Green Options

As we head into the Thanksgiving season, all eyes (and mouths) fixate on that key holiday ingredient:  food.  From turkeys to pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving gifts us with a list of seasonal traditions that celebrate our love for good food.  While these all rank important holiday elements, let’s not miss the key ingredient rooted in the inherent concept of Thanksgiving:  gratitude.

A mindset of green gratitude emphasizes positive abundance, relishing the glass half full perspective.  An important concept to keep on the front burner, especially as tanking economies fuel table conversations that tend to serve up sentiments of fear, scarcity and deprivation.

Add a dash of green reflection and gratitude to your Thanksgiving table by throwing these three questions on eating and drinking better into the conversation mix:

The holiday season is a time to celebrate with family and friends. Unfortunately, for many it also becomes a time for over-eating and weight gain. According to the National Institutes of Health, holiday eating can result in an extra pound or two every year. Over a lifetime, holiday weight gain can really add up. The holidays don’t have to mean gaining weight. Focus on a healthy balance of food, smart choices, activity, and fun. By implementing a few simple tips you can stay healthy through the holiday season.

Fall salads are as bright and colorful as the falling leaves outside now. I hope you’ll try this easy fresh beet, apple and yam salad with cranberry dressing.

The recipe is simple. First boil and roast the beets and yams. Then let cool, slice some organic apples and the golden beets together with the yams or sweet potatoes. Cranberry vinaigrette adds a delightful tang to this side dish.

Using food as a resource in biofuel production is one of the biggest mistakes our country could make. And while we all shake our heads at the idea of corn ethanol…what about using turkey innards? Or Mountain Dew for that matter.

Shaq Wants Your Leftover Beer and Wine for Making Ethanol

First, who ever has leftover alcohol except maybe these guys? The Shaq-backed MicroFueler is a 250-gallon tank for organic feedstock, such as waste wine and beer, that converts it into pure ethanol. It also doubles as a fuel pump and the only waste product is distilled water.

As you recover from your day of Thanksgiving feasting, you might be curious as to whom you should really thank for your day off from work or school day of celebration. There are many stories, myths, and misinformation surrounding Thanksgiving history. Equally significant are the many strong emotions and opinions evoked this holiday, including everything from the feel-good and sense of hope, to doubt and downright condemnation of the infamous feasting day.

But there’s a little-known truth about Thanksgiving that you may not realize. The real reason we celebrate the fourth Thursday of every November as “Thanksgiving” is because of a journalist, not the pilgrims.

From local turkeys to seasonal root crops, Thanksgiving gifts us with a list of seasonal opportunities to green the holiday. While these all rank tangible, important actions to take, let’s not miss the golden green opportunity rooted in the inherent concept of Thanksgiving: gratitude.

A mindset of green gratitude emphasizes positive abundance, relishing the glass half full perspective. An important concept to keep on the front burner, especially as tanking economies fuel table conversations that tend to serve up sentiments of fear, scarcity and deprivation.

Add a dash of green reflection and gratitude to your Thanksgiving table by throwing these three questions on eating and drinking better into the conversation mix:

My family is coming for Thanksgiving this year and in the spirit of the season, we wanted to try and do something a little different, a 100-mile Thanksgiving.

The 100-mile movement is a local eating experiment whereby you buy food that is locally raised and produced from within a 100-mile radius of where you live.  We have 22 family and friends coming from up and down the East coast from Ithaca, NY to Tampa, and while the family is generally sympathetic to green-living, it required some friendly advice to pull it off. So, I sent an e-mail describing the concept and offering helpful advice, tips, links, etc.

We did our part, ordering a bunch of stuff from our milk man and local farm, Southmountain Creamery. We spent Sunday morning at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and found all sorts of fabulous greens, yams, “Dr. Seuss” cauliflower, herbs, cheeses and chicken for stock. Once the kids warmed up with hot cocoa and croissants it was a terrific morning all around.

As for the rest of the guests, at first I heard nothing back from my email.

Then a few requests to resend the email.

Finally….

My sister-in-law from Brooklyn jumped in with apple-pear chutney to replace cranberry sauce. She also asked if chocolate from Jacques Torres in Brooklyn qualified. We decided, since one cannot pass up Jacques Torres Chocolate and we’re making a similar exception for coffee, that products with raw materials that cannot be found within a 100 miles (cocoa nibs, coffee beans) can be brought if they are processed locally. So, Jacques Torres is in as is Gimme Coffee! roasted in Ithaca, NY.

With the Thanksgiving Holiday just a few days away, you are probably focusing on how to have a green Thanksgiving. I have enjoyed reading tips and ideas from around the Green Options network and the blogosphere. Here are some of my favorite green Thanksgiving posts.

While we are on the topic of enjoying a local turkey day, I’m reminded of the trusty local foods wheel that was created by three brilliant women to help Bay Area folks decide what’s in season at the grocery store.

Hopefully a local foods wheel will be created for each and every spot in the US, but for now they are focused on the San Francisco Bay Area and New York Metro Area. The concept is simple, just choose the month we’re in, and rotate the wheel to reveal the local foods available. They explain:

If you’re one of the millions of California voters who helped pass Proposition 2 on November 4, chances are pretty good that your Thanksgiving meal will include some sort of free-range, hormone-free dead bird—or, if you fall into the veg camp, maybe a more benign Tofurky or Field Roast. But for illegal poachers like Peter Ciraula of Gilroy, California, odds are good that the celebratory meal will include breast of snow goose, leg of endangered sandhill crane, or perhaps a pot-pie of protected swan.

“[Ciraula] said he was going to eat some of them,” said Department of Fish and Game warden Patrick Foy, ”But when we asked him why he had so many, he never really never offered up a very valid explanation.”

The phone rang on Friday. It was our CSA farmer, “Farmer Dan.” We then went through the list of everything he had from the greenhouse and field and how much I needed. Arrangements were made for a special drop at one of the restaurants he sells to. Ten minutes later, part of my menu for Thanksgiving changes, salad is now on, and broccoli, another sweet potato dish, five pounds of late season apples mean a pie and applesauce both.

At the last farmers market of the season, I purchase spinach and more pecans. The pies will now include pecan. My spouse is off picking up our turkey, just butchered Saturday. There, he will get pork sausage and more pecans, both of which will go in the stuffing. Whatever else looks good, more eggs, whatever we can buy, he will get.