Thursday, March 04, 2010

Theme Thursday: Green

Well, of course I'm writing about going green. Which we have been working toward for many years. In New England, we were recycling probably long before many people were doing so in the South; in fact, it was mandated there. There was some grumbling at the dump (rechristened the transfer station), esp. when a shattering was heard upon heaving a bag into the depths of the bin. But everyone gets used to rinsing out glass, flattening cardboard, crushing aluminum.

Even there, we were regulars at the Brattleboro Farmers Market, more medieval fair than vegetable display. I think it was one of the few in the area at that time. We always came away with something unusual (then) or at least hard to come by. We also had our own garden, in which we also grew the unusual (then) or hard to come by. Celeriac did fantastically well; if only we had known what to do with it. Last year, we commenced again in the community vegetable patch, and we're looking forward to a better year here in the sticky southern heat

I suggest moving forward by staying put: eating locally grown food as much as possible, encouraging those who aren't yet farming organically to implement those methods by talking with them AND buying their produce. We are lucky to have Sequatchie Cove Farm and others within a hundred mile radius. There are many bloggers getting out the word: I just discovered GOOD, which I have to catch up on. Eat Real and FarmPlate on Facbook are at opposite ends of the country, but have lots of good information to share.

Greenward!

20 comments:

Nanc Twop said...

'eating locally grown food'

Very much Yes!

Greenward ho! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Reminds me I've got to get back to that farm stand out in Hadley( or was it New Braintree? ). You'd be very hard-pressed to find anything locally grown in any of the supermarkets here...!

Roy said...

Yup, when the local farmers' market starts up in June I'm there. And Newport's been recycling for almost 2 decades now.

Tess Kincaid said...

Lots of good suggestions here. GO GREEN, GO!

Eberle said...

You are right on about this! A few people in our area recently started a community garden where people could have land for growing food - the land was donated, as was the water for irrigation (a big issue in this deserty area) and no pesticides or chemicals are used. They raise food for the school and the senior center, offer produce for free once a week, and sell produce at the budding farmer's market. Grow local!

JGH said...

Thanks for the links! Always looking for more info. I try to take a few new initiatives every year.

Anonymous said...

Makes me wish for the Farmer's Market to open, here... only three more months to go!

Mine is up!

California Girl said...

I applaud you and I agree. New Englanders are kinda green by nature what with the recycling of materials and the gardens.

Megan said...

I grew up in the Bay Area. So you can imagine...

Crone and Bear It said...

I am all in favor of going green and we frequent our local farmers' markets for locally grown and organic produce and even locally slaughtered meat. It's difficult here though with the winters we get - not much locally grown then. There is now a brand new winter produce market twice a month where we can obtain just a little fresh produce and that's great. I look forward to getting outside in the next couple months and getting some of my own green planting done.

Baino said...

Toots I thought there would be more blogs about the environment this week so resisted even going there, you're the first I've seen. I guess here we're lucky being able to produce just about anything locally so why do we import oranges from California and fish from Vietnam? Have to read the labelling very carefully these days.

lettuce said...

sometimes i feel a bit hopeful things are shifting greenwards.

but the UK still imports about as many if not more potatoes than we export.

crazy

Dot-Com said...

Excellent post. Shows the importance of recycling - something too many people ignore!

Kurt said...

We're lucky to have multiple farmer's markets in the big city.

e said...

Hi,

Sent an e-mail and left another comment in the comments section at VBC. Thanks for contacting me.

Middle Ditch said...

Mmmmmm, farmers market, jum. My mum was the original recycler I think. Nothing was ever wasted. I learned from her.

dennis said...

Dennis loves New England and Dennis loves produce from the farmer's markets too.

California Girl said...

Julia Child knows what to do with celeriac. It works well in roasted vegetable dishes and soups. I have a wonderful cookbook, "Hammersly's Bistro", (in Boston)with a casserole of roasted veggies, cheese & a crust that I think he refers to as a crouton or something and it has celeriac.

Betty said...

Great post. And it shows that being green requires some effort. It's much easier just not to bother (but not good!)
Celeriac - yumm!

Wanderer said...

I posted a pic of a turtle I watched for a long time one day. I surprised myself with my eagle eyes--I spotted the turtle through thick brush from a path--and slowly worked my way to the shoreline so I could take his pic. It was a great day for wildlife sightings and I even got a few pics. wish you were here.