birch

birch
Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness. ---Kahlil Gibran

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Raindrops





Learn about the many uses of a rain barrel and how to build one. 
Workshops sponsored by 
Chesapeake Department of Agriculture, Chesapeake Master Gardeners,
Discounted workshop fee of $40, due at time of registration
(Fee includes barrel, help with assembly, and handouts)

Collecting rainwater in a barrel can save you money
and eliminate the problems of eroded foundations, soil erosion
and water pollutions caused by runoff.
Join next classes: 
Saturday, August 28th at 10:00am at Indian River Library
or Saturday, September 25th at 10:00am at Central Library
Call 382-6348 for additional information

ROOTS (Leaves, Nuts and Berries)

I just finished a book called “The Origin Diet” by Elizabeth Somer that seemed to make some valid points. She claims that by eating like our stone-age forefathers did, we could live longer, healthier lives. What does this have to do with being green? Two words - “Processed Foods”.

Our ancestors preserved their food by drying, salting, fermenting, smoking and freezing. Today we reconstitute, hydrogenate, emulsify, puff, defoam, and fortify our food. Processing has turned low-calorie, nourishing foods into low-nutrient, calorie-rich foods. (For Example: Apples into fried apple pies, potatoes into Tater Tots and Yogurt into pudding with candy sprinkles.)

Our food labels list ingredients such as xanthan gum, aspartome, dextrose glucose and sodium benzoate.

The ancient farmer cultivated an assortment of corn, wild rice, and other grains. Now farmers plant only brand name crops that have been genetically engineered to produce higher yields. (Such as Silver Queen corn and Better Boy tomatoes.) These types of foods are called GMO’s, which stands for Genetically Manufactured Organisms.

When the only thing we plant is one specific variety, we lose our ability to prepare for an uncertain future. What happens when that one special crop fails or becomes diseased? Ever hear of the Irish Potato Famine?

If we depend exclusively upon these “Superfoods”, we will lose the diversity of our natural food supply. Unless we save the seeds,  some plant species will die out forever because they are no longer being cultivated. SEED SAVERS Who knows what nutrients, what medical benefits, and other useful qualities we will lose if they disappear?

Having a variety of crop species ensures that we have the genetic resources needed to face future climate changes, and will be able to combat diseases that develop a resistance to old defenses.

It took thousands of years for man to evolve from ape. We went from hunting and gathering, to farming, to fast-food windows in the blink of an eye. These last few hundred years have not allowed our bodies time enough to adapt to our present environment. Our biology is still conditioned toward diets and activity levels that existed in the past.

Our bodies crave water, nuts, seeds, leaves and wild game. We give them soda pop, cheese doodles and hot dogs. Our diets are killing us because it’s not the food we need.

Part of being green is taking advantage of what nature offers us without depleting the source and in using less energy to produce goods. It, therefore, makes sense to plant or buy natural food products.

If being green also means to conserve, then by feeding ourselves the types of foods we need to stay healthy and avoiding the foods that cause us problems, we are conserving mankind’s future.

I hereby promise myself that I will begin to treat my body better (again) by avoiding fast foods and giving up soda. If anyone sees me lingering by the snack machine contemplating the purchase of a Reese’s Cup, feel free to grab me by my hair and drag me away. It’s what any honorable caveman would do. Thanks! 

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Books to Read by Jean M Auel
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
The Land of Painted Caves

Friday, July 16, 2010

It’s Not EZ Being Green

Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer being red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that
The idea of a “green” society is compelling, but easier said than done. We are all so accustomed to the horn of plenty that we have been living in for the past 40 years that it’s hard to accept that ours is a lifestyle that is increasingly unacceptable to the rest of the world.
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
Socially unacceptable because many have so little while a few have so much, but economically unacceptable too as the world’s resources are being depleted. Kermit the frog was right. It ain’t easy. Pursuits that are worthwhile never are.
Cause you’re not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky
Look at all the lists that are put out about how to "live lightly" and how to "reduce your carbon footprint" .

Some of these suggestions seem pretty obvious; others make you slap your head and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, most of us don’t think.
But green’s the color of Spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
We live our life emulating King Sisuphus of Greek Mythology. (He pushed a rock up a mountain every day, and at the end of each day, it rolled back down.) Sound familiar? We can get stuck in a loop that’s hard to break. We do the things we do because we’ve always done them that way. We’re on auto-pilot.
And green can be big like an ocean
Stop!
Reconfigure!
Today is when everything that’s going to happen from now on begins!

