Green Streets Day

On the last Friday of every month Portland, Maine rolls out the eco carpet to host Green Streets Day. ‘What is that?’ you may be asking. Well it is a locally launched movement staged by the town’s residents to think planet.

I love to hear when stuff like this is taking place in my own region of the country, way to go Portland!

Residents and tourists alike are asked to wear something green while they think up Greener ways to live their lives. Local businesses who support and commit to a more eco-conscious way of doing things are staffed and ready to answer all manner of questions.

Whether it is the one day a month you take public transportation or the 365th in a row you placed scraps into your back yard composter, there is something about an entire community coming together for one likeminded purpose that makes me smile.

Upcoming dates include:
September 24, 2010
October 29, 2010
November 26, 2010
December 31, 2010

If you’re in the Portland, Maine area I highly encourage you to check it out!

Thanks goes out to my Aunt for forwarding on this story!

I Am Drooling When Do the Goods Arrive?

Hard to believe that it is halfway through April already, where did the first third of 2010 go?! But because it is spring and the sun is starting to shine, buds are popping out on trees and temperatures are finally at the place where I can forgo my fleece lined jacket for a windbreaker, my mind has wandered to fresh fruits and veggies!

There are multiple towns surrounding me with pretty decent Farmer’s Markets that provide all kinds of offerings from the expected items, such as lettuce, to unexpected little treasures like scallops by the pound.

Because I am drooling for some fresh produce I figured everyone else is too! If you’re in the northwest suburbs of Boston, here is as comprehensive a list of the local Farmer’s Markets that I could track down.

In the meantime, I’m keeping an eye on the pots full of lettuce, basil and cilantro seeds Matt just planted over the past couple weeks. But I know what they say about a watched pot!

Medford Square Market -- Every Wednesday from June through October, 12:00 - 7:00. Corner of Riverside Ave. and River St. Not just for food: crafts, performances and community networking abound!

Davis Square Farmer’s Market (Somerville) -- Opens May 26, 2010. Every Wednesday from Memorial Day through Thanksgiving, 12:00 - 6:00 through October, 12:00 - 5:00 during November. Corner of Day St. and Herbert St. Parking is tight in this neighborhood, luckily the red line T stops right at Davis Square!

Harvard Farmer’s Market (Cambridge) -- Every Tuesday from mid June through late October, 12:30 - 6:00. Located at the corner of Oxford and Kirkland St. This by far is the least car friendly Market on the list. Multiple bus lines and the red line all stop at Harvard Square, trust me, take them! Note: Debit is accepted here.

Belmont Farmer’s Market -- Every Thursday from 1:30 - 7:00, opens June 10, 2010. Located at the corner of Cross St. and Channing Rd. right in Belmont center. Take the commuter line (purple) which stops right at Belmont Center or park in the lot.

Arlington Farmer’s Market -- Every Wednesday from 1:00 - 6:30 through early October, open until 6:00 through last Wednesday in October. Located in the Russell Common Parking Lot at the corner of Mystic and Chestnut. This is my favorite market by far, though not huge, the people are awesome and I can get seafood!

Winchester Market -- Every Saturday from 9:30 - 1:30 from the second Saturday in June (12) through the end of October. Located on Winchester Town Common, Waterfield Rd., parking is spotty, take the commuter line or park in the Aberjona lot. Includes local produce, performers and craftspeople. (Note: I had no idea this one existed until researching for this post but it may become a new favorite since they even offer gift certificates!)

Lexington Farmer’s Market -- Opens June 1, runs through October 26, every Tuesday from 2:00 - 6:30 at the corner of Mass Ave and Fletcher Ave. Opening day looks to be a celebration with a local radio station DJ and performances from a drum corps and tap dancing troupe.

Want the skinny on Market locations, start dates, times or other info on those not covered here? Well then get on over to the Federation of Massachusetts Farmer’s Markets and sign up for the weekly email list. Or friend them on Facebook!

Getting More Involved with My Important Community!

