EnviroMom

Tea for me

I am late to iced tea. I just never really cared for it. Hot tea, yes; cold, no. But last week my grandma always had a jug brewing in the sun, and the iced tea tasted refreshing and delicious. (It was also 100 degrees and humid in Arkansas.) So now I'm making my own. Above is Wild Zinger herbal tea from Celestial Seasonings. It tastes so good cold (no sweetener needed) that my husband said he would give up his Diet 7Up habit if this was always in the fridge. Done. I sun-brewed 3 bags in this 2 quart pitcher.

The always inspirational Amy Karol just wrote about her method of brewing highly concentrated tea in a mason jar because she didn't have enough room in the fridge for all the tea they drink. Last night I shoved three bags of peppermint and three of green into a quart (?) mason jar, added cold water and it brewed in the fridge overnight. I squeezed out the bags to get every last bit of tea in there this morning. Can you guess what I'm drinking right now? Amy says she only adds about 2 tablespoons of the concentrate to a glass of water; I found I needed about 1/4 cup. This peppermint-green combo was light and refreshing; nice for a morning pick-me-up. Now my mind is racing -- what other concoctions to try?

It occurs to me that tea is a pretty eco-friendly drink, particularly if you buy it organic and fair trade. You can recycle the box and compost the tea bags -- and eliminate both of those if you buy it loose (something I've never done) from a local tea shop. I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl.

Happy 4th everyone!

Cleaning up icky messes without paper towels

We got a great email from Jennifer who has successfully kicked paper napkins and towels out of the house and has converted to cloth (much to the horror of her paper towel-addicted mother...her mom now brings her own paper towels when she visits!). Hooray Jennifer, and no doubt your dear mama will one day see the light as well! Recently Jennifer had her first icky clean-up mess to deal with and resisted the paper towel temptation (she still has some left). She writes:

For the first time since my newfound ways a family member got sick, several feet from the bathroom. Unfortunately, I had a pile of things that were waiting for me to take downstairs. And my trusty paper towel clean-up method was GONE! I had nowhere to turn except my kitchen towels. I washed them twice and still had to clean out my washing machine from bits of partially processed food. (Sorry for being so descriptive.)
 
I’m confident it’s probably a no-brainer…but I’m puzzled. What to do in this situation? Do you soak your clean-up towels in a bucket or something first?

This, I believe, is a common predicament and a big challenge. I would probably reach for my 'emergency' roll of paper towels (which I've had for over two years now), but I know there are less wasteful methods. Would you soak your towels in a bucket and empty it in the yard or the toilet? Soak them in the toilet? In your kitchen sink? Or do you give yourself a pass (and a break) and go for paper?

Green mom or eco-freak? You decide...

Top indicators that you have crossed the line from regular ol' heart-in-the-right-place green mom to eco-freak:

• Taking your kids to a public restroom and failing to control them from tearing off an extra sheet from one of those 'awesome' automatic paper towel dispensers, then finding you have no place to leave the toweling so that another person might use it instead of thinking it is garbage, then sticking it in your purse (while worrying some stranger might come in and think you are stealing) because you can't abide the thought of just wasting it
• Asking your friend if she'll flush up or down while entering a restroom that uses dual-flush toilets
• Bringing home -- not just your own compostable food waste and/or recyclables -- but also that of all your co-workers
• Opting to skip a dinner party because you have far too many leftovers in your fridge that your family really should be eating, and can't stand the idea of all that food going to waste
• Taking pictures of your compost pile, and showing it to others with comments like 'You think your compost looks good? Well take a look at this...'
• Obsessing about recyclables while on vacation
• Bringing a non-fiction book titled Ecological Intelligence on summer vacation and actually preferring it to the juicy fiction selection that was also brought along

Turns out I've crossed the line from green mom to eco-freak. And I think I'm ok with that. How about you? Got any good ones to share?

Tidbits: sunscreen, cutting boards and ice cream

My family just got home last night from five days in the Ozarks and I have all that homecoming stuff to deal with: dirty clothes, dirty house, wilted garden, dehydrated hermit crab...you know, the usual.

