Warming Up a Rainy/ Snowy Day

Snowy Rain on Knapp Street

Yes, it's raining again today - it even snowed.  That makes almost a week of rainy, cold days.  I think I could stand one or the other but getting the rain and the cold at the same time is pretty miserable.  We can expect more of this with global warming, I understand.

But let's be positive!  The rainy/ snowy/ cool weather got me to finally do a project I've been saying all winter that I'm going to do - make Granola!  I'm not sure of the carbon impact of making granola at home.  It does, after all, entail heating up the oven.  I expect it's more efficient for great big companies to toast those oats than it is for everyone in the U.S. to toast their own.  On the other hand, look at all of that garbage that gets eliminated - a box and a plastic bag (and maybe another plastic carrying bag from the store) for every 14 oz. or so of granola- and maybe less gas expended in delivery.  That's what I'm thinking of when I decided to finally make my own today.

Here is today's batch:

Granola Right Out of the Oven
Oven temp:  300,  cooking time:  1/2 hour

And here are the benefits I see to home made granola:

• It's an easy project to do with a three year old.  Andres got to pour and stir all of the ingredients and we didn't worry about measuring.
• It filled the house with a wonderful aroma thanks to the vanilla and coconut we added.
• It tastes great.
• I think it has less sugar than the store bought stuff.  Tastes that way, anyway - just sweet enough, but not too sweet.
• You can put about anything you want into your granola.   We used what was in the fridge and on the shelf:  oats, some sesame seeds, walnuts and almonds - raisins - coconut, vanilla, wheat germ, honey and a little sesame oil to smooth out the honey. (I added the raisins after baking.)
• It warmed the house up to have that oven on - particularly since I opened the door every 10 minutes during the 1/2 hour cooking time to give the oats a stir.
• I'm reducing waste - no more cardboard boxes and plastic bags from the prepackaged kind.

One word of warning, if you want to try granola on your own, remember to stir it often!

I still remember my first batch of granola, back in my college/ hippie days (I was never technically a hippy because I didn't own a pair of jeans or one of those cute long flowery dresses, but close to the earth was popular back then too, and making your own granola was kind of expected.)  I shared a house with a few other students, and the granola was a joint effort, but I must have been in charge.  That first batch - full of wonderful nuts and dried fruits - was fondly dubbed Christy's Hard As Nails Granola.  I didn't stir it while it was cooking and the honey congealed the oats into hard, barely chewable, clumps.  Ah well, it tasted good anyway.

Turn off the lights ! - It's beautiful.

After a storm at Arches National Park

I have always loved the lighting that occurs when the sky is dark from a recent storm and the sun is out behind me shining dramatically on the foreground.  It's spectacular and beautiful.  In portrait photography too, working with contrasts of light and shadow can produce beautiful and striking images (if the camera can handle it).

Even though I know this, I hadn't thought much about how that quality of light might affect my use of household lights until I was at a meeting last week in our fellowship hall at church.  I'm not a big fan of meeting in that space.  It's a big room with florescent lighting above and bare walls - rather blah. I often have trouble understanding other people when they speak as their voices seem to disappear (that's my hearing issue at work).

We were a small group - maybe 10 or so - of people gathered to talk about our next steps in working to slow climate change and there we were in that big room with all of those lights on.  I got up and went to the row of switches, turning them off until only the lights above our table remained.  When I went back to the table and sat down, I was actually amazed about how much more pleasant it was!  With a dark room around us and lights above us, I had created that dramatic lighting you see in the photo above.  Our space became more cozy and the light that remained over us appeared more brilliant.   My table mates' faces were sharper and easier to see without a lot of excess light behind them and it was easier for me to hear, probably because I could read lips more easily.  So there you go.  I saved some electricity and created a nicer space at the same time.  I love examples that show changing our lifestyle to use less carbon can be a nice thing for us as well as for the environment.

Turning off lights at home is already a well used practice for us - enough so that I hardly think about it. I just turn off lights if I'm not in a room.  It shows on our energy usage too.  Electricity use is the one area where we actually perform better than our most efficient neighbors!  Yay!.  I wish I could say the same thing for our use of gas.  Not so good there.

