go here to read the entire collective on this important topic.

Climate Change is a complex topic.  It’s bigger than all of us and in the end it’s hard to know if our efforts are actually making a difference.   The strong opposing commentary on Climate Change is confusing.  What is your opinion on the matter?  I personally can’t begin to claim expertise.  My resolutions are to be an advocate and to continue to example choice.

I know that’s not very specific.

If and when I have a chance to point in the direction of those who are making strides in climate change issues I want to be sure to be a resource.   As I continue to learn and develop my own ideas on the topic I want to example a shifting behavior that I hope helps someone see that they too have the option to make choices that can contribute to being more proactive.

Its my strong belief that small shifts do make a difference.  When changes are made collectively they have a stronger voice.

It’s also my belief that making any effort is better than doing nothing.

My biggest wish is for pause, reflection, and conscientiously slowing it down. I’d love to see less purchasing, more making it from scratch and shopping local.

Where I example this best is cooking from scratch and shouting it out about the local farmers and business I I support through my purchases.  A lifestyle of less is more.   In the end this produces less waste and we are healthier!

Pause and choice are what I am championing.

Isn’t this the common sensical approach to it all.

I discovered Deanna and her wacky green ideas in my early blogging days, my first impression of her was that she was nuts. At that time she was campaigning about something called a Diva Cup,  peeing in her garden and writing about a friendship she had with an offgrid dude named Greenpa at that time I had no idea what off grid even was.

Something about her enthusiasm, her sincerity and yes her wacky way of looking at things kept me coming back to her writings.  Along the way her husband was diagnosed with cancer and holy smokes I was stunned.  I had never experienced something so personal on a blog before. Since, we have become wonderfully acquainted via our work together in Green Moms Carnival.

I find Deanna to be smart, very detail oriented, insanely curious, tremendously thoughtful and seriously gosh darn funny.  She continuously cracks me up!

I loved this book.  I’d especially recommend it to a family or individual who REALLY wants to know about the toxins around them and how to make shifts towards a less toxic personal environment.

What separates her book from others is how she took us into on this very ambitious project and tucked all of us into her everyday life. This was not a go to spa, get it all together detox ahhhhhhhhh experience. This was an in the trenches everything exploration in the middle of life. Work, mom, wife, cancer, asbergers, family, holidays , red velvet birthday cake.   The journey was real.   It was like spending a few months as a fly on the wall inside the Duke household and better yet being included in all the details, concerns, and speculation in Deanna’s mind as she took this thing on.

I can thank Deanna for my shift to the use of a Diva Cup, applaud her reinforcing my decision to never ever use teflon pans, marvel at the toxins I didn’t know about, like oh my gosh, the coating on dental floss??  who knew! , and be totally inspired to buy of all things more house plants!

( you’ll just have to read the book to find out why) 

This book is an easy read despite some of the alarming and complex details and it’s loaded with references and resources.

Nice work Deanna!!

Many of the suggestions for alternative products she mentions can also be found through me.   Ask me about green cleaning and anti-aging plant based skin care.

I find Terra’s writing so very lovely and quotable.  I love her message of shifting our relationship with food – reminding us that there is a 5 billion dollar advertising industry pursuadeing us we don’t have time to cook.   She said money is like manure – spread it around and I thought oh my gosh how true!! Many at this time of year are seeking ways to make donations.  A donation to the Land Connection is local, meaningful and helps foster a much needed forward thinking philosophy.

Times Of Abundance

Terra Brockman on food and feasting

Dec 09, 2011 by Amy Frykholm  in The Christian Century

Terra Brockman is an advo­cate for—and close observer of—sustainable agriculture. She founded an organization called The Land Connection that works to preserve farmland, train new farmers and connect people with local food. She lives in central Illinois and is the author of The Seasons on Henry’s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm.

What is life like at the farm after the harvest is over? 

I call it the wabi-sabi time of year. Wabi-sabi is the Buddhist concept that everything changes; impermanence is itself a thing of beauty. My brother Henry says that this wabi-sabi season is all about “the beauty of sadness, and the sadness of beauty.” It is sad in one way to see the leaves fall, the basil blacken, and the tomato and other annual plants turn to mush. But all those dead plants break down and become food for fungi and bacteria and enhance next year’s crops.

