I have been bummed for years that I don't have a local farmer's market in the area. As a child, I remember my mother always taking me to the gigantic farmer's market up in the Dallas area. It was amazing. There were literally 4 or 5 huge open warehouses full of produce vendors. Pretty much anything you could every want in the way of fresh food was there. We would buys tons of fresh fruit and veggies that seemed to taste so much better than the produce purchased in the grocery store. What made it even better was that I got to spend some great time with my mom.
When I moved to suburbia-Houston I wanted to take my own kiddos to a farmer's market, so I started investigating. Houston-proper has a few big farmer's markets which are noteworthy. There are also several country farmer's markets located in some of the surrounding towns, like Hempstead and Brenham. While these did sound appealing at first I soon found that these farmer's markets are just a little too "out-of-the-way" for my busy life. So, for many years I have resorted to shopping at the local HEB grocery store.
However, through my efforts to become more green I have found a small, local gem - a farmer's market located about five miles from my own house! Amazing, huh? I must have been blind all these years. Regardless, I am thoroughly impressed with my find. The market is called, Debbie's Garden & Farmer's Market. It is a very small operation run near the intersection of highway 290 and Huffmeister Road. The shop offers fresh local produce, farm-fresh eggs, as well as some honey and jar-goods that are local as well.
I am most impressed with their fresh local produce CO-OP offer, which I have taken advantage of 3 times so far. For $20, you get 10 produce items in quantities for a family of four. So, for example, I have ordered apples and oranges from Debbie's and received a total of four apples and four oranges. Or, I have ordered lettuce and received one over sized stalk of lettuce which feeds my family salad for more then three nights. The best part about this CO-OP is there is no contractual obligation! You just arrive and order by Sunday evening, then pick up you items the following Friday. Voila!
You might be wondering how this supports the "green" movement. Well from a individual perspective, you are minimizing your plastic usage. While the CO-OP packaging comes in a box and plastic produce bags, you can request on your order forms that your items not be bagged. I have been bringing my own reusable grocery bags to pick up orders, and I recently purchased some breathable, reusable 3B Bags produce sacks to store my items in once I return home if they happen to need refrigeration. From a global perspective, buying produce local means you are reducing transportation pollution. If a farm can sell their items local, then there is no need to ship them elsewhere. Less transportation = less environmental pollution from truck, etc. that would otherwise have to haul the produce to another, farther location. Plus, less transportation equals cost savings for the final consumer, as well, since the farmers' price to produce produce (ha, ha!) is less. So, it is a win-win situation for all parties.
In case you are interested in other farmer's markets in the Houston area, I have located several others through a Houston Chronicle article written in 2008.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Kitchen Disposable Waste
I never really realized the quantity of disposable products in my house until now. A brief scan of the kitchen and pantry has revealed the following: paper towels, paper napkins, disinfectant wipes, plastic cutlery, paper lunch bags, Ziploc baggies (quart-sized and gallon-sized), wax paper, parchment paper, plastic wrap, disposable Tupperware, grocery bags, and there are probably even more I didn't find! Wow...there's way too much.
The plan is to reduce my consumption of these items. Notice I said "reduce" - this will be gradual. Some of these items I may find alternatives for, others I might need to use every once and a while. My hope is that eventually I will be able to live without any of these, but for now it is wishful thinking.
As I mentioned in my last post, the first thing I wanted to remove from my life were paper towels. I am here to tell you that for the last 2 weeks I have successfully done so. Paper towels were a staple used in my house for things like drying hands, cleaning counters, carrying snacks, etc. We still do all these same activities, but now we are more responsible about how we do it. Since we have been successful in this endeavor, I have made additional changes to our use of "disposables" which my family has surprisingly not complained about yet. I've summarize these below...
Paper Towels - For cleaning counters and drying hands we have switches to microfiber towels. They are amazing! Microfiber is super absorbent and extremely soft to the touch. We try and use only one towel per day to wipe down counters to minimize our laundry. Hand towels are used for an entire week.
Ziploc Bags- Baggie usage for food storage has been replaced with BPA-free Tupperware. For children's lunches, we have purchased some reusable cloth/Velcro snack bags and sandwich circles that are machine washable. Wet lunch snacks are kept in stainless steel containers (i.e. cut apples, soup, etc).
Plastic Wrap - Plastic wrap is still a battle for me - I am occasionally using it to cover bowls of food that go in the refrigerator, with the understanding that eventually is will "go away" some day. I am still looking for an alternative...
Wax/Parchment Paper - These items are primarily used for baking in my house. I plan on replacing these with non-disposable silpat liners.
Disposable Tupperware - I stopped purchasing this years ago, but some how these items have still "hung around". Last weekend I went through and pulled them all from the cabinet and threw them in the plastic recycling can. Bye, Bye!
Disinfectant Wipes - I have a bunch of these from when I was a classroom teacher. I think I might donate them to my kiddo's school, because we rarely use these at home.
