Happy Green Beings

This is a cool website for kids that has some fun activities and games. It’s all about the environment and it’s pretty creative! Check it out- http://www.meetthegreens.org/

Enjoy!

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Check out this link to some inspiring college students making a difference where they can.

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What to do… what to do? We have just learned that our food co-op has suspended operations and will not be delivering our monthly groceries. That means, among other things, that we are out of coffee and toilet paper. This is not good news.

We haven’t learned why exactly but we know that the co-op has been struggling. (It’s been evident by the number of things that have been back-ordered over the last six months.) I can’t help but wonder though if much of the struggle has to do with the still limited interest in natural and organic foods.

Last week I attended this conference. In order to offer a mix of small and large group learning experiences, the conference offered 20 different learning tracks. Each learning track had 20-30 participants and provide opportunity for discussion. My learning track was “Beyond Consumerism” and while I won’t hash out all the details I will say that I was shocked that those who were leading the discussion were not particularly well versed in the ways in which consumers can purchase food that either lightens the carbon footprint of the consumer or supports the farmer with a substantial percentage of the sticker price or both.

For example, one leader had spent time in Costa Rica and was discussion coffee exports. Roughly, for a pound of fairly trade coffee, the grower is getting $1.26, for the non-fairly traded pound, the grower gets 70-90 cents. (click here for a visual comparison). And we are paying, in this country, $8-$12/lb for the same coffee. The thing that bothered me the most is it seemed (although was never said explicitly) that buying fairly traded products doesn’t matter and it was even implied that the certification process is not to be trusted.

Is it a perfect system? No. Of course not. But should we completely disregard it? I think that is irresponsible (not to mention cynical and pessimistic.) But clearly, responsible food is not yet in the mainstream and companies that sell and distribute it are struggling and leaving consumers to piece together less than ideal buying solutions. So…

For the time being, it looks like coffee will come from Coffee Bean Direct and TP from theearthshack.com

Are you part of the growing number concerned about food?  How do you buy green?

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Grocery shopping is interesting at our house.  Rarely these days do we go to a regular grocery store.  I’ve managed to piece together several different sources where we can get quality food at prices that are often lower than the grocery store.

 We purchase milk and eggs directly from a farmer about 1 1/2 hours from our house.  The farmer delivers our order and several other families orders to our house once per month.  The milk is not certified organic, but they do use organic practices.  The eggs are from ranging chickens, who get to peck at the ground eating bugs, so their eggs are large, deep yellow and really nutritious.  The farm has a little store where they carry food that is healthful for those following the Weston A. Price Foundation guidelines for diet.  There’s raw milk cheeses, lacto-fermented foods, sea salt, natural sweetners, and sprouted grain breads to choose from.

Another source of year-round food for us is our natural foods co-op.  We buy from Natural Farms, a natural foods distributor out of Madison.  This order is also monthly, and we buy many things in bulk, saving on packaging and pricing.

We have hooked in with other folks who occasionally make runs for natural meats–Amish raised chickens, turkeys (in fall), chicken brats–and sometimes eggs, too.  I also buy coconut oil from another co-operative group about 2-3 times per year.

 In season, the Farmers’ Market is about the most fun way to grocery shop ever.  It’s like a festival every Saturday.  There are some good ones in the area.  Appleton has a lovely market, and the market in Madison is worth the drive.  I’d love to see comments from folks with their favorite markets.

Of course, since I work there, The Red Radish is a place where we get food, too.

 We finally own a piece of property that gets enough sun to attempt having a garden, so we will hopefully see a bountiful harvest of tomatoes and peppers there this season.

Some of our favorite local farms are:

• Cattleana Ranch:  grass raised beef, pork and lamb.  CSA for meats and produce
• Prospera Farm: growing “moreganic” produce, available at the Appleton market
• Park Ridge Farm: certified organic, available at the Appleton market
• Keune Authentic: growing produce biodynamically, CSA available.  also distributes other farmers’ produce
• Makes Scents: growing sunflower greens, pea shoots, and distributing other healthful products

So, lots of people ask why I do all this.  I love the community around food.  I love the connection with other people who wish to purchase quality foods for their families, and who are concerned for the impact our food raising has on the earth.  I’ve learned a lot from many of these folks, gotten to know them over the years, and it’s a joy to greet them and purchase my food from them.  I don’t have that kind of connection to our food if I go to a big box grocery store.  While I’m not a purist (I do buy avocadoes, citrus fruits, bananas, etc), I like that much of our food is local. 

I welcome comments from folks who have their own great sources of food, so that we can share.

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Our backyard barnyard experiment is now underway. We picked up 11 little chicks yesterday afternoon from our local farmer friend. They are all a full 24 hours old and seem to be doing just fine. I’m not too sure what breeds we will be raising, but I do know that we will be having bantam (miniature) birds. They should get to be around 4 pounds max - fluff and all. They are living on our sun porch in a huge box with food, water and a little heat from a pair of lamps. Everyone is very excited by the new additions to our family. For now

they are eating a basic starter feed from the hardware store. Once they get a little bigger, and quite honestly as soon as I finish the coop and run, they will move outside to eat from our yard as well as the supplemental store feed. I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

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