Real Simple, queen of repurposing

Add comment June 18th, 2009

I was reading my issue of Real Simple at home this weekend, which had a few green ideas that I’ve since forgotten.

However, it regularly features “New Uses for Everyday Items.” Like I now use a wine rack as a magazine holder. Can’t find a pen? Use a toothpick to hit “reset” on your frozen device. Check ‘em out.

Learn how to freeze, can the food you grow or get from local farmers

Add comment June 17th, 2009

Gardens are starting to produce these lovely , fresh vegetables and many people are visiting the local farmers markets. There is an increased interest in preserving some of those foods to enjoy this winter. Supporting local agriculture helps all of us in the Northern Illinois area. It’s good to know how the food you eat is being produced, and buying locally directly from a farmer or at the farmers market helps our local farmers.

Home canning and freezing is not a complicated process, however, strict guidelines need to be followed in order to keep the food safe. Be sure to follow the USDA research based recommendations and do not rely on old family recipes or any recipe book prior to 2006.

The two most common forms of food preservation are canning and freezing.

Freezing: Freezing is an easier and quicker way of preserving food. It costs between 38 and 50 cents a year to maintain a freezer for one pound of food, not including the cost of the produce. A couple of very important things to remember are: Use the proper packaging to protect flavor, color, moisture content and nutritional value from the dry conditions of the home freezer.  Also,  for vegetables, be sure to blanch for the recommended time.  Blanching stops the action of the enzymes that cause loss of flavor, color and texture.

Canning:  This method of preservation may be a less expensive way of storing produce, but more time and energy are spent to prepare and process the foods. Canning some foods can be difficult for beginners and it requires preserving foods by using methods that keep the food safe when stored at room temperatures. A pressure canner is needed to ensure safe low-acid canned foods. There are no safe boiling water canning options for vegetables, meats and seafood, soups and some other mixtures of foods.

Use up-to-date canning recommendations: Always use tested recipes and directions form a reliable source. Ignoring the recommended procedures can result in home canned products that may make you or your family members ill. Following are some recommended resources.

Two recommended resource recipe books: 
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, available from National Home Food Preservation
“The Ball Blue Book, available at most local stores that provide home canning supplies

Questions about Specific Canners:
National Presto Industries: 800-877-0441 (Parts and Service)
Mirro: 800-527-7727

Questions about specific canning products: 
Mrs. Wages: 800-647-8170
Sure-Jell: 877-535-5666
Splenda: 800-777.5363

Local University of Illinois Extension Offices also offer classes and help with Home Food Preservation.

With knowledge and reliable resources your home canning experience will be fun and successful.

This is not your typical health fair

Add comment June 17th, 2009

That’s what Karen King says about the Holistic Health Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at her store, Choices Natural Market, 6551 E Riverside Blvd., Rockford.

According to her press release: It will feature more than 30 alternative health practitioners from around the area, including acupuncturists, chiropractors and massage therapists. There will be music, food and yoga. You can watch bees make honey, talk to farmers, sample raw organic foods, take part in a clay therapy session or do Tai Chi.

For more information, call 815-282-1861 or visit choicesnaturalmarket.com.

UPDATED: I’m an Aveda fan but didn’t know…

Add comment June 17th, 2009

… that the company recycles most caps — not just Aveda’s — in the Recycle Caps program.

Because apparently most caps don’t get recycled and end up in landfills or as litter that can harm birds on beaches, for example.

Hmm. I have to do more research. Like which salons accept them. And do our recycling companies cut the caps off or actually recycle them?

Anyone?

UPDATE: Weis-Morris Day Spa in Rockford participates in the program! Still trying to find out more…

How to fix suburban sprawl

Add comment June 17th, 2009

Here’s one idea I stumbled across in Time this weekend: live and work in the same place.

I was probably more interested than usual because it involves reinventing Tysons Corners, Va. — a place I used to visit when our corporate parent was Gannett Co. Inc.

Some 120,000 people work in Tysons, but only 17,000 live here. “Every morning, 110,000 cars arrive, and they all leave at 5,” says Clark Tyler, a former federal transportation official and the chairman of a task force whose ambitious goal is to help transform Tysons into a full-fledged city — where people live and work and play 24 hours a day.

The blueprint, which has been four years in the making and calls for a dense, walkable green city, is a model of public-private partnership and the largest such undertaking in the country.

The implications of this redevelopment project stretch far beyond Fairfax County, as suburbs and exurbs across the country look for ways to repair the damage from five decades of outward, rather than upward, expansion. There are scores of so-called edge cities that have popped up near urban centers, suburbs on steroids that often grew around a giant mall — like King of Prussia, Pa. (outside Philadelphia) and Schaumburg, Ill. (Chicago).

“If Tysons can be retrofitted, then there’s great hope for a lot of others,” says June Williamson, an associate professor of architecture at the City College of New York and a co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia.

However, this can hit home, too. Rockford has grown so much in size.

If you can’t grow it, eat it

Add comment June 16th, 2009

The Openfields Dinner Series, which features farm-fresh foods at local restaurants, kicks off at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at The Celtic Thistle, 104 W. Main in Rockton.

Generally reservations and payment are preferred a week in advance; call 815-986-4357 or go online at the University of Illinois Extension. You can also find the menu there (Kohlrabi? Elk steak? Wow!)

