Let Your City Kids Taste Farm Life

We've all heard the sad stories about when an adult asks a city (or suburban, for that matter) kid, "Where does our food come from?", and the child answers, "From the store." What do yours say when you ask them? Mine four year old answered, "I don't know. Here?" (we were at a restaurant when I asked). Well, whether yours are well educated on the subject of farm to fork or don't know the difference between a farm and a food store, chances are they have never had the chance to milk a goat...but now they can!

Angelic Organics is my favorite farm ever because they have been supplying our seasonal vegetables since before my children were ever a thought. They also have a wonderful non-profit on the farm called the Angelic Organics Learning Center (AOLC) who has some really amazing and completely affordable children's programming. Located in Caledonia, IL, AOLC is just under 2 hours away from Chicago. Just close enough for a day trip. Their next event for ages 3-5, Preschoolers! Fresh Food From the Farm is coming up on Sept 9th and includes picking "fresh carrots, gathering eggs from the chickens and trying their hand at milking a goat!" can also try hardboiled eggs from the farm and make a salad snack straight from the field. Now not many preschoolers I know like to eat salad, but most do like to try things that they have a hand in making, and in this case not only will they make it, but they likely get to harvest it and see the ingredients while they are still connected to the soil. How cool is that? I'll bet that increases the chances of their eating salad, right? Your children will learn and expand their palette without even realizing it's happening.

To see a farm in action is an amazingly rich learning experience. For children and people of all ages who have ever wondered how food gets to their plates, nothing is as awe-inspiring as seeing rows upon rows of carrots, lettuces, kale, radishes, etc. This is the food that should be feeding America. It makes me so proud to eat the produce that comes straight from a farm here in IL. It tastes so fresh, flavorful and delicious! So register to take your kids up to Caledonia and visit AOLC this weekend (space is limited), or click here to see if there's another event that better fits your calendar.

(This photo to the right is of hundreds of onion seedlings on a flatbed trailer at AO. The farm now offers extra seedlings free to shareholders on a first-come, first- served basis.)

Still Not Sold on Organics?

Since I've started this blog, many people have asked me about my choice to buy organic. Whether in relation to meat, dairy, veggies, and especially grains, I hear "but buying organic is more expensive..." or "I feel like hormone free is more important than organic" or "I can't even tell the difference between conventional and organic". I used to say these things too.

To the first, I think most people could afford to buy organic for at least a portion of their grocery list. It's just a matter of priorities. Years ago people would have (and did...and some still do) say they could not afford to buy pre-sliced/shredded cheese vs. a block to cut or shred at home. Or too expensive to buy soup that can just be heated in the microwave and drank from the cup it came in vs. making it at home on the stove. Or that they couldn't afford cable, or cell phones, or Starbucks. You get my point.

To the second most heard "argument", I would say if you feel that way you should watch Food Inc. Or at least read the link below siting the Organic Consumer Association's top 10 reasons to buy organic. I'm pretty sure they cover the myriad important reasons to go organic other than just to avoid hormones. If avoiding the hormones in dairy and meat products is your main agenda, think of it like this - buying hormone-free milk costs a little more than conventional milk and reaches your goal, but spending just a little more to buy the organic milk also assures you that your milk contains no antibiotics, pesticide residue, no GMO's, etc.

The third statement can be answered two ways depending on my mood. The nice answer is to explain my experience with my CSA, Angelic Organics and my meat share through Cedar Valley Farms. The vegetables I get from AO beat the grocery store (even organic) counterpart hands down every time. I think that the taste of produce has more to do with how fresh it is and when it was picked than whether or not it is organic. Our meat is great from our MS too, and I think that has to do with the fact that the animals are allowed to graze and peck rather than being force-fed corn products all day long. Let me know if you ever want to set up a taste test! And if I'm feeling annoyed at the end of a day I might just say, "If you can't tell the difference, then you should buy organic just to get/give all the other benefits!"

And don't get me wrong. I don't buy 100% organic. But I do when I can and where I feel it makes the most difference. So if you still aren't sure why eating/buying organic is important and worth it, read this article by Ronnie Cummins. It is a pretty detailed and educated view on the 10 best reasons why you should vote with your dollars and buy organic!

Beyond Frankenfoods and Toxics: OCA's Ten Reasons to Buy Organic

Eco, Ovo, Fun!

If you've ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show, you know it's a feast for the senses. Amazing performances, fantastical costumes, and theatrical music. And now Cirque du Soleil has come to Chicago once again with a new show called Ovo.

Ovo means "egg" in Portuguese and the show features the world of insects living under the radar as we humans go about our business. Cirque says this about Ovo, "The show plunges the audience into the hidden universe alive at our feet; an ecosystem teeming with life and unseen beings - insects that work, eat, crawl, flutter, feast, fight and court among each other in an ongoing explosion of energy and movement." The cast of Ovo is made up of 53 performing artists from 13 countries, comprising jugglers, contortionists, acrobats and more. The story is about a lonely Ladybug who is excited by the possibilities of change when a Foreigner arrives with an egg.

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum teamed up with Cirque du Soleil for a free mini-performance recently and it was super fun! The Firefly awed the crowd of children and adults with his diabolos, as he spun and juggled as many as 4 at a time, never missing a beat! The Nature Museum's entrance offered the perfect performance space with it's vaulted ceiling which allowed the diabolos to fly high into the air. The Firefly, Ladybug and Master Flipo were all there to mingle with the audience afterward in full costume. It was really cool to see them up close, giving high fives, fist bumps and waves to the kids. Master Flipo even interacted with my son making a lovely "zurburt" sound when we poked his tummy... The Nature Museum also had several cool insects, bugs and arachnid on display where the audience could get a close-up view. My son particularly liked the walking stick!

Here are the characters in their awesome costumes and makeup.

Ladybug saying "hello" to some little cuties.

Firefly ready to give my little man a high five.

Master Flipo miming, "poke me!"

And then my son and some of the other children got to feel his "feelers" as he bent over to show them his costume up close.

