Happy hour addiction
June 30, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Green Journal , 13 comments
“Mommy, mommy, are we going to have a happy hour this Friday?” my daughters regularly ask me whenever the weather is reasonably nice. They are six and three, a tad shy of the drinking age. Apparently several of our neighbors’ toddlers ask the same question. In case you are gasping, let me assure you that these children have not developed any taste for alcohol.
It all started on a warm Friday evening three years ago. One of my neighbors M decided to set up a folding table on her driveway, with a couple of bottles of wine, a jug of freshly sqeezed and mixed lemonade, a plate of crackers and a bowl of pretzels. On the ground were a few toys and a pack of chalk.
We were on our way home from a walk, with a toddler, a new born and a puppy in tow. M flashed a friendly smile and invited us for a drink. Before that evening our interactions were limited to “hello-isn’t-the-weather-grand”. A glass of wine later we learned that her little baby was a month older than my newborn, she loved the color red, her husband had six brothers, and much more.
Then more neighbors walked by and stopped to have a drink of just a chat. Within a couple of hours, we began to know each other - our names, kids’ ages, favorite local hangouts, and naturally our beverage preferences. Turned out we had twelve children within four years of age on our short block.
Thanks to M, the Neighborhood Happy Hour (TM) was born. From then on, about six families on our block have taken turns to host the NHH most Fridays in the summer. Kids look forward to playing with each other way past their bed time on those evenings.
(courtesy of http://www.nyfolklore.org/>
And you ask, so what? You guys have drinks together now and then. Big deail.
Well the big deal is that we’ve gotten to know each other well enough to ask for favors, loads of favors. Unaccustomed to asking help from others, I began to see that being able to ask from and lend a hand to each other formed the basic frabric of a close-knit community.
Need to run a quick errand without the kids? We watch each other’s children.
Need a circular saw one or twice but don’t want to buy one? We know where to borrow.
Need a ride to the train station or airport? I have offered several times and haven’t failed to find one yet.
Too busy to go to farmers’ market? No problem. I can bring you back a few pints of strawberries and two bunches of yellow beets.
Want to read National Geographic, Economist, and People but don’t want to to subscribe to them all? We swap magazines.
Need fresh oregano, basil an dparsley for that pasta dish you are making? No need to run to the store. The herbs in the planter box in my front yard are yours to take.
Can you water my plants when we are away for a week? Take out our trash and recycling bin? Done.
It’s easy to put a dollar value on a real estate property based on its location, its size, and its improvements. How do you assign a number to the closeness, friendliness, and helpfulness of neighbors? I don’t know, but it sure feels like that my house is worth 50 percent more.
While a little alcohol kick-started our little community, there are other approaches, believe it or not. Greenbean organized a buying group and a green book club.
Here are a few other suggestions from Norhwest Earth Institute:
- Start making short and simple contacts - Borrow milk or hand tools, ask for planting advice if you see a nice garden
- Make yourself accessible - Relax on your front porch, play games in the front yard.
- Work in the garden - It is one of the best ways to meet your neighbors.
- Start a babysitting coop - It works if you have young children (I have some reservation on this one because I have seen many “formal” babysitting coops. I get a headache just to see the agreements everyone has to sign, given our litigious society).
- Start a bulk product/service buying club - Greenbean is ahead of the curve. She can probably provide more detail.
- Throw a block party a few times a year - Apparently annual events are not frequent enough to keep people in touch.
- If all fails, entice neighbors with alcohol - Okay, this one is all mine.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Making Chard Delicious
June 25, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 4 comments
First off, I actually like swiss chard. Sauteed with some butter and a little salt and I can eat a plate full. However, many don’t feel the same way.
In fact, one of my friends wanted to just dump this hardy green (that’s growing way past its season) into the composter! So for those of you who are trying to find a better way to cook this nutritious green, I stumbled upon a great recipe that even my chard-evasive family enjoyed.
The recipe was cut out of the SF Examiner but I couldn’t find it online so I hope this won’t offend the source.
Swiss Chard with Caramelized Onions and Pine Nuts
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2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 bunch Swiss Chard (with leaves and stalks separated)
2 tbsp golden raisins
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
In a large skillet, toast the pine nuts until golden brown (for about 3 minutes). Transfer to a plate and set aside.
