Green Guys

My oldest son called me from his babysitting job on Friday night. Not because he was having trouble putting the two little ones to bed or having difficulty wrangling them into brushing their teeth. He can handle all that just fine.

He called me because he couldn't figure out what to do with the pizza box that was delivered to the front door holding their dinner. He couldn't find a recycling bin. Anywhere. He looked high and low and called me in confusion. What do I do with it? Where should I put it? Can I just leave it on the counter? I'm not throwing it in the trash. Do you want to come over and get it and put it in our bin? (He was babysitting for our next door neighbors)I explained to him that not every family recycles and you might just need to leave it on the counter for the parents to decide where to put it. He was surprised to find out that a concept as simple as recycling isn't embraced by everyone. This is the first of many learning curves I am sure he will encounter as he goes out to babysit, date or hang out with friends. Not everyone recycles. Not everyone avoids high fructose corn syrup like the plague. Not everyone believes in global warming. Not everyone thinks you should support your local farmer buying funny looking meat, cheese and bread in label-less packages.

My son left that pizza box on the counter. He held firm to his beliefs that you don't throw cardboard in the trash and he just wasn't doing it. I hope that this is the first of many steps he takes to create his own "green guy" stance. I am sure he heard my voice rambling in the back of his brain about landfills, decomposition, global warming and garbage. I hope my voice isn't someday replaced by girlfriends, buddies and peers that tell him, "Dude, like, just throw it in the trash, who cares, we're in a hurry". I hope my son is the one who tells them, "Dude, you can't just throw that in the trash! That will be there for like 700 years, what were you thinking?"

One Local Summer - I'm a CopyCat!

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? If so, then Green Bean and Melinda from Elements in Time are both very flattered as I totally swiped their One Local Summer meal. Though, I added the local cinnamon mocha coffee to my breakfast. I just can't make it through a morning without coffee! And, I doubled the batch. Ya'll know I have many mouths to feed. Here's what cooking for a crew looks like:

My meal this week - Yogurt pancakes with fresh strawberries, butter and maple syrup and fair trade cinnamon mocha coffee.

Flour - Westwind Mill

Eggs - East River Organics

Butter - Calders Dairy
Yogurt - Calders Dairy

Milk - Calders Dairy

Strawberries - from a local Upick, courtesy of my boys!

Maple Syrup - Currey Farms

Coffee - Higher Grounds

Chocolate Milk - Calders Dairy

Cream - Calders Dairy
Cinnamon - Probably NOT local, but spices are excluded, right?!?

Thanks Green Bean and Melinda, this was a super recipe!

Don't Label Me

I am an 80's child. Born to a generation known to worship the polo horse, the guess triangle, the jordache jean, designer loafers, the Rolex watch and the Gucci handbag. Funny thing was, even in the 80's I just never "got" labels. I always envisioned myself as a Molly Ringwald type, who made their own fashion rules. Except no where near as perky and cute. Oh, yeah, without the boyfriend with the Porsche too...

In college, this theme continued. I fell in love with the grunge look. Flannels, tights, Doc Marten boots, long hair and REM on the radio. Whatever your style, anything goes. Wash your hair? Maybe, maybe not. It didn't matter. Even as an adult there are no sparkly DKNY t-shirts in my closet, no gym wear with words written across my backside and my idea of fashion is something that suits my frame and my personal style, regardless of which store it came from. I don't really want you to know.

My home looks nothing like the Pottery Barn catalog pages I find in my neighbors kitchens and living rooms. My kids decorate their rooms with their collections and finds. My favorite chair? One rescued from the trash heap and restored by a friend as a gift for my first home. My dining room table? Dented, dinged and 100 years old, straight from the pages of Craigslist, but it was my style and I loved it at first sight.

Then, I had kids. I always refused the Spiderman, Spongebob, Pokemon, YuGiOh t-shirts, bedding and coats. Why? Because these were fun for a week, then they would just want something else. I always told my boys, you're not a walking advertisement. Besides, I always secretly thought they looked much cleaner and neater in a striped t-shirt and jeans. And, you never have to worry, when you have boys - any t-shirt goes with any pair of jeans. There never was any whining for a Pokemon t-shirt lurking in the depths of the dryer that they neeeeeded to wear today.

