Bridget's Green Living

Ways to go green and save money

2012-01-23T09:25:00.001-04:00

Much about going green can save you money.

January is the month of resolutions and also the time that Christmascredit card bills start coming due. A time of optimism and belt tightening.

Not everyone makes New Year’s resolutions but early in each new yearmost people do think about ways to improve their lives. Consider it a bonusthen when making a change for the better can help your pocketbook as well.

Case in point: resolving to be more eco-friendly. Although it sometimesgets a bad rap for being expensive, much about going green can actually saveyou money.

Last year the World Watch Institute came up with a list of 10 ways to go green and save green, ideas forsaving money while making eco-friendly lifestyle changes. Here are a few fromthe World Watch list, and a few of my additions.

1. Think before you buy. Do you really need it?Will you use it? Can you borrow or rent it instead of buy it? (A Patagonia ad last fall featured one of its jackets withthe headline "Don't Buy This Jacket" and asked customers not to buywhat they don’t need and to think twice before buying anything.)

2. Eating less meat is one of the best things that you cando for the environment. Going meatless, even one day a week is (environmentallyspeaking) like taking your car off the road for a few months. Buy better quality, locally-raised meat and eat less of it. On averagewe eat twice the protein that we actually need and skimp on vegetables. Try for a meatless meal at least once a week.You and the environment will be healthier for it. The bonus: plant-basedprotein (like beans and lentils) is cheap.

3. Buy in bulk when it makes sense for yourfamily. Bulk means less packaging andlower per unit cost.

4. Use natural cleaners like baking soda and vinegarinstead of buying conventional cleaning supplies. Natural products are cheap,and easy on the environment.

5. Reduce your energy consumption. Turn yourthermostat down a degree or two, switch to compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) asyour old incandescent bulbs burn out, unplug appliances when they’re not in useto avoid power sipping. Wash clothes in cold water and use a drying rack orclothesline when possible instead of the dryer.

6. If you pay for water use, taking steps touse less can save you money too. Take shorter showers, use a low-flowshowerhead (saves on energy use), use a dishwasher instead of the sink washingand only run the dishwasher when it’s full. If you are sink washing, only fillthe sink half way. Install a faucet aerator on each faucet.

7. Avoid bottled water and other packageddrinks and drink more tap water. Buy a good quality travel mug or stainlesssteel water bottle so you can bring your water with you.

Resolutions or not, making a few eco-friendly lifestyle tweaks can be a simpleway to leave money in your pocket.

How to choose greener electronics

2012-01-13T09:28:00.000-04:00

Think big picture when you choose your next electronic device.
A small enviro footprint can be part of the cool factor.

How many old electronics do you have lyingaround your house? The pace of innovation is so fast these days that within 18months the industry can deem something virtually obsolete and be pushingconsumers to upgrade. Even if you don’t want to buy a newer version, often youhave little choice since some items cost more to repair than to buy new and manyitems can’t be repaired because replacement parts aren’t available. In ourdisposable world, electronics make the list of things “designed for the dump”,items made to be disposable. Crazy but true.

This approach to electronicsconsumption is creating mountains of e-waste, clogging our landfills with toxicPVCs (poly vinyl chloride – nasty stuff), flame retardants, lead and mercury,and more.

The good news is that some electronicsmanufacturers are working to green their products and their manufacturingprocesses. Helping nudge them along is the Green Peace Guide to Greener Electronics.Published regularly since 2006, it is helping build awareness about theenvironmental impact of electronics and lobby electronics manufacturers to bemore environmentally responsible.

The guide ranks the top 15 TV,computer and cell phone manufacturers. These companies are rated on theirgreenhouse gas emissions and their plans to reduce emissions, on the energyefficiency of their products, efforts to eliminate hazardous substances fromproduces, use of recycled plastics, and durability and ease of repair.Manufacturers’ supply chains are part of the evaluation as are take-backprograms and recycling initiatives for obsolete products.

In the 2011 report HP tops the listwith a score of 5.9 out of 10, followed by Dell (5.1), Nokia (4.9) and Apple(4.6). The scores aren’t stellar but year over year the leaders are improvingtheir efforts to create all-around greener products.

Choosing top-rated electronics is one way to help the industry move inthe right direction. Just review theguide before making your next purchase.You can also do a lot to lessen the environmental impact of the electronics you already have. Reduce energyconsumption simply by turning off computers and other electronics when they’renot being used. If you have them plugged into a power bar, turn that off toowhen they’re not in use.

Be sure to recycle old electronics.The Fundy Solid Waste Commission accepts old computer systems (monitor, harddrive, printer, speakers, mouse, keyboard, scanner,) and other electronics Saturdaymornings at the Household Hazardous Waste facility. (Thecomputers are shipped to Resnet, a non-profit in Edmundston NB where they aredisassembled to salvage working components and recyclable materials. Somesystems are refurbished and donated to low-income families and non-profitgroups.) Old cell phones can be dropped off at FutureShop, Staples, Superstore and some cell phone dealers. The Future Shop drop box also accepts CDplayers, MP3 players, CDs, DVD players and ink cartridges.

The ultimate goal is to havemanufacturers create longer lasting, updatable products. Choosing the greenestproducts today is the best thing we can do to push manufacturers in the rightdirection.

This New Year, go on an energy diet

2012-01-02T14:17:00.002-04:00

The New Brunswick Lung Associationannounced this week that they will be running a pilot program to helphouseholds monitor, manage and reduce their daily energy consumption. The 100households chosen to participate in the program will be outfitted with energymetres enabling them to monitor how much they’re spending on electricity. Theidea is that awareness will lead to change and that participants will begin toreduce their power consumption when they can see clearly what’s hogging thepower in their homes.

According to the Lung Association, studiesshow that home energy monitors can motivate behaviour change in individuals andreduce electrical consumption between 5% and 20% which in turn reduces ourdependence on dirty forms of power generation (ex. coal fired generating plants). This meansless air pollution, a key goal of the Lung Association.

Whether you’ve signed up for thispilot or not, it’s safe to say that we could all start the New Year on anenergy diet, especially after the energy excesses of the holidays.

Wondering where to begin? The typicalhousehold energy consumption breaks down like this: 60% for heat, 20% for hotwater, 15% for appliances and 5% for lights. You’ll get the biggest bang foryour buck if you start by doing all that you can to keep the cold out and theheat in. An energy audit can help you identify sources of heat loss in yourhome, and offer many do-it-yourself fixes. Keeping your furnace in good workingorder is important, including changing your furnace filter regularly. Turningyour heat down just one or two degrees offers big savings as well. For everydegree you lower the thermostat during heating season, you'll save between 1and 3% of your heating bill. (Programmable thermostats make this easier). A sweater is worth about 2 degrees in added warmth and a heavy sweater about 4 degrees. Tomake the most of your hard-earned heat check that beds, couches and otherfurniture aren’t blocking radiators.

Tackling your hot water usage is another energy saver. Check yourhot water heater to see that it’s set no hotter than 120 degrees (any hotter isa waste of money.) Install low flow shower heads for a more efficient use ofhot water (up to 60% less for a typical shower). Limit or avoid hot waterclothes washing. Cold water washes use 90% less energy than hot water washesand today’s detergents are formulated to work well in cold water.

To reduce the amount of energy consumed byappliances, match your appliance size to your need. Ensure that yourrefrigerator and freezer seals are snug and that the rear coils are clean. Becomeless dependent on the clothes dryer and use a clothes line or drying racksinstead, especially for large items that take longer to dry.

Reducing your energy consumption is a painless dietthat leaves money in your pocket and will help to make our air cleaner. Here’sto New Year’s diet resolutions!

Last minute Christmas tips

2011-12-23T08:52:00.000-04:00

1. On Christmas morning,sort wrapping as you go, creating piles for trash, recyclables and reusableribbon, bags and paper. Tuck them away for next year.

2. Remember thatwrapping paper is not recyclable. Choose reusable bags instead and save themfrom year to year.

3. Cardboard boxes andpackaging, as long as they’re not soiled or waxed, can be recycled. Some boxesmight be worth saving to reuse at another time. Flatten the boxes you’re goingto recycle for easy storage.

4. On rigid plasticpackaging, look for the recycling symbol with a number in the middle. Anyplastic with a number between 1 and 7 can go in the blue bins. They’re few andfar between on children’s toys but it’s still worth checking.

5. Don’t get lazy overthe holidays when it comes to basic household recycling. Nuf said.

6. Keep composting overthe Holidays. If you’re hosting a gathering and using disposable plates, buypaper plates and toss them in the compost bin for an easy clean up.

7. Do what you can toreduce food waste. Start with a small serving and go back for more if you’restill hungry.

8. Compost yourChristmas tree. Many communities offer a tree mulching service for easyChristmas clean up.

9. Save Christmas cardsand use them to make gift tags next year.

10. Bask in all that is wonderful about the Holiday Season and share yourjoy with others.

The Christmas tree debate -- choose real over fake

2011-12-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

Just because an artificial tree is reusable doesn't meanit's environmentally preferable. It's the opposite, actually. Fake Christmastrees have a nasty carbon footprint due to the fact that they're made frompetroleum products, usually manufactured in China where environmentalregulations can be lax, and shipped half way around the world to reach yourhome. Artificial trees off-gas, polluting the air in your home, and can't berecycled or composted. Real trees, on the other hand, come fromsustainably-managed local forests (in my neck of the woods anyway) and are compostable. Choosing a real tree isone more way to buy local over the Holidays.

Thoughtful gift ideas

2011-12-13T09:42:00.001-04:00

Remember the excitement you had as a child during the lead up to Christmas?All you had to do was wait for it to arrive. Not that waiting was easy, but itwas thrilling. Fast forward to adulthood and December is often a blur ofshopping, cooking and decorating. It’s busy, sometimes stressful and less thanthrilling for many.

To put your Holiday challenges in perspective, the CBC radio programThe Current recently aired a show about poverty in Canada and asked listenersto share their personal experiences. One of the stories that stood out was froma mother who, strapped for cash, can’t buy her children gifts. To make up forit she focuses on giving them her time, love and attention. “What you can’tgive them in one way you have to make up for in other ways,” she said. Heryoung children (also interviewed) were grounded, thoughtful and wise beyondtheir years.

Her comment made me wonderwhat some people who do receive loads of gifts (kids in particular) might bemissing out on. It also reminded me of a recent chat I had with a friend whosaid she wished her young daughter’s grandparents would give her daughter timeinstead of stuff, an afternoon outing together rather than a toy.

Gift giving can really be so simple.

Thinking outside of the box (literally) for holiday giving is one wayto add more meaning to the Season and giving non-traditional gifts is memorableand meaningful in ways that are especially appropriate for this thoughtful season.

If you still have gifts to buy (and who doesn’t) or if you’d like to begin a new tradition, consider these worthwhile causes.

Do Good Today is a Saint John-basedorganization focused on reducing poverty in Saint John, and supports eightlocal organizations that are working to reduce poverty in our area. Links onthis site simplify the giving process, and let you choose to give time, money,or both, to the Boys and Girls Club, the Resource Centre for Youth, P.R.O.Kids, First Steps Housing Project and others.

The CBC Saint John annual Harbour Lights Campaign is anotherinitiative that makes it easy to give to many organizations in one shot. Thecampaign supports food banks from St. Stephen to Sussex so your donation canreach more people throughout our region. CBC is taking donations right up untilDecember 23 so there is still time to give, if you haven’t already.

Nature Conservancy Canada has “packaged” wildlife habitat to giveas gifts, in an effort to raise funds, and awareness, for the habitat crunchthreatening many of our native species.

World Wildlife Fund – Canada offersendangered animal “adoptions” and a special initiative to help protect polar bearsand their habitats whereby Coca-Cola will match your donation dollar fordollar. Adoption orders must be received by December 18 to guarantee arrival intime for Christmas.

I wish you an abundance of the simplepleasures that Christmas brings.

How do you wrap a reindeer?

2011-12-07T20:58:00.001-04:00

Give symbolic gifts of nature this Christmas, and help protect the habitat of caribou, owls, bears, lynx and more. Gifts range from $40 to $400. Visit the Nature Conservancy Canada site for details.

Every Gift of Canadian Nature includes:

An eco-friendly colour calendar featuring landscapes from across Canada - a daily reminder of your support of these wild places or a wonderful holiday gift to give to a friend to enjoy.
A special gift certificate to personalize.
A letter from NCC President and CEO, John Lounds, informing your gift recipient that a donation has been made on their behalf to protect Canadian wildlife habitat

Thoughtful consumption

2011-11-29T13:37:00.001-04:00

Last year we turned my children's artwork
into note cards that they gave as gifts to
their grandmothers.

I love Buy Nothing Day, anannual event that encourages people to take a break from consumption. Theevent, now in its 20^th year, falls on that wild shopping day knownas Black Friday, (the day after American Thanksgiving and one of the busiestshopping days of the year in the U.S.)

Black Friday or not, it’s easy to get caught up in thefrenzy of spot sales, buy-one-get-one-free offers and the lure of discount prices. People come home from weekend shopping tripswith heaps of stuff that they just couldn’t pass up because the price was solow. (Mind you, even Frenchy’s and Value Village shoppers fall prey to the samebug. They just spend less in one shot.)

Consciously going a day without buying anything can inch youtoward what I call thoughtful consumption -- carefully considering what youpurchase (Is it necessary? Will it get used? Do I already have some of these?Is there a bit too much plastic packaging for my liking?) It’s a helpfulmindset as we all dive into Christmas shopping.

Like most people, I’m happy to buy or make gifts for thoseon my Christmas list. But buying for the sake of buying or purchasingsomething, anything, just to check a name off a list can take the fun out ofHoliday shopping. I can sympathise, finding just the right gift for someone canbe exhausting and sometimes impossible.

How do you avoid the stress of searching for the perfect giftor buying something just to get it over with (only to have it sit in a closetsome place)? I aim for the practical with a touch of pizazz. Practical is great because it means the itemwill get used and the pizazz makes it a little special, just right for theHolidays.

I splurge on good wool socks for my husband, the kind thathe’d never treat himself to. I treat my mom and sisters to high quality cookingingredients and they often do the same for me. All of this stuff is enjoyed,and used.

Here are some other ideas for thoughtful (and useful) giftgiving:

Is there someone on your list who loves tea, or coffee orchocolate? Create your own gift basket full of their favourites or some youknow they’d love to try but would never buy for themselves. Another idea - basketsof locally-made goods are fun to give, and to receive.

Restaurant gift cards, museum memberships, tickets tosporting events, concerts or the theatre, tucked in a gift bag and tied with apretty bow are thoughtful gifts that will get used. So are donations tocommunity charities, made in the name of someone special. Can you think of anon-profit that the recipient has a connection with, whether through volunteeractivities or direct care?

Thinking before you buy is a good lesson for all of us. Itmight mean that we come home with fewer things, but less clutter is a gift initself.

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day!

2011-11-24T14:34:00.001-04:00

BlackFriday or not, it’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of spot sales,buy-one-get-one-free offers and the lure of discount prices. Instead, spend the day unshopping,unspending and unwinding.

Watch the Do The Green Thing video

Fracking costs outweigh the benefits

2011-11-23T16:52:00.001-04:00

Fracking puts our waterways at risk, not to mention
our drinking water and air quality

“If it sounds toogood to be true, it probably is" comes to mind as I follow the issue offracking in New Brunswick. My eco-mind weighs the rosy economic picture thatdominates the debate against the fact that fracking is considered one of thetop five environmental challenges facing the globe today.

No issue garnersthat status without some scientific weight behind the worry.

More and moreresearch is coming to light suggesting that the economic cost of fracking (notto mention the social and environmental cost) might far outweigh any economicbenefit we could ever hope to realize from the industry.

With just a littlebit of digging you'll find more info on what all the worry is about. As anexample, the Drilling down series includes months worthof investigative journalism by The New York Times that exposes the key concernsabout the industry and shows what it's like for communities living with thefallout of the shale gas bubble.

To form a fairopinion on the issue, New Brunswickers need an honest assessment of the costsand benefits of shale gas extraction. But we're not getting that. Aside fromthe fact that the Provincial government's online information reads like it wascut and pasted from industry fact sheets, its nothing-bad-could-happen tone isnaïve. Governments in many areas have either banned or suspended fracking andothers are labouring over whether or not to allow it because a mountain of evidenceis accumulating demonstrating that the economic, social and environmental costis too great to make it worthwhile.

We all need toweigh in on the debate and, regardless of where you stand on the issue, hereare some things you need to consider:

* Each well coulduse up to 80 million litres of fresh water to extract the gas (according togovernment data). And the government has no idea how many wells could bedeveloped in the province. Our supply of fresh drinking water isn't bottomless.

* For each well,the fracking water could contain up to 800,000 litres of fracking"fluid," a mixture of known toxins. Fracking water is furthercontaminated with radioactive residue naturally occurring in the rock.

* Contaminatedfracking water - that's billions and billions of litres of untreated wastewater - will work its way into the Kennebecasis River, other nearby waterwaysand drinking water.

* There aresignificant air quality issues associated with fracking. New research by theU.S. Centers for Disease Control found breast cancer rates were increasing incounties in Texas with the highest natural gas air emissions. Meanwhile rateswere declining in all other counties.

* The governmentspeaks highly of a new regulatory framework under development to protect our air,water, livelihood - everything we know and love about living in Southern NewBrunswick. But how do you build any trust or confidence when an explorationcompany snubs exploration regulations?

All economicdevelopment requires compromise but with fracking the trade-off might be morethan you bargained for. If it sounds too good to be true...

Make your own carbonated drinks, with tap water!

2011-11-15T11:04:00.001-04:00

Carbonate tap water and nix the store
bought (often imported) mineral water
and club soda.

I love carbonated water with a slice of lemon or lime, may be a sprig ofmint in the summer, or poured half-and-half with homemade rhubarb juice in thespring. It's refreshing and thirst quenching. But I don't like the mounds ofbottles that accumulate in our recycling bin. I'm happy to cart the empties offto the depot, but since recycle is the "R" of lastresort, I'd rather avoid the bottles altogether.

A friend introduced us to Sodastream, an easy way to carbonate tap water.It's a countertop gadget with CO2 cartridges that are refillable (at Sears,among other places).

Carbonate to your liking -- lots of bubbles or a few --and nix the cans and bottles of mineral water and club soda.

EcoLogo certification helps you find safe cleaning products

2011-11-03T15:03:00.000-03:00

Look for the EcoLogo symbol

on cleaning products to be sure that they're safe.

Sometimes when I mention to people how toxic most household cleaning products are they get a little overwhelmed. After all, homes need to be cleaned and if you can’t trust that your favourite products are safe for you and the environment what do you do? And how do you know if the product next to it on the grocery store shelf is any better?

I could print a list of harmful ingredients to look out for but when it comes down to it, ingredient lists on most household cleaning products are nonexistent. The back label is usually filled with poison control information and other warnings. Interestingly enough the products that do list ingredients are the eco-friendly options.

If you’re in search of less-toxic, eco-friendly cleaning products, going the unscented route is the simplest place to begin. But that only addresses one part of the problem (albeit a significant part).

To save all the stress and worry of figuring out if a cleaning product is reasonably safe and effective, I default to products carrying the EcoLogo symbol. This very recognizable seal consists of three interlocking doves in the shape of a maple leaf, surrounded with the words “Environmental Choice”. (Some certified products use a variation of the seal that simply says EcoLogo Certified.)

Founded in 1988 by the Government of Canada but now recognized world-wide, EcoLogo is a meaningful, trustworthy certification standard that is earned only by products that are healthy, sustainable and eco-friendly.

The list of products that carry the EcoLogo certification is very broad, including everything from household cleaners to paint, flooring, garbage bags and rechargeable batteries. In the household cleaners category you can find multipurpose cleaners, oven cleaner, dishwasher detergent, dish detergent, tub & tile cleaner, carpet cleaner and more.

The standards are often revised and were recently strengthened for household cleaners. To be certified, household cleaners must now limit the use of chemicals known to trigger or aggravate asthma (asthmagens). The EcoLogo program also excludes other unsafe ingredients, including ammonia, formaldehyde and phthalates, all hazardous chemicals commonly found in cleaning products.

Products that fall under the new standards are general purpose, bathroom and glass cleaners as well as dish detergents, degreasers and cleaners for cooking appliances. (The standard also includes industrial, vehicle and boat cleaners.)

The simplest way to find EcoLogo certified products is to look in the natural food section of major grocery stores. When I checked in the general cleaning aisle I wasn’t able to find any products with the certification, although there were a few products that “looked” green. But when they aren’t third-party certified, you can’t be sure.

If you want to avoid looking at labels altogether you can switch to vinegar. It’s a non-toxic, all-purpose cleaner that cleans drains, deodorizes rooms, removes stains, cleans toilets, and the rest of the bathroom. Use it to scrub floors, sinks, counters and as a general laundry aid. For more information on the EcoLogo program and to search out other EcoLogo certified products visit ecologo.org.

That "clean" smell - not always a good thing

2011-10-28T14:18:00.000-03:00

Nothing compares to the cleaning power of a good breeze.

One thing I lament about the coming colder weather is the fact that I won’t be opening the windows to air out the house. We have an air exchange system but nothing compares to the cleaning power of a good breeze.

With the windows closed I think more about indoor air quality and the everyday products that can make our homes decidedly unhealthy. Ironically, some of the worst indoor air polluters are the products that we use to clean and freshen up our homes, products like household cleaners, laundry detergents and air fresheners. And although many of the cleaning compounds themselves are related to health concerns, it’s the synthetic fragrances in these products that are a great concern. These artificial scents can contain hundreds of chemicals, none of which are required to be listed on labels. Instead, companies can use the catch-all term “fragrance” in ingredient lists.

In my books, fragrance is just another word for hormone disruptors, a range of common chemicals that interfere with the body's hormone systems and have been linked to some cancers, diabetes, central nervous system issues and fertility problems.

Research is growing regarding the dangers of the free wheeling use of these chemicals, leading to proposed legislation in the

U.S.

(Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011) which aims to prevent exposure to these chemicals in everyday products. Nothing is on the books yet in

Canada

Think of all of the scented products that you have in your home. Laundry detergent, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, bathroom cleaners, all purpose cleaners, stain removers, air fresheners, carpet cleaners, you name it. Virtually every cleaning product in your home that is scented contains a range of toxic chemicals. (The only safe scents are those courtesy of essential oils).

If you can smell these fragrances they’re entering your body, and holding your breath while you scrub the bathtub doesn’t really help. Children are especially vulnerable to these toxins, including developing fetuses. Hormone disruptors in household products are being washed down the drain and into our waterways causing similar problems with aquatic life.

It isn’t difficult to rid your home of scented cleaning products. Simply choose the unscented version. For those products that don’t offer an unscented option, choose an alternative. Avoid any product with “fragrance” on the ingredient lists or labeled with undeniably artificial scents (think “spring rain” or “ocean breeze”).

