A GreenDrink How-to

On the rocks with a twist?

Treat Poison Ivy with Vodka

According to researchers at Duke University, poison ivy has grown faster, grown stronger, and grown more resilient as the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased in the past 50 years. The problem is that poison ivy loves excessive carbon, the cause of global warming.


But now there's an easy treatment for the itch that ails us, vodka according to the Daily Green.


To avoid the uncomfortable reaction, immediately pour vodka on skin that has come into contact with poison ivy, and the alcohol will wash away the itchy oil that causes poison ivy, urushiol oil. Some have said that the vodka needs to be at least 100 proof to work.

For me, I would rather itch and scratch rather and just drink the vodka. Enough vodka and you won't worry about the itching.

Looking better than Grandfather Che

Guevara's Granddaughter Stars in New PETA Ad

"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."
—Che Guevara


Well, it looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Che Guevara's granddaughter, Lydia Guevara, is following in her revolutionary granddad's footsteps by calling for a "vegetarian revolution."


"PETA's fight for animals was one of the reasons why I went vegetarian," Lydia told the Spanish news agency Efe. "Moreover, this lifestyle has become a true revolution that is attracting more people and is an alternative that is healthier for the planet and for humankind."

Vegetarianism as a revolution? If so we need many more revolutionary fronts to help our environment.

Know what you are buying

American shoppers misled by greenwash, Congress told

More than 98% of supposedly natural and environmentally friendly products on US supermarket shelves are making potentially false or misleading claims, Congress has been told. And 22% of products making green claims bear an environmental badge that has no inherent meaning, said Scot Case, of the environmental consulting firm TerraChoice.


The study of nearly 4,000 consumer products found "greenwashing" in nearly every product category – from a lack of verifiable information to outright lies.


There is a constantly expanding pool of products to choose from. About 33% of all new food products launched in 2008 claimed to be "natural", Dara O'Rourke, a professor in environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder of the GoodGuide, told the recent hearing. But with around 300 competing environmental certification programmes, shoppers are bombarded by irrelevant or deceptive labels touting the green, natural, eco-friendly, recyclable and non-toxic properties of goods.

Lessons to be learned:

1. read the ingredients carefully
2. research, research, research
3. look at the company making the product
4. buy from a trusted company (like Green Irene who has done the research for you)
5. always question
   

My Watery Garden

Extra-Soggy June For Most Of The US

Mud season has been extended. From North Dakota to Long Island, rain after rain after rain has dampened spirits and swamped roads. Picnics and kids' baseball games have been washed out, rescheduled and rained out again. Big-time sports, too.

What's going on?


The high-altitude jet stream that guides the movement of weather across the country has been south of its normal position over the last couple of weeks, sending a series of storms across the Midwest and East, explained meteorologist Ed O'Lenic of the federal Climate Prediction Center.


"It's a lot like an extended spring," said O'Lenic in a telephone interview. "For whatever reason, and the atmosphere only knows the answer, this is the way it is being acted out."

My lettuce loves this weather - fresh salads every day. The tomatoes - not one fruit set yet. The cukes - hanging in. The hop rhizome - waterlogged. The groundhogs - keeping their head above the water level.

Royal gardener

The Queen's Garden

Prince Charles isn't Britain's only green royal: his mother, Queen Elizabeth, is joining the eco-friendly crusade as well. Her Royal Highness has started growing her own organic vegetables in the Buckingham Palace gardens, cultivating beans, beets, tomatoes, lettuce, and potatoes. It is the first royal vegetable patch since World War II. Perhaps the Queen got the idea from her new First Lady friend Michelle Obama, who gardens on the White House's South Lawn. After all, the Maj and Michelle have been seeing a lot of each other lately. After hitting it off at the G20 summit last spring, Michelle and her daughters, Malia and birthday girl Sasha, returned to London last week, where the Queen herself gave the Obamas a rare tour of Buckingham Palace.

Way to go Liz. Let's hope the weather there is better than I am experiencing here.

Lucky LA!

I wish I lived in LA just for the Green Truck.

Dream lunch tomorrow: The Mother Trucker with Sweet Potato Chips.

Now if they only would come to Connecticut.

A Rating System For Products?

