Update: I broke down this morning and I turned the heat on. I did so for two reasons;
1. it is going to get cold tonight (25 degrees F)
and
2. it is my birthday. And damn it, I deserve to be comfortable on my birthday.
It's set at 56 degrees..but it is on today. I will contemplate turning it off tomorrow.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Community Supported Agriculture
Buying Local:
Our grocery bill has increased in the last few weeks as our CSA has ended for the year. If you're unfamiliar with a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture it is (from Wikipedia) a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme, sometimes including dairy products and meat.
This was our second year buying a CSA share from Young Earth Farm. http://www.youngearthfarm.com/
We went with Young Earth as our CSA provider because they deliver their produce boxes to the co-op grocery store a block from our house. Typically Farms will offer a full share and half share option. Some farms deliver produce boxes every week and some farms have a twice-a-month option. Mike and I have gone with the half-share which delivers every other Thursday from the end of May to the beginning of October.
Joining a CSA, is a great way to help local farmers, feed your family fresh organic produce, save money and try new foods! Most of the local CSAs in Dane County range from $300 for a half share to $700 for a full share. This may seem like a lot of money but I've determined that the amount of money I would spend if I bought all this produce locally and organically would far exceed my investment in the CSA. For example, in the middle of August we are usually surprised with two large bags of tomatoes in our CSA box. It would cost me probably over $75 to purchase the equivalent in organic tomatoes from the grocery store!
Also, a lot of health insurance companies will reimburse you a portion of your expense! Mike and I get reimbursed a total of $200 through our separate insurance companies, so we're left only paying $100 out of pocket for boxes and boxes of fresh, organic produce!!!
I must admit that on occasion, we were left scratching our heads looking at some of the items we receive in our CSA. I am not a fan of beets or brussel sprouts and even when reading the recipes provided by our farm, I still don't want to prepare and eat them. Luckily, most of the foods we receive are standards that we would purchase in the store anyway and the odd things we try to give away to family and friends.
It makes so much sense to try and purchase local vegetables when possible, not only from an environmental perspective but also a nutritional perspective! Research continues to prove that the more fresh a vegetable is, the more nutrients it contains. Some research shows that as soon as you pick a vegetable or fruit it begins to lose it's nutritional value and other research shows that as soon as you cut a fruit or vegetable it begins to further lose it's nutritional value.
To me it just makes sense that if we don't have the space, time or ability to grow our own vegetables...we should be getting our vegetables from our neighbors!
Now that the growing season has come to an end, we are left with rummaging through the grocery store aisles, reading labels to ensure that our vegetables are organic and if possible from a country closer than Syria.
Next year if you're in or around Dane County and interested in finding a farm to support, check out MACSAC, Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.
http://www.macsac.org/index.html
Here you can look up farms, prices, and drop-off sites. They also host an open house every spring where people can come out and meet the farmers, ask questions and sign up for their CSA.
Our grocery bill has increased in the last few weeks as our CSA has ended for the year. If you're unfamiliar with a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture it is (from Wikipedia) a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit in a vegetable box scheme, sometimes including dairy products and meat.
This was our second year buying a CSA share from Young Earth Farm. http://www.youngearthfarm.com/
We went with Young Earth as our CSA provider because they deliver their produce boxes to the co-op grocery store a block from our house. Typically Farms will offer a full share and half share option. Some farms deliver produce boxes every week and some farms have a twice-a-month option. Mike and I have gone with the half-share which delivers every other Thursday from the end of May to the beginning of October.
Joining a CSA, is a great way to help local farmers, feed your family fresh organic produce, save money and try new foods! Most of the local CSAs in Dane County range from $300 for a half share to $700 for a full share. This may seem like a lot of money but I've determined that the amount of money I would spend if I bought all this produce locally and organically would far exceed my investment in the CSA. For example, in the middle of August we are usually surprised with two large bags of tomatoes in our CSA box. It would cost me probably over $75 to purchase the equivalent in organic tomatoes from the grocery store!
