the joy of greens

Thursday night dinner: Chicken sauteed with greens and olive oil, garlic, onions, ginger and a pinch of salt.

Annabel's comment, well actually a proclamation:

"The greens in here are amazing! Taste them and you'll keel over with delight."

another harvest

This is becoming a daily experience here. I am also snacking on Thai basil, tulsi, some lettuce, parsley, a few tiny light blue rosemary leaves, and for something a bit sweet, long, red tubular flowers from a pineapple sage. I guess all flowers from herbs are edible, right?

recycling info

These are secondhand clothes we are sending to poor children in India. Also a box of stuffed animals.

This article was sent to me by a friend, sorry I do not have the author's name:

21 Things You Didn't Know You Can Recycle

Garbage. Americans produce more and more of it every year, when we need to be producing less. Even the most waste-conscious among us can feel overwhelmed by the amount of household waste that goes beyond what municipal recyclers and compost bins can handle. That’s why our editors spent the summer of 2007 investigating the state of waste management in our country, putting this list togther for you, explaining how we can get serious about the three R’s – reducing, reusing, and recycling — and divert more waste away from landfills. (To download the entire recycling issue of the Quarterly, visit our archives page.)


1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances, http://www.goodwill.org/, or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them. 800/YES-1-CAN, http://www.recycle-steel.org/.


2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions, 734/467-9110, http://www.batteryrecycling.com/.


3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women’s shelters to see if they can use them. Or, offer up used cardboard boxes at your local Freecycle.org listserv or on Craigslist.org for others who may need them for moving or storage. If your workplace collects at least 100 boxes or more each month, UsedCardboardBoxes.com accepts them for resale.


4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they’ll work like new: 888/454-3223, http://www.auraltech.com./

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter. Donate wearable women’s business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922, http://www.dressforsuccess.org/. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, and save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: http://www.ikea.com/.

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won’t be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at http://www.findacomposter.com/.

8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html.

9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at http://www.videofitness.com./

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion’s Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses are reground and given to people in need.

11. Foam packing: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept foam peanuts for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 410/451-8340, www.epspackaging.org/info.html

12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org listserv, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000, http://www.recycleoil.org/.

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021, http://www.collectivegood.com/. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims: http://www.donateaphone..com/. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927, http://www.reclamere.com/.

16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249, http://www.playitagainsports.com/.

17. “Technotrash”: Project KOPEG offers an e-waste recycling program that can help you raise funds for your organization. Use Project KOPEG to recycle iPods, MP3 players, cell phones and chargers, digital cameras, PDAs, palm pilots, and more. Also, easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk’s Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, http://www.greendisk.com/.

18. Tennis shoes: Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=27&cat=reuseashoe. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti. http://www.oneworldrunning.com/.

19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms’ yogurt cups. 888/354-7296, www.recycline.com.

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff you just can’t recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

tulsi, or holy basil

I have plants for sale, started from seed several months ago. ($2 donation, which will go to an environmental organization) http://www.amma.org/humanitarian-activities/nature/green-friends.html

Contact me if you are interested. tmarks14@aol.com

This special herb has myriad medicinal uses. Pictured above are mature plants. Mine are small, but will grow to resemble what is pictured here.

saving energy

Energy vampires: Fact versus fiction
By Lori Bongiorno

Related topics: Electronics, Electricity, Saving energy at home
More from The Conscious Consumer blog

It's well-known that most electronic devices in our homes are sucking up energy even while they are turned off. But for all the information out there, many questions remain. I got hundreds of reader questions after writing the post What's wasting energy in your home right now.

Below are answers to the five most common inquiries:

Which electronic devices waste the most energy when they are turned off but still plugged in?

Set-top cable boxes and digital video recorders are some of the biggest energy hogs. Unfortunately, there's little consumers can do since television shows can't be taped if boxes are unplugged. It also typically takes a long time to reboot boxes.

However, some of the other major consumers of standby power are more easily dealt with: computers, multifunction printers, flat-screen TVs, DVDs, VCRs, CD players, power tools, and hand-held vacuums. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) measured standby power for a long list of products.

While it's true each individual product draws relatively little standby power, the LBNL says that when added together, standby power can amount to 10% of residential energy use.
Why do electronic devices use energy when they are switched off?

Electronics consume standby power for one of two reasons, says Chris Kielich of the Department of Energy. They either have an adapter that will continue to draw electricity, or they have devices (such as clocks and touchpads) that draw power. Anything with a remote control will also draw standby power, she says, since the device needs to be able to detect the remote when it's pushed.