Avoid aerosols and sprays since they release smaller particles so are inhaled deeper into your lungs
Avoid air fresheners altogether, including sprays, gels and plug-ins. The chemical load in these products is especially high.
Choose products scented with essential oils (look for the EcoLogo certification to be sure that the scent isn’t artificially enhanced).
Go back to basics with products. Use baking soda as an air freshener and vinegar as a cleaner.
Open the window to disperse an odor or air out your house

Making the conscious choice to buy safer products is the key to staying healthy in your home.

Wallet guides are helpful when it comes to choosing ocean-friendly seafood

2011-10-06T21:17:00.000-03:00

If you’re trying to eat less meat, be it for health or environmental reasons, a common approach is to eat more fish. It’s a healthy alternative to meat that’s easy to find and simple to prepare.

Switching to fish can have environmental pit falls though and some potential health concerns, depending on what types of fish you like to buy. Figuring out what fish is healthiest for you and the environment can be very complicated so I rely on a couple of credible organizations that lay it all out for me, listing best-to-worst seafood choices in handy wallet cards and smart phone apps.

One organization is SeaChoice, a Canadian group that was formed by a number of Canadian conservation organizations to help consumers navigate the murky waters of sustainable seafood. The organization produces a comprehensive guide that clearly lists your best choices for seafood, the okay choices, and seafood that you should avoid.

According to SeaChoice, your best choices are species that are abundant, have well managed fisheries, and are fished or farmed in an environmentally sustainable way. On this list you’ll find choices like wild Alaskan salmon, farmed rainbow trout (freshwater), and Alaskan halibut.

The next best category lists fish that may be threatened in some way (mostly related to how they’re fished). SeaChoice recommends that fish in this category be eaten infrequently or only when the best choice isn’t available. You’ll find haddock, lobster and some Pacific cod in this category.

The avoid category lists fish that have a combination of problems: poorly managed fishery, farming practices that cause environmental damage, or they’re over fished. Atlantic salmon, shrimp and tilapia farmed in Asia, and Atlantic halibut are some common fish in this category.

Another guide that I find helpful is Seafood Watch, developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California (and the basis of the SeaChoice guide above.) Seafood Watch produces a guide for the U.S. North East which applies to the seafood that we find most often in our stores. Seafood Watch also has a best-good-avoid approach but it also layers in health info, flagging fish that is a concern due to mercury or PCB contamination (like swordfish and most tuna).

In the Seafood Watch guide, you’ll notice that the “Best Choice” list includes just three with contamination concerns, while the “Avoid” list contains ten fish that you should limit your consumption of due to mercury or PCB contamination. It’s proof that environmentally-friendly seafood choices are healthier for you too.

My favourite part of this guide is the “Super Green” list, a selection of seafood that is healthy to eat (low in environmental contaminants, high in omega-3 fatty acids) and is fished or farmed in an ocean-friendly way. The best of both worlds. Rainbow trout, wild-caught Pacific salmon and farmed mussels are some of the choices on this list.

This guide is updated twice a year and is available as a smart phone app and a printable wallet guide. Visit seafoodwatch.org and seachoice.org for more information.

2011-09-28T21:24:00.000-03:00

Have you ever considered the number of miles that your food travels from farm to table? The Canadian organization, Local Food Plus, does the calculations all the time and has figured out that families who spend just $10 worth of their weekly grocery budget on locally grown food can have a significant impact the environment and can help create jobs in the local food economy.

For simplicity sake the organization’s calculations are based on food being trucked either from Florida or California. So if a family in Halifax shifts $10 of their food budget to local food, the annual impact would be equivalent to taking a car off the road for two weeks. This particular calculation is based on food shipped from Florida, but we all know that lots of fresh produce is shipped from much farther away so the impact of making the change could be even bigger.

In terms of economic impact, 5,000 families shifting $10 per week to local products would divert $2.6 million from imported food into the pockets of local farmers. And it would help to make our region less dependent on imported food, something that we should all be concerned about.

Shifting just $10 a week to local food is a synch this time of year. The markets are overflowing with fresh produce and even big grocery chains have some local (or regional) produce available. Much of the food being harvested this time of year has a long shelf life so it’s easy to stock up. Cabbage, winter squash, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and apples are abundant so you can buy more than a week’s worth if you don’t often get the chance to go to a weekend farmer’s market.

Here’s a challenge for you, instead of shifting just $10 of your weekly food budget to local food, for the next few weeks you could try to buy only local vegetables. Imported carrots, corn, cucumber, greens, tomatoes, potatoes and such will be available all winter but the better tasting local versions won’t, so why not take advantage while you can (and support our local farmers while you’re at it.)

There is no shortage of markets to visit to search out local produce. Or you can search online for local producers. ACORN Organic and Buy Local NB both have searchable directories of local producers. (http://www.acornorganic.ca/, http://www.buylocalnb.ca/).

Here’s one more reason to buy local food: freshly picked local fruit and vegetables taste better. Period.

Packing a green lunch

2011-09-13T18:33:00.000-03:00

Whether or not you have someone in your household heading back to school, September is the time of year that we all return to some semblance of a schedule. In our house that means getting back into the routine of making school lunches and taking the time to pack a more substantial lunch to bring to the office.

Packing your own lunch can be a healthy, cost effective way to eat well. But it can also be a way to add to the trash pile if you’re in the habit of buying snack-sized processed foods and pre-packaged meals. Items for school lunches are the worst culprits but grownups who brown-bag it to work can fall into the same packaging traps.

According to Waste Reduction Week Canada, 35% of municipal waste is packaging. To reduce the amount of trash generated by your lunch, and the amount of recyclables that pile up at your house, avoid individually pre-packaged foods. Instead buy the family size of yogurt, cheese, crackers and other popular lunch foods and package lunch-sized portions in reusable containers at home.

Here are a few more suggestions for how to make your family’s lunches healthier for you and the planet:

Invest in wide-mouth, stainless steel lined thermoses. They’re great for packing soups, stews and pasta dishes because they’re easy to eat out of. As well, they’re good for hot or cold food items. Keep in mind that plastic-lined thermoses will leach chemicals into hot food.

If you like to pack microwavable meals for your lunch, keep this in mind: “Microwave safe” packaging refers only to the fact that the plastic won’t melt when heated. It says nothing about the fact that chemicals leach from the plastic into your food when heated.

Have extra stainless steel cutlery on hand to pack with lunches so you can avoid disposable plastic utensils (they can’t be recycled).

Invest in a good quality stainless steel water bottle and pack water rather than juice or sugary drinks.

Invest in a good quality stainless steel lined travel mug. Our best find yet is from Costco (Contigo brand). These don’t leak and are great for hot and cold beverages.

Invest in a set of glass food storage containers. They’re great for packing up and reheating leftovers. Look for lunch and snack-sized containers are department and hardware stores.

If you have a good set of food-safe plastic storage containers, transfer your food to a bowl or plate before reheating. Remember any plastics that you use should have the numbers 1, 2, 4 or 5 on them (inside the recycling symbol). These are the food-safe numbers.

When you’re tidying up leftovers after supper, package them in lunch-size portions so they’re ready to grab and go in the morning.

If you’re no into baking, buy lunch snacks from a quality bakery rather than buy processed, packaged snacks.

Getting into the habit of packing litter-less lunches is a great way to kick off the new school year.

Eco guide at your fingertips

2011-09-07T16:18:00.003-03:00

There are a lot of helpful books about greening your lifestyle or making your home more eco-friendly. If you check the local library, any bookstore or do an online search you’ll come across hundreds of titles.

One very basic, practical guide that you might not be aware of is right under your nose – the phone book. For a few years now Yellow Pages Group has included the EcoGuide alongside the Yellow Pages section of the telephone directory. Easy to find at the front of the book, the guide is an accessible resource for local information and general tips on living a more eco-minded life.

If you’re wondering what can and can’t go in the blue bins, or where to find your nearest blue bin, check the EcoGuide for a list of recycling depots and recycling guidelines. As well there are lists of do’s and don’ts for your compost bin and some tips for keeping your compost cart healthy.

A couple of pages of the guide are devoted to NB Eco resources, although few are NB-specific. Most are simply web addresses for online resources but useful nonetheless. I find it helpful that the info in this section is organized by area of the home, is easy to scan and provides some practical hints, like recycling options for building materials and what to do with leftover paint.

A few of the pages are about eco-minded shopping, including tips about buying local, credible eco labels to look for and shopping checklists suggesting what to consider before you buy. In fact there are a lot of checklists in this guide which I find are a good way to get you to stop and think about what you can do differently.

Yellow Pages Group has made the phone book more eco-friendly in other ways too. The paper used for the book is from waste wood only and from certified sustainable sources, the paper is produced using mostly renewable energy, it’s printed using vegetable-based inks and is 100% recyclable. The phone book has one of the highest material recycling rates in Canada – 85% of used phone books are recycled.

But if you never use your phone book then you don’t need to receive one each summer. One of the most environmentally advanced things that YPG has done is to develop an opt-out program, making it easy for households that don’t want a printed directory to say no thanks. After all, directly information is available online and through mobile apps so if they’re you channels of choice, why waste the paper. Visit ypg.com/delivery to submit your request to stop the automatic delivery. Your request will be good for five years.

What’s the carbon footprint of your supper?

2011-08-15T14:51:00.001-03:00

While we’re still in the midst of barbecue season consider this: a four-person family skipping steak once per week is, environmentally speaking, equivalent to taking your car off the road for three months. This is one of the findings of a new report on the environmental impact of meat and other foods, released last month by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research organization based in the US.

Weighing the environmental impact of food isn’t a common consideration when deciding what, and what not, to eat. More often it’s how healthy a food is or isn’t that helps us decide. The great thing about this new report, titled Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, is that it combines the two: the health and environmental impacts of common foods.

In the report EWG analyzed the greenhouse gas emissions, environmental footprint and health impacts of 20 types of food – mostly animal and vegetable protein - and came up with a summary of best-to-worst which they have packaged into a helpful guide for choosing food that is healthier for you and the planet.

While red meat gets the worst environmental scores, you might be surprised by the company it keeps. Here are a few of the highlights:

Of all the food analyzed, lamb, beef, cheese, pork and farmed salmon (in that order) generate the most greenhouse gases

About 30 per cent of the meat consumed in the US is beef and it accounts for double the emissions of pork, four times the emissions of chicken.

Cheese has the third poorest ranking on the list, sitting just above beef. Less dense cheeses (take less milk to produce) generate fewer greenhouse gasses.

For beef and dairy it’s the animals’ methane emissions and the pollution from growing feed that contributes to such high greenhouse gas emissions. With salmon it’s feed production that gives it a poor ranking along with the fact that up to 44 per cent gets tossed in the garbage, mostly due to spoilage at the grocery store or at home.

Plant-based protein like lentils, beans and nuts are considered “climate friendly,” nutritious and healthy.

Environmental toxins are stored in animal flesh so the more animal protein you consume the more toxins you ingest.

Also highlighted in the report are studies linking high red meat consumption to obesity, type-2 diabetes, a variety of cancers and heart disease. Other studies point to increased risk of cancer among those who consume processed meat. (The American Institute for Cancer research recommends that you not eat processed meat at all, including hot dogs and luncheon meat.)

What’s a meat eater to do with all of this information? Eat better meat and less of it. On average we consume double the amount of protein and only a fraction of the fruits and vegetables recommended by government health agencies. So there are many reasons to reduce. Look for naturally raised local meat, grass-fed beef, and organic eggs and dairy products. It’s more expensive but if you eat less overall it will be more affordable.

View the full report

There is no such thing as eco-friendly or “green” fireworks

2011-08-04T21:59:00.004-03:00

I noticed recently that one of the local grocery stores has a huge display of fireworks, a sure sign that they’re becoming much more every day when you can pick them up along with your bread and milk.

Fireworks may be pretty on a summer evening but they’re not innocuous. There are a few environmental and health issues associated with fireworks that everyone should be aware of before they set them off in the back yard with friends and family, and especially with children around.

The explosive compounds used in fireworks, the heavy metals used for colour effects, the smoke and particulate matter released when they explode and all of the packaging and debris left behind once they have been fired off combine to create a number of worries you need to know about.

Fireworks often use perchlorates as the explosives (replace old fashioned gunpowder), a family of chemicals known to cause thyroid issues, although there is no research pointing to the concentrations in fireworks being high enough (for your average person) to cause problems. As usual, children are more vulnerable to the effects of these chemicals. Also because fireworks are often set off over water, these chemicals often work their way into our waterways.

The smoke released during a fireworks display is something else to consider, especially if you (or your neighbours) have any breathing issues. The smoke contains particulate matter that leads to a spike in poor air quality for about three hours after the fireworks are set off.

What lasts much longer, in our bodies and in the environment, are the trace heavy metals that create the spectacular colours that leave us all ohing and ahing. Copper, cadmium, barium, aluminum and strontium can all be toxic, or carcinogenic, when concentrations exceed levels that are considered safe. The more often we release these chemicals into the environment to greater the chance that we’ll exceed safe levels.

When it comes to personal health, watching an annual fireworks display likely isn’t going to cause much harm, it’s when they’re used frequently that there is reason for concern. From an environmental perspective the popularity of backyard fireworks displays is something to worry about too, for all of the reasons I just listed.

Less harmful fireworks are being developed, some at the request of Walt Disney Company. Disney is responsible for hundreds of huge fireworks displays each year that were causing problems for park neighbours living downwind. A few years ago Disney created fireworks that use compressed air instead of perchlorates to ignite so burn cleaner than the traditional sort. Other new fireworks use fewer or less toxic chemicals, no heavy metals, and some have biodegradable casings. These alternatives are also more costly so unfortunately are not likely to appear in the fireworks cabinet at the dollar store.

There is no such thing as eco-friendly or “green” fireworks so if you’re not willing to give them up altogether opt for fewer this year. We all know that a holiday weekend doesn’t need fireworks to be memorable.

Seasonal food on the "Dirty Dozen" list

2011-07-12T15:56:00.004-03:00

My family is crazy about local berries, so much so that by the end of blueberry season more than half of our freezer space is filled with dozens of bags of strawberries, raspberries and a good 60 pounds of blueberries. We enjoy local berries all year long in smoothies, muffins and galettes.

The challenge with local berries is that it’s nearly impossible to find organic. Farmer Brown’s in Bloomfield has a strawberry and a small raspberry u-pick and at local markets you can often find a few boxes of berries that haven’t been sprayed. Bates U-pick on Belleisle Bay sprays their strawberry plants but they don’t spray once the fruit has started to form so the pesticide residue would be lower than conventionally grown strawberries where the fruit is sprayed for pests and fungus. Organic blueberries are scarce.

Since we go through so many berries we usually buy what we can organic, or at least not sprayed and then top up with conventionally grown berries.

This season we’ll put up fewer blueberries, in favour of more raspberries and strawberries. We love blueberries but have found that domestic blueberries are now in the “Dirty Dozen”, a list of the 12 fruits and vegetables that have the highest pesticide residue. (Strawberries are on the list as well but more naturally grown strawberries are accessible locally).

The “Dirty Dozen” list is compiled annually by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization in the US that researches and reports on environmental issues. For this report EWG analyzes pesticide residue testing data from the US Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration and then ranks the produce accordingly.

To help consumers make sense of the data, EWG has categorized the produce by worst and best. The Dirty Dozen are the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residue; the Clean 15 are those fruits and vegetables with the lowest pesticide residue.

Here’s the “Dirty Dozen”, beginning with the worst: apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, nectarines – imported, grapes – imported, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries – domestic, lettuce, kale/collard greens.

On the bright side, there is a great selection of produce with low pesticide residue. The “Clean 15”, beginning with the lowest in pesticide residue, are: onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, asparagus, sweet peas, mangoes, eggplant, cantaloupe – domestic, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, mushrooms.

The idea is to eat organic (or naturally grown) versions of the dirty dozen and reduce your consumption of this produce when organic isn’t available (like we’ll do with blueberries). Environmental Working Group points out that the health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure so you find the balance that works for your family.

To search organic producers in the province visit the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network at http://www.acornorganic.org/. And at u-picks and farmer’s markets ask growers if they use natural growing practices. You’ll find that many don’t spray.

Eco-friendly picnics and backyard barbeques

2011-06-29T22:00:00.002-03:00

Outdoor entertaining, everyday family dinners al fresco and picnics at the beach are some of the great pleasures of summer. There’s something about being outside, among nature, that makes a meal taste better, a gathering more enjoyable, an outing especially memorable.

So why then does all of the outdoor enjoyment often lead to a lot of unnecessary trash and generally eco-unfriendly behaviour?

Companies in the business of making disposable items seem to target summer with gusto. If you so choose, you could buy a whole party worth of items that are completely disposable and at the end of the evening roll up everything but the guests and dump it in the trash, all in the name if simple summer entertaining.

But simple entertaining and outdoor enjoyment in general don’t need to be of the single use variety. You can soak up summer and be green. Here’s how.

To begin, follow this general rule: choose reusable before compostable and compostable before recyclable and avoid anything that is single use.

Use everyday plates, cups and cutlery instead of disposable. Plastic cutlery isn’t recyclable so has to go in the trash. Instead, invest in an inexpensive set of reusable cutlery for picnics and back yard entertaining. Biodegradable cutlery is available but can’t be composted so has to go in the trash and compostable cutlery is usually single use and expensive so the better option is still reusable.

If you’re not comfortable using your regular dishes outside consider investing in few outdoor dishes that can fall off the deck without a worry. Enameled camping-style dishes are indestructible and available at hardware stores. Sturdy plastic plates are a second option. Watch the plastic content though (choose food-grade plastic numbers 1, 2, 4 or 5) and avoid plastic that isn’t graded or is stamped with the numbers four or seven.

If you go with disposable plates choose paper instead of Styrofoam or plastic since they can go in the compost. Also, choose a brand with recycled content (post-consumer recycled is best). Another reason to avoid Styrofoam and plastic: putting hot food straight from the barbeque onto plastic or Styrofoam could leach chemicals into your food.

For cups choose enameled cups, sturdy plastic reusable cups, or compostable cups. The Bio-Life brand at Shoppers Drug Mart is made of vegetable compounds and is compostable.

I concede that paper napkins are a reasonable option for outdoor entertaining but again look for brands that contain recycled content and make sure they go in the compost not the trash.

You can make your food more eco-friendly too. Instead of packaged, processed meat consider buying locally-produced meat (visit http://www.acornorganic.org/ and search farmers or visit Kuinshoeve Meat in Rothesay for naturally raised local meat) and load up on locally grown fruits and vegetables as they come into season.

Since no outdoor meal is complete without a bevy of salads, make your dressing from scratch. Click here for some recipes for my favourite homemade dressings along with a few summer salad recipes like roasted vegetable pasta salad and roasted sweet potato salad with orange vinaigrette.

EWG's annual sunscreen review

2011-06-14T16:06:00.003-03:00

Given the spring weather we have endured I doubt sunscreen shopping has been top of mind for many, but assuming sunny weather is on the way Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released its annual sunscreen review, featuring a new slate of recommended products to search out and great guidance on what products you should avoid.

EWG rates sunscreens on a one-to-seven scale, one being “green” or your best choice for safety and effectiveness and seven (“red”), for those with the most dangerous chemical load and questionable effectiveness.

The highest rated sunscreens are those that protect your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays, but also contain the least amount of harmful chemicals that when absorbed by the body can contribute to health issues.

All of EWG’s top sunscreens are mineral-based (eg. contain zinc or titanium) and are rated one or two. These tend to be more expensive but are also more effective and safer so offer value for dollar. Mineral-based sunscreens are not absorbed by the body (a good thing) so often leave your skin looking white-washed but more and more are non-whitening and easier to apply.

The “best” of the non-mineral based rate a respectable three, offering a reasonably safe and effective alternative to the mineral-based products. In this year’s review a few Coppertone products rate well: Coppertone Kids Pure & Simple Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 50, Coppertone Sensitive Skin Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 50, Coppertone Sensitive Skin Sunscreen Lotion, Faces, SPF 50, and Water Babies Pure and Simple Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 50.

A great product that isn’t in the EWG database is the new Green Beaver sunscreen. It’s mineral-based but non-whitening, fragrance-free, waterproof and made in Canada. It’s SPF 30 and there is a kids version too.

There are a few more things to consider when you’re choosing sunscreen. Higher SPF products (anything above SPF 50) can be deceptive since there is no guarantee that they are any more effective than lower SPF products. They are often loaded with more chemicals and those who use them tend to stay in the sun much longer than those who choose a lower SPF product. Instead, choose a product that’s SPF 50 or lower and apply it properly. Sprays and powders rate poorly because users (and anyone nearby) inhale the chemicals. Also rated poorly are products containing vitamin A (listed as retinyl palmitate) because of concerns based on U.S. government data that they contribute to the development of some skin cancers.

Sunscreen is only one part of sun safety. Seek out shade during the hottest part of the day (between 11-4), wear sunglasses (with UVA & UVB protection), a broad-rim hat, and cover up with light-coloured clothing for the best protection from the sun that we have all been craving. Visit www.ewg.org/2011sunscreen for the full report.

EWG's guide to safer cell phone use

2011-06-02T14:40:00.002-03:00

With the World Health Organization announcing this week that there is a possible link between cell phone use and cancer you might want to check out Environmental Working Group's guide to safer cell phone use. EWG also lists the best and worst cell phones and has a database that lets you check you own phone to see how it rates.

Another bread recipe for busy people

2011-06-01T15:32:00.000-03:00

This is a great bread recipe for busy people because you can let the dough sit in the fridge for a few days, punching it down every 12 hours or so. Try mixing it up at bedtime and baking it the next evening. Also, you can fiddle with the types of flour...try half whole white and half whole grain (or whole wheat)

Everyday bread:

1 t yeast

1 t sugar

1 1/3 c warm water

2 t oil

1 t salt

3 3/4 c flour (divided)

In a large bowl combine the sugar and water, stir, then sprinkle over the yeast (let bubble away for about 10 min). In a separate bowl combine the salt and 3 cups of the flour. When the yeast is ready add the flour to the yeast mixture along with the oil and mix.

Add more of the flour until you can't mix anymore and then turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead in the rest of the flour. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a plate or in a grocery bag and put it in the fridge until you have time to deal with it (8-12 hours).

When you’re ready to bake:

Remove dough fridge, punch it down and shape into a loaf (think Italian loaf shape). Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let rise for about 1-1 ½ hours. Bake at 500 for 9 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350 for another 25-30 minutes.

Five-minute bread

2011-05-31T15:14:00.002-03:00

This simple bread recipe comes from the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois. The book is a great guide to fitting homemade bread into busy lives.