For a background link, I looked for statistics on the carbon imprint of turning off the lights.  For all of the talk about switching to CFL's, there wasn't much about just not using the lights to begin with, which seems to me to make even more sense.  I did find this great link though, which is a teaching outline for junior high on personal carbon use.  It's a great outline and even comes with test questions and statistics to use in your computations.  Try it out - might be fun.  Oh, and the statistic for turning off your lights is:  Turning off unneeded lights could be a savings of 376 pounds of CO2 emissions per year (similar to air drying your clothes for six months).  Of course, everyone's electricity use differs. so here is the basic statistic to use in your own computation:  Electricity to run lights and appliances - 1.64 lbs of CO2 per kWh. (kilowatt hour)

Here's the link:  Reducing Personal CO2 Emmissions

Tomorrow is the Last Day To Comment against the Alberta Clipper Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion

Tomorrow, April 14th, is the last day to have your say on  Enbridge's proposal to expand its pipeline, which carries tar sands crude from Alberta. Per an info sheet from MN350, Tar sands oil is the dirtiest form of oil on this planet. Its exploitation results in up to 37% more CO2 emissions than with normal crude oil. "Climate scientists warn that full development of tar sands oil will be "game over" for the climate."  That sounds pretty severe.

Enbridge wants to increase today's flow through the Alberta Clipper (Line 67) pipeline by another 350,000 barrels per day.  That's an increase of over 5 billion gallons per year!

You can submit your comments by email to: RouteComments.OAH@state.mn.us.  Include both the PUC Docket Number (PL-0/CN-13-153) and the OAH Docket Number (8-2500-30952) in the e0mail subject line.  The PUC has invited public comments on these criteria:

* Is the proposed project needed and in the public interest?
* What are the costs and benefits of the proposed project?
* Are there other project-related issues or concerns?


The concern is that not only will the use of these tar sands cause a horrible increase in our carbon use, but also that we don't even need this crude oil at this time.  Our Minnesota refineries already have enough crude and are exporting many of their finished products to other states.  Our domestic use of crude oil refined products is decreasing (by 5%, 4% and 7% since 2008 in the U.S., the region and Minnesota respectively.). and the Enbridge pipelines are not fully utilized at present.  They are also replacing their damaged Line 3 in Minnesota and increasing its size so that it will have about 870,000 barrels per day in excess capacity.

Other points against the Alberta Clipper project are that domestic oil is booming and Enbridge has announced plans to increase its use of domestic rather than crude oil at two of its refineries.  Also, if the Keystone project is approved, all of the available Canadian tar sands oil will go on their line.  Something to do with Take or Pay contracts.

OK, so my preference is to just leave that crude oil in the ground until some time in the future when we are actually desperate for it because we've used up other oil sources.  Why send our climate over the tipping point just so that Enbridge can export oil we don't even need right now?

Here's a link to more information:  Say No To Alberta Clipper

Send a comment and tell the PUC it's a bad idea.

And then, if you want to make a big push to keep Keystone from being approved too, you can always hop on the bus and join the demonstration in Washington with the Cowboy Indian Aliance of farmers the end of this month.  Join the MN350 on a whirlwind bus trip action against Keystone pipeline to D.C. on April 25th.  Only $159 for the bus ride and ought to be a pretty interesting experience. (I'm not doing that one, but you might want to.)

Sometimes saving our planet is about day to day lifestyle changes.  Other times it's about taking public action to change the way the big guys use our resources.  Today's about that.  Take 10 minutes - or less - and send your comments on this issue.  Thanks.

Innovative Ways to Use Your Car

Our Van 

Here's a photo of the van we bought last year. It's a big one and if you've read this blog before, you probably know that I'm feeling guilty about having purchased such a gas guzzler when I'm supposed to be so concerned about global warming.  But then, I'm just not a perfect person.  Our reasoning behind the purchase was that we needed a vehicle that would pull that cute pop up camper for us and, more importantly, we wanted to be able to comfortably fit two grandsons and their enormous car seats, our daughter, and the two of us when we traveled - not only on a few camping trips - but anytime we wanted to go together somewhere - which is actually fairly frequently.

Still, the vehicle gets driven several times a week with only one or two persons - not an efficient use of gas.  To compensate, I try to encourage car pooling when going on outings with friends and we offer to drive.  That's been somewhat successful.  We've filled the vehicle at least twice for day long trips and I've had multiple passengers for many shorter ones.

While on vacation,  however, Cathy taught me a new way to use our car.  She was also headed out on vacation to Brainerd for a few days with her large family plus a friend and couldn't fit them all in her nicely economical Prius - so she asked if we could switch cars.  What a great idea!

I love the idea of borrowing but am slow to get into the habit. Just think of all of the resources out there we can use without buying new.  Ask your friends or send a note on the neighborhood list serve the next time you have a temporary use for an item.  You'll save some money and some carbon at the same time.