I have not seen the show yet, but my husband and I are planning to get tickets and take the children. They say that some parts are loud and others are dark, but parents are the best judge of what their children can handle, in my opinion. For instance, my daughter is 2 and she loved watching from a distance, but she was not interested in talking to or touching the characters and clung to me as her older bro happily interacted with them.

Overall, I thought the theme of Ovo was a great one for kids. They bring a story to life while touching on topics like the complexity of ecosystems, respecting all creatures great and small, and love & friendship. Sounds like a cool experience to me! I'll update this post if we are able to get tix and go to the show! If you want to experience it for yourself, here is a link to the Ovo site.

Recycled Castle Craft!

For my daughter's recent 2nd birthday party, we decided to keep it small. We invited only a few friends and planned it for when the "big kids" would be busy elsewhere so the little ones would have some nice relaxing tea-party action without being bowled over by the lego construction fleet. A small party meant less stress, less preparation and fewer spills...but it also meant less cake.

Baking a big cake seemed a bit like overkill for a party with 4 little 2 year old girls, so I decided to bake cupcakes. But even if I included one for each mom too, 8 cupcakes sitting on a plate seemed kind of lame. Well, since I wasn't running ragged the night before getting 'everything' ready, I decided to try to make the idea that had been forming in my head over the last few weeks materialize. As I set about with paper, tape and a bunch of recyclables on my living room floor, my husband asked, "what are you doing?", to which I replied as if it were the most obvious thing, "ummm, making a castle!". Well, when all was said and done, here's how it turned out.

Voila!

To make one of your own, you can modify and embellish as you see fit, but this was my low-key method:

Raid the recycling bin and collect...

Paper towel and toilet paper tubes, which are the perfect size for supporting cupcakes!

Tissue boxes. I used the cube shaped ones, but either kind of even a combination will work.

Paper. I used construction paper since I wanted a color-block look, but you could use any paper that goes with your theme. Wrapping paper would be perfect too.

Make the flags and windows.

Cut as many little tissue paper or foil triangles as you have cupcakes and tape the narrow side to one end of a toothpick. It's OK if they are a bit wrinkled since that adds to the effect!

You can also cut out little squares or arch-shaped pieces of paper and glue or tape them to the towers and boxes as small windows.

Start assembling.

I covered the tubes and tissue boxes with the paper and taped the seams. Next I arranged them on a large tray until I liked how they looked, and then used the tape again to tape the tubes to the boxes and a little more tape to affix them to the tray.

Add your cupcakes!

I frosted the cupcakes and then just sat them on the top of each tube. But after trying to add sprinkles to the cupcakes while in place, I recommend you place them after frosting and decorating them! I also learned it's best to put the castle where you'd like to display it before adding the cupcakes to the castle. Then all that's left to do is add your candles and sing the Birthday Song...and eat!

And here's my little princess happy as can be with her cupcake castle. :)

Scrambled Eggs: Report Spotlights "Systemic" Abuses in Organic Egg Production

Here's another report on how the label on your "organic" eggs means no more than that the chickens that laid them were fed organic feed. The way these big-ag businesses treat living chickens like a blatant commodity and disregard our health and safety is just unbelievable. The little pictures of barns and silos on the packages are misleading visuals since the vast majority of eggs (conventional and organic) are all laid by hens stuffed wall to wall, and in some cases floor to ceiling, in industrial henhouses. These dark, overcrowded buildings with air that reeks of ammonia, floors that are covered with feces, and next to no access to the outdoors (a stipulation for organic labeling that these big egg companies skirt, taking advantage of the semantics instead of adhering to the values and idea of ORGANIC) are the norm.

Scrambled Eggs: Report Spotlights "Systemic" Abuses in Organic Egg Production

I can attest to the fact that the eggs I receive from my "meat share" CSA (Cedar Valley Farms) are far superior to the "organic, omega-3, free-range" eggs I buy at the grocery in between deliveries. The yolks are a much more vibrant yellow-orange, the whites are more viscous, they cook up fluffier, and in general taste better! I'm always reminded of this when I crack the first "mainstream organic" egg from the carton and see the pallor of it's light-yellow yolk and the watery white spread way out onto the pan. "Oh," I think to myself, "these aren't from the farm." Well, they aren't from a farm that lets the birds walk around pecking at insects and seeds on the grass and soil in the sun. That's for sure.

Yet another reminder of why it's important to buy eggs at from a CSA or at your local farmers' market! These eggs taste better, are actually fresh and they come from hens that live like hens are supposed to. In the process you're supporting your local economy, keeping family farms in business, keeping your family healthy and well-fed, and you're voting with your dollars. And every dollar counts.

Joining the Army

Chances are you or someone you know has had breast cancer. Chances are, you have worn a pink ribbon, donated money, participated in a walk or otherwise supported breast cancer research. Dr.s and experts have been searching for a cure for decades and though treatment has come a long way, the stats are still grim. Currently, 1 in 8 women can expect to get breast cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 35 will die from it.

But at a recent event I attended, my ears perked up when I heard a about a hopeful new perspective: looking for the cause, not just the cure. That makes so much sense, right? The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation has teamed up with Avon to form the Army of Women, and in their quest to sign up 1 million women to volunteer for research studies, they say this, "Breast cancer has been around for decades, but it does not have to be our future. We can be the generation that eliminates breast cancer by identifying what causes this disease and stopping it before it starts. Sign up for your sister, mother, daughter, granddaughter, best friend, and the woman you met last week."

I signed up right when I got home. There's really no reason not to, right? I know plenty of women who have battled with this disease. The mother of one of my closest friends passed away after a long battle with breast cancer so this cause is close to my heart. Her memory is still alive and well...but I feel I owe it to her, to my friend, to myself, my daughter and women everywhere to do what I can to help eradicate breast cancer.

So far I have not qualified for any of the studies, but I'm looking forward to being able to participate at some point. It might be just a survey, or it might be a full-blown actual physical study. You can view all the open studies here to see if you fit the profiles and would like to participate in any of them. That's the wonderful thing about the Army of Women - you are in the driver's seat so you don't have to do anything you don't want to. You can participate at your discretion whenever you fit the guidelines of a study. The Army of Women is looking for women all women 18 and over to help fill and complete these studies! So if you are over 18 (and yes, even men can join the Army of Women! Ha!) join here and maybe you can do your part to help find the cause!

