Organic, fair-trade chocolates packaged in a seed box

Enjoy handcrafted vegan dark chocolates sourced with local Wisconsin, organic and fair trade ingredients, then plant the seed-infused box paper to grow a native prairie garden appropriate to the Midwest bioregion.

Terra Source, $4.95

Eco Stars Recycled Crayons

These star-shaped wax crayons are made from used broken crayon pieces that students from across the country send in to the manufacturer. The manufacturer, located in Wisconsin, hires people with developmental disabilities to sort the crayons by color and remove paper debris. The old crayons are then melted down and poured into star shapes, giving the next user five points with which to draw.

Red Apple, $7.49

Veggie-Hides Dog Treats

Give your dog a healthy, vegan treat. Made from vegetables, sprouted seeds, herbs, grasses, and fruit, these treats are much easier on the environment than the typical meat-based treats.

Onesta Organics, $8.98)

Organic cotton & water-based ink kids clothing

Shirts, one-pieces, pants and hats are made in the USA using 100% certified organic cotton and water-based inks. They’re healthy for kids, don’t pollute the earth, water, or expose farm workers to toxins.

Barley and Birch

Organic Loose-leaf Tea

The Boston Tea Campaign offers pure, organically grown, loose-leaf Darjeeling black and green tea. They are the sole funders of a large reforestation project, carried out locally by World Wide Fund for Nature, India.

Boston Tea Campaign – from $10

Recycled Glass Pottery Heart Bookmark

Handmade in Washington from recycled glass, this makes a unique gift for the bookworm in your family.

Paloma Pottery, $10.50

Organic Essentials Body Kit

If you’ve ever wondered about the chemical ingredients in personal care products, and their impact on your body, consider giving an Organic Essentials Body Kit from Trillium Organics this holiday.

Trillium Organics – $15.28

Handmade Necklace from salvaged wood

Wood found on the forest floor is hand gathered and carefully sanded and oiled to produce this beautiful necklace.

Eco Artistic Products, from $17

Organic Hand Crème

Many personal care products sold today are derived from petroleum, and users may react with allergic symptoms as the products are absorbed into the skin. This crème is made in California using organic and natural ingredients.

Lotus Moon, $18

Organic Cotton Polar Bear with natural dyes

Handmade personally by Diana Yun at her home business, Honeysuckle Dreams, in Maryland. Safe for children to snuggle up with, this polar bear is made of 100% organic cotton (all components! not just the outer fabric); and where colors are used, Diana works with natural (botanical) dyes.

Honeysuckledreams.com – $18

Mens Classic Shaving Kit

Handthrown ceramic shaving mug, wooden-handled, natural bristle shaving brush, with two discs of our natural Aloe Vera Shaving Soap make a traditional shaving kit in a convenient natural fiber bag.

Simmons Naturals – $20.75

Fair Trade No-Kill Leather Journal

The cover is made from hand-embossed cruelty-free leather, which means it comes from animals that have died naturally. The paper used is made from recycled cotton and is 100% tree-free! When you’ve filled it with all your words of wisdom, just slip off the cover and slip in a new tree-free insert and you’re ready to go!

Unity – $24.95

Solar charged LED flashlight

With a 100,000 hour bulb lifespan, solar-panel handle, and rechargeable batteries, this is a useful gift for the gadget lover. We live off-grid and use flashlights all the time, and we’ve put this one to the test. It has never let us down.

Hybrid Lite – $24.95

“We Add-Up” Organic Cotton T-shirt

Most of the clothes we wear are made with non-organic cotton, which is the most pesticide-intensive crop on earth. We like these shirts because they’re made with 100% organic cotton, and they promote an environmental message (over 20 designs to choose from). Plus, each shirt has your unique number printed on it, showing others that your actions really do add up.

We Add Up – $25

Reusable, recycled, American-made shopping bag

Once you get used to using, and reusing, cloth shopping bags, you wonder why you stuck with plastic for so long. The Pebble Beach bag is made in America from recycled PET plastic bottles. They don’t shrink like canvas, their manufacture removes plastic from the waste stream, and they’re made in USA! And they do a far better job of holding goods than plastic bags.

Clean Conscience – $27.95

Rain Forest Finger Puppets

Feed the imagination and create a finger puppet theater with this 10 piece finger puppet set. Each finger puppet is hand knitted and is a tropical rain forest resident, including a monkey and its baby, a crocodile, two parrots, a turtle, a sloth and of course a snake! All can be stored away in a convenient colorfully hand embroidered bag. Made with fair trade labor by The Joining Hands Against Poverty Network.

Global Exchange – $28

Truffles-To-Give

Organic, fair-trade, chocolate truffles are a popular holiday gift, but these have an added feature! Instead of being packed in a fancy throw-away plastic box, these are packed in stainless steel reusable tins which keep them fresh and can be reused to store nuts, candies, dried fruit and other snacks.

Coco-Zen – $30

Foil Candy Wrapper Purse

Very clever and attractive, these unique and durable purses are handmade using reclaimed foil candy wrappers. A great example of people creating useful products using minimal available resources and a wealth of imagination. Fair Trade.

Planet One Gifts from $32.95

L’uvalla Hydrating Milk Cleanser

Everyone can use facewash, and this is one of the ‘greenest’ available. L’uvalla is made with 100% natural, organic, vegan ingredients and bears the highly-respected European COSMEBIO organic certification.

L’uvalla – $37

Give a personalized tree!

Planting a tree may be the best action a person can take to help protect our environment. The legacy of a tree planted in your name brings intangible and lasting value which anyone can appreciate. Help restore a forest in your friend’s name, with a gift from Trees for a Change

Trees for a Change – $37

Handmade Mongolian Wool Slippers

Handmade in Mongolia by a fair trade artisan cooperative, these slippers are hand-dyed using bark, vegetable and leaf dyes. Woolen felt flowers and the soft suede sole are hand-stitched to each seamless felted wool slipper. The dainty, yet durable, straps are securely fastened with the help of a pedal-powered sewing machine and velcro.

Satch & Sol – $37

Long-Sleeve Velour Cozies

Designed to keep babies warm while sleeping, this cozie is made in California from undyed organic cotton.

Castleware, – $61

Novaurora Organic Face Care Set

An organic face care gift set for men and women that is nourishes the skin, brings it into healthy balance, and reduces wrinkles. 100% vegan, gluten-free and unscented.

Novaurora – $66.99

The ‘Pitch’ Birdhouse

Made from 24 recycled milk jugs, this sturdy birdhouse will be an interesting addition to anyone’s backyard! The HDPE recycled plastic is extremely durable, withstands freezing and extreme heat, and will not discolor of fade in sunlight. We appreciate any gift that helps connect people to nature.

Loll Designs – $68

Holy Lamb Organic Wool Pillows

These pillows are handmade in Washington using organic cotton fabric and stuffed with premium eco-wool from the northwest. Wool pillows are naturally dust mite resistant and fire retardant.

Fresh and Green – $82

Garden of Eve Basic Face Care Kit

Garden of Eve uses only organic cold pressed oils, organically grown and wild-crafted herbs and unbleached, unrefined hand pressed butters and waxes.

Garden of Eve – $97

Eartheasy products:

Holiday Gift Wrap made with 100% recycled paper

Elegant and graceful, this design is guaranteed to please. 100% recycled, veggie-based ink, chlorine-free, and lovingly packaged by adults with developmental challenges. Made in Pennsylvania.

Eartheasy – $4.95

Stainless Steel Water Bottle

The evidence continues to mount about the hazards of BPA exposure due to drinking from plastic water bottles. And the plastic waste is unnecessary because there are alternatives. Give this to your bottled-water-buying friend in the hopes they get the hint!

Eartheasy – $9.95

The “Messenger” recycled inner tube bag

This stylish bag is made in Washington from recycled bike innertubes, seat-belt straps, and other recycled items. Super-durable, and quite a conversation piece, this is a great gift for anyone who leads an active urban lifestyle.

Eartheasy – $139

Ceramic Compost Keeper

This elegant and useful compost keeper looks great on the counter-top, the lid keeps the fruit flies and the dog or cat out, and the filter keeps the smells in. We use one in our home and find it to be completely odorless, and easy to clean.

Eartheasy – $21.95

Rain Catchment Barrel

It’s not very traditional, but it will definitely be one of the more useful gifts you give this season. A great gift for the water-conscious gardener in your family.

Eartheasy – $148.95

Raised Cedar Square Raised Planter

Great for gardeners with bad backs, this planter is deep enough to grow salad greens and herbs right on the patio! Very well made, the bottom has two layers of slats and a heavy-duty semi-permeable base liner. This is a great gift for wheelchair-bound gardeners! Available in three heights.

Eartheasy – $149

Tree-frog Kite

Give your child a simple toy that’s been making kids smile for ages. Kite-flying also gets kids outdoors, away from the video console, where they can learn about the nature of wind and the principles of flight.

Eartheasy – $17.95

Sport Solar Oven

Great for car camping, picnics and outdoor summer cooking, this solar oven cooks most foods using only the power of the sun. Less expensive than other models, we have tried this solar oven and found it to be durable and efficient.

Eartheasy – $149

Elegant Beeswax Tapers

Made from the nectar of flowers by native honeybees, beeswax candles burn soot-free and have exceptionally long burn times. They are non-allergenic and emit a sweet, subtle, honey-like fragrance. 100% pure beeswax and lead-free cotton wicks. Made in Washington.

Eartheasy – $8.95/pair

‘Grow-A-Note’ Recycled Greeting Cards

When you send Grow A Note® card to a friend, the thought lives on as a beautiful, living display of wildflowers. The card paper is embedded with a hardy blend of wildflower seeds, and colored using natural earth pigments. It will definitely stand out from the other holiday cards on your friend’s mantle! Made in California.

Eartheasy – $14.95/5-pack

Disclaimer: The above links are not advertisements of products for sale, and we don’t guarantee the prices will stay the same as published here. We’re just publishing them to make your gift-giving easier, and to help promote fellow green businesses. We receive no compensation from the featured companies.

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2. How to green your home with new stimulus money incentives
3. Slow Fashion

In over 150 cities in 14 countries, ‘Transition Town’ communities are raising awareness of the threats associated with peak oil and climate change, and taking practical steps to prepare for a post-industrial future. And rather than dwell on bleak scenarios, participants in this grass-roots movement see future communities being more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than we see today.

Each Transition Town is independent, developing its own plans and working on its own priorities. But the common denominator of all Transition Towns is a bottom-up, participatory process for all major decisions in each community.

“If we collectively plan and act early enough there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.”

Transition Towns website

Initiated by Louise Rooney and environmentalist Rob Hopkins in 2005, the “transition towns” movement is dedicated to drastically reducing carbon emissions on a local basis, developing alternatives to oil, and nurturing resilient local economies. Instead of looking to federal governments for money or leadership, transition towns are taking on the responsibility themselves. They are committed to working as communities to find new and better ways to live in harmony with nature while meeting essential needs.

Dealing with the threats of peak oil and a changing climate requires fundamental change, beginning with the notion of individual ‘well-being’ as dependent on material acquisition. This entails redefining the very nature of community and culture so that people can move beyond the ‘infinite-growth’ economic model and begin to develop more locally based lifestyles that are more self-reliant, interdependent and meaningful.

The key areas commonly examined are food, energy, transportation, local economics, communication, systems of care and the arts.

Each Transition Town has its own priorities and issues it is working on. For instance, Multnomah County in Oregon has launched the Multnomah Food Initiative – a public engagement process that will bring the community together to create a shared vision, shared goals, and the first comprehensive community food action plan in the nation.

In Santa Cruz, CA, they are holding a reskilling expo where people can learn about composting, beekeeping, water catchment and nonviolent communication, in addition to workshops about peak oil and local economics.

Folks in Newburyport, MA are hosting a climate change debate as part of a six part series on global warming and climate change.

Any town can become a Transition Town, regardless of size, demographics or political orientation. All that is required is an initiating group of individuals who come together to adopt the Transition Model, with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative. The Transition Initiative is a comprehensive process of raising awareness, building bridges with existing community groups and local government, and forming groups to look at key areas of life which are impacted by climate change, with the goal of launching a community-defined “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 – 20 year time span.

While each community develops its own plans and priorities, the Transition Model provides a structure to help the process move forward. Participating communities are also encouraged to connect with other community transition initiatives to share ideas and experiences. This results in a coordinated range of projects across all energy-related areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience we’ve lost as a result of cheap oil and reduce a community’s carbon emissions drastically.

Coordinating these initiatives and ensuring some uniformity of process has been the job of the Transition Network Ltd, a legally constituted charity that oversees the different forms of transition that seem appropriate to different scales of action: towns, cities, counties, countries. Its stated intention is to “inspire, encourage, support, network and train communities as they adopt the Transition model in response to peak oil and climate change, building resilience and happiness”.

In 2008 The Transition Handbook, written by Hopkins, was published by Green Books, and it has become the guide for communities seeking to participate in the transition to sustainability.

The Transition Network suggests a list of seven principles of transition that enable a diversified response grounded in the local context. These are:

• Positive Visioning: Transition initiatives are based on a dedication to the creation of tangible, clearly expressed and practical visions of community life beyond dependence on fossil fuels.
• Trust and Empowerment: Transition initiatives are based on telling people the closest version of the truth that we know in times when the information available is deeply contradictory, and then empowering appropriate responses.
• Inclusion and Openness: Successful Transition initiatives depend on the unprecedented coming together of diverse sections of society.
• Sharing and Networking: Information sharing and learning are key principles of resilient ecologies that are central to transition.
• Building Resilience: How communities respond to shocks is critical to the transitional path beyond fossil-fuel dependency. The movement is explicit in its intention to build resilience across key economic sectors (including food, energy and transport) and across a range of appropriate scales – from local to national.
• Inner and outer transition: Transition is a catalyst to shifting values and unleashing the energy and creativity of people to do what they are passionate about.
• Subsidiarity: Self-organization and decision making at the appropriate scale are key principles drawn from resilient ecological systems.

Participants find the process of developing a Transition Initiative empowering. Envisioning how communities can come together in adapting to new ways of supporting each other is a positive step in bringing cooperation on par with competition. People imagine a future with healthy communities, where there’s less need to commute, where neighbors know each other, where business is local and people have skills that they are sharing. And although it will take big changes and considerable economic rebuilding before communities can successfully adapt to more limited resources, taking the first visioning steps is a practical tonic to the stress we carry under the weight of awareness about climate change.

“We truly don’t know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale. What we are convinced of is this: if we wait for the governments, it’ll be too little, too late; if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little; but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”

Transition Towns website

Transition Towns Wiki

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The Prius hybrid was once again the leader, with its fuel economy of 51 miles per gallon in city driving and 48 mpg on the highway, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s testing methodology. Other vehicles in the top 10 include the Ford Fusion hybrid and its Mercury Milan twin, the Civic and Insight hybrids from Honda, and the Nissan Altima.

The only non-hybrid at the top of the list was the tiny Smart For Two from Daimler, which clocked in at 33 mpg city/41 highway.

Electric cars, such as the Tesla Roadster, are not included in the survey. The EPA is still trying to figure out how to measure fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions in electric cars and plug-in hybrids in a way that would provide meaningful comparisons with traditional gasoline- and diesel-powered cars.

Overall, the top 10 fuel-efficient cars among the 2010 models are as follows:

1. Toyota Prius Hybrid (51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway)

The most popular hybrid car on the road today, this sedan is roomy and comfortable, and average on performance.

2. Ford Fusion Hybrid/Mercury Milan Hybrid (41/36)

The new Fusion Hybrid is a practical, mid-size sedan with an upscale interior of high-quality materials and unique technology features. It’s favorable driving characteristics have been noted in reviews.

3. Honda Civic Hybrid (40/45)

The Civic has Honda’s sporty performance and handling, but is a bit lacking on acceleration. A very efficient car, but a bit small for families.

4. Honda Insight Hybrid (40/43)

A small, sporty sedan which offers fewer features than the Civic, and priced to be an economy hybrid. The Insight is smaller than the Civic but larger than the Fit.

5. Lexus HS250h Hybrid (35/34)

A small, economical, reliable luxury sedan with all the creature comforts, and a full suite of optional electronic gadgetry. Sometimes described as a ‘luxury Prius with a trunk’.

6. Nissan Altima Hybrid (35/33)

One of the largest hybrids because it’s a mid-size sedan, but rear seat room isn’t a strong point for tall passengers. However, with 198 horsepower, it is one of the quickest hybrids on the road.

7. Ford Escape FWD and Mazda Tribute 2WD / Mercury Mariner FWD hybrids (34/31)

Roomy but not oversized compact SUV hybrids. Acceleration is leisurely, with only 133 horsepower.

8. Smart for Two Cabriolet / Coupe (automatic) (33/41)

Small two-seater, efficient for around town driving but a bit sketchy for the highway, despite advanced safety features.

9.Toyota Camry Hybrid (33/34)

Refined, roomy, and practical. Conservative styling and performance.

10. Lexus RX450h Hybrid 2WD (32/28)

One of the fuel-thrifty trio (with the Honda Fit and Nissan Versa) of small Japanese economy cars that arrived about two years ago. Toyota’s smallest car, but room for four 6-footers. Has a small, hardworking four-cylinder engine.

Understanding the new EPA Fuel Economy Label

Beginning with 2008 models, all new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. carry window stickers which display the vehicle fuel economy estimates as determined by new test methods.

For more information about the new methods, see EPA’s Final Rule.

The new, improved features of the label are listed below:

1. New Methods: The label shows the estimated city MPG at the top left, and highway MPG at the top right. The estimates on 2008 and later models are determined using new, more realistic methods. During the transition year, comparison shoppers should compare models that are built in the same model year, so compare 2007 models to 2007 models, etc.

2. Estimated Annual Fuel Costs: The center of the label provides estimated annual fuel costs based on a given number of miles and fuel price, also listed on the label. Use this information to estimate fuel costs for this vehicle, and to compare fuel costs across different models.

3. Expected City Range: Estimated city MPG range appears at the top left, under the main city MPG estimated number. Most drivers can expect to achieve city fuel economy within this range.

4. Expected Highway Range: Estimated highway MPG range appears at the top right, under the main highway MPG estimated number. Most drivers can expect to achieve highway fuel economy within this range.

5. Compare to Other Vehicles: The lower center of the label gives a combined city/highway estimate for that vehicle, and shows where that value falls on a bar scale that gives the highest and lowest fuel economy of all other vehicles in its class (e.g. SUVs, minivans, compact cars, etc). Use this information to compare the fuel economy of this vehicle to all others within its class.

6. Your actual mileage will vary: The label includes a reminder that there are many reasons why your actual fuel economy may vary from the estimates. See www.fueleconomy.gov for fuel-saving tips.

7. For more information: The label provides a Web address where you can find out more information. See the Fuel Economy Guide at dealers or online at www.fueleconomy.gov.

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The Energy Star ratings for certain products, like televisions and computers, may be “not accurate or verifiable” due to weak oversight, according to the EPA inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman.

The Energy Star program, initiated in 1996, is intended to provide consumers with an easily recognizable label which assures that appliance manufacturers have met required specifications for energy efficiency. The program has been widely adopted by manufacturers who realize the growing demand among consumers for energy-efficient products. But manufacturers of certain appliance products, such as refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, water heaters and air conditioners can certify these appliances themselves. This left the burden of oversight on the DOE and the EPA, and the recent audit has found these oversight efforts lacking.

The audit noted that while the government said in 2007 that it would conduct “retail assessments” to ensure that all the products carrying the Energy Star logo deserved them, it is still not doing so for some products which fall within the scope of the program. And the department is not following through to ensure that when inappropriately labeled products are identified, the labels are actually taken off, the audit said.

In October 2008, Consumer Reports magazine reported results from tests it had conducted on refrigerators that one manufacturer, LG of South Korea, applied Energy Star labels without meeting the required criteria. LG was required, in the ensuing settlement, to compensate customers for the extra power consumed, and to modify the appliance circuit boards of existing appliances to reduce power consumption. This case led to increased scrutiny of the oversight of the Energy Star program.

Under the new federal stimulus bill, $300 million will go to rebates for consumers who buy Energy Star products.

Increased focus on the Energy Star program has also been driven by the Obama administration in its efforts to reduce energy use and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Under the new federal stimulus bill, $300 million will go to rebates for consumers who buy Energy Star products. The timing of the audit, now on the desk of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, should encourage the government to take steps to ensure consumer’s faith in the integrity of the Energy Star label.

Concerns about the Energy Star certification do not apply to all appliance and energy saving products which carry the Energy Star label. Manufacturers of windows, fluorescent lighting and LED lighting are required by the DOE to have independent laboratories evaluate their products.

The memorandum also called for a “super star” program within Energy Star to identify the top-performing 5 percent of products.

On Sept. 30, 2009, the DOE and the EPA signed a memorandum of agreement committing both agencies to having all of their products evaluated by certified independent laboratories, and to expand the Energy Star program to cover products that were not in common use when it began in 1996. The memorandum also called for a “super star” program within Energy Star to identify the top-performing 5 percent of products.

So what’s a consumer to do? It’s always a good idea to cross-check appliance Energy Star ratings with independent results from consumer advocate resources such as Consumer Reports. Look to see if the appliance comes with a second source of information on its energy consumption, such as an energy rating system. Ask the retailer for additional energy consumption information. You can also monitor your energy use at home to find out how much energy your appliances use and whether that amount fluctuates throughout the day.

Consumers should still use the Energy Star label as a guideline. The Energy Department audit has done the service of bringing the program shortfalls to light, and new efforts by monitoring agencies will improve the rating system to build confidence in the Energy Star program.

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And the benefits of juicing are not limited to those with fruit trees in their yard or orchard. Just visit a farmer’s market at the close of day on any autumn weekend, or check in with your local produce mart; there’s often a surplus of fruit which may be overripe, bruised or flawed. Or you can visit any farm or orchard and ask to gather windfalls. The eager gleaner can usually come home with a free load of imperfect apples.

Converting our surplus apples into juice seemed to make good sense

Although we’ve had our own small orchard for many years, we’ve never really had an over-abundance of apples. Our growing family kept ahead of the harvest, we were able to store many as winter keepers, and the raccoons and woodpeckers took care of the windfalls. The damaged fruit we collected was usually made into apple sauce or apple crisps. But this year an unusually large fruit set, coupled with the kids now grown and out of the home, had us thinking beyond apple sauce. Converting our surplus apples into juice seemed to make good sense.

Juicing fruit:

• Is economical, as organic juices are expensive.
• Is practical. The juice is easy to store, and the leftover pulp can be dried into fruit leather or added to the compost.
• Encourages the family to consume more fruit.
• Involves children in a rewarding project. They can see the end reward of caring for your fruit trees all year.
• Is a good use for early summer apples which may not store well, like Transparents and Gravensteins
• Creates a very tasty beverage.

Being convinced of the merits of this idea, I decided to give juicing a try. My neighbour and garden mentor makes juice and wines from his produce so he gave me advice on getting started. He loaned me his German AEG macerating juicer (250 amps) which has a small motor and feeding chute. The small feeding chute, about 2” diameter, required cutting the apples into smaller chunks, about 2”cubed. The juicing process seemed to go quickly with about 7 minutes of feeding for one quart of juice, approximately 6-7 apples.

I would suggest borrowing a juicer as we did for your first try at juicing. It will give you a feel for the process and help you make a more informed decision about whether to get your own juicer and how large it should be.

The biggest time consumer was preparing the fruit before juicing.

The biggest time consumer was preparing the fruit before juicing. I had to trim rotten spots and cut the rest into a big bowl. From there my right hand would grab a handful of chunks and toss them into the chute, while my left hand would propel the plastic plunger and fruit toward the whirling disk. The juice would spurt to the left into a container and the seeds and fibre flowed into a container attached to the right side. This I would empty every half hour or so. The pulp residue could be a good contribution to the compost or the chicken yard, or it can also be spread onto a cookie sheet and dried into fruit leather. To keep things simple, I composted the pulp.

I was surprised that there was so much foam on top of the juice, which I skimmed with a slotted spoon. Also, at the bottom of a quart of juice would be about 1/2” of sediment, which is perfectly drinkable, but might not be appealing to some folks. Pouring the juice through a cheesecloth-lined sieve would remove much of the foam and sediment.

My small initial experiment yielded 7 quart jars of beautiful rose-hued apple juice. To ensure safe storage I decided to can them. (Beware, once you start juicing, you can’t stop.) My canning books advised heating the juice in a big pot until 200F./93C., but not to boil, then pour into hot, sterilized jars leaving ½” headroom, cap with hot lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. The water should be 190F. And cover tops of jars one or two inches. This is pasteurization.

Other options are:

• Store in fridge up to 7 days
• Freeze up to a year
• Pasteurize to 160F., which will give the juice a fridge life of up to 3 weeks

My conclusions about the process were mixed. It was most satisfying to get this beautiful pale pink juice from my windfall apples. My husband says the taste is incomparable to store-bought juice, and I modestly have to agree. The juice is truly autumn’s elixir. And it’s no problem encouraging people to eat more apples (a constant meme at our home this time of year) – everyone who visits wants a glass. And another.

But the process needs streamlining before I jump into juicing on a larger scale. It was quite a production with foam and pulp abounding, and took time to clean up. The bottleneck was the small 2” feed chute on the little juicer. This not only slowed the process of juicing, it added greatly to the preparation time since the apples had to cut into small pieces. It became readily apparent that a larger juicer would better suit my needs.

So, I went to the internet to find a model which would improve the process. A tip: the term “juice extractor” produced more results than” fruit juicer”. Generally I learned about these types: macerating, centrifugal, and large types, often home-made, which grind or crush the fruit and then press the juice out. The first two types are usually smaller counter-top models, and suitable for the non-commercial home juicer. Of these, my research points to the three centrifugal “Juice Fountains”, manufactured by Breville, as the best choice for home juicing. These powerful models range from 850 W. to 1000W. From independent reviews on Amazon.com and others and from the manufacturer’s claims they sound fast (8 oz. of apple juice in 5 seconds); handle whole or large chunks of produce; are easy to assemble and clean; and are made using durable and rust-free components. The cost for the mid-range model is about $300.

So if you’re interested in enjoying fresh wholesome juice from your gathered fruit, I suggest you start small with a borrowed juicer if possible, and then you’ll have a good idea of what the ideal juicer is for your needs.

So if you’re interested in enjoying fresh wholesome juice from your gathered fruit, I suggest you start small with a borrowed juicer if possible, and then you’ll have a good idea of what the ideal juicer is for your needs. When you decide on the right model, you can go in on the purchase with a few friends, since juicing is a seasonal activity and the machine can be passed around as needed. It might also be a fun group activity to get together and divide the tasks working with friends. In either case, you’ll find that making your own juice can be thrifty, healthy and fun.

Related posts:

1. Five easy ways to go organic
2. How a plate of fruit can change the world
3. Canning tips you may not see in the manual

Steel, chrome, soft-touch interior plastics, maybe even supple leather upholstery?

Well, how about some old carpets, ground-up milk cartons, and shredded, faded, raggedy blue jeans?

Recycled materials: feedstock

Those materials, and more, are among the increasing amount of recycled materials that find their way into new cars these days. And the Detroit News has written a fascinating description on how the industry has–very quietly–become a lot greener in its materials choices.

As always, the motivation is money as well as eco-awareness. Suppliers are increasingly looking to new sources of raw materials, and especially during the oil price spike two years ago, recycled goods were cheaper than virgin plastics.

Plastic jugs and old tires

Almost 10 percent of the high-density polyethylene from milk jugs, detergent bottles, and other plastic containers now goes into automotive parts, according to the Association of Post-Consumer Plastics Recyclers.

Ford, for example, reuses those plastics in body shields and fender liners, along with recycled tires and the casings from old 12-Volt batteries (which are recycled at a rate of roughly 98 percent).

Soda bottles + yarn waste = seat fabric

Even seat fabrics come into the mix, with the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO (among other cars) using upholstery made from materials that include old soda bottles and yarn waste.

Ford says its use of recycled plastics diverted 25 to 30 million pounds of waste from landfills. Its recycling efforts also saved the company up to $5 million, critical when sales have plummeted and every penny counts to keep Detroit’s only non-bankrupt automaker afloat.

Stuffing old jeans into gaps

The 2010 Buick LaCrosse, pride of General Motors’ renovated line of Buick luxury sedans, includes acoustic ceiling panels made from discarded packaging cardboard.

GM also uses shredded denim–that’s your old blue jeans–stuffed into hollows in body stampings to deaden sound, and makes door-handle brackets out of recycled carpet.

Recycling the rest of the car

Such efforts are likely to increase, especially if the price of oil continues to rise in the coming years. And recycling is now even the subject of research by government labs, including Argonne National Labs.

Researchers there are ways of recovering and reusing the 25 percent of a vehicle that isn’t currently recycled after it’s shredded. Of 12 million vehicles scrapped yearly, 5 million tons of material is just “shredder residue” that’s now sent to landfills.

[Detroit News]

Originally posted at Greencarreports.com

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Most urban farmers confine their agricultural efforts to vegetables, fruit, and the occasional egg-laying chicken. But on her small plot in Oakland, California, Novella Carpenter has raised bees, goats, rabbits, geese, and turkey, among other fauna.

A graduate of the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied with Michael Pollan, Carpenter now writes about urban farming and sustainable-food production for various publications, including her blog, Ghost Town Farm. Her memoir, Farm City, came out this summer from Penguin Press.

Twilight Greenaway: Why did you want to start a farm in the city, rather than moving to a rural area?

Novella Carpenter: I think people have a lot of nostalgia and yearning for these pastoral places, but my parents did that — they were back-to-the-land hippies in the 1970s — and it quickly became clear to me that city people moving to the country is kind of a horrible idea. They don’t usually have any skills, for one.

I grew up in Idaho till age six, then moved to Shelton, Washington, which had a population of only 7,000. It was isolated. So when people tell me they’re planning to move to the country, I say, “You’re going to have great food, but you’re not going to have anyone to share it with.”

TG: What percentage of the food that you eat comes from your farm?

NC: I’d say around 50 percent. This Thanksgiving, we raised our own turkey, so that was our contribution to the meal we ate with friends.

TG: What would have to happen for urban farming to really take off in the U.S.?

NC: They would have to drop a lot of the regulations and laws that exist to stop people from doing it. From what I understand, the dualism between the city and the farm has been created by laws, and often they’re anti-immigrant laws.

During the Second World War and after, there were lots of immigrants who moved to cities to work in factories, and often they wanted to bring their animals with them. Italians would want to have rabbits, and people from the South would want to have chickens. So some laws would have to change to make it more possible for more people to keep animals.

It would be great to section off whole parts of cities for people who wanted to have small farms — a kind of farm zone. Attitudes would have to change, too. People would have to stop seeing the “city” and the “country” in such a dualistic way. In Missoula, Montana, there’s a battle going on right now between the people who want to have chickens in the city and those who are violently opposed to it.

People usually do more urban farming in times of economic depression, so who knows? Maybe things will get so bad that everyone will start farming in cities again.

TG: What are the biggest challenges you face in maintaining an urban farm?

NC: Learning to take care of animals is a challenge, but it’s also where you learn the most. I’ve tried raising basically everything short of a cow; they need too much space.

You really have to be in a different zone to take care of animals; sometimes city life just isn’t conducive. If your goat is giving birth, it’s not like you can go to work. So there’s a tradeoff, but I think it’s an all an adjustment, and many people do figure it out.

When people ask how to begin, I always tell them to start slow: try bees, and then chickens. My recent acquisition was to get some goats, but I was thinking, “Wow, if I had gotten the goat, the rabbit, and the geese all at the same time, it would have been a total disaster.”

TG: What was your goal in writing the memoir?

NC: The goal is just to tell the story of one urban farm and the characters that I encounter while farming. It’s a portrait of a time. I also do a lot of describing processes; I think there’s a real hunger for that kind of book. It’s a little like 1,001 Things Your Grandpa Used To Do. Now I’m working on a proposal for a how-to book, because I think people want to know more details.

TG: Where is the line between stepping backwards, or returning to ways we did things in the past, versus moving forward and doing new things with food production?

NC: Some people see what I’m doing as a revival. And it’s true, in a way; it is kind of like going backwards. The difference is, things are so much easier because of the Internet, in terms of knowledge. When I was trying to figure out how to kill my rabbits, I eventually found out some really great instructions on a website. I can order day-old chicks on the Internet and get them the next day in the mail. So it’s not like I’m trying to live in the Stone Age.

There’s also this huge waste stream that wasn’t there when grandpa was alive. Now you can go to the dumpster at the organic grocery store, and it’s just brimming with food to feed your chickens or rabbits.

It’s not like I’m trying to become totally self-sufficient as a hobby; I think that’s kind of a ridiculous goal. But I do believe in using what I have. For instance, I’m going to make soap with the tallow from my goat. And I have rabbits we kill for meat, so I have all these pelts, and I’m learning how to tan them, because throwing them in the compost would just be wrong. Living like this opens you up to the full cycle of life of the animal.

Twilight Greenaway works for the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), where she writes about efforts to create a more sustainable food system throughout the Bay Area.

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While the mantra ‘eat locally’ resonates with many people interested in food sustainability, finding local food sources can be difficult for those with limited mobility. Many people who live in urban settings without cars are unable to cruise the farmer’s markets on weekends, and the small local farmers and producers would better thrive if they could reach this potential market. In their report, “Location and Other Market Attributes Affecting Farmers’ Market Patronage: The Case of Tennessee,” Eastwood, Brooker and Gray note that studies show that consumers who don’t shop at farmers market cite ‘access issues’ as obstacles such as distance from the consumer’s home and inconvenience of the location.

The Fair Food Farmstand addresses the problem of accessibility head on. The Farmstand is located in the Reading Terminal Market, the nation’s premier public market, with more than five million visits each year. For the Market, which has been open continuously since 1892, the growth of Farmstand signifies a return to the Market’s roots; its presence emphasizes the historical character and function of the Market as an urban farmers’ market.

In keeping with the theme of sustainability, the majority of the building materials used to construct the Farmstand come from recycled materials. Locally sourced and processed wood makes up the majority of the counters and stands, and the cedar wainscoting was made from reclaimed telephone poles. Salvaged chalkboards from Philadelphia public schools are now checkout counters. Daylight is the primary source of light for the Farmstand and artificial lighting is only used when necessary. The Farmstand also uses only non-toxic, all natural, “green cleaning” materials and methods.

Dozens of farmers and local food producers attended the grand opening to demonstrate their commitment to the initiative. They were joined by Market officials, local leaders and two guest speakers: keynote speaker Marion Nestle, a renowned nutrition and policy expert from New York University; and James Barham, from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service in Washington, D.C.

Fair Food is a program developed by the White Dog Cafe Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in Philadelphia in 2002. For over 20 years, the White Dog Café has been a model enterprise, known nationally for its community involvement, environmental stewardship and responsible business practices.

The developers of the Fair Food Farmstand hope their success will provide a template for other cities looking for ways to promote local humane and sustainable agricultural practices and products. To learn more about Fair Food Farmstand, or join the Farmstand Weekly email list, contact emily@fairfoodphilly.org.

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Our senior scientific society, the Royal Society, met at the start of the month to launch the report “Geoengineering the Climate” and to hear from its representative scientists. The meeting was hosted by the president, Lord Rees, and the chairman was Professor John Shepherd, who chaired the study group. The goal, as Prof Shepherd explained in the Guardian in April, was to investigate theories of “intervening directly to engineer the climate system, so as to moderate the rise of temperature” and to “separate the real science from the science fiction”.

Geoengineering is about deliberately changing the air, oceans or land surface of the world to offset global heating with the hope of restoring the cooler world we enjoyed in the last century. We are now fairly sure that the Earth has grown hotter by about one degree Celsius as a consequence of our own action in taking away as farmland the forests and other ecosystems that previously acted to keep the Earth cool. We also have increased by 6% the flow of CO2 into the air by burning coal, oil and natural gas. If we started global heating, can we reverse it by engineering?

The first scientist to consider geoengineering seriously was the Russian geophysicist Mikhail Budyko. In the 1970s he proposed that we could offset global heating by spreading in the stratosphere a fine dispersion of particles that reflected sunlight back to space; he based the idea on the observation that volcanic eruptions that did this were followed by global-scale cooling. He suggested that we could mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption by putting an aerosol into the stratosphere. His idea was confirmed by the detailed observations and analysis of the effect of Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991. It injected 20m tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere and this soon oxidised to form the white reflecting particles that offset global heating for three years. It is within our capacity to put this much sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere.

There are other ways of reflecting sunlight: large mirrors or diffusers of sunlight put in orbit around the sun. One of the more promising and controllable reflection methods was put forward by John Latham and Stephen Salter, who proposed spraying very fine droplets of sea water from the ocean surface to make the natural surface clouds, called marine stratus, whiter.

As well as cooling by reflecting sunlight away we could cool by removing the carbon dioxide or methane from the air. Klaus Lackner has proposed making artificial trees to do this; others, following the lead of Johannes Lehmann, would sooner see vegetation capture CO2 and then, after harvest, turn the plant waste into charcoal and bury it.

Geoengineering is like trying to cure pneumonia by immersing the patient in a bath of icy water; the fever would be cured but not the disease.

Geoengineering implies that we have an ailing planet that needs a cure. But our ignorance of the Earth system is great; we know little more than an early 19th-century physician knew about the body. Geoengineering is like trying to cure pneumonia by immersing the patient in a bath of icy water; the fever would be cured but not the disease.

Many of us feel a sense of unease about using geoengineering to escape global heating. Most of the planetary therapies have side effects, potentially as severe as the disease itself. We know that the cooling by Pinatubo was accompanied by droughts; cooling alone does nothing to prevent the ocean growing ever more acid as the carbon dioxide dissolves in the water.

Before long, global heating could reach a level that makes geoengineering an enticing option. Indeed, cautiously applied it may help by buying us time either to adapt to climate change or to develop a practical scientific cure. We have, as yet, no comprehensive Earth system science; in such ignorance I cannot help feeling that attempts by us to regulate the Earth’s climate and chemistry would condemn humanity to a Kafkaesque fate from which there may be no escape. Better, perhaps, to learn from the wiser physicians of the early 19th century; they knew no cure for common diseases but also knew that by letting nature take its course, the patient often recovered. Perhaps we, too, had better use our energies to adapt and leave recovery to Gaia; after all, she has survived more than three billion years and has kept life going all that time.

James Lovelock is an independent scientist, author, researcher, environmentalist and futurist. He proposed the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth functions as a superorganism. His most recent book is The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning.

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With these words of assurance, I led my visiting friend on a shortcut to a favorite fishing spot. And so we headed into the densely wooded, hilly terrain with our fishing poles, tackle box and large fishing net. The afternoon was getting on, and the September days getting shorter, but it was just a quick hike. The woods were darker and wetter than expected, but we were young and in good shape, and I knew this area like the back of my hand.

After spending 45 minutes on a hike that should have taken 20 – 30 minutes, it was becoming apparent that taking the shortcut was not such a good idea. The fishing net kept getting caught on branches and the long casting rods slowed us down as we had to weave them through thick stands of saplings and brush. But this inconvenience would soon end because we’re almost there, I reasoned. And we’ll take the long way home after fishing.

By the third time in an hour that my friend said “Haven’t we seen this tree before?”, I decided to mark the tree with a small blaze to remove any doubt should we come across it again. And I made a few slight changes in direction to ensure we weren’t going in circles. But ten minutes later we came upon the tree again, and the blaze removed all doubt. We had indeed been travelling in circles.

Our experience was a common one among hikers, and just what German scientist Jan Souman might have predicted. In a recent study, Souman reported that this often-described sense of lost-hiker déjà vu, of having inadvertently backtracked while wandering in the woods, is real.

Souman’s study tested the ability of humans to walk on a straight course through unfamiliar terrain in two different environments: a large forest area and the Sahara desert. Walking trajectories of several hours were captured via global positioning system, showing that participants repeatedly walked in circles when they could not see the sun. Conversely, when the sun was visible, participants sometimes veered from a straight course but did not walk in circles.

On cloudy days, in failing light or when there is no moon, Dr. Souman says, the brain appears to be lacking a fundamental visual cue to help make sense of the jumble of other data it is receiving. The study suggests that veering from a straight course is the result of accumulating noise in the sensorimotor system, which, without an external directional reference to recalibrate the subjective straight ahead, may cause people to walk in circles.

Once my friend and I realized we were going in circles, we made deliberate efforts to sight a distant landmark and keep as straight a course to it as the terrain would allow. Going from point to point, we eventually found the shore just as the last light was giving way to the fall evening darkness. With no time to cast a line into the water, we headed directly home via the long way and made it to my cabin with the last shadowy glimmer of light.

The study suggests that even experienced hikers can experience disorientation in the absence of clear visual cues, but back-country guides and hiking experts prepare themselves, as we did not, for this eventuality. The following strategies can help prevent hikers from the tendency to walk in circles:

• Consult a topographic map before setting out – advance knowledge of the lay of the land will help you stay on track, or help you know when you’re off track.
• Bring a compass or a GPS device – the simplest way of staying on course while hiking.
• Mark your trail – a simple system of setting stones in a pyramid or making an “X” with crossed branches will let you know if you’re walking in a circle. Avoid chopping into trees, it’s unnecessary. And don’t place your mark directly on the trail or other hikers may remove them. As for leaving bread crumbs, you may remember it didn’t work for Hansel and Gretl.
• Try point to point navigation – set your sights on a nearby landmark and walk to it, then repeat the process. This can help you maintain a relatively straight line while hiking.

If you’re really lost, the advice from rescue experts is to stay in place until help arrives. Of course, this is matter of judgement depending on whether others were informed of your plans, and your preparedness for extended exposure. In all cases, the best advice is ‘be prepared’ even when taking hikes in familiar territory. Bring a flashlight, compass, layered clothing, matches and some gorp or snack bars to sustain you should you fall victim to the ‘circle route’ while hiking.

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