In the same pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, unitl golden brown and soft (about 9-12 minutes).
Meanwhile, cut chard stalks into sticks 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long. Tear leaves into 2 inch pieces.
Add stalks and raisins to caramelized onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the stalk are tender (about 10-12 minutes).
Add chard leaves and vinegar. Continue cooking until the leaves are very wilted and tender. Season with salft and pepper and sprinkle with pine nuts after transferring to serving plate.
The recipe takes about 45 minutes (though active prep time is 15 minutes) but it takes the toughness out of the stalk and the pine nuts give the dish that extra crunch. Yum.
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Looking through my selfish lens
June 23, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 8 comments
We are traveling afar, to a different continent in fact. Before anyone points out to me how anti-green air travel is, I’d like to clarify that I am painfully aware of the fact. Several times on this blog I have confessed my conflicted emotions about the previledge of traveling.
We no longer have the “right” to travel afar considering its damage to the environment. But if I have to one eco sin, this will be it. Elizabeth Gilbert whose “Eat, Pray, Love” touched me in so many ways, declared for me. “I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don’t care what it puts me through.”
Before having kids, whenever I had all my worldly possessions crammed into a backpack, my synapses would start zinging and singing - the intimate memory of newness, independence, loniness, joy, connection and sometimes despair would start my heart pumping.
Greenbeen has recommended the book Common Wealth to me a number of times. It apparently would supply me with more execuse to go places. Surely when I am back from the trip, I will have to check it out of the library to absolve all my accumulated guilt.
With two little children in tow and a heavy mortgage, I can no longer load all the belongings on my back. Still, the seemingly obsessive yearning for foreign places hasn’t gone away. Do I need to seek a shrink?
Anyhow with great conflicting feelings, I have decided to continue to feed my craving, but do so as lighly as possible. Yes, even with two little children.
Take little stuff and bring home little. You’d be surprised how long the repleated use of three changes of clothes can serve you. We pack all of our things into one backpack for a month’s trip. Everywhere we go, we acquire new phrases of local languages, lingering taste of local foods, and stories of local history and culture, rather than souvenirs and trinkets. Unaware of anything different, my kids seem to take to the style quite easily.
Minimize small flight trips and maximize usage of public transportation. Instead of short flight trips we try to take only one long trip every year. After we land at a destination, trains and buses are usually our vehicles of choice. Riding on a bus with bleeping goats and quacking ducks would stay in your memory far longer than flying smoothly from A to B.
(courtesy of www.tibetplus.com)
Borrow instead of buy. My kids are six and three. Despite my boast of robustness, flying with small children and keeping them seated for 12+ hours can be real grind. This time around, we gave in to the portable DVD idea. Fighting the convenience to buy one from the store, I was lucky enough to borrow one from a generous neighbor. In exchange, her toddler aged boys wanted pictures of trains and buses we would ride and ticket stubs. I was told that those were highly valued tradable items, in the world of 3-6 year old boys at least.
Find alternative lodging options. Increasingly there are more eco lodging options, though they still tend to be associated with eco tours. After trying a few, we found them inconsistent. The agritourismo accommodation in Italy was one of our best memories while a “green” hotel in San Francisco was not far from window dressing. Another option we have really enjoyed is staying with family friends, or friends’ families, or even friends’ friends. Collect all the potential contacts and don’t be shy of using them, especially in a foreign countries. I am aware that this is not for everyone. But so far, we have had the best experience with this type of accommodations. Imagine being taken to local hangouts in Paris that are no where to be found in any guide books.
Will doing all the above redeem the damage air travel does? I won’t begin to delude myself in thinking so. However if one does not want to give up the selfish idea of traveling, these options can reduce our environmental impact once on the ground. In fact when we travel in third world countries, our footprints are much smaller than back in the U.S. because of the “smaller” lifestyle in these countries.
Plus, being a traveler instead of a tourist just makes trips more fun and memorable. I promise.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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A midsummer night’s dream
June 20, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Green Journal , 6 comments
Summer of 08 is officially here! Today (summer solstice) is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and is the day the Sun is standing still, neither moving north or south. Summer solstice is celebrated by many cultures, yet it still has not been commercialized. Have you seen a Hallmark card that reads - may you find light and happiness on summer solstice?