Shopping and Cooking, Chef-Style!

Every week, many of us grocery shop and then come home and over the next few days or so, cook or otherwise prepare and eat the food we bought. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But last week I did just that and it was great fun with a delicious outcome and lots learned in the process. What was different? Well, I did it all with fabulous zero-waste chef and food guru, Greg Christian.

Christian is well known in the culinary world for his pioneering initiative in sustainability as it pertains to food. He is a nationally recognized for developing the Organic School Project whose focus is to get healthy food choices into schools and help educate children on related topics. I'm personally very interested in the OSP, and you should be too! Greg also ran a zero-waste catering company for several years and is now doing consulting work for restaurants who want to learn how to practice sustainability or move toward zero-waste goals.

Zero-waste means that Zullo's, where Greg is currently consulting, doesn't have garbage service. They don't throw anything away. Everything is either cooked, composted, recycled, or otherwise reused. Imagine the impact on our landfills and out world if we all followed these practices! Other than being very careful about their inputs (not buying things with any or excess packaging for starters) they use re-purposed containers to hold re-useable items like rubberbands. It seems so obvious once you see it yourself, but it's really quite ingenious.

What was originally planned to be a trip to Zullo's kitchen to watch him cook, turned into a shopping trip to buy our ingredients on Wednesday and then making a wonderful soup for my family under his direction on Friday. We headed out to Chicago's famed Green City Market Wednesday morning to get our veggies, and as we walked through the grass, Greg invited me to try something new. Instead of having a list in mind and shopping with that agenda, he said you can learn how to ask what it is you need. Not what you want, or what a certain recipe calls for, but to just look and relax and see if anything jumps out at you. You might even want to hold it to see how it feels. It's the way that he shops and knowing what people need is a gift that he has, but Greg says you can hone that sense and your body and mind will benefit from it.

So I walked around looking at beautiful stacks of colorful, fresh organic produce with that in mind. I'm sure I don't have this gift, or have not yet discovered it if it's there, but what jumped out at me first were these unbelievably sweet, sparkling-red, juicy strawberries. They were so ready to eat their heady aroma hit me before I even reached the table! They were grown by Dave at Leaning Shed Farm, and he was a joy to talk with and get to know. Greg got some too, and boy did my whole family gobble them up...so was that something we needed? hmmm, guess so!

Along the way, Greg introduced me to several of the farmers and friends working the market booths. It was fun to talk to them and hear their stories...of surviving the latest tornado, retiring from a 9-5 gig just to work even longer hours doing what they love, and how they have found such benefit from connecting with the earth and eating such fresh fare. Here's a little video clip of our wheat grass shots being juiced (Thanks again, Greg!). What a great way to start a day. Pow!

At the same farm booth where we got our wheat grass, some dark purple leaves seemed to be calling my name. Maybe I needed them? What were they? Amaranth, I was told. They looked interesting and after we stood with them for a few seconds, Greg got an idea...why not make some soup with the amaranth for my family? How cool! Yes, let's do that! So I bought some amaranth, 2 kinds of young onions, baby swiss chard and some rainbow chard. Add to that black beans Greg gets from a fantastic farm and my chicken broth, and we had the makings of the tasty soup Greg would teach me to make on Friday morning...more on that later.

Our time at Green City Market ended at Zullo's tent, where I ate the most delicious lamb hand pie. It just melted in my mouth, and the pastry was light and tasty. They also offer up pizzas and focaccia, perfect for a hearty snack or a light lunch, and easy to walk around with. And of course good for any time of day, you must try their Zeppole - Zullo's version of apple cider doughnuts that simply are amazing. Served in a paper and newspaper cone, they are easy to pop into your mouth as you walk the market (and then you can recycle the cone!). Maybe a little TOO easy! Yum! You can find the up-to-date list of Zullo's markets here. My family likes to frequent them at the Logan Square Farmer's Mkt. Definitely check them out!

Fast forward 2 days...I met Greg at Zullo's kitchen super early
(as in, I was there at the early time that I usually unwillingly roll out of bed to tend to one of my small children. These guys don't sleep in!) and ready to work. I was set up at the sink and I washed all my produce and laid it out to await instruction. Doesn't that look beautiful? The dark purple leaves at the top right are the amaranth. Onions (white and "red") on the left and the rainbow and swiss chard on the right. Greg showed me how to cut and chop my bounty as we warmed up the chicken broth with the black beans. The cooking experience included a knife sharpening lesson and lots of info from how to make marinara to how to dry herbs, and the time flew by. I went home with enough delicious soup to feed my family 2 dinners and still had some left over for a lunch!. Here it is served up at home with some crusty homemade olive oil bread. I highly recommend you try it! The flavors are surprisingly complex for being made with such simple ingredients, and it's chock-full of healthy vitamins and minerals. I'll activate this link when my in-depth article covering as much of Greg's knowledge as I could absorb is published on Chicagonista.com, including the recipe for our soup: "Black Bean Soup with Stuff"! Don't forget to check it out (it will probably run by the end of the month). You can substitute ingredients depending on what you find at the market, and depending on what you feel YOU NEED. Now get cookin'!

Recharge Your Batteries and Enter Your Best Photo!

Energizer has teamed up with National Geographic to host the third annual Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest, and they want you to enter! All you need to do is sort through your best pictures and enter them here for a chance to get your photo published in the Dec issue of National Geographic. And get this: the grand prize is a National Geographic Expeditions trip for two to Greece! How cool is that?

The six categories are animals/wildlife, nature, people/cultures, travel, weather and action/energy, so keep that in mind while picking your favs. Pictures will be judged by renowned photographer Jim Richardson on how well they capture the essence of the theme (25%), their impact and creativity (50%), and composition/technical quality (25%). But don't be intimidated, last year one of the category winners was shot with a regular digital still camera! So go ahead and send in your most adorable shot of Fido in the park, your most awe-inspiring vacations pic, or the one of your children you love so much that you actually had it printed and framed (because if you're anything like me, that only happens if the photo is really special!). So you might have TONS of pictures to look through now. Or maybe you will be heading out to take some spectacular shots to enter. Either way, get going! You must enter before midnight the night of June 30th, so no procrastinating!

But the fun doesn't end there. As a special perk for my readers, I will be picking 3 lucky followers to EACH receive TWO 4-packs of Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries! (And Energizer was kind enough to give me some to try as well - Thanks, Energizer!) Energizer's Ultimate Lithium batteries are an eco-friendly alternative to regular alkaline batteries in several ways. First off, they last way longer (up to 8 times as long!), so they create less waste. Second, they are made using lithium (duh!), which is the lightest known metal. This is important because most of the concern surrounding the environment is caused by heavy metal pollution and accumulation. Lithium is also a very "active" metal, so it can deliver a great deal of power while using less material and at the same time is 1/3 the weight of a "regular" alkaline battery. Two more attributes are that its construction is leak resistant, which is very important to the environment, and it has a storage life of 15 years so it won't lose its juice just sitting around waiting for its turn. All of these qualities make the Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries a great choice for your digital camera or other high-tech device (or for your kid's favorite battery-operated toy...that is if you want it to "keep on going").

Sign up to follow the EcoActivista blog and then leave a comment below telling me your favorite color, and I'll enter you in my random drawing. It's that easy! You don't even have to necessarily enter the photo contest, but you should...what the heck, right? I know you want a free trip to Greece too!

What Are Your Kids Eating?

There has been a lot of buzz recently in regard to school lunches. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution series highlighted the issue in one town and its region (Huntington, WV), but what's the story at your kid's school? Do you know? Do you care?

My son is only 3, and he's all set to start attending public preschool here in Chicago this Fall. I am counting myself lucky so far that his 2.5 hrs of class per day will not include a school lunch. The school he'll be attending is progressive in many ways, but as far as I know, they still serve the same type of crap for lunch that most schools in the States are re-heating. So, I figure I have 2 years to incite some real change before my child lines up with his friends to get his servings of surplus processed meat, fruit-flvored gelatin, and chocolate milk...where should I start!?

If you are not aware of the big issues surrounding school lunches, here's a guest post from a great blog on the topic.

Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project The woman who writes the main blog, Mrs. Q, is an Illinois school teacher who has taken it upon herself to eat the school lunch every day and report on the contents and her experience to draw attention to the big problems and issues. Namely, they are: over processed foods, lack of fresh or properly cooked fruits and vegetables, an overabundance of packaging and waste, massive amounts of sugar, and general poor overall quality. She's even having blood tests done 6 months apart, so I'm really interested to see how the results come back... These lunch options directly reflect much of the convenience food that's on the grocery shelves today, so you have to figure many of the kids are eating this way all the time and many (maybe even most?) parents don't see a problem. But kids these days are in trouble. Obesity reigns, diabetes is an epidemic, and I suspect many other health problems are a direct result of all the preservatives and chemicals that are in the food America feeds its children.

I wonder if there's any way to start a city-wide "food revolution" of our own, or if I should just start with my own child's school and take baby steps. This will more than likely turn into something I'll need to devote quite a bit of my own time and energy to in order to see real results in 2 years, but I know deep in my heart it will be worth the effort. I have worked hard here at home to nourish my children as best I can from making their babyfood, feeding them organic dairy, grains, meat and produce whenever possible, and offering them a wide variety of tastes and textures. If you ask my kid what color bread/noodles/rice is, he'll say "brown", and I'd love to keep it that way. He can recognize herbs by smell and by sight and knows how to strip a sprig of thyme. It's pretty funny that my son is virtually a self-made vegetarian and the three things I've always had trouble getting him to eat in almost any form have been meat, eggs, and potatoes (the un-vegetable). Yes, even fries! He'll eat sweet potato fries, and now once in a while I've seen him munch a couple of regular fries down if someone puts them on his plate, but for the first 2.5 years of his life, he wouldn't even try one (not that I was trying very hard to change that!). A friend got him to bite into one at a restaurant once and he spit it out! Hahaha. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that if offered chicken nuggets, nachos, hot dogs and pizzas on a regular basis, both my children would easily succumb to the new diet and happily munch away on the garbage next to their friends. But that's the whole problem and the bottom line is that that's not OK with me. Especially not 5 days a week!

So the deadline looms ahead of me and I'm starting to gather resources and gear up for this hurdle...but I'll wait until the 2010-2011 school year begins before I call the principal's office and ask for a meeting, and permission to spend a day in the cafeteria.

I welcome any ideas and comments!

Photo by bookgrl

Cloth vs. Disposable...it's NOT a tie!

Recently, in the wake of the Procter & Gamble media storm surrounding their new version of Pampers Dry Max diapers, the disposable diaper giant has been claiming that disposables are not worse overall than cloth diapers. Hmmm, really? They posted a Facts vs. Myths page that tries to sell this idea, but I'm not buying it. When reading results from skewed and biased "studies", it's really easy to believe something that sounds unbelievable...when you want to. Parents don't want to think about how much their diapering decisions are impacting the earth, filling our landfills and that they might be affecting the future health of their children. They want to do what's best, but sometimes that conflicts with what they have time for or think they can deal with. But I implore you if you are a parent of a child in diapers to read this and be patient with me as I plead my case. (if you want to skip reading about my whole cloth diapering experience, just skip to the bottom where I list the pros and cons or visit the Real Diaper Association)

When I first became a mother, I planned to cloth diaper, but I was scared that it would be more work, and the outlay of $$$ at the get-go seemed daunting. What if I bought a type of cloth diaper that I didn't like? It's not like you can just return them... And what if I couldn't handle it and gave up? The perfect solution seemed to be a diaper service, so I signed up. It turned out that I was an overstressed, under-rested new mother with a baby that seemed to cry all the time. Dealing with the cloth diapering service included forgetting to leave the diapers out for the service pickup on the right day, gagging at the stink that came from the pail when I had to toss dipes in near the end of the week, and forgetting to pay the new bill from the service that never seemed to send me a tangible reminder that it was coming due. It was all a bit more than I had bargained for and those little Swaddlers that came home with us from the hospital seemed SO much easier! By the time my son was 3 or 4 months old, I was over it. I figured I had given it a try and it just "wasn't for me". That's how I let myself off the hook, but every time I walked a stinky, heavy bag full of disposable diapers to the trash chute over the next 2 years, I felt a twinge of guilt, as I think many parents do. Yes, it's hard to pretend that you don't know exactly where all those bags are headed. And how long they'll be there, and how many other ones are heading there the same day, all over the world. How sad. Is this really the legacy I wanted to leave my baby?