--  I've had an opportunity to more thoroughly test out the Mexitan sunscreen that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago on a variety of skin complexions, and it does indeed leave a faint white zinc oxide-type sheen on one's skin (I've updated my post). I guess my kids were so pale when we first started using it that it wasn't obvious. However, I still really like it. It doesn't feel greasy or lotion-y on my skin, and it works. You definitely need to re-apply it if you spend any time in the water, however. I have the pink shoulders to prove it.

--  The perfect solution to my cutting board dilemma presented itself shortly after I wrote about it. My mom reads this blog, and she gave me a butcher block cutting board that my paternal grandfather made about 35-40 years ago! I'd completely forgotten about it. This is the cutting board I grew up with and it's seen much use and has held up beautifully over the years. I'm going to lightly sand it and give it a mineral oil treatment, and it will be ready for chopping! One side has the juice catcher, the other is smooth and it's the perfect size. I can't tell you how happy this heirloom has made me! (And I was thisclose to buying a new one...just goes to prove that sometimes it pays to wait for a better solution.)

--  One of the kitchen gadgets that is lurking in my cabinets (and I'm hoping to get rid of) is an ice cream maker that has been used once...because ice makers are a pain in the butt. If it takes 24+ hours to make ice cream, then something is very, very wrong. Today's Oregonian FOODday has recipes for homemade, machine-free ice cream that you mix once and then freeze for only 3-8 hours before you devour it. The chocolate ice cream recipe, originally published in Cook's Country magazine, is getting tested in my kitchen soon. 

Vacation: personal cap and trade sytem

We are on the third day of our big summer vacation. We drove (yes drove -- thought for a nanosecond about taking a train, then vetoed that idea) to Seattle on Saturday. My husband flew to Washington, DC on Sunday for a quick business trip, and he will join us here on Wednesday. We are having a mini family reunion, which we've attempted almost each summer since moving to the Pacific Northwest (nearer to my aunt and uncle in Seattle). The birth of our first daughter and my cousin's daughter quickly followed. As a mom, I sometimes feel exhausted by the responsibility of what seems like planning everything, and these trips have been a rare, lovely exception. I just pack us up, book travel as necessary, and am grateful that we have a chance to keep this next generation of cousins connected since we all live fairly far apart. Is there anything better than rediscovering cousins on annual summer vacations?

So after a week of being host to a traveler, we now step into the role of travelers ourselves. Leaving behind our normal reduce-reuse-recycle routines, and adapting to the culture of where we are visiting. We are in eco-savvy Seattle, but in a rented vacation home. Thus the big ol' garbage can in the kitchen offers the path of least resistance for most tourists. I'm sure we will create more trash than we regularly do this week, yet we have established a pile of cardboard, and still need to investigate if there is a recycle bin nearby where we can ultimately dispatch it all.

Climate champions: starting conversations

Heather, our friend Carol and I attended one of the town hall meetings Portland is hosting on its Climate Action Plan. I don't know if I'm just easy to impress, or what, but I think it's fantastic that our city continues to take initiative on this global problem. It was news to me that Portland has been on it -- I believe they said since 1993 -- long before I'd ever head the terms 'global warming' or 'climate change.' They are seeking feedback before July 13, and what frequently came up in our session was the phrase: 'It's just great that we're having this conversation.' From the real-time surveys they took from those attending, we were not atypical. These people are pro-solar, bike-riding, vegetarian, green team, One Can A Month kind of people.

The plan, which Heather outlined, identifies eight areas where regular folk, just like you and me, can make changes with a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent. Ambitious? You bet! And a heck a lot easier to take actions in our own lives than to talk about it with friends, family, and neighbors who haven't yet drunk of the green kool-aid.

I left the meeting charged up. I will become a 'climate champion'! In many ways, I feel I already am one. But it's easy talking to you guys and gals. We're preaching to the choir, right? So how do you have conversations with those who are not buying into the science supporting global warming, or are in denial because they don't want to change their ways? I hope this isn't too heavy of a topic for a Friday. But really. I want to know. How do you start the conversation?

