Declaring food independence

Over at MNN, we're pushing a campaign spearheaded by Kitchen Garden International, the same organization that asked for the WHO Garden (White House Organic Garden - and it did happen!). The campaign is called Food Independence Day.

What's it all about? Basically they are asking all of us to declare food independence by making our 4th of the July feasts from local foods. That's not all, though. They are calling upon the first families from all 50 states (the governor's families) to do the same. To show their support for the local foods in their states.

I challenge you to rise to this challenge. 4th of July is on Saturday this year which means many of us will be able to wake up and go to a farmers market. You can get the freshest, best tasting foods. You can help pump money back into your local economy. You can show your small local farmers that you appreciate their hard work, and you want them to continue doing what they do. You might not be able to buy everything for your celebration from local producers, but consider buying what you can.

MNN has created a clickable map that takes you to recipes that can be made from local foods that are available in each state right now.

I'm not sure what my menu for the 4th will look like yet. I may not know until I get to the farmers market on Saturday morning. But I know most of the food will be fresh, delicious, natural and local.

And don't forget the liquid refreshment, either. If you can buy beer or wine from local breweries and wineries, go for it.

If you're having a BBQ or cookout this 4th, I've got some tips for greening your BBQ.

Have you checked out the $1 charity fundraiser that I’m participating in with a group of other fine eco-bloggers? We’re trying to raise money for an environmental group and those who donate get to vote on who gets the money. Please consider voting and donating a dollar.

Some national parks going fee-free for three weekends this summer

On Monday, I wrote about getting your kids out into nature so they can learn to love the earth so they want to treat it right. The National Park Service has a deal this summer that can help you do that for free. For three weekends, more than 100 National Parks that usually charge fees will be going fee-free*.

The following weekends will be fee-free:

    * June 20-21, 2009 (Father’s Day weekend)

    * July 18-19, 2009

    * August 15-16, 2009

In addition, many national park concessioners are joining the National Park Service in welcoming visitors on this summer’s fee free weekends with the their own special offers.

*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.

National bike month

It's National Bike Month and this week is Bike-to-Work-Week. But if you can't hop on your bike every day this week and ride it to work, perhaps you can do it just one day - Friday - on Bike-to-Work-Day. You've got a lot of bike riding opportunities here.

Do you have a bike that's been a little neglected for a while? It's time to dust the thing off and hop on. You'll feel just like a kid again when you're gliding down a hill with the wind in your face. Unfortunately, you might feel very much not like a kid when you're going uphill at first, but that's one of the reasons to dust the bike off. It's a fun way to get some exercise. 

Add to that the fact that biking is environmentally friendly - it uses no gasoline and creates no greenhouse emissions - and you know you need to do it.

May is the perfect month - it's not too hot yet in most places so you can start easing your way back in to riding around town and maybe even to work while the weather is beautiful.

I don't need to ride my bike to work. I work from home. But when I need to run an errand, I often hop on my bike and pedal off. Yesterday, I went to the bank on my bike. There's a small market in the next town over that's a nice bike ride if I just need to pick a few things up. 

If you're a little rusty on your rules of the road, The League of American Bicyclists has some tips for you to brush up on.

Image: Frank Steele

I almost forgot to tell you - go buy sunflower seeds tonight!

Tomorrow, May 1 is International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening Day. I'm not making this up. In fact, I told you about it last year.

Basically what you do is you go around your community planting sunflower seeds surreptitiously where some beautification is needed. Then when the sunflowers are growing, you go back to weed and water until they are hearty enough to fend for themselves. Don't tell people you're doing it - just do it.

I've got a pack of sunflower seeds waiting to go. How about you?

Green celebrations abound this weekend

Just a quick note to finish out the week. I know that several of the towns near me are having Green Festivals or Earth Day Celebrations or some sort of eco-friendly event to finish off Earth Week.

If there is one near you consider checking it out. You'll likely find information on recycling in your area, gardening and composting tips as well as information on businesses in your area that are green or offer eco-friendly products and services. You'll never know what you might learn.

On a different note, I heard the most spectacular conversation between my six-year-old and his friend as they were walking home from school today. My son was educating his friend about composting.

"Say you've got stuff you're not gonna eat like apple peels or banana peels or something like that. You don't want to put it in the trash, that's bad. You want to put it in the composter so it will turn in to compost. Then you grow vegetables in the compost. You and me can even dig up worms in the back yard and throw them in the composter if we want!"

See, they do listen!

Have a great weekend. We'll be at the ball fields, yard saling, and checking out green festivals. See you Monday.

Swaptree.com will plant one tree for each swap on Earth Day

As I mentioned on my guest post on Twilight Earth on Friday, I'm not particularly keen on buying things to celebrate Earth Day, but swapping things on Earth Day - well that's downright earth friendly. And if that swap comes along with the planting of tree, that's even better.