The rest of the schedule is as follows:

July 18 – Pine Row Farm, catered by Kiki B’s/A Moveable Feast (11449 Havenswood Road)

July 23 – Octane (124 N. Main St., Rockford)

Aug. 6 – Brio (515 E. State St., Rockford)

Aug. 20 – Severson Dells, catered by Toni’s of Winnebago (8786 Montague Road, Rockford)

Sept. 10 – Celtic Thistle

Sept. 24 – Noonan’s (Aldeen Golf Clubhouse, 1902 Reid Farm Road, Rockford)

Oct. 8 – Cru (509 E. State St, Rockford)

Oct. 24 – Kiki B’s “Harvest Dinner” (1641 N Alpine Rd, Rockford)

America’s best-selling car doesn’t take a drop of gas

Add comment June 15th, 2009

And you’ve probably driven it: The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe — affordably priced at $49.99 and recently updated with a smiley face on the front and cupholders.

The plastic piece of our American childhood has been in the news because it was inducted into the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland.

The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, that yellow-topped, red-bodied rite of childhood passage, sold more than 457,000 units in 2008 — more than any other car in America.

“It’s definitely a recession-proof vehicle,” said Rosanne Kubisty, director of marketing for Little Tikes.

Little Tikes has sold more than 10 million Cozy Coupes since the model was introduced in 1979 — and that doesn’t take into account its reputation for surviving multiple owners.

What’s good for the chicken is good for the cow

Add comment June 13th, 2009

A few weeks ago I considered the benefits of eggs that come from pastured chickens. Not surprisingly, there are also benefits related to meat from animals that were grass-fed on pasture — benefits for the animal, the farmer, the environment, the food itself, and your own health. Most any animal that’s consumed for food can be raised on pasture, including beef, bison, lamb, goat, pork, and poultry.

 

Animals raised on pasture live in less stressful, more natural conditions, eating the grasses that nature intended for their diet. Because the cows aren’t crammed together, they tend to be healthier and have a decreased need for antibiotics. Farmers also benefit because they live and work in a healthy, sustainable atmosphere. They’re often happy to welcome you to visit their farms and see how the animals are raised. In turn, this provides reassurances to consumers.

 

One environmental benefit is that there is a harmony between animals and the land. From a global warming perspective, grasses sequester carbon in the ground–more than trees, and fossil fuel usage is much lower on pasture farms. After all, the cows harvest their own food, and even spread their own manure, a natural fertilizer.

 

Environmental and economic benefits of this kind of farming aren’t just something put forward by far-out locavores. With an eye towards sustaining farms and rural communities both economically and environmentally, while offering local, healthy foods, the USDA just reported that grass and other perennial plants may be “just what the doctor ordered” for farmers facing uncertainties of climate change. USDA scientists are also looking for innovative ways to include grazing cattle in economically diverse farming systems.

 

Meat and poultry from pastured animals (ones not fed grain-based diets) are higher in beta carotene (Vitamin A), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and Omega-3 fatty acids. Research has shown that these are all vital in reducing cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases.

 

Meat from pastured animals is also lower in fat and calories, as it’s leaner than conventional feedlot beef. However, some can be just as marbled if the farmer has carefully managed grazing, exceptional pastures, and improved genetics. Most pasture-raised beef is dry-aged for 7–21 days to enhance the flavor and tenderness of the meat.

 

Grass-fed meat is typically a bit more expensive than that from animals raised in more industrial settings, in part because pastured animals take up more land as compared to a feedlot, and the farmer must work hard (and spend money) to maintain good quality pastures.

As it is nearly impossible to find grass-fed meat in grocery stores, your best bet is to buy directly from a producer (who will often work with a small custom processor like Eickman’s in Seward). Fortunately, there are quite a few in this area. To find one, check out the Local Foods Directory available at various locations around Winnebago county, or download at web.extension.uiuc.edu/winnebago.

The garbage police

Add comment June 11th, 2009

Or Big Brother.

Those are words I found when I searched for the story on San Francisco passing a tough new recycling and composting law.

It means people get three color-coded containers: one for trash, one for recycling and one for compost. So throwing banana peels in the trash is a no-no. And you can compost that pizza box, too.

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

(Mayor Gavin) Newsom floated the mandatory recycling idea in April 2008 as he faced the city’s self-imposed goals of having a 75 percent recycling rate in 2010, with zero waste by 2020.

The rationale behind the move is clear. Material like food scraps and plant clippings that go into landfills take up costly space and decompose to form methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

A June 2008 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a group focused on environmentally sound community development, said a zero waste approach is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective ways to protect the climate. Cutting waste sent to landfills and incinerators would be like closing 21 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants, the report said.

About 36 percent of what San Francisco sends to landfill is compostable, and an additional 31 percent is recyclable, a comprehensive study found.

How does your garden grow?

Add comment June 8th, 2009

If you’ve taken the plunge into gardening or just want to go natural, University of Illinois Extension master gardener Paul Dennis will teach permaculture gardening from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 18, at the extension’s Winnebago County location, .

Permaculture is a fancy word for natural gardening methods and sustainable practices. Register here or call 815-986-4357. Cost is $10.

UPDATE: OK, I’ve been smacked for saying what permaculture is. It goes deeper, as far as a lifestyle choice. See the wiki on it.