Plastic Cutlery - There is a giant open box of this in the pantry that is not getting used...wanna know why? We actually wash our plastic cutlery in the dish washer. So, the forks, spoons, and knives I originally took from this empty box have hung around for quite a while. I think I will eventually phase this product too, but for now I think we are pretty conservative with this one. One note: if you decide to eat "take out" decline the plastic ware...it just starts collecting in your house over time and makes clutter.
Paper Lunch Bags - We do not use these at all. My kiddos carry their lunches in reusable cloth lunch bags. I think I purchased them for the one time my son had a field trip...maybe the art teacher at school could use them??
Grocery Bags - I got rid of these and they keep coming back!!! Why?? Because I forget to put my cloth grocery sacks in the car. Always keep them in the car...AND...you don't just have to use them for groceries. Bring reusable sacks with you any time you shop!
The plan is to reduce my consumption of these items. Notice I said "reduce" - this will be gradual. Some of these items I may find alternatives for, others I might need to use every once and a while. My hope is that eventually I will be able to live without any of these, but for now it is wishful thinking.
As I mentioned in my last post, the first thing I wanted to remove from my life were paper towels. I am here to tell you that for the last 2 weeks I have successfully done so. Paper towels were a staple used in my house for things like drying hands, cleaning counters, carrying snacks, etc. We still do all these same activities, but now we are more responsible about how we do it. Since we have been successful in this endeavor, I have made additional changes to our use of "disposables" which my family has surprisingly not complained about yet. I've summarize these below...
Paper Towels - For cleaning counters and drying hands we have switches to microfiber towels. They are amazing! Microfiber is super absorbent and extremely soft to the touch. We try and use only one towel per day to wipe down counters to minimize our laundry. Hand towels are used for an entire week.
Ziploc Bags- Baggie usage for food storage has been replaced with BPA-free Tupperware. For children's lunches, we have purchased some reusable cloth/Velcro snack bags and sandwich circles that are machine washable. Wet lunch snacks are kept in stainless steel containers (i.e. cut apples, soup, etc).
Plastic Wrap - Plastic wrap is still a battle for me - I am occasionally using it to cover bowls of food that go in the refrigerator, with the understanding that eventually is will "go away" some day. I am still looking for an alternative...
Wax/Parchment Paper - These items are primarily used for baking in my house. I plan on replacing these with non-disposable silpat liners.
Disposable Tupperware - I stopped purchasing this years ago, but some how these items have still "hung around". Last weekend I went through and pulled them all from the cabinet and threw them in the plastic recycling can. Bye, Bye!
Disinfectant Wipes - I have a bunch of these from when I was a classroom teacher. I think I might donate them to my kiddo's school, because we rarely use these at home.
Plastic Cutlery - There is a giant open box of this in the pantry that is not getting used...wanna know why? We actually wash our plastic cutlery in the dish washer. So, the forks, spoons, and knives I originally took from this empty box have hung around for quite a while. I think I will eventually phase this product too, but for now I think we are pretty conservative with this one. One note: if you decide to eat "take out" decline the plastic ware...it just starts collecting in your house over time and makes clutter.
Paper Lunch Bags - We do not use these at all. My kiddos carry their lunches in reusable cloth lunch bags. I think I purchased them for the one time my son had a field trip...maybe the art teacher at school could use them??
Grocery Bags - I got rid of these and they keep coming back!!! Why?? Because I forget to put my cloth grocery sacks in the car. Always keep them in the car...AND...you don't just have to use them for groceries. Bring reusable sacks with you any time you shop!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Welcome!
Well it's 2011 and this year I have decided to make a life changing resolution. This year's goal is to gradually make my home and my family more ecologically conscious. I know this is not going to be an easy task. Houston (and Texas in general) are not quite as proactive on the "green initiative" as some of the other states in the US. Don't get me wrong, there are pockets of "green" areas in Texas - but I assure you the Houston suburb I live in is not one of them. Just to give you an idea - we have no curb side recycling in my neighborhood (the community I live in actually voted down this service when it was proposed). We do not have the "green" grocery stores - Whole Foods, Central Market, etc. Public transportation is not the best out here, and I'm not going to even start on the school lunches around here. So, trying to take my family from the waste-loving bunch we are now is going to be a challenge.
I will be documenting my move to the "green"side of life in this blog. I know I am not going to be 100% unwasteful, nor 100% ecologically conscious, but I figure any small changes I make will have an impact. The first move is too rid my life of my one wasteful additction: Paper Towels! I will write more about this and it's impacts on my next post.
I will be documenting my move to the "green"side of life in this blog. I know I am not going to be 100% unwasteful, nor 100% ecologically conscious, but I figure any small changes I make will have an impact. The first move is too rid my life of my one wasteful additction: Paper Towels! I will write more about this and it's impacts on my next post.
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