Saving Puget Sound

I'm vacationing in my home state of Washington.  Walking along the waterfront in Point Defiance Park, I was reminded again of our personal impact on the climate.

A major climate change impact here is the sustainability of the Puget Sound eco system.  The fish and other sea life are dying because of pollution and raising sea temperature is a concern.  At view points information signs talk about work to revive the system's ecology and they make the same point as in the sign below- it's not the factories that are causing the problem (they've cleaned up their act)- it's us.  There are just too many people impacting this eco system and to save it, each individual- whether they are on the water or near the water- needs to change his or her practices to keep the water clean and healthy.

How are people doing? I don't really know. I expect like everywhere the message just hasn't hit home yet. For example, I noticed walking in a beautiful neighborhood on a hill with a staggering view of the water, beautiful green, weed free lawns and a lawn service truck spraying its chemicals onto one of them. I'm sure the owners of those weed free lawns didn't think for a moment about the impact of those chemicals on the fragile waters below. I doubt it even occurred to them.  That is the issue we face- getting us all to think about it all of the time until it becomes a way of life.

Six Ways to Reduce Car Use

Last Sunday's Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast suggestion was to find the lowest carbon impact method of getting to church (walking, bus, bike, carpool) and to look at the week's short trips and find at least two ways to reduce driving.  Here are the stats behind that suggestion:

• Reducing driving is one of the most effective ways an individual can reduce carbon use.
• The average person makes 44 car trips a year that are under a mile.
• A four mile round trip walked rather than driven keeps 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air we breathe.
• Walking and bicycling are healthier than driving (at least from an exercise standpoint).

I must admit, it is a lot easier to follow this advice when the snow and ice are gone and the temperatures are warmer, but I gave it a try.  I didn't do particularly well, but there were a few bright spots:

(1) The weather warmed enough today that I braved the wet and beginning to freeze sidewalks to walk to a meeting that I would have driven to when the weather was colder or the sidewalks icy.

(2) I alleviated a bit of my guilt about traveling all the way to Shoreview to go to the gym by arranging to run errands in that location rather than taking separate trips in town.

(3)I had also made the effort to carpool to a concert, but the arrangements fell through at the last minute and my attempt to take the bus also fell through when I realized the easy route going to the concert disappeared in the late afternoon and coming home would have been just too hard.

But the weather is warming and the snow will be gone eventually.  Then my options - and yours - will increase.  So think about this when planning a trip about town:

Carpool - Everyone that rides with you equates to one less car on the road. It's a nice way to visit with friends too.  If you drive to work, Metro Transit has a carpool matching feature.  I haven't tried it because I work at home, but sounds like a good idea.  Here's the link:  Metro Transit Carpool

Bike -  It's amazing how quickly you can travel on a bike.  I can get to church, for instance, in about the same time as it takes me to drive. Here's a link to Bicycle Maps and Resources

Walk -  It's the best way to smell the roses.  Here's a link to walking and biking maps in the Twin Cities: Bike Walk Twin Cities

Bus -  That takes some planning, but the more we use the bus, the better the routes will become.  Here's a great resource with interactive maps, bus schedules and trip planners (Minneapolis St. Paul):  Metro Transit

Light Rail -  The new green line from St. Paul to Minneapolis will open this summer. Here's link to a Minneapolis site that links to light rail schedules.  It also shows some free bus routes downtown.

Hour Car - saves insurance and upkeep on a second car and gas cost is less. Here's the link: Hourcar

15 Things You Will (Almost) Never Throw Away Again

So much of what we talk about reducing our carbon footprint our parents would have just called thrifty - or necessary.  At last night's Timely Topics presentation, Kit talked about growing up in a family that had a big garden because the produce was a necessity to supplement their small income.  Besides eating and growing vegetables, they also practiced frugality with their food - waste not, want not.

Kit shared tips for ways she uses up the parts of vegetables that we perhaps throw away.  I must admit that I throw away a lot of vegetable scraps, peelings and ends and feel bad about it, particularly in the winter when the compost bin is buried under several feet of frozen snow.  I've already forgotten most of Kit's quickly shared tips but luckily, when I got home I sat down to read one of Cathy's handouts - a past edition of "Mix" a Twin Cities Coop publication - and there was a great review of the book "An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler.  The article was by Tricia Cornell (Minnesota author) and included a great sidebar titled "15 Things You'll (Almost) Never Throw Away Again.  Thanks Tamar and Tricia.  I'm now going to share a bit of your wisdom.

