reusable bags update

Just a quick FYI to let you all know that the Piggly Wiggly in Hartland is now selling reusable bags for 99c. I was there today and saw lots of folks using them. They look nice and are the kind with bottoms.

Dandy Dandelions

The other night I fed dandelions to my family for dinner. I was starting to panic over the army of tall naked dandelion stalks marching across my property. I found myself avoiding inviting people over unless we had just mowed. I started thinking that maybe a little herbicide might be a good thing. I needed to regain control before these pests made me do something that I regretted.

So I went out and cut off their heads, deep fried them and ate them. The recipe came from the La Leche League cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole World. You basically dip the flowers in a mixture of milk and egg, roll in flour with salt and pepper and deep fry. They were actually pretty good-tasted like any other deep fried veggie you might order at a bar with a cold beer. My daughter said they were good but had trouble getting over the fact that she was eating a dandelion. My son asked if I could send them as a school snack and ate them all up. My husband had seconds on the main dish. My youngest wanted to know if that counted as her vegetable.

I am not sure we'll be eating dandelions every day, but it did shake me out of my feelings of defeat and was a great way to launch the June "eating local" challenge. Now I am curious about what else my backyard has to offer.

Farm Fresh Atlas

If you are ready to take the local challenge, you will want to get a copy of the Farm Fresh Atlas. This is a wonderful resource of farmer's markets, farms that sell direct, meat and poultry producers, orchards, community sponsored agriculture and other businesses that sell locally grown food. They are published by region so you want to get your hands on the Southeastern WI version. The 2008 edition is out at your local library, chamber of commerce, etc or you can go to www.farmfreshatlas.org

June Challenge - Eat Local

Last June a few friends of ours decided to challenge ourselves to eat local for one month. It was this challenge that eventually led to this blog and the idea that it is good... and fun... to challenge ourselves to do better each month and rethink how we do things. So here we are one year later and it is time to once again challenge ourselves to eat local. How will you challenge yourself?

• Will you grow a backyard garden? (I have high hopes for my garden, pictured above)
  
• Will you plan to visit a farmers market each Saturday?
• Will you plan to make one completely local meal once a week?
• Will you go all out and only eat food that has been grown in Wisconsin?
• Will you decide to be inspired and read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver?
• Or will you really go all out and be like this guy who is foraging for all his food in a forest for one year? Yeah, me neither.

Let us know in the comments section how you will be eating this month!

Light Green Laundry

So for those of you readers out there that think we are nuts by hanging out the laundry, making our own soap and using cloth diapers, just a parting list of things everyone can do, even those on the light end of the Green spectrum. Every little thing counts. We'd love to hear other ideas of what you have tried. 

1. Run only full loads of laundry so you don't waste water and energy. I remember washing a single pair of jeans as a teenager because I just had to have them for the dance on Friday. Now I try to stuff it full just to get it all done!

2. Use cold water for all or most of your laundry. I have pretty much switched to cold for everything (need hot for diapers) and my clothes get just as clean. Don't stains come out better in cold anyway? Other than killing bacteria in dirty diapers, what is the hot water for anyway? I've never seen a tag on a piece of clothing that says to wash in hot. 

3. Set your drier so that it goes off when the clothes are dry or for the least amount of time needed. Don't waste energy drying dry clothes. Not all clothes need the high heat either

4. Use laundry soap without phosphates and harsh fragrances. There are lots of environmentally friendly detergents now that really work. 

5. Skip the drier sheets. Jill said she gave this a trial and didn't really notice much of a difference. I've really never used them because I wasn't sure what they were for. If you want to avoid static try letting your synthetic fabrics line dry (as they cause most of the static) or take the clothes out when they have just a hint of dampness left. Or take the clothes out with damp hands. Winter is really the only time we have much static anyway, so try skipping them in the summer. If you must use them, reuse them in several loads. 

6. Skip the fabric softener. Those chemicals in there are not at all snugly. Vinegar is a natural fabric softener and works well. 

7. Reduce your laundry. Bath towels that you use on your clean body don't need to be washed daily. Can you spot clean that shirt that is fine except for the bit of food that dropped on it? I remember as a kid having "school clothes" and "play clothes". We would change into our play clothes when we got home and get those all full of grass stains and keep out cute school clothes clean and ready for another wear. The problem is my kids come home dirty from playing at school too. My four year old sometimes goes through 4 outfits a day. This likely balances out her older sibs that like to wear their same favorite shorts every day. 

Laundry Apron

After years of using a little clothespin bag that I would hang on the line while doing laundry, I finally decided there had to be a better way. So, this spring I whipped up a little laundry apron for myself and my hanging out routine has been revolutionized! I don't know that the apron wins points for cuteness, but for functionality is gets a perfect 10 (please excuse the poor photo above and the huge mess in the background, we are in the middle of packing for an epic trip). Basically I cut out two large rectangles, sewed them right sides together, flipped them right side out and then attached two hugely oversize pockets. The pockets are sort of pleated at the bottom so they can expand out when filled with clothespins and then lie flat when empty. I attached really long ties so that I could wrap them around my waist twice to better hold up the heft of the full-of-clothespins apron. Now when I do laundry I just walk along the line, plucking clothespins from my little laundry apron. Ahhhh.

If you want to make a laundry apron there is a tutorial for a very cute one at My Byrd House (be prepared for the music on her site). Or be inspired by the many types of aprons at Amy Karol's Tie One On. I would write a tutorial for my apron, but my sewing method is more, um, stream-of-consciousness than follow-a-pattern.

Nothing Cuter Than a Baby Bum in Cloth Diapers

I entered the cloth diapering world almost 12 years ago after being shown one of the "Diaper Genie" things.  If you don't know, these are contraptions that take your plastic poopy diaper and shrinkwrap it in another later of plastic so that it is stink proof until you take it out in the garbage in another plastic bag. Besides the fact that I couldn't figure out how to use the darn thing, it simply seemed like way to much plastic for one human being who was less than 10 pounds. I also read at that time how the chemicals used to make the gel in disposable diapers was being detected in the breastmilk of polar bears in the arctic and I knew that it was time to call my mom to find out how she did it. 

Luckily, cloth diapers have come a long way since the 1960's. Pins are no longer needed (although still an option) and no more soaking the diapers in a bucket of bleach water (we actually tried this at first but found other ways after I accidentally spilled the bucket of poop-water on my way to the laundry in the basement). There are tons of adorable diaper covers that can be fastened with velcro or snaps that make diapering almost as easy as disposables. 

Three baby bums later, I have discovered many other benefits as well. I love knowing I am not putting scary chemicals right on my baby's genitalia and there is really nothing cuter that the bubble-bum of a baby in a cloth diaper. I know there are heated debates about whether cloth or plastic is the better environmental choice. To make it more complicated, we now have other choices such as bleach and gel free disposables, organic cotton or hemp diapers, and in some areas, a diaper service. Most comparisons I've seen come out without a clear winner. To me it is hard to overlook the fact that 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown into a landfill every year, taking 500 years to decompose. If you decide to use cloth, here are a few links to get you started from Mothering Magazine. 

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/crazy-for-cloth.html

It has been a few years since I had a little one in diapers, but I wasn't too successful at finding a good local source of diapering products. Target had some prefold diapers but the covers they carried where not very good and leaked. Mostly I ordered from mail order (often mom-owned) companies. In Madison, you can try Wild Child or Happy Bambino 

http://www.wildchildclothes.com/ 

http://www.happybambino.com