But to me, it means the official start of summer! It means fun, ice cream cones, vacation, popsicles, camping, water play, beach, and family time.
Heather at Simple Green Frugal said the best: we work to live a life. In the spirit of putting our money where our mouths are, CindyC and I collectively decided to do less blogging for a month or two in the summer. What are we going to do? Aside from our work, we plan to maximize our time with our families and go outside.
Currently in our plans are hiking, swimming, camping, traveling, combing bath and running through sprinklers (as Joyce suggested), making popsicles, tending to our gardens, rock-climbing, visiting local farms, going to outdoor plays (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, anyone?), and eating lots of lots ice cream.
But we will still get on our soap box a couple of times a week. Once you get used to thinking out loud, you just can’t stuff it back in! We will continue to read about and participate the pleasure-centered green movement and share our fun.
Happy Summer!
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Response from “Not So Clean Products”
June 19, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 1 comment so far
A few months ago, I was shocked by a report from the Organic Trade Association (OTA) regarding the presence of 1,4 Dioxane in leading natural soaps and personal care items. 1,4 Dioxane is a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and was found (at various levels) in brand names like Seventh Generation, Planet and Ecover. The most appalling thing was that this dangerous chemical was nowhere to be found on the ingredient panel filled with only natural ingredients.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who found the findings appalling and unacceptable. At the end of May, the State of California filed a lawsuit against four companies named in the report: Avalon Natural Products (makers of Alba), Beaumont Products (makers of Veggie Wash), Nutribiotics and Whole Foods (Whole Foods 365 brand). The suit seeks penalties against these companies for exposing consumers to chemicals known to cause cancer, without “clear and reasonable warning.” Under Proposition 65, fines for mislabeled products carry maximum penalty of $2500 per day for each violation.
Last week, the OTA sent letters to these companies inquiring whether changes in formulation or ingredient disclosure are planned. Only ONE out of the four responded. Beaumont Products said that they have taken immediate action and reformulated the products to eliminate the 1,4 Dioxane problem. ONE out of four! I wonder what it’s going to take for the other companies to take action. Sigh….
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Putting faces on personalities
June 18, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Communities , 13 comments
Ever wonder if Arduous is really as difficult as she says she is? For all her inspiring writing, does Greenbean really wear a cape around town?
I had an awesome brunch with these two ladies yesterday. Arduous was SO not difficult. Proof? We were at a fairly nice restaurant where the waiter handed us a full breakfast menu. When Arduous asked for French Toast, the waiter shrugged his shoulders, “Sorry, we don’t have any syrup left.” Seriously? I thought. But Arduous, she just muttered “okay” nonchalantly and pointed to another item on the menu.
She was beautiful, thoughtful, earnest and oh so young! Twenty-nine years had nothing on her.
I always pictured Greenbean as a tall blond, and of Norwegian decent. Don’t ask me why. In person, she was adorable and radiant. She possessed the most infectious smiles. The pretty blouse acquired from a local thrifty store only added to her charm. Oh yeah, she was not blond. Apparently occasionally she leaves her blond wig and super cape at home when she goes about her days.
It is a bit weird to put faces on the personalities and writing I enjoy everyday. Fortunately in real life, Arduous and Greenbean are even more awesome than I imagined.
Upon parting GreenBean handed us each a box of her yummy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and an envolp of borage seeds.
Thanks! My kids and I ate them up in thirty seconds. See the empty jar?
Arduous gave us each a copy of children’s book written by British authors. Apparently they were not available in the U.S.
Thanks to Arduous, I now have to endure the mock English accent my husband assumes when reading to the kids.
I must report that as always I failed to follow Miss Manner’s handbook regarding giving just the right presents. Wait, wait, actually on p1287, she says it’s okay not to bring presents if your friends are non-consumers or super heros. So there.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Super Dog!
