Adventures in Eco-Living

Making Your Food Go Further: Freezing Leftovers for Baby

Since we're talking about growing your own food, I thought I'd take a day here to talk about making your food, and making it go as far as possible, especially when it comes to babies and toddlers.

Thinking that you don't have the time to make healthy, nutritious meals? Over the years, we've learned what is probably the easiest, and most obvious, trick to saving money and time (although, in truth, we don't always use it...don't ask me why...). By making food in large batches and then freezing the extra, you make multiple meals in just a little more time than it would have taken to make just one. It also means you might be able to buy your ingredients in bulk, which saves money, too.

Where we really use this is with baby food. Our 16-month old son can be picky. It can be somewhat disheartening to create a healthy meal that I was so excited to put together, only to discover that he just isn't into it, at least not today, at this meal. We've found the most expensive part about feeding a baby or toddler is the waste. *Sigh*.

The solution? A muffin pan and a freezer. I take the leftovers and freeze them in muffin-sized portions, then throw the "muffins" in ziploc bags to pull out another day. And usually, another day finds Chris more in the mood for whatever it was that he refused the first time.

This works for whole foods, like cous-cous, mac-n-cheese, spaghetti, chicken parmegiana, and such, but it also works for smoothies, yogurt and fruit mash-ups, oatmeals and other cooked cereals, and even baby food jars or pouches that I've opened but he won't eat. Just freeze in a non-stick or silicone muffin pan (silicone works great, because stuff just pops right out when you bend the pan), and pop out (using a spoon, if necessary).

Here is an example of the last meal I froze for our son. I had made Annie's Homegrown Organic 5-Grain Elbows & White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese, which I then mixed with spinach, carrots, granulated kelp, and nutritional yeast for a healthy boost. Mac-n-Cheese is his absolute favorite, but for some reason (and, oh my, are there lots of reasons with toddlers, as you probably know!) that night, he wouldn't touch it. 

I froze the leftovers in a muffin tin, which left me with 12 muffin-sized servings (anywhere from 6-12 meals, depending on how hungry he is). The next night, he asked for "nunus" (noodles), so I popped out a portion, thawed it in the microwave, and voila! He gobbled up the whole bowl in minutes. (FYI, the macaroni in this is made from super healthy grains like quinoa, spelt and amaranth, so it's super high in protein. The dish itself is a little high in sodium, like all packaged foods, but the other healthy stuff makes me feel a little better about it.)

And if you do the math,  at about $2.50 per box, the macaroni and cheese I made comes out to between $0.20 and $0.40 a meal for Chris. Not bad!

If you need to freeze stuff in smaller amounts, for a younger baby or for  smaller snack-sized portions, we've found the absolute perfect method involves using this Wilton Silicone Brownie-Squares Baking Mold. Because it's made of silicone, it bends, and the cubes just pop right out. Then you can throw them in a ziplock bag or airtight container, label, and freeze. They won't stick together, because they are already frozen, so you can easily take out cubes one at a time. This is how we made Chris's baby food from the time he was 6 months old, and actually, I still use it for freezing his 10-grain breakfast cereal and yogurt. He happens to really like frozen foods, so we let him chew on just slightly thawed cubes, which are reminiscent of frozen yogurt, and which, I think, feel good on his sore teething gums.

And while we're on the subject of baby, I should mention our two favorite baby food books: Super Baby Food and The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook. The first one has the healthiest "super porridge" recipe I'd ever seen, made from all sorts of ground whole grains (which, surprisingly, was much easier than I thought it would be). Our son thrived on and actually quite enjoyed this addition to his diet.

So do you have any tricks to freezing food, or other ways to save time and money, that might make it easier to make nutritious, homemade food? We'd love to hear!

Hearty Winter Potato Cheese Soup with Leeks and Bacon

Winter.

Cool, crisp air, the crunch of snow under foot, rosy cheeks and frozen fingers, snowmen and snowhoes and layers and layers. Short, happy days... long, chilly nights cuddling cozy under warm blankies.

Steaming bowls of hearty soup that warm the soul.

Homemade bread slathered in butter (decadent, lavish amounts of butter).

Some days, I just love winter.

Here is one of my favorites. Simple, tasty, hearty.

Ingredients:

 Approximately 1 lb. of potatoes (I usually use 5-6 medium to large potatoes)
1/2 cup of chopped leek
1/2 of an onion, chopped
4-6 strips of bacon (really good bacon makes all the difference in the world)
3 cups milk
3 cups chicken broth
1 tub of Buitoni Alfredo Sauce (in the refrigerated section of the store)
2 bay leaves
Dash of red pepper (optional)

Dice the bacon and fry in a large cooking pot with the onions and leeks until bacon is almost crisp.
Peel and chop the potatoes into smallish cubes. Add potatoes to the the cooking pot, add the bay leaves, cover with the broth and milk, and bring to a boil. Cook at a light simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until potatoes are very tender and can be mashed, and desired thickness is achieved. Add water or broth if soup gets too thick. Add the alfredo sauce and simmer for 10 minutes more. Serve with warm bread and yummy salad, and you have quite a meal!

Just so you know, this recipe is not an exact roadmap to soup perfection, but more of a ... rough guide. I tend to "wing it" in the kitchen, adding a bit of this and a bit of that until it works, which sometimes makes it difficult to share recipes. Hopefully, though, it will get you on the right track to a most excellent soup. And if you found you needed to alter something, by all means, please share!

I have an urge to add asparagus, which I think would go well with the cheesiness. I also think a little bit of chopped carrot and celery might be a nice addition. Maybe next time. And perhaps cream cheese? So many possibilities....

Here's hoping your winter days end with many warm soups and full tummies...

 

Just so you know, this recipe is not an exact roadmap to soup perfection, but more of a ... rough guide. I tend to "wing it" in the kitchen, adding a bit of this and a bit of that until it works, which sometimes makes it difficult to share recipes. Hopefully, though, it will get you on the right track to a most excellent soup. And if you found you needed to alter something, by all means, please share

Living Organically (and Affordably)

The birth of our baby boy a year and a half ago brought new joys and dreams, but also new worries. We have always eaten healthy food, mostly organic, and much of it homegrown, but suddenly it seemed like not enough. Foods that I didn't mind eating before now seemed wrought with chemicals and impurities when I set them before my baby.

But where to start? Trying to switch to completely organic foods seemed overwhelming and expensive. Of course, there is always something else that can be found organically, for a price. To simply substitute what we were eating with an organic version could easily have doubled our grocery bill. So, then, how can a frugal family find a way to eat food that is both healthy AND affordable? We wanted this to work not only for us, but also for others interested in doing the same.

I truly believe that if there is only one aspect of your lifestyle that you can put extra effort and extra expense into, it should be your diet. Food is so very important to our health. And our agricultural and livestock systems here in the US are becoming unhealthier by the day. Food that was once nourishing and tasty is now shipped halfway around the world, pumped full of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, or other chemicals, genetically modified, and damaging to our health. Eating organically grown food has never been more important.

So then back to the question: how do we  cost-effectively make our diet healthier? We have spent the last year taking a close look at our purchases, our eating habits, cooking methods, and sources of food, to come up with a realistic plan. Over the next month or so, I plan to write about how we are "organicizing" our life. I had originally planned this as just a post or two, but quickly realized that there is so much to write about. So instead, I've made it a theme. Here's a quick roadmap of where this will all go:

Why organic?
If you are going to be rehabbing your diet, it is important to know why you are doing it. The stronger your reasons, the more likely you are to stick to the plan. For us, it was easy: babies and young children are much more susceptible to the dangers of pesticides, herbicides,  and antibiotics and growth hormones in meat and dairy. My husband and I both agreed that we wanted our son to start life with a clean slate, free of all those nasty chemicals for as long as possible. In addition to that, we wholeheartedly believe in farming practices that nurture this beautiful world of ours and keep its inhabitants safe and healthy.

Need more motivation? See The Top 10 Reasons to Go Organic, or check out the Organic Consumers Association for info.

Plan a Garden
Hands down, the cheapest way to get organic food into your tummy is to grow it yourself. And trust me, you do not have to be a master gardener to do this. When my husband and I moved from the city to the country, neither one of us had ever had a garden before. And in that in that first summer, we grew enough not only to eat all summer and can for winter, but also to give away wheel barrels full of veggies to our neighbors.

You can start small, with just a few key veggies that your family enjoys, or if you are brave and have the room, try to grow a large enough variety to meet much of your family's needs. And with a baby in the family, a garden provides a very affordable way to make delicious, healthy baby food with minimal effort (pick, wash, puree, freeze).

Some of our favorite gardening resources include Peaceful Valley, Mother Earth News, and Kitchen Gardeners International.

Join a Health Food Store Co-op
We aren't able to find much organic food around here, out in the rural countryside. It took some time, but we finally figured out how to source the organic items we cannot grow ourselves. My husband works in Kalamazoo, and so we became members at a health food store co-op there, Natural Health Center, since he is able to stop in on his way home from work (saves me the cost of gas of an extra trip). As members, we receive a 20% discount, which brings the prices down quite close to non-organic items at a regular grocery store. In addition, they offer bulk items that are very affordable.

Farmer's Market
Even if it's not organic, buying local produce is a healthy choice for both you and the environment. When food does not have to be shipped across the country, it can be picked at the peak of freshness, rather than in a totally unripe state. Farmer's Markets offer competitive prices, delicious produce, and the chance to buy large quantities when a fruit or veggie is in season and then can or freeze what you don't immediately need for later use. I had never realized that asparagus is sweet and juicy until we moved out to the country and bought asparagus that was picked that day. What a difference from the asparagus we had been used to in our Chicago grocery store!

Raise Your Own Chickens
Even if you live in an urban area, you might still be able to raise your own hens, as long as you have a yard area where you can build a small coop. Many urban centers now allow residents to keep a limited number of hens (usually no roosters, though, for obvious reasons). There is absolutely nothing better than the flaming orange yolks of healthy, homegrown chicken eggs.

Join a CSA
This is an especially good option for those who don't have either the space or the time to grow their own vegetables. A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) membership entitles you to a box of fresh-picked veggies every week or two all summer long. You generally receive whatever is in season. This is a great way to support small, local farmers and to build a connection with your food. Many CSAs offer farm visits, volunteering opportunities, and some of the freshest, tastiest food around. Local Harvest is a great website for finding a CSA, organic farm, farmer's market, or other sources of organically-grown food.

We'll be taking a look at these ideas, as well as a few more, over the next month to see how they can help a family eat more healthy, local, and organic food without breaking the bank. We'll have resources, tips, stories, recipes, and hopefully lots of sharing from others who are living organically and loving it. Stay tuned!

Rainy Day Happenings (Yummy Homemade Chicken Broth)

Well, after four straight days in the mid-nineties, the heat has finally broken.  A round of storms has rolled in, and that is just fine with me! I've been doing great with my pregnancy so far, but at 31 weeks, the heat and humidity has been just killing me.  Stepping out into the 90+ degree weather, I instantly feel all of my energy fizzling away. On top of the heat, it's been an incredibly rainy spring and early summer, which means two not-so-good things: more blood-sucking mosquitoes than I think I've ever seen in my life, and out-of-control weeds that I just can't keep up with. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to adapt the old "just do what you can do and let the rest go attitude" with the garden this summer, which is not an easy pill to swallow (but a necessary one!).

So when the rains started falling this morning, I eagerly donned my gardening gloves and headed outside. After all this crazy heat, weeding in the rain was bliss! Messy, yes, but wonderful.  I weeded until I was soaked through and covered in mud, thoroughly enjoying the cooling splash of the light raindrops on my skin. When the storms really started picking up, I headed indoors.

The slight cooling means I can also finally catch up on a few things that are near impossible when it's sweltering: making chicken broth, baking bread, and finally baking one of my favorite spring treats, rhubarb coffee cake, before my last bit of rhubarb goes bad. I simply have not been able to turn on the oven- it's just too hot!

So I thought I'd include a recipe for my "Anything Goes Chicken Broth". It's quite simple- there are no strict rules or ingredients, and it always comes out delicious. I guess really it's more of a chicken AND vegetable broth, and it works well in just about any recipe that calls for either of the two.

Here's how we start: when we cook a whole chicken, I save the back (which doesn't have a ton of meat) and all the bones after we're finished eating, throwing them in a Ziplock bag and into the freezer until I'm ready to make broth. Because we raise our chickens, the best part is that I know my broth will be all-natural and free of nasty chemicals. And it's great to use every part of the chicken for something!

Then when I get to the point where I have some veggies, like carrots, onions, and celery, that are getting old and need to be used up, it's Broth Day. I throw the chicken carcass into a big pot of water, adding any veggies that I have on hand. Onions, garlic, carrots and celery are a must. Keep the skins on the onions and garlic, washing and halving them. Be sure to use the leafy part of the celery, it's the best for adding flavor for broth. I'll even blanch and then freeze that leafy part for later when I have  celery, if I'm not ready to make broth.

Other veggies that I often throw in, if I've got them, include some collard greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, and beet greens. Then I add some fresh herbs (or dried if that's all I've got), like thyme, sage, parsley, oregano, basil, and rosemary.  Whatever you like, really, just throw it in! Finish with some whole peppercorns and salt, and you're good to go.

I usually let the broth simmer for a few hours, and the longer the better. When it's finished, strain all the chunks and pieces out (I use a collander), and then you can freeze the broth in small Tupperware- type containers. I tried using glass canning jars, only to discover that about half of them cracked in the freezer (they are not meant to withstand freezing), so plastic it must be. I try to freeze the broth in one- or two-cup serving sizes, since that is what I often need for my recipes.

And voila, you have homemade, healthy, yummalicious broth!

Our Favorite Organic (and Cheap) Alternative to Soda Pop

I have a weakness.... on a hot summer's day, there is nothing I enjoy more than an ice cold glass of Coke. I can remember lazy afternoons at my grandma's house when I was little, with a chilled glass of Coke so cold you could barely hold on it to it. It was our special late afternoon treat.

But now that we're all grown up, and we are on a journey of sustainable living, we are trying to cut the "junk" out of our diet, and that means first and foremost high fructose corn syrup (recently suggested to be linked to liver damage and diabetes, among other things). I guess soda pop, for me, was a tough one to give up. I would say, "OK, that's it, I'm going to give up pop for good now," but then, inevitably, I would be somewhere and would find myself with a big fountain drink in my hand.

Part of the problem was that I find juice a little heavy and sweet to drink all day long, but sometimes I need something more than water. So I started experimenting with creating my own special tea-based iced beverage, and I think I am onto something fabulous.... (disclaimer: OK, I cheated.... I based my recipe on a Tazo drink I was had that was delicious, but contained high fructose corn syrup and was pricey).

This drink is based on jasmine green tea, which is full of cancer-fighting anti-oxidants, and is absolutely superb served chilled over a glass of ice. In fact, I find it much more enjoyable cold than hot. The jasmine adds a delicate floral touch that is just heavenly, and the ginger makes it warming enough to drink in winter. It is smooth, refreshing, clean, and crisp, and I now drink this organic, healthy, full-of-antioxidants drink all day long! And at about 20 cents per quart, you just can't get more economical than this!

RECIPE

1 Numi Organic Jasmine Green Tea bag

1 quart water

honey to taste (I suggest about 1/8 - 1/4 cup, but use your own judgment)

small piece of chopped ginger (optional)

1 stick lemongrass or 1 tbsp shredded lemongrass (optional)

mint leaves (optional)

Directions:

Boil the water, then pour into a glass jar with the tea bag and the honey. Let steep for approximately 5 minutes, but go longer if you want your tea strong. If you are using the ginger and lemongrass, add them to the steeping tea. You can either just throw them in, and then strain the tea when it is finished steeping, or you can add them in a spice bag or tea infuser, so they are easy to remove.

Let cool, then refrigerate. Serve chilled over ice. Throw in a mint leaf for even more yumminess and enjoy!

Choosing a Safe Water Bottle

With all the news lately about BPA contamination in plastics, it's no wonder that consumers are wondering what a safe choice might be for their families. Here is a brief summary of what we at The Greater Green recommend, based on the latest research and findings:

#1: The BEST choice right now would be a glass water bottle. Consider reusing a glass juice jar that you purchased (filled with juice) and then ran through the dishwasher to sterilize it. There are absolutely no contamination concerns with glass, and it is easy to clean. Additionally, glass can hold just about any type of liquid. The one catch, of course, is that glass is breakable. A clever idea: wrap your glass jar in a hand towel before putting in your backpack or duffel bag, and then you can also use the hand towel throughout the day in restrooms,etc.

#2: If glass will not work for you, your best bet is appearing to be stainless steel water bottles with no liner (liners can themselves cause problems), like the ones available at The Greater Green, 20 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle with Carabiner, that is the perfect size for that on-the-go lifestyle. It fits in most cup holders in cars, attaches to a belt loop or backpack, and is perfect for hiking, biking, or even just running errands. Stainless is extremely crack- and break-resistant, and does not stain easily. Additionally, at less than ten dollars, these bottles are an affordable choice, especially when you consider that if well-taken care of, these bottles will certainly last for years. For optimum performance, we recommend you only use your bottle for water (which will help keep it cleaner, too), though you can safely fill it with other cool liquids as well. Manufacturers do NOT recommend putting hot liquids into these bottles (use an insulated thermos for that).