Also, a lot of health insurance companies will reimburse you a portion of your expense! Mike and I get reimbursed a total of $200 through our separate insurance companies, so we're left only paying $100 out of pocket for boxes and boxes of fresh, organic produce!!!
I must admit that on occasion, we were left scratching our heads looking at some of the items we receive in our CSA. I am not a fan of beets or brussel sprouts and even when reading the recipes provided by our farm, I still don't want to prepare and eat them. Luckily, most of the foods we receive are standards that we would purchase in the store anyway and the odd things we try to give away to family and friends.
It makes so much sense to try and purchase local vegetables when possible, not only from an environmental perspective but also a nutritional perspective! Research continues to prove that the more fresh a vegetable is, the more nutrients it contains. Some research shows that as soon as you pick a vegetable or fruit it begins to lose it's nutritional value and other research shows that as soon as you cut a fruit or vegetable it begins to further lose it's nutritional value.
To me it just makes sense that if we don't have the space, time or ability to grow our own vegetables...we should be getting our vegetables from our neighbors!
Now that the growing season has come to an end, we are left with rummaging through the grocery store aisles, reading labels to ensure that our vegetables are organic and if possible from a country closer than Syria.
Next year if you're in or around Dane County and interested in finding a farm to support, check out MACSAC, Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.
http://www.macsac.org/index.html
Here you can look up farms, prices, and drop-off sites. They also host an open house every spring where people can come out and meet the farmers, ask questions and sign up for their CSA.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Here comes the Challenge
Drive Less:
Brrrr. It's cold this morning. 28 degrees with frost on the grass and the car when I left the house. It was the kind of morning when I spend 15 seconds debating whether to wear my bike helmet or my knit winter hat. Only 15 seconds because the obvious choice this morning was the winter hat!
It is obvious to me today that this Green Faster Challenge is going to become a much bigger challenge in the up-coming months. It's easy to stand tall and declare, "I bike to work everyday", when it's 75 degrees and sunny. It is a bit harder to do that with a smile on your face when the temperatures dip below 35 degrees in the morning. Luckily today it should hit 65 for the commute home...so my cold-weather bike challenge is cut in half, as only one leg of the ride is uncomfortable. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to continue biking to work, but I'm going to try to go as many days this fall and into the Winter as possible. I'll keep you posted. :}
My co-worker, Aaron, is trying to promote winter biking in Madison. Chicago has an established community of winter bicycle commuters who promote winter biking by holding frequent meetings and workshops. They also put on fun events like the "Santa Rampage", in which bikers dress in their finest Santa inspired costumes and bike around down-town Chicago on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. http://bikewinter.org/main.php
Chicago's group is quite intense and it seems that Milwaukee has a decent size group as well. However Madison, which has been coined one of the best biking communities in the country hasn't established itself as a powerful winter bicycling community. My co-worker Aaron is trying to help change this and he has set up a kick-off meeting on November 3rd. Check it out! See the Madison link on this page. http://bikewinter.org/
Reduce Energy Use:
We've not yet turned on the heat, which has lead to some cold mornings getting ready for work. Again, the day will warm up and the house will be comfortable when we get home, so it hasn't been too much of an issue to date. Mike and I haven't discussed yet exactly when we will turn on the heat this year, but I'd like to try to make it through October at least without! I'm tempted to turn it on to a minimum of 55 degrees or so just to keep my sanity.
I received our MGE utility bill on Wednesday and was surprised to see that it was $20.00 less than it has been all summer! We only used 233 kwh last month, where we had been standing strong at 320 kwh each month this summer. I think the power-strips have been paying off! (plugging multiple appliances into one strip and shutting the whole strip off when not in use). We have also been unplugging the television when it's not on to kill the small light. . Another thing we've been working on is using task-based lighting in the kitchen. When I'm working at the stove or kitchen sink, instead of turning the over-head kitchen light on, I will work with only the stove light or the kitchen sink light on. As the sun sets earlier in the evening...the lighting challenges in the house will begin...but I think we're ready!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Drive Less
Long time..no blog. Mike and I were out in California visiting family last week. We had an amazing time, beautiful weather, surrounded by wonderful people. Now we're back to the grind in Mad-town.