Does everything suck energy when it's plugged in and turned off?

No. If your coffeemaker or toaster doesn't have a clock, then it's probably not using standby power, says Kielich. Chances are your hair dryer and lamps (although they may have a power adapter for the dimmer) are not drawing standby power either, she says. Devices with a switch that physically breaks the circuit don't consume standby power.

Will switching things on and off shorten their life?

Probably not, says Kielich. You'd have to turn devices on and off thousands of times to shorten their lives. The real downside, she says, to unplugging electronics is that clocks and remotes will not work, and you do have to reset everything.

Can you ruin batteries by unplugging battery chargers and causing batteries to completely discharge?

It could be a possibility, says Kielich. Her advice: Don't let batteries get completely drained. But you don't need to have things like hand-held power vacuums and drills plugged into the charger when it's 100% charged, or even 50% charged.

Power Strip FAQs

Plugging electronics into a power strip and turning it off when you're not using it is a widely prescribed solution for curbing vampire power. Here are answers to common questions:

*Power strips draw energy when they are turned on, but not when they are switched off.
Any decent power strip should have surge protection, according to Kielich. Flicking your power strip on and off will not create a power surge capable of damaging electronic devices. In fact, it will protect devices from other surges.

*Several readers were worried about the possibility of fires caused by plugging too many things in at once. If you plug in the allowed number of devices, then power strips are safe, says Kielich.

*Just don't plug your power strip into another power strip, or you run the risk of creating an overload.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green's users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

edible gardens

Even a small area of your yard can be transformed into an edible garden. My advice: pick a manageable spot, get the best compost you can get and mix it into the existing soil, find out what produce grows best in your area, pick what of that list you will actually enjoy eating, and plant your garden. Know that it is always an experimental process, even with expert gardeners, as I have learned. Even if you just grow some lettuce, a tomato plant, and some herbs, you won't believe how good things are when home grown.

These are photos of edible gardens right in my hometown...these photos were taken as part of a local garden tour.

This is our little edible corner of the universe. Well, most is edible, not the palms, but the rest is.
By the way, my son has made up and given me the honorary title of a gardeness, which you can read about on my other blog.

The remainder of these photos are from other people's gardens. Makes me want to add many many more plants!

This guy had literally hundreds of containers brimming with veggies and herbs. Unbelievable.

see the baby bananas?

just a little lettuce

Arugula is my favorite. I eat it plain out of the garden. In fact my daily snack is arugula, Thai basil (I love the tender seeds as they first appear, almost sweet), holy basil, a little parsley, and a few tiny basil leaves. My husband says I am a rabbit.

wind power

This is a scene right around the corner from my house. I love the blue and the green and the ancient Italian village-like buildings in the distance, juxtaposed with the modern windmills way in the distance on the mountain.

sierra club

This is a great site : Sierra Club's Green Life blog. They have an email newsletter with a green tip everyday. Green Life blog

You can read about the green bathroom, green cooking, green schools...you name it.

strawberry pot

Observation:

Strawberries do better in pots than in the ground, at least in my yard. In the ground they are quickly eaten by the snails. But in pots the snails don't touch them.

However, the snails are pretty cute. Here they are having a committee meeting. I was surprised to see them side-to-side like this.

amma's thoughts on growing your own food

“Nature is God in a form that we can directly perceive even through our limited senses”
-Amma, world renowned humanitarian

The population is increasing alarmingly and there are fewer trees around. In these modern times, crows have to build their nest using plastics and steel twines as they do not have access to enough twigs from the scarce trees. Today, the use of pesticides and chemicals to enhance the appearance of the food products has become widely prevalent - for some it might even be the only solution to alleviate poverty.

Utilize any available space even on the terrace or the upper floors, to grow something. Try to grow your own vegetables which are not loaded with harmful chemicals. On many houses in Japan, though they might be small, they still grow flowers and vegetables by hanging pots all around.

Bring back the culture of cultivation and attain self sufficiency as far as possible by putting aside at least one hour every day for this purpose.

-excerpt from recent speech by Amma

http://www.ammachi.org/

http://www.amritapuri.org/

green mama does winter in the tropics

Still happy with hanging the laundry to dry in the sun. Even in our mild winters, on a cloudy day (yes this is what constitutes winter weather in these here parts)... I hang the clothes to dry. The only time we have to use the dryer is on a rainy day.