Swaptree.com, the site that allows users to swap books, dvd's, cd's and video games for free is working with The Nature Conservancy’s ‘Plant a Billion Trees’ program and will be planting a tree for every trade completed on Swaptree on Earth Day.

While currently several thousand trades happen every day on Swaptree, their goal on Earth Day is to do 10,000 trades and therefore plant 10,000 trees. While the average Swaptree user, given its emphasis on recycling and sharing, lowers their yearly carbon footprint by 180 pounds and saves trees from being turned into new books, with this initiative they hope to offset literally several thousand tons of CO2.

If you've been meaning to check out Swaptree but haven't done it yet, Wednesday is the day to do it. I've written about this earth friendly site several times before, but you know what, I have yet to complete a trade. I signed up for an account and someone tried to trade with me last summer when I was on vacation, but by the time I got home the trade had expired or been recinded or something. I think maybe I'll see what I can trade tomorrow on Earth Day.

Sign up for Earth Hour

Last year, my family and I participated in Earth Hour. It's one hour when people volunteer to turn off all the lights in their home. We played Monopoly by candle light. It was fun. While we the only ones in my area participating that I knew about, across the world, communities turned off off their lights. 

You might wonder what one hour can do. Look at what happened in one hour last year.

Chicago kept 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
In Canada, there were significant savings in energy, including an 8.7% reduction in Toronto.
In Manilla, Earth Hour was hailed a huge success as power companies saw a huge dent in consumption.
Melbourne had an impressive 10.1% drop in energy usage.

This year, Earth Hour 2009 is on March 28th (thanks to Adam at Twilight Earth for reminding me). You can go to their website and sign up to participate by volunteering to turn all your lights off between 8:30 and 9:30 pm. You can also organize your community to join in and have your friends and neighbors participate, too. 

My family will be doing Earth Hour on March 27th because we have a fundraiser to help a family in need in our town on the 28th. 

What about you? What will your family be doing that night? Will it be in the dark?

What Will You do on Buy Nothing Day?

Have you heard about Buy Nothing Day? It's a campaign aimed to get consumers to buy nothing for one whole day. Here in the U.S. that day is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. In most of the rest of the world it's the following day.

The point of Buy Nothing Day is to get consumers to think about how their buying habits effect the environment. We consume our natural resources faster than the planet can replenish them. We are the worse offenders of this in the U.S. The majority of what we buy ends up in the trash. Landfills are full, the Pacific Ocean has a "continent-sized stew of toxic trash" swirling around in it. Our consumerist behaviors are destroying the planet. So many environmentalists are urging people to participate in Buy Nothing Day.

In the past two months, it seems that many people have been participating in a "Buy Nothing Season" as our consumer index plummets. In this economy, people have stopped spending. Good for the environment. Bad for the economy.

My husband and I had the opportunity to go away for the weekend. We spent Sunday morning lounging around our hotel room and watching TV. We jokingly call it living like the heathens. Usually on Sunday, we're in church all morning, but a couple of weekends a year we get away, and enjoy coffee and newspapers in bed. Wow, the news on every channel was about the economy. How bad it is. How much people aren't spending. How the government is handling it. How the merchants are already slashing their prices so low that you don't have to wait until the last minute to get good deals. There are amazing deals now.

So what do you do? Buy nothing and help the environment or take advantage of these great sales and help the economy?

I say neither. I don't have a problem with Buy Nothing Day, but really it's just symbolic. Most people, if they are going to abstain from buying on Black Friday, will still buy holiday gifts at some point throughout the season. So if you're crazy enough to go out there at 3AM the day after Thanksgiving (and you my fabulous friend I've had since kindergarten know I'm talking to you!) then have a blast. 

But have a list and stick to your list. Don't buy an item you weren't intending on buying just because it's 50% off. Don't feel responsible for single handedly reviving the economy. There are so many reasons the economy is crap right now. Buying stuff is not going to fix it. It didn't fix it when we all got those checks from the government. It only temporarily delayed the inevitable. 

Here's what I'm going to do. 

• I'm not going to shop on Black Friday because I never shop that day. I don't enjoy it. 
  
• I'm going to make a list of everyone I want to give gifts to. And I'm going to give them gifts. 
  
• I'm going to try to give eco-friendly gifts where I can. 
  
• I'm going to make a smaller pile under the tree for my boys because all of the little things I end up buying just to make their piles look better never get played with. 
  
• I'm going to spend within my means and if the GNP plummets because of it, so be it.
  
• I'm going to try to move away from the consumerism of the holiday and find meaningful ways to bring the birth of Jesus back to the forefront for my family.
  
