One way to curb restaurant bills is go back to the perception of a “restaurant meal” from a generation ago: something special, a celebratory occasion, a meal to be savored, a treat. Eating out wasn’t daily fare but an anticipated, relished experience. In our world today, where everything flaunts 24/7 access, sometimes it helps to step back and set some parameters on ourselves. By using less, we appreciate more. And in the case of restaurants, save a bundle in the process.

Some tips on savoring restaurants as treats:

* Replace gifts with celebratory meals. For all of us trying to break the expected “gift in a box” rap during birthdays and other holidays, take that person out for a meal instead. Don’t wrap a restaurant gift certificate, make a date with that person, share the experience and pick up the tab. Consider this a triple win: No more gifty stuff piling up, relationships grow closer from time spent together, and you’ll undoubtedly remember such a restaurant outing much longer.

* Dine unique. One of our cardinal rules of eating out: The food must be something we can’t make at home. This often leads us to ethnic restaurants where the ingredient list alone proves a good value in eating out. There’s a local Indian restaurant, Maharaja, in Madison, Wisconsin, that we frequent when we venture off our farm to the big city. This $7.99 lunch buffet offers over a dozen freshly-cooked Indian dishes, a frugal eating paradise for us and a great way to introduce our six year old son to new tastes and flavors. He dives into the mouth-watering tandori chicken and ends with a bowl of pistachio ice cream and honey balls.

* Eat local. When you do eat out, nix the expected restaurant franchise and seek out the locally-owned, family-run spot. Not only will more of your money stay local, such small business restaurants are more likely to use area-grown, seasonal foods that whatever fell off the distributor truck. For a listing of locally-owned restaurants with a local food flavor, see www.chefscollaborative.org

Restaurant dining can inspire new dishes to try to make at home. This Oven Roasted Garlic recipe from Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity came about after enjoying such flavors at a favorite French bistro café. We have an enclosed terra cotta baking dish we use for roasted garlic, but any shallow casserole dish will work.

Ingredients:
4 medium garlic heads
2 T. olive oil
1 ½ c. water

Directions:
* Using a sharp knife, cut the top of the garlic head to expose the inner cloves.
* Brush heads with olive oil and place in a shallow casserole dish. Fill dish with 1 inch of water and cover.
* Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until garlic is very soft and light brown. Smell! Check garlic for softness since oven temperatures may vary. Serve with French baguette slices. To eat, remove the garlic from its skin with a knife and spread onto baguette rounds with butter.

Serves: 4.

However, I do find the innovations in green clothing fascinating, and for that reason I plan on attending EcoNouveau this Saturday. Billed as LA’s definitive EcoLifestyle experience, the event is a precursor to LA Fashion Week, which begins October 14th.

The event will feature the Spring/Summer ’08 collection of eco-fashion designers in a non-traditional runway show (I’m really curious to find out what that means!) The show will spotlight innovative uses of organic materials and processes.

EcoNouveau will take place on September 29th at 8pm at the Architecture and Design Museum. The A+D, as it is commonly known, is an all-inclusive information and education center for design including architecture, interior design, landscape design, fashion design and product design. It is the only museum in Los Angeles where continuous exhibits of architecture and design are on view.

At the event, organic hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served, accompanied by music by Dublab and drinks provided compliments of VeeV. The suggested donation for entry is $20.

EcoNouveau is the brainchild of Rob Ganger, of Pollinator Media Group, and co-founder of The Evolver Project, an incubator that launched a print magazine (Evolver) and an online directory and media portal (evo.com). The event has two additional sponsors: Sarah Shewey, owner of Pink Cloud Events, a full-service event production and design company that specializes in eco-friendly resources, and Peter Gurnz of BOXeight, an art/media/production company.

Labor Day Weekend is just around the corner — and with it, the football and tailgating season in the United States.

It’s an annual ritual: head out to the game, break out the barbecue, and enjoy an afternoon with friends and family. There’s no need to skip the fun, even if you’re trying to live more lightly and be kinder to the Earth. With all the green options available to consumers these days, you can tailgate with the best of them and still leave behind a modest environmental footprint.

Just to make the point, we’ve rounded up a few ideas for an eco-friendly tailgating party. Because green’s got game.

The green barbecue

Your lowest-impact option for the tradition barbecue is propane. Sure, propane is a petroleum product — but it burns a lot cleaner than charcoal or wood fires. Propane also leaves behind less waste, and is particularly convenient when you’re cooking away from home.

If you’re going the charcoal route, consider Greenlink’s All Natural Briquettes. They’re made from environmentally friendly wood sources and renewable plant wastes such as coconut husks. Unlike conventional briquettes, Greenlink doesn’t use clay or anthracite fillers.

But skip the charcoal starter: it’s rich in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which you don’t want in your food or in the air. Use an electric starter. If that’s not practical, a good-quality charcoal chimney will get those coals glowing in minutes using nothing more than a sheet or two of newspaper.

Earth-friendly eats

Maybe you’re easing back on your meat consumption for the sake of the environment. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to miss out on grilling at your tailgate party. Check out the Vegetarian Kitchen’s tasty suggestions for veggie barbecue.

Not ready to give up on burgers and hot dogs? If you’ve not tried Boca’s burger patties or one of the great vegetarian franks you’ll find in most grocery’s freezer sections, you’re in for a surprise. A tip: veggie hot dogs are better boiled than grilled. You can always steam them in foil when you’re ready to serve.

As for the rest of the meal: go with local, seasonal produce and plug in your favorite recipes. The great thing about tailgating season is that it coincides with the biggest selection of the year down at the farmer’s market. Bon Appetit!

Organic brew

Green beer isn’t just for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, we’re talking organic — not color.

Organic beer has really taken off in the past few years. Even big players like Anheuser-Busch have gotten into the act, which means organic brew may very well be sold wherever you normally buy groceries. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or most local natural food stores also carry organic beer lines.

Wolaver’s is currently the largest national distributor of all-organic beers. Their Pale Ale is a good choice for warm-weather tailgating. It’s traditional to drink heavier brews once there’s a snap to the autumn air. In any case, it’s an excuse to sample Wolaver’s award-winning Brown Ale or Oatmeal Stout. You’ll find similar organic selections from Peak Brewing and Goose Island Beer Company.