Our first tomato begins to ripen. Oh the joy! We all savored it, dividing it in fifths for our evening meal. We have plenty of lettuce & chard now, and will be expanding the veggie garden soon.

sky enjoys a strawberry

home grown

garden update

Two months after planting the garden I created with the first batch of compost I made, we have lettuce, Swiss chard, two types of parsley, basil, cucumber, aloe, two types of peppers, oregano, thyme, and strawberries. We are waiting for the papaya and tomatoes to ripen. I just planted more lettuce. Pretty cool in December.

essay submitted

Tonight I submitted a 500 word essay for this upcoming book: Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming AN ONLINE ANTHOLOGY

I also sent in several photographs of the Maui landscape to be considered. I will let you know if they choose to use my work.

The American outdoors has been central to some of this country's greatest books, from Henry David Thoreau's The Maine Woods to Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Peter Matthiessen, and E.O. Wilson have inspired us to make positive changes in our lives with their wisdom and words about our lands, geographical riches, and wildlife.

Now it's time for new voices to inspire us to fight the dangers of global warming.
Your voices.

The Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics -- along with bookstores across the country -- are encouraging all aspiring writers and photographers to submit their personal stories and images about global warming for publication in a new online book, to be published in 2009, Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming.

The submission process is open to anyone in the United States through November 15, 2008. A panel of judges will select the top essays and photographs to be included in the book. Writers and photographers whose submissions are selected for publication will receive a limited edition printed copy of the book and will be invited to participate in book promotion activities.

Read the guidelines and submit your work.

back to the simple life

I am taking advantage of the heat and sun where we live. I am loving the entire experience of drying clothes on the line -- from the smell of freshly washed damp clothes, to hanging them, to taking them down, (they are dry within a few hours),to knowing I am not putting more CO2 into the air, to looking forward to the savings on our upcoming electric bill (which by the way, like in many places, the rates have gone up!)

I do put a few pieces once dried that get stiff into the dryer for a few minutes. (jeans and older towels). But the new towels I just got at Costco (Kirkland brand) are so fluffy after being line dried, that they need no dryer time. I am delighted with this. And clothes will last longer without being dried in the dryer. Thanks Mr. Sun!

This is a recent article from Carbonify.com, a website designed to provide information about how to offset CO2 levels. Click on the link below to get to their website:

Climate change and global warming FAQ

October 2008

Carbon Dioxide, Global Warming & You

Humanity is facing one its biggest challenges - global warming induced climate change. One of the main offenders contributing to rapidly increasing temperature isn't carbon itself, it's increased carbon dioxide (C02) emissions, methane and deforestation.
Trees ingest carbon dioxide and turn it into carbon which they store - the problem is that there's simply not enough trees left to deal with the massive carbon load we put on our ecosystem.

Our oceans are increasingly bearing the strain of absorbing carbon dioxide, which is making them acidic.

As a part of the battle to help reduce global warming, we need to reduce general consumption and to plant more trees to take carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into plain old carbon - to carbonify C02! We also need to implement more in the way of renewable energy projects.

... prevention is better than cure, so there's also plenty we can do to lessen the amount of C02 that gets into the air in the first place.
What human activities create carbon dioxide emissions?

With the majority of us still sourcing our power via fossil fuels; the scope of our activities that generate carbon dioxide is massive; for example:

Driving your car
Switching on a light
Watching TV
Heating and cooling your house

In fact, most human activity generates carbon dioxide - even breathing. While we can't stop or reduce that, there are other ways we can start lessening our carbon footprint.
What can I do to lessen my carbon impact on the environment?

Carbonify is powered by wind & solar energy via green tag offsets!- About Carbonify -
Latest Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels:383.09 parts/millionTrend : rising read more

Made in Australia, Greening the world!Copyright (c) Michael Bloch and Carbonify.com
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another sale

This Thursday I am hosting another Green Mama sale at our house. It's from 10 - 1:30. I am accepting donations, and again, they are pouring in!

This time the money raised is going to benefit Mother Miracle school, a school in India for very poor children. It was founded a few years ago and we have been sponsoring kids since its inception. It was started by this amazing American couple, who decided to sell everything they had and move to India and devote the rest of their life to helping poor children. The school has over 170 kids now. Their intention is to help their students get the best education they can offer. They also want to help their older students get into college, so they can reach their dreams and then in turn help their families break out of the poverty cycle. Pictured above are two of their top students, with our son, both of whom want to be doctors. These teenage girls are now helping teach the younger children. We got to meet them this summer when the founders brought them to America. They were so sweet, humble, appreciative and very bright girls. We really enjoyed them.

This is the link to their school. http://www.mothermiracle.org/

Here I am pictured with the founders of Mother Miracle, Patrick and Shahla

The leftover items from this week's sale are going to our local shelter for women and children. Last time we had a truckload. They were also very appreciative, and the items were very much needed, especially bedding.