Stainless steel is great because it is totally BPA-Free, toxin-free, sturdy, usually dishwasher-safe, and affordable. There are a lot of stylish stainless steel bottles available these days. If you are looking for some funky, stylish designs, check out these picks:

Get Real Sticks and Stones Stainless Steel Water Bottle: Sleek black design fits any mood, any occasion. Dark on black with a touch of color. This handsome, elegant bottle dresses up OR down. Whatever your mood. 20oz./600ml. BPA free stainless steel and decorated with lead-free inks. Threaded screw-on cap is totally unique!

Get Real Drink the Drops Stainless Steel Bottle: Fun, quirky design with the cool screw-on cap. Birds, squirrels, strange little deer-like creatures with mouths wide open for the big drops above. Subtle and eye-catching at the same time. Mostly white design on a deep blue background. 20oz./600ml. BPA free stainless steel and decorated with lead-free inks. Threaded screw-on cap is totally unique!

Hydrate Responsibly Stainless Steel Bottle: Simple, stylish message on a sleek silver bottle. "Hydrate Responsibly" and enjoy the pure taste of clean water in our designed stainless steel water bottles. 86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States end up in landfills, taking up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Transporting bottled water consumes approximately 1.5 million barrels of fossil fuels per year. Help reduce this number by carrying a refillable bottle. With our 25.36 fl. oz. (750 ml) stainless steel bottles, water remains free of unhealthy plastic residues. BPA-FREE.

#3: The next best option for a safe water bottle would be aluminum bottles like SIGG, with an epoxy-resin liner. Though SIGG has insisted in the past that their bottles are BPA-Free, as of the summer of 2009 SIGG finally admitted that prior to 2008, their secret liner contained trace amounts of BPA. They are now supposed to be using a liner that is BPA-Free, and if you'd like to mail in your old bottles, say they will exchange them for free. Personally, we find this to be a bit disconcerting.

A company that has been a little more upfront with the safety of their bottles is Gaiam. Their aluminum bottles also contain an epoxy resin liner, but they have been very clear about the BPA issue. Extensive testing has shown that no BPA is present under normal conditions; however, under exteme conditions, trace amounts were found. That means that as long as you don't use your Gaiam bottles to drink very hot liquids, you should be fine. And aluminum is not only super light-weight, it is also a bit more affordable than stainless. Be aware, though, that you should not put your aluminum bottles in the dishwasher, and they will dent a bit easier than stainless steel.

Here are a few of our favorite aluminum bottles:

Tree of Life Aluminum Bottle: So simple and elegant, in a beautiful sage green color. Our Tree of Life 100% recyclable, reusable aluminum leak-proof water bottle by Gaiam is a reminder that all life on Earth is related. Bottle holds 25.36 fl. oz. (750 ml) and is sealed by a ring-top screw cap. Aluminum material does not contribute to the unhealthy amount of eco-polluting disposable waste plastic.

Cloud Bouqet Aluminum Bottle: Fun metallic blue design! This 100% recyclable, lightweight aluminum water bottle comes in an attractive, metallic blue with a delicate yellow floral design. Gaiam offers reusable aluminum water bottles as an eco-friendly alternative to disposable plastic water bottles. Our leak-proof, generous aluminum bottles hold 25.36 fluid oz. (750 ml), with a ring-top screw cap.

Persian Paisley Aluminum Bottle: Our 100% recyclable Persian Paisley aluminum water bottle is light and fun, and also eco-friendly. 86% of post-consumer disposable plastic bottles end up in US landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to break down. This reusable, leak-proof and generous aluminum water bottle holds 25.36 fluid oz. (750 ml), with ring-top screw cap.

#4: Our fourth choice for safe water bottles is the PLA Corn Resin Bottle. Now, this bottle serves a slightly different purpose, because it comes with a charcoal filter that makes the PLA bottle reusable for about 3 months, at which point it is compostable (though only in a commercial compost). We like the filter, because it means you can fill up with tap water wherever you are. Though PLA is not the perfect plastic, it is a good first step in creating sustainable plastics that are not so detrimental to the environment. We have discussed PLA at length in previous posts. Clicke HERE to read all about it.

WORST: Near the bottom of our list are the polycarbonate bottles. Because of contamination concerns with Bisphenol-A, we do not recommend these bottles. Please keep in mind that many baby bottles are also affected by the BPA concerns, so please look for BPA-free bottles, like those made by Born Free.

And, of course, the very last resort would be regular disposable plastic bottled water. First of all, this bottled water is often just plain old tap water anyway. And we now know that only a small fraction of plastic bottles actually enter the recycling stream (some estimates show only about 14% of plastic bottles are being recycled), so we have a major problem with plastics that will potentially last for millions of year.  Read all about it in The Problem with Plastics.

Here's to healthy hydration!

With all the news lately about BPA contamination in plastics, it's no wonder that consumers are wondering what a safe choice might be for their families. Here is a brief summary of what we at The Greater Green recommend, based on the latest research and findings:

#1: The BEST choice right now would be a glass water bottle. Consider reusing a glass juice jar that you purchased (filled with juice) and then ran through the dishwasher to sterilize it. There are absolutely no contamination concerns with glass, and it is easy to clean. Additionally, glass can hold just about any type of liquid. The one catch, of course, is that glass is breakable. A clever idea: wrap your glass jar in a hand towel before putting in your backpack or duffel bag, and then you can also use the hand towel throughout the day in restrooms,etc.

#2: If glass will not work for you, your best bet is appearing to be stainless steel water bottles with no liner (liners can themselves cause problems), like the ones available at The Greater Green, 20 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle with Carabiner, that is the perfect size for that on-the-go lifestyle. It fits in most cup holders in cars, attaches to a belt loop or backpack, and is perfect for hiking, biking, or even just running errands. Stainless is extremely crack- and break-resistant, and does not stain easily. Additionally, at less than ten dollars, these bottles are an affordable choice, especially when you consider that if well-taken care of, these bottles will certainly last for years. For optimum performance, we recommend you only use your bottle for water (which will help keep it cleaner, too), though you can safely fill it with other cool liquids as well. Manufacturers do NOT recommend putting hot liquids into these bottles (use an insulated thermos for that).

Stainless steel is great because it is totally BPA-Free, toxin-free, sturdy, usually dishwasher-safe, and affordable. There are a lot of stylish stainless steel bottles available these days. If you are looking for some funky, stylish designs, check out these picks:

Get Real Sticks and Stones Stainless Steel Water Bottle: Sleek black design fits any mood, any occasion. Dark on black with a touch of color. This handsome, elegant bottle dresses up OR down. Whatever your mood. 20oz./600ml. BPA free stainless steel and decorated with lead-free inks. Threaded screw-on cap is totally unique!

Get Real Drink the Drops Stainless Steel Bottle: Fun, quirky design with the cool screw-on cap. Birds, squirrels, strange little deer-like creatures with mouths wide open for the big drops above. Subtle and eye-catching at the same time. Mostly white design on a deep blue background. 20oz./600ml. BPA free stainless steel and decorated with lead-free inks. Threaded screw-on cap is totally unique!

Hydrate Responsibly Stainless Steel Bottle: Simple, stylish message on a sleek silver bottle. "Hydrate Responsibly" and enjoy the pure taste of clean water in our designed stainless steel water bottles. 86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States end up in landfills, taking up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Transporting bottled water consumes approximately 1.5 million barrels of fossil fuels per year. Help reduce this number by carrying a refillable bottle. With our 25.36 fl. oz. (750 ml) stainless steel bottles, water remains free of unhealthy plastic residues. BPA-FREE.

#3: The next best option for a safe water bottle would be aluminum bottles like SIGG, with an epoxy-resin liner. Though SIGG has insisted in the past that their bottles are BPA-Free, as of the summer of 2009 SIGG finally admitted that prior to 2008, their secret liner contained trace amounts of BPA. They are now supposed to be using a liner that is BPA-Free, and if you'd like to mail in your old bottles, say they will exchange them for free. Personally, we find this to be a bit disconcerting.

A company that has been a little more upfront with the safety of their bottles is Gaiam. Their aluminum bottles also contain an epoxy resin liner, but they have been very clear about the BPA issue. Extensive testing has shown that no BPA is present under normal conditions; however, under exteme conditions, trace amounts were found. That means that as long as you don't use your Gaiam bottles to drink very hot liquids, you should be fine. And aluminum is not only super light-weight, it is also a bit more affordable than stainless. Be aware, though, that you should not put your aluminum bottles in the dishwasher, and they will dent a bit easier than stainless steel.

Here are a few of our favorite aluminum bottles:

Tree of Life Aluminum Bottle: So simple and elegant, in a beautiful sage green color. Our Tree of Life 100% recyclable, reusable aluminum leak-proof water bottle by Gaiam is a reminder that all life on Earth is related. Bottle holds 25.36 fl. oz. (750 ml) and is sealed by a ring-top screw cap. Aluminum material does not contribute to the unhealthy amount of eco-polluting disposable waste plastic.

Cloud Bouqet Aluminum Bottle: Fun metallic blue design! This 100% recyclable, lightweight aluminum water bottle comes in an attractive, metallic blue with a delicate yellow floral design. Gaiam offers reusable aluminum water bottles as an eco-friendly alternative to disposable plastic water bottles. Our leak-proof, generous aluminum bottles hold 25.36 fluid oz. (750 ml), with a ring-top screw cap.

Persian Paisley Aluminum Bottle: Our 100% recyclable Persian Paisley aluminum water bottle is light and fun, and also eco-friendly. 86% of post-consumer disposable plastic bottles end up in US landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to break down. This reusable, leak-proof and generous aluminum water bottle holds 25.36 fluid oz. (750 ml), with ring-top screw cap.

#4: Our fourth choice for safe water bottles is the PLA Corn Resin Bottle. Now, this bottle serves a slightly different purpose, because it comes with a charcoal filter that makes the PLA bottle reusable for about 3 months, at which point it is compostable (though only in a commercial compost). We like the filter, because it means you can fill up with tap water wherever you are. Though PLA is not the perfect plastic, it is a good first step in creating sustainable plastics that are not so detrimental to the environment. We have discussed PLA at length in previous posts. Clicke HERE to read all about it.

WORST: Near the bottom of our list are the polycarbonate bottles. Because of contamination concerns with Bisphenol-A, we do not recommend these bottles. Please keep in mind that many baby bottles are also affected by the BPA concerns, so please look for BPA-free bottles, like those made by Born Free.

And, of course, the very last resort would be regular disposable plastic bottled water. First of all, this bottled water is often just plain old tap water anyway. And we now know that only a small fraction of plastic bottles actually enter the recycling stream (some estimates show only about 14% of plastic bottles are being recycled), so we have a major problem with plastics that will potentially last for millions of year.  Read all about it in The Problem with Plastics.

Here's to healthy hydration!

Natural, Organic Halloween Candy

Could it be that Halloween is lurking just around the corner? Yikes!

That means it is time to bust out the Halloween candy. As it turns out, we've been on the search for the ideal Halloween candy since last October. We had a number of criteria to fill:

• We wanted a candy that was as organic and natural as possible, and preferably even containing some healthy ingredients, as opposed to just sugary stuff.
• We wanted a candy that tasted delicious and would satisfy kids of all ages.
• We needed a candy that was securely, individually wrapped, so that it could be handed out at Halloween time without concerned parents having to question its safety.
• We wanted a candy that was affordable and would appeal to budget-conscious families.
• We preferred a candy that would be safe for children with allergies (nuts, soy, gluten, etc.)

After all our searching, we are sticking with the same candy we sold last year- YummyEarth Organic Lollipops.

Why?

We found some wonderful candies and chocolates, but none seemed to measure up to all of the criteria above.

We love Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, especially their Very Scary Skulls, but at $1.50 each, handing out candy can quickly add up if you live in a busy trick-or-treating area. If they can fit into your budget, we strongly recommend them!

We also love the deep, rich taste of Equal Exchange Organic & Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Minis. You can buy a 12 oz. bag for $20.00- again, quite a bit more than many families are able to budget.

Organic Milk Chocolate Bug Bites are tasty and fun. A box of 64 mini-bars (for a total of about a pound and a half of chocolate) costs $32.00, so you're paying about 50 cents per bar- not too bad.

Glee All-Natural Chicle Gum is also a big hit, and it comes in cute little individually-sealed boxes with 4 pieces of gum per box. With 21 individual packs for $6.25, you're paying about $.30 per box for a cool gum that was chewed by the ancient Maya Indians!

But at around 10 cents per lollipop, we found YummyEarth Lollipops to be the best buy for parents who have to hand out lots of candy. They come in fun flavors like Blood Orange Cocktail, Chili Mango Mambo, and Tooberry Blueberry. And they are packed with real fruit goodness! Check out the ingredients: 

Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Tapioca Syrup and/or Organic Rice Syrup, Non-GMO Citric Acid (from beet sugar – not corn), Natural Flavors, Organic Black Carrots, Organic Blackcurrant, Organic Apple

On top of those awesome ingredients, we can't forget to mention all of the things that are NOT in these candies, which is great for kids with allergies or sensitivities:

Certified Organic              Gluten-free
100% Natural Colors          Wheat-free
No Chemical Dyes             Casein-free
100% Natural Flavors         Dairy-free
100% Vegan                   Nut-free
GMO-free                     Soy-free
Allergen-free                  Egg-free

Finally, don't forget to join the Fair Trade Reverse Trick-or-Treat Program, which aims to help youth reverse the Halloween tradition to hand adults a sample of vegan-friendly, Fair Trade dark chocolate. Order your free kit by Oct. 13, 2009, which includes 25 Fair Trade chocolates with info cards, and is sponsored by Global Exchange's Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign. Cool!

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/703/t/9669/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5154

Why We Raise Our Own Meat

We love our animals here on the farm, and that includes the ones we will be eating. We treat them with respect, honor their sacrifice, and grant them the dignity of a life lived to its fullest (albeit a short life, it is a good one). 

We have countless visitors here, many of them from the city, who criticize this way of life: "How can you eat an animal you raise and love?" My response to that is simply, "How can you eat an animal that suffered a miserable existence in a factory farm, where it couldn't even turn around because conditions were so crowded, where it laid in its own excrement and was pumped full of nasty steroids, hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals?" (As of yet, not one of these remarks have come from a vegetarian. Having spent 15 years myself as a non-meat eater, I would not have much of an answer to someone who has made that ultimate sacrifice in the name of mercy towards animals.)

But I am at a moral crossroads in my life, having reverted back to eating meat: either I face up to where my steaks come from, or I don't eat them at all. If I can't stomach the idea of killing an animal for my dinner, then I shouldn't be eating meat, plain and simple.

As millions of us file into the grocery store each day to buy our meat, it appears we have lost touch with where it comes from. That nicely packaged steak WAS a cow, and those delicious looking pork chops WERE once a pig, and unless you are buying free-range or organic meat, I guarantee you that animal probably had a miserable life in a factory farm (especially if it is cheap meat).

Look at the difference in photos. The one above is our pigs, hanging out in their pasture, with a sprinkler hose running so that they can cool off and wallow in the mud (a pig's absolute favorite thing to do). Here is the typical way a factory farm pig spends its days:

 

No, it will not be easy to butcher our pigs. I love them. I wake up every morning and look forward to their antics. I talk to them, croon them, scratch their backs. And I also give immeasurable thanks for their sacrifice. They will die so that I may live. In return, I will give them fresh air and grass and room to wallow and roll and play, and all the healthy food they can possibly eat, and I won't give them hormones or steroids or chemicals or antibiotics that they don't need. And I won't yell at them, or hit them, or denigrate them in any way. And when the end has come, I won't force them into a truck and drag them to a cold and heartless slaughterhouse- instead, the butcher will come here and let them die in peace, in their home. It may not be much, but it is the least I can do.

I have come to realize our here in the country that part of my mission in life is going to be to help raise awareness of our food culture. I am not saying we should stop eating meat (although, in truth, I think that would be grand), because I realize there are many, many people who will not go that route for their own perfectly justifiable reasons (like me). But I do believe we need to open our eyes to the horrors of factory farming and stand up for our food, insisting that we treat the animals we eat with dignity and respect, if not for the sake of the animals' well-being, then for our own health. Factory farmed meat is not healthy for us or the environment!

Here is a video that is not too gruesome (believe me, there are some horrible videos of factory farms out there that make me sob), but gets to the point:

Crate Confinement Video from the Humane Society

And if you need yet another reason we need to end factory farming, check out this article on the link between factory farming and potentially deadly disease outbreaks among humans:

Huffington Post Article About Swine Flue Outbreak and Factory Farms

Freezing Fresh Sweet Corn for the Winter

Mrs. Korpak popped in the other day and has once again outdone herself. Just when I thought her corn couldn't get any sweeter, any juicier, couldn't possibly be anymore delicious, she has amazed me. The Korpaks' corn this year is, bar far, the best corn I have EVER eaten. Ever, ever, ever, yum!

But no matter how hard I try, a girl can't possibly eat three dozen ears of corn while they are at their peak of freshness (and boy, did we try). Even after giving quite a few away to our most recent visitors, we found we had more corn than we could reasonably handle, and it become apparent that it would have to be frozen.

Although relatively simple, I had never frozen fresh corn before. We usually eat our way through any and all fresh corn that comes our way (is there anything better??). Besides, I was under the impression that freezing corn is a lot of work (and to be honest, I wasn't totally mistaken, though it wasn't as bad as I thought). Once you get going though, you can get a couple dozen ears in the freezer in about two hours or so (and hey, you might be even faster than me- I'm not really known for speed! :)

Here are the steps:

First things first.... shuck the corn (remove husks). I grabbed a large cardboard box and shucked the corn on our back porch right over the box, to avoid a big clean-up later on (all those silky hairs could drive one mad if they ended up on the floor, on your shirt, in your dog's fur...trust me!). The more organic your corn is, the more likely you are to find bugs under those husks, as well, so outside is definitely an all-around better place to do this! When I was finished, I simply carried the box out to the compost and dumped all the husks there.

Next, blanch the corn (still on the cob) in a pot of boiling water for just a few minutes. I barely blanched ours, as it was so tender and juicy and fresh. The color of the kernels turns a brighter yellow almost instantly, and it's good to go.

 

Take the corn out of the boiling water and immediately immerse in ice water after blanching. This stops the corn from cooking any longer.

 

Now here's the time-consuming part (for me, at least): cutting the kernels off the cob. I seemed to have trouble finding the balance between cutting too much into the cob, and not cutting off enough of the kernel... but I guess after awhile I started to get the hang of it....

 

And lastly, after allowing the corn kernels to sit and dry just a bit, we packed them into quart-sized freezer bags.

And - yummo!- you are ready to enjoy fresh sweet corn all winter! I suppose the whole process has the potential to get a bit messy (think: renegade kernels flying wildly around the kitchen), but well worth the effort- especially if you remember the starchy, tasteless corn that seems to turn up in the grocery store mid-winter!

Happy freezing!

What's for Dinner?

As the summer harvest begins to roll in, we start to run into the same dilemma as always: we spend so much time gardening, harvesting, planting, freezing, and canning that we almost forget to EAT our harvest!

See, I'm so tired by the end of the day, it's easy to forget how much I enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs, how aromatic and uplifting it is to fill the house with the delightful scents of fresh herbs and veggies simmering on the stove top.

Sure, it's great to preserve a bunch of our harvest so that we can enjoy our organic veggies later on in the year, but frozen zucchini just can't compare to a fresh zucchini roasting on the grill. Canned green beans just don't measure up to fresh beans sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic. And dried basil is well.... so much blander than fresh.

So this is the time to savor the most delicious food that we will eat all year. So why do I keep working outside so late in the evening that I find myself too tired to cook anything more than a simple meal???

Today I decided to find an easy pasta recipe (as it turns out, in the latest issue of Hobby Farm magazine) that utilizes most of what is ready to eat in our garden: eggplant, tomatoes, basil, peppers, onions, and garlic.

Above is a photo of some of those veggies that I picked for dinner tonight, including purple onions, Mark Twain tomato, Goldie Yellow tomato, Black Diamond eggplant, Orange Banana Paste tomato, and a Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper. Yum!

The recipe is fairly simple. After sauteeing the veggies together with some garlic, a bunch of fresh basil is tossed in, and the whole affair is eaten over penne and topped with a ricotta-mint mixture.

Since the recipe called for some ricotta cheese, I decided to try making some (for the first time) from our farm-fresh raw milk, which we buy from a local dairy. HERE is the recipe for ricotta- which, as it turns out, is so super easy, there is almost no reason to buy ricotta from the store. Who would've thought??!

Making the ricotta was fun! Here's a photo of the ricotta cheese after the curd has formed but before straining:

And finally, nothing goes better with pasta than a loaf of fresh-baked bread. But (if you are a tad on the lazy side, like me) who has time to bake bread?? YOU do... If you are making No-Knead bread, that is.

Check out one of our previous posts here that describes this fantastic bread and gives some great links, including one to a video that demonstrates how to bake the easiest, and possibly most delicious, bread you have ever eaten!

Blueberries by the Bushel- It's Finger-Pickin' Good!

Every year our very kind neighbors invite us over to their house to pick from their enormous, 80 year-old blueberry bushes. What a treat! And this year has been exceptionally good for blueberries, with all the rain we had this spring. Gobs and gobs of giant, juicy morsels....is there anything better??

Unfortunately, it has become so popular around here to plant blueberries that the market is now flooded with them, driving the price down to only 29 cents per pound. We've heard of some small farmers around here that aren't even going to have their berries picked this year, because they can't make any money when the going wholesale price is that meager.

It's amazing to think of what most people pay for blueberries in the store- a lot more than the current wholesale price, that's for sure. So who is all that profit going to? Unfortunately, not the farmers, who do all the work and take on all of the risk. And even more unfortunately, current market prices are hardest on the small family farms, who simply cannot compete with the larger corporate agribusinesses.

So if you are looking to eat some tasty blueberries this summer, why not go straight to the source? Support your local farmers by shopping at Farmer's Market, where farmers get a fair price and nearly all of the profit (which they rightly deserve- farming can be brutally tough work), or find a local U-Pick farm and take the family for a fun day of berry picking (and eating!). It's one of the best way to get super fresh produce (which you just can't get in the grocery store) while helping small farmers survive.

My Breaducation Has Begun: Easy Crusty Bread

In my quest to learn how to make bread that doesn't come out of a bread machine, and doesn't take all day to make, I have stumbled across this most excellent recipe for No-Knead Bread. Yes- this bread requires no kneading whatsoever, and pretty much no work on your part. And as you can see, it produces a wonderfully crispy and tasty bread.

You simply mix up a few ingredients (about 3 minutes of your time), let the dough sit for 12-20 hours, and then plop (literally) into a pan and bake. Couldn't be easier! (And so perfect for the more lazier-inclined of us!) The secret is in the waiting: slow fermentation produces far superior results, and so is preferable (really, it is just an added bonus that you don't have to do any work, either.)

There are a couple of versions of this recipe out there, so I am including links to a few of my favorites. I really like the YouTube Video, because you can get a good feel for what the dough should like at each stage. One of the things I realized after watching the video was that my dough was not moist enough, and I needed to add more water. When you are letting the dough ferment slowly, the dough can be much moister than a quicker-fermenting dough can be. The video also recommends a higher baking temperature than the Steamy Kitchen recipe, and that worked well for me- but play around with your oven and see what works for you.

Now I can bake two loaves of the most heavenly bread each day with only about 10 minutes or so of my time. How cool is that??!!

Steamy Kitchen Recipe: No-Knead Bread that Even a 6-Year Old Can Make

YouTube Video: Easy Crusty Bread

NY Times Article: The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work

Shameless Plug: The bread in the photo is resting on one of my husband's hand-crafted cutting boards. They make great bread boards, and are made from sustainable wood. You can check them out at The Greater Green.

Happy Baking!

Why We Aren't Having Turkey for Thanksgiving

OK, so this one is going to take some explaining to my family. We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year (usually we go to family in Chicago), because my brother and his new wife are flying in from England. But now that we are raising our own chickens and organic vegetables, it only seems fitting that we hold a harvest Thanksgiving- a day to be thankful for and enjoy the fruits of our own labor. And since we did not raise any turkeys, we will not be eating turkey. Seems logical enough, at least to me.....

My grandmother doesn't seem to be taking it so well. Her response was to offer to pick up a pre-cooked turkey meal from Meijer. "No, Grandma," I somewhat hesitantly explained. "We want to eat our chicken and our vegetables this year. What we raised and grew ourselves, and that's mostly it." She again responded by pointing out how cheap those pre-cooked meals actually were. In fact, she would be more than happy to pick one up in Chicago, and bring it up here to Michigan for us (in case we didn't have that kind of thing "way out here").

Oh well..... Hopefully the idea will settle in by the time Thanksgiving arrives...

So what is exactly on the menu? Well, our 11-pound chicken, for starters. No, that wasn't a typo. If you've been keeping up with our posts, you may recall that our inability and hesitance to slaughter our own chickens resulted in their getting quite large. I'm a little concerned that the meat might end up being a bit tough. But that's all part of the learning process, I guess... Additionally, we are going to have a free-range, organic ham that was raised on a local farm (since we don't have hogs... yet). We are expecting between 12 and 14 people, so I'm trying to make sure there is plenty for everyone (especially if the chicken is....well.... a little tough....) It is my first time hosting Thanksgiving, after all, and I'd prefer it if no one went home hungry.

Let's see... what else are we having? We saved butternut squash from the summer, so I'll be baking Candied Butternut Squash (a yummy twist on the popular candied yams). Using green beans we canned this summer, there will be plenty of green bean casserole, and swiss chard with balsamic, and from frozen golden zucchini I will create Zucchini au Gratin. A mostaccioli (I just had to look up that spelling in a dictionary) made from canned tomatoes will be a vegetarian option, and homemade bread will be a-plenty. And for the incredibly snowy and chilly weather we have had lately,venison and pasta stew will be hot hearty to warm everyone's tummy. Freezer pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, and our walnuts (which have almost finished drying and curing) will be setting on the table to munch on. And last but not least, apple pie, with some heavenly Sherman's Ice Cream from the local creamery.

Of course, not everything will have been grown on our farm. Organic cranberries will have to be purchased, as will potatoes (we have already devoured our potato crop- obviously we need to grow more next summer). I'll be buying mushrooms for the gravy, salad greens (our winter greenhouse is not growing as well as we hoped), and a few fresh salad vegetables from our local market.

But there's another reason that we won't be having turkey this year, and the video from PETA at the bottom of this post explains it pretty well. Any time you have some 200,000,000 people deciding to eat the same thing on the same day, well, it kinda spells a recipe for suffering.

WARNING: This video is not for the faint of heart. And it's not just here to gross everyone out, either- but to point out that if you are going to eat turkey this Thanksgiving, it's only fair to know how that bird got to your table. Alternatively, you might want to consider sourcing an organic, free-range, or heirloom turkey for your feast. I realize that becoming a vegetarian is a very noble alternative to the cruelty of factory farming (I've had a number of readers point that out). But realistically, there are many, many people who are not willing to go that route. You can still limit the cruelty and suffering inherent in meat-eating by supporting farms that raise their animals in a healthy, organic, more gentle way. (Here is the article that goes along with the video:Breaking Investigation Reveals Holiday Horrors for Turkeys)

But anyway, however you celebrate your Thanksgiving, we hope you have a healthy, and safe, and enjoyable one, filled with warmth and laughter.

And we would like to send out a most sincere thank-you to those who have helped make our journey so much more enjoyable with their support, and ideas, and contributions. We couldn't have done it without you!

Here are some resources for an organic, healthy Thanksgiving:

LocaHarvest.org: Order an Organic, Free-Range Turkey for Thanksgiving

Article: Where to Buy Organic, Free-Range Turkeys

VIDEO: THE DARK SIDE OF THE TURKEY INDUSTRY

Watch more videos at PETA.org

Natural, Organic, and Healthy Halloween Candy

It's coming... that intoxicating favorite holiday of children (of all ages!) across the country, the perfect excuse to dress up in spooky, outlandish costumes and consume unheard of amounts of candy. What more could a kid want?

As a health-conscious parent (or treat-giver), you just might be looking for something a little bit more natural than your typical Halloween candy. Well, do we have some great suggestions for you! All of these treats are natural, some are organic, and they are all free of artificial colors and sweeteners, making them a healthier choice for candy this year!

Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops
Oh, gosh, these are just heavenly! Really, truly, the best-tasting lollipops we've ever tasted! And get this- they are made with real fruit juices and fruit colors, have no artificial-anything, and come in ghoulishly good flavors like Blood Orange Cocktail, Ginger Zest, and Chili Mango Mambo. And for the Halloween flood of trick-or-treaters, YummyEarth lollies come in bulk 1-pound bags. The perfect choice for a healthy Halloween!

Glee All-Natural Chicle Gum Variety Pack
Made from the sap of the Sapodilla tree in Mexico and Guatemala, this all-natural gum contains no artificial sweeteners, colors, or preservatives, and helps preserve the rain forests by supporting local villagers who harvest the chicle from already-standing forests. This handy variety pack contains 21 individual packs, each with 4 pieces of gum- perfect for handing out to all the little monsters and goblins that come your way!

Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit
Don't just buy some Halloween candy, make it yourself! This cool kit lets you actually make your own chewing gum from a chicle (Sapodilla tree sap) gum base. How cool is that? We thought it would be a great activity for either an at-home or at-school Halloween party. Especially since it teaches kids about raw material sourcing and ethical trade practices while letting them connect to another part of our globe. A fun AND educational activity! Also check out the Make Your Own Chocolate Kit and the Make Your Own Gummies Kit.

Crank Flashlight- No Batteries Needed!
And lastly, we thought this flashlight was a great idea for extra-safe trick-or-treating. Make your own power by winding the crank for about a minute or two, and then enjoy an hour and a half of light- without having to worry about dead batteries. And kids- even big ones like my husband- will enjoy winding the crank to create light!

Need some more Halloween treat ideas? CLICK HERE to check out more Healthy Halloween Treats.

Choosing a Safe Water Bottle

With all the news lately about BPA contamination in plastics, it's no wonder that consumers are wondering what a safe choice might be for their families. Here is a brief summary of what we at The Greater Green recommend, based on the latest research and findings:

The best choice right now would be a glass water bottle. Consider reusing a glass juice jar that you purchased (filled with juice) and then ran through the dishwasher to sterilize it. There are absolutely no contamination concerns with glass, and it is easy to clean. Additionally, glass can hold just about any type of liquid. The one catch, of course, is that glass is breakable. A clever idea: wrap your glass jar in a hand towel before putting in your backpack or duffel bag, and then you can also use the hand towel throughout the day in restrooms,etc.

If glass will not work for you, your best bet is appearing to be stainless steel water bottles with no liner (liners can themselves cause problems), like the ones available at The Greater Green, 20 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle with Carabiner, that is the perfect size for that on-the-go lifestyle. It fits in most cup holders in cars, attaches to a belt loop or backpack, and is perfect for hiking, biking, or even just running errands. Stainless is extremely crack- and break-resistant, and does not stain easily. Additionally, at less than ten dollars, these bottles are an affordable choice, especially when you consider that if well-taken care of, these bottles will certainly last for years For optimum performance, we recommend you only use your bottle for water (which will help keep it cleaner, too), though you can safely fill it with other cool liquids as well. Manufacturers do NOT recommend putting hot liquids into these bottles (use an insulated thermos for that).

The next best option for a safe water bottle would be aluminum bottles like SIGG, with an epoxy-resin liner. Though SIGG insists that their liner is totally safe, they will not reveal their patented liner. And because of all of the problems that have arisen lately due to lack of full disclosure with other products, we have opted to no longer carry SIGG this year. Also, the SIGG bottles were nearly twice as expensive as the stainless steel ones we now carry.

 Our third choice for safe water bottles is the PLA Corn Resin Bottle. Now, this bottle serves a slightly different purpose, because it comes with a charcoal filter that makes the PLA bottle reusable for about 3 months, at which point it is compostable (though only in a commercial compost). We like the filter, because it means you can fill up with tap water wherever you are. Though PLA is not the perfect plastic, it is a good first step in creating sustainable plastics that are not so detrimental to the environment. We have discussed PLA at length in previous posts. Clicke HERE to read all about it.

Near the bottom of our list are the polycarbonate bottles. Because of contamination concerns with Bisphenol-A, we do not recommend these bottles. Please keep in mind that many baby bottles are also affected by the BPA concerns, so please look for BPA-free bottles, like those made by Born Free.

And, of course, the very last resort would be regular disposable plastic bottled water. First of all, this bottled water is often just plain old tap water anyway. And we now know that only a small fraction of plastic bottles actually enter the recycling stream, so we have a major problem with plastics that will potentially last for millions of year.  Read all about it in The Problem with Plastics.

Lifting the Ban on Chinese Poultry? Yuck!

Would you believe there is a possibility that the ban on Chinese poultry imports could be lifted? This, as we hear about the more than 50,000 sick Chinese infants from contaminated baby formula. It's time start seriously re-considering how much of our food is processed overseas, in plants that are turning up with gross violations of safety standards.

I was at the grocery store the other day and picked up a bag of frozen, wild-caught Alaskan salmon. I turned it over and it said "Product of China". How (and why) is Alaskan salmon a product of China??? I am starting to feel very uncomfortable with Chinese food imports. And besides, we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of building local food systems for the health of our communities, our planet, and our bodies. And China is definitely not local....

The past year or two has shown us that Chinese safety standards are NOT up to par with our own. Additionally, we are seeing way too many jobs being lost to overseas factories because of cheaper labor. If we are going to protect our economy and ensure jobs for our workers, we do not need to be increasing the list of food imports coming in from China. Food is something that we definitely can, and should be, growing and processing locally.