June 17, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Rants & the Ridiculous , 6 comments
Flipping through a copy of Consumer Reports at the dentist office, a short article caught my eye on the fortified water boom. In the battle for stomach share, mainstream manufacturers have been adding everything imaginable to the simplest drink on earth. In addition to vitamins, flavor, electrolytes, manufacturers are now adding herbs, weight-loss aides (remember Skinny Water?) and even positive thoughts to “raise consciousness in humanity” (just check out Aquamantra). Of course, this is no surprise given the number of commercials I see for Propel, VitaminWater or SobeLife every time I watch sports. Can’t even imagine what the commercial breaks for the Olympics would be like.
In any case, what topped it off for me was the small mention of fortified water for dogs, FortiFido. Four different flavors of enhanced water for the family pet to promote strong bones, fresh breath, healthy bones and joints. We have a dog and we love her, feed her and exercise her. She’s done just fine drinking plain ol’ tap water. If it’s good enough for her owners, I think it’s good enough for Bailey!
What a crazy world we live in!
End of rant –CindyC at Organicpicks
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Caught red-handed in the recyling bin
June 16, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Green Journal , 9 comments
When it comes to “artwork” created by kids, the adage “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” unquestionably applies – when I see chicken scratches, my kids see flowers and clouds; when I see random squiggles, they see dolphins and anemones.
They don’t think twice before taking my new crisp printing paper and doodle a sheet a minute –artwork by quantity obviously. Naturally it is incumbent upon me to find them less wasteful alternatives.
By day, I am a business consultant – yeah, like a client calls me and tells me that they have a new widget that requires a price. I do this and that and eventually stick a number like $1294.3 in a fancy deck of slides. In any case, over the past couple of years I have quite a few different clients with various lines of business and diverse sizes. However one thing all of the companies have in common – too many people too readily hit the PRINT button.
Oops, I didn’t mean to hit the print button for a 124 page document. Oh well. Into the garbage can the paper goes.
I may need to review the slide deck with 10 people. I better print out 15 copies just in case. Oops only 5 people showed up. Oh well, that’s too bad. At least we have a recycling bin.
I see this all the time. It is estimated that every year an average US office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper - that’s 30 pages a day. If I actually conducted a systematic research, I’d venture to say that 90% of the print outs are necessary. Paper is too cheap, there is little incentive for companies to encourage their employees to print less.
Here I am again, going off on a tangent. The point is that I paper-dive on the weekly bases just to get my children their paper supply, sometimes in the recycling bin and sometimes in the trash.
Every so often, I get caught with hands still in the cookie jar. “We are obviously not paying you enough,” some clients would joke. Sure, I am always happy to get paid more. I do get frustrated in that as a consultant I work on very specific projects. Reducing paper printouts for a company has never been and will not likely to be in my project pipeline. I have casually suggested setting some sort of quota for printouts by person or by departments. But as long as the paper price stays at its current level, my suggestion will never be taken seriously.
Anyway I haul the paper home and cut it in half. Now my girls can churn out 20 pieces of “artwork” a day without me constantly saying, “that’s enough. No more paper!” or “Just draw on the same one you just did.”
Then I secretively recycle almost all of their “artwork”, though occasionally they do catch me red-handed in the process of putting paper in our recycling bin.
Now that I have a fairly constant source of used paper, my next goal is to convince the teachers at my kids’ school to use it and then recycle it.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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What am I eating?
June 12, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 3 comments
I guess both CindyW and I have been thinking about food. So far this week, we’ve talked about chopping boards, farmer’s market(sort of) and farmed vs. fresh salmon. Warning, this is another post about food but it’s about more about an additive to make food taste more like, well, food.
Most of us have heard of MSG or monosodium glutamate, an additive often associated with Chinese food. Having grown up in a Chinese household, I never gave MSG much thought – other than it added flavor to food and it’s not good for you. Recently, my friend sent me an email about hidden ingredients in food, one of which was MSG. What surprised me was not just the vast number of foods that contains MSG or the variety of names it hides behind but why MSG is used.
Taking a step back, MSG can be naturally manufactured in our bodies (from the amino acid call glutamic acid or glutamate) as well as synthetically made. Thus, MSG manufacturers often argue that MSG is not harmful because our bodies make it naturally. Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration that as a food additive, we would ingest far more MSG than what our bodies would make or require, not to mention the health issues and allergies caused by excess MSG.