• I'm going to be patient with all of those (including my own family members) who aren't ready to be less consumeristic yet.
  
• I'm going to give - give to Thanksgiving basket drives, and toys for less fortunate kids drives, and our local Wish Tree drive. 
  

What are you going to do on Buy Nothing Day? What are you going to do during this holiday season? 

Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment & Social Equity at Philadelphia's Greenable on Nov. 16

Below is the press release for Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment and Social Equity that will be held this Sunday, Nov. 16 from 3-6 at Greenable (the fabulous green building supply store) in Philadelphia. It's being hosted by We Are Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (We Are BOOST), and I announced their event last month, too. 

After making the announcement, the organizers of this event inquired if I'd like to speak. I promptly ignored their request because I've never formally spoken in public on a green topic before. Then when I had gotten my courage up to maybe say yes, I checked my calendar and I was going to be out of town anyway. But I have a feeling that at some point, I'm going to have some involvement with We Are BOOST. Until then, I'll keep plugging their events. Here's the press release for this weekend's event:

November 2008 - Philadelphia PA - Patricia Gaylor has practiced green design in the northeast for over 25 years. After seeing many remodeling jobs start with the demolition and hauling away of tons of materials, she began to wonder how to create beautiful new spaces without making such an environmental impact. Reducing landfill waste and specifying materials that are renewable, recyclable or sustainable has been part of her design business for many years.

On Sunday, November 16, Gaylor joins a panel of leaders from a broad range fields where she will share her vast experience and knowledge with anyone interested in greening up their living, work, worship, or recreational spaces and places.

Women Leaders for Entrepreneurship, the Environment and Social Equity is being hosted by We Are Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (We Are BOOST) at the showroom of Greenable, one of Philadelphia's premier resource for interior and exterior green building products and services for residential and commercial projects. The forum will take place from 3pm until 6pm. Greenable is located at 126 Market Street in Philadelphia PA and the donation to attend is $15 per adult and $5 for children under 12 years of age and only $5 for college and university students with a valid student I.D.

"In an economy where home building and remodeling is suffering one of the worst slumps in decades, green building and remodeling are experiencing incredible growth. Recent surveys reveal that home buyers will pay a premium to purchase a green, energy efficient house. Coloring your business GREEN is a smart move in a sluggish economy!" says Gaylor, who was recently featured on Good Morning America.

Yvonne Haughton, founder and director of For My Daughter Library and Ali Shapiro, proprietor of Integrative Nutrition Counseling will lead a panel discussion and interactive question and answer session at Greenable.

Donation is $15 per adult and $5 for children under 12 years of age and college and university students with valid student I.D. A refreshments buffet of locally grown and harvested food will be prepared by Cosmic Catering and available to all who attend. Advanced registration is required, please call (206) 202-2883 or visit the calendar of events page at http://www.weareboost.org. You may also email greenablewomen@weareboost.org.

Philadelphia Event: Green Living Panel and Community Discussion

I was asked to pass this along and since it's local, and a lot of my readers are local, I thought I would. Unfortunately, I can't be there, but a green living panel and discussion held at a brewery sounds like me kind of event.

Green Living Panel & Community Discussion to be held at Dock Street Brewery in West Philadelphia, PA on Sunday, October 26th

(Philadelphia, PA) – October 14, 2006 – Dock Street Brewery and Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (We Are BOOST) cordially invite the public to a special community event “Why Live Green? Options and Opportunities for Better Jobs, Careers, Housing, Business, and Education” on Sunday, October 26th from 3PM - 6PM at Dock Street Brewery located at 701 S. 50th Street (50th & Baltimore Avenue) in West Philadelphia, PA.

The event will include panel and community discussion featuring topics by seven sustainability, conservation, and green living community leaders. Also featuring special guest appearance by Christopher Zelov of the Knossus Project and director of the eco-education film, City21, which explores the green initiatives that are shaping the 21st Century City.

There will be a Q&A session, Brewery tour, giveaways, appetizer buffet (included), and networking following the panel presentation.

A cash bar will also be available.'

For more info go to We Are BOOST

Philadelphia Green Festival on September 7th

If you're in the Philadelphia area, check out the Greenfest Philly on September 7th from 9am - 6pm.

From the website:

GreenFest Philly is a one-day street fair FREE to the public. Over 200 exhibitors and 20,000 people are expected at the area's largest environmental event. The event features vegetarian food, sneaker recycling, live music & entertainment, kid's activities, bicycle valet, yoga, local produce, organic pastry contest, composting and recycling, Eco Exchange Fashion Show & Clothing Swap, Water Quality Symposium and Eco-Film Forum. This year's theme is water quality so grab your reusable water containers and fill up at our no-waste drinking water stations.