On an aesthetic level, I love the stark beauty of winter. Everything is stripped away. You get down to the basic structure of things. You get to see in a new way.

What can farming teach us about feasting?

On the farm, there are natural feast times, times of abundance. When you have abundance, you tend to be really profligate with sharing. When the winter squashes come in, for example, any one that has a little softness in it needs to be shared and shared quickly.

My mom’s tradition is southern Italian Catholic. My grandma said they used to eat a crust of bread and half an onion—that was their everyday food. Christmas Eve is very spartan in this tradition—dry spaghetti with salt cod. No olive oil even.

Christmas Day includes making ravioli together. We spend hours around a table making these raviolis with two fillings, one with ground beef from my dad’s cattle, and one of ricotta and winter greens. It is a feast of shared labor. This isn’t a feast where things just appear on the table. In American culture, we often have the idea of the feast appearing magically from the kitchen without labor. We work to produce our feast, but the work is fun and every ravioli is different, oddly shaped, imperfect. They don’t look like ravioli from the freezer aisle. The participatory aspect is the most important part of the feast.

How is feasting balanced with times of less abundance?

In February and March, the months before we get the first wild and perennial greens, the root cellar and freezer are emptying out. We are not suffering, we are not hungry, but we are making do with what we have. With the apparent abundance in the grocery store all the time, many people have lost the art of making do and have lost a sense of the ebb and flow of the natural world.

Food is too often seen as an inanimate commodity, not something deeply connected to the earth. In fact, modern industrial agriculture has created a disconnect not only between people and the seasons, but between people’s food and their values of caring for others and stewarding the earth. The complicated and opaque food chain that goes through processors, manufacturers, packagers, shippers, advertisers and retailers is damaging to people and to the earth.

One way forward is to reboot our relationship with food—in times of abundance and times of scarcity—making it more local, more personal, more connected and meaningful.

You talk about the fun of making ravioli—but many people feel exhausted by the holiday season. 

We’ve been persuaded by a $5 billion advertising industry that “we are too busy,” or “this is so hard you can’t make it by yourself.” There are billions of dollars of propaganda actively discouraging people from doing simple, fun things and connecting with friends. I think part of my work is trying to open people up to life’s simple pleasures.

Holiday exhaustion—spiritual and physical—comes, I think, from not getting together to enjoy and recharge. Mak­ing food together is energizing.

People have been misinformed to think that you need four hours to cook a meal. The quickest stir-fry is faster than the fastest fast food.

I have taken to eating a lot of food on toast lately—greens or mushrooms or radishes. It takes less than five minutes to put bread in the toaster oven and slice the radishes or stir-fry the greens as the bread is toasting. It’s simple, delicious and satisfying.

Perhaps we are also uneasy with “imperfect” food?

I think that’s true. We’ve been persuaded by advertising that an apple must be bright red and shiny. That view actually sets us up for a very disappointing taste experience—not to mention that apples top the list of the most pesticide-laden produce.

I learned about the importance of imperfection when I lived in Japan. In the Japanese tea ceremony, you have to use imperfect clay bowls because the aging, cracked, asymmetrical bowls force you to see beyond the surface to the spark of light and beauty within. The spark points to perfection within imperfection.

Food is not about some perfect size or color or presentation. It’s about joining us to the earth, our fellow creatures, family, guests and ultimately God. It’s about life here and now, about seeing the spark of light and beauty in our world and our lives, even with all their imperfection and unpredictability.

Can you say more about imperfection and feasting on the farm?

Every time we harvest vegetables or fruits on my brother Henry’s or sister Teresa’s farms, there are many things that aren’t quite good enough to sell. Since they are “for us”—for the family and apprentices—we call them the “for-us-es”—the imperfect things, too ripe, too misshapen, too big, too small. Even though we can’t sell these, they are often the most delicious. The tomatoes that are just on the edge of rotting, the pear with a bad spot. The imperfection is the perfection.

I just cooked up a bunch of “for us” squash. They had soft spots, but I carved them out and the imperfect squash came out perfectly delicious. Bug holes in the greens don’t matter either, once you’ve cooked them. And a worm at the tip of an ear of sweet corn proves that there were no poisonous chemicals used on it.