The biggest problem for me was that all the other facets of my life were getting "greener and greener". So apart from the normal, "oh, I feel kind of bad that I'm throwing all these diapers away all the time..." guilt, I also had this part of my life and routine that seemed more and more incongruous as time went by. If I thought throwing away thin little paper napkins at each meal was such a big deal, why did I keep buying (and tossing) all these bulky, chemical-laden disposable diapers? I know why. Because I thought disposables were easier and I din't think I could handle it.

So, when I was pregnant with my second child, I started talking to some of the other moms I knew who cloth diapered at home. This seemed to make sense since we'd buy the diapers once, and then just RE-USE them. The only things we'd have to continue to buy would be detergent, and possibly wipes (but you can even use cloth wipes made of great fabrics like bamboo and flannel and just wash them with your diapers!). With a second baby on the horizon, the $$ savings was a draw. My husband estimated that instead of buying premium diapers for 2+ years, we would spend $2000 less by buying cloth diapers. That was a big selling point! We also went to a cloth diapering info session at BeByBaby, a local baby shop, and got to see all the different types of cloth diapers in person. Seeing how they were used, how they felt, and learning the pros and cons was really helpful and clinched the decision for us. That day, we bought a few cute covers, these cool little things called Snappis, and our pail and liner, as well as our special detergent (we bought Charlie's Soap), and were excited to get started when our baby entered the scene...

When she was born, we did use the disposables from the hospital, and didn't turn down the gifts of disposables from family and friends...but we knew that when they started to run out, we'd start up with the cloth. I think it might be smart, especially for new parents, to give yourself a couple weeks to just get used to the chaos of having an infant before jumping in to cloth diapering with both feet. When we started in earnest, my first impression was a bit of surprise at how easy it was! After a few more weeks, I bought some assorted types and brands of cloth diapers from an acquaintance so I could try them out before buying a whole stash of anything. Our experience was that the prefolds with covers worked best up until about 12 lbs, and then the pocket diapers seemed to become our favorites. Now we use a combination of 13 Fuzzi Bunz and Bum Genius pocket diapers with a couple prefold backups. I do 2 or 3 extra loads of laundry/week, which isn't a big deal since most moms feel like they do lots of laundry anyway, and since nothing gets wrinkled if I don't "fold" it right away, it's pretty low maintenance as far as laundry goes. The routine is easy, and we are not throwing any diapers away on a regular basis!! Now I feel so good about keeping our carbon footprint small, refraining from adding more diapers to the landfills and keeping chemicals off of our baby's skin. Plus, she looks adorable in a dress or tee shirt and a cloth dipe!

Here are the real comparisons from my viewpoint.

• First and foremost, there is way more waste involved in the manufacture, constant shipping, and disposal of disposable diapers. Even if creating, packing, and shipping created the same amt of waste for a cloth diaper as for a disposable (it doesn't), you'd have to multiply the number for the disposables by THOUSANDS for each baby, whereas the cloth dipe is only made, packaged and shipped ONCE.
• Some say the water used to clean cloth diapers tips the scales back to the center. It doesn't! It is estimated to take 2.3 times more water to make a new disposable diaper than to wash a cloth one...and that does not take the new HE washers into account. It is also estimated that the amount of water used to wash a load of diapers is equal to the amount of water that would be used to flush your toilet 5 times. So cloth diapering actually saves water over potty training! Ha!
• Cloth diapers are not more difficult to use. They have come a LONG way since the rubber pants over safety-pinned cloth. The "pocket-style" diapers we use in our family are so easy I don't even have to show babysitters how to use them. There are styles with alpix (hook and loop) closures or snaps, and both work great. Even when we do use regular cloth diapers, called prefolds (what my family thinks of as burp cloths), we use these cool Snappis to hold the cloth together...SO much easier, faster and more safe than pins!
• When you are out and about, it does seem easier to use a disposable that you can just toss. But I have found it's not more difficult to just put the used cloth dipe in a bag (I still just reuse produce bags from the grocery, but you can get these really pretty "wet bags"...) and then into the pail when you get home. Sometimes that's even proven easier than trying to find a garbage can!
• Like I mentioned my my personal story, Cloth Diapers actually SAVE you money over time. Pretty easy to win this one over disposables since I now feel like my baby's diapers are virtually free. Here is a link to a great, local, mom-owned company that has starter kits that make it really easily affordable to get started.
• Wetness that doesn't breathe causes diaper rash, and (most) cloth diapers are breathable. Disposables are not. Plus, they use all kind of questionable chemicals that have been cited to cause terrible rashes and blisters on some babies. Some of these chemicals are also known hormone disrupters and carcinogens. Do you want that next to your baby's butt?
• Cloth diapers are CUTE! They come in all kinds of colors and patterns and beat silly characters any day. Hands down.
• And last but not least on my list, is the fact that we need to ditch products that depend on petroleum for their manufacture. The major catastrophe happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now is directly related to our dependence on oil. We need to make some major changes, and getting rid of our abnormal dependance on disposable diapers is a big step in the right direction.

For more statistical information on Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables, please visit the Real Diaper Association.

Oprah Store...who knew?

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a tea this week at the Oprah Store. Yes, the Oprah Store. I have talked since to several people who didn't know that it existed. Did you? I knew, but only because a friend's boyfriend was the merchandising designer (or something like that?!) when they built the store a few years ago, and I also remember an episode where Oprah had all these models come out showing off the newly designed merch that the store would sell. But even when I went to my first taping last summer, both my friend Erin and I were SO pregnant that there was no waddling over to the store after the show wrapped!