Basic bread
(these quantities can be cut in half for a half batch)

3 cups lukewarm water
1 ½ tablespoons regular yeast
1 to 1 ½ tablespoons coarse salt (the recipe calls for 1 ½ but I have cut it back
6 ½ cups whole white or white flour (one cup can be whole wheat or multigrain)

• Warm the water slightly (to a little warmer than body temperature). Add the yeast and salt to the water. Give it a stir and add the flour, mixing until it is completely incorporated. You’ll end up with a wet, shaggy dough.

• Scrape it into a plastic, food grade container with a lid and let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours. By this time it’s ready to use but the dough will be easier to work with once it has been refrigerated for a while.

• You can either bake the bread on a pizza stone (recommended for best results) or on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

• Sprinkle an un-sided cookie sheet with cornmeal (so it will slide easily onto the pizza stone).

• To make your bread, sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, and pull up and cut off a grapefruit-sized clump of dough. Shape it into to a ball by gently stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. (You can add a little more flour as needed during this, so the dough doesn’t stick to your hands). It should take less than a minute to shape.

• Set the ball on the cornmeal-covered cookie sheet and let it sit for 40 minutes (You can cover it at this point, but it isn’t necessary).

• Twenty minutes before baking preheat the oven to 450 with the pizza stone placed on the middle rack.

• When you’re ready to bake the dough, dust the top lightly with flour and slash it with a serrated knife (only a surface cut).

• Slide the dough onto the pizza stone (if using) or place the cookie sheet in the oven. On a lower rack place a baking pan filled with a cup of hot water. (This creates steam that helps a nice crust form).

• Bake for 30 minutes and cool on a rack.

A loaf of bread shouldn't be immortal

2011-05-31T15:04:00.000-03:00

I have always thought that making your own bread is the kitchen equivalent of living off-grid. Not only does it feel like the ultimate in self sufficiency, there is great satisfaction in creating something so fundamental with our own hands. And few things are more delicious or comforting than a slice of still-warm bread spread with a bit of butter. If you need convincing to give it a try there are other reasons to consider making your own bread, especially if you eat it a lot.

You may have noticed that much regular grocery store bread can sit on the counter a very long time without a hint of mould. You might also have noticed that the ingredient list for bought bread is a lot longer than the traditional water, flour, yeast and salt. A variety of engineered sugars and preservatives have turned your average loaf of bread into an immortal foodstuff. Even the wholesome-looking loaves at in-store bakeries can be packed full of a dozen or more additives.

Bread should be a very nutritional food. After all, stone ground flour has a substantial protein content, B vitamins and lots of fibre. But unless your bread says 100% whole grain chances are it’s made from refined white flour that nutritionally isn’t much different, or better, than white sugar.

Independent bakeries usually have healthier bread, especially if they bake from scratch with stone ground flour (look for the Speerville Flour Mill sign or ask if they use Speerville flour, or another stone ground product).

I dislike processed foods loaded with additives and rarely get to independent bakeries so make a lot of bread. It’s one of those things that, once you’re in the habit doesn’t seem like a big deal. But I know for most the idea of making your own bread can be as daunting as it is appealing.

Making bread the traditional way, that is. Happily I recently came across a method for making homemade bread that is as simple as baking cookies. It’s from the book titled “Artisan bread in five minutes a day”, a practical, easy-to-follow guide to making traditional loaves in a non-traditional way: no proofing the yeast, no kneading, no punching down. While some if the tasks of traditional bread making are gratifying in their own way, you need time to take pleasure in the process.

This five-minute method is simple: Mix up the dough (yeast, salt, flour and water), leave it in the fridge for up to 10 days. To make your bread, clip off a grapefruit-sized clump of dough, shape it into to a ball, sit it on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 40 minutes then bake it for about half an hour. There are many variations but the principle of simplicity is always the same.

If making homemade bread is on your bucket list, or if you’d simply like to be more self sufficient, search out this book, or visit my blog for the basic recipe and method. (www.bridgetsgreenliving.blogspot.com)

Treat water like a precious resource (because it is!)

2011-05-19T13:44:00.002-03:00

When I was in grade six my teacher asked who in the class left the water running while brushing their teeth. I can’t recall my answer but I do remember that the idea of wasting water was quite a revelation. That was in the late 1970’s. Thirty some years later a considerable number of Canadians continue to view clean water as a bottomless resource (and leave the tap running while they brush their teeth).

Canadians in general take our abundance of clean water for granted and it’s that laissez-faire attitude that puts this precious resource most at risk. Although we hold seven percent off the world’s renewable freshwater (and some 20 percent of fresh water overall) this resource is threatened every day. Climate change is impacting our fresh water stores as glaciers melt and weather patterns change. Industry uses vast amounts of fresh water and often pollutes rivers and groundwater. Many scientists, those who understand best the real threat of water scarcity, believe the government is doing little to protect our fresh water from pollution, overuse and bulk exporting.

Then there is your average Canadian who uses the resource with abandon. The average Canadian's water usage is 125,000 litres of water per person per year and New Brunswickers on average use 152,000 litres. (The average European uses 73,000 litres.)

Are you curious where you net out for water use? There are a couple of online tools that help you calculate your water footprint, highlight the real water hogs in your household and provide tips on how to reduce your usage.

Environment Canada has an online calculator that takes about three minutes to complete. You click through questions ranging from how many washes you do a week to whether or not you water your lawn. The final tally shows your usage alongside your provincial average and the national average. www.on.ec.gc.ca/reseau/watercalculator

If you want to see real-time where you use the most water and how changes to your daily habits can impact your overall score visit http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/. This simple tool helps measure your water use in the yard, the kitchen, laundry, and in the bathroom, and recalculates on the fly so you can see what a difference changing to low flow toilets or shortening your showers can make to your annual consumption.

We can all cut our household water use, simply by making small changes in our everyday life:

• Take shorter showers (5 min or less).

• Don’t leave the tap running while you brush your teeth.

• Install low flow shower heads and faucet aerators, which can cut your sink and shower water usage nearly in half.

• Choose water efficient appliances like front-loading washing machines and low flow toilets.

• Keep a jug of drinking water in the fridge rather than letting your tap run to get cold water.

• Let Mother Nature wash your car and water your lawn. Or, to water your gardens or lawn set up a rain barrel to collect rainwater. (Hardware stores carry the necessary supplies.) If you do water with a sprinkler, remember that oscillating sprinklers lose as much as 50% of what they disperse through evaporation.

Make sure water conservation crosses your mind when you shower, flush and turn on the garden hose this summer.

LUSH henna hair dye...today I test

2011-05-14T07:59:00.001-03:00

A good friend with the most gorgeous hair has been telling me about LUSH, an earthy company that makes natural henna hair dye. I bought a couple of bocks when I was last in Montreal (you can buy it online too) and have set aside the morning to give it a try.

This is what it looks like:

I have a lot of grey and after reading up on some of the possible effects of henna on grey ("...the grey bits will sparkle bright red amongst the darker hairs.") I decided to be a little less caviler and do a strand test on a lock of hair than can be hidden away if there is too much sparkle.

Your greenwashing guide

2011-05-05T21:12:00.001-03:00

In this season of spring cleaning a posting on green washing is timely. Although green washing isn’t an eco-friendly sort of cleaning. It's a wool-over-your-eyes sort of marketing intended to dupe consumers with eco-friendly intentions into buying green-sounding products and services.

Green washing is when companies deliberately mislead consumers about their environmental practices or the environmental benefits of a product or service. These claims make companies and products more appealing to consumers who are trying to make better choices. The term was coined by Terra Choice, an environmental marketing company that for the past few years has published a report about the state of “green” product marketing in Canada.

According to Terra Choice there were 73% more “green” products on the market in 2010 than there were in 2009. This is great news since companies are responding to increased consumer demand for more eco-friendly products and services. But it also means that it is more challenging than ever to separate the good from the not so good. To help consumers find their way among the “green” sounding products available today Terra Choice publishes “The sins of green washing”, a guide of sorts that points out what to beware of when you’re scouting eco-friendly products.

Below are two of the more common of the seven “sins” of green washing identified by Terra Choice:

The Sin of no proof - This is when products make claims that are not substantiated or supported by credible third-party certification. Product labels aren’t regulated so companies can pretty much claim what they want. Credible certification programs are the only way to back up these claims.

The Sin of Vagueness - The best example of this is when a product (usually a personal care product) claims to be all natural. Many toxic compounds are natural but certainly not “green” including the examples given by Terra Choice like arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde. In this case consumers and companies have very different definitions of “all natural”.

Here are some tips to help you make more informed decisions when you’re looking to buy eco-friendly products and services:

Rely on legitimate eco certification labels. The EcoLogo symbol is a trusted and recognized certification program for everything from cleaning products to paint. Green Seal is another. If a product doesn’t back up its claim of being eco-friendly, environmentally-friendly, green, or earth-friendly then there is a good chance they’re simply riding the green wave of popularity. You’re better off choosing a product that’s certified.

For food, the packaging must state “Certified organic” to be truly organic. Any other use of the word organic is meaningless. The term “organic” is also meaningless outside of the food and botanicals spheres.

Certified organic botanicals in personal care products are great but don’t lose sight of how safe the other ingredients are (or aren’t).

For more information on green washing and credible certification standards and labels visit http://www.sinsofgreenwashing.org/

Recipes that help you eat well and waste less

2011-04-19T23:06:00.003-03:00

Mixed fruit smoothie

Smoothies are great for brown bananas and other fruit about to go over the edge...

Peel bananas, peel and slice apples, pears and other fruit that you don't think you'll get to in time and pop them in the freezer. Instead of going to waste the frozen fruit will make a great addition to a morning smoothie.

4 parts fruit (frozen and/or fresh)
One part yogurt
Juice of 1/2 a lemon or 4 T of any other fruit juice

Whirr in a food processor for 30 seconds to one minute. Enjoy.

Minestrone soup
One of the best ways to use up leftover bits of fresh and frozen veggies is to toss them all in a soup. You can adjust the consistency to your liking by using more or less broth.

2 T olive oil
2 onions, diced
1 stalk celery, minced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 carrot, diced
2-4 cups of other chopped veggies (zucchini, peppers, anything left in the fridge)
6-8 cups good broth (veg or chicken, can use water in a pinch)
1 can whole or diced tomatoes (large or small)
handful or two of greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard)
1 1/2 cups cooked beans (white or chick peas)
1/2 cup dry pasta
1 t each of oregano and thyme
sea salt and pepper to taste

Over medium heat saute onion and garlic for a few minutes then add celery & carrot. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add other veg along with the broth, tomatoes, beans, herbs and firmer greens if using (kale). Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the veggies seem soft.

Bring soup to a gentle boil and add 1/2 cup dry pasta. Stir and cook until the pasta is tender.

Add softer greens if using (chopped spinach or chard). Add fresh parsley and/or basil if you have them on hand.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve wtih fresh parmesan grated over.

You can use a diced potato in lieu of the pasta if you prefer. Just toss it in with your carrot. Add more herbs if you preefer a stronger flavour. This tastes much better the next day.

Are you throwing out good food?

2011-04-17T19:10:00.001-03:00

Have you ever stopped to tally the amount of food that gets wasted in your household? I think it’s time to take notice. A study released last fall by the Value Chain Management Centre found that about 40 percent of all food produced in Canada goes to waste.

Although the waste occurs all along the farm-to-table route, more than half of the food waste occurs in the home. This is the food that goes bad in the fridge before eaten, the leftovers that sit in the fridge until they go bad and the uneaten food on your plate that gets scraped into the trash or compost. It’s estimated that half of all salad, a third of all bread, a quarter of all fruit and a fifth of all vegetables are thrown away uneaten.

You can build a stark picture of the economic waste at the household level. What may not be so clear is that there is also a significant environmental impact to all of this waste.

More food than is actually required is grown and shipped to be processed. (Think of the fertilizer, water and machinery required to grow food that goes in the trash.) There is the energy used to cook food that doesn’t get eaten, plus transportation and packaging. And finally, when food is put in a landfill rather than composted it produces methane, the most toxic of all greenhouse gasses.

About one-fifth of the food that gets thrown away in homes is food scraps like cores, peels and bones, but the rest is perfectly edible food. According to Statistics Canada, in 2007 more than six million tones of solid food went to waste between retail stores and homes. That’s about 600 pounds per family. (Another 2.8 billion litres of liquids went to waste, like milk, juice, pop, coffee, tea).

Meanwhile we’re all aware of the severe food shortages people in other parts of the world are enduring. Globally we actually produce enough food to feed the world, but food waste is a complicated problem.

While you can’t do much to reduce food waste that occurs between farms and retail stores, you can make an impact in your own home. With grocery chains announcing that prices will rise five to seven percent by the end of the year, you might have more incentive too. Here are some tips.

Don’t buy more than you need. 2- for-1 deals and bulk sizes of perishable foods are only a deal if it all gets eaten.

Don’t cook more than you need for a given meal, unless you plan to use the leftovers quickly. And when you do have leftovers use them up.

Watch your portion sizes so good food doesn’t get left on the plate.

Remember you can freeze fruit that’s about to spoil and use it for smoothies. Yogurt can be frozen then used for baking.

Compost uneaten food. Don’t put it in the trash.

Use Earth Day to kick-off some greener, healthier habits

2011-04-17T11:52:00.001-03:00

Spring is a busy time of year for anyone who is eco-minded. That’s when all of the “green” celebrations occur. World Water Day was March 22, Earth Hour was March 26 and now Earth Day is coming up on April 22.

Although it’s technically one day I prefer to stretch Earth Day into a week-long celebration full of fun ways to live better. It’s like Lent for the eco-minded.

If you’d like to mark the day, or the week, and are in search of suggestions the list below should be enough to get you started.

You can approach it like a meal plan (plastic-free Monday, litter-less lunch on Tuesday…), try to do it all, or pick something from the list to do all week long.

Pack a litter-less lunch that includes nothing that will end up in the trash. Avoid all packaged food and instead make your lunch from scratch and pack it in reusable containers or bags.

Go a day without buying, acquiring or using plastic. A plastic-free February challenge was started in the U.S. this year but it’s never too late to give it a try, even for a day. It’ll remind you of how much plastic you have in your life, and how many plastic items are just an unnecessary waste of fossil fuel.

Celebrate Earth Hour again. Choose an evening to turn out the lights for an hour, either between 8:30 and 9:30, or start earlier if you have young children. Chat, play a board game or read by candlelight.

Plan a 100 mile meal. Remember eggs, meat, fish and dairy are all produced locally, and some root vegetables at grocery stores were grown in Atlantic Canada. Speerville Flour Mill whole white flour is made from wheat that is grown and milled in New Brunswick. Honey and maple syrup are produced locally too. From that list of options you should be able to plan a meal with food that is, at the very least, grown or produced in Atlantic Canada.

Enjoy a meatless meal. The environmental impact of meat production (we’re talking mostly the large factory farms) is so extensive that the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the best thing you can do for the environment is to eat less meat.

Go without bottled water (or any sort of packaged beverage) and drink tap water instead.

Substitute a homemade version of something that you always buy. For Earth Hour this year I made homemade graham crackers to use for s’mores. Try making your own salad dressing or tortillas.

Unplug the dryer and hang your clothes to dry. It’s spring, use the clothesline. Drape newly-washed bedding over the railing of your deck if you don’t have a line.

Plan a screen-free day meaning no TV, no computer, no handheld electronic games. Play outside instead and visit http://www.takemeoutside.ca/ to learn more about why getting outside more often is important to our health and happiness.

However you choose to celebrate, consider Earth Day a spring kick-off to some greener, healthier habits.

Growing a garden this year?

2011-03-29T22:25:00.000-03:00

Are you a wannabe urban farmer looking for inspiration and a little confidence? A visit to an online seed catalog is all it takes to have faith that this will be a green thumb year.

Check out Hope Seeds' site for a gorgeous variety of heirloom veggies that are naturalized to our New Brunswick climate. Previously based in New Brunswick, Hope Seeds is now putting down roots (so to speak) in Nova Scotia.

Here's hoping for a bumper crop of atomic red carrots and enough Costata romanesca zucchini to feed the neighbourhood.

Celebrate Earth Hour!

2011-03-23T21:15:00.000-03:00

Reducing our home energy consumption is something that we should work at every day but once a year there is a special event that makes it easier to keep that goal top-of-mind. Earth Hour, an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), challenges people simply to turn out the lights for an hour to draw attention to the impact our energy use has on climate change. The idea is to have fun in the dark and think about how you can inject some Earth Hour spirit into your everyday life. This year’s event is on Saturday, March 26, from 8:30 to 9:30.

Earth Hour is one of those great acts of global solidarity that anyone can take part in. I love how it empowers people (especially children) to be part of something that actually makes a difference. Last year 1.3 billion people took part in Earth Hour across the globe, including more than 10 million Canadians.

This year’s focus is on the role clean energy can play in reducing climate change. It’s an encouraging reminder that there are many ways to tackle the climate change challenge and reducing the energy we consume is just part of the solution.

In New Brunswick we’re on the way to generating a respectable amount of renewable energy. According to the WWF website 38% of the energy we use is renewable, 56% is not (6% is unaccounted for). We’re still burning coal and heavy oil in our power plants but we have a lot of hydro power too. The great news is that 10% of the energy we consume now comes from wind power and there is potential for our province to generate even more energy from renewable sources. But in the meantime a good chunk of our energy is “dirty”: good reason to use less.

Making changes to our energy consumption at home can make a real difference. According to Stats Canada, households contribute almost half (46%) of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions and energy use is the single biggest contributor to a home's carbon footprint. That’s more emissions than our personal use of vehicles. Lights are a small part of a home’s energy use but you’ll be surprised at how sitting in the dark really makes you contemplate your life’s dependence on the grid.

If you’d like to celebrate Earth Hour this year the WWF website has lots of great ideas for marking the event, at work, school and home.

This year we’re having friends over for a lights-out potluck and Twister by candlelight. We’ll turn the lights out early (8:30 is a little late to get started with young kids) or we might not turn them on at all.

However you choose to celebrate consider registering your participation on the Earth Hour website so you’ll be counted (www.EarthHourCanada.org). You’ll see there is a lot of fun to be had without the distraction of a TV or computer.

Don't flush! (your meds)

2011-03-15T20:50:00.000-03:00

This has been one of those winters where the flu and cold have run rampant. At the office dozens of people have been out sick and one day at my children’s school 30% of the students were home with the flu.

Along with a busy flu season comes a lot of medication, from prescription antibiotics to over-to-counter cold and sinus medicine. We had our fair share of medicine go through our house this winter, including a prescription change mid-way through pneumonia treatment after my daughter broke out in hives. That left us with a bottle full of Biaxin that couldn’t be used.

What do you do with leftover prescription medications, expired medications or expired over-the-counter drugs? Don’t flush them down the toilet!

Our waterways have enough trouble dealing with medications (prescription and other) that our bodies excrete without having leftover doses washed down the drain as well. Medications can pass through waste-water treatment facilities so trace amounts of prescription drugs (birth control pills, antidepressants, and antibiotics), over-the-counter medications (pain relievers like aspirin and ibuprofen, and cold/flu remedies), and veterinary medicines have all made their way into our waterways.

It’s unclear if trace amounts of medications in our rivers and lakes are dangerous for humans but there is considerable research documenting the negative impact of medications on aquatic life.

Even in concentrations as tiny as parts-per-trillion the effect on fish and frogs is well documented. A body of research from Ontario has shown that when fathead minnows are grown from egg to adulthood in the presence of as little as three parts-per-trillion of synthetic estrogen (used in birth control pills), they are completely feminized. This means that fewer males are available to mate and to fertilize eggs. (Considering the broader implications of this is a bit scary).

Other drugs have their own worrisome impacts. Steroids can disrupt reproductive processes, anti-depressants make fish tranquil so more vulnerable to predators, and antibiotics in waterways contribute to the growth of antibiotic resistant germs.

Trace levels of pharmaceuticals have also been detected the drinking water of several U.S. cities. No one knows what kind of threat this might pose to humans and that’s a worry, especially when you consider the cumulative effect of long-term exposure to mixtures of pharmaceuticals.

The most important thing you can do to help keep drugs out of our waterways (and our drinking water) is to dispose of them properly. We’re fortunate that our local pharmacies participate in “take-back” programs, taking unused prescription and over-the-counter medications and disposing of them safely. Never flush medications down the toilet or pour them down the drain. Keep them in their package and drop them at your nearest pharmacy when you get the chance.

As well, Health Canada recommends that you go through your medicine cabinet once a year and remove all prescription and non-prescription drugs that are old or that you no longer take. That way you can safely dispose of them all in one trip to the pharmacy.

My most exciting discovery of 2011 (so far)

2011-03-01T21:48:00.000-04:00

Green Beaver zesty orange toothpaste. Yum!

This is the most refreshing toothpaste ever! The citrusy taste is real, with just enough zing to make your mouth feel nice and clean. It's non-toxic, natural and not artificially sweet like most toothpaste on the market.

Thanks Green Beaver for proving that, in the world of toothpaste, mint doesn't rule.

Two bags or less

2011-03-01T21:30:00.001-04:00

How many bags of trash do you send to the curb on garbage day? Could you send less?

There is a great initiative underway at the Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission, challenging residents to commit to generating less household waste each week. By signing up for the “Two bags or less” challenge you commit to keeping your household garbage to two bags, or less, every week (four bags every collection period).

The idea is that if people are given a limit, or volunteer for a limit, then there will be a material reduction in over all trash generated. It’s a way to prepare us for the imposed limit that is coming.

Before starting the initiative the Commission completed a trial with 200 households in Hampton over the summer and into the fall. The results of the study showed that even voluntary limits to garbage can reduce the amount of waste set at the curb.

Most residents are already putting two bags or less to the curb every two weeks but the program is starting with a very generous “limit” to get people thinking. They’ll gradually reduce the amount over time as residents ease into the idea. What the eventual limit will be I don’t know.

There are environmental and economic incentives to diverting waste to more environmentally-friendly channels – like recycling paper and plastic and composting food waste. Composting alone can save a small fortune. Municipalities pay $28 per tonne in tipping fees for compost. But when residents put food and yard waste in the garbage, the tipping fee is $108 per tonne.

Last year the Fundy Solid Waste Commission recycled 6,100 tonnes of recyclables. That saved a lot of space in the landfill, diverted almost $660,000 in garbage tipping fees, and helped to ensure the reuse of our natural resources.

Knowing how to reduce your household trash is the first step in waste reduction.

Simple recycling will reduce your household garbage by nearly 50% and visiting the blue bins is getting easier and easier since you hardly have to do any sorting now that there are just three sorting bins: one for corrugated cardboard, one for paper & boxboard, and another for plastic, metal & milk containers. By the way, corrugated cardboard has the highest resale value of all recyclables so don’t put it in the trash!