Good morning! Just wanted to share a quick update with everyone over here; you are now looking at the proud new News and Views Co-Editor for the EcoEtsy Team blog. Hooray!

These folks are awesome, as I have pointed out numerous times before and will most certainly point out again, and always have such fresh ideas to share. It makes me really proud to be a part of their team, not to mention completely psyched and honored that one of the Co-Leaders of the team (a very good Greenie friend) EcoKaren actually approached me to take this on. Wow, thanks so much Karen!

The mantra of this team is a dedication to the three R’s -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle -- and the spectacular members take it even further than that (in my opinion) by truly embracing Greenness as a lifestyle! Members will make their own laundry detergent and tea bags, re-gifting is strongly encouraged and homemade snack recipes are passed around like no thing!

News and View will run every Monday (my Co-Editor in Green and I are working out our schedule now, I’ll keep you informed!) and the team leaders are in process of ramping up the blog, so this coming Monday should be the unveiling of all things fresh over there.

I encourage everyone, whether you have an Etsy account or not, to get over to the Team EcoEtsy Blog and start reading!

See you all over there on Mondays but don’t worry folks, GLR will still be going strong!

Team EcoEtsy I Apologize for Slacking Off!

I am a member of this fine team but it has been ages since I have really participated in the community. Yikes! So now that my work life is taking its turn back toward faux finishing for part of the time, and my novel for the other part, it seems like just the right time to get back to supporting this team and its super creative members once again!

Their blog is really a fantastic place to pick up all kinds of super sweet tips and tricks. I just read this tutorial about how to sew my own reusable tea bag this morning and WOW, what a fantastic idea!

Isn’t it awesome? So simple, yet such a huge environmental impact. For all of those tea drinkers in my life you can expect gifts of a few of these in the future I’m sure!

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be doing a whole lot more features on Team EcoEtsy members again, yakking about the blog and whatnot because it is definitely time to get back to supporting my community.

Oh and Eco-Fashion Friday will be back with a vengeance this week, you won’t want to miss it!

Have a fantastic week everyone!

For more on Team EcoEtsy:
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Turn Off Your ‘Shift’ Key, America by Danial Orange

A friend of mine, Dan Orange, wrote a note titled Turn Off Your ‘Shift’ Key, America and posted it for all of his friends to read over on a social networking site. It is so well done and truly embodies the spirit of what we stand for here at GLR that I immediately asked permission to repost it in its entirety here. Dan said he would be honored so without further ado, here is something we should all keep in mind every day!

This is reposted just as it was originally written**

Dear poets and poetically-minded friends,

I conjured this up on my commute to work this morning. I'd love to get some feedback.

Turn off your ‘Shift’ key, America
by Danial Orange

if we turn off our ‘shift’ key, america
instead of talking @ people, we’d have to talk 2 them.

we’d be forced to see that hatred, fear and ignorance
are problems that exist within the US
because they really exist within us.

people in our nation’s capitals
would have to pay attention to our nation’s lowercases
living in lowerplaces, earning lowerwages,
with children exposed to risk at lowerages.

we’d place more value on =
and less on having +
if we turn off our shift key, america.

with ‘shift’ on, our thoughts are all $!
switch it off and we could be all 4 1
and maybe 1 4 all.

there’d be less emphasis on “I”
if we turn off our shift key, america.

**Photo taken my moi!

Cleaning up the town, post Earth Day

Hey all, Melissa again...back so soon because I needed to share a little Earth Day-related bit before it got to be the 4th of July!

This past Saturday was my little burg's town cleanup day, held, as in the past, the weekend closest to Earth Day. I'd been raring to go on this since about January, hoping to rally whoever I could to get out there and pick up some of the detritus that collects in any town over time.

Because the event coincided with my kids' soccer practice -- the reason I didn't participate last year -- I decided to try to tackle the soccer field and playground that are part of our town park. Thanks to the parents and especially the kids who joined me and mine on a hot, sunny April Saturday to do a little bagging duty!



Signs to rally some support....