So why is MSG added to food? The presence of MSG tricks your taste buds in thinking the food is protein and nutritious. That means food manufacturers can cut cost by putting less real food and still make you think that there’s real food. In addition, MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin, even when there are no real carbohydrates to digest. Excess insulin makes blood sugar drop and voila, you are hungry soon after you eat, which makes you want to eat more. What a great way for restaurants and manufacturers to sell even more “food” to satisfy your craving!
Don’t think you are avoiding MSG if you don’t eat Chinese food or soy sauce. It can be found in many American foods and restaurants including KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, Doritos, Campbell’s Soup, Progresso, Lipton soups mixes. Plus, MSG goes by many different names: hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, sodium cassinate and textured protein to name just a few. If you want to find out more about foods to avoid, MSG Truth has a great list plus lots of background information. Truth in Labeling has a fairly extensive list of MSG aliases to watch out for.
I guess I now know why I get these strange cravings for McDonald’s French fries….
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Giving up salmon
June 11, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 18 comments
About 8 months ago, I had an intense confrontation with a Mr. Rafael Puga who represented a Chilean farmed salmon import/export organization. I believed (and still do) that farmed salmon should be avoided both for health reasons and for environmental reasons. Mr Puga called me a criminal for spreading “lies” that were strongly supported by most environmental organizations and a variety of media outlets. After a few rounds, I stopped the non-constructive conversation, if one could call it that.
Back then I advocated for eating wild salmon.
Normally this time of the year, we feast on wild salmon as much as we can. Well, situations have drastically changed. Pacific Coast chinook salmon population suddenly and virtually collapsed due to habitat destruction, mismanagement, over fishing, and climate change induced inhospitable environment. This year the commercial chinook season in California and most of Oregon was canceled for the first time in 160 years. Californian fishermen collectively agreed with the decision.
(NYT: Tim Calvert, a fisherman, in San Francisco. The scarcity of Chinook salmon may keep the Pacific fishery closed for the season.)
That leaves Alaska as the only source of wild salmon. With the wild salmon supply steadily declining and consumer demand holding steady if not increasing, the price of wild salmon fillet has hit $40 per pound in some stores.
Now I know most of us are APLS, but most of us are probably not $40 per pound salmon affluent. Taking a deep breath and buying farmed salmon? Knowing the terrible consequences of most salmon farming practices, I cannot budge.
A couple of days ago, New York Times reporter Taras Grescoe decided that he would give up salmon all together, wild or farmed.
“Ninety percent of the fresh salmon consumed in the United States is from farms…”
“In Chile, overcrowding in these oceanic feedlots led to this year’s epidemic of infectious salmon anemia, a disease that has killed millions of fish and left the flesh of survivors riddled with lesions.”
“The situation in Canada, which supplies the United States with 40 percent of its farmed salmon, is not much better. In British Columbia, offshore net-cages are breeding grounds for thumbtack-sized parasites called sea lice.”
“To rid salmon of the lice, fish farmers spike their feed with a strong pesticide called emamectin benzoate, which when administered to rats and dogs causes tremors, spinal deterioration and muscle atrophy.”
YUCK!
With the opulent taste of simply grilled wild salmon still lingering at the tip of my tongue from a couple of years ago, I sighed and sadly agreed with his approach. It’s sort of against the tenet of the pleasurable green movement. Alas, sometimes you’ve gotta do whatcha have to do.
Eight months ago, I still embraced wild salmon. This time around, I am giving up all salmon, since I don’t run with the crowd that can drop $80 for a salmon fillet.
But I like fish, for their nutritional values and for their yumminess. Being a total nerd, in my wallet I carry a handy dandy wallet-sized fish guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In the red column are the no-no fish, in the yellow column are the iffy ones, and in the green column are the smart choices. Downloading the guides is a piece of cake.
In addition, Monterey Bay Aquarium offers regular education on sustainable seafood. This Friday, it is offering a webcast on making sustainable seafood choices that are good for us and healthy for our oceans.
I’ve registered and am ready to watch and learn. There are other fish in the ocean, hopefully.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
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