Composting can reduce your household waste by 40% and is practically effortless since it gets hauled away for most of us.

Buying less and considering packaging as you make buying decisions are other ways to reduce your household waste.

Only you know how much effort you’re putting into waste reduction but chances are you could be doing more. Whether you sign up for the challenge or not, being mindful of how much you send to the curb is the first step in getting your household trash down to an environmentally and economically sustainable level. We’re down to one bag or less every two weeks and I’m sure there are still more ways we could trim. Visit http://www.fundyrecycles.com/ for more info on “Two bags or less” and fore more waste reduction tips.

The healthiest approach to dry cleaning is avoidance

2011-02-15T21:35:00.000-04:00

I have a beautiful pair of velvet pants that I hadn’t worn for almost two years because they were dirty and have a “dry clean only” tag. There are all sorts of “dry clean only” clothes that I wash by hand or on the delicate cycle of the washing machine but I wasn’t willing to chance it on these pants. But at the same time I hated the thought of going to a dry cleaner.

My reason for avoidance? The most common dry cleaning solvent, perchloroethylene (PERC for short), is highly toxic. Aside from the fact that it pollutes waterways, the World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consider PERC a probable carcinogen and Environment Canada considers it a toxin. Exposure to the fumes can cause nervous system disorders and liver and kidney damage. These solvents can make those who work in dry cleaning establishments sick, and can harm you too if you wear clothes that have been dry cleaned.

Dry cleaning solvents rub off on your body and the fumes they give off build up in enclosed spaces (like closets). Inhaling the fumes is unhealthy so be sure to remove the plastic immediately and hang newly dry cleaned clothes on the line for a while before putting them in your closet or putting them on.

The most eco-friendly dry cleaning process uses liquid carbon dioxide. The problem is that CO2 dry cleaners are practically impossible to find and as far as I can tell you’d have to ship your clothes to Kansas to benefit from this cleaning process which is a shame because by all accounts it’s also the most effective and most gentle of all dry cleaning options available.

While we wait for this solution to make its way New Brunswick here is a bit more information on what is available to us locally.

I inquired with the larger dry cleaners in the area and they still use a PERC-based cleaning solution. The new dry cleaner in Rothesay (VIP) is PERC-free but does use a petroleum-based solvent that is an environmental toxin, just less toxic than PERC-based solvents. (This is where I ended up taking my pants).

The healthiest approach to dry cleaning (for you and the environment) is to avoid it when possible.

• Many “dry clean only” garments can be washed by hand with a gentle detergent like Woolite, or hold up well when washed on the delicate cycle of your clothes washer.

• Treat stains on clothing immediately before they set into clothing to reduce the need for dry cleaning, and never iron stained clothing (it cooks the stains in).

• Sometimes dry cleaning is more about ironing avoidance. Can you wash some items by hand or on the delicate cycle of your washing machine and then take them in to be pressed?

• Think twice abut buying clothes that require dry cleaning.

Also, dry cleaning wrap can go in the blue bins with plastic bags. And one more thing: the terms “organic” and “environmentally friendly” aren’t regulated so businesses can use them with abandon.

Switching to recycled toilet paper can change the world

2011-02-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference. Take toilet paper for example. Simply switching from the plushy kind to toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper products is one of the simplest eco-friendly changes you can make. You’ll help save trees, reduce dangerous environmental dioxins and save millions of litres of water.

End-to-end (so to speak) the environmental impact of such a simple change is remarkable. When compared to standard toilet paper (which is made from virgin wood fibre) , brands made with 100% recycled content take 44% less energy to produce, cause 38% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 41% fewer particulate emissions, produce 50% less wastewater and use 100% less wood.

Switching toilet paper is hardly a lifestyle change. Eco-friendly toilet paper costs about the same, or less, is stocked on the same shelf in the grocery store and serves exactly the same purpose.

When you scan the grocery store shelves for something new here’s what to look for:

How much recycled content it contains: 6,000,000 trees are cut each year to make toilet paper for Canadians. The more people switch to brands using 100% recycled content, the fewer trees will be cut. The more post-consumer content the better since it diverts paper from the landfill.

How the paper was bleached: Look for products that aren’t bleached using chlorine, which can create the toxic byproduct dioxin.

Fortunately there are lots of earth-friendly options to choose from in our local stores:

PC Green toilet paper (Super Store) is made with 100% post-consumer recycled paper and it’s made without the use of chlorine (although some of the recycled paper in the product was likely bleached with chlorine).

Compliments Green (Sobey’s) is also made with 100% recycled content, most of which is post-consumer. It’s whitened without chlorine and is EcoLogo certified.

White Swan has a line that is also EcoLogo certified and made with 100% recycled content (containing up to 80% post-consumer waste).

Cashmere has a line that is EcoLogo certified and made with 100% recycled content.

Majesta has a line called Soft & Green which is whitened without chlorine but still uses virgin wood fibre. The wood is sustainably sourced but with so many 100% recycled content options I rank this lower on the list.

While you’re at it, use the same check list for other disposable paper products that you buy, like facial tissue or paper towel. Many of the brands listed above offer similar paper towel options but in my search only White Swan has facial tissues too.

As always it’s good to read labels so you’re not duped by eco-sounding names. Don’t forget to recycle the toilet paper roll and other packaging.

In our house we use toilet paper in lieu of facial tissue and rags instead of paper towel. But if you’re not ready to give up these creature comforts at least know that there are more eco-friendly options available.

It’s not good for you, or the environment, to idle your car

2011-01-19T15:15:00.000-04:00

Although it’s tempting on frosty mornings to start your car long before you’re ready to hop in it and go, letting it idle in the driveway pollutes your neighbourhood, wastes gas, and isn’t any better for your car than driving away thirty seconds after you start it in the first place.

But warming up the car is a Canadian habit. Based on research by the Department of Natural Resources, in the peak of winter many Canadian motorists idle their vehicles for about eight minutes a day. Nation-wide it amounts to more than 75 million minutes of idling a day, wastes over 2.2 million litres of fuel and produces over five million kilograms of greenhouse gases.

Idling is such a pollution problem in big cities that some, like New York, have passed no-idling laws. Although our communities are not densely populated idling is still a pollution problem and a public health issue since many of the places where people idle are public areas where there are more people around to breath in the fumes. As well, you inhale exhaust if you’re sitting in an idling vehicle.

An idling vehicle emits CO2 (the primary greenhouse gas) and a mix of other gasses that have been linked to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and allergies. Children and the elderly are more at risk. The environmental Defense Fund calls idling the second-hand smoking of the outdoors.

Warming your vehicle on cool mornings is only one of the reasons why Canadians idle their vehicles. Empty vehicles idle in public places while the driver runs an errand, people sit in idling cars in store parking lots, presumably while someone does the shopping, and people idle while they chat.

If you have a habit of idling, being mindful of its effect on your health and on the environment might make it easier to stop. Natural Resources Canada has some other suggestions too:

- Your car doesn’t need to idle to warm the engine. In fact, the best way to warm your engine is to drive your car at a moderate speed. About 30 seconds is all that’s needed before you put it in gear and drive away. As well, driving your car gets the heater going more quickly so you won’t have to wait too long for the car’s interior to warm up.

- Don’t leave your car running while you run an errand. It will only take a minute for your vehicle to warm up again once you return.

- Instead of sitting in a parking lot with the car idling while someone is in getting groceries, turn off the car and go into the store. It saves on gas, reduces green house gas emissions and you won’t be breathing fumes that leak into the car.

- As a general rule, if you’re stopped for more than 10 seconds, turn off your engine. It has a minimal impact on the starter switch, and idling for over10 seconds uses more fuel than it would take to re-start your engine.

We’re into New Year’s resolution season

2011-01-04T17:38:00.001-04:00

The vow to clean up your diet is a common enough New Year’s resolution but for most it’s easier said than done. While many people want to eat better and feed their families healthier meals, people generally get stuck on the “how” to manage that on a reasonable budget and within the common time crunch that we live under on a day-to-day basis.

But the challenge isn’t insurmountable and it comes with perks. A diet that is healthier for you is also healthier for the planet so your personal health goal can have much broader, positive results.

Easing into a more eco-friendly diet is a matter of changing habits one at a time. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

This is the year to phase out canned goods. Although cans are recyclable they’re lined with Bisphenol A, a plastic that Health Canada has acknowledged can be harmful to both human health and the environment. While the government makes plans to phase it out you can start now to rid your cupboards of cans that are lined with plastic, replacing them with healthier, more eco-friendly options. Replace canned beans with dried beans. (Cook them in two-cup batches and freeze any you don’t plan to use within a few days.) Replace canned soup with homemade and canned bouillon with homemade stock or good quality bouillon cubes. Replace tinned fish and meat with fresh or frozen versions.

Why buy mini yogurts when you can buy big tubs and make your own snack-size servings with half-cup mason jars or little plastic storage containers. While you’re at it, consider switching from flavoured yogurts, they’re high in sugar and the term “natural flavours” isn’t regulated so who knows what’s in it. Instead sweeten your yogurt with jam, maple syrup and cinnamon or fresh fruit.

Try eating one less meat-based meal each week. It takes about 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat and according to research from Cornell University, beef production requires a ratio of energy expended to protein content of 54:1, compared with just 4:1 for chicken. Substitute meat alternatives like beans for the meat in some of your favourite recipes. Look for organic or naturally-raised meat and reduce the portion size when you do eat meat. Check my recipe section (in the index) for family friendly, meat-free meal ideas.

Buying in bulk reduces packaging so buy large sizes when it makes sense for your family. Many staples like pasta, flour, rice and other grains have a good shelf life and it makes shopping easier when you don’t have to buy them as often.

Consider homemade replacements for processed, packaged foods that you buy often. Making your favourites from scratch will reduce packaging, eliminate many chemical preservatives and flavour enhancers from your diet and could save you a lot of money. Many recipes become quick and easy once you have made them a few times so give yourself a chance to get into practice.

Like any ambitious New Year’s resolution, changing eating habits can be a journey and may set you on your way to achieving goals you didn’t even know you had.

Many ways to “green” Christmas giving

2010-12-01T21:04:00.002-04:00

More often than not the only things “green” about Christmas are the trees and wreaths. For most it’s a season of excess, much of which is wonderful, but much is wasteful too and not really essential to creating the joy that is Christmas.

If you’re aiming for a Christmas with all of the sparkle and without the hefty carbon footprint consider giving gifts that help the recipient make their life a little greener. Below are a few suggestions for easy-to-find gifts that have an eco-friendly twist. They’re practical, but fun.

Help wean someone off microwave popcorn with the gift of a hot air popcorn popper and a bag of Speerville Four Mill organic popping corn. Visit your nearest hardware store for the popper (Home Hardware has them for $19.99) and the natural food section of the grocery store for the popcorn. You could tuck in some popcorn recipes.

Make it easy for someone to get rid of their non-stick fry pan (and the environmental toxins in it) with the gift of a cast iron pan or a sturdy stainless steel pan. Splurge on a copper fry pan if you have a true foodie in your life. Cooking with cast iron helps to add iron to your diet and once well-seasoned requires little oil to keep food from sticking.

Fill a stocking with non-toxic personal care products like Green Beaver toothpaste and deodorant and Aubrey Organics or Kiss My Face shampoo and conditioner. It’s a fun, practical gift that will help the recipient eliminate parabens, phthalates, SLS and other chemicals common in most personal care products. Naturally for Life The Eco Store, The Feel Good Store and the natural food section of grocery stores carry a good selection of these products.

Good old shaving soap is getting popular again and makes a great gift for the man in your life. Olivier Soap offers non-toxic eco-friendly shaving soap made with olive oil, cocoa butter, beeswax and fragrant oil. It costs $9.95 the shaving brush costs $11.95. You can buy both at the Olivier shop in the City Market or order online.

Give the gift of stoneware baking pans to someone looking to get rid of their non-stick bakeware. Pampered Chef has a great selection of baking pans, muffin pans, pie plates and more. They’re made with lead-free clay and come with a three-year warranty.

Help someone get back to baking from scratch, and incorporate more organic food items into their diet, buy giving ingredients for homemade cookies. Package together organic chocolate chips (or organic chocolate bars that can be chopped for baking), organic cocoa, organic sugar and Speerville Flour Mill flour (whole white, whole wheat or spelt). I have a great recipe for double chocolate chip cookies below that you could include too.

Practical gifts don’t need to be boring and are as thoughtful as any other gift you might choose to give (perhaps more so).

Double chocolate cookies

These cookies are deliciously soft if you’re careful not to bake them for too long. They’re also great for homemade ice cream sandwiches. Make a more grown-up version by adding candied ginger or orange zest (see below for more ideas).

½ cup butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 cups flour (mix whole white with whole wheat or spelt)
2-4 T ground flax or chia
½ cup cocoa powder
½ t salt
½ to 1 cup chocolate chips

Mash butter with sugars. Add oil and egg and beat. Mix in vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine flour, flax, cocoa and salt.

Add flour mixture to wet and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment-covered baking sheet.

Bake @ 350 for 10 – 12 minutes

Some great variations:

Add ½ cup chopped candied ginger

Add ½ cup dried cranberries or cherries

Add grated zest of an orange

Add 1 t instant espresso powder (add with the oil & egg)

Staying warm this winter

2010-11-17T16:47:00.000-04:00

One way to enjoy winter is to stay warm but keeping your home cozy can be expensive. Heating can account for up to half of your home energy bill and most of your home’s carbon footprint so for the sake of your wallet and the environment the more efficiently you can heat your home the better.

Start by doing everything you can to keep the heat in. I know it sounds obvious but there are many sneaky ways that heat can escape a home.

Air leaks can increase your heating bill by 10% a year so caulking & sealing every crack can keep your hard-earned heat from escaping. Caulk around window and door trim, caulk the top and bottom of your baseboards and quarter rounds and not just those on exterior walls. No crack is too small to be sealed. (Be sure to use indoor caulking.)

Insulate your light switches and outlets with special foam gaskets designed to fit neatly behind your light switch and outlet cover plates. Child-safety outlet plugs help too.

Check your weather stripping around windows and doors and replace any that isn’t doing its job. Use a feather to see if drafts are coming in (or heat is going out).

Install programmable electronic thermostats and set them at a constant heat for when you’re home. Set them a bit lower for when you’re sleeping or not home. You’ll save 5% on your heating bill for every degree you lower your thermostat below 70.

How you heat your home is of course something else to consider. High efficiency furnaces (90% efficient) are great but if you have an older model keep it well-maintained. Have your furnace cleaned annually and clean your furnace filters monthly during heating season.

If you heat with electric baseboard or an electric furnace, ensuring your home is nice and tight can have a huge environmental impact since in NB our power generating plants are big polluters.

If you have a fireplace, outfit it with an insert. This can become an eco-friendly source of heat but also make your fireplace airtight so heat doesn’t go up the chimney. From an air quality standpoint a natural gas or propane insert is preferred (they emit fewer VOCs and particulate matter). But those who burn wood will likely tell you that the quality of heat from a wood stove or wood insert is superior. If you do choose to burn wood follow these tips to ensure you’re burning as efficiently and cleanly as possible.

To improve combustion and decrease wood smoke, use an EPA-certified woodstove or insert. Well-seasoned wood burns more efficiently (and more cleanly) and hot fires burn more cleanly too so refuel often and don’t let your fire smolder. With a good hot fire the gases coming out of the chimney should be practically invisible. Don’t shut down the damper at night. Although this keeps the fire going through the night it also creates more emissions. Burn only wood in your woodstove or fireplace.

Heavy woolen socks will help you stay warm too.

Is your deodorant safe?

2010-11-03T20:01:00.001-03:00

The other day a friend asked me about deodorant, wondering if there is a link between deodorant and breast cancer and if aluminum in the product is still a concern. These are tough questions, mostly because there are no definitive answers.

There is no conclusive evidence that the aluminum in many deodorants contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s. And no study has conclusively linked the chemicals in deodorants to breast cancer. But studies haven’t proven otherwise either and ongoing research continues to raise questions about the safety of one of the most frequently used personal care products.

What we do know is that most deodorants contain chemicals that have been linked to a number of health problems. Here is a rundown on four very common deodorant ingredients: Propyleyne glycol (also known as antifreeze in 100% concentrations) is a chemical you’ll see in many brands, including some “natural” brands. It and related chemicals (like polyethylene glycol) are a concern because they may be contaminated with 1, 4-dioxane which may cause cancer. Parabens are preservatives suspected of interfering with hormone function. The mixture of chemicals in synthetic fragrances has been linked to allergies, cancer and nervous system disorders. And finally, triclosan is an antibacterial that may cause thyroid problems. These chemicals are environmental toxins too.

With so many unanswered questions about the safety of chemicals in deodorant I prefer to err on the side of caution. I figure, if science raises doubts and there are alternatives available, why not switch?

Yesterday I did an interesting test. I put aside my eco-friendly deodorant and used a deodorant crystal that I was given a few years ago. The crystal is an actual chunk of rock salt (alum) that you wet any apply like regular deodorant. After a full day of work, two walks back and forth to the bus stop and an evening out I’d say it worked well.

But since everyone’s body chemistry is different another option is Green Beaver deodorant. This product is made in Canada and carries the Ecocert logo, meaning that the plant ingredients are organic, production and packaging are eco-friendly and it’s free of synthetics, chemicals and aluminum. Green Beaver works well for me and is my everyday brand. (My favourite is their citrus scented deodorant but they offer three other scents and one unscented.)
On my list to try is Olivier deodorant (made in NB) As with all Olivier products, the ingredients are natural and uncomplicated. This is a spray deodorant and is on the pricey side.

A few other brands to consider are Aubrey Organics, Avalon Organics and Alba. Look for these in the natural food section of the grocery store. If you’re wondering how safe your current brand is check out Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database.

Nix the microwave popcorn

2010-10-19T20:46:00.001-03:00

“The case of the deadly microwave popcorn” and the “Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act” sound to me like fodder for a Wallace and Gromit movie but they’re not. The U.S. House of Representatives actually passed the Act and there is ample information linking microwave popcorn to a variety of health issues.

It seems that there are a couple of things to worry about when it comes to microwave popcorn. The major concern is a chemical coating on the inside of the bag added to repel grease and keep the popcorn from sticking. The chemical is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and is also used in non-stick pans and Gore-Tex clothing.

This chemical builds up in the body over time and, in animal tests anyway, has been linked to reproductive and developmental issues and problems with the immune system and the liver. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers it a probable carcinogen and asked companies to voluntarily phase it out by 2015.

If that doesn't send you running in the opposite direction, consider this: the artificial butter flavouring often contains a chemical called diacetyl that when inhaled has been known to cause “popcorn lung”, a rare lung disease found in workers at microwave popcorn packaging plants. Some manufacturers have removed it from their products but now there is concern that the replacement chemical might cause respiratory issues too. Popcorn producers are not required to label Diacetyl and may list it simply as flavoring.

A couple of years ago I rediscovered the simple pleasure of stovetop popcorn. What had seemed daunting as a child is really as simple as sautéing onions. Sure you need to give the pot a few shakes as it cooks, but it isn’t as labour-intensive as it once seemed. Hot air poppers work great too.

Making popcorn from scratch means you can also avoid the excessive packaging used for the microwave version. Choose organic popping corn since corn is commonly genetically modified and heavily sprayed (Speerville Flour Mill offers organic popping corn).

Here is our favourite popcorn recipe:

3 tbsp canola or olive oil

½ cup popcorn kernels

2 tbsp butter

1or 2 tbsp maple syrup

Add the oil and then the popcorn to a large stainless pot with a lid. Cover and cook over medium-high heat, shaking a few times while you wait for the first pop. When the corn starts popping in earnest, shake the pot occasionally to keep things moving. When the popping has almost stopped remove from heat and when all is quiet tip the popped corn into a big bowl. Add the butter to the hot pot and swirl until it melts. Add the maple syrup to the melted butter and let it sit until it bubbles slightly. Swirl to combine the two and pour it over the hot popcorn.

Variations:

Vitamin B boost:
Melt the butter as above and pour it over the popcorn, then sprinkle over 1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast. It adds a great nutty flavour. (Look for nutritional yeast in the natural food section of the grocery store or in health food stores.)

A bit of spice:
Or, add a small clove of garlic (sliced in half) to the butter as it melts. When melted add 1 tsp curry powder or chili powder, stir to combine and cook until fragrant (about a minute). Remove the garlic and pour over the popcorn. Squeeze a little lime juice overtop and season with salt and pepper before eating.

Dill:
Melt butter as above and pour it over the popcorn, then sprinkle with 1/2 to 1 tsp of dried dill. Season with salt and pepper.

Get to know the "dirty dozen" of the cosmetic world

2010-10-19T20:29:00.000-03:00

Ever wonder what's in your shampoo, toothpaste or face cream? David Suzuki lists the 12 worst toxic ingredients in cosmetics. Read more here:
CBC News - Consumer Life - David Suzuki targets 'dirty dozen' toxic ingredients

It’s easy to grow your own garlic

2010-10-14T16:18:00.000-03:00

One of the things that irk me to no end is that virtually all fresh garlic available at the grocery store is imported from China. I’m not opposed to importing foods like oranges and bananas, foods that can’t be grown in our climate. But garlic? Anyone with a patch of garden the size of a phone book can plant garlic. It thrives in our climate and is one of my pet examples of how we have become dependant on imported versions of produce that can so easily be grown locally.

Don’t feel that you have to buy imported garlic this time of year. Visit Acorn or Buy Local NB to search for local growers. Another option is Hope Seeds (based in NB but soon moving to NS). They usually offer seed stock for growing but this year are selling what they call “table” stock (for cooking). If you’re into garlic you’ll love this because they offer several varieties of garlic in a sampler.

If you’d like to try growing your own garlic, mid-October is the time to plant. Halifax Seed offers garlic seed stock from Ontario and Nova Scotia and provides a handy sheet with tips for growing and harvesting. The seed stock bulbs look like regular old garlic to me. You can also try planting grocery store garlic or garlic from a local producer (already naturalized to our climate). Choose the largest cloves for planting.

Growing garlic is as easy as planting tulips. To get started at home here are a few tips:

Choose a sunny, well-drained area. (I have friends who plant garlic in among their perennial flowers.) Plant the individual cloves two inches deep and about six inches apart, pointed end up. Cover with a layer of mulch or leaves once the ground freezes.

In early summer watch for coiled flower stalks (resemble silly straws) called scapes that must be snapped off. This directs energy into developing the bulb rather than a flower. The scapes make great pesto and can be added to any dish that calls for garlic. Weed your garlic patch well since garlic doesn’t like competition.