Ditching the Disposables

It’s tempting to break out the paper plates and plastic cutlery when you’re eating away from home. They’re certainly convenient, but most dining disposables end up in the environment or clogging local landfills, rather than finding their way into the recycling stream.

It’s really not much of a hassle to bring some dishes from home. They needn’t be your everyday ware: picking up a set of lightweight plastic place settings is a great outdoor investment, and you can probably find them secondhand for next to nothing at a garage sale or thrift store. Carry them home for washing in a lock-top box.

If you really need disposables that won’t make a mess of Mother Nature, check out Cereplast’s line of compostable cutlery. They’re made from a bio-resin derived from corn and potato starch. For other ideas on cutting picnic waste, see our article on Dining Without Disposables.

A little entertainment

If you’re fit enough to roll with the Tour de France (and perhaps a bit crazy), you can always follow the big game on a bicycle-powered television set like these inventive fellows.

For the less obsessive, there’s the Eton FR300 Emergency Crank Radio. You’ll probably have a great-sounding car radio to turn up at the tailgate site, but the FR300 is ideal for catching the play-by-play in the stands. It can be crank-operated, which means no need for AC power and zero battery waste. The FR300 has a TV audio section and will even recharge a dead cellphone battery in a pinch.

It’s a great radio to have on hand for emergencies, and a subtle way to demonstrate alternative-powered consumer devices for friends.

©2007 Lighter Footstep Media

Choose draught beer. When you opt for a pint over a bottle, you’re saving on packaging. Draught beers are pulled from kegs and each keg contains around 124 pints, which are normally served in glasses. And unlike the bottled varieties, when the keg runs dry, it is sent back to the distributor to be refilled.

Ask for a local brew. Local brews are, well, brewed locally. And while some may go through a bigger distributor, most are shipped local and don’t have as far to go saving on fuel and transport emissions. Microbreweries make up beer in smaller batches, so the overall footprint is smaller than the bigger brands. And if there’s a brewpub attached, you can literally get your beer straight from the source. Many local breweries also offer small kegs or growlers of beer you can take home. To find a brewery near you, check out BrewPubZone.com.

Go organic. There are an increasing number of organic beers and spirits available. Ask your bartender if they carry any - if not, see if they can get some.

Amy says: I’ve always been a bit of a self-proclaimed beer snob and prefer draught to bottles (or cans) any day. Normally when I head to my local watering hole (usually to watch a baseball game on tv), I’ll grab a local beer. My new favorite is Brooklyn brewed Six Point Craft Ale’s Sweet Action.

More on Beer from GO:

Organic Beer, Now Without That Pesky Organic Part

Green Brews: An Ecology of Beer

Green Brews: Judging Beer at the Corvallis Brewfest

Anheuser-Busch Walks The Organic Trail With New Beer

Daily Tip: Green Beer

Reduce, Reuse, Respect the Brew: Beer-Making for Environmentalists

Fosters Brewery To Develop Fuel Cell That Runs On Beer

Green Brews: It’s All in the Bottle

Kicking the Habit: Adventures with Homebrew

Kicking the Habit: Adventures in Homebrew, Part Two

Green Brews: Green Nightclub Serves ‘Eco-lixirs’

The Green Life Guide: Drinking Green 

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls… come right in for another edition of the Greenest Show on the Web: the Carnival of the Green! Fresh off of a stellar performance at Ms. Malaprop, the Carnival’s here at Green Options this week to amaze and delight you. But don’t wait around — the show has a limited engagement here, and then it’s moving on for a stint with our friends at Greener Magazine.

What’s the Carnival of the Green (or COTG, as we green bloggers like to call it)? It’s a roundup of some of the best posts on green blogs from the past week. Always moving, the COTG stops for a visit on a green blog every Monday. The Carnival was the brainchild of Al Tepper, publisher extraordinaire at City Hippy, and Nick Aster, the man behind (and often in front) of the curtain at Triplepundit. These days, our friends at Treehugger play tour manager for the Carnival.

Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, let’s get on with the show. And if you’re suffering from a case of the Mondays, here’s a little music to put you in that carnival mood…. wherever you are.

The Hall of Science

Come on in, and take a gander at the latest technological wonders. Won’t cost you a dime…

We’ve got a double-header from EcoGeek this week. Want some help adjusting your driving to save fuel? Hank and co. take a look at the Fuel Mizer, which can monitor your stops and starts for you. And if you’re a walker (which we hope you are!), two students at MIT are just won a prize to harvest the energy from your footsteps (yep, we covered that one, too).

The Naib, over at The Sietch, investigates the Watercone, a device that uses solar energy to desalinate water. This piece of simple technology could do a lot of good for people without easy access to fresh water.

For the Dedicated Followers of Fashion…

We’ve got some Fall previews, and some new looks.

The Natural Collection is predicting an ethical Autumn as they roll out their Fall fashions online. Keep an eye on their site, as they promise "some fantastic giveaways, competitions and freebies" are on the way.

Nature Mom Tiffany Washko takes a look at some furnishings (particularly beds) that are both green and stylish.

Inhabitat shows us how designer Stephan Boltz gives a second life (and new sense of style) to airplane trolleys.

And speaking of reuse, our own Victoria E. shows us how the Broken Plate Pendant Co. turns "useless" china into unique pieces of jewelry (on her own blog).

The Carnival’s Trade Show

Catch the latest trends in green business and finance.

Sox First has a podcast interview with Erik Mather, managing director of Regnan, on the growing pressure for companies "…to come clean on their contingent liabilities that include environmental, sustainability and governance risks."

Great Green Gadgets expresses some skepticism about carbon offsets, particularly those involving tree planting. Doesn’t mean they’re against planting trees, though… even guerrilla style!

And the Savvy Vegetarian shares a post from market gardener Jocelyn Engman on the importance of supporting local farmers.

Time for a Break… and a Beer

All this carnivaling can make you thirsty…

GO’s Gavin Hudson shares some tips on making your own eco-friendly brew: cheers!

And the Green Cougar points to that inevitable post-college dilemma for green grads: aluminum cans or glass bottles?

The Medicine Show

Health and safety stories with a green tint.