Samples of what we found (there was plenty more where this came from)


Citizens pitching in to clean up a place they care about




In the end, we didn't have quite the volume of stuff I had envisioned, but that's what happens when the trash you pick up is mostly cigarette butts (yiiiiigh!) and candy wrappers. All the same, we had fun collecting (lots of golf balls and a few baseballs, as well) and got to feel good about brightening up our park. Can't wait to see if there are photos from the efforts that went on around the rest of the town.

And even now, I find we're all so much more alert to the bits and pieces of castoffs that line the roadways that it's hard not to slam on the brakes and jump out to pick stuff up. So instead of the usual "Make every day Earth Day" closing (with which I totally agree, by the way!), I think maybe I'd say, "Make every day town cleanup day!"

Celebrate Green Celebrities!

No I do not mean Kermit the Frog (although I did just read about the fact that ten of his relatives were recently discovered) I am talking about Greenies! Celebrities who care about the planet make me very happy even if I am not familiar with their body of work because they are using their well known voice to spread the word about a strong sense of community caring.

This morning I read that Miley Cyrus received a Porsche Cayenne as a Sweet Sixteen present from her mom. The car formerly belonged to her Mom and even though Miley enjoyed the benefit of recycling, the environmental impact was not thrilling her so she traded it in for a shiny Toyota Prius. In addition to her eco-mobile the singing and acting starlet also has a song called “Wake Up America” which will be released as a single soon and basically tells everyone to get the clue that we only have one planet so we should probably take care of it. Right on Miley!

A couple days ago Ginger posted some information that peaked my interest in Leonardo Dicaprio. Turns out he is quite the environmental activist with a website dedicated to sharing information on global warming and what we can do to help reduce its effects, links to films he has created with regard to global warming and water (he narrates as well) and links to multiple resources for organizations or foundations which he supports. Who knew Leo was so hot (and by hot I mean concerned with our planet)?!

I have discussed others before such as Edward Norton or Jason Mraz but these are just the celebrities who I am personally drawn to. Since I am not considered a fan of Miley Cyrus or Leonardo Dicaprio but applaud them wholeheartedly for their environmental efforts I decided to do a little digging to see who else might support such endeavors that I may not be aware of. What I discovered is that to care about our planet does not mean being the stereotypical “Tree hugging Hippie” of the past; eco-conscious celebrities are vast and varied. Some of those I discovered who care are: Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews, KT Tunstall, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Ozzy Osbourne, Hilary Clinton, Jay-Z, Sting, Walter Cronkite, Morgan Freeman. And this is just the very tiny tip of the iceberg!

Here is a great collection of names and what each are personally involved in environmentally:
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/Green_Celebrities_&_Green_Speakers.php

Bottom line is we all have a voice, we can all discuss the issues that are dear to us and take our own action to make necessary changes in order to save our planet it is just that people of a certain status of fame are better equip to reach a larger audience and for this I am granting every single one of these concerned celebs Four Green Leaves!



Thanks celebrities for spreading the word on a global scale so we can all take action on a local one. You rock!

In defense of baby steps

Note: Hi, Melissa again. I know, I know, two blogs in one week...but Jenn deserves the occasional break, right? And there's been more than usual inspiration for me of late, so I thought I'd run with it!

I mentioned in my last blog that I went to an event put on by Ayer Local, a new group in my town that's out to put the spotlight on sustainability and getting residents motivated to buy goods and services locally.

The group is getting its name out there to the town via a series of monthly movies, and the first was The Story of Stuff, an animated short about the impact that the lifecycle of the products we buy has on the environment, natural resources and communities.

Afterward, we split into groups of eight to 10 people to talk about the film. The evening's moderator (one of our town selectwomen, I'm thrilled to report!) gave us some questions to get the talk flowing.

So this one particular set of questions was, “What can you as an individual/your family/your community do to change things?” A few people volunteered some answers, mostly upbeat and positive.

Then one woman said, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, “I recycle my handful of seltzer water bottles and beer cans at home, but I work a few days a week at a restaurant in Concord, and they don't recycle at all. You know, it's like that statistic in the film, where for every can of trash we put out at the curb, there are 70 cans of waste upstream that were generated in making what we are now throwing away.