 
U.S. inspectors have previously discovered filthy and unsanitary conditions at Chinese poultry processing plants (among other facilities there, apparently), and there have been ongoing problems with Chinese food safety standards and the entire inspection system. With the dangers of chicken and salmonella, not to mention chicken and avian flu, we do not need to be considering importing chicken from China.

Of course this has become an issue thanks to large corporations, like Tyson and Cargill, that are currently pressuring Congress to lift the ban, because they are building poultry factories in China and want to be able to sell that chicken to US consumers. But enough is enough....

Please visit the Food & Water Watch's petition page to sign this very important petition, urging Congress NOT to lift the ban on poultry imports!

Click HERE to learn even more about this issue from the Food & Water Watch Blog.

The Truth About rBGH: One More in the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign

I was recently invited to lead a class at a local church as part of a series of workshops on consumerism. I chose to discuss some of the issues surrounding the health and safety of our food, how agriculture affects our environment, and, in particular, the effects of rBGH use in dairy cows. I realized this is an issue I just HAD to blog about! There is so much to this discussion, but here's the gist of it:

BGH, or Bovine Growth Hormone, is a naturally-occurring hormone in female cows, responsible for the production of milk. In the 1930s, it was discovered that injecting cows with additional BGH would stimulate prolonged milk production, resulting in a 10-15% overall increase. At that time, BGH was extracted from bovine cadavers, and was thus a natural hormone.

About 15 years ago or so, Monsanto started creating an artificial BGH, using genetically engineered e. coli. The result was recombinant BGH, or rBGH, with the "r" indicated that this is NOT a naturally-occurring hormone, but rather a genetically engineered one.

In 1994, this rBGH was marketed to dairy farmers as the "ultimate" answer to maximizing profit. It was welomed with open arms, and was administered to millions of cows. In fact, it still is. Despite inadequate testing for human safety, despite causing medical problems in cows administered rBGH, and despite the fact that we are, and have been for quite some time, in a state of over-production of milk that is driving the price down for dairy farmers (and therefore do not need to be artificially stimulating more production). So how on earth did rBGH become so widespread?

The most testing that was done for human safety involved 90 days of exposure to lab rats! And it was with this testing in hand that the FDA signed approval for rBGH without a second thought (this is a testament to how powerful Monsanto is). rBGH is banned in most other industrial countries, including the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan, with harm to animal welfare being cited as the main cause (rBGH causes increased incidence of mastitis, lameness, and other painful health problems). Huh??? Are we the only ones who care so little about the health and well-being of the animals we mass breed for food production? Additionally, though rBGH itself has not been definitively linked to health problems in humans, cows given this artificial hormone have increased levels of Insulin Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which HAS been preliminarily linked to cancer in humans.

Additionally, we are just starting to understand that rBGH, because it is not exactly the same as BGH, with a one amino acid chain difference, can cause immune hypersensitivity in some people, resulting in severe auto-immune, or allergic, responses. In fact, this issue is being researched as a possible outcome of eating ANY genetically-modified foods: because they are not exactly identical to natural forms, sometimes our bodies don't recognize them, and treat these molecules as "foreign invaders", creating an allergic response. We are seeing a huge increase in allergies in children, and this is one possibility that we need to look at more closely...

But the issue with rBGH goes even deeper. When some small, independent dairies started promoting their milk as "rBGH-free", Monsanto actually backed some of its dairy customers in a lawsuit, stated that "hormone-free" was mislabeling. And they won!! And so we now find that some milk and cheese, in certain states, has to add a disclaimer that "no significant difference has been found between milk made from cows given rBGH and those not given rBGH"- and as a result, many dairies choose not to add the label at all. Huh???? Monsanto somehow won the right to keep us from knowing that cows were raised naturally, organically, because that was "mislableing"???

I start to get infuriated at the whole situation, and then I remember who we are talking about. Monsanto. Global terrorist. Their list of laurels includes Agent Orange (and by the way, Monsanto NEVER paid out one penny to vets who sued them for permanent damage, deformities in their children, cancer, and the like), Round-Up, a majority of all genetically-engineered plant patents, NutraSweet, and rBGH. Their website claims they "help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier foods, better animal feeds and more fiber, while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment." And they use the words "growing yield sustainably" as their motto. What a bunch of &*%@!

So the whole rBGH issue, with the recent public outcry, has resulted in Monsanto selling off rBGH, announced a few weeks ago. Go figure. Too much trouble to keep hiding the truth from the public. Why Eli Lilly has paid $300 million for the rights to the rBGH label "Posilac", I'll never know. It's amazing how much money there is to be made by damaging the planet, its animals, and its people.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Want to know more about Monsanto's crimes against the planet and help stop their gloabl terrorism, as it has frequently been called? Check out the Millions Against Monsanto Campaign for every dirty little thing you wanted to know, and an important petition that you should sign.

Check out the Food and Water Watch's article "rBGH: Anything but Green".

BTW, there are a number of major chains that have, under public pressure, recently refused to sell rBGH milk, including Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and Chipotle, to name a few. If you shop/dine at those stores, be sure to tell the store manager how happy you are that they are supplying rBGH-free milk! And be sure to sign this petition, thanking ALL of the declared rBGH-free stores across the nation.

The First Egg

We are in celebration here at The Greater Green Farm. Our little hen, Lady, has produced her first egg! As small an event as this may seem, to us it is astoundingly huge. We have waited nearly 5 months for this tiny miracle. We will now have our own supply of eggs and, quite possibly, our own chickens, since we made a last minute decision to spare the dominant rooster, Speckles (if you missed that post, you can read it by clicking here).

Each day is somewhat like Christmas morning now- we jump out of bed, race to the chicken coop, and search all the nest boxes to see who can find the egg that Lady has so kindly left for us. They are beautiful, indeed. I have never appreciated a simple egg so much....

P.S.- We have not actually eaten the eggs yet (there are now 4). I think this weekend I will make my infamous eggs benedict with some yellow squash muffins and free-range pork sausage. Yum!

Our Tomatoes are Uglier than Yours!

Look at those tomatoes! Cracked, mis-shapen, full of unusual oranges, purples, and yellows.... what's with the ugly tomatoes??!!

They're heirloom tomatoes, of course! So what's the deal with heirlooms? They certainly do not conform to the current idea of a "perfect" tomato: round, red, and crack-free. But there was a time when tomatoes were not that "perfect", and along the way, a lot has been sacrificed in terms of flavor and nutrition in order to get them that way. But recently, many people have been re-discovering heirlooms.

The first time I ever grew heirloom tomatoes, I thought I'd done something wrong. They were deformed and lumpy, cracking, and never turned fully red. We literally threw many of the first tomatoes we picked into the compost, waiting for one that came out "right". Little did we know we were throwing away some of nature's gems!

Much of the store-bought produce you see these days in supermarkets has been genetically modified. (Click here to read our post on some of the major problems  with genetic engineering.) They have been bred, cross-bred, and modified for one of a few particular purposes: to harvest earlier, to transport better, and/or to have more disease resistance. Flavor and nutrition are after-thoughts. If a tomato can't handle being transported 1500 miles while still arriving in good condition, it is virtually useless in today's world of agribusiness. The reason you don't see heirlooms in the stores more is simple: they are delicate, bruise easily, and could never withstand the journeys that our average veggies make these days.

Some heirlooms go back a few decades, some centuries, and some, like Black Aztec Corn, go back thousands of years. Growing heirlooms is like taking a stroll back in time, connecting us with the early farmers of history. There is deep connection between us and the earth that manifests itself in a plant that has been grown (and remained unchanged) for that long...

For all their ugliness, heirlooms far outweigh conventional varieties for their flavor alone. One bite of one of our Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, with their deep and delicious tomato flavor, or Yellow Currant Tomatoes, sweeter than candy, and you will understand The Way of the Heirloom. Once you have discovered heirlooms, you may just never go back.

Looking to learn more about why heirlooms are the healthy choice for our planet? Check out Seed Saver Exchange, where you can learn about the importance of preserving genetic diversity, and also order some heirloom seeds of your own! And if you are in the Southwest Michigan Area, check us out at the Allegan Farmer's Market on Thursdays, from 8:30 am -1:30 pm, at the corner of Cutler and Water Streets.

Turning the White House Lawn into a Garden: An Inspiring Video on YouTube

I've just watched a very cute and inspiring video from Kitchen Gardeners International, called "This Lawn is Your Lawn".  Roger Doiron, the founder of KGI, has started a campaign to convert part of the White House lawn into a garden. Sound crazy? It's actually been done before, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt grew her Victory Garden in the 1940s. She inspired thousands of Americans to do the same, until nearly 40 percent of the nation's fruits and vegetables were being grown in these Victory Gardens at a time when food and other resources were scarce.