So, this was my first venture inside, and it was...really great! Aesthetically, the space is open and airy, but also homey and cozy at the same time. It has tons of natural, passive lighting (what better to shop with!), exposed brick, and soaring ceilings. There are comfy seating areas if you need a rest or to just relax for a minute, and lots of color in the displays all around the store.They have baby section too, with several organic cotton offerings in sweet pale hues, as well as funny bibs that say "O Yum", and "O Yuck". Maybe due to the changing seasons, there are TONS of sales throughout the store, and if you enter coupon code OStoreTea2010 you can enjoy FREE shipping for any online purchases today and tomorrow (5/6 & 5/7). Check it out for some last min Mother's Day giving! (Shhh...I got my mom her gift there this year!)

Oprah wasn't at the Tea, but her renown chef, Art Smith was! He was there signing copies of his cookbooks and I was luck enough to get a signed copy of Kitchen Life, Real Food for Real Families - Even Yours! Art was really sweet and funny and it was a treat to meet a celeb chef who didn't seem like he minded chatting. He told us about his healthy heating and exercise regimen that has helped him to shed 90 lbs! And how beautiful Padma Lakshmi's new baby is. We dished Top Chef, on which he is a judge for the upcoming season and I can't wait to try out some of his recipes with my budding 3 year old top chef! I love that Art's cookbooks seem to revolve around the theme of bringing the family back together at the dinner table, a value that we share here at our house.

Talbott Teas and Karyn's Cooked/Raw, provided the refreshments. The bread pudding I had from Karyn's was delish. Ooey-gooey and tasted like it was heading straight for my boo-tay, but Karyn assured me it was actually healthy! I tasted Talbott's Chocolate Strawberry Temptation tea, and it was neither overly sweet or "fake" tasting. The bit of caffeine helped get me by without my little cat nap that day, and it felt absolutely luxurious to sip the tasty tea while chatting with all the other hip bloggers. What a fun time!

So remember that the next time you need a special gift for your fav Oprah Fan, a little something to say thank you to a teacher, or just a fun day shopping in Chicago, check out the Oprah Store! It is shopping local, after all. ;-)

Where am I Going with Green?

I have to admit that lately I have felt a bit overwhelmed by all my green-leanings and activist agendas. There are SO many topics within these categories that I believe in and want to further or participate in, but as a mom of a 3 year old son and a 10 month old daughter, I just don't have the time! Now, it's true that there is room in my life for some re-prioritizing...maybe I could write letters to editors or call my representatives while my kids nap instead of napping myself, or I could work on planning community events after they go to bed instead of watching LOST or 24 with my husband...but I feel like I need that down time to stay sane and I am a better mom for it.

Last night I went out with a bunch of my fellow stay-at-home-mom friends, and we talked briefly about when we might go back to work, and if we did, what would we do? Some said they'd go back to their old professions, or go back to school to learn a new vocation. But 2 of us thought me might use our talents and interests as our guide. For me this means that when both of my children start school (or maybe even start going to school full-day, but that's about 4 years off! argh!), I would love to find some sort of paying gig that allows me to further an eco-consious cause. But which one?! I guess it might come down to who is hiring and who would hire ME, but in my mind, I imagine this dream job to be something that saves the world while teaching kids how to do it. But which direction will I head in search for such a job? Food and eating seems to be on my brain a lot lately... Greening school lunches? Hopefully that will come a long way in the next 4 years, but that would be rewarding. Especially after watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Working for or with my local food co-op? Teaching moms (or anyone) how to shop smart for organics and plan and cook their menus? Several of my friends have shown interest in wanting to learn how to do those things...even greening homes for people or helping the city put together a green-condo program! Maybe working for the cloth diaper movement (I love cloth diapers more now than I ever thought I would! A topic for another post)? Or working for a local branch of an eco-non-profit like Environment Illinois or One Sky (I wonder if either of those would pay)? These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg, but things that bounce around in my head on a regular basis.

Since my whole eco-consiousness took root and grew upon my becoming a parent, it wold only make sense that this has become more than a passing interest for me. Much like I love my children more and more as time goes by, I have become more and more "green" too. For their sake as well as mine! It has become a passion. The more I learn, the more I change, and the metamorphosis continues...so when I "finish" my stint as a stay-at-home-mama, it only feels natural that I keep moving in that direction.

And BTW, click on the link above to Jamie Oliver's site and SIGN THE PETITION to get healthy foods into kids school lunches! And then get involved at your local school, whether you have children or not!

Photo credit - Alyssa Miserendino

A Local Breakfast! Opting Out.

This is a picture of a breakfast my husband made for us this past November. He was/we were proud that the the whole meal was organic, local, and delicious! We had just started getting a meat share from a local CSA and this was our first meal made with the organic, grass-fed bacon. Can I just say, um, "YUM"? There was a definite difference in taste between this and store-bought bacon, and in such a taste-test, the bacon from Cedar Valley Farms would be the clear winner. The hash was made from sweet potatoes, onions and thyme, all fresh, organic and local as well from our produce CSA, Angelic Organics. And then the egg...which was amazing...was courtesy of a good friend of ours. She lives less than 2 miles from us, and so do her organically-fed, free range chickens! Besides offering my son endless entertainment, these chickens lay 4 eggs a day and this time we were lucky enough to be the recipients. Creamy, rich and delicious, this over-easy egg was awesome!

I wish we could eat like this 100% of the time! If that were the case, we would be able to completely "opt-out" of the mass-produced food system in this country. We grew a bunch of produce on our balcony this year, I've started baking a lot of our own bread, and never buy cake mix anymore. In addition to our 2 csa's (meat and produce), I shop at the local co-op and the farmers' market, went berry picking this summer and froze the bounty. But I do still feel the need to grocery shop at places like Trader Joe's, and in a pinch, you might find me looking for the organic stuff at Jewel. Part of this is for convenience, and another is lower prices. But wherever we can afford to, we are opting out more and more these days. After watching documentaries like King Corn, Food Inc. and reading books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, I just can't bring myself to eat many of the things I never gave much thought to before. Let alone serve them to my family. Deciding to make what we put on the table for ourselves and our kids as local, organic, and unprocessed as possible just makes sense. I guess it's true that ignorance is bliss, but in the case of food, ignorance can lead to obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, and more. And I'm not even talking about how the mass-produced food in the US harms us socially, economically, or envionmentally. (I'll save that food for thought for another post - or 10!) If you have haven't seen these films yet and have the time or interest, put them on your Netflix queue. And hopefully they will change the way you view food and the supermarket aisles. Then you'll be on your way to eating totally local meals once in a while too (and if you already do, great job!!).