Don't get me wrong. I have a couple of fashionistas in the bunch now. Scruffy, curly hair that must be worn - just so. Jeans with just the right amount of holes. Last year's baseball jersey or warm up hoodie with their last name emblazoned on their backs. That's OK with me though, they are finding their own style. They have picked up some of my habits. Don't wear what everyone else is wearing. Go with what makes you comfortable. Even the 4 year old. His hair looks like the mid-length curly, perfectly scruffy hair of his 12 year old brother, he doesn't want me cut it and he's proud. And I love him for that.

Tonight I opened my refrigerator to grab some milk for a post-baseball thirsty boy and as I peered inside I realized something I never really took notice of before. My refrigerator is label-free. Milk in clear glass bottles. Butter in plain white tubs. Eggs in simple brown cartons marked with my own last name. Jam in canning jars. Vegetables without packaging or bags. Meat without marketing, labels or coupons. Inside my pantry plain paper bags hold my flour, beans and popcorn. My peanut butter has a handwritten label reminding me that Katie, the person who makes it, got a special order of organic nuts, just for our food club.

So, the little girl who grew up disliking embroidered polo horses, triangles on the butt of her jeans and sparkly DKNY labels across the chest of her t-shirts grew up to appreciate local food, handmade goods and all label-free. She grew up to appreciate the friendly hand of the baker, the farmer and the artist. She grew up to raise children who are individuals instead of following the masses. She grew up to appreciate her own uniqueness and idiosyncrasies. Or, maybe that's who she was all along and just didn't know it?

Baseball Update... AGAIN

Still playing...

Principles, morals and commitments to green living growing weary... feeling faint... need food.. need water...

Oasis at baseball fields sells bottled gatorade, scary meat & by-product hot dogs, corn syrup laden treats and lots of plasticy things.. I see myself walking toward the bright, waving ball caps heedlessly throwing quarters and dollar bills on the counter. I need food... I need water...

And then, my husband rattles the cooler with homemade ice blocks keeping pitas stuffed with local, organic peanut butter and SIGGs full of organic lemonade icy cold. I wake up from my dream. Everything will be OK. If they would just LOSE already!

Go Team! Sorta...

Pick Your Own

Scenes from a local U-Pick strawberry farm with 4 boys...

Man, white strawberries are sour.

Dude, white strawberries are really hard.

Sick, the really dark reddy brown ones are rotten.

Stop, I think that strawberry hit my EYE.

Wait, if you throw another one I will catch it with my mouth.

Boys! Is anyone picking strawberries? Let me tell ya, come December, strawberry sundaes will be for PICKERS, not LOAFERS!

Smack! Dude, QUIT throwing strawberries. Seriously!

I don't whike strawberries.... (whiny voice)

Ugh, I feel sick, I ate like about like 50 strawberries like already.

How many strawberries do you have? I have more. I have lots more. See? I'm BEATING you.

Hey, watch. I can throw a curve ball with this one.

Stop it, you hit me again! Jerk! Moooom, he got strawberry guts on my shirt!

Boys! If you don't stop throwing strawberries you are going to sit in the VAN! No wait, YOU are going to pick another 4 quarts of strawberries while I SIT IN THE VAN! .

Holy Crap! Look at that bug. Sick. I think it's dead. Mom, do you want me to pick this strawberry with the dead bug on it?

Mom? Hey! Mom? Can we make strawberry sundaes tonight? Can you make us strawberry sauce for pancakes tomorrow? What else can we make with strawberries? Oh, yeah! I want some of the yogurt with strawberries like a parfait. And, can you put some in the Popsicle molds? That would be good too. I'm hungry. What's for dinner?

Best line of the whole day: Wow, that strawberry tasted like NATURE.

Our haul? 12 quarts of strawberries - yes, the picture is the real deal. Side splitting humor? Endless. Boys will be boys.

It's time to make the cookies

We were out of cookies. Again. Having boys home all summer means empty cupboards, cookie jars and refrigerator shelves. The eco 'burban dad even remarked tonight that it's a little bit like the army around here. Tonight at dinner, I filled plates and glasses and within minutes it was all gone, like our dining room was the mess hall at boot camp. And they were asking for more. Only, that was all that I had prepared. And we were out of cookies. So, I made cookies. Again.