Today about 1/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from the production and transportation of agriculture. Kitchen Gardeners International is asking that the next President lead by example, turning a good portion of the White House grounds into edible landscaping to feed his own family and local food pantries and shelters. What an example that would set! As the price of oil skyrockets, thus resulting in higher food costs, it is making more and more sense to eat locally-grown (if not home-grown) food.

The video is only about 5 minutes long. Click HERE to watch it. You can also just go straight to the petition at EatTheView.org.

Enjoy!!

The Latest on Tomatoes Being Recalled

If you missed our first post about the tomato recall, you might want to check it out before reading this. We are adding some more of the factual information about the recall, for those wanting to know more specifics, since a bit more has come to light. (And, by the way, the best way to avoid this recall is to visit your local farmer's market and buy your tomatoes from there! If you live in the north, like we do, they will still be greenhouse tomatoes, but as long as they are grown by a local farmer, you should be safe. Check out LocalHarvest.org to find a farmer's market near you- they should be in full swing by now!)

(The following information is being summarized from an Associated Press article dated June 10, 2008.)

It seems that the source of the salmonella outbreak has yet to be identified. the latest report I've heard is that 167 people have  contracted the unusual strain of salmonella known as "Salmonella Saintpaul", with at least 23 of them being hospitalized. One man with the bacterial infection has died, but the official cause is being labeled as cancer, with salmonella infection as a contributing factor.

The recall is for the following types of tomatoes: red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes, unless they were grown in certain states and countries. Tomatoes from the following states and countries are NOT being affected by the recall: Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands and Puerto Rico.

Federal officials believe that cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak. If you know someone that grows their own tomatoes, great! Eat those! If you can find a local farmer at a farmer's market, there you go! it seems that since the tomatoes in question have been affecting major supermarket and restaurant chains, they are coming from a large, commercial agribusiness-type farm. That's of course my own speculation, but it seems such widespread contamination would not occur unless it were the case.

But, yes, the truth is that as of today, no one seems to know for sure where the outbreak is coming from. Think organic, people! I'm willing to bet that it's most definitely not from an organic farm.

And, while I've got you here reading, I'm going to throw something at you that we organic farmers (and, frankly, every person I know) are very concerned about. It seems pesticide giant Monsanto is trying to pull a fast one again. "Bowing to pressure from Monsanto and the agro-toxics industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced May 21 that it plans to eliminate pesticide reporting at the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)", which would mean that we, the public, would no longer have a right to know how many or what kinds of chemicals are being sprayed on our foods and land. CLICK HERE to take action through the Organic Consumers Association against this dangerous move!

(BTW, if you're wondering why Monsanto would want to do that, here's a hint: Monsanto owns Round-up, and the patents for their new geneticallly-engineered breed of "Round-up Ready" (resistant to Round-up) corn, which means that farmers can now spray one of the most toxic chemicals that is still legal all over their fields, in quantities never imagined possible. Think cancer, PCB poisoning, respiratory illness, skin diseases, breastmilk contamination, and more. Want to know more? Check out our post "The World According to Monsanto".

Take Back the Tap

I've just read a wonderful report put out by the Food & Water Watch (FWW) entitled, "Take Back the Tap". In this eye-opening report the FWW clearly explains why we need to redirect our energy toward creating healthier and safer public water systems, rather than allowing water to become privatized and sold as a commodity.

We currently often pay more for bottled water than for gasoline (if you can believe it!), when perfectly drinkable water comes right out of the tap in most places. Bottled water actually has fewer federal regulatory standards mandating testing and quality control than tap water, and so contrary to what many people think, it is usually not healthier, cleaner, nor purer than tap water. (And as many people already know, certain brands, like Dasani, are actually just selling filtered tap water!)

Basically, bottled water companies have been preying on the fears of people as to how safe their drinking water really is, and through extremely successful marketing and propaganda campaigns, have made the general public feel good about buying bottled water. But there is really nothing good about it.

In addition to the 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water that Americans drank in 2006, which took approximately 17 million barrels of oil to produce, and of which  only an estimated 15-28% ended up being recycled (the rest doomed to thousands of years of existence in a landfill), we are now learning more about harmful toxins that can leach out of plastic bottles and into your water (or food). And all of this waste and contamination costs us dearly! The going rate for water is now as high as $10/ gallon, if purchased in small bottles, which is more than double the cost of gasoline!

The myth of "purity in a bottle" needs to be stopped! We are threatening the future of our water systems by allowing privatization of water, which ultimately will lead to less federal funding of municipal systems.  Here are a few things you can do:

• Read "Take Back the Tap" here, chock-full of facts, research, and well-articulated discussion about the tap vs. bottled water debate.

• CLICK HERE to sign the Food & Water Watch's petition to protect America's water.

• CLICK HERE to help stop the push towards water privatization in California.

And if you have some other ideas/suggestions, please let us know by leaving a comment below!

Persnickety Persimmons

I have a secret love affair with persimmons. As autumn evenings slowly chill down and turn into cold wintry nights, I start scouring the stores for persimmons. Their sweet, nutty, gooey fruit is like nothing I've ever had before. I first tried them in Japan (where they are known as kaki), and have been hooked ever since. They are soft and slimy when fully ripe, like a mango almost, and remind me a bit of the flavor of walnuts, only sweeter and, of course, juicier. They are super-healthy, and they are sadly only available for a handful of short weeks in early winter. I wait all year for persimmon season to arrive (it's almost more exciting than Christmas, seriously).

It was certainly easier to find persimmons in Chicago, where we had dozens of stores within a reasonable driving distance to choose from. But not so here, in rural Michigan, where I can't even get a zucchini at the grocery store in town if it's not summer. And even when I finally did find them (at Walmart of all places), I still got funny looks and a "What on earth is this?" from the cashiers when I went through the checkout line.

Until recently, I thought there was only one kind of persimmon, and this is a mistake that you DO NOT want to make yourself. Because one kind of persimmon is a heavenly treat, and the other can make you think you have been poisoned and are going to die a slow and painful death. And of course, I had to learn the hard way...

See, I went back to my local source (Walmart, unfortunately) last week, all excited to pick up some more persimmons before the season ends. This time, though, there were two different kinds, fuyu, which I usually eat, and hachiya, which was more acorn-shaped than the regular fuyu, and on this particular day, looked much plumper and fresher than my regular kind, though I had never even heard of the hachiya until then.

I was actually excited to get the hachiya (foolish me) persimmons, because they looked so plump, and promptly set them out on the counter to ripen (or blet, as it's apparently called). I checked them every day, and when I woke up this morning I discovered that one had finally gone slightly soft, like how I like them. I cut it up into pieces, with the skin still on, to eat them like orange slices. I picked the biggest, juiciest slice I could find and well, basically, just shoved the whole thing in my mouth. There was a split second during which my brain was trying to tell me something was wrong, but I had waited so long for this moment that I actually convinced myself that it was fine, it was great, in fact, because this, after all, was a persimmon, and I love persimmons.

That lasted about 3 seconds. I gasped in horror, the persimmon rind fell to the floor, and I ran to the sink to spit out the flesh that seemed to be cementing itself to the roof of my mouth. Was that my throat closing up? I tried to spit out the fruit, but it was like it had suddenly turned to stone and was just sticking to my mouth, my gums, my throat. It was the most god-awful sour, bitter taste I had ever had in my mouth.  What kind of horrible, horrible trick were they playing at Walmart, putting this item in the food section and calling it a persimmon? I tried to scream for Alex and tell him to get the car ready to go to the emergency room because I most certainly must be having an allergic reaction and was probably going to die. I prepared myself to start feeling dizzy, nauseated, and perhaps, just perhaps.....I was ready for the worst.

After a minute or so (a very long, unpleasant minute), I started to feel the return of saliva. I was able to spit, and I drank as much water as I could stand. And when I realized that, yes, I was going to live, I plopped in front of my computer and started looking up hachiya persimmons. It turns out that you cannot eat hachiyas unless they are extremely over-ripe. Before that they have unpleasantly (to say the least) high levels of tannins, hence the bitter, bitter, awfulness. And apparently once they are so ripe that they squish like a water balloon when you squeeze them, then they will be sweet and sticky and delicious (I have yet to experience this, but I will consider trying them one more time, if I can still get them at Walmart). But I will need to recover a bit from this traumatizing experience, which hopefully has not ruined persimmons for me (like how some very, very mean older brothers sometimes ruin Santa Clause).  In the meantime, I urge you to try a persimmon (a fuyu persimmon, that is), unless you are very brave, brave enough to take on the hachiya....

(Note: To learn more about persimmons, check out Wikipedia's fact-filled page.)