Organizing plastic bags and cloth towels

I've been going through our kitchen inch by inch since our recession remodel wrapped up (pictures soon!). I'm trying to make it more efficient by getting rid of lots of excess stuff and reorganizing cabinets and drawers. There's no sense spending all that time and money to make it outwardly pleasing when chaos reigns inside the cabinets! Recently I tackled a drawer that stores our plastic bags, foil, waxed paper, towels and oven mits. I didn't have the foresight to take a 'before' photo, but trust me -- it was a disaster. Plastic bags that I'd washed for reuse were just shoved in randomly. We had all of these pot holders in there, which we never, ever use. And the towels were always getting tossed around. After a big purge and an aha! moment, now it looks like this:

My aha! moment was realizing that I should be storing my reused plastic baggies in the same box from which they originated! For some reason I always felt I needed to keep the reused bags separate from the pristine, new baggies. Now I just shove them back into the boxes, and that way they are the first bags I grab when I need one. It also keeps the gallon size separate from the pint size separate from the sandwich baggie size. Then I have another box for random veggie bags from the grocery store. So much better.

Other plastic bags for recycling or potential reuse get shoved into this mesh tube that hangs in our garage right outside the kitchen door. The Container Store no longer carries this, but IKEA has something similar. As you can see, I continue to struggle with plastic.

My towels are divided into two piles: grimy and good. The grimy ones are used in place of paper towels to clean up messes. (Can it be possible that we stopped buying paper towels two years ago? Yes.) Those baby washcloths, which are now 7.5 years old (wah, my babies!), are used for cleaning up smaller messes. The good towels are used to dry clean items: dishes, hands, countertops. When a towel gets dirty, I toss it into a basket along with our soiled cloth napkins. I used to toss all of these items on the kitchen floor where they would sit in a growing pile for a few days (nice) but the remodel opened up a little spot for a basket. 

Since I typically do laundry every 7-10 days, these cloth towels get tossed right in with clothes. And since I only wash full loads of laundry, these napkins and towels have not increased the number of times I run the washer and dryer (and bonus points for line drying).

Organized reuse = happy EnviroMom in the kitchen, despite her often sub-par meal offerings.

Mylar bags: recycling and reuse

I will confess, since Portland's Master Recycler Plastic Roundups have gone on indefinite hiatus, it's really taxed my family's ability to keep as much as possible out of the landfill. We have not had to increase our garbage service (yippee!), but our non-curbside recycling center has gone from full to overflowing. We are still quite fortunate to have recycling depots in our areas, where we can bring non-curbside recyclables, but they do not take all the items that the Plastics Roundups did. It makes for a great textbook case of economics -- when the economy was good, we could recycle practically anything, including highly volatile recyclables. Now that the economy is crummy, we are getting a taste of how green moms in less robust recycling markets cope.

Let's talk about mylar bags specifically. Those shiny silver plasticized coffee, cookie, cracker and chip bags, granola/energy bar and candy wrappers, and let's not forget the mylar balloons that hold onto helium for almost forever, floating lower each day for what seems like months on end. Currently, there is no place we can recycle mylar film locally, which I was sad to hear from the always informative folks at Metro Recycling this week.

Baby step: Healthy, everday skin care

So this photo has nothing really to do with skin care, except that maybe that's exactly how my skin feels since switching over to healthier skin care products. Soft and dewey. Plus I took it at Portland's Chinese Garden over the weekend and it makes me feel calm and happy. Who doesn't need more of that?

This whole green living journey I started two-plus years ago has changed my life and made me more aware of all the chemicals and nasty ingredients in so many products. It is OVERWHELMING how many products we have in our lives everyday. I think that's why so many people think they can't make changes -- because it seems too overwhelming. Cleaning, laundry, personal care -- it goes on and on. I could list plenty of areas I where I still default to my traditional personal care habits: toothpaste (Crest); OTC cold medicine (though this is waning); deodorant/antiperspirant (Secret, despite my success with tea tree oil...though re-reading the comments in that post has got me all excited to do more experimenting!); and recently switching back to Pantene Pro-V shampoo because ShiKai was giving me nothing but bad hair days. But one area I have successfully conquered is my everyday skin care routine. Check it off the list, baby.