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.)

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.

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

Made in Minnesota

Used Wine Bottle Candle

Gordon and I took a Made in Minnesota tour through community education today.  I hadn't thought of it as a carbon use related issue when I signed up, it just sounded interesting.  But as I thought about it, carbon footprint is a big component.   As we think about global warming and the reduction of fossil fuels, shopping and manufacturing locally is very important both because of sustainability of the local economy and a reduction in the miles driven for your merchandize.  In fact, many say that the economy is currently at great risk and we should be doing all that we can to build local economies that can survive a shake up in the global economic system.

We visited four Minnesota manufacturing firms today and it is fun to think about the things that are made here, so I've Google it, and here is a list of other companies that create their products right here at home in Minnesota and here is the link: Made in Minnesota. According to this list from Manta, there are 1044 manufacturing firms in Minnesota.  It's not a very helpful list, but interesting.  Not all are small firms, of course.  Here's a list from the Star Tribune of the 100 top publicly held Minnesota firms, of which 3M is the largest manufacturer.

The companies we visited were small.  The first, the Acadian Candle Company, won the Made in Minnesota title on all fronts since not only are the candles made right there at their shop, but all of the ingredients are also from Minnesota.  When we first walked into the storehouse, we walked past a couple of boxes full of empty wine bottles and I thought -  Wow, someone had a big party here.  But as it turned out, their #1 best selling candle last year was a used wine bottle candle complete with the original label.  It actually did make a neat candle.  The wine bottles are cut at a little above the label area and then filled with a soy wax and light fragrance.  So there - using recycled goods too.  I thought it was fun to learn that they get their used bottles from friends who drop them off at the back porch as well as from a few restaurant sources.

Here's another earth friendly option - on their blog they mention that you can buy their used candle molds and supplies to do your own candle making at home.  Though I expect it is more energy efficient to buy a candle they've made since they are making so many at one time.

We also visited Abdallah Candies where I discovered it really takes a long time to make a chocolate covered cherry, J.W. Hulme Co., a manufacturer of hand made leather bags, where I learned that a company that makes $500 purses and $1000 duffel bags can actually be flourishing! and Podium Wear, where I learned that if you have 5 or more people who want to wear the same design you can have your own biking, skiing, or running gear designed and hand made for you in those fabulous colorful outfits you see on the athletes at the Olympics- for a reasonable price (though not what you'd get if it were made in China.)

Here's another way we almost reduced our carbon footprint today.  We took our tour on a big bus.  Buses are the most economical form of mass transportation because they  can pack so many people into one conveyance.  Unfortunately, we learned that the driver of this particular bus lives in Red Wing, drove to Zumbrota to pick up the bus, drove to St. Paul to tour us around all day and they had to return the bus to Zumbrota and then drive home to Red Wing.  I'm not sure that was entirely energy efficient.  So, once again, reducing our carbon footprint is just not that simple.

Mexico Musings - Air Conditioning

We arrived in Acapulco last night. It's hot here and my body, which has been used to our cold Minnesota winter, was in a bit of a shock. There is no air conditioning in the room. Our air conditioning came from the sea breeze wafting through the louvres on the window by my bed.

Actually, there isn't air conditioning anywhere in this hotel except in a few closed up rooms.  The hotel was built in the 50's and doesn't seem to have changed much since then. What it lacks in modern comforts and decor, however, it makes up in charm.

It stretches along a cliff above the sea. The rooms and restaurant are open to the fresh air. There is a palapa roof, palm trees, a large wooded garden and hammocks on the veranda. 

The hotel was originally built by movie stars- John Wayne and Johnny Weismuller and was quite a hang out for the rich and famous in the 50's. 

Many people today would consider our spartan, un-air conditioned room with its minuscule bathroom to be unacceptable, and I think how our expectations have changed over the years.

Perhaps now what we need to be doing is changing our expectations again- the other way- to a life that doesn't need as many creature comforts.

As I write this, I am

sitting in the open air lounge, about the only place I can get wifi.

I'm pretty warm, but there is a breeze. I can hear the sea (and traffic too, I expect) and I am relaxed in that way I am only after I have spent a full day breathing outdoor, rather than conditioned, air.

