Buy local for a green Christmas

Last month this Holiday pledge started circulating online. 

Even if we all kept the pledge just 10% of the time it would make a huge difference in our communities. Buying local keeps four-times more of our shopping dollars in our communities, compared to shopping at chain stores. And according to data from the city of Vancouver, local businesses support local events, charities and sports teams 250% more than big corporations.  

How to avoid genetically modified organisms (GMO's)

How do you tell if your food has been genetically modified? Would you want to know? Should you care?

Since there are no labeling laws in Canada that require a producer to state whether or not food ingredients are genetically modified, we’re on our own to figure out whether or not there are GMOs in our food. 

GMOs are “genetically modified organisms,” plants or animals with DNA that has been fiddled with too (theoretically) make it better in different ways. Genes from different species are spliced to create combinations that could never occur in nature or through traditional cross breeding.  

My gut tells me that GMO’s are not a good thing for us or the planet.  But it wasn’t until I dug into the issue that I really understood the significance of GMOs being let loose in our food system. 

Should you upgrade your appliances? An energy metre can help you decide

For years now I have wondered if it’s time to update our appliances. They were in the house when we bought it ten years ago and work well, but after reading about efficiency gains in many appliances over the years, I was curious about whether or not it would be worth our while (and our carbon footprint) to buy new.

The energy savings stats sounded good but there was always the nagging question: is it really more eco-friendly to toss our current fridge, stove and chest freezer and replace them with new, when they’re working perfectly well?

Make your home more energy efficient & stay warm this winter

Visit Efficiency NB for tips on ways to keep your home cozy and save money, including rebate programs.

Every fall when the temperature dips and the house starts to feel a little chilly we start to think about new ways to keep our house cozy. We don’t want to spend more than necessary to stay warm, and we don’t want to waste energy. Heating can account for up to 60% of your home energy bill and most of a home’s carbon footprint so our goal is to search out the most efficient tools and tweaks for the winter months. 

This year’s wish list – a wall mounted air-to-air heat pump for the bedroom area of our home, the chilliest part of our house.

Why bottled water is bad

Carbonate your own tap water and
say good bye to bottled water, forever.

The other day in Costco I saw a couple pushing a cart that was filled to the brim with cases of bottled water. My first thought was “What a pain” to have to deal with all of that lugging. Then I thought “Why would you buy a pile of bottled water when you can drink the water out of your tap?” Then I thought, “May be they’re on a well and having water issues”.

There are loads of reasons why someone would choose to buy bottled water. There are many more reasons why tap water is a better choice.

Food waste - how not to throw money in the garbage



Storing food in clear containers helps you keep track of leftovers in your fridge 

I have an obsession with leftovers. I hate to see good food go to waste so over the years have honed my skill at using them up in all sorts of creative ways. That’s why a recent article about food waste caught my eye.  Titled “Don’t toss your cookies”, the article suggests that food waste is one of the greatest challenges facing our food system today; more worrisome than spiralling food costs and extreme weather.

Why? It’s estimated that 40% of all food goes uneaten.

Greener cleaning - safe and effective household cleaners

I have never been a clean freak and although we have a clean-enough house you won’t find any of the typical household cleaners under our sinks or in our broom closet. Typical household cleaners make me uncomfortable, and I fear them more than I fear household germs.

Most cleaners on the market (including many that are marketed as “green”) are quite toxic. Deep down I think that we all know this but people tend to trust their favourite brands and depend on them to keep their house feeling sparkling clean.

Making back-to-school eco-friendly

Whether or not you have kids heading back to school in September there is a good chance you’re stocking up on school or home office supplies now that it’s the end of the summer.

I used to love new school supplies and looked forward to opening new scribblers and buying fun pens, pencils and erasers. My kids are the same. But before we go out and buy new things we take inventory of what’s left over from last year. There are always duotangs, scribblers and binders that didn’t get used and our cupboard is full of perfectly good pens and pencils. By the time we check off what we already have at home we have usually made a good dent in assembling our kids’ supplies for the new school year.

(Rewind to June, a lot of very re-usable stuff often gets tossed at the end of the school year. I know it’s a bit of a pain to sort through stuffed knapsacks on the last day of school, but if you do a basic sort then, it isn’t as daunting to organize the reusable items come August. )

Reusing some of last year’s school supplies means that we can usually get our kids set for the new school year a little faster, and a lot more cheaply, than if we had to tackle the entire list from new. Plus, our kids still get to enjoy some brand new supplies and the excitement that comes with choosing them.