My dad likes to tell the story of a friend who visited him in the watermelon patch. The friend said, enviously, “You probably get all the best watermelons.” My dad laughed, “No, we never get the best ones.” He showed him all the cracked, broken, slightly rotten watermelons that were in the “for us” pile and said, “These are the ones we eat.”

What’s your message to those who don’t live so close to the land? 

Start with just one item—say, eggs. It’s easy these days to go to Local­Harvest or other websites and type in “local eggs” and find a local farmer who raises them in a good way. You’ll find that those eggs will be more delicious and more meaningful. If you get just a few items from a local farmer, or even a few herbs from your windowsill, you create a personal connection to food and to the people and place it came from. The bottom line is that good food is food that connects you to the earth and to others—it is a very real communion.

And at this giving time of year, please remember that money is like manure – it does the most good when you spread it around – and The Land Connection can make sure your money does a world of good.   Thank you!

Donations Critical to the Success of this first ever Public/Private Partnership for HHW in McLean County

Dear Friend of the EAC:

It’s been four long years since McLean County saw its last Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Event. Since the fall of 2007 area residents have patiently waited for a safe way to dispose of their old herbicides, fertilizers, oil-based paints, chemicals, and other hazardous materials. We are fortunate that many in our community are aware of the risks of improper disposal of HHW items. The threat of polluting our drinking water supply is real—conventional landfills are not designed to contain hazardous wastes.

Unfortunately the budget crisis at the state level has taken its toll. No Illinois EPA funded HHW collection events are being scheduled. The state’s Solid Waste Fund was “swept” by the General Assembly for other purposes. I regularly check in with the IEPA, hoping for some indication that funding for HHW collection events will resume, but my inquiries always result in disappointment.

It’s high time we take matters into our own hands – so that’s exactly what we are doing. The Ecology Action Center, with a growing list of community partners, is planning for a HHW Collection event for September 2012 for McLean County residents. This first-ever public and private partnership for HHW has an ambitious goal of raising $125,000 to cover the necessary expenses of a one-day HHW event.

To make this event happen, we need your help. We are asking our members, friends, and supporters to consider making a year-end tax deductible contribution to the EAC’s HHW Fund. No contribution is too small or too large. For example, if each of the 2000 households that participated in the 2007 HHW event contributed as little as $10, we would be $20,000 closer to reaching our goal!

Please contribute to the HHW Fund. You may make an online contribution using your credit card or PayPal account at www.ecologyactioncenter.org.

Or you may make donation checks out to “Ecology Action Center” and mail to:

Ecology Action Center 

Attn: HHW Fund 

202 W College Ave 

Normal, IL 6171 

All contributions are tax deductible. All donors will receive an acknowledgment for tax purposes.

Businesses or organizations interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact me at (309) 454-3169 or mbrown@ecologyactioncenter.org.

Thank you for supporting safe disposal of hazardous wastes in McLean County,

Michael Brown

Executive Director

Here are just a few wellness product suggestions that might be useful to you during the holidays…

because sometimes, along with the holidays, comes …

a little holiday stress, a little holiday eating, a little holiday depression, a few children in the festivities, a few long days and long nights, perhaps a little stack of holiday baking dishes, and maybe just maybe there might be a need to spruce up your appearance??

Stress!!!

Try our product that relieves stress This safe and effective herbal formula promotes a tranquil state of mind without drowsiness. For anyone who is under stress and would like to feel calmer and more relaxed and yet, more alert please consider this product. May be used daily. Contains amino acids L-Theanine, L-Tyrosine as well as Beta Sitosterol and Ashwagandha which blunt the stress hormone cortisol, a hormone that over time can damage vital organs.

B-Complex - Essential for your nerves, brain and a pleasant disposition (something that might be especially useful this time of year!). Helps prevent cravings for sweets…helps metabolize them when you eat them anyway ( ha!) and burns them into energy.

Holiday Eating!!

We all over eat during the holidays! Make it easier on the gut, by taking something to assist digestion. Nutrients are better absorbed from your foods when digestion is working at it’s best.Consider Digestive Enzymes to help alleviate symptoms such as gas, bloating and feelings of fullness.

