Solar Grove

For my undergraduate thesis, I studied ways in which we can reverse the damage from our suburbs by retrofitting what is currently in existence. One major issue that needed to be addressed was that of the enormous parking lots and wasted space. I'll have to get back to this post with the specific percentage, but a vast majority of land in our cities is paved. It's an impervious surface that caters to the automobile, and not the person. Not only are our suburbs already flooded in parking, but zoning codes actually demand that new commercial architecture has enough parking. You may ask, how do they determine enough? Well, enough is the space needed to provided parking for one particular day of the year: Black Friday. What about the other 364 days? That space is wasted; it creates storm water runoff that flows into our already polluted waterways, and it adds to the urban heat island effect- increasing the temperatures of the- already warming- surrounding areas.

Ideally, those parking lots would disappear as people depended more and more on their own two feet to transport them; as the goods needed for every day life soon became available within walking distance and the empty parking lots would be returned to wild land. In a perfect world.... Well my thesis always addressed the, "what can be done about it NOW?" question. Here and now, those wasteful parking lots could serve better purposes than car parking. They could be transformed into a farmers market, as many are on weekdays. An even better use: harvest energy.

The Solar Grove concept, described in Jim Motavalli's Mother Nature Network article, was a terrific invention. Why not take advantage of these wide open spaces and harness some solar energy while we park in the shade! We all know (at least those of us who have ever driven on a warmer day) that the shaded spots go quickly. The solar trees that are used in parking lots to support photovoltaic panels also provide enough energy to charge electric cars. Solar groves have been around for a little while now- at least since 2009, when I first studied them for my thesis. Below is a precedent image selection I had saved on my computer, unfortunately, I can't recall what each image is of or from.

If we're going to keep the private automobile in use for now- it's a good thing we're finding ways to make it cleaner. Still, it will never be enough; we can not continue our relationship with the automobile forever.

Day 3 Buy Local Challenge

Let me recap today's local meals:

For breakfast I had an everything bagel from Saw Mill Bread Co. with non-local (but USDA Organic) cream cheese. I also ate a banana- also non-local, but fair trade- and had a glass of Trickling Spring Creamery milk.

For lunch, I made a PBJ sandwich. I sliced my own bread (!!! Saw Mill Bread Co.) and spread an organic brand of crunchy peanut butter on one slice, and some local cider jelly and a homemade strawberry/basil jam (savory and delicious; courtesy of a housemate!).



I prepared a simple parfait as well, 1 c local yogurt with 1 fresh, local peach and some granola on the side to sprinkle on for lunch time. [Yes, I used a disposable spoon, I forgot mine. But don't worry, I have a system- for every piece of disposable flatware or napkins I have to use at work, I put a dollar into the "green fund" at my house.]



For my after work snack, I ate some cheddar cheese from Bowling Green Farm (PA local, if you'll recall) and some honey mustard (East Coast Local).

And for dinner I made the La Pasta local ravioli, oooh so yummy (organic, local, and RAW!) with fresh cut local tomatoes and fresh basil straight out of my garden! I was going to toast some of the whole wheat bread, but my fiance was sharing and I thought he might prefer some Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast garlic bread.

After work I was hoping to go to Weber's Cider Mill Farm, but my poor fiance who hasn't seen much of me lately, asked to go to the movies. I definitely have more than enough local food than I need for a week already, so it wasn't worth ditching him. Unfortunately, however, I wont be able to make it there until after the beach! I haven't been yet this Summer season. As the name suggests, they have great cider, cider donuts, and cider slushies!! Their cider will be best later in the season. But they also have pastries, produce, ice cream, condiments, honey, just about everything. If you go on a Saturday in fall, though, you'll find the Volunteer Fire Department there serving up food on the grill. I, as a vegetarian, eat their fresh cut french fries, yum!!!

Day 2 Buy Local Challenge

Today started off much better. I woke up early and went out to the market (MOM's, that is) to gather some of my local ingredients for the week. Here's what my grocery receipt looked like:

1 Tub Seven Stars Farm Vanilla Yogurt (Pennsylvania local)- $3.99
1 Dozen Nature's Yoke Large, vegetarian fed, free range eggs (PA Local)- $3.49
Spring Mill Bread Co. Honey Whole Wheat loaf (Maryland Local)- $4.95
2 Bagels (MD local)- $1.38
1 Salazon Chocolate Company dark chocolate bar (MD Local)- $2.99
1 block chedder from Bowling Green Farm (MD Local)- $5.71
1 package La Pasta ravioli (MD Local)- $5.19
1/2 Gallon Trickling Spring Milks (PA local)- $3.99
That's $31.69 and that gives me enough food for breakfast and lunch for every day this week, one meal for dinner, and some chocolate to snack on (the cocoa being . And I'll definitely have enough food to last me well into next week.