Allie’s Answers takes note of some of the potential dangers presented by manufactured nanoparticles in sunscreens.

The Environmental Working Group’s Enviroblog presents a video on the danger that still exist from arsenic-treated lumber used for decks and playsets.

Finally, at sustainablog (my other blog), I took a look at an editorial in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune claiming that greener development of transportation infrastructure could create less wear and tear on roads and bridges (so they’re less likely collapse!).

Get a Glimpse of Far-Away Lands…

A couple of our participants in the Carnival this week share some travel information and experiences.

Intelligent Travel spotlights several green hotels you might want to consider on your next getaway.

Sally Kneidel of Veggie Revolution recounts her visit (complete with some great photos) to the South African village of Welverdiend

The Souvenir Stand

If you must buy, make sure it’s sustainable.

The Millionaire Mommy Next Door claims that "Memories are made of the things we do, not the things we buy." We couldn’t agree more!

La Marguerite reminices on times past when we didn’t throw away so much stuff.

And Green LA Girl takes a look at some eco-friendly claims made by some companies about their products, and shows that a little digging often chips the green gilding off of these fairly ordinary items.

Finally, Take a Stroll Down the Midway…

You never know what you may find.

INNside Innkeeping in Montana highlights efforts by Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the owner of hotels and restaurants inside a number of state and national parks, to green up their own operations. That’s right… Yellowstone is going green…

Maria Energia, the blog of our own Maria Surma Manka, considers the implications of recently-announced renewable energy deals by BP.

Jetson Green takes a look at an ancient case of urban sprawl, and wonders if it provides some insight into more recent calamities such as post-Katrina flooding in New Orleans, and the bridge collapse in Minnesota.

In another post, Intelligent Travel offers its congratulations to Java Green, a D.C.-area cafe’ that recently won the title of "Best Vegetarian Restaurant" in a contest held by VegDC.

Flower-Garden-Bulbs.com provides some tips for getting flower bulbs started right… the organic way.

The Good Human muses upon the messages sent by environmentalists concerning climate change, and claims that the planet itself will survive this crisis; the human species, on the other hand, may not be so fortunate.

And, finally, our good friends at Lighter Footstep help spread the word on the October 15th Blog Action Day, when a diverse array of bloggers, ranging from Lifehacker to ProBlogger, will be writing about, and raising funds for, environmental issues.

That’s a wrap, folks — thank you for coming by and enjoying the Carnival. We’ll see you next week at Greener Magazine!

Image sources: Treehugger (COTG banner) and Wikimedia Commons (here, here, and here)

Making beer is not very different than making bread - except bread goggles can get you in a lot less trouble! You’ll need a little yeast and a lot of patience, as well as the proper cooking gadgets. You can find ingredients, gadgets, and recipes for your favorite beers online or at your neighborhood brew shop.

Now here’s where your environmental prowess comes into play. Instead of recycling or (don’t even think about it) tossing away your bottle after you finish your beer, save the bottle in a cupboard or under your sink. When you have about 70 (12-ounce/135-mL) bottles stashed away, you can begin the beer-making process. Once you begin making your own beer, you will never have to buy another new bottle or can again. Instead of beer bottles, you can also use wine bottles, but you’ll want to let beer in these bottles ferment a little bit longer.

Now it should also be mentioned that there are a number of fantastic and high-minded breweries out there. So, you might like to consider buying these 70 bottles (about 12 six-packs) and the beer they contain from companies like Anderson Valley Brewing Company, a large-scale solar powered brewery, or the New Belgium Brewing Company, which has wonderful sustainability and philanthropy programs, and also just introduced its Mothership Organic Wit beer. You probably have other favorite local and organic beers as well.

All in all, the gear that you will need to start brewing is not extensive: a bucket, a 20-quart (19 Liter) cooking pot, a thermometer, a large sealed container, and a few other odds and ends. The cooking pot is probably the most expensive item. Unless you improvise with material that you already have, the cost of the equipment should come to between $80 and $135. You can also generally find this equipment on Craigslist and Freecycle. If you are able to use a bucket or a thermometer that you already have, just make sure that it has been very well cleaned before you begin. I told a brewer once that I’d heard that 70% of good beer making depended on cleanliness and he responded, “Only 70%?”

The best way to brew your first batch of beer is with a kit—not one of the “beer-in-a-can” packages—but simply a collection of pre-measured ingredients for a particular type of beer. You can get one of these at your local brew shop, or at an online site like homebrewers.com. Once you get the feel of things, you can purchase beer-making ingredients from organic retailers, like breworganic.com. If you’re lucky, you may even live near an organic brew shop, co-op, or grocery store that sells bulk organic brewing ingredients. I also recommend the free “home brew class” offered at breworganics.com.

So cheers, prost, cin-cin, skål, kanpai, and salud! Here’s to drinking environmentally responsibly.

References and Resources:

If you are interested in more on this topic, you may also enjoy the following articles written by my fellow Green Options bloggers.

Green Brews: An Ecology of Beer, by Robin Schidlowski

Organic Beer, Now Without That Pesky Organic Part, by Alicia Erickson

Green Brews: Judging Beer at the Corvallis Brewfest, by Clayton Bodie Cornell

Anheuser-Busch Walks The Organic Trail With New Beer, by Michael dEstries

Tip o’ the Day: Green Beer, by Rebecca Carter

Fosters Brewery To Develop Fuel Cell That Runs On Beer, by Michael dEstries

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iantindale/79961379/

Cork, as we know it, comes from the outer cell layer of the bark on cork oak trees (Quercus Suber). The stopper layer is easily separated from the mother cells when the connecting layer (phelogen) becomes brittle. Once the bark (cork) is stripped off the tree in the late string and early summer, it renews itself naturally. An added bonus: each time cork is harvested, the tree stores more CO2 as a result of regenerating. It is reported that the tree stores 3-5 times more CO2 when harvested regularly.
The cork industry has found its home for centuries in the Mediterranean. Portugal has the world’s largest cork industry, yet it is an important forest crop to Italy, Spain, Algeria, France, Tunisia, and Morocco. The forests cover nearly 2.7 million hectares in total, and produce over 15 billion cork stoppers.