15 Things You'll (Almost) Never Throw Away Again

1.  Leek Tops.  Cook with other vegetables or meat for broth.  Add to a pot of beans.

2.  Parsley stems.  Chop finely for tabouli.  Use to brighten stews.

3.  Chard stems.  Cover in vinegar and spices to make quick refrigerator pickles.

4.  Kale and collard stems.  Use in vegetable stock.  Boil and blitz with garlic and oil to make pesto.

5.  Onion skins.  Save and dry to color eggs.  Add to vegetable stock or to pots of beans.

6.  Carrot tops.  Blend with plenty of oil, garlic and salt for a universal green sauce.

7.  Radish, turnip and beet greens.  Saute.  Douse with vinegar.  Enjoy.

8.  Tomato seeds.  Push through a sieve to catch the flavorful juices.  Shake with Tobasco and salt.  Drink.

9.  Potato peels.  Scrub clean and deep fry for a crispy snack.

10.  Broccoli stems and leaves.  Roast or saute along with florets.

11.  Cauliflower cores.  Boil for soup or mash with oil and cheese.

12.  Bones.  Save raw and cooked bones separately in the freezer.  Simmer for stock when you have a big batch.

13.  Stale bread.  Grind or grate to thicken soups and stews.  Cube for croutons.

14.  Bean cooking water.  Season and drink on its own.  Use as a soup base.

15.  Brine from pickles and olives, oil from tuna and sardines.  Use to launch vinaigrette or dress cold roasted vegetables.

Here is something I have been doing this year with vegetable peelings:  put them in a zip lock bag in the freezer and when there is enough, make a vegetable stock. This isn't particularly recommended for cabbage and broccoli, but works well with onion skins, potato and carrot peels, herbs etc.  I don't tend to do this when I'm not using organic produce because I worry about pesticide residue - so there is one more reason to bite the bullet and buy organic produce.

So what are your tried and true tricks to use up everything?

And why is it important?  Again, the methane gas from our landfills is a huge, huge contributor to climate warming.  We just need to reduce, reduce,  reduce our waste.  I hear of people who have hardly any garbage.  It can be done.  I'm still working on it.

Food and Gardening Resources

Tonight was the last of the Prospect Park United Methodist Church's "Timely Topics" series on climate change.  The focus was Local Sustainable Food.  As one of the presenters, I shared the speakers list for my garden club this year because I am so excited about what a great percentage of the speakers will be talking about sustainability and care of the earth.  The meetings are open to the public, so come if you can.  Here's the list:

February 11 “Putting Down Roots: The Clean Water Potential of Rain Gardens”

Presented by Elizabeth Beckman, Education Outreach Coordinator for Capital Region Watershed District

March 4 “Dream of Wild Health: Native American Indigenous Seeds”

Presented by Dian Wilson, Master gardener and Executive Director of “To Dream of Wild Things” Hugo Farms

April 1 “Full Frontal Vegetable Gardening”

Presented by Eric Johnson, garden speaker, designer, photographer and frequent contributor to MSHS Northern Gardener magazine

May 6 “Trees in a Changing World”

Presented by Andy Holland, Falcon Heights arborist and owner of Birch and Bough

September 2  “Prairie Restoration - Large and Small”

Presented by Marcie O’Connor, Naturalist

October 7 “Update on Bees and What We Can Do To Help Them”

Presented by Dr. Marla Spivak, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and researcher at the U of M, Director of the Bee Colonies at Larpenteur and Cleveland Avenues.

November 4 “Northern Adapted Garden Lilies”

Presented by Dr. David Zlesak, Professor of Horticulture a the University of Wisconsin

December 2 “North Carolina Wild Flowers”

Presented by Sara Evans, retired historian and Chuck Dayton, photographer and retired environmental lawyer

The St. Anthony Park Garden Club meets at St. Matthew's Episcoopal Church fellowship hall, 2130 Carter Ave., St. Paul.  Business meeting is 6:30, social time and refreshments from 7 - 7:25 and the programs begin at 7:30PM.