Rummage Sales: power user tips

We are in full rummage sale mode. In addition to the great Sunday Parkways bike ride we did, we were mighty busy shopping for reuse bargains. There is nothing I like better than a church or school rummage sale. Huge amount of donations pulled from many families, yielding a wide variety of things to choose from. Supports local non profits and features excellent prices! On a good day, I leave with my reuseable bags full of really good, useful junk! This past weekend, I hit a big church sale in my neighborhood. These folks are pros. They've done this sale for years. It's well organized and they price things right. My best buys this year were the stainless steel thermos for $1, and practically new Columbia Sportwear snow boots in my size for $2. I also snagged my kids two Skipper dolls ($1 each), which they have been pining for since we played with some Barbies at my aunts' last winter. One is really old, and the other is a knock-off, but what the kids don't know won't hurt them.

One thing I've learned is that you cave to fewer impulse buys when the kids are not shopping with you. Kinda like grocery shopping. So for the big church sale Friday, I went alone. Ninety minutes after it opened, I exited with two full bags of really good junk, and only things that were on my rummage sale master shopping list (which I've been adding to all fall/winter). Contrast that with Saturday. The whole family went to a neighborhood sale, that featured over 200 garage sales. We shopped. We strolled our 4-year-old, who makes everyone miserable when she has to walk more than 5-minutes in a row. We dispensed many snacks. We purchased hot dogs and brownies. We didn't break the bank by any means, but we sure did get more than planned in the old VHS video, kid trinket and free box departments. No question, it is much better to rummage without kids.

Sizing clothing and shoes without kids can be a problem, however. I often pick up shoes and think they are adorable, and guess they will fit my kids. When I get them home for the CInderella moment, they end up too small. How do kids' feet grow so fast? This year, I think I figured out a solution to that problem. I traced my kids feet on a sheet of paper, and now shop with that in my back pocket. If the shoe print is bigger than the traced foot, then it's a buy. If too small, throw said shoes back in the pile.

What are your rummage sale power user tips?

Experiential Fathers' Day: Kicks off Sunday Parkways in Portland

The parental acknowledgment holidays sneak up on me. May arrives, I'm nothing but ready to bask in the glow of Mothers' Day. Then I remember I have a mother too. And a mother-in-law. And a grandma. So we kick ourselves in gear to get some cards in the mail. Now here it is June, and Fathers' Day is upon us. That means my husband and my father, who lives locally.

This year, we have an ace in the hole. We will celebrate experientially (because really, does dad need another tie? BBQ implements? golf shirts??) by partaking in the first of three Sunday Parkway dates. I wrote about last year's first ever Sunday Parkways event, when the city of Portland blocked off several miles worth of city streets to make them the ideal spot for family bike riding, skate-boarding, walking, strolling, roller-blading, what-have-you. The routes are linked to city parks featuring crazy cool tall or hand-welded bikes, bicycle rickshas, hula-hoopers, unicyclers, etc. Excellent family fun.

(video by Clarence Eckerson, Jr.)

This years three free events will run from 9am to 4pm each day, and feature different sections of Portland:

• June 21, North Portland
• July 19, Northeast Portland
• August 16, Southeast Portland

Of course, that's just here in Portland. And biking may not be every dad's cup of tea. But there's tons of fun things to do with family in June, no? Killer rummage sales! Strawberry festivals! How do you plan to fete the fantastic dads in your life this Fathers' Day?

Weigh in: Chest or upright freezer? What to freeze?

          

We've talked plenty about secondary freezers here. Renee bought a chest freezer last year, and I got an older upright for free. Freezers are great for preserving summer fruits and veggies, stocking up on meats and extra meals prepared in advance. After hearing various friends rave about their freezers, I knew I had to get one. It was pure luck that an acquaintance was getting rid of his 12-year old upright, so I didn't have to shop around or weigh the chest versus upright pros and cons. Free was the perfect fit, and we had plenty of space in our laundry room for the enormous upright, so it all worked out.

