The Our Everyday Earth daily feed will fill your household with green hints and tips from our Texas family to yours. We write everyday about ways to make our lives more eco friendly. We review green and eco aware products and recommend green improvements.
I feel so very blessed to be able to intertwine my art with such a beautiful venue as the Gallery at Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park. Not only is it beautiful, they work very hard to support our environment. My work will be on exhibition beginning March 22 and ending July 31, 2010. There will be an Opening Reception for the Exhibit on March 26th from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm at the Gallery. Texas Discovery Gardens’ 7.5 acres offer a wonderful diversity of garden styles and botanical collections. The Gardens feature native plants and plant species from other regions of the world that are adapted to the challenging climate and soils of North Texas. Plants are also selected for their benefits in providing habitat for native wildlife, including butterflies, bugs, and birds. You can also enjoy more than 15 native species of butterflies in the Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium, as well as many new tropical butterflies. They offer many fun, hands-on environmental education programs for children and adults. What a great place to spend a Saturday enjoying art, flowers, butterflies and fun! www.sharenchatterton.com
Have you ever tried finding truly biodegradable trash bags?
Plastic Biodegradable Bags by "Green Genius"
Well look no more, we found an amazing product made by a wonderfully green US company. Sam Paul was a business owner who sold traditional plastic bags until his kids convinced him to re-think plastic trash bags and find a greener alternative.
Sam rounded up a team of “Green Geniuses” and got to work inventing a biodegradable trash bag that had the strength and price of regular trash bags. About five years after his kids got him thinking about it, the “Green Genius” company was born.
The Green Genius Range of Bags
I found the Green Genius folks whilst searching my Twitter account, I noticed lots of green tips from the Green Genius tweeters and saw an offer to get a free sample of their biodegradable trash bags… Needless to say I signed up just about as fast as I could type in my details! My next step was to keep browsing their very interesting website, they have lots of information on how their biodegradable plastic works and I found the whole site easy to navigate.
So why are plastic biodegradable bags so important?
The Green Genius team realized that virtually every piece of plastic ever invented (unless it was incinerated) still exists! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that everlasting pieces of trash are a bad thing indeed.
Americans use 3 billion pounds of plastic bags annually, the vast majority of which end up in landfills.
This figure truly inspired the Green Genius team to find a biodegradable plastic that really worked so that consumers could buy strong plastic bags guaranteed to break down in a landfill leaving no trace of plastic behind. The solution they found was a plastic bag that is completely edible by microbes.
Here’s how the Green Genius biodegradable bags work:
Step One: They combine plastic with a proprietary additive called EcoPure that bonds organic “nutrients” to the plastic’s molecular structure. The addition of this additive allows the plastic to be eaten by microbes, making the whole bag biodegradable. Step Two: Whenever a Green Genius plastic bag is disposed of in a microbe-rich environment like a landfill, the microbes are attracted to the embedded “nutrients” in the plastic. Step Three: Microbes feed on the nutrients, which actually converts the plastic into simpler organic matter like sugars, fatty acids and amino acids. Step Four: The bag is now entirely edible by microbes, which attracts even more microbes, and a feast ensues! Step Five: Microbes continue to feed until only the simplest organic matter remains — water, bio-gas (carbon dioxide and methane) and bio-mass (humus).
The biodegradability of these wonderfully eco-friendly bags was determined by the ASTM D-5511 test, for our boffin readers here is the lab report summary:
Treated Green Genius trashbags when tested by ASTM D 5511, which determines anaerobic biodegradation of plastic materials under high solid anaerobic digestion conditions, were found to be biodegradable. This procedure simulates the conditions that would be in a properly operated landfill treating pre-treated household waste as a sole substrate.
Not only are they biodegradable but the Green Genius drawstring trash bags contain 40% recycled plastic content and are still “ridiculously strong”. In fact, their bags match or exceed the puncture resistance of the national brands.
We ordered a big box of the Green Genius tall kitchen bags from Amazon.com and can’t wait to get them and start filling them safe in the knowledge that they will completely biodegrade once they reach the landfill. You can buy your own Green Genius bags on Amazon, see below;
A work colleague asked me the other day if our site had any articles about delivery of fresh local produce to homes or businesses from local farms, my answer was;
I don’t know how to get fresh produce delivered yet, but I will make it my green mission to find out more about locally delivered fresh fruit and vegetables!
Completely by chance, after a conversation with Carter, I learned that such programs are collectively known as Community Supported Agriculture or CSA’s for short.
Community Supported Agriculture - Fresh Produce Delivered Weekly
Community Supported Agriculture is becoming a more and more popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from farmers.
The idea is that a local farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included such as fresh eggs, goats cheese etc. Local residents purchase a “share” and in return receive a healthy crate of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season which varies depending on your location.
CSA’s have lots of benefits for all involved… Advantages for farmers:
1/ Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
2/ Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow
3/ Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow
Advantages for you:
1/ Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
2/ Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
3/ Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
4/ Find that kids typically favor food from “their” farm – even veggies they’ve never been known to eat
5/ Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown
You can search for Community Supported Agriculture programs nearest to you using the LocalHarvest search tool below;
Enter Your Zip Code or City Below to Find a Local CSA:
Once you’ve found a local CSA program you can contact them and see how that particular program works.