Another thing we have learned is that when it comes to knap sacs, you get what you pay for. We have gone through very inexpensive knap sacs in less than a year but have managed to hang onto knapsacks from L.L. Bean and Mountain Equipment Co-op for a few years now. If you find a durable brand it’s worth investing a bit.

When buying new items, there are ways to make back-to-school shopping a little more eco-friendly:

Look for pencils made from recycled newspaper rather than wood and pens made from recycled plastic (or refillable).

Look for PVC-free binders. (You’ll recognize PVC by its shower-curtain smell.) PVC off-gasses for ages and that unpleasant smell is toxic. Look for binders made from reinforced cardboard or kraft paper, or PVC-free polypropylene.

Crayola products get a good eco rating. They’re non-toxic, made in North America and the Crayola Company has been lauded for its use of solar and wind power at its production facilities.

Beware of Dollar Store crayons, markers and paints. Made off-shore, there are concerns with chemicals used to make these products, especially the chemicals used to formulate the colours.

Avoid any products that glow in the dark. The Toy Industry Association warns that the chemicals used to make things glow are known to be toxic.

Look for paper products made from post-consumer recycled content. From computer paper to loose leaf and scribblers, it’s getting easier to find materials with this kind of recycled symbol.  Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paper products are your next best choice.

Choosing sustainable seafood, these helpful tools make it easier

Use this helpful guide to find healthy seafood


We eat a lot of seafood in our house and let me tell you, it isn’t easy being green. Finding sustainable seafood is my greatest eco food challenge, week after week.

Thankfully there are some helpful pocket guides and apps available that provide direction on the best fish and seafood to buy. Seachoice.org created a great tool for choosing ocean-friendly seafood that categorizes fish choices by colour (green, yellow, red) making it easy to identify seafood that is best to eat, and that which is fished or farmed in environmentally damaging ways. It also lists the fish that you should be wary of due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants.  Seafood Watch offers a similar guide. 

Marinated tomatoes - more reasons to buy local

Locally grown produce tastes better. Just ask a tomato...

This is a great time of year to get out of the grocery stores and into local markets. We’re well into the growing season now so there is a delicious variety and abundance of fresh local produce.

Just last weekend I came home from the Kingston Market with carrots, zucchini, garlic scapes, beets, beet greens, Swiss chard,cauliflower, strawberries and sugar snap peas. But I could also have bought broccoli, kale, numerous other greens, turnip, string beans, potatoes and fresh herbs. This weekend there will be tomatoes. There is fresh bread to be had,eggs, free range chicken, pork and beef, honey and jams.

And so it goes, week after week through our growing season. The better part of a grocery order, all grown or produced nearby.

You don`t have to go to the Kingston Peninsula to enjoy the local abundance. Local markets -- The Saint John City Market, Country Harvest, Cochran`s, Kredels and others -- buy directly from farmers this time of year. Thanks to these markets, supporting local farmers and growers is easy and convenient.

If you need more reasons to search out local produce, consider this: Locally grown food tastes better and is more nutritious than the grocery store variety because it`s picked ripe and gets to you within a couple of days. It isn`t gassed to ripen, fumigated to kill foreign pests, or coated with petroleum-based waxes to keep it from going bad. It’s fresh in the most delicious sense of the word.

Back to the taste, if you're not convinced that produce grown nearby tastes better than imported compare for yourself. Taste locally grown carrots and beans alongside those from the grocery store or Costco. Or better yet, compare a local, field-ripened tomato to a grocery store variety.

Our growing season is so short we should all enjoy these local flavours while we can. Here is my favourite way to eat local tomatoes:

Marinated tomatoes

6 medium tomatoes
2 Tbsp fresh herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)

Marinade:

• 2 tsp spice mix (see recipe below)
• 1 tsp molasses
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Salt & pepper
•  

Spice mix

• 2 ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ – ½ tsp dried chipotle pepper or cayenne
• 1 tsp dried thyme

Slice the tomatoes and lay them in a dish that’s deep enough to accommodate the marinade without it dribbling over the sides.
Pour over the marinade and let the flavours blend for a couple of hours.
Sprinkle with herbs before serving.
If you’d like to make this a bit more substantial nestle some slabs of feta in among the tomatoes. Or you can serve grilled feta on the side.