Before you go to work tomorrow consider these ideas:
Take a shower rather than a bath. (I haven’t bathed in years!…hehehe.)
Buy clothes from thrift stores. It’s fun.
Use biodegradable cleaning products. biodegradable cleaning products"
 (Thanks to Mike Andruczyk, VCE-Horticulture Agent for the City of Chesapeake for this link!)
Avoid clothes that need to be dry cleaned.
Buy recycled products.
Run the dishwasher only when it’s full.
Turn down your thermostat.
Take public transit.
Bike or walk to work.
Carpool.
Drive more slowly.
Or important like a mountain
While you are at work try some of these:
Send emails instead of letters.
Convert to PDF for paperless document sharing.
Scan documents instead of copying them.
(The more you do online, the less paper you need.)
Print on both sides of the page.
Reuse your binders and folders.
Use misprints as notepads.
Encourage employees to use payroll direct deposit.
Use Instant Messaging or video conferencing.
Use natural daylight as a free source of lighting for the office.
(It has been proven to improve worker productivity and satisfaction.)
Add plants to your office.
Or tall like a tree
It’s lunch time. Did you do any of these?
Bring lunch to work in a reusable container.
Grow your own vegetables or buy local produce.
Do not buy foods containing genetically modified organisms.
Say NO to GMO's!
Break the bottled water habit, use a mug or glass. Drink tap water.
It could make you wonder why
But why wonder why?
The afternoon rolls by:
You see that many tasks are still undone. You may begin to wonder where all the time went. Take some comfort in knowing that scientists studying the Earth’s motion say that the planet has been spinning faster in recent years, and thus the days ARE shorter. It’s not you.
I am green and it’ll do fine.
It’s time to leave for the day! Did you remember these?
Switch off lights you don’t need.
Unplug machines when not in use.
It’s beautiful!
Now before you pull in your driveway, swing by the library and check out some books!

READ, RETURN, REPEAT
And I think it’s what I want to be.
Books on Recycling
Sneaky green uses for everyday things  by Tymony, Cy

Don't throw it out  by Baird, Lori

Re-creative: 50 projects for turning found items into contemporary design  by Dodds, Steve

High tech trash  by Grossman, Elizabeth

Redux: designs that reuse, recycle and reveal  by Roberts, Jennifer

Taking out the trash: a no-nonsense guide to recycling by Carless, Jennifer

Friday, July 2, 2010

Green Acres

It was a book put out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture called “Living on a Few Acres” that started it all.


Having grown up in the “urban” area of downtown Norfolk, my husband had always longed to live on a farm. He was a gritty Vietnam vet.

 Ban Me Thuot 1965-66         

And I was a young, idealistic "hippie". So we bought a rundown house that had some land around it and a barn. While both working full-time jobs, we lived in our old house and renovated the new one. (Paying 2 mortgage payments!) He bought a tractor, I planted a garden and we had a baby.

Life was very busy and very fulfilling.

What we realized later, was that there were portions of that agriculture book that we must have skipped over. Did it mention how tired we would be? It glossed over the way projects would suck up all our free time with phrases like this one , “ You will be provided plenty of opportunity for creative and useful work.” Boy, were we ever!

The chapters on the economics of it all were pretty short too. Did you know that you can almost go broke “saving money”? While my husband was busy using his DIY carpentry skills, I got into “growing our own food” in a big way. I tilled a 40 x 25 foot garden plot in the backyard and, over the course of the next 15 years, planted an amazing assortment of vegetables, flowers and herbs.

However, if you added up the cost of the various tools and equipment needed for our projects (the books, charts, seeds, plants, lumber, fertilizers, canning supplies etc...) and measured the time and effort involved, was it worth it? I think so.


Could we have saved money by just hiring someone to do the carpentry work and bought our food at a farmer’s market? Maybe. I don’t think it would have been the same though. The satisfaction we got from doing something by ourselves would have been lost.

We opened a door into an unknown world. It started out as fun. Later, as we got older, it started feeling more like work than adventure. It was time consuming. I began to resent the fact that after working 40 hours a week at my job, my evenings and weekends were being spent tending the garden. My husband was tired of home improvement projects. We had no "free time".


We wanted to lay on the beach or shop at the mall; which was what my (by now) teenage daughter was doing. We wanted to just read books, watch TV  and sit on the deck sipping ice tea.


So, my garden got smaller and smaller and finally ceased to exist. I feel guilty about it and many days I miss it terribly.


My point in telling you all this, is so that you will know that the reward you’ll get in growing your own food is not from the money you will save. It’s good because you are eating fresh produce that you raised yourself. It’s “green”, but you’re not going to save the world doing it.  Sorry.

What you will do is gain some small measure of independence from the urban world and re-discover the simpler joys of the real, NATURAL world.

There is satisfaction in doing something by yourself, whether it is tiling a floor, planting a garden, building a deck, baking bread or sewing curtains. It’s fun going to yard sales or browsing through second-hand shops. I hope you all discover these small pleasures.


Don’t, however, become self-righteous about how “green” you are because you are doing these things. Because I promise you this; one day you will crave a greasy, fast-food meal, a trip to the mall to buy a pair of shoes you don’t need and a day frittered away at the beach.

Trust me, I know.

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Books in our collection that may interest you are:

A Thousand Acres by Smiley, Jane

The Good Earth by Buck, Pearl S

Prodigal Summer by Kingsolver, Barbara

Farmer Boy  by Wilder, Laura Ingalls

Mudbound   by Jordan, Hillary

The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An old fashioned recipe book by Emery, Carla

The Off Season by Murdock, Catherine Gilbert

A Painted House  by Grisham, John

Hit by a Farm: How I learned to stop worrying and love the barn  by Friend, Catherine

Homesteading: A backyard guide to growing your own food, canning, keeping chickens, generating your own energy, crafting, herbal medicine, and more  by Gehring, Abigail R.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Kingsolver, Barbara

The Botany of Desire: A plant's eye view of the world  by Pollan, Michael

Plenty: One man, one woman, and a raucous year of eating locally  by Smith, Alisa

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A natural history of four meals  by Pollan, Michael

Fast Food Nation: The dark side of the all-American meal by Schlosser, Eric

The World Without Us  by Weisman, Alan