- I like fresh veggies
- I am into organic stuff
- I like to support my community–local farmer’s/business
- I care about the environment –even a little bit

If you agree with any of the above then check out the Piedmont Environmental Council’s new site Buy Fresh, Buy Local. At this site you can search by county to find your community farmer’s market. These days a lot of us are thinking about where are food comes from, if it is organic, how far it travels, etc. By supporting your local farmer’s market you are also supporting area CSA’s. This summer I was about 2 weeks too late as I began researching available shares in our local CSA’s. What is a CSA you ask?

Wikipedia’s thorough definition,

“Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a relatively new socio-economic model of food production, sales, and distribution aimed at both increasing the quality of food and the quality of care given the land, plants and animals – while substantially reducing potential food losses and financial risks for the producers. It is also a method for small-scale commercial farmers and gardeners to have a successful, small-scale closed market. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables, sometimes also flowers, fruits, herbs and even milk or meat products in some cases. ”

Now you know.

I was just reading Green Daily using my new love - Google Reader (more about that later). This post, The Unknown Environmentalist, made me feel pretty good about my “green” habits and also made me think about how I could do better. I am certainly not a super environmentalist but I’m trying to do small things. After reading the article, I realized that a lot of the things my mom and my husband’s mom taught us both growing up were “green”. They taught us both not to be “wasteful”. I remember discussions about turning lights off when not in use, using towels instead of paper towels/conserving paper towels, conserving toilet paper, taking shorter colder showers, reusing and handing down clothes. They were ahead of their time. Now there is mass awareness that doing these type of things will save you money and also help protect the environment.

Good Things

• I try not to waste food - if someone gives me something I can’t or don’t want to eat, I bring it in to work and leave it in the break room.
• I Freecycle.
• I just started using a Nalgene water bottle that Steph gave me for Christmas so I no longer waste plastic water bottles. (Thanks Steph!)
• I use a reusable bag for my groceries instead of plastic or paper - and at Whole Foods I get 5% off every purchase for doing that.
• I’ve recently started using dish towels for more and more things in the kitchen to cut down on my paper towel usage.
• I stopped using little plastic bags to individually wrap my produce items at the store…now I just put all the veggies and fruits in my basket or cart. Unless they’re wet (like cilantro) and then I use a bag.

Things I could do better

• I take long hot showers. It is a bad habit and I am trying to work on this one.
• I use a lot of napkins. For those of you who eat with me regularly - you know I somehow manage to spill on myself at every meal.
• I could probably ride my bike to work when the weather gets warm. This is something I want to try this year…once I get a bike.
• I usually wrap presents and then throw away the perfectly good wrapping paper after the gift is unwrapped. (I am going to try to save used wrapping paper from now on).

Well, like Kermie says, “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green”, but I think it is cool that Green Daily supports everyone - even the people who do small things.

Poor Mother earth, she’s so hot she’s shweaty!
In the words of Mims, “I’m hot ’cause I’m fly, You ain’t ’cause you not.” I saw this New T-shirt from Busted Tees yesterday and it made me laugh.

Braised Kidney Beans & Sweet Potato (Vegan)
I tried this recipe for the first time last night from the World’s Healthiest Foods. I didn’t realize how much time it would take me to chop all the veggies…so we ate pretty late. Robby and both liked it but while I was eating it I realized this dish is strikingly similar to the African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans that I made in the crock pot in April. Oh well - I guess I am a creature of habit when it comes to the foods I like.