Go Green with this One Simple Way

With Hawaii looking to be the first state to ban plastic bags, I thought there was no better time to talk about this very simple step you can take towards cutting down waste.

Reusable grocery bags. Use them, love them and always have them with you! Make it your personal pact to keep a few in the car at all times. This is such an easy way to help the environment that requires next to no effort. Besides, are you ever really going to use all of those gazillion bags forming a colony under your sink? Who needs that kind of clutter anyways!

And if you are trying to be frugal, a lot of stores will even give you an itty bitty discount for bringing your own bags (read: a few cents, but still an incentive right?) And that concludes my PSA for today. I’m glad to see Hawaii taking this step and I hope for more states to follow suit.  

The Non-materialist's Gift Guide

This is about the time on most blogs where one posts extensive gift guides for the loved ones in our life. While those may be fun to browse for ideas, what do you do for that person who doesn’t care for materialistic things? Whether they are a die-hard minimalist or just trying to avoid the consumerism chaos sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge during the gift-giving season. I put together this list with maybe a nature-lover in mind, perfect for both the gentlemen and the ladies. Feel free to share some of your suggestions as well!

1. WWOOF membership.  Probably one of the coolest projects I have heard about in a while. WWOOF is an organization that lets people volunteer on organic farms in exchange for boarding. It’s all over the US as well as the rest of the world.

2. Speaking of memberships, other fun ideas: How about a pass for the state parks? Or the botanical gardens in your city?  The ideas are limitless.

3.  A charitable donation in their name. Is the person passionate about something? Making a donation in their name to a cause they support is a very sweet gift. One of my favorites is PlanInternational USA, a group very near and dear to my heart that does incredible things for families all over the world.

4. A unique experience.  Maybe they’ve always wanted to take rock-climbing lessons. Places like REI often have little areas dedicated to a calendar of classes and events going on in the area that might interest your favorite outdoorsy person.

5. Food.  It’s always a good fallback, whether it means making a delicious treat yourself or treating them to something like a local wine (sometimes the farmer’s market is a great place to start but even plenty of grocery stores will sell stuff from nearby vineyards). Or how about hooking them up with a year subscription to a CSA or organic food delivery?

& coming up soon... a list of ideas for making homemade gifts! 

6 Reasons to Eat Local

I have waxed poetry about the benefits of supporting your local farmer market and that’s because I truly mean it when I say that knowing where your food comes from is an awesome thing! So let’s talk a little bit about the locavore movement, aka the idea of eating locally grown and locally made food.

Home gardens, local co-ops and farmer markets are all driving this force to get better food to your plate. This movement has a two-fold mission: get people to eat food that comes from less than 100 miles from its place of purchase but also to help the environment. So you need a little more convincing? Here are six reasons to eat local.

1.) Well for starters, it tastes better!

2.) The less distance your food has to travel, the fresher it will be. I find this to be particularly true with peaches and strawberries. The stuff you get in the store might have been in transit for days or even longer.

3.) Speaking of distance, that basket of organic raspberries from Mexico? It didn’t get to your supermarket on the wings of a sparrow. It was flown in a huge jumbo jet; offset your carbon footprint by limiting the distance your food has to travel from its point of origin.

4.) You are supporting your local economy by keeping your money in the community, helping farmers and small businesses thrive. That’s a win for everyone!

5.) Eating local keeps us closer to the natural pace of the seasons by using produce when it is most abundant (and therefore cheaper).

6.) And lastly by eating local food you are helping maintain that green spaces and farmlands stay in your area. Because seriously, do we need another Walmart?

And with that said, I want to add that eating locally doesn’t have to mean a huge overall to your lifestyle. Start small, go the farmer’s market or visit a farm and figure out what you eat regularly that can be bought locally. Also, take out the guess work and use the locavore app! This handy little app will help you find the closest places that sells local and in-season products. 

Or you could start your own garden. I am so glad that we did this past spring, it truly gave me an appreciation for the hard work that goes into growing food. I can't wait to do it all over again next year!

You Don’t Need Much to Do Montessori

Not to long ago, I was thinking about how the Montessori philosophy of education has really morphed into a different beast over the last few years. I feel like what sometimes gets lost in implementation is that Maria Montessori began her work in a place far removed from today’s average preschool environment.

It wasn’t in a fancy private school, surrounded by expensive wooden toys.

Far from it.

After beginning a career in teaching special needs children, Maria went on to work with underprivileged children from low-income families. Without vast amounts of resources at her disposal, she made use of what she had around her.

And that’s something I connected with when I first learned about Montessori: the simplicity of Montessori’s work and the manner in which she encouraged children to use their imagination.

The purpose of these toys isn’t to distract a child with garish lights and loud noises but rather get them learning about the world around them and the things in it.  That’s why there is so much focus on giving them things to play with that are natural to their setting like spoons and bowls, a dustpan and broom, as well as letting them explore through manual work like manipulating clay and design.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that you don’t need much to do Montessori. The simplicity of this philosophy is what makes it so appealing.  

Homemade Laundry Soap

I have been wanting to make our own laundry soap for awhile now. Does it make me a bit of a nerd to say how excited I was to finally do it? After waiting till we ran out of the store-bought stuff, I gathered the ingredients and voila! It turned out well and there was so much left over I was able to fill several gallon jugs. I suggest giving a try yourself! All you really need is a bar of soap (dr. bronner's is what I used here), washing soda and borax. I added a few drops of lavender essential oil for scent. The hardest part was grating the bar of soap and it is quite worth it.  For just a little effort you save yourself lots of money (that's a plus right?) and it's good for both sensitive skin and the environment (double plus!) 

There is something so gratifying about gardening, even if you are just working with a tiny little collection of containers. I am pretty pleased on how well my beefsteak tomatoes are doing, it feels like it was only a couple days ago that I planted these tiny seeds and BAM! They turned into huge plants overnight. I read somewhere that there might actually be some truth to that, because of the heat during the day they do most of their growing at night. Before long we are going to have our own tomatoes to cook with!

 

I am also growing some strawberries (plucked my first one last week!) and I tried my hand at cucumbers as well as some herbs. The strawberries are going strong but I am going to need to try and redo the others since they are, well, nonexistent.