I'd also like to share with you some links to resources that Cathy Eberhart recommends on the subject of local sustainable food.  Since the subject tonight was local food, these resources, for the most part (except the first one) are most helpful if you live in Minnesota:

Diet for a Hot Planet - Take a bite out of Climate Change (Anna Lappe)
http://www.takeabite.cc/

Land Stewardship Project:  http://landstewardshipproject.org/

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) directory:  http://landstewardshipproject.org/stewardshipfood/csa

Stewardship Farm Directory and other tools for eaters: http://landstewardshipproject.org/stewardshipfood/tools/foreaters

Star Tribune - Taste 50: Year of the Farm (Examples of our transforming food system)
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/210094971.html

Make Dirt Not Waste - Eureka Recycling
http://www.makedirtnotwaste.org/at-home/prevent-wasted-food

Gardening Matters/Community Food Forms/Local Food Hubs:  http://www.gardeningmatters.org/

If you've made it to the bottom of the post, here is a tip that Kit Canright shared tonight:

Throw the big green ends of your leeks (the part that the recipe tells you not to use) into a pot of soup.  They will add a wonderful flavor of leek to the soup. (You may want to throw the green part into the compost pile after it has cooked and lent its flavor to the soup if you find it too woody.)

Black Bean and Avocado Recipe

Black Bean Avocad Salad recipe from "Oh She Glows"

I've gotten a couple of requests for recipes from my almost vegan recipe plan that I shared last month. Here's the Black Bean and Avocado Recipe.  I've pulled it from a blog called Oh She Glows which has lots of fun vegan recipes.  I've found that Pinterest is a great application for saving recipes.  I can search for ideas on the web and when I find one I like, Pin it to one of my boards of Pinterest where the photo from the recipe will show up.  Then I can just scroll through a bunch of pretty photos of things I've decided I'd like to try and when I choose one, click on it and it links me back to the site with the recipe (I usually have to click twice.  The first link goes to the photo and the second link goes to the original site.)

I've tried this recipe a couple of times.  It is so simple and uses ingredients we often have at home and it is just delicious as a salad, or a filling for a taco, for instance.

As far as how I'm doing on that menu planner, the answer is not so well.  That is the norm for me.  I'll spend a lot of time putting a menu together but when it is actually time to make a dinner, I go more by what is in the fridge than what is on the menu.  Never the less, I am getting back into the practice of cooking meat free (we had a month there where we ate a lot of meat) and I have used some of my planned recipes - or at least versions of them.  You know, I do feel better when I'm eating those whole grains, beans and vegetables.

Sharing Seeds

Seed Order

I'm getting ready to put in an order for vegetable, flower and herb seeds for this year's garden.  This is the first year that I've ordered seeds and I don't really know if I'll get them all planted and successfully grown, but I'm going to try.

The advantage to starting vegetables and flowers from scratch is that I have a much larger variety of plants to choose from.  I can actually plant varieties that I wouldn't see at the market.  Even more importantly, I can choose to order from a grower that doesn't use pesticides on the plants so that I don't have to worry about harming the bees and other pollinators.

What I notice, though, is that each seed packet contains from 25 to 100 or more seeds and even though I only buy one packet per variety of plant, I'll end up with way more seeds than I will need this year.  I've sent out a notice on our neighborhood list serve that I would like to share this seed order with someone else.  I expect there is someone out there who would like some of the same seeds I'm buying.  Are you one?  Let me know.

Here is my seed order:

Mayflower pole bean
Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Apollo Arugula
Forellenschluss Romaine
Mantilla Bibb Lettuce
Charentais Melon
Bull's Blood Beet
Romaneso Brocolli
Five Color  Silverbeet Chard
Green Tomatillo
Waltham Butternut Squash
Basil Emily
Cilantro
Marigold Brocade Mix
Mexican Sunflower
Bright Lights Cosmos

Slowing Down and Looking Closely

That Tree by Mark Hirsch

If you watched PBS the other evening, you probably saw the documentary about Mark Hirsch's year of photographing an old bur oak down the road from his house.  He used an Iphone 5 and the photos are incredible.  Here is a link to a site A Year In the Life of a Tree that shows many of those photos.  Check it out and enjoy the compositions of the artist and the beauty of that one corn field.