Another Seed Exchange Resource

Vegetables by the Window

I have known for quite some time that community gardens exist here in the Twin Cities.  We have a very nice community garden in our own neighborhood and I always enjoy walking past the garden plots in the summer and looking at all of the vegetables, fruits and flowers and the sometimes fanciful garden layouts and structures in the garden plots.  Last summer, I even participated in a bike ride that went from one community garden to another in St. Paul.  There was a garden by the railroad tracks, a garden by a freeway overpass, a garden in a church yard, a garden on the grounds of the University of St. Thomas and a garden grown by children.

But I hadn't really thought about how these gardens came to be and it hadn't really occurred to me that there might be some overall coordination between community gardens in the Twin Cities.   This week, though, I have found out about an organization called Gardening Matters which is devoted to encouraging gardening and food preservation by individuals and which provides all kinds of resources - from web site space to canning instruction for community gardens, garden groups and individuals.

One exciting recent development is their Local Food Resource Hub program.  This is a networking group for gardeners to share garden resources, knowledge, tools and Seeds.   So in many ways it is like the Seed Savers Exchange I talked about in yesterday's post, except more local, not quite as glitzy and, perhaps, still a work in progress.   Last year the Hubs organized two seed and seedling distributions to their members, offered free and low cost gardening workshops and organized tool lending libraries.

The exciting thing about all this is it is, once again, an example of neighbors and community members creating a way to work together to help each other accomplish goals that are good for the earth, good for their communities and good for themselves.  The information about this year's membership and seed distributions isn't out yet, but you might want to bookmark the site for future reference:
Gardening Matters Local Food Resource Hubs

Seed Savers Exchange

"A vibrant, diverse plant world is necessary for our survival, but crop diversity is increasingly threatened by industrial agriculture, climate change, and habitat loss.  The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that since the 1900's an estimated 75% of the world's crop diversity has been lost." Seed Savers Exchange

This catalogue arrived in the mail today and now I just want to plant a bunch of beans!  Aren't they beautiful?  Growing your own vegetables is a great way to combat global warming.  You can be in charge of what chemicals are used - or, more importantly, not used - in your garden and your produce doesn't have to travel so far to get to your table. You can also help save our precious resources by growing heirloom varieties of fruits,vegetables, herbs and flowers like the ones in the above catalogue from Seed Savers Exchange.

This year vegetables are going to be added to my front lawn - the only place in the yard that gets much sun and I'm planning on starting them from seed thanks to a really nifty and easy winter sowing method I used last year (I'll share that on another post).  I'm pretty excited to look at all of the varieties that I would not find in the grocery store or the nursery and the tales behind many of the plants are so fun to read - like these, for instance:

Hidatsa Shield Figure beans from the Hidatsa tribe who farmed in the Missouri River Valley of North Dakota.  These beans were described in Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden (one of my all time favorite books).

Aunt Mae's Bibb Lettuce:  From seed donor Kelly Yeaton who acquired the variety from Nestor Keene, who in turn acquired it in 1937 from his aunt, Mae Smith.

Bear Paw popcorn, grown and distributed in New England from the 1930's until the 1960's, served in movie theaters and featured at the World's Fair.

Charentais melon: A true French cantaloupe that originated in the Poitou-Charentes region circa 1920.  "Considered by many to be the most divine and flavorful melon in the world." (I'm going to try that one.)

... and so on.  Doesn't that sound like fun?

I see that I can order from the catalogue or I can become a member of Seed Savers Exchange and have access to their  "yearbook" of seeds that are exchanged between members - 13,000 varieties.  This is a great people driven effort to keep our world sustainable.  Check it out: Seed Savers Exchange

The Users and the Losers

" We cannot help the world until we change our way of being in it."

Bishops of the United Methodist Church

Source: Atlas of the Biosphere

I saw this map yesterday at a conference I attended of United Methodists exploring how to mobilize an earth care movement among Minnesota United Methodists.  I'm happy to see that the Methodist church is taking action on climate change.

The map shows a global look at per capita oil usage.  In the presentation it was shown with a second map which showed the countries that are most impacted by climate change.  It was striking to look at the two maps together because the countries most impacted by climate change were the ones with the least per capita oil usage.  As with so many other things in our world - the ones who are causing climate change are not the ones suffering the most from that change.  Food for thought...

Unfortunately, I can't find that other map.  They were both from the website of Sage: Center for Sustainability & the Global Environment, which as it turns out has links to many, many resources and I just wasn't sure where to look, so sorry for the lack of a completed blog post.  Perhaps someone else will help me figure out where to find it and I can look it up.

My weekend was actually full of work on climate change - an all day conference yesterday, and my first meeting with the land and water use group that is part of a transition town movement in our neighborhood.  So I've been doing lots, but the blog posts are slow in coming.  I'll try to get it all sorted out and share more over the next few days.