What’s the news? Due to “cork” alternatives, the cork industry is losing its intrigue as a cultural staple for wine bottle closures. The World Wide Fund reports that cork sales in the wine industry fell 20% between 2000 and 2005. Portugal has reported a severe drop in cork stoppers exported to Australia and the U.S. “New consumer trends and winemaking techniques, as well as more competitive markets, have led producers to look for more technical or cheaper closures – plastic ‘corks’ and metal screw tops”. Despite the optimal performance of cork as a stopper material- high elasticity, natural insulatinsulating qualities, light weight, and durability - the plastic and metal screw tops are becoming more accepted as standard wine closures to us consumers.

This increase in market share is leading to a decline in the global cork market, and thus degradation of cork oak forests that have (and could for years to come) provided one of the most diverse ecosystems and community-based industries of the region. They report that this could potentially lead to a loss of 60,000 jobs, and thus could severely harm the biodiversity of the forests.

Although the market demand for cork is slowly shifting to flooring and wall coverings, wine stoppers still account for about 70% of the industry profits. Whatever the reason might be, there is a reason that we still call a cork a cork, synthetic or woody. "We’re fighting back,” says Antonio Amorim, third generation owner of one of Portugals largest wine stopper producers. "We may have lost market share in some places but we are gaining in others.” "The shares, which shot up 79 percent in the past two years, are set to rise more as he wins back customers by virtually eliminating cork taint," said analyst Sonia Baldeira.

To help: do your best to find wine bottles that sustain the true cork community’s integrity and unscrew the cork.

To see more intensive case studies and future scenarios, view this pdf file.

For more information:

Amorim Corkfacts

WWF: Changing Markets

Amorim Cork

Images source: Amorim Corkfacts

Why avoid disposables? Try getting an Italian to enjoy his espresso from the ridged lip of a Styrofoam cup and he’ll tell you all about the importance of real cups and dishes for enjoying the experience of food and drink. And then, of course, there’s the environmental impact. Take the plastic spoon: sure, no one adores washing dishes, but is it really harder to wash a spoon than it is to locate and drill oil reservoirs, refine crude oil, extract the chemical feedstock used to make plastic, and mould plastic into thousands of tiny, single-use utensils that are then shipped to a landfill where they must then be managed for hundreds of years while they sit without decomposing?

Now there’s trash (like biodegradable paper food trays) and then there’s Trash (with a capital T, like plastic or Styrofoam containers). Opting for the better of the two is a good start.

Ditching the Capital T

Try wrapping your veggie-dog in a napkin or getting your Chinese delivery from restaurants that offer those handy little paper boxes instead of polystyrene (or Styrofoam) containers. Where there’s a will there’s a way and finding alternative containers is a fun way to express your eco-creativity. But that’s just the start.

Do one better by using your own containers for take-out or leftovers from your favorite restaurant. It’s like the restaurant equivalent of cloth shopping bags to the grocery store. Our local Mexican restaurant has come to know and love us for getting burritos to go in bread-baking tin. They get a giggle and we get great food without the waste. It’s a win-win situation, and the bread tin also makes a great conversation piece at the restaurant. Make sure to be friendly when you ask to use your own container; activism with a smile is always the most effective.

Want to go all the way in eliminating that capital T? Here’s the good news: increasingly, a number of large cities are passing legislation that bans the use of Styrofoam containers in restaurants. Many other cities are considering similar action. Legislation like this is important because Styrofoam is not recyclable in most places and does not quickly decompose so sits in landfills. The more Styrofoam we prevent, the fewer open spaces will need to be converted to landfills to hold this Trash (with a capital T). And not all of trash ends up at the dump: quite a lot finds its way into ocean ecosystems as well. Here’s a visual. Chemicals in styrene products are also harmful to human health because they attack the central nervous system.

You can encourage your city to pass a similar ban on Styrofoam by contacting your city council. Also, talk to restaurants and stores that use plastic cutlery or bags about biodegradable plastics. If you already live in one of those forward-thinking cities with a ban on Styrofoam, you can help restaurants by letting them know how much you appreciate them following this eco-friendly policy. Supporting restaurants and companies that are doing things right flexes your power as a consumer to make a difference. You can also help the city by letting them know if you come across a restaurant using Styrofoam.

How is everyday activism effective?

Some of the most heroic deeds of activism come in the most commonplace shapes and sizes. Confronting the way we do things each day makes such a big difference because the changes we make are multiplied over time: just two fewer disposable items used each day turns into over 50,000 items during a lifetime. When we regularly make decisions that take into consideration the wellbeing of the environment and other people (such as walking or bicycling to the store or supporting local or Fair Trade farmers), our friends and family take notice. Leading by example is a sure way to inspire those around us to take action as well.

And congratulate yourself on the changes you make, no matter how small. When it comes to doing what’s right, there is no effort too small.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7527513@N04/545957211/

Since they were developed in the 1930s, modern pesticides have been used extensively in viticulture around the world. “Pesticide” is the generic term used to denote a wide range of both synthetic and biological insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and bactericides. Pesticides pollute the earth, underground water tables as well as rivers and lakes, and even the air. They disrupt food chains by poisoning species and are a major threat to biodiversity across the globe. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that pesticides have harmful effects on humans, causing damage to the endocrine system and increasing the risk of cancer in farmers and winegrowers.

For example, in his research on newborn babies, Professor Charles Sultan of Montpellier in southern France discovered that the toxins in pesticides are transmitted from parent to child with alarming ease. He found considerably higher instances of malformations and cancers in farmers’ children than in the general population.

According to the French Wikipedia article on the subject (here’s the article in the English version of Wikipedia), in 2006 France was still the second largest consumer of pesticides in the world after the United States. Yet, despite the bleak statistics, organic agriculture and viticulture are gaining ground in France. As with organic food, wine that meets the standards carries one of the two nationally certified labels, “AB” or “EcoCert”. The labels are awarded largely for adherence to green practices in winegrowing and not necessarily in winemaking, that is out in the vineyards and not necessarily inside the winery.

But what exactly does organic winegrowing entail? What do winegrowers who have eschewed pesticides do to combat weeds, diseases and mildew?