I'll be there. Anyone else?

What Are You Going to D0 For Earth Day?

Earth Day. Macy's is offering 10% off everything you buy if you donate $5 to a certain organization. Donate $5 buy a lot of stuff that will eventually end up in land fills. Yep, sounds like a futile way to celebrate Earth Day to me. 

I have never seen a greater consumer interest in Earth Day than I'm seeing this year. I don't watch a lot of TV, but the little that I did watch over the weekend (mostly cooking shows and a couple of reruns of MASH last night) were riddled with commercials describing what this retailer is going to do on Earth Day if you buy products from them or how that manufacturer has made their product "greener" by putting 30% less plastic in their bottle or removing one chemical from their toxic laden cleaning product.

Earth Day is not about buying. It's about doing. Doing something to improve the health of the earth. 

What are you going to DO for Earth Day?

Yesterday my boys and I showed up with a small handful of other residents to go clean up trash in areas of our town. We picked one of the parks and the Little League fields since we regularly use those areas. The boys worked pretty hard even if they did have to climb to the top of each piece of playground equipment because they were making sure there was no trash up there orclimb on top of the roof of each dugout for the same reason. They had some fun and did some good at the same time.

Tomorrow, on Earth Day, I'm going into my third graders classroom to read The Lorax and talk about how the kids and their families can do little things to "speak for the trees."

The things you do for Earth Day don't need to take a lot of time and they certainly don't need to cost any many. 

So if you want to DO something for Earth Day, here are some suggestions.

• Walk or take public transportation instead of driving somewhere
  
• Plant something - it doesn't have to be a tree
  
• Take your kids somewhere you frequent - like the park or the ball fields - and spend 15 - 30 minutes cleaning up trash. If you have no kids, do it alone.
  
• Bring your own reusable bags if you are doing any shopping
  
• Take a mug to work so you don't use any disposable coffee cups
  
• Educate yourself. Even if you've only got five minutes, head over to National Geographic's Green Guide site. There's some great information on it.
  
• Eat lunch outside. Enjoy the world you want to help save.
  
• Make an effort to recycle everything that can be recycled. 
  

So tomorrow on Earth Day, commit to DOING something, not buying something.

Let it All Hang Out Day - April 19th

Don't forget about the contest I'm running to win a ChicoBag. Click here to find out how.

Over the past few days I've read a few things about National Let it All Hang Out Day. It's a day where people are being challenged to hang their laundry outside instead of drying it in their clothes dryer. It's actually a Canadian thing, but people in the US are beginning to pick up on it, too.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about greening the drying of your laundry. I won't repeat myself - you can just click here if you want to read it.

One of the suggestions in the post, of course, was hanging your laundry out to dry. I hang some of mine in the basement, and I've been meaning to get a clothes line for outside. Reading about this challenge has made me decide that now is the time. By this Saturday, I will have a clothes line in my back yard.

Anyone want to join me and put a load of laundry out to dry before you get busy this Saturday with little league games, gardening and whatever else your Saturday holds?

Earth Hour Update

We did it. We turned out all of the lights in the house for one hour Saturday night between 8 and 9pm. We also turned off the tv and the gaming systems. It meant the boys missed the first hour of the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards which they had been looking forward to, but it's Nick - they'll rerun it a million times this week.

We lit a bunch of candles in the room we call The Internet Cafe - it's a small room off of our kitchen with the boys' computer and a table for them to do their homework. It's also a really great place just to sit in the morning and have coffee - hence the room's name. We pulled out Monopoly and played by candlelight. By the end of the hour my eight year old was getting a little bored and my husband was having trouble reading by candlelight so we ended the game. My five year old, however, loved it and said it was the best part of his day.

I don't know anyone else who participated in Earth Hour, but apparently communities all across the country participated. Next year, I plan to help organize my community to participate. 

I couldn't find much news about the results of Earth Hour in the U.S. (not surprising), but here are some inspiring news articles from around the globe:

Chicago kept 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

In Canada, there were significant savings in energy, including an 8.7% reduction in Toronto.

In Manilla, Earth Hour was hailed a huge success as power companies saw a huge dent in consumption.

Melbourne had an impressive 10.1% drop in energy usage.

This is only Earth Hour's second year. The number of participants this year increased by the millions from last year. Let's hope that next year the increase is even greater.

Earth Hour - It's Today

Well, I'm almost a little late for this party. I just found out about this late last night. Tonight at 8pm (whenever it's 8pm in their own time zone) people all over the world will turn off the lights in their homes, businesses, and organizations for one hour. Just one hour. 

For more information, or to sign up for the event (not that you have to sign up to participate, but the organizers are looking to get statistics) go to the Earth Hour website, here.

We're going to participate. How about you?