Colds and Viruses!!!

Natural Interferon is excellent for people with allergies and weaker immunity or high stress. It supports and stimulates the immune system, by increasing the activity of macrophages (white blood cells) and inducing natural interferon production. This product optimizes immune response against environmental irritants and airborne substances.

Vitamin C Most of us need extra Vitamin C in the wintertime, as it is water, lost to air, heat and light and really important for the immune system. Ours provides 500 mg released slowly over a 5-hour period.

Holiday Blues!!!

St John’s Wart— Clinical tests show that St. John’s Wort provides dietary support for uplifted spirits and a sense of well being due to the plant’s positive effect on a number of mood-enhancing neurotransmitters in the brain. Users report improved mood, alertness, productivity and energy without the side effects of pharmaceutical antidepressants.

Children!!!

Children’s Chewable- we know that our children are not getting all the nutrients they need. Especially during the holidays. Give them this daily nutritional insurance provided by our chewable multi-vitamin. The kids just love them! It’s simple and valuable. Our children’s multi-vitamin is the most complete on the market

Late nights … Long days…

Soy Protein– Great energy booster! This complete form of soy protein comes with less than 1 gram of carbohydrate. All this delivered from the same high quality source of soy while using the same water-washed manufacturing process. Its extraordinary versatility allows you to enjoy the health benefits of soy in a number of different ways: mix it in drinks, and now you can cook and bake with it.

and Dishes…lots and lots of dirty dishes!!!

Our Company is known for the most complete bio-degradable laundry and cleaning product line on the planet! Following the philosophy of the founder of the company and that science move forward the company completely revamped, upgraded and improved the entire collection!

A certain female daytime celebrity host touts this product as one of her absolute favorites

Here are a few products that can help with those dishes :

For the Dishwasher - recommended by many environmental groups and magazines. This patented product continues to be one of the ONLY automatic dish washing formulas containing NO phosphates and NO chlorine…clean clincher: one box of our “green and mighty” non-chemical, extremely concentrated powder equals 2 ½ boxes of Cascade!!

For dishes done by hand - Ours is fabulous non-toxic, non-polluting dishwashing liquid & a powerful grease cutter, yet so gentle, it can be used for washing hands & as a bubble bath. Literally, just a few drops provides ooodles of sudsy natural, sustainably sourced, plant – based effective cleaner for dishes. Has a delicious sortof a citrusy scent. I especially love what they have done with this product!! 70% more effective on grease than Method and Seventh Generation.

Let’s not forget parties !! Lots of gala events and entertaining!!

Look Great for the Holidays with…

Anti-aging Skin Care Customers are experiencing wonderful results from our anti-aging skin care line. Particularly impressive is the 400% reduction in fine lines and wrinkles after just 4 weeks in the clinical trials! Remember our products are beautifully packaged, reasonably priced and makes a fabulous gift! In the spirit of gift giving we can customize any combination of products to suit your individual needs and price range

Know anyone who might benefit from a nutritional consultation??  My business is based entirely on word of mouth referrals, don’t keep me a secret!! Give the gift of nutritional mentoring.

image by karen hanrahan

I use to live in a wonderful old Victorian train town. My old town was loaded with the distinct charm of old that I absolutely treasure. The old is one of the many reasons I lived there! I love the old of it all.

For the holidays our town traditionally become bedazzled with little white lights Blocks and blocks of lights. Every tree, every lamp post and many of the store fronts were all a twinkly. The bling of it all inspires holiday spirit, and I admit was delightfully festive!

One fall, right before Halloween our town hung streamers of lights all about the business district. Two long blocks of hung across the street, intermittent swags of lights. I didn’t get it. What’s with the lights? It wasn’t Christmas yet, and they had never hung light streamers like this before. What was this town up to? I read in the paper that there was an initiative to draw folks to shop. As cute and darling as our town was, stores were empty, shops were struggling in competition with the big box stores. Not to mention the darn economy. This additional sparkle was supposed to create warmth. I was bothered at first. Why the expense? Why the labor to hang them? More lights? Why the swags? I did warm to them. When I’d walk into town at night I admit I liked the glow.