As a young man working in his father’s vineyards in the Champagne region of northern France, Jacques Beaufort scoffed at organic viticulture. But in 1969 an acute allergic reaction, which erupted after he had sprayed chemicals on the vines, caused Mr. Beaufort to reconsider. Since 1971, the Beaufort estate has been green. Today ecological methods are used in both the winegrowing and winemaking processes, giving rise to award-winning bubbly wines.

Although greening a vineyard is not a simple task, there is a pesticide-free solution to every viticultural problem. On the Beaufort estate, shallow tilling prevents the growth of weeds but without damaging the vine roots. Chemical fertilizers have been replaced by vegetable compost, which retains moisture even during periods of dryness. The soil is enriched by nutrients from the decomposition activities of microorganisms, and aerated by earthworms and other insects. The aerated soil is more permeable, and while rainwater filters through to replenish underground water tables, erosion of the Beaufort lands has ceased.

Traditionally sulfur has served as a fungicide in winegrowing but, with a certain degree of toxicity, it upsets the surrounding ecosystem. As an alternative, Mr. Beaufort has been experimenting with essential oils since 1974, and since 1980 he has been working on homeopathic remedies against spoilage. Inside the winery efforts are made to add as little sulfur dioxide as possible during the fermentation process. Instead bacteria transform malic acid into lactic acid through a natural series of changes.

While the first years of organic winegrowing saw a substantial decrease in yield from the Beaufort vineyards, today the return is healthy even if still subject to the vagaries of the weather. More importantly, the wines produced are scooping up silver and gold medals at a number of national wine fairs, in competition with vintages from the most established estates and wineries. So if you are visiting Reims, the town famous for hosting the coronation of French kings throughout the centuries, make sure you swing by the Beaufort estate near the village of Ambonnay for some bubbles tasting.

If you do not have the opportunity to visit Champagne or any of the other winegrowing regions of France, your best bets for finding organic wines are in the supermarkets and online. Purchasing Bacchus’ brew from a supermarket shelf or a website may detract from the glamour and mystique of wine drinking but until “vins bios”, organic wines, are accepted by the major wine brotherhoods and federations, and become part of the mainstream, they will make but few appearances in specialized shops and wine cellars.

Champagne Andre & Jacques Beaufort

Interested? Great, let’s get cooking! First, choose your menu options: something delicious that’s easy to make, like spaghetti and (vegan?) meatballs, fajitas and tacos, a salad, or even some simple sushi rolls. Call a couple of friends, preferably ones who can walk, bike, bus, or carpool to your house easily. The fewer fossil fuels they use to get to your house, the greener your party will be.

If you’ve also been looking for a chance to get to know your neighbors better, or maybe you’re searching for the right occasion to talk to that cutie down the street, don’t be shy; invite them over. Ask each guest to bring one or two of the ingredients you’ll need for the meal and give brownie points for any locally grown, organic, or fair-trade ingredients. When you’re shopping for ingredients, consider organic wine, locally grown fruit, or fair trade chocolate. Don’t forget to use non-disposable dishware.

Now enjoy the company of friends over a delicious, home-cooked meal. If everyone has a good time, why not take turns hosting weekly dinner parties and inviting new friends? You’ll build community, save money on groceries, and enjoy tasty leftovers. And, whether it’s your culinary prowess or the way you suavely compost the kitchen scraps, you might just make a splash with your neighbors as well.

So, if you love the good life, consider throwing dinner parties as a way to build community, reduce waste, supporting organic foods, and even fight Global Warming.

Bon appétit!

Want More? Try Workplace Activism: Bringing Slow Foods to a Fast Paced World

You can bring green dining to the workplace. Choose one day a week when two or three coworkers can team up from home to bring in a homemade lunch for the rest of the office. Ask them to keep track of what they spend on ingredients and have everybody who would like to join in the lunch contribute several dollars to cover the cost. Then rotate through the office to give others a chance to be designated as chef for a day. You can suggest that everyone use organic, locally grown, fair trade ingredients, or you can showcase these ingredients when it is your day to bring lunch.

What’s the payoff? When choosing where to eat lunch during the workweek, we run the risk of eating unhealthy fast foods and using wasteful to-go packaging and we often end up paying more than we would for food cooked at home. Shared lunches are healthier, use less packaging, and they add an important touch of fun and common ground to the workplace while saving you and your coworkers money.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkonig/114636130/

Presented by “nationally-renowned cocktail specialist” Natalie Bovis-Nelsen (who wouldn’t want that job?), Sustainable Sips offers expertise in more than just sustainable ingredients…it’s a primer in alcoholic concoctions. To be held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza’s über-cool X bar, the class offers how-to’s on the ingredients and tools essential for setting up a home bar, creating a well-balanced mixed drink, and even delves into a little cocktail history.

During the class, students will learn to mix four different sustainable cocktails, including a non-alcoholic one. Learning the details on the different cocktail products, including why they are considered organic or biodynamic and how to use them, enables students to create their own signature cocktails. To soak up some of that alcohol, X bar will provide light snacks.

Also known as The Liquid Muse, Bovis-Nelsen is a journalist by training, and “self-proclaimed gourmand, who delights in all things deliciously decadent.” In addition to delighting, she stays abreast of lifestyle, food and drink trends around the world, reviewing liquors and writing articles dedicated to cocktails.

The class will be held on Tuesday, July 24th at 6:30pm. The cost is $27.50 and reservations are required. For more information, contact Bovis-Nelsen at Natalie@theliquidmuse.com or (310) 717-2850.

With more and more organic choices available in the libations department, including Anheuser-Busch’s line of organic beer, maybe drinking isn’t such a bad habit after all.

Local restaurants are more likely to use local ingredients (read: less food miles), cook seasonally (again, less food miles), and invest in the local community. In fact, local restaurants often partner with farmers markets for cooking demos or classes. I see one of the chefs of my favorite local restaurant at a farmers market every Saturday, checking out produce and talking to farmers.

Here in St Louis, along with several other cities in the US, there’s another incentive to dine locally: the DineOriginals program. Started by independent restauranteurs looking to promote their restaurants in the face of expanding chains, DineOriginals offers a rewards program for diners, and a fairly decent one at that: for every $150 you spend at DineOriginals restaurants, you earn a $10 credit. For my husband and I, it’s not hard to earn credits, particularly since our, ahem, local microbrewery participates. It’s free to join, you can sign up at any participating restaurant, and a no-brainer for those of us who try to eat local anyway. See if your city participates, and find a list of restaurants, here.

