Green Options

The Kansas compromise reached earlier this month allows Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build a single 895-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Holcomb, Kansas.

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

On April 21, 2009 Drinking With Benefits held their latest open house event at the State and Allen Lounge in downtown Dallas.

The goal of Drinking With Benefits is to “develop an awareness and call to action for local communities through businesses that implement the ideals of an eco-friendly community, thereby creating an active ‘go green’ network of lounges, bar and nightclubs”. Part of their education and advocacy outreach is recognition by Drinking With Benefits of those businesses who recycle their waste—in particular glass, which has the most connection to the patrons of these businesses.

As part of their program Drinking With Benefits needs to get their message out by identifying the bars that are members of their organization. Enter the Dakota Burl plaque from Norwood. This plaque is made entirely of sunflower husks and when laser etched really looks very elegant. Each new member of Drinking With Benefits is now presented with a Dakota Burl plaque to place in their establishment to show their participation in the program and to help promote it. That was part of the reason for the April 21st event.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen has has been a staunch critic of the of proposed new coal-fired generation at Holcomb and has held her ground in the face of strong opposition. What happens now that she’s leaving for Washington?

Sunflowers are already used for oil production and to make biodiesel— now scientists want to look into their viability as ethanol producers in the state of Georgia and beyond.

Over the next few years, University of Georgia scholar Steve Knapp will study silverleaf and Algodones dune sunflowers, both of which  are woody-stemmed species that grow as tall as 21 feet. The species have the ability to produce significant amounts of cellulosic biomass, which can be converted into ethanol.

Just because summer days are on their way out doesn’t mean the gardening has to end. In climates like mine on the Northern California coast, certain plants can be grown year-round. Through my experience growing organic veggies in a plot in my local community garden, I’m starting to learn the ins and outs of growing plants in my local climate. Even if your climate gets too cold for a year-round outdoor garden, you could try gardening in a greenhouse, hoophouse, under cold frames, or indoors during the colder months. I wanted to share an update on my community garden as well as a handful of things I’ve learned from my community gardening experience.

My local community garden, the Noyo Come-Unity Garden, is a very busy place in the summer. Each family plot is blooming with a variety of veggies and greens, and since each garden is different we are all able to trade with each other. Along the edge of our community garden are community beds, where we grow all kinds of veggies to feed the hungry in our area as well as flowers and beneficial herbs. We have donated pounds and pounds of fresh organic veggies to the local food bank and homeless shelter. Community gardens are a great way to help and grow your community!