 At the end of the documentary they showed a scene of Mark climbing the tree.  He talked about how after spending a few weeks with spectacular sunset shots, he started to slow down and look closer at all of the surprises the tree offered to him and as the year went by he found such joy in that slowing down and looking closely and in approaching the tree in the way a child would and an adults forgets - lying on the ground, climbing the tree, looking closely at the insects on the bark.   So enjoy a few moment of vicarious slowing down by looking at his photos and thinking of the beauty of our earth.  This is a good carbon reduction practice as it helps us cherish the earth we have so that we want to keep it beautiful.

We did a bit of our own slowing down and looking closely at the zoo today with the grandsons. In the tropical forest alone we saw - cage free - many beautiful birds, a blue frog, a tiny lizard and a nesting heron and the boys, in the fashion of children, collected fallen leaves and sat down on the mulched path to plant a garden.

Playing at Making a Garden at the Zoo

Lenten Carbon Fast

Lenten Carbon Fast 

Daily email messages throughout Lent with a carbon saving task for each day.

Pastor Chris gave a good sermon today - or as she would call it, a reflection.  It revolved around caring for the earth with some reminders of our call to be stewards of the earth dating back to the very beginning and the promise that taking even one small step towards righting a wrong will build our confidence and impact the way we see ourselves and the way others see us.  She also shared a rather fun initiative that is in its fourth year, one that I did not know about, the Lenten Carbon Fast.  This is an ecumenical initiative and, in part, as an individual you may sign up to receive daily emails during Lent.  Each email will suggest one step you might take that day to reduce carbon or care for the earth.  Some things are very simple, some may take a little more doing.  It's kind of what I've been thinking of for myself with this blog, except condensed into a more manageable time period.  I've signed up and I'll share with you how I'm doing.

I need this extra push.  As winter has drug on, I've begun to feel overwhelmed by the whole - how can one person make a difference - downer of fighting climate change.  Chris' sermon came at a good time to remind me that, yes, I am making a difference and by the very act of writing this blog, even though I certainly don't do it every day as I promised, I'm helping the world a little bit and myself even more.

If you want to try the Lenten Carbon Fast too, here is a link to the sign up page. Lenten Carbon Fast

Related to the sermon, the scripture story today was one of the creation stories -just the part about creating Adam from dust and creating the garden of Eden.   As she told the story, I thought to myself, perhaps this old story, which dates back to the fertile crescent, pre Christian, pre Judaism times, is not a story of the past, but a story of the future - a prophetic story - where the earth is our garden of Eden. Let's hope we don't get booted out this time.

Is Supporting My Local Book Store Good For the Environment?

Micawber's Books

I walked over to Micawbers Bookstore tonight to hear William Kent Krueger (Kent) talk about his latest books. If you are not familiar with William Kent Krueger, he is a Minnesota author who has had a very successful run of mystery books featuring the Minnesota Arrowhead Region (think The Boundary Waters Canoe Area) and an appealing Ojibwa/Irish protagonist named Cork O'Connor.   He is also the author of a few stand alone novels, including "Ordinary Grace", on the short list for the Edgar for best novel of the year and several other awards.

 Kent started his presentation by saying the reason he was at Micawbers this evening, is because he wants to support local bookstores and local bookstores need all of the support they can get.  They are dying out and even Barnes and Nobel is suffering.  Without our support, bookstores will evaporate and our only source to buy books will be the Amazon's of the world.

I thought about what he said as I listened to him talk about his writing, his books, his character development etc.  Micawbers is our very own local independent book store.  It has been in the neighborhood for much longer than we have and I've always been happy that it was here, though I don't exactly buy a lot of books there.  My primary book source is the library and, I must admit, I've bought more books from Amazon lately than from Micawbers.  I tend to shop at Micawbers only when buying books as gifts.

 I found myself thinking tonight, however, about how wonderful it was to sit in that cozy room with it's wooden trim and twinkly lights on the street side windows and it's low ceiling so that I could hear every word that Kent said - no echos from a high ceilinged warehouse like mall store. How nice it was to walk in and ask the lady at the desk about Minnesota authors and have her walk me around the store pointing out books and I thought about how nice it would be to bring the grandkids over to look at the children's section.  Sometimes I don't really appreciate something until I think about the possibility of losing it.  I bought a book and I'll be back more often.

Then, of course, there is the question - how does buying a book at the local bookstore help reduce my carbon footprint?  On the surface, it doesn't at all.  Trees were chopped, ink was used, presses were run and trucks delivered this book to me from New York where it was printed.  A quick download onto my Iphone would probably take a lot less energy.

