons of burlap is land filled every year in the US. Whew! That’s a lot of burlap going to waste. Rejavanate bags are made from real coffee bags that were headed to the land fills. This company also employs developmentally disabled individuals who might not otherwise find work.

Gecko Market Bags – Beautifully-colored Bags made of Former Rice Sacs
These beautiful bags are made in Cambodian village in a certified Fair Trade environment. Love these bags!

The images provided for this post: dude on bike with permission from GG2G; colorful bag with permission from Bazura.com.

First stop was to our local ‘bee lady’ Landi @ Gooserock Farm for wonderful local honey and bee-related products — some of the most luscious soaps and beeswax-based cosmetic products. Gooserock Farm is in Montville, NJ but if you’re not local, you can buy from their website (see link above).

Second stop was the local egg guy (I really don’t know his name!) to play with the free-roaming chickens and pick up some delicious fresh local organic eggs. Well, we were playing, the Pennsylvania Reds may have been more disturbed than excited to see us. Other than the colorful roosters, all the chickens had these big red butts, which were kind of amusing (see image above).

The final stop on our local food tour was the most fun. Right around the corner from the egg guy is our wonderful food coop, VeggieHeads run by Susan Sopira and Lisa Cooper. They are amazing and tireless in support of creating opportunities for folks like me to not only buy healthier food for less, but they do a lot to highlight and introduce other local producers to the group. Susan also has chickens and a gardens everywhere. She has surrendered her garage to the coop. I introduced Kim to Susan and it was yarn envy for the rest of the afternoon. Kim is a knitting wonder and I saw first hand how true that is for Susan as well. Being a newbie I marvelled at the yarny talk tried to absorb some of their knitting wisdom (I did walk away with a new pattern for a very simple project - we’ll see how simple it is!).

It was so exciting to share these small, but very important, bits of my ever-evolving sustainable world. I’m a big supporter of local stuff, whatever it is and it is so much more fun to gather supplies - beats the supermarket as far as I’m concerned!

If you don’t live in my neck of the woods (Morris County, NJ), I bet there are local honey and egg producers somewhere near you and if not, find your nearest farm market and get friendly with those folks!

Image is courtesy of Yarny Old Kim!

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

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan. Mix butter, oats, sugar, and flour together. I usually get in there with my hands. Line the bottom of the pan generously with about half of the mixture. Pour the fruit on top of the crumble lining and sp