Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

In which I encourage you to watch t.v.

Uncharacteristic, I know, but every once in awhile, someone broadcasts something worth watching.

Case in point: next Wednesday (April 21st), many PBS stations will air Food, Inc. as part of their “P.O.V.” (which stands for Point of View) documentary series.  Check your local listings for times.  TVGuide.com simply listed it as “P.O.V.,” which threw me for a moment, but don’t be fooled!

If my sources are correct, it’s airing in St. Louis at 9:00pm and Burlington, IA at 8:00pm.  Personally, I prefer 8:00pm — less chance of interfering with my bed time and all, but I’ve been curious about Food, Inc. for awhile.  Now I can watch it at my favorite price (FREE), while sitting comfortably on my couch, wearing what I want (i.e., sans pants).

Tune in and celebrate Earth Day Eve by learning about the connection between farming and food systems, our health, and the health of our planet — just remember to unplug the t.v. or flip the switch on the power strip when it’s over!

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Image from the Food, Inc. website

Weekend warrior

Friday: 10-mile round trip (RT) to the doctor, followed by 9-mile RT for a lunch date.  I underestimated that second trip — I estimated it at 6-7 miles until I mapped it to write this post.

Saturday: 4-mile RT to the last of the “winter” indoor farmers’ markets.  I bought some gorgeous early spring greens: spinach, arugula, red-leaf lettuce, plus green onions.  A flat tire stopped Matthew short of the market.  He replaced the tube and pumped it up, only to find that the tire itself was shot.

Fortunately, he was only two blocks from our local bike shop.  I caught up to him locking his bike up there on my way back.  We hung out in the park for fifteen minutes, waiting for the shop to open.  While I’m glad to have a bike shop within a mile or so of our apartment, I’ve often found the owner a bit gruff, which he proved again on Saturday (given my hubby’s tale of the encounter).  Compared to our experience later the same day with another bike shop, “Neighborhood Bike Shop,” as I’ll call it, has a thing or two to learn about customer service.

Anyway, new tire in place and ready to roll, we headed set out on our 22-mile RT ride to our commuter garden.  I rode the garden-to-home half of this trip back in August, when we sold my car, but this was the first time we rode it full circle.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch and a bit of (thankfully) light gardening in the middle.  We made it back home to rest up for Sunday . . . .

Sunday: 3 miles to church, 6.5 miles to brunch, 5.5 miles home, and done.  Moratorium on biking for the weekend!

Surprisingly, my legs feel pretty good for cramming 60 miles into the weekend.  Our car enjoyed it’s weekend rest period, sitting parked on the street from Thursday night until Monday morning 🙂

Green McMansions?

I recently received an email from St. Louis Green, Inc. inviting me to their, “Where Grand Meets Green,” home tour.  (Excuse me while I step away from my computer so I don’t vomit on the keyboard.)  I’m sorry, but I fail to see what’s “green” about a McMansion built out in the suburbs, accessible only by car.  I don’t care how energy-efficient you make the walls or what building materials you use.  These “homes” would more accurately be called “compounds.”  I must admit that I wasted time and money driving out to Town and Country (yes, that really is the name of one of the more affluent suburbs around here) for one of their home tours in the past — never again!

I want to tour homes in the city, homes that are affordable for normal middle-class families (and I’m talking about the middle-class that makes less than $100,000/year), heck, maybe even affordable for low-income families.  Homes that are truly green:

  • Not built with outrageous square-footage
  • Built in the city, in dense, mixed-use areas
  • Easily accessible by biking, walking, or public transit
  • Include rehabs — retrofitting current buildings for maximum efficiency, not always building new

Some examples of these exist, but not nearly enough.  While many builders give a nod to this type of construction, few seem really invested in it, because it won’t make them rich.  If someone has close to one million dollars that he/she wants to spend to build an over-sized, green-washed home out in Town and Country, fine, but let’s not celebrate or reward that choice by hosting a “green” event.

Weekend edition

Despite the wicked wind of the south, I biked my way through the weekend. Friday presented an exhausting combination of biking and gardening, followed by more biking and more gardening. I planted beets, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I used our new soil miller for the first time — this garden tool rocks! You buy a handle, and whatever interchangeable tool heads you want. If you’re in St. Louis, head over to Home Eco to check out their selection of these great tools. I added a plastic crate to my biking ensemble so I could easily haul the garden tools.

On Sunday, we fit in a little bit of very early season morel hunting — an Easter mushroom hunt, in place of the traditional Easter egg hunt. Sadly, although not all that surprisingly, we found zero morels. However, we did find this guy. Yep, we’re pretty sure that Matthew almost stepped on a copperhead. Fortunately, he saw it when he was about three or four feet away, but he’d been headed right in its direction, focused on scanning for mushrooms, not snakes. We kept our distance, and the copper slept right through the near miss. No doubt I will be slightly on edge during upcoming ‘shroom forays.

Carbon fast fast

If you’re asking yourself, “Is that a typo?  Did she mean to type “fast” twice?” the answer is, “No, it is not a typo.”  (Grammar and spelling errors in published writing — and this includes blogs — are one of my pet peeves.  I strive (with occasional lapses) to hold my writing to the same high standard to which I hold others’ writing.)

So, yes, I meant to type “fast” twice.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave up on my daily “Carbon Fast” posting.  It just didn’t seem to fit in with my regular posting/writing style, and, to be honest, the carbon fast posts failed to generate much discussion.  I wondered, “Will anyone notice that I’m not posting a daily carbon fast action?”

The answer?  A resounding, “No,” although I felt guilty for quitting (ah, the good old Catholic guilt).

However, in observing most of the carbon fast, I tried some new things, and have others on my “to do” list, so some good came of the venture, and Easter is almost here, so I won’t have to feel bad about not posting the carbon fast tips anymore!