Perhaps, however, in the long run this step helps out.   So much of reducing our carbon use revolves around changing our lifestyle to one that builds more resilient communities, communities that don't rely as heavily on carbon.  Supporting local businesses (and local authors) keeps our money in the local economy.  Also, a place like Micawbers on an evening like tonight creates a place for neighbors to gather, to get to know each other and to be entertained without having to drive somewhere else. So, once again, it's not that simple.  I'd be interested to know what your opinion on this subject is - support my local bookstore or keep to the library?

By the way, Kent is a very engaging speaker and I'm looking forward to reading Ordinary Grace, particularly now that I know how attached he is to the book and the characters in it, many of whom are formed from his own experiences as a child.  If you decide to buy one of his books - try your local bookstore.

Saving Our Bees and Other Pollinators

 

Busy Bee At Work

I'd like to talk about bees and how we can save them. We need bees to pollinate our crops, but they are in trouble due to many factors.  There are steps that we can take to help them out.  One of the easiest is to plant lots of flowers, so there is something blooming in your yards at all times.(see: Minnesota Plants for Bees) Natives are preferred, but any flower helps - as long as they haven't been treated with pesticides.  Unfortunately, most plants and seeds that we buy in nurseries have been treated with these chemicals that threaten, in particularly, our bees.  My neighbor, Margot Monson, sent out an informative letter recently that I would like to share with you.  She knows her bugs and explains the issue well.  She knows her gardening too.  I've been in her back yard.  The tomatoes in particular were amazing! I'll follow up in the next post with her list of nurseries and seed houses that sell untreated plants and seeds. Here is her letter:

For all the gardeners and lovers of healthy ecosystems, please be aware that most nurseries and garden centers, especially the larger ones, are selling seeds and plants pretreated with systemic pesticides.  They are listed by many different names and sold by many companies.  Systemics affect the entire plant, so include the nectar and pollen, and will remain in the roots and soil for years; after perennials die back in the fall, they become a part of the entire plant again the next year.  Contact sprays may be shorter lasting, but if in contact with the flowers,  will affect the pollinating insects.  Even for self pollinating plants, if treated with systemics like our agricultural crops, the insects will still forage on the pollen.

Research is revealing that honey bees are bringing many different synthetic chemicals back to their hives and together with a lack of enough diverse plant resources that provide them adequate nutrition, the pesticides further weaken them, making them more susceptible to diseases. Just like humans, insects need a balanced diet to be well nourished, and they struggle to find diverse resources in our cities and in our rural landscapes devoted to genetically modified monocultures.

As an entomologist and beekeeper, I do not use any synthetic preparations in our gardens, and with a diverse assemblage of plants, I have few pests - occasionally there are large populations of a particular pest species, like the Japanese beetles of 2 years ago which were definitely a problem, but the numbers of predatory wasps, lacewings, beetles, flies, ants & spiders that I regularly see in our gardens take care of anything that does show up.  Honey bees and Monarchs are attracting a lot of attention now because we can recognize & identify them as special and responsible for pollinating at least 1/3 of our food crops, and we can count them, so to speak, so know their numbers are declining rapidly.  However, whatever impacts these insects will affect all our pollinators, and there are thousands of different species of native insect pollinators at risk as well.

Please ask the managers and growers of the nurseries and garden centers where you purchase your seeds and plants, and ask the catalog companies if they are using seeds pretreated with systemic pesticides and if they pretreat their plants as well - our laws do not require pesticide labeling, so you will not know unless you ask.  If they do not know or will not disclose, then go elsewhere.  We need all our native insects for us to have healthy environments to grow our gardens and for all our wild creatures, including the insectivorous birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, and so us.

I have been researching the local nurseries and garden centers about their methods by calling and asking questions and am compiling a list to share of those I feel who are answering my questions candidly, and several have.  This is by no means exhaustive, and I welcome any additions that you are aware of.  Please contact me off line if you have additional information and/or are interested in a copy.  I also have papers with more detailed explanations of what scientists are finding and can give you the references.  One good one is in the MN Conservation Volunteer:  A Sticky Situation for Pollinators by BrianDeVore  July-Aug 2009;  Yes, this is not new information, so we need to be responding now before it is too late.  I have included it below.

Happy spring planting and may your gardens be buzzing this summer!

Margot Monson