GoodGuide

gives you the best information available, wherever and whenever you need it most. We’ll help you find better products that represent your values, avoid products that are harmful to your health, the environment, or society – and enable you to take actions to help improve the world.

Interesting site. Very readable and understandable. Ratings look at: Nutrition, Environmental Performance and Social Performance. Covering food products, personal care products, cleaning products and toys.

But heavens, Captain Crunch only scored a "5"? A "terrible" health and safety rating? Say it ain't say Captain.

Showing the way to green

Eco-Consultants - Make Me Greener, Please

Sal Scamardo, a 46-year-old independent film producer in New York, had hired a consultant even though he began with many environmental advantages — only 650 square feet of living space to heat or cool, no lawn or daily automobile use. But he wanted to reduce his electric usage and improve indoor air quality, he said, adding, “I liked the idea of someone coming in and analyzing your lifestyle and taking a look under the covers.”

In April, he guided Stephanie Gregerman of Green Irene, a company with about 300 consultants in 45 states who get online training and offer $99 “green-home makeovers” (along with the company’s products), around his one-bedroom condo.

After a 90-minute inspection of the apartment, Ms. Gregerman discovered several green-home no-no’s: nine incandescent light bulbs, a cabinet full of chemical-laden cleaning products and seven pieces of electronic equipment sucking power while not in use.

Ms. Gregerman, who has had a long-term interest in environmental issues and formerly worked in marketing for a record label, gave him a long list of recommendations: use compact fluorescent bulbs, get a power strip with an on-off button, pay extra for wind power from the local utility and set a five-minute egg timer while taking a shower.

Interested? Visit Green Irene for more information.

Monsanto and our food supply

Battle over beets

Organic seed producer Frank Morton has been warning people for years that genetically modified organisms pose a serious threat to the Willamette Valley’s vegetable seed industry.


Now he thinks his worst GMO nightmare may be coming true.


Roundup Ready sugarbeets — a patented variety engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the company’s widely used Roundup herbicide — have turned up in a soil mixture being sold to gardeners at a Corvallis landscaping supply business just a few miles from Morton’s fields.


He fears some of those roots may now be sprouting in area gardens. If so, they could soon start to bolt, sending out clouds of pollen that could fertilize his crop of golden chard — a closely related plant — and render it worthless for the organic seed market. It would also negate years of breeding that went into producing an especially cold-hardy line.


Worse still, Morton says, the GMO sugarbeets could cross-pollinate the fields of other chard growers in the area who supply seed to major bagged-salad distributors in California, potentially introducing genetically modified chard into the food system without the approval of federal regulators.

Do you really want to eat a vegetable that has a link to a chemical lab? Do we really need to promote the use of Roundup? Be aware of where your food comes from. Be aware of the source of your seeds.

Thanks to Little Homestead in the City for bringing this article to light.

A step in the wrong direction

House Republicans Draft Energy Bill With Heavy Focus on Nuclear Power

Badly outnumbered and months behind in the debate on energy and climate change, House Republicans plan to introduce an energy bill on Wednesday as an alternative to the Democratic plan barreling toward a House vote this month.

The Republican proposal, drafted by a group led by Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, leans heavily on nuclear power, setting a goal of building 100 reactors over the next 20 years. No new nuclear plants have been ordered in the United States since 1978 because of the high cost of construction and uncertainty about regulatory approval.


The bill also provides incentives for increased oil and gas production on public and private lands and offshore. It would also authorize oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a focus of 30 years of controversy in Congress.

Reliance on nuclear and oil drilling? Not too green, are we.

Burger King Adding to Global Warming

Burger King Franchises Call Global Warming Bull

Like the Wizard of Oz's call to not look behind the curtain. Don't look at the impact the King is having on our environment. Nutritious meals? Eco-sound cattle ranching? Yeah right.

No wonder they want us to believe it is Baloney. They are one of the big contributors.

Green Guide To Beer

A Beer Buying Guide for the environmentalist? Perfect.

Organic beer is getting to be big business. In the past few years, the large national brewers Anheuser-Busch, Miller and New Belgium have all introduced organic products, joining a growing number of microbreweries offering organic beer. The next time you stock up on eco-friendly ales, here are a few things to look for.