If you're thinking about getting a second freezer, it's worth it to do a little research. This article is pretty good at outlining things to consider. And the Energy Star Web site can help you calculate how much a certain model will cost you to operate each month. (We've noticed little to no difference in our electric bill compared to our pre-freezer days, and ours isn't Energy Star-rated.) The How Stuff Works site can help you compare prices and offers reviews on chest and upright freezer models. (OK, the word 'freezer' is totally freaking me out right now. Is that a real word? Is that how it's spelled? Freezer. Freezer. Ack!) Super-organized friends who have chest freezers say that making a map of everything in your freezer and keeping it updated will save you time, frustration and prevent 'mystery' foods from surfacing. Seriously, even with an upright, you need to label everything. It all starts to look the same after awhile.

Welcome to the EnviroMom Inn! We hope you enjoy your stay...

When my mom comes to visit, her requests are few: white wine and lots of it. So that's why I bought this box of wine, that I would not otherwise have gotten. I scanned the box at the store, and read the many green marketing claims. It said far more about the enviro friendly aspects of the packaging than the wine, which can be risky, but thankfully, my mom is not a connoisseur. It is pretty amazing that this small box contains the same volume as three regular bottles of wine.

But back to visitors. I don't know about you. Things have changed a lot in the past few years in our house. My mom is our most regular visitor, and luckily, she's pretty adaptable to all our green quirks. I try not to impose our enviro-freakish ways on guests as a general rule, but with the kids, it's sometimes hard to take a pass. The kids are quick to tactlessly point out if someone is wasting water while they are brushing their teeth. I appreciated that my mom asked if there was any laundry we needed done before starting a load with her travel clothes, thus ensuring a full load. But then I bit my tongue when she threw the wash in the dryer on a flawlessly sunny day.

27 pounds of strawberries = one year's worth of freezer jam

At least I hope so! Last year I made my first foray into strawberry freezer jam, and I was hooked on how amazingly good DIY jam is compared to store-bought. There really is no comparison. I only made enough to last us three months or so because we lacked freezer space. Well, now we have a second freezer and PLENTY of space, so the goal this year was to make enough to last until next berry season. We eat a lot of jam in this house, particularly since my son's main protein source is peanut butter. (And yeah, I'm looking forward to stirring it into my beloved oatmeal and mounding it onto morning toast.)

On Sunday my family headed out to Lee Farms in Tualatin to pick Shuksan's at $1.25/pound, and we took home 27 pounds. An afternoon of rinsing, topping, processing, mixing and pouring netted 27 pints of jam, which I think will get us through. I'm heading out again tomorrow to pick more to freeze whole for smoothies.

There is something so soulfully nourishing about this whole jam-making process for me. I don't bake bread or can fruits and veggies (yet), so aside from freezing summer veggies this is kind of my biggest food preservation endeavor. The picking -- getting close to the dirt, hands sticky and shoes muddy. Handling each berry and inhaling the intoxicating sweetness of a mess of berries jelling in sugar and pectin. The rows of jars lined up in the freezer, waiting their turn. I feel like a provider. The only thing that could make it any better was if I were growing the berries myself.

Last year I pondered pectin and its various ingredients (and got some great suggestions in the comments of that post). Because we are finishing up our kitchen remodel and I've been really stressed out about it, I used the familiar Ball no-cook freezer jam pectin, which contains preservatives. I just couldn't handle experimenting with something new this year. But I learned that I can produce a year's worth of jam, so that next year I will come armed with this knowledge and hopefully ready to try a more natural pectin. Baby steps, right?

Outdoor Kids: Family Game Night

I am frequently reminded how blessed we are. Security. A friendly climate. A roof above our heads. Schooling. Friends.

Despite my many reasons for gratitude, there are still days when I feel sorry for myself and wonder what in the heck I was thinking to not schedule very many summer camp days. We are on the third day of summer, and quite frankly, it's felt like the third month. I know it will get better. We are in that awkward transitional phase, from having had tons of routine, to almost no routine at all. I feel like every decision I make is fraught with danger. If I say "yes" to this child's request now, they will expect it all summer....

So when the phone rang around dinnertime Saturday night, not once but twice, and it wasn't telemarketers, we were delighted with the offer on the line. Some friends from our elementary school proposed that anyone who was game meet at a small, neighborhood park from 6:30 to 8pm on Saturday night for family game night. And if it worked out well, it could become a regular thing.