*Paper bag is not mine! I always bring a reusable (like the ones pictured at the top)! It belongs to a roommate, but because the food was from MOM's, it felt like an appropriate background for showing of my local bounty (sans Trickling Springs milk)! The blue lid under the bagels is my container of granola mentioned in yesterday's post. To fill that up, if you'll remember, costs just $2.97!

Today's breakfast included some (non-local, but healthy) Peace Cereal, with 2 more slices musk melon.
For lunch, I had some of the Bowling Green Farm cheese with honey mustard to snack on, along with 2 slices of the honey whole wheat bread with flax oil and dipping herbs.
To end the day, I had grilled the corn from the produce stand and sprinkled it with some old bay (a Maryland local ingredient!!). I also grilled a local green pepper stuffed with cheese and chunks from a tomato (also bought locally last week from the produce stand). My non-local portion of that meal included a veggie dog (East Coast local- Lightlife is a New England Company) and the whole wheat hot dog buns which I already had stocked in my pantry.

There are a few things I wish I could get local at MOM's. More yogurt would be nice, sliced cheese or cream cheese, and ice cream would be amazing. They do sell Moorenko's ice cream, but the flavors all seemed a bit too extreme for me, so I passed. When I got home, I found out a housemate had bought some of their ice cream. I tried it and it was great! Definitely will consider buying some next time.

P.S. The chocolate bar is almost gone! I bought dark chocolate because I can usually have just one small bite and be satisfied for the day- but it is soooo good! Dark chocolate with sea salt! Mmmmm! Oh and I bought some Biggs & Featherbelle Handle Bar Soap (pictured with the bounty, 4.49- it's a Baltimore company!)

The Maryland Buy Local Challenge Began Today!

The Maryland Buy Local Challenge started today, July 23rd. Each year, it happens during the 3rd week in July. I wasn't prepared as I hoped I would be- that, combined with the circumstances of the morning, meant my very first meal of the week was a failure by my standards. The challenge wants to see people incorporate one local food item into their diet each day. I've decided to see if I can make each meal of the day use one local ingredient.




So my challenge began with lunch: I ate a few pieces of musk melon (what we Americans wrongly call cantaloupe) bought from the Burton Family Farm, who sets up a produce stand on my street each weekend in the Summer.
This provides a few days worth of food, and cost about $3.00. In addition to the melon, I was able to buy 2 ears of sweet corn and 5 large peaches- togehter costing just $4.99. I ate the melon with some granola I bought in bulk with my own container from MOM's Organic Market. It's made locally, but uses coconut- which is obviously not local to Maryland. The granola is priced at $3.49/lb. On my way to work, I had some yummy organic chocolate milk from a local farm in Rockville, MD. It's the MOM's brand, and the 16oz bottle cost around $1. Not a substantial amount of food, but as I mentioned, the day hadn't gone as planned.
For dinner, I ate a vegetarian "chicken" pita pocket, prepared by Suneen Health Foods in Pennsylvania. Whether or not the ingredients were local, I can't be certain. I grabbed the sandwich since I was on the run and I didn't have the time (or food in my pantry) to prepare a healthy, local lunch on my own before work. The sandwich was sold at- you guessed it, MOM's- and put me back just $2.99. For dessert, I took that same granola from lunch, and sprinkled it over vanilla bean ice cream (Breyer's, not local) and a chopped peach from the produce stand! Yum!
Today's menu was not at all as I planned. It was, however, with the exception of my breakfast, entirely local. Regionally speaking, that is. Immediately local is a bit more difficult to achieve. The important message I want to deliver is that buying local food is affordable, despite what many believe. These two meals totaled around $7.00. They were small, but still satisfying and healthy.

And that's why the Prius gets made fun of...

I've always tried to avoid being, "that eco-girl". You know the one I'm talking about; the one who makes everyone feel like idiots because they don't recycling. Instead, I've always just thought of it as my decision to live a certain way. I suppose that stemmed from being a vegetarian. No one else understood my decision, but even though I knew the benefits I didn't ever want to make anyone feel bad for their choice to eat meat. Everyone has the right to choose, right? Wrong. At least when it comes to taking care of the planet, they don't. Living here is a privilege, not a right. Still, I've prided myself in not being too pontifical when I talk about living a sustainable lifestyle, and I've been reassured of that many times at work. Not until a coworker asks me how I spent my weekend do I tell them that I picked up other peoples' litter. I do notice guilt in their faces, which makes me then feel guilty, but they also usually express gratitude; they thank me for not being that "annoying" person: the preachy little do-gooder. I think that there are too many people out there who brag and preach about how their lifestyle is better. Obviously, this leaves a very bitter taste in the mouths of others. In turn, when other, genuinely caring people try to talk about the benefits of being green, people don't want to listen.

And that's why the Prius gets made fun of so often.

Eco-friendly people often come off as a self-righteous, egotistical folk. They think they are superior to others and feel the need to lecture everyone. I have found that more people have caught on to the eco-friendly things I do just by observing them. My coworkers have now begun to recycle, and bring their own lunches, among other small steps. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, right? That's why, when my boss (who, unlike my coworkers, has his own smug outlook on life: feeling he has the right to trash the planet) asks me how I spent my weekend I respond by smiling, knowing he has never made even the slightest effort to help the planet, and I tell him the truth. I may be bragging here on this blog, but it's to no one specific. It's because I am proud of myself. And if I am being preachy, it's to the people who have the right idea- they're doing right by the Earth- but have poor execution when trying to gain followers. I still spend my time humbled among others, acknowledging that my actions alone mean nothing without their help as well. No one person can save the planet on their own, but we're not going to build an army by insulting and belittling our adversaries.

Affordable and Realistic Sustainable Shopping

When you're transition to a sustainable lifestyle, you realize a lot of products and things you buy no longer work out for you. Unfortunately, the eco-friendly and sustainable products are rarely made accessible, and often can't be purchased on a normal day of errands. So what do you do when you want to find a manual clothes washer and the WalMart put everyone else in town out of business doesn't sell it? Okay, first off, I hope anyone trying to be sustainable has boycotted WalMart long ago. Still, that hand washer that would make doing laundry by hand much easier probably couldn't even be found at the local home store. That's where the internet comes into play. It uses electricity, takes time away from being outdoors, even has cause for certain health concerns, but the internet is still a terrific green resource. It links people to green information, products, and communities better than any other resource could.

Let me begin by emphasizing the significance of the scenario above. The only reason we turned to the internet in the first place was because we needed something that couldn't be found locally. You should never buy online something that could be bought in town. That being said, a lot of sustainable tools can ONLY be found online. When you're trying to find a gadget that makes living a sustainable life easier, the internet is a treasure trove! Here, I shall provide a process I find most useful in researching, finding, and buying sustainable items.

First, ask yourself: do I really need this item? Rethink the purchase if you're buying the hottest eco-friendly item on the market just to replace the same perfectly good-but not "green"- item you already own. Carl Elefante once said, "the greenest building is the one already built." This can be applied to everything.

Next, does the wringer I want for drying out my hand-washed clothes need to be brand new? No. Eco-friendly products are hard to find in general, so searching for them used will be harder still, but it's well worth the search. The following websites will help you in your search for pre-owned goods:
Freecycle.org
Craigslist.com
eBay.com

If you can't find it used, you'll have to next begin the search to find it new. Do your research and comparison shop using a website like Pristine Planet.

Here is a list of a few merchants that might lead you in the right direction!
A Greener Kitchen
A.R.E. Naturals
Abe's Market
Bambeco
Bona Fide Green Goods
Bright Green Ideas
Buy Green
Celery Street
Compostable Goods
E3 Living
Earth Lover
EcoFriendly Green Things
Ethical Ocean (a great site!)
GetN' Green
Go Green Items
Goods for the Garden
Green Ostrich
Greenfeet
Green Rainbow Shop
Lehman's(a favorite!)
Maku Eco Shop
Moss Envy
Practical Organic
The Pristine Home
The Ultimate Green Store
Yes It's Organic

When shopping, don't forget about savings! Websites like Ecobunga, GreenDeals (through Green America), GenGreenLife, SustainLane are good places to find great deals!

Reposting Compact Life

I wanted to repost an entry from my old, personal blog, wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is an old Japanese view that finds beauty in the imperfect. It accepts the impermanence of all living things on this planet. It defines much of my own beliefs.

Let us start with "Compact Life", From January 24, 2010

I feel like a new me, though still very frustrated and upset with the lifestyle my career is forcing me to have, I am doing my best to eat healthier, exercise more, and live a more fulfilling life. I have been eating fresh fruits, I made my own banana nut muffins to have for breakfast, I'm making sandwiches for lunch instead of prepackaged foods, and I'm keeping a food journal to keep track of it all. I've been going to zumba regularly, and as frequently as possible...aaaand I just bought a 4 DVD set of zumba exercises off ebay :).
I spent a shit ton of money at Target buying fitness stuff, and then more money on ebay getting yoga bricks.

I've been shopping on ebay because I'm trying to live a more "compact" life. I read an article about a group of ladies in california living, what they called, "compactly". They only bought used. With the exception of toiletries, food, essentials, and underwear, everything was purchased at vintage shops, salvage stores, flea markets, and the like. I can't find that article again, but that isn't stopping me from living this way myself. I only decided this Friday afternoon, so I don't have much to boast for. The DVDs were used...the yoga bricks weren't. (I suppose that must be considered unsanitary, though, because ebay didn't even offer any used.) But I'm really excited about this. I feel healthier and better about myself already!

The compact lifestyle has gone well. Not a perfect success, but I'm still proud. I've bought my clothes used a thrift stores, books used off Amazon or in local used book stores, I occasionally made some purchases of items new- usually "green" items that I can only find new. I buy magazines- paper, not online- but they teach me to live a better life.

I strongly urge everyone to buy only used, it teaches discipline and respect for the planet. How so? Check out this website: The Story of Stuff