“I sometimes think," she continued, "that the emphasis on individual actions is a distraction, to keep us from thinking about the bigger picture, when what we should be doing is writing to our representatives and getting politically involved.”

She seemed somewhere between impatient and resigned. I'd only just met her, so it was hard to tell. She did mention having been concerned with many of these same issues since the 70s, so obviously she cared.

I saw her point, I really did. But I couldn't agree completely. Yes, people do need to hammer away at their elected officials and elect ones who will make sustainability and other environmental issues a priority.

But what this woman said seemed to imply that everyone doing their bit – whether it's recycling or reducing their carbon footprint or buying local – isn't really relevant, in the grand scheme of things. So if we don't all individually become legislators or climate-change scientists or globally-recognized environmental advocates, is there any point?

For my part, the answer is a resounding “yes!” It's perfectly true that just putting out the recycling or unplugging our appliances, individually, is not going to solve the climate change problems we're facing, but not doing it definitely just worsens the situation.

And it's more than that: Taking these steps, and letting others know we're taking them, and why, creates a ripple effect. Here is the key thing: even if having every person on the planet recycle, or unplug appliances (OK, these are just examples, I do know there are more critical actions we could take!) isn't enough to save the polar icecap, it seems to me that the more we begin to move in this direction, the further we want to take our efforts. We inspire ourselves and each other.

So if someone sees you take the initiative to, say, take some of your restaurant's bottles and cans home to recycle them yourself, maybe they'll help you. Or maybe they'll be fired up to find out how to institute a real, full-time recycling program for the restaurant. And when they do that, maybe they'll be so pumped up, they'll run for office and start working the system from the inside, and wind up writing or at least passing some piece of legislation that helps save the planet. Or maybe you'll do all that yourself!

Yes, that's probably a bit extreme. But it could happen. Of course, everyone's not going to become a legislator, or even write to their elected representatives. But the little steps matter because, without them, some people would never get moving at all. Baby steps move us all forward, however incrementally. And that is the direction we need to go.

Growing Up Green - From Portland to Boston

While chatting with Bridgete recently she suggested that since she was raised in Portland, Oregon it might be nice to do a feature on how she grew up in such an eco-conscious state and what her comparative impressions are of Boston, Massachusetts now that she is living here. One might think it would be difficult for a city such as Boston to achieve the distinctive title of Greenest City but in truth it would not be all that tough, it would just require a firm dedication to create a better environment by all the residents. After reading her interview everyone will want to start making strides to green up their own cities and snatch that title away from Portland!


Where did you reside prior to moving to Boston?

Portland, OR, aka the Number 1 greenest city in the US.

What is it about Oregon's environmental efforts that most inspire you?

Honestly, it's that everyone recycles. It's such a simple thing with such a huge impact. And everywhere you go, it's clear that the whole state has figured that out. You don't have to harass your school or your employer to have recycle bins - they're just already there. And the same goes for getting recycling pick-up in your area - it just comes with the trash pick-up, no questions asked. It's so great to see an entire community step up and at least do that one thing for the environment, even if some individuals don't do anything else.

Do you remember taking part in environmental practices when you were a kid? How old were you in your furthest back memories?

Earth Day was this huge thing at my elementary school. I don't even remember what we did, but we had a whole day of environmental activities. I think one year we planted trees...in first grade, maybe. Also while I was in elementary school, I remember sorting through the recycling with my mom every week -- this was in the early days when you had to separate everything -- cans, plastic, paper, glass -- and put all the different types into separate paper bags and put the bags in the yellow bins for the curb. And we had to take off the labels from soup cans and stuff, as well as the bottoms, and smash them flat before those could go out. To make the sorting easier we ended up getting separate bins for inside the house where we'd put the cans, already unlabeled and smashed, and then a bin for plastic. Glass we'd just set aside since we didn't usually have much glass, and the newspapers went in a pile and then were easily slid into the bag when the time came. I think all this started when I was about six or seven. I'm leaning towards six...