Why we need to support the Cap & Trade bill...

Please take a few minutes to watch this short and clear video that explains why we should call/email our legislators and tell them to support the environmental cap & trade bill...and let's hope it gets passed, for our sake as well as the next generations'!

The Facts of Cap-and-Trade from Clean Energy Works on Vimeo.

The Dill Pickle Food Co-op...Thinking About How We Shop

Recently, the Dill Pickle Food Coop opened within walking distance of our home. I have been eagerly awaiting the co-op coming to fruition for over a year, and shopped there twice in the first week!

photo Jason Guthartz

What is a food co-op? It's a member-owned non-profit grocery store, where many of the jobs are preformed by member volunteers. This one happens to also focus on shelving products and produce that are local, sustainable, organic or a combination of these. Simply awesome. The prices are still comparable to the big corporate stores since the new co-op doesn't have the same buying power yet, but the difference is that the money you spend at Dill Pickle all flows right back into the local economy...to the farms and local companies that grow, raise or produce the offerings, as well as to the local people and businesses contracted to do probable jobs such as bookkeeping, web design, or accounting. No big CEO is getting fat on the big profits here, and little to nothing is touched by China. The fact that produce is not coming from Chile or Argentina also means that the food is more fresh, better tasting and leaves a far smaller carbon footprint on our earth. Generally speaking, I like the fact that the people that run the store are my neighbors and peers. There's something to be said for the feeling of community that a co-op provides. A feeling that's sorely lacking in most of our daily lives and shopping experiences!

The Dill Pickle is a small storefront operation, but within this small space, not much seems to be missing from the shelves. They offer fresh organic produce, organic meats, eggs and dairy, brand name boxed goods like Annie's Cheddar Bunnies and EnviroKidz Cereals.

photo Jason Guthartz

Along the right aisle they have a large selection of loose leaf teas and coffees (heavenly!) that you can buy in bulk, as well as an unbelievable bulk section with rices, lentils, beans, spices and more. Solely because of this, I have made 2 risotto dishes in the past 2 weeks. I just can't walk past the bulk rice without craving some arborio!

If you live in the vicinity of Logan Square, please make a stop at Dill Pickle to pick up some groceries and check it out. Or better yet, become a member and support the local effort to "opt-out" of the mass-produced food chain. It's good for you, the local community, and the earth!

What Have I Been Up To?

I have been busy lately! Other than the "normal" business of my life that includes playdates, kids' checkups, museums, libraries, etc., I have been spending the past 5 Saturdays doing something new...being trained to be a Leader for the Chicago Conservation Corps (C3)! Luckily I have a wonderful husband who was willing to stay home with our kids for each of my class days, for which I was gone from 9 - 2ish. And this last training day was for some special field trips and a pot luck, so I was gone even longer - from 8:30 - 4! Because he knows this is so important to me, and because he believes in what I will be doing to make our lives better/healthier (and to save the planet!), he not only steps it up as the Daddy on Duty, but he encourages me in these endeavors. (Thanks, A!)

C3 is a division of Chicago's Department of Environment (DOE), and is a volunteer based group of community leaders doing projects to build awareness and make changes in their communities which positively effect the environment. These projects can be large or small, and take place all over the city. The training courses run twice a year, in the Spring and the Fall, and my class had over 30 leaders-in-training. Check out our picture that was taken on our last day of trainign as we visited the North Park Village Nature Center. (I'm near the top right wearing a hat and a hood..it was freezing outside!!) It was so cool to meet these other like-minded individuals and to hear what they plan to do for their first project. Since we are all volunteers, we fit into a certain type of personality profile of people that want to help, want to give of themselves, and believe in working for changes and for the "greater good" rather than just for financial compensation.

Since I've started the C3 courses, several of my friends have asked me, "Why do you want another thing to do? Especially if you're not getting paid?" This is a valid question I suppose, and if there were pay offered, I'd certainly take it! But for me, I see it as a grand opportunity. The projects that I am going to propose as a C3 Leader are things that I have wanted to accomplish for a long time now. But instead of trying to tackle them all alone, I now have this great support system to help guide me, keep me on track, provide a budget, and I've been taught how to involve others to work alongside me. That's what I've needed all along, so for me, I feel like I have been paid! Before C3, I felt overwhelmed, frustrated and disappointed that I would not be able to accomplish my "green" goals by myself...but now I am so energized and excited to get started, and really feel like I can and will accomplish my project goals, and in the process build a team of others who feel just like me! How cool is that?

My meduim range goal is to make eco-friendly changes throughout my condo building from educating and informing the residents all the way to someday installing a green roof and solar panels. C3 has taught me to start small but think big, so my first C3 project will be to hold an informative "Green Cleaning Party" for my neighbors to teach them how to make their own non-toxic cleaning solutions and increase the air quality of their homes and our building at large. I will also hold a weatherization workshop, and hopefully by the end of the year, or January at the latest, I will host a Vermiculture workshop featuring the Urban Worm Girls where we will even give away the readied worm bin to a luck homeowner!

My other future projects for the building include recycling improvements and information, changing out our light bulbs to CFL's (those that aren't already switched), getting our building engineer to switch to the eco-friendly cleaners, etc., and eventually making the big changes and investments on the roof. These changes will not only make our building more earth friendly, but they will save us $ by being more energy efficient, improve our quality of life, conserve resources, and hopefully infect others with the "green bug" so that they might spread some of these changes to their workplace or their friends and families. But my long range goal is to "work myself into a job"...so that maybe when my little ones are both going to school I can get a job doing this type of thing for other buildings, or maybe even training others how to do it on behalf of the DOE!