Planning Ahead

The Snow is Accumulating Rapidly in Our Yard

It is hard to reduce my carbon footprint in the winter.  We need heat to keep our house warm in this frigid weather and I am certainly not one of those brave souls who actually bike in Minnesota when it is cold and there is snow and ice on the ground!  In fact, I barely even walk outside.  So when the temperature gets above 10 and the wind stops howling, a walk seems like a good idea - particularly if the sun is shining.  Yes, 10 and above, sunny and no wind is actually pretty darn comfortable weather.

This morning fit the bill.  It was snowing, but the temperature was reasonable and I decided that I would walk to my noon hair appointment.  I am particularly lucky to live in the city where it is possible to walk to the grocery store, the library, shops and services without too much effort.  The beauty salon is a little farther so I knew that I had to plan an extra 20 minutes into my leaving time to make this work.  Didn't happen.  At a quarter to (instead of half past) I tore out of my house in my big boots, waved a thank you to my neighbor who just finished shoveling the sidewalk in front of our house - once again- and hit the deep newly fallen snow at a jog.  I made it about a block before deciding there was no way I would make my appointment in time. I returned home to get the car. The difference between driving and walking to this appointment was a matter of 15 minutes.

So much of what we need to do to reduce our carbon use significantly is like that.  It's not necessarily hard - in fact much is quite pleasant.  The walk in the newly fallen snow would have been lovely and healthy.  Riding to a meeting or an outing with friends, ie: carpooling is fun.  Reducing clutter in the house and not filling it up with more stuff is liberating.  Yes, much of the changes I am trying to make are not only good for the earth, they are good for me.  And yet it does mean that I have to change the way I think about doing things.  To walk to my hair appointment means leaving the house 15 - 20 minutes earlier - to carpool means taking the time in advance to email my friends and suggest we share a ride - to reduce waste means remembering to take a reusable bag to the store, to think twice about buying that cute whatever on the shelf, to think about how to reuse the things I have.

I'm working on it, but it certainly doesn't happen overnight.

Update:  For those of you who read yesterday's post on solar leasing, the company I mentioned sent me some additional information on their business partners.  If you are interested in that update, I've added it to yesterday's post.

Solar Energy Leasing - A Great Way to Save on Your Electric Bill

Solar Panels

A few days ago Cathy Eberhart alerted me about a really exciting opportunity to get solar panels on my roof at hardly any upfront cost and to benefit from reduced energy charges for years to come - but the opportunity is going to go away in a few weeks.

Here is how it works:

• Cooperative Energy Futures will install a 3 - 10W solar array on your roof at basically no upfront charge. (A $25 share and a $300 refundable deposit). 
• You pay a monthly bill for the electricity generated by the panel at 75% of your current electric rates for 15 years
• After 15 years, the ownership of the solar array transfers to you along with a 10 year warranty on the equipment.  At that point, you get full credit for all of the electricity it produces.

Cooperative Energy Futures says that during the first 15 years you can expect to save from $150 - $300 per year on energy costs and after the first 15 years, they are projecting savings over $1000 per year - and of course, you are reducing carbon use for all of those years!

For this to work, you need to live in Minnesota, get your electricity from Xcel Energy (for this program.  There may be other folks offering programs for other Minnesota power companies) and have a roof position that will enable a solar array to generate enough electricity. And if there are too many home owners applying, there will be a lottery to choose who gets to go ahead.  Here is the site with the details:
Solar Leasing: Cooperataive Energy Futures

This program is dependent upon the Minnesota Made Solar Incentive program, one of those great initiatives of the 2013 legislature that I mentioned in an earlier post.  But the deadline to apply for that is February 28th and to get approved through Cooperative Energy Futures, you need to apply by February 14th.  So if you are interested, call: Bruce at Cooperative Energy Futures right away.  His phone number is: 612-568- 2334.  He's a nice guy - easy to talk to, and it doesn't hurt to at least see if your house qualifies.

I called him regarding our house.  He Googled our address to look at the house on Google Maps - it's that easy.  Unfortunately, the neighbor's trees and the particular shape of our roof puts us out of the running, but at least I tried.  Why don't you give it a try too.

Now keep in mind, that I have not worked with Cooperative Energy Futures and this is a new business model and there may be other companies offering similar models, so read the details, ask the questions and make your own decisions.  I'm just passing along information on what sounds like a good idea and a good deal.  Let me know if you do it and how it goes.