I weighed our garbage today for the week...and I was shocked that we had 10 lbs of garbage and 9 lbs of recyclables. I'm not sure how that happened....but this coming month we will be focusing on Wasting Less! We've done some things to decrease our waste production, like eliminating paper towels completely and eliminating plastic zip-lock bags. I guess those two items don't weigh all that much though so we haven't seen a big decrease in garbage weight.
Last month our challenge was to drive less. It has been really easy for the past 8 months with the early spring and beautiful summer now turning into a beautiful fall. We haven't had any rainy days this month to prevent us from biking into work. Soon enough though I know it will get cold and it will start snowing and we will be challenged. I will be taking the Madison Metro Bus to work this winter. For some, the thought of sitting outside waiting for a bus when the wind is gusting and the temps are freezing does not sound like a great way to start the day. I know it's not my favorite way to start the day!! Madison Metro has some helpful tools on their website to reduce wait time. My favorite is the real-time bus tracker!
http://www.cityofmadison.com/Metro/planyourtrip/transitTracker.cfm
I just choose Stop Tracker (Using Dropdown Menus) and choose my route, my direction and my stop and it gives the next 3 bus arrival times.
**Make sure that when you've got your bus arrival times to check that it is for the right direction! Sometimes it's unclear, but when you have the 3 arrival times it should tell you which direction the bus is heading.
I have bookmarked two links on my phone. One is my bus route from home to work and the second is my bus route from work to home.
When I'm getting ready to leave, I pull up the appropriate link that I've saved on my phone to see when the next bus will be arriving. If it's really cold or wet outside I refresh the link right before I walk out the door to ensure that the bus is still "on time".
This tool has made bus commuting much more enjoyable for me but I must admit that I've missed a few buses by being too confident and cutting it too close!
The Madison buses also have bike racks on the front of all buses. I've posted a video above!
Happy commuting.
I weighed our garbage today for the week...and I was shocked that we had 10 lbs of garbage and 9 lbs of recyclables. I'm not sure how that happened....but this coming month we will be focusing on Wasting Less! We've done some things to decrease our waste production, like eliminating paper towels completely and eliminating plastic zip-lock bags. I guess those two items don't weigh all that much though so we haven't seen a big decrease in garbage weight.
Last month our challenge was to drive less. It has been really easy for the past 8 months with the early spring and beautiful summer now turning into a beautiful fall. We haven't had any rainy days this month to prevent us from biking into work. Soon enough though I know it will get cold and it will start snowing and we will be challenged. I will be taking the Madison Metro Bus to work this winter. For some, the thought of sitting outside waiting for a bus when the wind is gusting and the temps are freezing does not sound like a great way to start the day. I know it's not my favorite way to start the day!! Madison Metro has some helpful tools on their website to reduce wait time. My favorite is the real-time bus tracker!
http://www.cityofmadison.com/Metro/planyourtrip/transitTracker.cfm
I just choose Stop Tracker (Using Dropdown Menus) and choose my route, my direction and my stop and it gives the next 3 bus arrival times.
**Make sure that when you've got your bus arrival times to check that it is for the right direction! Sometimes it's unclear, but when you have the 3 arrival times it should tell you which direction the bus is heading.
I have bookmarked two links on my phone. One is my bus route from home to work and the second is my bus route from work to home.
When I'm getting ready to leave, I pull up the appropriate link that I've saved on my phone to see when the next bus will be arriving. If it's really cold or wet outside I refresh the link right before I walk out the door to ensure that the bus is still "on time".
This tool has made bus commuting much more enjoyable for me but I must admit that I've missed a few buses by being too confident and cutting it too close!
The Madison buses also have bike racks on the front of all buses. I've posted a video above!
Happy commuting.
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