Sometime in early August you’ll notice the leaves turning brown from the bottom up. When the bottom three or four leaves are dead and the top five or six are still green you can lift the bulbs. If you're not sure, dig a bulb and check. According to one grower, a mature bulb is fully swelled, well sized and has some partially decomposed wrappers. Pull the bulbs out gently and tie in bunches to hang for a couple of weeks in a well ventilated area out of direct sun. After they’re well dried, trim the stalks and roots and brush off any loose soil (or you can braid them).

One of the keys to growing garlic that stores well through the winter is to stop watering it 2-3 weeks before harvest and to choose a dry day to pull the bulbs. Store it at room temperature.

Look for Speerville Flour Mill products (if you live in Atlantic Canada)

2010-10-05T21:19:00.001-03:00

For those of you not familiar with Speerville FLour Mill, they're located right here in New Brunswick. They mill Maritime-grown wheat but also deserve much credit for their efforts in developing a home-grown (literally) market for local organic products. They source the best quality organic products from as close to home as possible. Take a look at their catalogue for more info.

If you're interested in their products let me know. I run a whole food buying group through Speerville Flour Mill, making it easy to shop from their catalog, get bulk rates and free shipping. We have access to a greater variety of Speerville products than is available in local stores and in larger sizes (saves on packaging and lugging from the grocery store and is less expensive).

Choosing a better (and greener) shampoo

2010-09-28T21:11:00.000-03:00

Have you ever felt confused trying to find your way among the hundreds of hair care products available in local stores and salons? I have trouble sifting through all of the ginseng-infused, vitamin B-added claims. I often associate hair washing with green washing since these front-of-the-label claims often mask the not-so-great ingredients in many shampoos, conditioners and styling products.

There are many ingredients common to hair care products that are best avoided. “Natural botanicals” or not, if your products contain sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, phthalates (usually labeled “fragrance”) or parabens you should consider looking for another brand.

Sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate (SLS) is one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in shampoos. It’s the ingredient that causes that nice rich lather you see in ads, but also dries your scalp, stripping oils that are important to a healthy scalp and hair. It has also been known to cause skin and eye irritation, allergic reactions, hair loss and follicle damage.

Phthalates are the synthetic fragrances that are known to be hormone disruptors (linked to reproductive problems, allergies and skin problems) and parabens are preservatives that mimic female hormones and have been found in breast tumor samples.

Any sort of product that you spray on is best avoided as well, since you’re bound to inhale what doesn’t land on your hair.

Also, buying health store-type brands doesn’t necessarily guarantee a less toxic product.

Health Canada requires that manufacturers list all ingredients on the product label, which sounds very responsible of them but what ordinary consumer has any clue what is and isn’t a toxic ingredient? Shampoo and styling product ingredient lists are complicated. That’s why I default to the brands that list upfront what isn’t in their product. Kiss My Face, Burt’s Bees and Desert Essence are three that are helpful in this way. Others, like Olivier (New Brunswick-made) have so few ingredients that it’s no problem at all.

The Environmental Working Group Skin Deep database (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) is a helpful tool for determining just how safe your hair care products are. They classify products into hazard ratings of low, medium and high based on the know ingredients.

Aubrey Organics score well in this database, as do Kiss My Face products. Burt’s Bees and Desert Essence have a hazard rating of low to low-moderate. Many regular drug store brands score middle of the road but a lot score in the red (high) zone. Shampoo bars score lowest of all. Not in the database but a great choice is Canadian-made Green Beaver shampoo.

One note about SLS-free shampoos, they often get a bad rap because they’re not as sudsy as regular drug store brands but you don’t need a thick lather to end up with clean, manageable hair.

Since all of these products get washed down the drain and into our waterways, be sure to use as little as possible. Chances are you don’t need to “apply generously” to get the job done.

Choose zero-VOC paints for your fall reno projects

2010-09-13T21:01:00.000-03:00

Fall has always seemed like a good time to paint. I suspect it’s because we’re suddenly indoors more so can’t ignore scuffed walls, or are in need of a change before settling into winter.

I love the look of a freshly painted room. Slapping on a coat of new paint is one of the simplest and least expensive ways to renovate, a quick and easy way to lift your spirits. But while fresh paint may look wonderful a freshly painted room can be toxic. As long as you can smell fresh paint it is off-gassing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which are toxic chemicals that can cause everything from headaches and dizziness to respiratory tract irritation, memory loss and visual impairment. Many VOCs have been shown to cause cancer in animals and are suspected of being as dangerous to humans.

The toxicity of these fumes can depend on a few things. Dark coloured paint emits more VOCs, some people are more sensitive to these chemicals, and the ventilation in the area where you’re painting will impact toxicity.

Before you get paranoid about repainting the kitchen there are a number of low or zero-VOC paints available locally that can have you breathing easier in your home.

Last fall we repainted two-thirds of our home’s interior. After doing a little research we chose Home Depot’s Natural line (CIL brand) of water-based latex zero VOC paint for our trim and walls. It’s the base that has no VOCs. Tinting the base will add VOCs so sticking with pale colours is your safest bet. This line of paint is EcoLogo certified.

Another option is Benjamin Moore’s Natura line of zero-VOC paints. These are more expensive (almost twice the price of the Home Depot paint) but according to Benjamin Moore the base and the tints are both zero VOC. If you’re looking for deeper tints this might be your best option.

Although these paints are zero VOC, they can still pollute waterways when washed down the drain. To minimize the impact to the environment when cleaning up after a painting project consider the following:

• Wipe the brushes with newspaper before washing in water.

• If you’re mid-job (or just taking a break) wrap your paint-laden brush in plastic.

• If you’re taking a break for more than a day, wrap your wet brush in plastic and place it in the freezer.

If you have used paint to get rid of, Recycle NB offers a recycling program that sees old paint recycled into new and even the paint cans recycled. This recycled paint (Boomerang is the brand) comes in 16 colours and is available at Kent Building Supplies. To participate in the program just drop off your unwanted paint to one of the Recycle NB depots (visit http://www.recyclenb.com/ for a list of drop-off locations). Old paint cannot go in the garbage.

With little or no paint smell to deal with, zero VOC paints make living through home renos easier than ever.

Reusing is my key to back-to-school sanity

2010-09-03T21:23:00.000-03:00

The end of summer is one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year, second only to Christmas. It’s a time when people shop for back-to-school clothes and supplies, whether school is part of their life or not. In the rush to get organized for September people often buy more than they need, which leads to an oversized carbon footprint for the season.

I know that back-to-school shopping has been underway since mid-August (earlier for many) but in our household we hardly give it a thought before September 1st. It’s not that we’re disorganized, it’s because there isn’t much that needs buying. We have simplified the whole process using two principles: reduce and reuse.

Last year we turned school supply shopping into a speedy, one-stop exercise simply by reusing school supplies from the previous year. This is our new back-to-school routine: In early September we sift through the pile of duotangs and such that came home from school in June to see what’s salvageable. We sharpen used pencils, gather last year’s erasers and scissors and dig out the few Hilroy notebooks that didn’t get used last year. With luck all we’ll have to buy this year are a few glue sticks, some loose leaf and a couple of packages of Hilroy Notebooks.

Back-to-school clothes shopping is even easier. It involves hauling out all of our children’s fall and winter clothes to see what fits, and then deciding what we need to buy before the snow flies. We’re never rushed to go shopping for fall clothes on warm, sunny August or September days especially since our kids likely won’t wear much of it until cooler weather hits in October.

If you have yet to finish (or start!) your back-to-school shopping, here are a few tips to make it a bit more eco-friendly and healthy:

• Do an at-home inventory before you shop so you can focus on what you actually need. This goes for clothes as well as school supplies.

• Consider second hand stores for your first round of shopping. When our children need pants we always shop at Value Village. They have a good selection of children’s clothes and they’re well-organized on racks, meaning we can be in and out in about fifteen minutes.

• When you buy new clothes wash them at least once before wearing. New clothes can be chemically treated with formaldehyde so they have a wrinkle-resistant sheen. That “new clothes” look you love can be toxic, especially for children. (Formaldehyde is known to cause cancer and reproductive problems.)

• When buying school or home office supplies look for those made from recycled materials. Staples carries a variety of products, from pens and pencils to duotangs and computer paper made from recycled or reclaimed materials. Naturally for Life – the eco store, carries some too.

• Use this September as a launch pad for packing a litter-less lunch. Use reusable containers, stainless-steel cutlery, cloth napkins and refillable drink containers to eliminate waste from your family’s lunches.

Reducing and reusing can be your keys to shopping sanity throughout the year.

Lots of superfoods are grown locally

2010-08-18T18:48:00.001-03:00

I had my first feed of local blueberries this week and each bite tasted like the essence of a sunny New Brunswick summer. A couple of weeks ago I ate my first NB-grown, field-ripened tomato of the season and thought, this is what a hot July day tastes like. It was the same with the season’s first raspberries and strawberries. A little bit of heaven on a spoon.

This is the time to indulge in local delights but then tuck some away in the freezer so that you can still get a taste of this hot sunny summer through the winter. That’s what we do and I can’t tell you how wonderful a blueberry smoothie tastes in February.

It’s the abundance of fresh local fruit and vegetables this time of year that reminds you how food is supposed to taste. Picked ripe, eaten fresh. If taste and texture are important to you then local produce is the way to go. (No matter how cheap those berries are at Costco, they hardly taste real compared to home grown.) And the bonus: Fresh food consumed close to where it’s grown is more nutritious and has a smaller carbon footprint.

If you’re into food for health reasons you’ll be happy to know that there is an abundance of “super foods” (those foods that are so packed with nutritional goodness that you should make them part of your regular diet) that are grown right here in Atlantic Canada.

A few green blogs I follow recently posted info on super foods and as I scanned these lists I couldn’t help but feel a little smug about the fact that many of the foods featured are grown nearby. That makes them doubly super, since you can get all sorts of goodness without the carbon emissions and buying local supports the Atlantic food economy.

Blueberries top the list for local nutritional goodness since they contain high levels of antioxidants. Strawberries, blackberries and cranberries make the lists too and all grow well in Atlantic Canada. Local blueberries are available at the big grocery stores but look to local markets for the other berries (and blueberries too).

Beans make the list because they’re high in protein, fibre and iron plus they’re low in fat. Some NB-grown dried beans are available through Speerville Flour Mill.

Tomatoes are a super food because they’re so high in lycopene, which supports the immune system. Look for local, field-ripened tomatoes at markets.

Oats contain fibre that has been found to lower total cholesterol and the bad type of cholesterol (LDL), lowering heart-disease risk. Speerville Flour Mill sells rolled oats (called Newfound Oatmeal) made from oats grown right here in the province.

Honey contains B complex vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and can help increase good bacteria in the colon. Most markets carry Atlantic honey.

Broccoli (and other green veggies) are considered super foods for a dozen reasons and all can be found at local markets.

Given all of this, why would we not buy local?

Enjoy roasted beet hummus

2010-08-09T17:44:00.000-03:00

I'm always looking for more ways to cook with beets, especially when they're so plentiful at local markets. I devoured this dip at a friend's house and immediately set to work creating my own version.

Not only is this a yummy dip, it's one of the lovliest I have ever seen.

Roasted beet “hummus”

1 beet, roasted and skinned

1-1 ½ cups cooked chick peas

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

Juice of 1 lemon

1 small clove of garlic

3 T Olive oil

Pinch of cayenne pepper

½ to 1 t plum, sherry or cider vinegar

Sea salt & pepper

To roast your beet, wrap the unpeeled beet in foil, place in a pan and roast at 375 for about 40 minutes or until it can be pierced with a fork.
When the beet is cool enough to touch side the skin off, chop roughly and place in a food processor with remaining ingredients (except salt & pepper). Whiz until it’s smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, and a bit more lemon if you like.

Choose DEET-free bug repellent

2010-07-30T17:18:00.001-03:00

I have never been comfortable with insect repellent. Even in my backwoods camping days it took a lot for me to dab bug spray on my body to keep from being devoured by mosquitoes. But that was in the days before West Nile Virus and before most of us knew of Lyme disease or thought about ticks.

For the past few years we have relied on bug shirts (the mesh cover ups that zip right over your head and offer sanity in black fly season), pants and long sleeved shirts, and citronella oil if we’re going to be outside during the busiest biting times (early morning and dusk). But now that ticks are on the radar in our region I have been giving more thought to insect repellants that are effective against ticks too.

The thing is I want to avoid products containing DEET. Although DEET has been approved by Health Canada there hasn’t been a review of the product in years and research has shown that DEET exposure can cause neurological harm -- dizziness, headaches, nausea and psychological problems -- in people who used it often (once a day for five days or more). A bit more background: DEET is a member of the same chemical family as solvents used in paint removers.

There are plant-based repellents that have proven to be as effective as DEET, but just don’t last as long. (They offer up to three and a half hours of protection, depending on the product). Most contain one or more of the following: citronella, lavender, geranium, peppermint, soy bean oil. The challenge is finding them.

Druide citronella soap bar, available at Naturally for Life, helps to repel mosquitoes. Broody Chick Bug Be Gone is a safe product for babies, also available at Naturally for Life.

Buzz Away, a product containing soybean, geranium, castor, citronella, peppermint and lemongrass oils, is effective against mosquitoes but not ticks. You can find this in the natural food section at SuperStore.

Two DEET-free products that get the highest rating from the Green Guide (published by National Geographic) are All Terrain Herbal Armour (repels mosquitoes and ticks) and Badger Anti-Bug Balm (repels mosquitoes). Both can be purchased online.

In general, choose your repellent based on how badly you’ll need to be protected, for how long you’re going to need coverage and what you need protection from. Remember too that clothing offers good chemical-free protection (pants, socks, long sleeved shirts).

If you do choose a product containing DEET, keep this in mind: A 30% concentration of DEET (the highest available in Canada) offers six hours of protection, compared to two hours protection for products containing a 5% concentration. The higher concentration doesn’t offer better protection, just longer. Children (12 and under) shouldn’t use concentrations any higher than 10%. It should be applied sparingly and not to the face or hands. DEET should not be applied more than once a day. Also, be sure to abide by all of the instructions on the label.

A great summer burger - minus the meat

2010-07-26T16:49:00.004-03:00

I have been experimenting with burger recipes and discovered that you can create a great burger out of almost anything. One of my early favourites is black bean burgers. Paired with mango salsa they make a yummy meal on a hot summer evening.

Black bean burgers

2 cups cooked black beans
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1 clove garlic
½ cup panko (bread crumbs) or crushed tortilla chips
Juice and zest of one lemon or lime
1 ½ t chili powder
½ t cumin
1-2 T salsa
1 egg, beaten
¼ c chopped cilantro
¼ cup feta
Salt & pepper to taste
Panko for coating
Oil for frying

In a medium bowl mash the beans, leaving some whole. Add remaining ingredients and form into small patties (3”). Let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes (if you have time).

To cook, pan fry over medium heat for a few minutes each side. It you like them crispy coat with panko before frying (sprinkle panko on a plate and press both sides of the burgers onto it).

Mango salsa:

1 mango, diced
2 tomatoes, diced (can seed them too, if you prefer)
1 very small clove of garlic (pressed)
3 scallions or 2-4 T finely diced onion
1 T or so of olive oil
Juice and zest of a lemon or lime
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Your favorite herb (chives, basil, cilantro…)

Combine all ingredients in a blue bowl (looks very pretty).
This salsa goes well with chicken and fish too.

Taking care of your compost bin

2010-07-19T21:01:00.000-03:00

Our compost cart took a turn for the worse this week, erupting with hundred’s of tiny (really awful) larvae. This is the second outbreak this summer and it suddenly occurred to me that there might be a way to avoid it.

After a bit of research I discovered that we have inadvertently been cultivating the growth of pests in our compost cart. To get out of this nasty cycle, Fundy SWAT recommends the following:

• Crumple newspaper in the bottom of your compost cart to absorb liquid.

• Tightly wrap meat, bones, fish & dairy in newspaper to deter flies. The newspaper will provide a natural carbon filter.

• Include garden clippings, wood chips, evergreen branches, sawdust, leaves, or baking soda in your cart to act as a natural filter.

• Always put your cart out for collection on pick-up day.

• Regularly rinse the cart with a garden hose.

• Make sure that the air vents at the bottom of the compost cart are kept clear. These holes enable the compostable material to receive air, helping to keep it from getting smelly.

• Rub Vicks Vapour Rub or A535 (a muscle ointment) on the air vents on the Compost Cart to mask odours and deter animals.

• Store your compost cart in a ventilated, shaded area.

• If you have a large amount of meat or fish, freeze it until compost pick-up day.

• If you do get bugs in your compost cart, sprinkle garden lime in your cart. (It raises the pH level, creating the wrong environment for the larva to live.) Also try cleaning your cart with a toilet brush using a mixture of warm water and borax (2 T to 1 litre of water)

Don’t let bugs (or other pests) deter you from using your compost. Something as simple as tossing food waste in the bin can cut your household waste – and what goes into the landfill – by as much as 40%.

More info on safe sunscreen

2010-07-09T12:29:00.000-03:00

I have continued my search for safe, effective and easy to find sunscreen lotions. My last recommendation, I was disappointed to learn, wasn’t that easy to find after all. (It had almost identical packaging with two readily available Coppertone products so I was initially duped). I have now replaced our family sunscreen with the following brands that are very easy to find locally:

Coppertone Water Babies (the pink bottle) offers excellent UVB protection, good UVA protection, excellent stability (doesn’t breakdown in the sun) and has a low/moderate toxicity rating of 3. Be sure to buy the cream, not the aerosol. This is by far the easiest sunscreen to find and is great for people of all ages (not just kids).

My best find yet is the Badger Sunscreen Face Stick. It offers good UVB coverage, excellent UVA protection, excellent stability and a low toxicity rating of 1. Look for this at your local eco or health food store.

Another I researched but haven’t tried is La Roche-Posay Anthelios 45 (not the 60). It also has a toxicity rating of 3, excellent UVB & UVA protection and excellent stability. Be forewarned - it's pricey (over $20 for a small tube)/ Look for this at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Get out of the grocery store and create your own local food network.

2010-07-05T22:40:00.000-03:00

I used to think that having a couple of major grocery chains nearby constituted choice. That was before I was tuned into the local food movement and before garlic imported from China irked me. I changed my tune around the time I learned that some major chains consider produce to be “local” if it can be trucked from its source within 24 hours. I didn’t agree so began putting developing my own “food network” - a list of growers and producers, shops and markets that offered easy access to food that is grown right here in the province.

Now is a great time to create your own local food network, to get out of the grocery store and into a community of growers, producers and sellers who will help to connect your table to the land and help us all become less dependent on food that is trucked in from faraway places.

The best place to start is to visit your local markets, the seasonal and year-round sellers of produce, meat and dairy. Most of these markets buy from their own network of local producers and can easily tell you what on their shelves was produced in province.

If you’re looking exclusively for organic producers visit ACORN a non-profit based in Sackville that promotes organic agriculture in Atlantic Canada. Their website includes an easy-to-search database of all certified producers and processors in Atlantic Canada. You can search by province and by product type or you can bring up a map of the province and click on the icons for information on the farmers and producers in different regions. You can buy directly from most of these producers and may of them also sell through local markets.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick manages a similar database called Buy Local NB . In their database you can layer your search to find, for example, restaurants between Saint John and Sussex that use local ingredients. Or you can search for a butcher, a baker or a grocer in your geographic area of choice. (My search for garlic netted five local sellers.) This site just launched last year so has lots of room to grow, but it’s a good starting point if you want to become more familiar with people and places that sell locally produced food.

The newest online source for information about local food is Smart Eat TV, an online community with a goal to connect people with the wonders of local food produced throughout the Maritimes. It’s part TV channel (will soon feature episodes about local food) part blog, part recipe-swapping forum.

Another source of locally produced food is Speerville Flour Mill. They produce a variety of flours using Maritime-grown grains and offer a great selection of other products from Maritime producers. I run a buying group through Speerville Mill so if you’re looking for a greater variety of their products than is available at the grocery store just let me know.

Finding a better sunscreen

2010-06-21T15:49:00.001-03:00

One of the more complicated green living decisions in our household each year is choosing sunscreen. That might sound a bit ridiculous but based on a lot of recent research, making a choice can get quite complicated. Here’s why: Sunscreen contains toxins that can be harmful when absorbed through your skin; your sunscreen is likely to be much less effective than the SPF rating leads you to believe; chances are it won’t protect you from harmful UVA rays; and the higher the SPF you choose the more time you’re probably going to spend in the sun slathered in a false sense of security.

These are the findings of Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) fourth annual review of sunscreen. For this year’s report they analyzed 500 sunscreens, including all of the major brands, and rated them according to their safety and effectiveness.

EWG isn’t trying to scare us away from sunscreen (although that might be your first reaction) their goal is to help us choose our sunscreen very carefully.

Potentially hazardous oxybenzone is an ingredient in about 60% of the sunscreens tested. It’s a hormone-disruptor that gets absorbed into your body through your skin. About 41% of sunscreens tested also contain a form of vitamin A called retinyl palmitate (a compound that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found could promote the development of skin cancer because of the way it reacts with sunlight.)

Studies show that on average we only apply about a quarter of the amount we should to get the SPF protection promised and we don’t reapply often enough to sustain protection.

Even if you apply and reapply as directed your brand still may not protect you against UVA radiation, the sunlight that doesn’t cause burns but still damages your skin.

And finally, studies have also shown that those who choose sunscreen with a really high SPF rating spend a lot longer in the sun than those who sport products with a lower SPF.

Before you stress out over what to slather on this summer remember that there are plenty of ways to stay safe in the sun, with and without sunscreen.
Cover up with clothing and a hat to protect your skin from the sun. (Sunscreen should never be your first or only line of defense against the sun.)
Search EWG’s database of sunscreens to find a safe and effective brand of sunscreen . EWG has slotted brands into three categories: green for recommend, yellow for caution and red for avoid. The database also provides a UVA and UVB protection rating and rates how well the sunscreen lasts. On the site you’ll find the list of what they consider to be the base (none of which have I seen around here).

I searched some of the most common brands around and found that Coppertone Pure & Simple and Sensitive Skin lines have a moderate rating of 3, just one point out of the “recommend “zone. Beware of other popular brands like Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic and Aveeno. Most of these brands fall to the “avoid” zone, even the lines for babies and kids.

Another family friendly way to eat Swiss chard (or any early greens)

2010-06-17T17:01:00.007-03:00

I often over-buy greens in the spring because I'm so excited to have something fresh and local. Lucky for me I'm building a bank of delicious ways to eat them. This galette recipe is my favourite so far. Those of you who have tried my Swiss chard pasta recipe will recognize the filling -- it's exactly the same only with eggs added.

The great thing about a galette is that you don't have to be a whiz with pastry and the free-form assembly always looks great. Don't let the length of this recipe fool you into thinking it's complicated to prepare.

