The harvest weekend

Labor day weekend proved to be a mellow and productive holiday weekend. 

Saturday

Utilizing our newly procured B.O.B. trailer we successfully foraged at the local farmers market  for fresh veg-edibles and a few new garden plants.  We felt incredibly smug pedaling home with our market fare rolling along in such a stylish way.  Car-free appears to be the height of green-urban-society-life-choice right now and we got lots of questions and compliments (imagine if I'd been riding and S.U.B).  On the ride home we stopped to forage a basket-full of apples from the feral trees along the bike path.

The new bike trailer loaded down with market purchases: basket of veggies, blueberry bush, honey fig tree

Spoils of a successful market forage: asian eggplant, casper eggplant, oyster mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, purple peppers, red onion, and blue potatoes.  All locally grown and purchased from the producer (smug, smug, smuggity, smug.)

Apples and pears from feral trees, possibly the beginnings of a future fermentation experiment.

Sunday

The bees had finally lost interest in my lavender bushes so it was time to harvest.  It was very productive year.  Later we discovered a cooler fits nicely on the new trailer and is very handy for grocery shopping expeditions. We also attempted our first mead making experiment Sunday evening with a large jar of meadowfoam honey.  I'll try to share fermentation pictures in a later post.

Enough English lavender to set four large bundles to dry.

The bob trailer is just the right size for hauling a cooler.  I can think of so many wonderful  reasons you'd want to bring a cooler with you...

Monday

Major trimming of the spice garden.  Saved enough mint to dry one large bundle and composted the rest, also saved smallish bundles of thyme, marjoram and oregano  (I prefer them fresh, but a little dried can't hurt).  Another exciting bicycle expedition, this time to the recycling plant and picking blackberries for another fermentation experiment (more on that to come).

Mint from my garden.  Great for teas, baths, mojitos, tzatziki sauce, but also my biggest weed.  Transplanted from a 4 inch pot and now covers most of my spice garden.

We got some strange looks from other folks dropping off recycling (all driving cars and leaving them idling while disposing of recyclables) but that's half the fun of using your bike for these round-the-town errands.

Escape the waste?

When shopping I try to consider the packaging waste from the products I buy.  For the things I purchase regularly I tend to buy in bulk and reuse my own bags and containers.  The last few day's I've been biking around town picking up stuff we need for our annual backpacking trip.  Nothing big, mostly food and replacement items for the first aid kit.  We packed our bags up last night and I was shocked by the amount of waste we had produced from such a small number of things.  I had always thought of backpacking as a "green" vacation.  Spending a week fueling ourselves instead of our cars, living simply finding joy in the quite.  Not necessarily a zero impact vacation, but much better that spending it running an ATV around the dunes or camping in an luxury RV complete with air-conditioning and satellite television.  But this waste concerns me, I'm going to have to think through what products we choose before the next trip.

Making Green Easy

Each day my husband and I work at changing our behavior to make our lives more "green."  The biggest change for us has been riding our bikes everywhere.  I've also taken the community link buses when I have to visit neighboring towns.  The inconvenience of long waits is almost enough to make me want to drive, but lately I've found driving to be very unpleasant (perhaps it's the lack of airconditioning.)  But when I do have to drive my car the destination is typically either my research site (275 mile round trip) or to visit the parents (200 mile round trip).  For those trips I've had ideas on how to be a more green driver:

• Keep it at or under 55 mph (much easier on the windy coast road to my research site than when I take I-5 to visit the parents) but driving 55 mph or slower saves gas, and using less gas to go the same distance is a basic green concept.
• Drive with high tire pressure in the summer.  We have icy and wet winters so if you visit the tire centers during the winter months chances are you're driving away with lowish tire pressure to aid in traction.  But greater traction also means greater friction and less efficiency.  Once the weather has improved get them pumped up an your gas mileage with improve.
• Just say no to drive-thrus.  Yes, it's un-american but we have completely given them up.  It's easily the simplest green choice we've made, just park the car and walk into get our greasy fast food or mocha frappuccino.  I have no idea just how much gas is typically wasted in drive-thrus, but it just makes sense to give them up.
• Get a tune up!  (I emphasize this because I have yet to check it off my "to-do" list).  A well tuned car is a clean running more efficient car.

You can make being green as simple or complex as you wish.  The green culture is growing and I've found that we don't need to commit to extreme changes that complicate our lifestyles or don't fit with our economic level in order to feel like we're making an impact.  

Is there hope?

Recently I've taken to complaining about the lack of transportation options for people "like me" - i.e. not very wealthy but feels guilty about driving gas-powered vehicles.  The best option for the husband and I has been to bicycle everywhere (and for him this includes a 21 mile roundtrip ride to work each day.)  I've been so disappointed with the technology that is available, electric vehicles that can't go fast enough or far enough, and are basically designed to only go to the places I bike to now.  And Hybrid technology that in my opinion is not going to be the answer in the long scheme of things.  Alternative fuels that are exciting to learn about, but each one seems have a whole other set of issues.  I have to wonder how many of these vehicles are going to be the next steam car, and fall out of use as quickly as they are introduced.

A story on NPR this morning answered a few of the questions I had about vehicle options.  The potential for new companies and new vehicles soon to be available.  And best of all he predicted vehicles that are "priced for the masses" and a greater public acceptance of alternative vehicles.

It's a nice thought, but I'm still impatiently waiting for an option that fits with my lifestyle.

I found this great video at a new-to-me blog: Plugs and cars.  Good blog, must read more....

Enjoy: