I started to get a little nostalgic today; the temperature dropped to real fall weather! I am wearing socks & a sweatshirt and I am loving it!  The crisp scent in the air always reminds me a few of my favorite things from growing up in Michigan – and today,  the memory of apple orchards is one of the events that spiked my love & appreciation of the world around us:

Picking your own Apples!

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to locate an apple orchard in Orlando (or Florida for that matter) so I have to pick ‘em from the Farmer’s Market – but almost every other state can partake in this awesome activity!  Imagine, rows & rows of apple trees, your own straw basket, a hot mug of apple cider, & maybe a cinnamon donut for a treat (as if fresh grown apples weren’t enough) You might even get lucky enough to take a hay ride on a horse-drawn wagon!  *sigh of jealousy*

 If you do have the chance to go to the orchard this season – send me pictures!  and ask the folks there what kind of environmental practices do they keep in order to make their crops tasty and not take away from the earth. 

Some things to consider when choosing your afternoon of apples:   

• How are you getting there?  Carpool if you can & pack it in with as many people as there are seatbelts to lower your impact.
• Where are you going?  Consider an Organic Apple Orchard if you can – and a local one at that to support your own growing community!
• How does the farm promote soil health?  Perhaps they create their own special organic compost blend.  
• How does the farm conduct tree disease management?  Organic farmers will use a natural approach to their tree farms by creating a forest like haven that apples trees would naturally grown in.

What are you going to do with all those delicious apples?

Here is one of my fave recipes for your bushel of delish:

Butternut Squash Ravioli w. Apple/Walnut dressing 

Cook your ravioli as normal – stovetop water boil style. I like using Butternut Squash ravioli because it tastes like cheese, but minus the extra calories – however, cheese ravioli is tasty as well - so do what you like! 

In the meantime, heat up a little olive oil in a saute pan & toast up your walnuts (or mixed nuts, whatever you have on hand) approximately one handful.

Just before they are done fully toasting, add some thinly sliced, hard variety of apple.  One apple will usually do it, but this is a great recipe to make for a large group as well, so figure as needed.  I like to use Red Delicious for this recipe, but any will work as long as they stay firm.  Also add a half of a handful of finely choppeed Italian parsely leaves.

Stir this all around just enough until the oil coats it all and it has had a chance to blend the flavors -approximately 2 minutes.

Toss this delish dressing with your raviolis & ENJOY!!! mmmm.

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One day after Halloween, this Carnival of Green Thinking is sharing blog posts from those who left a very little imprint from their spooky evening!  Keep these tips handy for next year, or maybe even if you aren’t done celebrating yet.

Have an interesting blog post you want to share?  Send it to us!

LEAD BASED FACE PAINT is SCARY!!!

Green Halloween shares how to make your own safe face paint for all your little goblins & witches!

…Last year, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report stating that 10 of 10 face paints tested contained lead (a powerful neurotoxin) and other heavy metals. These findings fuel mounting concerns over the safety of numerous chemical fragrances, artificial colors, preservatives and other ingredients in body products (for children and adults).

But kids wear face paint, they don’t eat it, right?

Wrong. What’s applied to the skin is absorbed into the body. Think of body products (face paint, included) as “skin food”…

GREEN YOUR GRAVESITE

OrganicMania.com took a bite out of Halloween by sharing about how to green a vampire’s lair, or your very own grave!

…To spice things up a bit this year, Deanna of Crunchy Chicken – the one who puts the “mental” in EnvironMental – suggested we blog about death. Green death, green burials, the green hereafter: whatever…

 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GREEN YOUR HALLOWEEN?

Squidoo.com educates us what it means to actually make our Halloween fun eco-friendly too.

…Green Halloween is a growing trend being encouraged by people trying to Live Green to apply the ‘green’ concepts to Halloween. The main focus is of Greening Your Halloween is to be making eco-friendly, earth-friendly and healthier choices when it comes to the food, the costumes, the decorations and the activities people are choosing to celebrate the Halloween Holiday…

Trick or TREAT!!!!

What would Halloween be without the treats?   GreenGrapes Blog shares with us all about the good-stuff.  Candy.  But also what to do to make sure your Halloween doesn’t fully end in tummy aches & cavities.

…Halloween also happens to be the only time of year where eating obscene quantities of chocolate and candy is acceptable. Approximately 5% of all candy consumed for the year occurs on Halloween! That’s a lot of candy!

So—how to manage all that candy?…

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Hey there Green Thinkers!  Thanks for your patience in our brief interuption.  I took a few days off to spend some time with my mom face to face vs. virtual and during her visit we took the opportunity to spend some quality times in a very handy-fashion.

Remember when I posted previously about giving some of our older furniture some new life in order to give our new place a breath of fresh life?  Well, Mom, the man, & I undertook the  task of giving a face lift to our tea cart.  Check out the steps below:

1.  Find an old characteristic piece to give a great make-over.

The original version.

2.  Empty contents & sand it down to remove all the old shiny stuff, aka finish.

3.  Add primer.  The primer will allow your paint to show its true cover & hide any blemishes your old piece may have had and sanding couldn’t take care of.

Primed to make it prime!

4.  Wait until it dries.  Add paint, your color is your choice!  Consider using a low voc environmental version.

The makeover, a little lipstick goes a long way!

5.   Add a clear coat for the shine!

6. Pick out some cool vintage looking hardware (depending on your piece).

The jewelry

7.  Reload & enjoy!

from Ug...to AHHH

We are so pleased with our ‘new’ furniture! I had some other projects at hand, but I think we are going to enjoy our new things for a little longer before undertaking anything more for awhile.

Some other things to make your DIY projects even more eco-friendly:

• Remember to get your environmental, water based paints & clear coats. 
• Don’t forget that your tools.  We used a roller with a reusable brush. Since we used all water-based coverings, we were able to rinse it out before each coat & not have to create a lot of waste.
• Consider looking at old antique shops or thrift stores to look for your furnitures bling aka hardware.  Maybe you even have something lying around that you could convert.  If you are re-doing a dining buffet, consider using old silverware as handles, looking for some cupboard knobs – take a tip from my Aunt & collect unique stones from your garden to glue to a screw & install.

DIY projects are so fun, inexpensive & a great way to avoid excessive purchasing & waste. 

Have you repurposed anything lately? Share it with us!  We would love to share how you’ve turned something drab to fab, ug to ah, a big blurb to something to superb…you get the drift.  Shoot us a little background & pic to greenthinkinggtb@gmail.com, or submit to our blog carnival!

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As you know, we just moved into a new place & we are super gung-ho about kicking our old messy habits to ensure we keep our new house in pristine condition.

That is where these eight tips come into play from Delish.com!

What about using hydrogen peroxide to clean your countertops?  Ever consider using baking soda to mop your floors? – and then make them shine by a dose of white vinegar!  Au naturale & super clean.

Check out the article to find out more tips & even how to clean out the neck of your pesky vase necks.

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A big thank you goes to April at DragonAshes.com for this great guest post on the publishing business and a way it has turned green.  April does a lot of reads on books about to be released, and believe me, she knows her stuff!   Her blog also shares her daily adventures with her pet (Big & Little & the kitties), cooking, her family, and all around interesting stuff. 

Check out what she has to share with us Green Thinkers:

While the dismal economy here and abroad has had big effects on many businesses, one that took a big hit has been the publishing industry.  Publishing is costly and selling books is labor intensive.  So, when the need to cut back spending hit the publishers, did they cut back on books?  Of course, but they did a lot less cutting back than they expected.  They just turned their focus to digital books.  Digital publishing is all the rage now.  Every bookseller and publishing house (it seems) has their own e-reader and a list of books available digitally.  Search Barnes and Noble or Amazon websites and each book will be listed at least twice – in paper and digital versions.  What is so great about these digital versions?  Depending on your reader you can highlight sections, bookmark pages, search for certain text and many other things.  Plus, going on a trip?  You can carry an entire library worth of books in your carry-on bag.  Bored while standing in line at the theater/grocery store/retail store?  Read a book.  Need to take the bus to work as your car is in the shop?  Read a book.  Convenient, inexpensive and lots of fun.

 So why is this an important issue when it comes to sustainability?  Because there are fewer trees being sacrificed for your love of bodice rippers of course!  Less ink, less energy expended in printing – less everything.  And this is a good thing for all sorts of people – People who enjoy reading can get books quickly and cheaply without having to pay shipping or drive to a store.  People who love to write but have never been ‘discovered’ by the big publishing houses can publish their works on their own with minimal fuss.*  Booksellers can sell more books more quickly without even needing a brick and mortar store.  Libraries even have digital books available to lend.  Of course every rainbow has its end – with fewer paper books being printed and fewer brick and mortar stores being needed, jobs for people are fewer. 

 There are some websites that are dedicated to digital books like Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/) which is dedicated to mostly self published authors.  I hear you say to yourself “But self-published authors are no good, that is why a big publishing house won’t publish them.”  You couldn’t be further from the truth.  I know of one author who is now published by Simon and Schuster that started out selling his own, self-published books by himself.  These authors are not publishing’s rejects – they are the authors that have yet to be discovered.  You can get ebooks at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Some publishers will sell them directly from their website (macmillan.com or randomhouse.com).  And there are some publishers now that only publish digital books (Ellora’s Cave, Samhain books, Boston Books for example) Added bonus, they are inexpensive!  This can be very important when you are on a scant budget like I am!  Take a look at this self published author’s works: http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=maria+e.+schneider

 *They have to create their own book covers though, which can be hit or miss.  I’ve seen some terrible ones and some great ones.  But authors aren’t usually artists too so give them some slack!

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Remember when Green Thinking Blog went to Bonnaroo in June?

Well, the stats just came in on how much of an environmental impact attendees made through their recycling efforts & Bonnaroo made overall with their full-on committment. Clean Vibes was on the campus to do the dirty work & tally it up!  The results were so great that Bonnaroo even won an award: The A Greener Festival Award, which rates festivals eco-friendliness all over the world!

Check out what was diverted from the landfills at this year’s Bonnaroo (stats provided by Bonnaroo follow up email to GreenThinkingGTB@gmail.com :

101 tons of commingled recycling
23 tons of cardboard
21 tons of scrap metal
45 tons compostable material
5 tons of cooking oil

All together 60% of all waste by volume was diverted from landfills!

This is so impressive, I wonder how Bonnaroo & Clean Vibes will top it next year?!

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Taking a little break from the Carnival of Green Thinking this week – we will pick it up again next week, so feel free to submit your favorite blog articles by the end of next Friday to share with the world!

I love musicals, I love singing & dancing, I love happy things that could be true, but are a little too quirky to believe fully. 

That being said, I do enjoy watching the fun television show, Glee, and since it is a new-ish television phenemenon, you probably know someone else who enjoys it too.

Since growing in popularity, everyone wants to jump on the Glee bandwagon & they are promoting a lot right now in some cute little snip-its…Britney S. Pierce is my favorite.

Right now they are working with American Express to do a promotion with the Members Project and are giving us an opportunity to do good with the actual characters of Glee!  Check out the quiz here and see if you are Sue or a Shue!

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It is that time again, we are packing up the family and relocating. 

The place we are renting now has tons of character & served its purpose when we needed to downsize, but now we have Rigby (who is growing like crazy!) and we are back on our feet to upgrade a little.

Even though we are upgrading from one bedroom to two, we really don’t need a lot of things – and that is the point of this post.  Our current place has a total bohemian feel to it – intricate prints against eclectic furnishings, a whole mix match that actually coordinates; and I love it!  The new place has a different feel to it though, a more sophisticated, elegant vibe is what I get.  Like I said, we don’t need new things, those things just need a new look!  Maybe even a new purpose!

Follow along in the next coming weeks to see how we are taking some of our old things and giving them a new life, and in turn, feeling like we have some totally new gear without the cost!  I must say, I am very thankful to have 2 dedicate assistants in this process – for one, they will keep me grounded as I tend to get carried away, for second, nothing is more fun than having someone to keep you company while working on projects!

Project #1:  Tea Cart turned Entertainment Center turned Sleek Bar

As you can see, this tea cart has been turned into our entertainment center.  It has a super cool vintage feel to it, but that just won’t cut it in our new digs. 

The Plan: 1) Refinish it to a darker color wood or paint it with a textured color.  2) Change out the drawer pulls with some funky, but classy looking knobs  3) Add a funky wine rack to the inside shelf with some cool glassware. 4) Wheel around from kitchen to livingroom as needed for a unique buffet/bar!

Project #2:  Reuhpholster a Sentimental Seat

This chair has a sentimental feeling to it, it is the first piece of furniture my hunny gave me & he found it at a garage sale.  As you can see, it too has a super vintage feel to it, which I want to keep – just with darker wood & a funky printed fabric.

The Plan: 1) Restain the arms & legs to a dark wood (similar to that of the tea cart). 2) Create a slip cover to give a new look and feel to a super cool seat!  The fabric I am considering has some bright vibrant colors and intricate patterns to bring a lively pop to the solid colors of the room while keeping a vintage feel with a sophisticated look.

Another option would be to repurpose your old comforters or draperies to cover your old chairs!

Like I said, stay tuned to see how these projects actually turn out

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Betcha didn’t know that the 2nd Sunday in October kicks off National School Lunch week!

In its honor, GTB has decided to share with you some great blogs on eating healthy, kids’ nutrition, and all around good foods.   Hungry yet?  Remember, you can always share what great blog posts you have read to be featured in a Carnival of Green Thinking blog carnival, simply contact us!

Not only is food one of my favorite subjects, but where it comes from, how it is grown & how it is prepared has significant impacts on the world around us. 

SCHOOL TASTES GOOD!

SeriousEats.com shared a venture of Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard Program, as well as the results of a recent study from the U.C. Berkeley student’s  School Lunch Initiative. …combines nutritional education with garden training, cooking, and other hands-on skills in the hopes of turning our nation’s youth into trim, vegetable-craving eaters. Her initiatives have been the subject of much debate, by foodies and educators alike, leading to vehement supporters as well as detractors….The study followed about 240 students who were in Waters’ program from 2006 to 2009. The goal of the study was to examine how participation in integrated garden-to-school curriculums affected students’ attitudes about food, their eating habits, and their general knowledge of nutrition….You really should check out the journal for ESP as well, they have some great tales of bringing their home grown goodness to the table in some delish eats!

THERE’S A BLOG IN MY LUNCH BOX!

What I loved about this post from LunchBox.org  is the focus on teaching kids what is good for them!  I remember having a conversation with my aunt, who is an elementary school Principal about the struggles her school district is facing in regards to lunches – most kids couldn’t even recognize a potato because it had only been given to them in the form of a french fry & called a veggie.  This post shows the struggle one school took to improve the knowledge of their kids, and their lunches. …For four years I was the Nutrition Services Director for Berkeley Unified School District.  The four years were a roller coaster ride of changing the food from a menu of highly processed chicken nuggets, corn dogs, Extremo burritos, pizza pockets and grilled cheese sandwiches, all of which came to us frozen and prepackaged, to fresh food made from scratch.  When I first started in Berkeley these pre-packaged items, which were served in the packaging, with sides of canned vegetables and canned fruit, with nary a serving of fresh produce in sight, were the mainstay of the menus….Please visit to read the very impressive statistics.  It is amazing how far a little education can take the world!

SUSTAINABLE FOOD.

This blog post on on Change.org may singularly introduce the concept of healthy school lunches and all the initiatives out there.  It includes those mentioned above from Ann Cooper (aka Renegade Lunch Lady) to Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, and even Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard project – but it also shares the insight into other great movements taking place.  If you want to get inspired about your lunch hour, look no further! …It’s been more than 30 years since Congress raised the federal reimbursement rate for lunches served in America’s public schools. Given the lack of funding, it’s easy to understand why the country’s cafeterias dish out gross, unhealthy meals like processed chicken nuggets, rubbery hot dogs, and tasteless pizza slices every day…

Read the outcome of the vote for the Child Nutrition Bill here.

PACK A BAG LUNCH!

Visit the SPARK blog for a few quick, but very tasty, natural school lunch options.  In my opinion – forget the school part, these are great for kids of all ages and are focused on the new food pyramid  of health!

Meal idea…

• Chicken Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts in Whole Grain Pita
• Banana
• Yogurt
• Natural Fruit Snacks
• Flavored Water

Be sure to remember you most handy dandy reusable lunch bag for your nutritious & delish midday eats!

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 Okay, normally the Carnival of Green Thinking comes on Mondays – I apologize, we are 24 hours behind our normally scheduled programming.  I still hope that you will enjoy this week’s features.  Since we have come upon fall, officially - Green Thinking Blog is paying homage to the harvest time and all that brings!

DIG IN!

Slow Food USA sent me an e-blast this week that shared of Dig-Ins across the country.  You may ask yourself, what is a Dig-In?  All I thought of at first was  eating all the delicious foods that make me want to shovel it in. It is so much better! …All over the country, Slow Food members are gathering for “Dig In,” a national day of action to connect people to where their food comes from (and have a great time while doing it)…

LOST ARTS!

Local Harvest is a great resource for all things locally grown near you.  Farmers Markets, Co-ops, the works.  They also  feature blogs from farmers.   Lost Arts is a blog post by Pleasant Valley Farm in Tionesta, Pennsylvania…I don’t think it’s a big stretch to say that we do many things here at the farm that are rapidly becoming “lost arts”.  The most obvious is our choice to depend on draft horses and antique machinery for our field work and hay making.  Raising heirloom plants and heritage livestock is another area we’ve ventured into.  It’s no surprise to me that most people have no idea how to blacksmith, making tools and useful items with hot metal, coal and a hammer, although I think it’s really neat that Dan can, and one of these days we’ll find some elusive spare time to do it more.  What is surprising to me, however, is how cooking is becoming a lost art as well…

GARDEN COMMUNITY STYLE!

 What is a better way  to celebrate harvesting than with your friends and neighbors in your community garden!  Tuscany Community Garden Blog started with a post to raise funds for a community garden in August, in September they announced the approval of  the fruit of their labors.  Congratulations!  …The Tuscany Community Garden Steering Committee is thrilled to have recently received approval from The City of Calgary Parks to construct a community garden, at the corner of Tuscany Hill and Tuscany Meadows Drive.  The concept plan has been completed and includes raised beds for rental along with some communal fruit trees and beds and a central gathering place for all members of the community to gather and enjoy the space…

Happy growing!  Come back this week to learn more about gardening from our friends at Real Time Farms.

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