If you live in Chicago and this article is inspiring to you, check out the C3 website to see how you can take action. If you don't live in this lovely city, check to see if there are any ways you can help your own city or town make changes toward sustainability. Chances are there are others like you that might be willing to join forces to make a big impact!

One speaker shared this quote with us during class, and it really made an impact on me, because this is just how I feel:

"Ultimately, a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question 'Is it safe?'

Expediency asks the question 'Is it politic?'

and Vanity comes along and asks the question 'Is it popular?'

But then Conscience asks the question, 'Is it RIGHT?'

And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is RIGHT."

-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Exchange your SIGGs!!

By now you have probably heard about how SIGG's bottle linings (produced prior to Aug 08) contain the dreaded BPA. I was shocked when I heard, and felt a little betrayed since I thought use of the substance was banned in the EU, where SIGG bottles are manufactured. My son has been drinking from his faithfully since his first birthday, and I used mine through both pregnancies, have given them as gifts to both children and adults, and have encouraged others to buy them as well.

Well, before you freak out (or continue to freak out), know that SIGG stands behind the research that concludes these linings do NOT leach the BPA into your beverages. This makes me feel a little better, especially since I have never put anything into ours other than water, but I'm still not totally convinced. I don't want any BPA in my world...leaching or non-leaching.

So if you are like me, here are some options. First, determine whether your SIGG bottle was made with the old formula, or the new EcoCare liner. When you bought it is not necessarily an indicator because older bottles are intermingled on the shelves with the new ones. Here is a good picture of how to tell which kind of liner your bottles have. If your bottles have the coppery-colored old liner (the one made with BPA), you can either bring it in to where you bought it to exchange it for a new bottle with the EcoCare lining (Whole Foods assured me they will make the exchanges), or you can send it back to SIGG with a provided shipping label. Here is the link for the instructions from the SIGG site.

If you don't even want to deal with SIGG anymore (boo hoo, they are my favorite!) some other retailers are offering deals. Here is one that offers 30% off their stainless steel bottle options when you send in your SIGG to be recycled. They also offer 20% off these bottles even if you don't have an old SIGG to turn in! Pretty cool.

Whatever route you decide to go, please keep drinking from safe, reusable bottles and join me in the boycott of bottled water! Take your cool, pretty bottle with you everywhere so you never need to buy silly plastic water bottles (that cost a relative fortune and damage our planet in many ways)...and if a friend offers one to you at their house, you can pull your bottle out of you purse and say, "No thanks...have you seen my cute new BPA-free SIGG?"

Detox Your Kid's World (or at least some of it!)

I recently read an article in Chicago Baby about making your child's room/space green and non-toxic. The leaching toxins that lurk in your childrens' rooms as well as elsewhere in the house are touched on in the article. These include the flame retardants in crib bedding and PJs, VOC's in carpets, paints and flooring, phthalates in lotions and sunscreens, BPA in plastic toys and baby bottles, and formaldehyde in particle board furniture. This is a lot to take in! It was generally a good article and raised some important points, but as I read it, there were some things that nagged at me...and I think we as parents can do even better, and make these decisions for even more reasons. Here are a few:

• Instead of just getting rid of the toys made in China, request that family and friends not buy more for your child, and definitely stop buying them yourself! Not only are these toys at the highest risk for containing lead and other toxins, but ask yourself how much you really want to support China's economy right now. Another important consideration is the pollution created when making "cheap, toxic toys" and then the zillion carbon miles used to ship all of these items to the US and to all the big box stores (another type of economy that my husband and I would rather not support). Instead, if you buy toys for your child or as gifts for other kids, research companies and consider toys like the wooden "Zimbos" pictured here. Blue Orange Games manufactures Zimbos and has stringent safety tests for their products. They also plant 2 trees for each 1 used to make their products.
• The article also suggests reducing the number of toys that need batteries due to the toxins that they contain. I agree and would go even one step further to say even though batteries can be recycled, this and new battery production also add to the big carbon footprint. In addition, though not a toxin issue, experts say open ended toys like blocks or a puppet are better at helping your child develop important skills rather than the battery operated toys that just do the same things in response to pushing buttons.
• Since most nurseries are updated or redecorated within a few years, this gives parents the perfect opportunity to choose non-toxic and sustainable options the next time around. Looking for "green" carpet and flooring options can be easier than you think, and every year more companies are coming up with new colors and better practices. You can even get low VOC paint from Home Depot these days! For our son's new room, we opted to use cork flooring, recycled drywall, sustainably forested wood baseboards, no-VOC paint from Green Depot (formerly Greenmaker Supply), and now we are looking into safer bedding options that will not leach the flame retardant chems into his little lungs all night. If an organic mattress is out of your price range (and I think it's out of mine!), look for organic mattress pads or covers that help block the chems and are much less expensive. This is also thought by some to prevent SIDS.
• Other than just avoiding lotions, creams sunscreens, etc. with phthalates, there are a slew of other chemicals to avoid in personal care as well. Check out this site that clearly lists the top harmful things to avoid. This is important because the skin absorbs everything we put on it, and it's our body's largest organ! The list might rule out just about everything in your bathroom cabinet right now, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, just look for brands that are all-natural or organic as you run out of your current stash. Soon you will e be rid of all the bad stuff. We use a lot of Method products here since they are safe, accessible, and use natural extracts for their fragrances. Plus, their diaper cream works great!
• As far as flame retardants in baby's and kid's jammies, that can be easily avoided by dressing them in close-fitting all cotton PJs. You can even go the extra step and buy organic cotton, but even the regular cotton ones can be found basically everywhere. Some have warnings on the tags that state they should fit snugly since they are not coated with the anti-flammable chems. Avoid the ones that are polyester at all costs since in addition to leaching the toxins into your little one's skin and respiratory system, they don't breathe and are surely not as comfortable for your babe. They may look and feel cozier, but think about how much you'd like to sleep in something that's 100% polyester!

From my perspective, the idea is not to have to spend a ton of money and revamp or "green" your entire household in a month. For my family, this has been a gradual process of making small changes, and I've found that one thing leads to another. If you just take it one step at a time, and make a conscious choice each time you need to make a purchase, you will not only be making your home more safe and comfortable, but you'll be voting with your dollars on what you believe in.