Update:  After I wrote this post, Cathy shared it with Cooperative Energy Futures.  They thought you all would also like information about their partners - all Minnesota companies - in this project.  Here is the information they sent to me with links to those companies:

Cooperative Energy Futures is working with the following partners to offer this solar leasing program to its members:

The Gopher Solar Program coordinates the financing and manages the financing and bill payment system for Minnesota’s first solar leasing program. Developed locally in January 2014, Gopher Solar harnesses the recent 2013 Minnesota solar legislation to enable Minnesotans to install solar at no upfront cost.

Innovative Power Systems is one of Minnesota’s oldest and largest solar installation contractors, named a top 100 Solar Contractor nationwide by solarpowerworldonline in 2013. Since 1991, IPS has installed hundreds of solar systems across Minnesota and serves as the system developer and installer for this program.

tenK Solar, based out of Bloomington, is one of two Minnesota manufacturers of solar     electric panels. This project will utilize their latest 410W modules, which have built in micro-inverters, full 25-year equipment and production warranties, and qualify participating households for the Made in Minnesota Solar Incentive.

Copper Mining or Copper Recycling?

Birch Lake, Minnesota

The battle is raging in Minnesota over whether or not to allow PolyMet to begin mining for copper adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.  This is in the iron range - mining country - and lots of folks in that area want the mine because of the jobs it will bring.  Lots of other folks are terrified that a copper mine in the Boundary Waters watershed area will pollute the water and have frightening environmental and health consequences for hundreds of years to come.  

The environmental hazards of copper mining are pretty scary to me.  See this article: Sulfide Mining in Minnesota.  This is also disturbing: Recycling copper saves up to 90% of the energy of mining and processing virgin ore, yet the United States only recycles about half of its copper scrap.  The rest is exported to other countries!  Here's a quote from a Bloomberg Business Week article on exporting scrap metal to China: 

"Demand for copper in the U.S. is too low, and labor is too expensive, to be worth any scrap yard’s time." .... "for the last decade  (China) imported more than 70 percent of the scrap copper it uses. Meanwhile, the U.S., which throws away far more scrap metal than it can ever use, has become the world’s most attractive market for the savvy Chinese buyer."

So why do we need to build copper mines here that will harm our environment - and our drinking water - when we have so much recyclable scrap copper here that we export it overseas?  I imagine it is so that we can export even more copper.  Hmmm.Let's save that 90% more energy that mining uses and build some copper/ metal recycling plants on the Iron Range.

Whatever your views are, the environmental review for the PolyMet project is in process.  The last of the three public hearings is tomorrow at RiverCenter.  Show up if you can and make your views known. (5PM Open House, 7PM Public Comments)

If you can't make it,contact a key official.  Here are a few names:

Govenor Mark Dayton
Tom Landwehr, Commissioner Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Tom.Landwehr@state.mn.us
Lisa Fay, Environmental Impact Statement Manager
Lisa.Fay@state.mn.us
Douglas Brunder, Project Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
douglas.w.bruner@usace.army.mil & mvp-reg-inquiry@usace.army.mil
Tim Dabney, Deputy  Forest Supervisor, U.S. Forest Service, Superior National Forest: t.dabney@fs.fed.us
John Stein, Commissioner, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
John.Stine@state.mn.us
Rep. Betty McCollum
www.mccollum.house.gov
Sen. Amy Klobuchar
202-224-3244
Sen. Al Franken
202-224-5641

Great Recipe for Lentil Soup

Lentil Vegetable Soup

I've been trying out vegetarian and vegan recipes.  My family puts up with me.  We still eat meat because I'm not the only one in the house who shops and we do have a freezer.  Still,  as I wade through recipes, I do come up with plenty that are quite tasty.  I use Pinterest to collect my recipes.  It is just so inspiring to look at the beautiful photos of how other people's recipes turn out.

Here's one for lentil soup that I tried last month and just loved.  It was so hearty and made me feel good to eat it, but I haven't tried it since.  This weekend I'll be at a cabin with friends eating and snowshoeing and reading and talking.  I'm going to make the lentil soup again.  We will have it with some corn bread, a nice hearty salad and a yummy sounding cake with icecream. Wish me luck.
Here's the recipe:
     Lentil Vegetable Soup Recipe

Here's a link to my Pinterest recipe to try collection and here is a link to my Tried and True Recipes collection.  It's smaller by far.   There are others I've tried and liked but they aren't on Pinterest yet. Maybe one of these days I'll take photos of my own - assuming I get any that look photogenic enough.