I am going to try one of the local Texas CSA’s and get fresh fruit and vegetables delivered weekly, we’re excited about using the fresh local produce. We’re going to create recipes each week which make the best use of the seasonal fruits and vegetables and hopefully write some follow on articles with those recipes included.
Here are a few of my local CSA’s and their details;
1/ SqueezePenny Farms CSA
SqueezePenny Farms CSA
http://www.squeezepenny.com/
Squeezepenny CSA Spring 2010 12-week Plan. A year round program to support our area’s Local Farmers, Ranchers and Producers. Reaching out to connect with our current suppliers of fresh, healthy, local (Farm Fresh: No toxic chemicals; Organic: USDA Certified, Certified Exempt and Non-Certified; Certified and Non-Certified Controlled Environment Greenhouses) Texas Agricultural products. Pick-up/distribution sites are currently in Allen, Frisco, McKinney and Plano, TX. Reducing Collin County’s Carbon Footprint with a focus on food safety, security and local availability. Contact Information:
Penny Braley: (972) 838-3869 Full Share: $120.00 / 12 weeks ( 6 bi-weekly distributions) Half Share: Half shares will only be accepted as add-ons to full shares. $60.00/12 wks ( 6 bi-weekly distributions)
2/ Humble Beginnings Farm CSA(February-November)
Humble Beginnings CSA
A standard share is designed to provide you with $20 dollars worth of produce and fruit a week throw the 9 month growing season. The cost is $580 per year. That is only $15 dollars per week.
The Payment options are: $522.45 in full $220.50 down and $40 per month through the growing season.
A half share is $387 it does not have the benefit of giving you as much for your money as the full share because it has all the expenses for us as a full share but pays us less. But if you cannot use all of the food provided in a full share it is available.
Payment: $350 in full $175 down and $23.56 a month Add ons:
Farm fresh eggs $10 deposit plus $2 per half dozen and $3.25 per dozen Pastured chickens $20 deposit and $6 per bird.
Once again, looking towards warmer weather and getting outdoors, I thought about this spring and what we could do around the yard to be more eco-friendly, I came across a list of tips to help:
1. Reel Lawn Mowers: What is that? Well reel lawn mowers are muscle-powered, no engine required. Using them not only conserves energy but also helps keep the air cleaner!
2. Cut Back on Lawn Space: If you have a large front or back yard, you might consider filling the space with more areas that do not require mowing, wildflower beds, rock gardens, native ornamental grass beds or a even a fish pond. Lawns require more watering than planting beds. In watering planting beds comprised of individual plants, you can target the watering better (using drip irrigation, for instance), thereby promoting water conservation.
3. Reducing Chemical Herbicides: Ralph Waldo Emerson once said ” What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered” Indeed, one of the best chemical-free approaches to weed control may simply be to control our intolerance toward weeds. If we re-evaluate the weeds in our yards, seeing if maybe we might have overlooked the “virtue” here or there.
4. Edible Landscaping: Blueberry bushes, fruit trees, edible “weeds”. From berry bushes to Apple trees and even in the case of some weeds, incorporating edible plants in your yard can be one of the simplest and practical ways to be eco-friendly with your landscaping.
With just a little bit of work and some of these tips, I bet I could start making my yard and landscape even “Greener” than it was last spring. If you have some tips for a “Greener” yard, let us know.
I am beginning a new painting called “Zebra Longwings” which I will be donating to the Texas Discovery Gardens for their Charity event Organic in the City Fashion Show and Auction. This event is one of the major fund raisers for the Texas Discovery Gardens. Texas Discovery Gardens is an educational organic garden facility in North Central Texas, that advances the knowledge and skill set of the community to restore, conserve and preserve nature in the urban environment. They accomplish this using their conservatory, greenhouse and 7.5 acre outdoor gardens in urban Dallas along with a full array of teaching programs developed for children and adults. Their reach begins with small children and adults new to gardening and continues up to and through the Master Gardener level. Texas Discovery Gardens serves thousands of inner-city students each year. With the opening of the new Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium and the new indoor children’s classroom, Texas Discovery Gardens is now able to offer its EarthKeeper’s® Children’s Education Programs year round. These programs are educational and fun and they promote excitement and interest in learning math and science via the natural world, they expand student knowledge and understanding of living sustainably, and help youth appreciate and embrace nature. TheOrganic in the City Fashion Show and Auctionis an exciting, fun event eagerly anticipated by fashion, gardening and green living advocates. Through this event Texas Discovery Gardens will raise thousands of dollars for the expansion of the children’s EarthKeeper’s programs and to bring Butterfly Gardens to schools across Dallas. For more information on Texas Discovery Gardens and this event, click on the link below.
I stumbled across a wonderfully intriguing image on Flickr.com and it turned out to be an eco friendly coat made from reused plastic shopping bags. The green fashionista responsible for the wonderful creation is UrbanWoodsWalker and her creations are truly inspiring.
This post will show you how to turn your used plastic bags into “plastic fabric” and make your own eco clothing. (Warning: The plastic fabric requires the use of an iron. Please be very careful whenever using a hot iron and ensure your work area is well ventilated)
1/ Collect a bunch of brightly colored plastic bags (The super thin ones work best such as the type newspapers are delivered in), most shoppers have eliminated plastic bags from their homes by using reusable totes but you can probably still find some plastic to use;