My favorite part of the foodie-fueled kitchen craze? Food blogs. I love the democracy of blogging, the connecting with people passionate about cooking, the recipes tested by real! live! people!, and the sumptuous photos of prepared dishes. There’s a ton of food blogs out there, so many that it can be quite overwhelming. For those of us in the know about how our diets impact our environment, there is a thriving community of online bloggers focusing on vegetarian, vegan, organic, seasonal, and local foods. We’ve got great recipes coming from our writers every weekend, but if you’re looking to expand, check out my favorite in greener-eating blogs.

Mighty Foods
According to their site, Mighty Foods is about "natural foods, organic ingredients, fair-trade products, veg-friendly recipes, sustainable farming, whole grains, organic wines, ingredient spotlights, news, profiles, reviews, gift ideas, new product information, culinary travel ideas, studies and trends - information and inspiration, all wrapped up in one food-loving bundle." It’s a mouthful, but it’s a comprehensive blog with information about all areas. A great starting point for food blogs that is updated often.

What The Hell Does A Vegan Eat Anyway
These are the gourmands of the vegan world. If you’re really into food, here’s where you get vegan ideas. Full of gorgeous photos, the recipes can be skeleton, but this is a great site to be inspired by vegan cuisine.

VeganYumYum
Again with the mouth-watering photos! Lolo’s blog features recipes for a variety of vegan dishes from a wide range of cuisines.

Vegetarian Cookster
Chronicling the life of a vegetarian who is trying to experiment more with vegan and vegetarian cooking, this candid blog highlights quality food that amateurs can prepare without fear.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
Finally, if anyone needs any convicing that vegan foods, particularly vegan baking, can be devastatingly, addictively tasty, look no further than Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s Vegan Cupcakes blog. I can’t say enough good things about the recipes from the authors of a cookbook of the same name, and I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of cupcakes. Great links, too.

Currently, there are no regulations on the fragrance industry resulting in a lot of unnecessary airborne pollution, or VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Chemicals such as toluene are abundant in the fragrance aisle; they’re also abundant in auto parts stores. Toluene has been proven to cause cancer and nervous system damage, and is designated as hazardous waste in large amounts. Now, that doesn’t sound very refreshing or romantic does it?

Oftentimes these harmful chemicals in our everyday environment, from cleaning products to air fresheners, contain hormone disruptors, which are toxins that fool our body by imitating our natural hormones. Hormone disruptors bind to the sites in our body where our natural hormones usually bind, and block those sites from our natural hormones. This often results in low sperm count, high breast cancer rates, prostate and testicular cancer, thyroid problems, and behavioral abnormalities in children.

Now I’m not saying that one cleaning product a day is going to steal your health away. But, exposure to many products through out the day containing toxic chemicals can lead to an unhealthy state. So, I am encouraging you and helping you to use cleaner, safer, homemade products that perform just the same!

Following is my All-Purpose Cleaner Contents 101 just for you!

• Rule of thumb # 1: if it burns your nostril, it shouldn’t be topical.
• Rule of thumb # 2: if you can’t pronounce it, denounce it!
• Rule of thumb # 3: If the scent is strong and synthetic, keep in mind that it is probably present to mask the scent of another equally harmful chemical in the product.

Below is a recipe for an All Purpose Cleaner, and although you certainly could clean your body with it I am recommending it for windows, countertops, mirrors, sinks, tubs, even use it as a weed killer, or in a bowl to remove unwanted odors from a room!

The active ingredients are:

Vinegar: originally a French word meaning “sour wine”. It is simply made from the fermentation of ethanol (the alcohol commonly found in alcoholic beverages) in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice…basically anything that has an alcohol content. The active ingredient is acetic acid, which is usually between 4-8% of the liquid volume. At a PH of about 2.4 the rather acidic liquid helps to kill bacteria, prevent bacteria from growing in the first place, and cuts through grease.

Visit these pages to find millions of opportunities to substitute vinegar in everyday cleaning and even weight loss.

The Vinegar Institute: Uses and Tips
Hints and Things: Vinegar

Borax: an umbrella word for a few closely related natural mineral compounds that differ in content and structure. Commercial borax is usually sodium borate decahydrate. It is very water-soluble and uses that property to convert water molecules into hydrogen peroxide, thereby becoming a great natural, yet mild, bleach and cleaning agent. At a PH of 9.5 the alkaline, the basic compound uses it’s salt, and/or oxygen content to disinfect and kill unwanted pests/organisms. Borax is used in many detergents, fungicides, preservatives, and disinfectants.

Now that you have the facts, here is how you make it!

Ingredient list:

• 4 T Vinegar
• 2 tsp. Borax
• 10-20 drops of the essential oil of your choice (optional)
• 32 oz hot water

Step 1: Find a spray bottle that will hold about 32 oz or more. If you want to use an old spray bottle, which is a great idea, first disinfect and clean it. How? Put in 4 T Vinegar, 2 tsp Borax, and fill it about 1/3 with boiling hot water (if your bottle is plastic, reduce the heat of the water a bit). Shake it real well, let it sit for a day or two and rinse it well.

There you have it!Step 2: Add the 4 T Vinegar right into the bottle

Step 3: Add the 2 tsp of Borax right into the bottle

Step 4: Add 32 oz of hot! Water

Step 5: Add 10-20 drops of your chosen essential oil if you please

Step 6: Put on the top/lid and shake it up.

Step 7: Clean away to your hearts fancy and be breath deep. It won’t hurt you!

Isn’t it refreshing to know that having a cleaner home requires less: less ingredients meaning less harmful disguises?

Source articles:

No Perfume Means Healthier Air
About.com: How Does Borax Clean?

Is the solar energy revolution upon us? Solar Energy: Saved By the Sun, a PBS NOVA show first aired in Spring 2007, asks that question and presents a battery of solar related arguments. While light on science, the program provides a solid, basic understanding of the solar energy debate and a picture of where it is heading.

After waiting 30 years for solar to be the “next big thing”, the recent spotlight on global warming has raised the country's collective concern about how our energy is produced. In the U.S. we use natural gas, nuclear, hydrogen, and coal power, and only 1% of all energy is created through sun or wind energy. Now, that balance is shifting as we are withdrawing our reliance on fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of power.

Solar is a $38 billion year industry and is growing rapidly. The film introduces viewers to several scenarios that show promise for its implementation at multiple scales, from residential and commercial to municipal and federal. It stops short of telling us what to do, instead providing enough information for a newbie to have a conversation about solar technology as well as a platform for further investigation. The DVD can be purchased online, or you can explore the website that accompanies the film free of charge.

Some ideas from the film and reasons to think seriously about solar power:

Amory Lovins : Eats a Banana from his Colorado GreenHouse. Photography by Ben Stechschulte

• Kramer Junction is a solar power generating plant that uses hyperbolic mirrors to heat oil, that boils water, to create steam, which turns turbines, to create energy for 150,000 homes in Los Angeles. Locating solar “farms” outside of cities, on rooftops, and in creative spaces, can equate to cities powered in large part by the sun.

• Germany has created a system of solar subsidies and guarantees the purchase of consumer energy. The result is that 30% of the country is powered by the sun. Getting solar in the national politics has led to a healthy solar manufacturing industry and the debunking of the idea that solar isn't feasible if it isn't always sunny. It isn't, especially not in Germany, but the sun still provides a significant amount of the national energy and this equates to a huge savings in fossil fuel usage and carbon emissions.

• Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute is convinced that solar can serve his energy needs, and then some. In his Denver home he has built a solarium that yields bananas, papaya, passion fruit, loquats, grapes, and tomatoes. He captures sunlight, heat, and hot water, creating an indoor tropical micro-climate. He is not trying to defeat nature he is letting solar design work for him.

• Technology such as solar film, electron conducting solar paint, and multi-junction solar panels will equate to higher efficiency and less expensive sun energy. As our collective conscience shifts toward less polluting lifestyles, our governments are beginning to subsidize the development of solar technology, just as they have with nuclear energy for half a century. Take advantage of the subsidies in your state, and take part in the solar revolution.

We Americans consume a lot of energy. Many of our appliances, such as our toothbrush, razor, and clocks, have become unnecessarily electrical, all consuming energy from the electric grid daily. If your energy bill has become morbidly obese, you are not alone. The average American family produces 15,000 pounds of carbon emissions each year. Imagine the damage we do just one single hot holiday! So, aside from supporting local and alternative power generation, here are a few fun things to do today to eat, drink, and celebrate your way to electrical independence today.

1. Go around your house and unplug all of the unused appliances, all those hidden clocks and battery packs on your coffee maker and chargers are constantly sucking our electricity.

2. Go to the lake and allow the kids (or yourself) to go swimming and wash up for the day rather than taking a shower.

3. Drink a local beer or wine. At least the transportation energy is lower than those coming from Australia or Sicily. If the average American mean travels 1500 miles to get from farm to plate, at least you can do your duty with recreational consumption. I mean with your liquid bread.

4. Eat raw. Keep the oven off and the house cooler. Make a batch of Gazpacho (with seaweeds for protein) and a raw chocolate mouse for dessert. Try it, its surprisingly spectacular!!

5. For you electricity independent lovers, check out the aphrodisiac qualities of raw foods and have some fun.

6. Sun brew tea. It takes a few hours but it keeps the stove off and gets you that vital caffeine. You can even try coffee in a filter sealed up on top. Or put your press pot out in the sun for a couple hours before you press it.

7. Play outdoors, where little electrical energy is required in order for you to expend your own. Stay clear of the shopping mall, the movie theatre, and, dare I say it, maybe even the bar. Instead, pack a picnic, go for a walk in the park, on the beach, or out in town, go for a swim at the lake, or play a game- you can even make one up! An added bonus: being outdoors is downright good for your health.

8. Ride a bike or walk if you need to get somewhere. If you can’t get there by foot or pedal, reconsider whether you really need to go or not! If you do, go to the park and ride and utilize as much public or unplugged transportation as possible

9. Build a bonfire instead of retreating into your lit up home tonight for cocktails and celebration. Gather around a bonfire and burn some old scrap wood.

10. Sweep up at the end of the day rather than turning on your vacuum.

Without further ado, I will let you get creative with your unplugged adventures today and I hope the residual of each engaging and enchanting option carries through to tomorrow.

Zero waste designers tell us that the function of an object is more valuable than the materials. The function of a bottle is as a container for liquid.

In the recycling process the function is lost as the bottle is broken. The glass has to be sorted and melted down and remade again, using energy and material resources.

Around 1960, before recycling came on the scene, Alfred Heineken saw the problem with single use beverage containers. As a solution, he commissioned the design of a bottle with a secondary function, one that would serve after it had served as a single-use container.

The World Bottle (WOBO) was the inspiration of inadequate housing and abundant trash, including his discarded beer bottles, that Heineken saw on an overseas island, presumably Dutch Curacao.

Strauss Milk : is sold in glass bottles. A deposit and return system keeps these bottles in circulation. Why not for beer?If he was surprised by the bottle waste, we can assume things were different at home. Was there a deposit and return program in place in 1960's Netherlands? Probably. There is still a deposit and return system for milk bottles, like Strauss.

Heineken designed a bottle that was flat on two sides, for stacking. The WOBO also had a recessed bottom, in which the mouth of another bottle would fit. Not only would this bottle serve as a single-use beverage container, it could be used as a building block for a house or other structure.

In one simple design decision, Heineken, saw a solution to excessive waste and inadequate building materials. What was once the waste of consumer beer drinking, was now the material input for low-income island housing.

Nothing short of brilliant, the WOBO never made it beyond the factory.

The bottle wall is nothing new, but the World Bottle, was designed specifically to make walls. It was an example of the Cradle to Cradle design ahead of its time. If the World Bottle were reintroduced today, would it survive?

The USDA, which certifies organic products, announced a controversial proposal in May which would allow "38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the 'USDA Organic' seal. Most of the ingredients are food colorings derived from plants that are supposedly not 'commercially available' in organic form." However, included among these is hops, a critical ingredient in beer. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has raised issue with this "Budweiser exception" and with only a 7 day public comment period, it seemed our organic beer would become not. However, within that short period and with no formal announcement consumers united and filed 1,264 comments.

From the Beer Activist, the rationale of the exception being made is that these 38 ingredients are 1) "minor" ingredients in their products, and 2) not commercially available in organic form.

1. Hops are not essential to the character of beer? Before I even knew what a hop was I knew it was what made beer beer. Not to mention beer cannot be legally labeled as such without hops.

2. Organic hops have been available commercially through such companies as Seven Bridges Cooperative for quite some time. And in a beautifully quick response to demand just a couple weeks ago, Anheuser-Busch began "brewing our nationally available organic beers with 100-percent organic hops." Why? Because the USDA was stalled, and 100% organic was required before this proposal. Rather than be forced to pull their line of beer A-B suddenly sourced the hops they had previously claimed did not exist. A great push forward for organic hops farmers which is now threatened by this new proposal.

The OCA announced last week that the USDA has extended the comment period by two months, which means there is time to act! In order to preserve the integrity of organic certification, follow these steps and make the USDA remove hops from the list of ingredients:

ACTION STEPS:

1. Click here to file your opposition via the Organic Consumers Association website.
2. To read all 1,264 comments submitted during the original seven day comment period, go to www.regulations.gov, scroll down and click on "Advanced Search." In the "Agency" pulldown menu, select "Agricultural Marketing Services." Skip all the rest of the fields until the bottom, where you need to type "ams-tm-07-0062″ in the "Keyword" box and select "any word". Then hit "submit." It'll only give you 14 results, but if you click on the hyperlinked "document ID" "ams-tm-07-0062″ you'll get all 1,264 comments.
3. Grab a glass of your favorite organic brew and raise a toast to its continued organic status!

If you’re a business person in the Los Angeles area with an interest in sustainability, there’s a new non-profit designed specifically to help you improve your profits, your community, and the environment.

The Sustainable Business Council (SBC), headed by business executives, was created with one goal in mind: establishing Los Angeles as a leader in the sustainable business sector. To further that cause, the SBC holds quarterly events, each dedicated to a specific topic related to sustainability. The summer event, to be held on Thursday, June 21st, will focus on issues related to the health and wellness sector.

So, what is a sustainable business? According to the SBC, a sustainable business takes full account of the environmental consequences of economic activity and uses resources that are renewable, replaceable, non-depletionary or regenerative. Sounds like a good goal for all companies.

As with past SBC events, a panel discussion is the featured event of the evening, followed by a Q&A session. Since the attendees at each event are business people involved and interested in sustainability, the questions are generally right on-point and make for an interesting discussion.

In addition to the panel, there will be plenty of time for networking. Thanks to the decidedly business focus of the SBC, the events are well-attended by professionals from all industries.

Prior events have also featured raffles - at November’s green building event, I won a basket of green goodies from Livingreen. The bounty included Mrs. Meyers cleaning products, a Klean Kanteen (replacing all of those bottles of water) and even a doormat made out of recycled flip flops! At the spring event, one lucky winner won a free pass to the LOHAS conference.

Sponsored by Valcucine and VeeV vodka, and held at the Otis College of Art and Design, the event begins at 7pm and has a $20 entry fee. As a bonus, the Maltz gallery's current exhibit, a survey exhibition spanning 35 years of the work of Los Angeles-based artist Don Suggs, will be open during the evening.

"The aspiration underlying beer is that the natural propensity of yeast to… multiply,… froth and bubble will spill over into an analogous growth and prosperity for those placing the offerings." -Kathryn March, in Katz

Beer builds culture, literally. Not only is it a product of microbial culture, but it's also known for growing human culture. For millennia our species has gathered in ceremony around the magical elixir. This post explores the ecology of the sacred drink and its predisposition to be sustainable from a whole systems perspective.

Micro-Biodiversity

Beer is made by soaking grain in water. When the grain is sprouted its starch is converted to maltose, or malt sugar. Microbial yeast organisms feed on the maltose, bubbling and multiplying as they convert the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The process is a micro-organismic celebration of biodiversity.

In Wild Fermentation, Sandor Elix Katz suggests that as we consume the micro-biodiversity of beer we are strengthening the connection between our body ecology and the external, natural world. In Radical Brewing, Randy Mosher tells us that historically beer “functioned as an important part of a whole nutritional system.”

Global Anthropological Significance

Beer has also played an integral role in the development of human culture. Katz explains that beer has been associated with every grain ever cultivated and eaten by man. Rice, wheat, corn, rye, soy, barley, and millet, along with many others, have pan-cultural histories as beer. When we ingest beer we experience an altered state that some say led to the creation of human consciousness. Inebriation from fermented alcohol has been attributed to inspiration and spirituality across human culture for over 12,000 years.

Bioregionalism

With big beer on the craft brew bandwagon, it is a good time to ask the question: What is the difference between organic and sustainable (beer)? The answer: Organic is a label applied to growing standards and ingredients. Sustainable is a system of replicating an action infinitely with out net degradation.

In his book, Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World, Christopher Mark O'Brien describes a new wave of bioregional craft breweries and brewpubs that are going beyond the basics of organic ingredients. Bioregionalism, a term coined in the1970's by Peter Berg, is the idea that human activity can only be sustainable if it is localized around a geographic location and natural resources. Berg explains that, “harmonizing with the natural systems of each bioregion is a necessary step toward preserving the whole biosphere.”

O'Brien reports “Craft brewers are very intentionally innovating sustainable practices and working hard to build strong local communities.” Whether using spent grains for bread making, harvesting wind energy to run equipment, restoring local fish populations, or integrating methane energy from spent grain digestion into farm production, bioregionalism is creating sustainable, closed-loop brew systems.

Drinking Ecological Beer

Locally sourced, organic ingredients, recycled bottles and packaging, minimal transportation, and live cultures are all elements that contribute to the ecology of beer. With thousands of craft brewers in the country, there is bound to be one close to you. BrewPubZone.com has a comprehensive directory of micro breweries, brewpubs, restaurants, contract brewers, and large breweries by state. With local addresses, phone numbers and website links, anyone can find who is making the beer in their bioregion. For an option to grocery store brew, bring your own brown jug to the local brewpub and take some culture to go.

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