Please spread the word! We also need donations of food for the shelter (cans, bags of rice, etc.)

more on tulsi

A friend and I worked last weekend at her tulsi garden to harvest the plants and pluck leaves. My girls also got in on the action and helped. We are going to have the leaves dried and then made into tinctures and tea to be sold on the mainland.

environmental defense action fund

Below are two links and some excerpts from an email I received today from the Environmental Defense Action Fund.

I thought the email made sense. Everyone is worried about the economy, and we obvious should be. But now, more than ever in history, we should also be concerned about the future of our planet.

"We cannot solve our economic crisis without solving our energy crisis and we cannot responsibly solve our energy crisis without stopping global warming.

Our environmental and economic future is in our hands. We must keep the pressure on our federal candidates to support real action to stop global warming and unleash our green energy future.

It's up to us to make sure that the green energy economy and global warming are front and center in voter's minds when they go to the polls on November 4.

Our 2009 Green Energy Agenda – the strategic principals supporting our 2009 Battle Plan which show how a strong economy and our clean energy future are closely intertwined.
Jargon Watch – a jargon glossary that will help decode greenwashing in political speeches and debates."

The following will be helpful for voters concerned with this issue.

Green Energy Voter Guide.

"The following timeline documents America's global warming inaction during the Bush administration. As the timeline makes clear, we are running out of time to solve this urgent environmental threat."

Check out our interactive "Lost Eight Years" timeline.

Please pass this on...

happy windmills...there will be many more

let's get serious about reusable bags

Some staggering facts on the PLASTIC BAG issue.

*The United states Environmental Protection agency says that somewhere between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. - National Geographic News, 2003

*Less than 1% of plastic bags are recycled!!!!!!!!! It costs more to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one. - Christian Science Monitor Newspaper

*In case you don't find the above paper scientific enough - An article I found on this topic from the Sierra Club states - "San Francisco is considering a 17 cent surcharge on both plastic bags and paper bags at major supermarkets to encourage shoppers to use their own cloth bags. A study by the City of San Francisco determined that 17 cents is what it costs to handle each discarded plastic bag." - Kay Bushnell, Sierra Club

*It costs $4000 to process and recycle a ton of plastic bags which can be sold on the commodities market for $32!!! - Jared Blumenfeld, Director of San Francisco Department of the Environment

A friend sent me this link about plastic bags this summer.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

It was heart wrenching for me to watch. I realized how many plastic bags we, as a family, mindlessly use, how cashiers hand them over with very little thought. Once I realized how expensive it is to recycle them, I decided to do my part, and made a vow to stop using plastic bags, to stop taking plastic bags for merchandise from stores, and to start using reusable bags. I have about 20 reusables. I got them at Whole Foods Market in California and Wegmans in N.Y. They are everywhere, and usually only cost a dollar or so. I also found some smaller cloth bags to use for produce and bulk products at an ashram in California last year. They were a dollar each. I bought about 20 and now I wish I had bought double that. They are not available online. However I have looked online and there are plenty of places to buy reusable bags in all shapes and sizes. Here are two places to look into:

http://www.ecobags.com/

http://www.reusablebags.com/

By the way, the same ashram was selling handmade products made from woven plastic this summer. (mostly handbags and baskets). People all over the country in this community are getting into the idea of using less, and recycling as much plastic as possible into usable items.

Now I am in the habit of using our new bags whenever we shop -- and I have gotten my sweet husband (Green Papa I call him) also in the habit. I have to remember to put the bags in our cars once we empty them. And sometimes once I am in a store if I forget the bags I have to go back to my car to retrieve them. But it's no biggie.

These bags I have are far sturdier than paper, and especially plastic.

We also have stopped using plastic bags for garbage in the house. We use paper in the kitchen and we don't line small trash cans anymore with plastic. We have considerably less waste each week. We compost so much now, and we have also cut down in buying products with excess packaging. We hardly buy plastic bottles anymore. Most of our recycling is glass and some is metal cans. We also have a lot of paper and cardboard, which is eventually shredded and helps make compost that is resold on our island. I also am composting our dryer lint and some of our paper. It feels so great to have so little waste each week to bring to the curb. Our family of five has less than most of our neighbors with smaller households.

Also our girls have new teachers this year and we have volunteered to recycle their paper from school, so each Friday they are sent home with a bag of paper for us to sort.

Every little bit each of us does makes a difference. The less we pollute the earth, the healthier it will be for all of us. Please forward this information to people who you think will care.

Here is is again:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016