Swiss chard galette
Cooks at 375 for about 45 minutes

Pastry:

2 1/2 cups whole grain pastry flour (regular flour works too, if you don’t have pastry flour)

1 cup butter (cold, cold, cold)

1 t sugar

½ t sea salt

½ cup ice water

Filling:

1/3 cup currants

Juice of 1 lemon

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large bunch of beet greens or Swiss chard

Zest of 1 lemon

¾ cup feta, crumbled

¼ cup pine nuts (or almonds or walnuts)

2 eggs, beaten

pepper

For the pastry:

Combine dry ingredient in a food processor. Add butter in chunks and pulse until butter is pea-sized. Add ice water and whirr just until dough starts to come together. Remove from processor and place on a lightly floured counter. Knead gently just until you have a smooth dough. Flatten into a disk and refrigerate for at least an hour. (Pastry can last in the fridge for a week or so).

For the filling:

In a small bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon over the currants and set aside.

Remove stems from greens and chop into 1 cm pieces. Roughly chop the leaves.

Over medium heat sauté the onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic & cook one minute. Add chopped stems to the onion mixture cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir and add the chopped leaves. Cook until soft (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat & add a few grinds of black pepper & the currant-lemon mixture.

Stir in feta, pine nuts, lemon zest and egg just before you scrape it onto the prepared dough (you don’t want the egg to start to cook).

Assembly:

Use 2/3 of the dough (save the rest for a fruit galette). On a lightly-floured surface roll out dough into a rough circle about ¼” thick. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet (sided sheet is best, in case the galette runs over).

Scrape filling onto the pastry, leaving a 2 ½ - 3 inch border. Gently fold the border in over the filling, overlapping the dough where needed.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until pastry looks golden in spots. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Lots of action in New Brunswick's local food scene!

2010-06-09T20:45:00.006-03:00

A new food channel of sorts, Smart Eat TV is a site that's setting itself up to be (in its own words) "the social network where east means best – the best ingredients, kitchens and stories."

Don't we Maritimers say that some of the best parties (and online communities) end up in the kitchen? Looks like this'll be another. Check it out.

Benefits of eco-friendly shaving

2010-06-08T16:10:00.001-03:00

My top pick for a non-toxic eco-friendly
shave is shaving soap

I recently read that the average adult uses nine personal care products each day which combined contain about 120 chemicals. If you’d like to reduce the number of chemicals in your life choosing more natural versions of these everyday products is your best route.

A case in point is shaving. It’s something that most men do on a daily basis and hardly give a second thought. But it is worth thinking about if you’re using conventional shaving products because the toxins found in women’s cosmetics and personal care products are found in men’s products too.

Conventional shaving creams usually contain synthetic chemicals that could be carcinogenic, hormone disrupting and at the very least irritating. The synthetic fragrance alone could cause reproductive problems, as do the preservatives (called parabens). Some studies have also linked them to liver and kidney tumours. Using warm water to prepare your skin for shaving opens your pores, making it easier for these toxins to penetrate your skin and build up in your body over time.

My top pick for a non-toxic eco-friendly shave is shaving soap, along with a shaving brush. Forget the perception that using old fashioned shaving soap takes more time. It takes all of ten seconds to create a thick creamy lather in the soap dish and it’s quick and easy to apply. The rest is the same: Shave. Rinse. Go about your day. I have also read that many dermatologists recommend using a shaving brush and shaving soap since the brush works the soap into the hair bristles, making the shave closer and less irritating.

Olivier shaving soap is your best choice. It’s truly natural (made with olive oil, cocoa butter, beeswax and fragrant oil), costs $9.95 and lasts practically forever. The brush costs $11.95 and you can buy both at their shop in the Saint John City Market or order online at http://www.oliviersoaps.com/. Their soaps are hand-made in small batches at their soapery in Ste. Anne de Kent, New Brunswick.
The chemicals in conventional shaving products aren’t the only un-green aspect of the daily ritual. Half a billion razors and all that packaging get tossed out by Canadians each year. Here are a few things you can do to ensure you’re not adding to the pile:

Choose reusable razors instead of disposable razors and buy good quality blades so they last longer. To extend the life of your blade consider buying an EverBlade, a razor blade stand designed to repel rust and corrosion from the blade. According to many enthusiastic reviews I found online a single blade can easily last four to eight months thanks to this stand and at a cost of $30 it will likely pay for itself in a month (http://www.greeneverblade.com/).

With Father’s Day just around the corner consider giving one of these eco options as a gift this year.

It's June! Start cooking with fresh, local ingredients

2010-06-03T21:38:00.004-03:00

Where I live beet greens are just about the first local ingredients to be found at the markets (after fiddleheads, that is). Make a meal of these tasty greens with this delicious pasta recipe.

Pasta with greens (beet greens or Swiss chard)

1/3 cup currants

Juice of 1 lemon

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large bunch of beet greens or Swiss chard

Zest of 1 lemon

5 oz of goat’s cheese or feta

¼ cup toasted pine nuts (or almonds or walnuts)

Sea salt and pepper

¾ lb pasta (penne works well)

-Set pasta water to boil in a covered pot.

-In a small bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon over the currants and set aside.

-Remove stems from greens and chop into 1 cm pieces. Roughly chop the leaves.

-Over medium heat saute the onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic & cook one minute. Add chopped stems to the onion mixture cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir and add the chopped leaves. Cook until soft (about 5 minutes).

-When pasta is cooked drain and return to the pot. Add greens mixture, lemon zest, currants and lemon juice, and cheese. Toss, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately, with pine nuts sprinkled over.

Eco-friendly mowers

2010-05-31T15:02:00.006-03:00

I love the smell of fresh-cut grass but don’t care for all that goes along with it: the noise, the exhaust fumes, the smell of spilled gasoline.

Gas-powered mowers pollute way beyond their worth. An hour of mowing with a traditional gas-powered mower pollutes as much as driving 320 kilometers in a typical car. So throughout the mowing season obsessive mowers could be polluting the equivalent of a 4,000 km road trip while never leaving the yard. Environment Canada estimates emissions from off-road engines (lawn mowers included) make up about 9% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. On top of this, millions of gallons of gas are spilled each year by owners refilling their mowers.

I agree that mowing is a necessary evil but there are less evil ways to cut the grass. A goat would be my preferred but for all sorts of practical reasons that solution doesn’t suit our household (or neighbourhood).

For several years we used a reel mower – one of those old-fashioned-looking push mowers. The new versions are much lighter than the tank I recall in the corner of our basement when I was little. A reel mower is great for biceps, and offers a practical solution for nice flat lawns that aren’t too big. They’re quiet enough for early morning mowing and don’t pollute. Ours however became too much work for our large bumpy yard. Based on observation (I don’t mow, I garden) lawn mowing as an athletic workout for my husband lost its charm after five summers of pushing.

Figuring we needed a new, but still eco-friendly, way to mow he did a little research on rechargeable mowers and just this week came home with an Earthwise cordless electric mower. Electric mowers are great for many reasons. They’re quieter than gas-powered mowers, reduce pollution from mowing by about 90% and use only as much power as a toaster. Over the summer an electric mower will use roughly $5 worth of power.

I was inspired to give ours a try and was impressed. What I love about this new mower is that it’s easy to start; you just insert a key and pull a lever (no yanking on a cord). I found it heavy but not too heavy to push comfortably (ours has a 20” cutting path so is on the bigger side). It cut easily through thick grass and mulches the clippings so they’re left to nourish the lawn. Best of all I wasn’t walking through a path of smog that is typical for gas-powered mowers.

The battery lasts an hour, which is about enough mowing for me and recharges overnight. If you’re in the market for a mower there are several cordless options to choose from. We bought ours at Kent Building Supplies but Home Depot carries several brands too. If you’d prefer to try a reel mower they’re easy to find. I have even noticed a few promoted in hardware store flyers recently.

Bringing Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" to your table

2010-05-04T21:45:00.002-03:00

Fresh cut shoestring fries

The key to making these oven-baked fries crispy is to cut them as thinly as possible

One sweet potato
3 medium potatoes
2 T olive oil
Sea salt and pepper

Peel potatoes or just give them a good scrub if they’re thin skinned. (Sweet potato will have to be peeled).

Slice them as thinly as possible and toss in a bowl with oil and salt and pepper.

Spread in a single layer on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. (Oil the sheet lightly if you don’t have parchment paper).

Bake at 450 for about half an hour (or until they’re crisp to your liking), moving them around the baking sheet every 10 minutes or so.

Remove from oven and serve at once.

Great variation:
In addition to the salt and pepper toss with ¼ t Chili powder and ¼ t oregano.

Quinoa salad with peppers and peas
This grain cooks quickly, has a wonderful texture and is especially nutritious. This recipe works well with rice, barley and bulgar too.

1 ½ cups quinoa
3 cups water or broth
1 red pepper, finely diced
1 cup frozen peas, boiled for one minute
2 T (or to taste) of whatever fresh herb you have on hand.

Dressing:
Juice & zest of one lemon
5 T olive oil
1 T honey or maple syrup
Sea salt & pepper

Put quinoa and water in a medium pot. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook until water is absorbed (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Scrape into a bowl.

Meanwhile, scrub the pepper well before dicing.
Add the pepper and peas to the quinoa and toss with dressing (you won’t need the whole batch).

Season with salt and pepper.

Variations:
Shave red cabbage overtop before serving (very pretty).
Add finely diced mango instead of the peas and use lime juice in the dressing
Add chopped baby spinach or arugula

Speedy salmon burgers
My kids devour these like they're cookies.

1 lb raw salmon or trout
1 large potato, boiled and mashed
1 egg, beaten
½ cup panko or dry breadcrumbs
1 T plain yogurt
Salt & pepper
3 T fresh herbs (Chives, dill or tarragon) or 1 t dried
Good squeeze of lemon

Chop the fish and mix with remaining ingredients.
Form into 3” mini burgers and fry in oil until cooked, flipping halfway through.

Variation:
Works with other fish too.
Try patting in panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) before frying.

Greening-up your diet just got easier

2010-05-04T21:36:00.004-03:00

If you’re on a mission to green-up your diet and are looking for some quick guidance you’re in luck, Michael Pollan has a new book that proves it really isn’t that complicated to adopt a diet that’s healthier for you and the planet. Titled Food Rules, it’s a 140-page paperback that can be read in an hour but you might want to read it more than once and may be leave it on the counter as a reminder.

Pollan has written a couple of great books on how to eat but in this new book he has distilled his key ideas into dozens of easy-to-understand (some highly amusing) statements about what and how to eat. If ever there was a Coles Notes for eating well (in the green sense of the word) this book is it.

As I have mentioned before, I often get asked for green eating guidance. I only wish I was as clever and concise with my advice as Pollan. He’s the guy who summed up his food philosophy in seven words: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” By this he means eat whole food that you have prepared yourself, rather than prepackaged, highly processed edibles. He recommends that everyone eat more vegetables and treat meat more like a condiment. And in the context of these first two principles he recommends that we spend more on quality ingredients and eat less overall.

If you’re wondering where to begin with greening your diet the format of Pollan’s book works really well. He offers 64 starting points (what he calls rules) that make perfect sense and are so memorable that they’ll be running through your head at the grocery store just like a catchy tune.

Here are a few of my favourites:

-Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
-It’s not food if it arrives through the window of your car.
-Avoid foods that you see advertised on television.
-Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
-Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
-Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it.
-Cook.

Pollan is tough on highly processed foods, calling them “edible foodlike substances” and he backs up his criticism with a mix of facts and opinion that might have you feeling a little sheepish, depending on how you feel about your current diet. But he does end with the rule “Break the rules once in a while” because eating well most of the time is what we all need.

If you’re looking for more ways to green-up your diet I’ll be speaking about food at the Maritime Green Living Expo at the Trade & Convention Centre on Sunday, May 30. http://www.maritimegreenexpo.com/

Be choosey about the toothpaste you use

2010-04-27T21:35:00.001-03:00

Have you ever read the warning label on a tube of toothpaste? Are you alarmed that toothpaste even has a warning label? I’ll guess that few people have bothered to read the safe use instructions on the package, including not swallowing the toothpaste and, on some popular brands, “Recommended for adults and children over 12 years.”

Why should we all be concerned about this? Because most people haven’t a clue what’s in toothpaste and digging up a list of ingredients takes more than a little effort.

You might be surprised to discover that conventional toothpaste contains the artificial sweetener Saccharin. Health Canada banned the use of Saccharin in food 30 years ago due to animal studies that linked consumption to an increased risk of bladder cancer. (They are currently rethinking that ban, due to heavy lobbying from the diet-food industry, but many scientists continue to recommend against lifting the ban.)

Most brands also contain Triclosan as an antibacterial agent. The EPA considers Triclosan a pesticide and part of a class of chemicals that is thought to cause cancer in humans. Most whitening toothpaste also contains lye, considered a poison by the FDA

Then there is the controversy around fluoride. It’s not that fluoride is bad it’s just that we may be getting too much of it. When you combine toothpaste, fluoridated drinking water in some communities (not Rothesay or Quispamsis) and the consumption of all sorts of processed foods that are made with municipal water that is fluoridated, some health experts are worried that we’re ingesting too much fluoride. It builds up in our bones and among other things is linked to increasing rates of bone cancer in young boys.

Children under the age of two shouldn’t use toothpaste with fluoride and all children should be supervised while brushing to prevent swallowing. Not that it helps. The commercial brands for kids are formulated to taste just like candy and putting a toothbrush spread with children’s toothpaste in a child’s mouth is like giving them a lollypop and telling them not to swallow.

Now that you know some ingredients you might like to avoid, there are several alternatives to conventional drug store toothpaste, including options for children.

Tom’s of Maine gets a good rating since it’s saccharin-free, Triclosan-free and offers several options without fluoride, as do Natures Gate, Jason and Green Beaver (made in Canada). All carry a great variety of flavours. My children won’t budge from Tom’s of Maine Apricot and I prefer Nature’s Gate Fennel.

These brands are more expensive than convention brands but keep in mind you only need a small amount to do the job. For a little extra whitening power (minus the lye) keep a little pot of baking soda by the sink and brush with that a few times a week. Combined with proper flossing you won’t be compromising your dental health for the sake of overall wellness.

Do you colour your hair? Switch to eco-friendly (and less toxic) alternatives

2010-04-12T20:32:00.001-03:00

In my life, the last thing to go green was my hair. Chemically-speaking I was taking much better care of my lawn than I was my own hair…which probably sounds ridiculous but the truth is that for the longest time I ignored the fact that covering up my grey hair was a toxic habit.

I doubt anyone would be truly surprised that hair colour is toxic, considering the eye-watering smell. Almost all hair colourant (temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent), contains a laundry list of petrochemicals and other toxins. In particular hair dye contains ammonia and p-Phenylenediamine (PPD for short) and although there are concerns associated with both of these chemicals it appears that PPD is the most worrisome. PPD is on Health Canada’s “Hot List” (Health Canada’s term, not mine) a list of prohibited and restricted cosmetic ingredients and as such manufacturers are required to list warnings on both the inside and the outside of the packaging.

There is a lot of research to back up worries about hair dye. A number of studies link higher instances of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to prolonged use of hair dye, particularly deeper colours. According to another study, those who use permanent hair dye are twice as likely to develop bladder cancer as those who don’t and yet another study links long-term use of hair dye with ovarian cancer. Allergic reactions to PPD are also well documented.

Permanent dye is more toxic than semi-permanent and darker tints are more toxic than lighter tints. If you’re someone who lightens their hair you still need to worry, just not as much.

The truly green thing to do would be to let my hair go grey at its own pace. But since I’m not ready for that I went looking for a less toxic dye that wouldn’t keep me up at night with worry and would keep my hair its previously natural colour.

I have found two salon brands that are ammonia-free with lower concentrations of PPD. So far I have tried a Schwarkopf product called Essensity that has no odor and covers my grey just fine. Next I’ll try Aveda hair colour. They offer a range of products that are 93% to 99% plant-based.

If you prefer the do-it-yourself kits, experiment with some alternatives to mainstream brands that contain lower concentration of the worst chemicals. Try a less-toxic brand like Herbatint permanent or semi-permanent hair dye. Both are ammonia-free, the permanent has low concentrations of PPD and the semi-permanent is PPD-free. Naturcolor is another brand to look for.

Then there is always henna. Made from the leaves of a desert shrub you can’t get more natural and non-toxic than that.

If you’re going to stick with your regular brand be sure to heed the warning label, including the safe-use instructions, don’t leave the hair dye on any longer than directed by the package, always wear gloves when you apply hair dye, rinse your scalp well (and cross your fingers).

Eco-friendly furniture

2010-04-04T17:12:00.000-03:00

Who among us doesn’t have a favourite chair to lounge in at home? I know I do. Mine is a comfy red armchair that came from my mom and dad’s house, and my great aunt’s before that. It’s sturdy and elegant and just the place I like to sit with my coffee each morning.

It’s hard to believe that something as simple as a stuffed chair or couch could be rife with environmental issues. Here’s the problem: Since the late 1980’s the foam and fabric in furniture has been treated with flame retardants, which is a great concept except that they’re highly toxic and have been linked to liver and thyroid problems. Flame retardants build up in our fatty tissue and stay there forever. Even Environment Canada considers them toxic but the government has only phased out two of the tree most worrisome ones.

So what can you do about your existing furniture or what if you’re shopping for new?

If the foam in your existing furniture is showing wear then consider having it replaced with eco-friendly foam (soy-based foam is becoming more common). Worn out foam creates nasty dust that you don’t want to be breathing. It’s good to be in the habit of dusting and vacuuming often too (note to self). If you’re having furniture reupholstered choose natural fabrics (they don’t need to be treated) or inquire if your fabric of choice has been treated.

If you want something brand new there are eco-friendly options available. IKEA is a good choice since they banned the flame retardants in question in 2000. La-Z-Boy has a new line of environmentally conscious furniture that has soy-based cushions and fabrics made from recycled water bottles (although they don’t say how the fabric is treated). DeBoer’s everGreen line is healthy choice with eco-friendly fabric like wool, organic cotton, hemp, flax, and linen and natural latex foam cushions. If these don’t appeal to you ask for foam and fabric options when you’re buying new, so you can avoid the worst flame retardants. (The polybrominated family, also know as PBDE, is what you want to steer clear of).

There are many more ways to green your furniture. Before you buy anything brand new think about other options. My favourite way to revive tired furniture is to have it slip covered or reupholstered (and re-stuffed if necessary). That avoids the chain reaction of having something end up in the landfill. I also love secondhand furniture. If it’s solidly constructed (and the old stuff usually is) and has great lines then it’s worthwhile to have a piece refurbished. Check kijiji or local second hand stores for bargain finds and then put your money into buying just the fabric you want.

One more thing you need to know, stain guard fabric treatments do not offer peace of mind. They’re formaldehyde or Teflon-based so highly toxic and prone to off-gassing. To avoid stain guards (and hopefully stains too) try to keep food and drink away from your furniture and treat spills and splotches immediately.

Celebrate Earth Hour, Saturday, March 27 (8:30-9:30)

2010-03-25T10:47:00.002-03:00

Saturday March 27, from 8:30 to 9:30, is Earth Hour, a global event that invites you to have fun in the dark as a way to speak out against climate change.

Earth Hour started as a single event in Sydney Australia in 2007. In that first year 2.2 million residents and businesses took part by turning out their lights for an hour on one coordinated evening. The result was a 10 per cent reduction in power draw on the grid which prevented 25,000 tones of carbon dioxide emissions.

Last year Earth Hour grew to one billion participants worldwide, ten million of which were Canadians. Who would have thought that a 60 minute event could change the world?

You can consider Earth Hour a global political movement, a convincing statement that we think the environment is important. No wise politician (and I’m not being facetious) would ignore it: More than half of Canadian adults took part in Earth Hour in 2009 and this year, on the heels of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, organizers are expecting participation to be even greater.

I’m all for the political agenda of the event but I think the potential of Earth Hour goes beyond politics. It’s proof that the world doesn’t stop when the power goes out and that there are a lot of fun, off-grid things to do in an evening. (Wouldn’t it be great if we were a little less dependent on the power grid for our evening’s entertainment?)

Earth Hour can be as fun as a childhood power outage with all the convenience of a well-planned party. (A meal can be cooked and ready to serve. No stumbling in the dark looking for flashlights.) I have fond childhood memories of the Groundhog Gale and a Christmas Day power outage where everything but the already-cooked turkey was prepared on the woodstove. My mom may have been near heart failure but it was like a grand adventure for us kids.

Why not recreate the adventure by planning your own celebration with family and friends:

- If you have an outdoor fireplace, invite your neighbours over for a chat by the fire. Toast marshmallows or make s’mores.
- Share a candlelit meal with family or friends, or just you and someone special. You can be intrepid and cook the meal on the woodstove, or make a fondu, to reduce your evening’s carbon footprint even more.
- Play cards or a board game by candlelight.
- Stargaze.
- Sit by the fire and chat
- Bundle up and go for a walk
- Read outloud by candlelight

Give it a try and you’ll discover that togetherness feels different when the power is out. We engage more with one another without the distractions of television or the computer and I think we listen better in the dark.

However you choose to celebrate consider registering your participation on the Earth Hour website so you’ll be counted (http://www.earthhourcanada.org/). The site will also provide real-time updates on the event across Canada and around the world.

Who needs meat when great vegetarian recipes abound?

2010-03-13T08:31:00.002-04:00

Moroccan chickpea stew

2 t paprika
1 t cumin
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic (or more, if you like)
2 carrots, diced
1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
2-3 good tomatoes, diced
1 cup broth (or water)
Pinch of saffron
2 cups cooked chickpeas
Sea salt & pepper
Good squeeze of lemon
Fresh cilantro or mint

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. When warmed to shimmering add the paprika and cumin. Swirl around for a minute and add onions and garlic. Cook until soft. Add carrots and cauliflower. Stir and cover. Steam for about 5 minutes, stirring a few times.

When vegetables lose their crispness add the tomatoes. Cook until bubbling. Add the chickpeas and broth, along with the saffron. Cook until vegetables are tender. Season with salt & pepper and lemon juice. Stir in your herb of choice.

Serve with couscous.

This is also great with green or black olives added. Feel free to increase the quantity of spices, and look for smoked paprika: it adds a wonderful dimension to the flavour. You can also toss in a 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick in to the mixture, or ¼ t of cinnamon when you add the other spices.

Black bean fajitas

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic
2 t chili powder (or more)
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cup cooked black beans
Squeeze of lime
Zest of 1/2 a lime
Sea salt & pepper

Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add chili powder and cook for a minute. Add tomatoes and black beans. Cook until heated through and thickened. Season with salt & pepper. Add lime juice and zest.

Serve with warmed tortilla shells and a selection of garnishes. Our favourites are avocado slices, slivers of red pepper, salsa, and carrot cabbage slaw.

It’s important to give the red pepper a good scrub in hot soapy water and rinse well since bell peppers are known to have high pesticide residue.

The best thing for the environment? Eat less meat.

2010-03-13T08:28:00.002-04:00

For years health care practitioners have been telling us that if we ate less meat we’d all be a lot healthier. The average North American eats twice as much meat today as we did fifty years ago and it’s taking a toll on our collective health. Is it any surprise that our voracious appetite for meat is taking its toll on the environment too? The environmental impact of meat production (we’re talking mostly the large factory farms) is so extensive that the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the best thing you can do for the environment is to eat less meat.

To put it in perspective, the Canada Food Guide says a serving of meat (or fish or poultry) should be about 2.5 to 3 oz. and as little as 1 oz. for a child. A quick search of restaurant websites shows a lot of 8 oz. and 10 oz. steaks on menus, a serving that could feed a family of four.

What does that mean for the environment?

According to a UN study, the mass production of meat today accounts for 18% of green house gas emissions world wide. That’s more than the combined emissions from planes, trains and automobiles.

Deforestation to create pasture land and to grow crops to feed livestock is another issue. An acre of trees disappears every eight seconds (including rain forest) to create pasture and crop land. Since trees absorb carbon dioxide the impact on global warming is significant.

Factory farms, the source of most meat, pollute a lot. Manure run off can seep into waterways, a problem that is thought to be behind the deadly E. coli outbreak in Walkerton several years ago that killed six people.

If E. coli in our drinking water worries you consider this: 50% of antibiotics used in Canada are fed to livestock. Cramped quarters in factory farms means diseases are rampant so live stock is fed a steady diet of antibiotics to keep the animals from getting ill.

I could go on and on (ethical issues surrounding the treatment of animals on factory farms, pollution from meat processing plants) but suffice to say that cutting back even a bit on meat consumption could help the earth in many ways. (If Americans ate 10% less meat there would be enough grain left over to feed 60 million people. So in simplified terms there really is a solution to world hunger.)
If reducing the amount of meat you consume poses a challenge in your household here are a few tips to get you started:

Look for organic or naturally-raised meat. Livestock fed a natural, organic diet are happier, healthier and more nutritious. To find local producers check out these websites: www.acornorganic.org, http://kuinshoeve.ca, www.buylocalnb.ca.

Reduce the portion size when you do eat meat and load up on more whole grains and vegetables.

Try eating one less meat-based meal each week. Substitute meat alternatives like beans for the meat in some of your favourite recipes.

Making the most of your CFL's

2010-02-19T14:36:00.004-04:00

We all know that swapping out old incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) is one painless way to reduce your annual power bill. (Lights account for about 5% of overall household power use). CFLs use 75 percent less energy than their incandescent counterparts and last up to 10 times longer. When you do the light bulb math each CFL bulb can prevent more than 450 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. And depending on electrical rates you could save about $80 in energy costs over the life of the bulb.

If you’re going to make this worthwhile investment (and it is an investment, considering the cost) you’ll want to ensure each bulb lasts a good long time.

A friend was complaining recently that CFL bulbs in his home weren’t lasting nearly as long as they were supposed to. We were noticing the same thing so I did some research and discovered a few tips to help extend the life of your pricey bulbs:

- In fixtures on a dimmer switch use dimmable CFLs (should be stated on the packaging). Dimmers shorten the life of regular CFLs.

- CFLs are best in areas where they’re likely to be on for 15 minutes at a time or longer. Using them in places where they’ll be turned on and off frequently (like closets and bathrooms) will shorten their life.

- For totally enclosed fixtures buy bulbs that state clearly on that packaging that they’re designed for this use.

- If the bulb has been used according to the manufacturer’s instructions and still burns out early you may be eligible for a refund or a replacement. Energy Star certified bulbs carry at least a two-year warranty (covering manufacturer defects). The catch is that you need to save your receipts and contact the manufacturer directly.

Something else you need to know about CFL bulbs is that they all contain mercury. As a result they’re considered household hazardous waste and cannot go in the regular trash. Spent bulbs can be taken to the Crane Mountain Household Hazardous Waste Facility (Saturday mornings) or to convenient drop-off boxes at Home Depot. The mercury is recycled into new bulbs.

Because of the mercury you should be careful where you use the bulbs. Basically anywhere with a higher risk of breakage is not a good spot for a CFL (ex. lamps in children’s rooms or table lamps in high traffic areas).

If you break a bulb you should open a window, leave the room and close the door, turn off the air exchange system and go looking for a glass screw top jar and a roll of duct tape. After 15 minutes you can go back in (wearing gloves), put the glass fragments in the jar and use the tape to pick up the tiny bits. Put the tape in the jar too and use a damp cloth to wipe the area. Put the cloth in the jar, screw on the lid and take it to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility.

This is the ultra-conservative clean up method suggested by Energy Star. Apparently the overall the health risk is minimal (each bulb contains just a fraction of the mercury contained in a silver filling).

Soup can be a satisfying and speedy supper

2010-02-08T20:12:00.004-04:00

Lentil soup

This recipe came from a dear friend who used to make it with green lentils but grabbed faster-cooking red lentils once. The result is a thick and satisfying soup that’s ready to eat in under an hour. You’ll see that grating the carrots and dicing the potatoes into tiny cubes also help it cook up quickly. Adding the red pepper at the end gives the soup a lovely red-orange hue.

More time savers: I buy organic carrots and organic, thin skinned potatoes so don’t bother to peel them. I simply give them a quick scrub before grating or chopping.

2 T oil
2 onions, finely diced
2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or put through a press
3-5 medium carrots, grated
2-3 medium potatoes, chopped into little cubes
2 cups crushed tomatoes or chunky tomato sauce
About 7 cups of water or broth or a combination of both
2 cups of red lentils
1 bay leaf
1 red pepper, whirred in a food processor
Sea salt & pepper to taste
Good squeeze of lemon

In a large soup pot over medium heat saute the onions in the oil until soft then add the garlic. Stir a bit then add the potatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes then add the carrots, tomatoes, water or broth, and bay leaf. Give it all a good stir, cover and bring to a boil. Add the lentils, stir again, and cover. Let it simmer away, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the whirred red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Toss in your favourite herbs (fresh or dried) and serve with a good squeeze of lemon and feta crumbled over or grated parmesan.

My current favourite herb with this soup is fresh cilantro. But if I don't have any on hand I switch to dried thyme or oregano.

Variations:
Add chopped cauliflower to the vegetable mixture
Toss in 1-2 cups of cooked chickpeas near the end
Add 1-2 cups of chopped spinach or swiss chard just before serving

How to eat organic and stretch your food dollar

2010-02-01T20:47:00.004-04:00

When it comes to buying produce I often get asked what my preference is – local or organic. Buying local is definitely my preference but it doesn’t mean I always choose local over organic. Throughout the growing season it is easy enough to find local growers supplying organic produce so I get the best of both worlds. But when I don’t have local options that are also organic I’m choosey. Likewise, there are lots of items that I don’t bother to buy organic, even if I have a choice.

I know this sounds confusing so I’ll explain.

In conventional farming today there are a lot of chemicals in play. There are petroleum-based fertilizers that contain heavy metals and there is a crazy array of pesticides that are used in various combinations to kill insects, plants and fungi, in order to grow “perfect” produce. All of these chemicals make their way to our tables in various amounts when we eat non-organic produce. Eating organic is a way to avoid them.

The selective shopping that I explained above is my way to limit the amount of chemicals that my family ingests. Here’s how I manage it without tying myself in knots at the grocery store.

I have a handy guide that helps me decide what to buy organic and what non-organic fruits and vegetables are okay to eat. It’s all based on the amount of pesticide residue commonly found on the produce (after it has been prepared the usual way). My guide lists the 15 fruits and vegetables with the lowest pesticide residue and the 12 with the highest.

The lists are published by Environmental Working Group (EWG) an environmental research organization based in the U.S. I last wrote about their findings in 2008 but they have since updated their lists based on a recent analysis of data (gathered by the US Department of Agriculture and the US Food & Drug Administration.)

“Clean 15”
To help your food dollars go further you can feel comfortable consuming non-organic versions of these fruits and vegetables:
Onions
Avacado
Sweet corn (frozen)
Pineapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet peas (frozen)
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Papaya
Watermellon
Broccoli
Tomato
Sweet potato

“Dirty Dozen”
These are the foods with the highest pesticide residue so you’ll want to buy organic. Or consider limiting your consumption of non-organic versions of these foods.

Peach
Apple
Bell pepper
Celery
Nectarine
Strawberries
Cherries
Kale
Lettuce
Imported grapes (outside of Canada & US)
Carrots
Pears

The lists are a great tool to help you make good use of your food dollars and still eat well. Plus they provide some helpful guidance on when to buy local. To print out a tidy wallet guide visit http://www.foodnews.org/. On that site you’ll also find a complete list of 47 fruits and vegetables tested and more info in the study methodology.

Handle all batteries with care

2010-01-25T20:14:00.000-04:00

If you’re anything like us you have a kitchen junk drawer full of spent batteries (or batteries you think are worn out but you really can’t remember where they came from or how long they’ve been in there.) I had been ignoring these batteries until, over Christmas, my brother-in-law asked me what should be done with them. It was a timely question - 40% of annual battery sales happen during the holidays. That’s no surprise when you consider the increased use of cameras and camcorders over the holidays plus all those battery operated gifts.

Since it is estimated that your average individual tosses about eight single use batteries a year, having a drawer full isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It means that you haven’t been putting them in the trash.

Batteries don’t belong in the landfill. Whether they’re single use alkaline (AA, AAA, C, D), lithium, button style or rechargeable batteries, there is a safe place for each of these and it isn’t your household trash. Even though many manufacturers of single use batteries say they should simply be tossed when worn out (which isn’t true) all batteries need to be handled with care. Some are at the very least caustic while others contain heavy metals and other toxic stuff. All can be recycled to varying degrees so it’s important to help them get into their proper recycling stream.

For a one-stop drop off you can take everything (rechargeable batteries, single use alkaline batteries, cell phones, CD Players, MP3 Players, CDs, Portable DVD Players) to Future Shop and look for the Greentec drop box.

As another option, the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (established by battery manufacturers) operates a free rechargeable battery and cell phone collection program. In our area look for drop off boxes at The Source, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Future Shop and Staples. Along with the common household rechargeable batteries you can drop off worn out rechargeable batteries from power tools, digital cameras, cellular and cordless phones, laptops, MP3 players and any other rechargeable that won’t hold a charge any longer. Visit their website (www.call2recycle.org ) for a complete listing of local drop off locations.
Or you can take your spent batteries to the Household Hazardous Waste Facility (HHWF) at Crane Mountain Landfill where they’ll be sorted and shipped off for recycling. Drop off is Saturday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon. You’ll be happy to know that no item delivered to the HHWF ends up in the landfill.
Now that you know how to dispose of batteries safely, you might want to consider changing your battery habits. A great place to start is to ban single use batteries from your life (except for your smoke detectors) and switch to rechargeable batteries wherever possible. A standard rechargeable battery can replace up to 300 single use batteries.

And one more tip, before you buy something that is battery operated consider other options. Think about it…do you really need a battery powered toothbrush or a battery powered milk frother?

Indoor air quality -- some winter (and year round) tips

2010-01-05T21:05:00.005-04:00

This time of year the green living talk is all about home energy audits and the things we’re doing to keep the heat in and those insidious cold drafts out. We’re working harder than ever to keep our homes snug and tight, all the while oblivious to what our efficiency efforts are doing to the quality of our indoor air. That’s why this time of year more than any other we need to be aware of what we’re breathing at home.

Indoor air pollution is a greater concern these days because our homes are much tighter than they were in the past and they’re filled with more synthetic items, including air fresheners, cleaning products, upholstered furniture, carpets, fabricated wood items, scented beauty products and scented petroleum-based candles. These synthetics off-gas – meaning they emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – that are all toxic to varying degrees. It is estimated that indoor air is about five times more polluted than outdoor air. (And that comparison isn’t based on fresh country air it’s based on the air quality in your average city.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to people’s health.

In warm weather it’s easy to open the windows to let a breeze flush out bad air. You probably don’t want to do that on a cool January day so here are a few alternatives to help keep your indoor air healthier this winter.

Choose eco-friendly cleaning supplies that are less toxic than conventional products. Look for those with the EcoLogo certification so you don’t have to decipher labels. Better yet, switch to vinegar and baking soda for most of your cleaning needs.

Ensure your stove top is properly vented (especially if you have a gas stove) and avoid cooking with Teflon coated pans since they emit toxic fumes when used at high temperatures.

If you’re painting choose low VOC or zero-VOC paints. Home Depot, Home Hardware and Benjamin Moore all carry lines of these eco-friendly paints that make a newly painted room livable and much healthier.

Avoid room fresheners, especially those that plug in. The chemical fragrances used in these are highly toxic.

Buy fragrance-free beauty products and avoid all aerosols (you inhale all of those tiny spray particles).

Choose soy or beeswax candles rather than regular candles, which are made from petroleum products. And go the unscented route since artificial fragrances are toxic in their own right.

If you heat with a wood stove or wood insert ensure the chimney is properly cleaned annually.

Incorporate house plants into your home decorating - they help to clean the air by absorbing toxins. Spider plants, philodendrons, mums, peace lilies, gerbera daisies and English ivy are some of the best. You need about one plant for every 100 square feet of living space in your home to really take advantage of the benefits.

Being aware of indoor air quality and the simple things you can do to improve it are the first steps to breathing easier this winter.

My Christmas wish list - #5

2009-12-14T22:00:00.005-04:00

As I discovered in her previous book, Ecoholic, Adria Vasil's sarcasm and humor go great with green living tips. Ecoholic is a Canadian green living bible so I can hardly wait to see what she has to say in her new book Ecoholic Home (just published in October) .

Christmas wish list: #3 & #4

2009-12-10T21:35:00.008-04:00

As you can tell from the heading, this is a 2 in 1 Christmas wish. Pictured here is one of my favourite nibbles at one of my favourite restaurants, Opera Bistro. I love this nibble because the crispy potatoes are so satisfyingly perfect with the homemade dip. And when the potato wedges are gone it's all I can do not to dip my fingers into the luscious mustard mayo.

What I also love about this appetizer is the cone-shaped serving basket that it arrives in. Made by NB artist Brent Rourke, it's exquisitly beautiful and a bit funky. I don't see these particular baskets on Brent's website but I know you can buy your own when you next dine at Opera Bistro.

P.S. This photo looks good enough to eat because I borrowed it off the Opera Bistro website.

Christmas wish list #2

2009-12-10T21:07:00.007-04:00

A membership to your local museum or art gallery -- one of the best family outings there is. During our visit to the NB Museum last weekend my kids made these cute whale ornaments out of toilet paper rolls. We also watched an intriguing film about the Bay of Fundy and got to view the new exhibit, Portraits: New Brunswick Painters, 1970-2000. Seeing that I coveted a certain painting of cherry pie by artist Gerry Collins, my daughter (age 6) said she'd paint me one just like it. And she did!

A new kind of gift to give

2009-12-07T16:45:00.005-04:00

If you do an online search on green gift giving you’ll find all kinds of unique and nifty items made of recycled products or organic materials. There’s a growing market for all gifts eco-friendly and more and more places to find them locally.

But I often think we should all challenge ourselves a bit more on the green front during the gift giving season. Buying stuff for gifts isn’t awful but there are more ways to give. Of course we all know this but when it comes down to the Holiday crunch it always seems easier to buy something rather than sit back (impossible during the rush) and give some thought to other gift options.

Before you next zip into Winners think about this: based on U.S. stats, the products we buy and the assorted packaging that comes along with them, account for 44% of our greenhouse gas emissions. I was stunned by this. Turning off the lights and driving less are important green living tips but curbing shopping habits is the mother of them all.

So how do you curb your habits during the biggest shopping season of the year? I found my inspiration at the office…

At work there are often online auctions to help raise money for worthwhile causes. They’re filled with corporate branded clothing, cell phones, gift certificates and such. Recently someone had the brilliant idea to ask employees to donate a personal skill or service to these auctions and the resulting variety has been a boon to the online auction hall. It also got me thinking about a whole new kind of gift to give at Christmas.

Here are a few examples:

A friend with a sailboat put up for auction a two-hour evening sail, complete with wine and cheese.
My husband is a terrific guitarist so offered two hours worth of guitar lessons.
Are you computer savvy? A co-worker offered to be someone’s computer geek for a few hours. He can configure a home network, program a PVR, connect all the pieces of a home entertainment system and ensure your wireless modem is properly secured.
Another coworker will do a personal coffee run every day for a week for the lucky bidder (and pay for the coffee too).
I will soon be delivering one freshly baked loaf of bread a week for four weeks to one of my coworkers.

You can take the same approach with your Holiday gift giving.

Are you someone who is hyper-organized? Offer to help someone set their kitchen cupboards or closets to rights and purge the clutter.
Give a week’s worth of frozen homemade meals to friends who are often rushed at mealtime.
Give tidy bundles of kindling to someone with a woodstove or insert.
In a little book, write out the recipes for your best speedy weeknight meals and the kid’s favourite lunches.

The more you think about it the more ideas that come to mind. These are the sorts of gifts that area a joy to receive and especially pleasurable to give.

My Christmas wish list - #1

2009-12-04T16:25:00.007-04:00

I love Olivier's Femme line of face cream and facial soap. Now I'm waiting for a pot of their body scrub. (After an in-store demo I was hooked.)

The oils are creamy not greasy so it's easy to use and leaves your skin feeling smooth and moisture drenched, not slippery.

Take a look at the ingredient list. All pure and natural: Olive oil, virgin coconut oil, sea salt, oat flakes, essential oils of neroli, of rosemary, of tea tree, of sage, sweet almond oil, essential oil of benzoin, tocopherol (vitamin E), essential oils of rosewood, of palmarosa, of carrot seed.

You can visit their shop in the Saint John City Market or shop on line: http://www.oliviersoaps.com/

Another mid-week meal for busy families

2009-11-30T16:41:00.005-04:00

Quincy’s black bean quesadillas:

6-8 8” tortillas (soft)
½ buttercup squash (bake cut side down for 30 min or so at 400
2-4 cloves garlic
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups cooked black beans
Handful of fresh spinach or swiss chard, chopped
Fresh cilantro (optional)
2 cups grated cheese

Bake squash and scrape out flesh.

Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add squash and sauté ‘til warm (another 5 minutes or so.) Season with sea salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Spread ¼ cup of the squash mixture on half of the tortilla, top with a sprinkling of black beans, then a bit of cheese, then chard or spinach, finish with a bit more cheese and the cilantro if using. Fold the empty side over the layered side, press gently. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

To cook:
Either brown them in a fry pan (a few minutes each side until lightly browned) or cook them on the BBQ on low-to-medium heat (watch carefully).

Using a pizza wheel, cut each tortilla into thirds. Serve with all of your favourite Mexican sides (salsa, guacamole) and carrot-cabbage salad (recipe below).

Some tips:
Bake your squash ahead of time and freeze the flesh. Then all you need to do is thaw it before getting your fillings going.

Try replacing the squash with sweet potato (baked or boiled)

Try feta or mild chevre (soft goat’s cheese) instead of cheddar or mozzarella.

Soak and boil black beans from dried for more flavour and texture (I find the canned a little mushy). It's easy, just soak 1-2 cups of dried beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Drain, add fresh water to cover by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil and simmer 'til cooked to your liking (an hour or so). Freeze extras so you always have them on hand.

Carrot & cabbage slaw

2 cups grated carrots (use the bigger holes on your box grater)
2 cups grated red cabbage (I use a flat cheese slicer to make my cabbage thin and ribbony)
Toss this with basic dressing (see below).

Dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
2T cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
11/2 T maple syrup
1/2 t salt
ground pepper

Before serving, squeeze half a lemon over the slaw and add the zest of one lemon. (Hint: zest before squeezing - it's much easier.)

Walnuts are yummy sprinkled over too.

Cell phones and radiation -- things you should know!

2009-11-23T22:47:00.003-04:00

We have all heard about cell phone safety when it comes to driving. But few people know there is a new body of research looking into a different kind of cell phone safety, namely the potential health effects of using cell phones. As it turns out cell phones emit radiation (I had no idea) and because many people have the devices stuck to their ears for hours on end some scientists are concerned that our bodies might be receiving more radiation than is safe or healthy.

There is much research yet to be done, but preliminary data from several reports points to increased occurrence of brain tumors and salivary gland tumors in people who have used cell phones for 10 years or longer. Other reports link behavioral problems in children to cell phone use.
If you have your doubts consider this: Last month Maine’s House and Senate voted to approve for consideration a bill that would require all cell phones and their packaging to carry a warning label, advising children and pregnant women to keep the device away from their heads and bodies.
The National Cancer Institute in the U.S. says that although studies have not shown any consistent link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists feel that additional research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. (Did you catch the word “consistent”?)

So while scientists are researching away, many government agencies in Europe are busy making recommendations for children to avoid using cell phones and for everyone else go looking for devices with the lowest radiation output.

Until manufacturers are required to label the phone’s radiation output be thankful that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has measured the output for us. They tested over a thousand devices currently on the market (in the U.S.) and have ranked them by radiation. You can search for you phone, PDA or smart phone in their online database to see where it ranks. The database is also a helpful tool if you’re looking at getting a new phone. You can search the database at http://www.ewg.org/cellphone-radiation.

EWG also developed some simple guidelines for how we can all be safer with our cell phones (from a radiation perspective). Download their guide to safe cell phone use at the web address above. In the meantime, here are some of the highpoints of EWG’s recommendations:

• Buy a low-radiation phone. Look up your phone, or search for a new phone, in their guide. (Check under your battery for the model number.)
• Use a headset or speaker. A headset emits much less radiation than your phone and using speaker phone mode keeps that radiation away from your head.
• Less radiation is emitted when your texting compared to talking, and texting keeps the radiation away from your head.
• Stay off the phone if you don’t have a strong signal. Your phone will emit even more radiation when it’s working hard to get the signal to the tower.
• Limit children’s phone use. Young children’s brains absorb twice the cell phone radiation as an adult’s.

A quick, healthy meal for busy families

2009-11-17T14:21:00.004-04:00

It's easy to feed your family healthy delicious meals from scratch when you have a stack of great recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. If you want to try this one, be sure to put the brown rice on to cook before you start preparing the stew.

Chickpea stew with tomatoes
Serves 4-6

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 ½ t cumin seeds
1 T grated fresh ginger
3 tomatoes, chopped or a cup of tomato sauce (chunky)
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1 t tumeric
1 t salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes
¼ t cardamom seeds, ground
3 cups cooked chick peas
1 cup water or broth
4 T chopped cilantro

Heat 2 T oil in a good sized pot or sauté pan. Add cumin seeds and sauté for a few seconds. Add onion, ginger and garlic. Saute until onion is soft. Add tomatoes and remaining ingredients (except cilantro) and cook until bubbling.

Serve over brown rice and sprinkle with cilantro.

Quick tip:
Try cooking your own chick peas from dried and you’ll never go back; the flavour and texture are addictive. I cook a big batch and freeze them so I always have them on hand instead of relying on canned.

Here’s how:
Soak 2 cups of dried chick peas overnight in lots of cold water. Drain in the morning, cover with more cold water, bring to a boil and simmer until cooked to your liking (you may have to add more water along the way). If your beans are fresh this should take no more than an hour.

Be careful with plastics

2009-11-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

I have a love-hate relationship with plastic. It has simplified our lives in many ways but we’d all be better off with less of it in our lives. Avoiding plastics altogether is practically impossible (and may be not necessary) though there are some kinds of plastics that you really should get out of your life.

Plastics are graded by type using a number system established by the plastics industry. The numbers that you see inside the recycling triangle represent what poly-this-or-that the particular plastic is made of (ex. polyethylene, polyvinyl, polypropylene). These numbers make it easier for recycling facilities to sort them.

Plastics with the numbers one, two and five are the plastics that you can recycle in the blue bins. Pop bottles are made of number one plastic, a grade that is one of the easiest to recycle. Health Canada is taking a closer look at this grade though since it hit the market without a full safety assessment. Number two plastic is a little heavier (milk jugs). My go-to book “Ecoholic” rates it as “Not a bad plastic, compared to the others.” Likewise number five plastic isn’t considered too bad. You’ll find this number on yogurt containers.

There are two plastics that you want to rid your life of. One is PVC, or vinyl (graded as number three). It is toxic when manufactured, off-gasses throughout its life, and is everywhere, from vinyl shower curtains to some brands of plastic wrap and some children’s toys. If ever there was an evil plastic this is it. PVC products often have softeners added to make them more pliable or clingy. This kind of plastic has that distinctive “new toy” smell caused by phthalates, which are potential hormone disruptors and thought to be carcinogenic. PVC has also been found to increase breast cancer risk.

The other plastic to avoid (for food and drink) is number seven. This is the plastic that contains the chemical bisphenol A, the hormone disruptor that the federal government has banned from baby bottles. Unfortunately it is also in the plastic that lines most packaged food cans.

Since plastics aren’t stamped with safe use guidelines here are a few tips:
• When a plastic is labeled microwave safe it doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful to your health. It only means that it shouldn’t melt when heated. To be safe don’t heat food in plastic containers, no matter what number is stamped on it. Chemical leaching is intensified when the plastic is heated.
• Avoid plastic wrap if possible. If you just can’t give it up, at least don’t use it in the microwave. Instead, use a lid or failing that a dish towel.
• Any plastics that you use for food should have the numbers one, two or five on them (inside the recycling symbol). These are the food-safe numbers. Items marked with these numbers are also recyclable. Don’t put food or drink in any containers marked with the number seven.
• Rid your house of soft plastic bath toys and vinyl shower curtains.

Eco-friendly seafood choices

2009-10-26T20:59:00.003-03:00

We’re a family that loves fish and seafood, which is great for a few reasons: It’s tasty, quick and easy to prepare and loaded with things that are good for you. But there are things about fish and seafood that aren’t so great.

There was a time when we’d by salmon fillets in 10 pound boxes we at so much of it. But that was a few years ago, before some worrisome information about salmon farming came to light. There have been many issues with fish farming, but the one that stuck with me is the fact that most farmed Atlantic salmon has up to seven times more PCB’s than wild Pacific salmon, due to contaminants in fishmeal they’re fed. (There are many studies that document this fact so don’t think that environmentalists are hanging onto one old study.) And one more thing, the pink flesh of farmed salmon is thanks to a dye in the fishmeal, since the flesh of farmed salmon is naturally grey.

There are many benefits to eating salmon, namely the abundance of omega 3 fatty acids in the flesh. But I don’t think that outweighs the risk of PCB consumption. Plus, there are other sources of omega 3s, like sustainably-fished Pacific salmon, flax seed and chia.

Unfortunately PCB’s aren’t the only worry with fish. Mercury is another and there are several species of fish that have especially high levels of the neurotoxin. Mercury is extremely harmful to pregnant women and children and even low levels of exposure can cause developmental problems.

Because of mercury contamination Health Canada recommends that pregnant women eat fresh tuna no more than once a month. Canned tuna, as long as its light tuna (skipjack is what you want) is okay to eat weekly. Stay away from white or albacore tuna - it has three times the mercury level of light tuna. There are similar mercury alerts for Atlantic halibut, swordfish, sea bass and several others.

Health issues aside there are the worries of destructive fishing methods, over fishing, pollution and habitat destruction that are depleting fish stocks at an alarming rate.

So how do you know what fish you should be choosing? Here are a few guidelines:
• Canned salmon is usually okay. More often than not it’s sockeye or pink from Alaska, which are among the better-managed fish stocks in the U.S. They are also low in contaminants.
• Fresh water farmed fish can be a great eco option, since it’s grown in contained ponds so is less environmentally destructive. Farmed rainbow trout is a good alternative to farmed salmon. Superstore is the only place I have been able to find fresh rainbow trout.
• Frozen Alaskan pollock and salmon are healthy and eco-friendly options too. Look for them in the frozen fish section of Sobeys and Superstore.
Don’t worry about committing all of this to memory. Instead print out one of these handy wallet guides to help you navigate the grocery store. www.seachoice.org and www.seafoodwatch.org.

Finding a (truly) good cup of coffee

2009-10-08T18:19:00.000-03:00

There are few consumables I enjoy as much as good coffee. Curled up in a cosy chair with a steaming cup of espresso is my favourite way to start the day. But don’t be lulled into thinking that coffee is as gentle on the environment as it is on me in the morning.

The environmental impact of coffee is huge and complicated. Coffee comes from far away places so in that respect it has a carbon footprint that’s larger than many things we consume. But there are other ways that coffee can have a negative impact on us, the environment and the distant lands where it’s grown.

Coffee is big business. Canadians consume more than 118 million kilograms of roasted beans each year. That’s about 4.37 kg per person (adults anyway), which is almost 10 pounds of beans a year. I actually consume more than that, so I want to make sure that every cup I drink is as green as possible.

It used to be that most coffee was grown under a canopy of trees using few pesticides and no synthetic fertilizers. Coffee was a crop that actually helped with habitat preservation for migratory birds and other wildlife. But to feed the world’s appetite for coffee many farmers have swapped their traditional farming practices for harsher, higher yield methods – like clear cutting for sun-grown coffee, heavy use of pesticides and a dependence on petroleum-based fertilizers. (This is the coffee you get when you buy the big brands at the grocery store or when you stop by a large chain coffee shop.) As you can imagine this coffee has taken a toll on the environment and on workers’ health. Not to mention the fact that workers often don’t get paid a living wage either.

Brewing coffee from pesticide-laden beans picked by near-slave labour isn’t the way I want to start my day. And you don’t have to either. There is a handful of local shops selling coffee that is good in every sense of the word.

• Just Us! is a brand of coffee carried at both Sobeys and Superstore. Their coffee is organic and fair trade as well, meaning that the coffee farmers get paid a fair wage for their beans. (Fair Trade certified grower cooperatives also encourage more sustainable farming practices, support community development projects and ban the use of the most toxic pesticides. So even if they’re not organic chances are they’re not as bad as regular grocery store coffee). Look for Just Us! in the natural food section.

• Red Whale sells fair trade and organic beans and brewed coffee.

• Java Moose has some organic blends and also buys many of their beans directly from growers, so while it isn’t fair trade certified the farmers do get a fair price for their beans because there is no middle man.

• Bikes and Beans has great coffee too, some of it organic, some fair trade and some farmer-direct.

• Starbucks sells fair trade coffee and occasionally has organic blends.

Whether you brew your own at home or stop by a coffee shop to grab your morning fix (or both), it can be easy to enjoy a greener coffee. Don’t forget to bring your own cup.

Cooking from scratch: 5 easy recipes for greening your diet

2009-09-21T17:23:00.005-03:00

Roasted Tomato sauce

About one dozen tomatoes
2-3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 large onion, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of fresh herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme) or 1 t dried
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 T oil
Sea salt and pepper

In a large baking dish or roasting pan (9x13 or larger) spread the sliced onion, garlic, bay leaf, pepper flakes and herbs.

Core the tomatoes, slice them in half and lay them cut-side down on top of the onion mixture.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with the olive oil

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and when cool enough to touch remove the bay leaf and herb stems, and wiz in the food processor to desired consistency.

Tip: This freezes well. Make a bigger batch if you have a larger dish. Try adding 1/2 grated carrots under the tomatoes before you put them in the oven to roast, or 1/2 cup red lentils or tuck in chopped red pepper.

Thin crust pizza dough

1 t sugar
1 cup warm water
1 T yeast
¼ cup olive oil (or any type of oil)
About 2 ½ cups of whole white or multigrain flour
2 T fine cornmeal or coarse corn flour
1 t salt

In a small bowl dissolve sugar in water and sprinkle over yeast. Set aside for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble.

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the flour with cornmeal and salt.

Add the oil to the bubbling yeast mixture and pour over the flour. Mix well and begin adding the rest of the flour about ½ cup at a time until you have a nice doughy consistency. You might be left with ½ a cup or so of flour that you can’t stir in. Just sprinkle it on the counter and knead it into the bread.

Shape dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl covered with a tea towel. Let rise until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. I put mine in the oven to rise (with the oven off).

To make the pizza:
Punch down the dough and divide in three equal parts. Roll each piece into a 12” – 14” circle, add your toppings and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it.

Tips:
You can freeze the dough after you punch it down and divide it.
Try adding a teaspoon of dried herbs to the flour before you mix the dough.

Macaroni

2-4 T butter
1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard or dried mustard
2 T flour
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese
Freshly ground pepper
½ pound macaroni noodles (or another shape)

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and continue to stir for a couple of minutes (‘til it starts to smell a little toasty). Stir in mustard. Using a whisk, add about ¼ cup of the milk, stirring well. Still using the whisk, add the rest of the milk. Keep stirring until it comes to a gentle boil and starts to thicken (about five minutes). Let it thicken a bit more and then stir in the cheese. Keep stirring until the cheese melts, then remove from heat and add a few grinds of pepper.

Toss with the cooked pasta.

Tip: Try using a couple of different types of cheese to vary the flavour. Add a little paprika and cooked cauliflower to make it heartier.

Bridget’s House dressing

2/3 cups of olive oil or grape seed oil
4 T vinegar (cider, sherry, white or red wine vinegar)
3 T honey or maple syrup
1 t sea salt
Freshly ground pepper.

I put everything into a mason jar, put the lid on and give it a good shake.

Tip: I usually make this with ½ walnut oil and ½ olive or grape seed oil.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

1 ¾ cup whole grain flour
½ t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup flax meal (ground flax seeds)
¼ cup wheat germ (can substitute chia or bakers’ bran)
¾ cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup oil or melted butter
1 T honey
¼ cup milk
1 t vanilla
1/2-3/4 cup chocolate chips
½ cup pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds

Turn the oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients (except chocolate and seeds)

In another bowl combine oil (or butter), honey, milk, vanilla. Beat in egg. Add to dry mixture. Combine well. Stir in chocolate and seeds.

Drop by generous tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let set a bit before moving to cooling rack.

Tip: The dough can be frozen. Try switching it up with different types of nuts or seeds, raisins or other dried fruit.

Greening your diet for a healthy planet and family

2009-09-21T16:16:00.001-03:00

In this season of abundance I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of regional food independence. It’s the notion of supporting local farmers so they can make a reasonable living and supply us with high quality local food, a basic cycle that was hardly worth discussing a generation ago.

But you need to buy local food to make the cycle work. Judging from the burgeoning frozen food sections in our local grocery stores, the average family’s dependence on frozen and other packaged foods is leading us off the healthy green path in more ways than one: Processed food travels a great distance to reach us and includes lots of packaging waste; it tends to be loaded with chemical additives (flavour enhancers, preservatives, dyes) and includes unhealthy fats and too much sodium. It’s really no surprise that the old fashioned homemade diet is better for the earth and healthier for us too.

So how did we get in this sorry state? There are many reasons, but one of them is that a whole generation has lost the everyday know-how that enabled our grandmothers (and for us lucky ones, our mothers as well) to whip up dishes from scratch. It’s something we’ll need to relearn whole scale if we want the local food movement to grow and prosper, if we want our region to become less dependent on food that is trucked in from far away places, and if we want to be healthier overall.

It’s about learning to cook (as opposed to reheating) which is why I taught my children, age six and nine, to make homemade pizza dough. (I want them to be as confident proofing yeast and setting pizza dough to rise as they are pouring their own cereal.)

I know that people turn to packaged foods for speed and convenience too. But some of the most popular packaged foods are the easiest to make from scratch. (It would take me longer to walk to the salad dressing section of the grocery store than to mix up a batch of homemade dressing.) Here are my top five suggestions for greening your diet for a healthy planet and family:

1. Tomato sauce – Avoid jars and make your own with fresh or canned tomatoes. Make a big batch and freeze some for later.
2. Pizza dough – Replace frozen pizza with homemade dough or pita bread (topped with your homemade tomato sauce). Homemade dough freezes well too.
3. Salad dressing – Does your fridge house a crazy collection of bottled dressings? Make your own from oil, vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper. Use it for salads, or drizzle it on meat, fish or vegetables before grilling or baking.
4. Mac & cheese – It takes about 15 minutes to make a basic cheese sauce from scratch so you can bid goodbye to boxed Kraft Dinner and other packaged versions of the real thing.
5. Cookies – Baking cookies is quick, easy and fool-proof. That’s why they’re always the first thing that kids learn to bake. They’re also a satisfying snack that can be surprisingly nutritious…if you make your own.
Take a look through your fridge and freezer to see what other packaged foods you might like to replace with a homemade version.

Eating local -- all year long

2009-09-14T10:54:00.003-03:00

September 4th was the Eat Atlantic Challenge, a day Atlantic Canadians were asked to eat only food grown or produced in Atlantic Canada. Those who took part know that this time of year, locally grown food is so abundant it’s a breeze to make a meal of food grown nearby. Given our climate though, eating a locavore’s diet (meaning local-only food) through the winter is a challenge for even the most committed. But savouring little bits of locally grown fare is doable year round. It’s the best way to “green” your diet, since local food has a small carbon footprint (as opposed to food trucked in from California or South America). Supporting local farmers also makes our region more independent.

I know the last thing you want to think about this month is what you’re going to eat in February but if you’re into eating local food you really do need to plan ahead and now is the time, since we’re in the thick of the fall harvest.

Here are some freezer staples that keep my family eating local food year-round:
In September I can’t get enough of field-ripened tomatoes. I roast them for tomato sauce for weeks on end and when I’m too tired to roast any more I simply bag the tomatoes whole and put them straight in the freezer. (Ideally you could skin the tomatoes first by cutting a small “x” on the bottom and plopping them into boiling water for 30 seconds. The skin can then be peeled off easily before the tomatoes go into the freezer.) I use the sauce for pasta, pizza and as a base for soups.

With a freezer full of tomato sauce we can last until April without buying tasteless tomatoes grown in faraway places. We mostly avoid tins of tomatoes and have no need to buy jars of sauce, which makes me happy for a few reasons. Although tins are recyclable, they are lined with a plastic coating that contains BPA, the hormone disruptor that is being removed from many water bottles; the sauce jars can’t be recycled locally; plus my freezer stash hasn’t been shipped in from Heaven knows where.

We buy a 50 pound bag of winter squash each September and spread it out on shelves in the basement. Throughout the fall I roast two at a time, scoop out the middle and freeze it for use in soups, stews & quesadilla fillings. My husband (strong and patient) peels and cubes several squash for roasting with other root vegetables.

We pick organic apples from a friend’s tree each October. My husband peels and bags as many as we can stuff in the freezer to use in tarts, fruit crisps and for fresh apple sauce all winter long. Ditto for local rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

A healthy approach to laundry

2009-09-01T12:02:00.002-03:00

I’m convinced that I do twice as many loads of laundry in summer as I do in winter. It’s not because I want to (although I do love my clothesline) it’s because there are more dirt, dribble, sweat & grass stains on our clothes than other times of the year. In our house there is little hope of wearing something more than once.

Staying on top of the dirty clothes pile takes effort, but it can also be quite harmful, for you and the environment.

Most mainstream laundry detergents are derived from petrochemicals that pollute our waterways and they’re not that great for people either. Detergents leave a chemical residue on your clothes and bedding, residue that you absorb through your skin. To make matters worse, most detergents and laundry aids are heavily scented with artificial fragrances that contain phthalates, which are potential hormone disruptors. They can cause headaches and aggravate allergies and asthma too. Phthalate residue is formulated to linger on your clean laundry (smell it and you’ll know for sure). So you absorb that residue as well. It’s just a little each time but week after week a little becomes a lot since these chemical residues build up over time.

Stain removers and bleaches are harsher than detergent so the above scenario gets compounded. Many contain neurotoxins and carcinogens. Fabric softeners are alarmingly toxic too. All of these substances account for the majority of household poisonings among children.

There are many ways to make your weekly (or daily) laundry chore more eco-friendly and a lot healthier for you and your family. Here are just a few:

Choose an eco-friendly laundry detergent. Down East, Nature Clean and Seventh Generation all make detergents that are unscented, effective and HE compatible.

Boost the cleaning power of these detergents with borax. It’s a naturally occurring mineral salt that works as a whitener, brightener, fabric softener and deodorizer. Look for it in the laundry aisle (Mule Team is the brand, with great retro packaging.) Add equal amounts of borax and laundry detergent to your wash water. It needs time to work its magic; let your laundry soak for 15 to 30 minutes before you start the wash cycle.

You could also use washing soda, in the same ratio. It needs to be dissolved in hot water first.

Take advantage of the sun - it's the world’s greatest bleach. Or chose oxygen bleach.

Consider non-toxic stain removal. Treating the stain quickly is the key to effective, non-toxic removal. Try soaking the item in a mixture of ¼ cup borax to 2 cups of water then launder as usual. Lemon juice and salt gets rid of rust stains (I’ve tried it). Sprinkle the stain with salt and squeeze lemon juice over it. Put it in the sun or let it sit overnight and then wash as usual. Hydrogen peroxide mixed with water gets rid of blood stains (I have tried that too).

Make your laundry life easier and don’t buy white clothes for your kids.

Safer polish for bright summer toes

2009-08-18T22:31:00.002-03:00

I have been noticing my toes a lot lately. It’s hard not to since summer is really the season of toes. Mine stand out because they aren’t painted and it seems that summer toes without nail polish are a bit like a yard without flowers. As much as I’d love to have them painted bright pink, just knowing what nail polish can do to a body has kept me polish-free for several years now.

There are a couple of reasons why I stopped using nail polish. First, I can’t stand the smell of it (inhalation is one of the ways toxins enter out bodies). Even women who won’t go a day without polish can’t deny that the stuff smells toxic. As is often the case, something that smells toxic… is toxic, which brings me to the other reason why I stopped using polish: When you paint your nails a mixture of toluene, formaldehyde and a chemical plasticizer called dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is absorbed into your tissue. These chemicals have the worst profile in the beauty industry

• Toluene can cause headaches, eye & nose irritation, nervous system disorders, liver and kidney damage.
• Formaldehyde is known to cause cancer and reproductive problems.
• DBP is linked to reproductive damage. It is known to cause birth defects in animals and is banned in the European Union. Tests have found high levels of the substance in teenage girls, which researchers have attributed to nail polish.

It’s a wonder that the stuff is even legal!
While many brands are now formaldehyde and toluene-free, the chemicals used to replace these substances are hardly any better. Plus, regular polish still contains DBP.

A few years ago a friend put me onto the Canadian brand, Suncoat, www.suncoatproducts.com. They have formulated water-based polish that is free of the toxic chemicals I mentioned above and have also expanded their range of colours to now carry the shade of pink I love. So this week I had no qualms about caving into my six-year-old’s zillionth request for polish (and my own craving for pink toes).

Another problem with regular polish is that the chemicals used to remove it are as bad as the polish itself. Nail polish remover is a solvent, just like paint remover. Don’t let the packaging lull you into believing that it’s any different than the paint remover your dad stored in the basement when you were little.

Suncoat makes a natural, corn-based remover that works on its own products as well as regular nail polish. Or you can avoid remover altogether and do as Suncoat suggests (for their polish): soak your nails in hot water for a few minutes and gently scrape the polish off with your nails.

If you love to paint your nails do yourself a favour and give water-based polish a try.

Is sunscreen safe?

2009-08-04T15:07:00.005-03:00

I would guess that few of us have used much sunscreen so far this summer. All of these rainy weekends are probably good for our skin. But when I do use sunscreen I constantly wonder about how safe it is. I know that ultimately it’s better to protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable slathering on creams containing known toxins that seep through my skin and into my body.

I’m feeling much better about sunscreens these days since I came across a new report that rates a lot of familiar brands. It was release in early July by Environmental Working Group (a non-profit environmental watchdog based in the US). The report identifies sunscreen brands that work the best (or at least live up to their SPF claims). But it also rates brands according to their toxicity, something that’s important to consider since we normally wear a lot of sunscreen during the summer months and put even more of it on our kids. As well the report provides some info on basic sun safety – which is always good to be reminded of.

According to Environmental Working Group 60% of brand-name sunscreens either don’t protect skin from sun damage or contain hazardous chemicals — or both. Here are a few guidelines to help you find sunscreen that is both safe and effective.

• If you’re shopping for sunscreen or want to check what you already have, take a look at the active ingredients list on the back of the bottle. It is usually quite short so easy to read. Avoid brands with Oxybenzone or benzophenone-3. These active ingredients are known to cause allergies and hormone problems.

• Avoid spray and powder sunscreens since inhaling sunscreens can pose extra risks.
• Buy fragrance-free brands. Chemicals used in fragrances have been linked to allergies & reproductive problems.
• Avoid sunscreen with added bug repellent since you can get too much of the pesticide in your body.
• Don’t use last year’s sunscreen. The active ingredients can lose their effectiveness over time.
• Buy brands that offer both UVA and UVB protection.

I went looking for what the report called the “Best easy-to-find brands” and found that they aren’t very easy to find after all. I searched Shoppers Drug Mart, Super Store pharmacy and the natural foods section and was only able to find two of the recommended brands: Neutrogena “Pure and Free” and Neutrogena “Sensitive Skin”. But in my search I found another excellent brand that wasn’t reviewed. Heiko, SPF 40. It’s fragrance free and the only active ingredient is zinc oxide. It’s pricey but I’m learning that good sunscreen never comes cheap.

Visit www.ewg.org for more details, including a link to a database that lets you search different brands for a safety rating.