However, in the spirit of greenness, you know that global effort to actually do less NOT more? I can’t help but wonder. Could reducing the light wrappings to let’s say every other tree, and every other lamp post still portray the same cheer? Would using less lights – let’s say half – still be enough to make a difference for the environment?

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the lights. The traditional blink-blink of it all is ever so magical. I love it especially most, if it snows a big gentle white fluffy snow – A first snow to me is still nature’s winter gift. Bling and winter fluff certainly puts one in the mood for everything holiday. Would you agree?

Let’s lessen the gleam. Let’s example a bit of green about the whole thing. Give the gift of less.

Do you think less holiday bling is greener?

Head on over there …

I am not much of a shopper, and truth be the very last thing I want to do the day after Thanksgiving is go shopping, but I guess people do some crazy intense shopping on Black Friday!

I started hearing the phrase shop local a few years a go.  I didn’t think too much about it. I shop here …where I live.  Doesn’t everybody?? What did shop local actually mean?

I began to observe that the items I purchased weren’t made in this country. I wasn’t paying attention.  When I learned more and more about it.  I thought wow how could I have been so oblivious?

When I moved to Central Illinois I visited the local farmers market.  It was lovely here. Three long blocks of local farmers, vendors and artists.  At first I felt overwhelmed, some booths were organic, some were not – many didn’t have websites. I was skeptical for some reason.  I felt like they were strangers to me.  I realized that I didn’t think seasonally re: my food shopping or menu planning – that first summer I was more of an observer of the farmers market than a participant. I dabbled.

Food is important to me. Quality food.  If I look where I spend my dollar much of it goes to the food I eat.

The second summer I made a commitment to shop at the farmers market each saturday. I did this to support the local farmer. I shifted the way I organized my shopping and menu planning habits AND along the way I met these absolutely amazing people who grew the food I was buying.  It became very important to me to not only purchase from them. I felt compelled to encourage others to do so as well

This past summer I heard Food System Analysts Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource speak.  The conversation was about the local food economy.  I am the last person to discuss with any expertise economics, I can leave that up to Ken, but he said some things that got me thinking

Most farmers in this region don’t feed people. ( what??) They grow commodity crop that is turned into things that are processed or manufactured.

Food has become a leading cause of death, rivaling tobacco. A high-calorie diet, combined with a lack of exercise, accounts for one-fifth of the annual deaths in the U.S. (1)

Six of the fifteen leading causes of death are related to faulty diet and low physical activity. (2) Food related health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes represent six of the ten leading causes of death nationally.  The medical costs of treating diabetes in the U.S. total $147 billion annually. (3)

above information quoted from here ( by food systems analyst Ken Meter)

I was stunned by this.

The farmers who grow food here, food that you can actually eat that is grown organically,  do so because the love it, they do it in principle, they go the extra mile to produce an organic crop. It’s what they do – it’s how they earn their living. They are not subsidized by the government.

I thought about MY spending dollar and where it goes. If I buy from a big box store or some chain grocery store that dollar doesn’t go anywhere near where I live.  It’s GONE into wherever land.

Where if I buy eggs, chicken and greens from a farmer – that money is going to him, his family and that money is mindfully getting spent back here in this community. I buy local, they buy local, we buy local – it’s keeping that economy and commerce here.

OH!

It was like a light bulb went on or something.

Buying something hand crafted from someone you know, or from an artist that you met nearby or a mom and pop restaurant means something to them. Does the Jewel know that it’s “you” when you grocery shop there?

Think about where you are spending your dollar this holiday season.  Keep the economy close by, support your local farmers, artists and crafters.

Buy local does not mean shopping at your nearby WalMart.

I adore the florals, the bright colors and the feeling of vintage cotton hankies

I think they are just beautiful.

I started using hankies several years ago.

I had this collection and I thought gee I should really use them.

Ever think about how much Kleenex you use?

Kleenex use could be reduced simply by using a hankie instead.

A hankie is always in my purse. Another in the car.  Of course they are in the house or in all my pockets.

What great alternatives and green solutions hankies are!

If you ever leave one in your pocket it will never ever make a mess in your laundry. I promise.

Not into vintage hankies ?

Consider this local and handmade soft flannel source from MilkweedMercantile