Tell me a little about what it was like to grow up in such a progressively green environment.

It's not even something I really thought about, it was all second nature. Words like greenhouse gases and biodegradable are part of everyday language there. And there are so many things that I didn't even realize were great until I left. For one, the city has a fabulous public transportation system -- when you take into account the entire system, buses and trains and all of it, it's apparently the best in the country -- and people use it. I didn't even learn to drive until I was 19 and that was only because I was a bit outside the city for school and wanted to be able to go home more often. I have several friends who didn't have their licenses until their early 20s because they stayed in the city. When you consider the fact that Portland is a Western city where everything is more spread out, that really says something about how functional the transportation system is there.

There's also the recycling I talked about before. It's also kind of a status symbol to own a hybrid, and even if you don't, you get bragging rights for getting great gas mileage or rarely using your car so you only fill it every few weeks. Oh, about cars, there's a really rigorous emissions test you have to put your car through every two years to see how much nasty stuff it's putting into the air. If it doesn't pass, you can't update your registration until you fix whatever is making your car put out even more nastiness than it should.

Other things...about a month ago I learned that apparently in some cities people go grocery shopping more than once a week, but in Portland, just about everyone has their weekly shopping day. Some even have it down to every two weeks. Then there's the common practice of planning your errands so that you make a loop -- stopping at some places on your way to the farthest place, then going a different way home to stop at the other places on your way back. And finally, one of the busiest places downtown is Saturday Market, which is kind of like an ongoing fair -- it's an outdoor market that runs every Saturday and Sunday from April to December (yeah, okay, so it's not nearly as cold in Portland as it is in Boston) and people set up stands with all sorts of organic soaps and candles and such, then you have the up-cycled clothes or the stuff that's made from all-natural fabrics and organic dyes, and people who make their own jewelry by melting random bits of glass. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

What are some eco-activities you enjoy most in your new city?

I do like that the T gets you where you want to go, even if it is a bit irregular and has a lot of random delays. But what I really love is walking. Downtown Portland is actually a pretty great walking area, but it rains so much that you don't usually want to. And then in the rest of the city everything is too spread out from that Western urban sprawl so you can't really get anywhere by just walking, even when it's actually not raining. So I really love that everything is so compact here so if I'm pretty close I don't even have to deal with the T. Unless it's mid-December and I'll freeze to death if I have to walk another block. =)

How could Massachusetts and the rest of the world take a cue from Oregon to green themselves?

Well, first for Boston: if you're going downtown, why on EARTH would you ever bring your car? Have you SEEN the traffic? Seriously. I know if you're actually driving in downtown you probably have lived here forever so you can handle it, but why would you want to when the T is so convenient? And so much better for the environment, I might add. Also, put out recycling bins for the general public, next to the trash cans on the sidewalks. And as for the rest of the world, I'd say the first step is to recycle. That's where we started, and now Portland is the greenest city in the US. We started by caring just that little bit, and then we realized how good it felt to be good to the environment, so we wanted to do more. So we did. So really. Recycle. You can invent eco-friendly cars and put up wind turbines and solar panels and everything all you want, but if you can't get your community to all pull together and do that one little thing then that good feeling isn't going to spread. People won't buy the hybrid cars if they don't care, and they won't notice that their electricity is now more green if they aren't the ones generating it, so they won't start caring. I guess that goes back to "think globally, act locally." Get your community, even just your workplace or school, to start doing just that one little thing and watch the greenness grow.

How do you take initiative to spread the word about being green?

Well, I'm working on figuring out how to get recycling pick-up for my apartment complex right now. That's kind of my priority at the moment. Right now Vanessa and I, two rather clean people, have a couple bags of recycling waiting until we have the time to go find where to drop it off. It's rather irritating to have it lying around, but I can't just throw that stuff away. It goes against my nature. I guess other than that, it's just talking to people. Telling them to shut off lights (or doing it myself, including in other people's homes). Sometimes what helps is to explain how much money you save with certain green acts, like using passive solar energy from your windows to warm up your house, and not turning the heat way up just to get it warm faster, it will do its job just fine if you set it to the temperature you want the house to be. Or in the summer, check whether you actually need to run the air-conditioning or if it's cool enough outside to just have the windows open for the night. Around here, Boston has really beautiful summer evenings, so spend the evening outside while your house cools off from the windows you opened. Especially in this economy, people like saving money, so they like to hear that being just a little more green will actually help them do that.

What is the one eco-act you do everyday that readers could also do to lessen their impact on the environment?

Okay, I'll say something besides recycling because I think you all got the point there. I make efforts to stop wasting electricity. I turn off lights when I leave the room. Same goes for the TV. And everything is off when I leave the house. Also, in the summer, I don't run the AC when I'm not home, and I try to avoid using it as much as possible even when I am home. As for heat, I at least turn it down when I leave. In the early fall/late spring I'll turn it off completely, but the general character of winter in Boston prevents me from turning that into a year-round practice. Oh, I turn down the heat when I sleep too. You actually sleep better in a slightly cold room with a nice, big, warm blanket.

Photos courtesy of Portland Ground: Pictures of Portland Oregon

I Have Heard of a Vegan But What Is A Freegan?

Right off the bat I need to say that when I typed up the title for this post in Word I had to add Freegan to the dictionary, meaning that it is such a new word that Microsoft does not even recognize it. Of course what I discovered this morning is that even though Microsoft does not know what it is there is an entire world associated with and dedicated to this not new concept. With the country and economy in the state it is in I can definitely understand why it is gaining steam.

Yesterday while researching the Tiny Free House built exclusively from pallets I came across the word freegan a couple times while reading his blog. I did not think too much of it at the time but decided to use it as a tag for the post anyway. The fact that I was not entirely sure what it was though had been gnawing at me all night because I do not want to lead anyone down a misinformed path or put something out there that I am not entirely sure about so this morning it became clear that what I needed to do was dedicate an entire post to this one word.

Perhaps someone may say it is impossible to write an entire article or lengthy blog post on the basis of just one word. Well those people clearly do not know me and the way I do research! I discovered websites, blogs, articles, tips and even a wiki dedicated to this one word. If I were really ambitions I could likely dedicate three posts to it but I will leave that second layer of exploration to the individual discretion of each person reading.

So what is it already right?

Freeganism is about sharing. Freeganism is about community, freedom and generous social interaction. Freeganism is about dumpster diving, especially for food.

Wait, what?

On the website freegan.info the tagline states “Strategies for Sustainable Living Beyond Capitalism”. It is basically a conscious decision to remove oneself from the place of support for what companies stand for by boycotting the purchasing of products created by them. It goes for all companies. Yes this does also mean food.

Yesterday I discussed the fact that we would be utilizing free shipping pallets to construct our entertainment center and it opened up a can of freegan worms that, if we so chose, would propel us down the path of: no longer paying rent (either squatting or living in the “wild” purposefully), no longer paying bills (paying the heat bill encourages the production and use of fossil fuels and all that is associated with that concept), begin rummaging through dumpsters for food (waste should feed people, not be thrown away) and a literal myriad of additional ways to completely remove our foot print from the planet or provide positive impact only (composting, communal living, etc).

I am certainly all for people doing what they like and although I could never picture myself going down a completely freegan path, I can understand the inclination because just the research into the concept has caused me to think about the following:

☼ Buying only what we need to survive and using it to its fullest extent so as not to waste
☼ Living in just the amount of space we really need and conserving the resources used within that space
☼ Donating even more than we already do to charitable organizations (not just monetary but material as well)
☼ Repurposing materials for alternative solutions if possible
☼ When looking to procure or get rid of something check craigslist free in my local area first (for example Matt wants a bike so he has been on craigslist Boston to find one for free)
☼ Begin researching where my goods come from and noting what impact it has/had on the planet to not only construct it but to get it to where I am from where it originated
☼ Start clipping coupons for everything I buy
☼ Share as much as possible with whomever I can and accept when others do the same for me

What are some of the ways you could see yourself being free?