Certified Organic: When you buy organic beer, you're supporting a farm system that uses fewer pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, which in turn enhances soil fertility, increases species diversity, conserves water and produces fewer greenhouse gases.

"Certified Organic" beers are made with at least 95 percent organic ingredients following all the standards set by the USDA, which include standards for the chemicals used to clean breweries.


Organic Hops: The USDA's National Organic Program allows nonorganic hops in organic beer, if the brewer can't get access to sufficient quantities. And because hops are important ingredients that add aroma and bitterness to beer, this has generated some debate about the "organicness" of organic beers that use nonorganic hops. If you want a 100-percent organic beer, buy from breweries that use organic hops.


Distribution: As with any food product, local, organic brews reduce fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions related to shipping, and they support local businesses. Fortunately, microbreweries with organic products have become popular over the last few decades, since beer may be brewed in small vats even in confined urban spaces.

Shopping Tips:

1. Buying locally produced beer that hasn't been shipped long distances is a worthy alternative, even if the brewery doesn't sell organic beer.
2. Brew your own organic beer. Seven Bridges Cooperative sells starter kits at $90 and up (www.breworganic.com, 800-768-4409).
3. When throwing a party for large numbers of people, look for breweries that sell beer in kegs or growlers to reduce wasting glass bottles or aluminum cans.

Brewing your own sounds the best. I am available to taste test all your brews!

A Must See Movie

Home (or Homeproject), a great environmental documentary about Earth, is available for viewing until June 14. Watch it now.

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

Fantastic film. Should be watched by all. Should be discussed by all.

Jarradale Winter Squash

Mother Earth News reports...

A 50-foot row of winter squash can yield 80 pounds or more of a high-fiber vegetable that is rich in vitamins and minerals, can be stored long into winter, and makes a delicious main course, side dish or dessert. Yes, winter squash takes a fair amount of room to grow, but its bounty is an excellent way to help feed yourself quality food for much of the year.

This year I am growing Jarradale from Pinetree Seeds.

This Australian variety is very unusual. The skin is a very attractive ribbed blue-gray. Ten pound fruit can be 34 inches around and the flesh is orange and sweet. Stores well.

According to Edgewick Farm's 2007 entry...

It spread across my front lawn. It grew up my deer fence. I harvested over twenty beautiful blue pumpkin looking squashes (of course, if not for my black walnuts, I probably would have harvested 100).

I have given a few away to my friends. Driving through New England last week, I had the urge to drop one off to the vegan (I didn’t). I forgot to bring one for Thanksgiving in Maine. (Whoops…I have been brain dead lately.) No one has cooked one until today. This afternoon, kept company by my friend Karen (who has one sitting on her counter too), I chopped and chopped and peeledand peeled. I put the cut up squash in my new green apple dutch oven (courtesy of Farmgirl fare) and plopped it on the woodstove to cook.


I added butter and sea salt and my own maple syrup. I tasted it and found it completely different than butternut with the same ingredients. Blander I thought at first and added more salt and maple syrup. But as I tasted it again and again, I realized it was more subtle. Hmmmm.

Looking forward to seeing this monster spread. Looking forward to the subtle taste. Looking forward to sharing.

The Anti -Tesla car

Miles EV Launches Coda

Electric car startup Miles EV is launching a new brand called Coda Automotive, which will manufacture an all electric 4 door sedan.


Miles EV sees the brand as a 'coda' to the industrial revolution which brought us the internal combustion engine. It's time to move to an electric era.


This is a bland car, but intentionally so. It's aimed right at heart of the masses. It's the anti-Tesla.


It will cost $45,000 pre-tax breaks, and will get 100 miles per charge. It will take 6 hours to charge its battery.

$45,000? Beyond my reach. But I am sure that there will be a market for it - and I will be jealous. Maybe I can get my hands on one of the test cars being planned. Look for me on a highway near you - I wish.

Natural Shaving Soap

Natural Sassafras Shaving Soap.

For years now I have been using a brush, a double-edged razor (inherited) and an old shaving mug (a gift from years ago). With natural ingredients like cinnamon, patchouli, clove, bay and wild sassafras, I may have to become a "Wild Man."
No stores in Connecticut. Have to go out and bug the local Whole Foods to carry the product line.