In the old days, I wouldn't have fretted about being out of cookies. I would just buy more cookies. Or, dig into the pantry for yet another box of cookies trucked in from Arizona or New Jersey. Today, I make the cookies. I am making so many freakin' cookies these days I feel like a Keebler Elf. Some days, I resent those cookies. Why make cookies when you are so busy? Because now, I can't even bring myself to buy cookies. I don't walk down the cookie aisle, I don't want to buy cookies. I can't buy cookies. I think about all the bad, bad things in cookies. I see all the bad, bad packaging wrapped around the cookies. And how I would be a bad, bad mom for buying the evil cookies. Or, so I think.

In that lies the problem. Sometimes I am too tired to make the cookies, but I make them anyway. Sometimes I am too busy to make the cookies, to stressed to make the cookies, too over extended to make the cookies. But I do it anyway.

I am sure you can imagine - cookies are a metaphor for so many other things in this greener lifestyle. Searching out local food, going out of the way to shop at farmer's markets, looking for products that use less packaging, visiting thrift store after thrift store to find something you need or taking the initiative to write letters, make phone calls or whip up some cookies. Sometimes it's harder, sometimes the search is longer, sometimes the process more complicated, but in the end, we all do it anyway. Why? Because lying in bed at night rethinking the day, I have no second thoughts about local, organic healthy cookies. No guilt for taking the easy way out. No remorse for how I treated our planet.

So, eat the sugar cookies boys. They were made with love, a pinch of stress, a touch of tiredness and a lot of consideration. I will make more tomorrow.

Doing my part... Locally

My husband passed me an article from our small community newspaper last week. First, I should mention he really isn't a reader, so it must have been an excellent article to warrant a reading, circling and passing on. The article described a pilot recycling program called Blue Skies implemented by Allied Waste.

This program - limited to 53 homes in our township - provided each homeowner with a 95-gallon wheeled cart for recyclables. Here's the kicker... This program accepted ALL plastics, even #3 through #7. My god, it does exist! A recycling program like this in our area is like spotting Big Foot! Of course, this was only a pilot program, running for 90 days to measure the materials collected and the consumer's response. However, the response was overwhelming. Here are the facts, by the numbers:

Allied Waste posted a 179% increase in total pounds of recyclables collected - diverting 16,190 pounds of recycling from the landfill. Amazing, considering only 53 homes participated! But, all good things must come to an end. The pilot program ended and, despite the enthusiastic response from the consumer and the satisfaction of Allied Waste, we are waiting on bids, approvals, financials and legal mumbo-jumbo from the township. And, this doesn't even mean that it will actually get approved.

Normally, I would have read the article and thought, what a great program, how sad we can't have it. However, lately every where I turn, I find inspiring political and community activism. Crunchy got me to write to congress about the Farm Bill. And then, after that, she got me to write congress again about drilling for off shore oil. Green Bean works on her city's green task force and is planning a green social movement. I signed the Take Back the Filter petition and wrote 4 letters to Clorox for Fake Plastic Fish and I have a paper envelope (no plastic for Beth!) holding used Brita filters to send her way.

After reading the article in my local paper, I decided it was time for a little activism of my own. Rather than sit idly by waiting for someone else to start a letter writing campaign or petition, I started one of my own. Every single member of the township board, every trustee and all members of the Environmental Department received a letter from yours truly today, requesting the implementation of this recycling program.

I also offered my services to speak at the township and to work as a liaison with the waste company. Earlier this year, I started a similar program for our Little League. Though, on a much, much smaller scale. 15 carts with die cut lids at a baseball park can't compare to 200,000 recycling carts delivered to each and every doorstep. But, I am the Trash Lady, and I can so make this happen. Local activism, I am doing my part for my community!

Update: I have received one response so far, not a committment to the program, but an acknowledgment none the less: "Hello , I appreciate your very thoughtful letter. I, too, am looking forward to full scale implementation of a significantly expanded recycling initiative. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm".