Category Archives: Earth LOVE

Common site with today's agribusiness. Image from propankitchen.com.

Factory-farm chickens.

I don’t even know where to begin.  The state of our food today so deeply saddens me, and concerns me. I worry about the future of food for our children, their children, so on. I believe that it’s our responsibility to make the world a better place for future generations and I’m afraid we’ve failed and are moving too slowly to recover our mistakes.  We are in such a deep whole, it’s going to be a difficult climb out.  I know there are movements that are working hard to make strides in the right direction, thank goodness.  Here at home we’re doing our best and constantly moving towards doing better, a little at time as to not get overwhelmed.

I’ve always been one to educate myself about the environment, where our food comes from, etc.  Years ago I read everything I could get my hands on about Factory Farming, how the animals are treated prior to getting to our table, how this industry effects our planet.  It’s appalling. One book I really took a lot away from was Mad Cowboy.  To read a story about a man, a fourth generation cattle rancher turn Vegan, was uplifting & inspiring. I believe everyone should be educated in the process of how our food comes to the table. I also believe that we shouldn’t have to be worried about what toxic chemicals or genetically modified crap is in our produce, it just shouldn’t be there. The Americans’ need for low food costs have COST us plenty more in quality of life and medical bills. We need to WAKE the heck up and start nourishing our bodies with food, good food, whole food. Can’t tell I recently watched Forks over Knives can you? Most of the information in this incredible documentary wasn’t new to me. Though the statistics were jaw dropping. I had myself convinced prior that as long as I looked for sustainable, grass fed, free-roaming, humanely slaughtered, wild, etc., animals than I could still eat them. I was a vegetarian years ago for ethical reasons and caved after my kids were born out of ease. I beat myself up a bit about this and would like to head back in that direction, though I find my will power has decreased since then. My husband and I are finally in a place that we’re ready to begin the big changes. Though compared to the typical American diet, we’ve done good, eating very little red meat, mostly poultry and fish, lot’s of veggies, etc. This isn’t enough. We know that.

As a people we need to seek out our local sources, grow what we can. We have to be in control of this, no one else is watching out for us. The government is supporting big industry, like Monsanto, unfortunately it’s all about big business. The small farmers are suffering. Go to your local farmers market on weekends, they’re spreading rapidly and can be found in most large and small communities now (Click HERE to find one near you). SUPPORT THEM! Join a CSA. Do whatever small part you can. I’m not one to throw in the towel because it seems hopeless, it IS hopeless if you do that. We the people must demand changes!

If you’re interested in learning more about your food, the future of food and what you can do about it, here are some links to articles, documentaries and groups that can help.

Food Inc.
Forks over Knives
Ingredients
Food Matters
The Future of Food

Slow Food, USA
Non-GMO Project
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (School Food – demand better)

Mad Cowboy (links to books & documentary)

Current Monsanto article – Washington Post

Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto!
Watch This!

Anything written by Michael Pollen!

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The PFFamily in Key West - May 2011

I was up pretty late last night, four glasses of wine not settling well in my belly. I read, actually finished my current book, A Modern Witch, and then turned to my I-phone for a little research on a couple of things I wish to begin in the new year.

Last year around this time I posted about how I’m really not into making New Year’s Resolutions. I still refuse to put that much pressure on myself, but I do have a laundry list of things I’d like to do, change, see, stop doing, etc.

Before I begin my list for 2012, let’s see how I did in 2011.

Things I will be working on in 2011:

Family – Feel good about this. We moved to the country and began homeschooling, lot’s of family time.
Travel – Good here too. We began our yearly family trip overseas with Ireland in March, road trip over the summer along with nine days in N. California with PFMan celebrating an early 15 year anniversary. We took two cruises with a highlight on one out of San Juan, taking us to Curacao, Dominica & Aruba. To round it out, we also took a couple of much needed camping trips, one to North Georgia, one to Ginnie Springs in North Florida. Ahhhh….
Positive energy & intentions – This a failed miserably, well not entirely because I still have intent and know my triggers to self destruction.
Eating clean -Did well for a few months only. I did really well with giving up coffee and drinking more tea. Got to August then crashed. Have to reboot this one.
Organization – This will be a never ending battle, lol.

So what about 2012?

There are many personal accomplishments I would like to achieve this year. In the kitchen I want to learn how to make Thai and Indian food, get better at meal/menu planning and stocking the kitchen, learn to make bread, start canning regularly, shop at farmer’s markets and from local ranches and farms more often and consistently. This year is the year to get the chicken coop and run built, I’d like to have 3-5 egg layers:-). Also, get the hydroponic garden started and plant the Meyer lemon trees. We’re thinking things like, sweet potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs at least. Going along with natural/sustainable trend we need to get the compost reinstated too!

Other Personal plans: Begin yoga and stick with it, it WILL be tough for me but I must prevail. Part of the Self-help, positive energy & intentions theme. Thinking about Tai Chi as well. Michael and I will get bikes, the kids are just getting them on New Years Eve (we’re celebrating our family Christmas when we return from NY).

In the house we need to get the great room painted and focus on the meditation garden off the master bedroom and Asian decor in the master bedroom/bathroom. I need to get the studio organized too, both the Tails Collection shooting/office areas, as well as organizing the arts/crafts area for Addy and I. There is so much space to work with, so I will most certainly get a bit overwhelmed, ha.

Travel plans! To start off the year and celebrate my 40th b-day, I’m heading to Big Sur for three nights! Doing a hike-in and staying ALONE, to reflect and get centered, hopefully, ha:-). Then driving north to meet my girlfriends for some time in wine country. The kids and I have a 6-8 week road trip planned for the June/July. Heading back to Big Sur, taking 2ish weeks to get there, stopping in AL, LA, TX, AR, UT and CO. PFMan will meet us out west for a 10 day California Adventure, then the kids and I will head back. I CAN’T wait!! And cross our fingers for Vienna/Paris for the Holidays.

Now I realize this is super loaded, these are just top priorities, which change, we tend to be indecisive at best, or as I like to say, Perfectly Flawed. Some things may not happen, others may be added, but at the end of the day or year, it will all be another super adventure, surrounded by my PFFamily and that makes me smile.

Happy New Year everyone!
Buon Anno!
Ein glückliches neues Jahr!
Feliz año nuevo!
Bonne année!

I’m watching my family gather and take the recycling to the curb. I’m so happy that my kids are excited and on-board with my saving the planet fanatics.  We have just begun a small compost bin in the backyard.  I wanted to begin to be ahead of the game once we move into the new house in a month, I’m going to need some nutritious yumminess for the fruit and vegetable garden I have planned to start.  The kids are so eager to throw the egg shells and fruit and veggie peels in the bucket.

I love that part of homeschooling, which begins in a week, will focus on how we can better take care of this beautiful planet and make it better for generations to come.  We will be visiting local farms, hydroponic and dairy too!  There is one only 13 minutes from the new house called Hunsader Farms, the one we used to visit when the kids were younger.  We’d go to their festival in October, it was over 45 min away then.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

P.S. One of my faves is Good Girl Gone Green!

Last night I began my journey into minimalism. We will be moving into our new home in a month so it’s time to begin tossing. We’ve had boxes in attics for YEARS, mostly mine. My old school books and notes. I was a Biology major and I loved college, so going through everything last night was tough. I really didn’t want to part with some of it. Chemistry wasn’t too hard to let go of, lol, but Zoology, Cell Bio, all my Bio classes, were tough. I had a particular fondness for one instructor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Mr. Myers, such a bio nerd. We took some really cool expeditions with his classes, there where three he taught. I remember stopping on side roads, being in muck up to our thighs holding water spiders and other swamp critters. It’s hard to believe I new all that I did back then, my grades always high. I loved it! And my notes, impeccable. While at UNLV I even was hired by the school to copy my notes for those who were handicap and unable to do so for themselves. So to say the least, I’m a bit attached to my notes, lol. But, I was strong and threw most into the paper recycle bin, saving the binders for my kids to use. The books will be sold or donated, of course I’m keeping Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, wouldn’t be a good environmentalist without it.

During this cleanse I often pulled strength from The Joy of Less by Francine Jay.  She talks about how these notes, books, degrees, etc. don’t define you. You don’t need them as a reminder of what you once accomplished.  These things have all helped to mold me into the person I am today.

It’s been an interesting journey going through all of these old books and papers, so many subjects! Some I loved, some I hated. I remember the Philosophy class I took at UCF about Religion and the Environment, now that was a great class, and then there is the nine months of massage classes I took to get certified when we lived out in Vegas. All the Eastern Medicine, herbal books I liked to study in my own time.

This is only the beginning, sigh.

Roatan

So at some point (most likely this fall) we’ll be moving back into our other house, the one we lived in when we first moved to St. Petersburg 11 years ago. It’s under 900 sq ft and I’m thrilled to use this as the perfect opportunity to eliminate stuff!

We have too much stuff, don’t most of us? The four of us currently live in a 1700 sq ft. home and it’s just too much! Thank goodness our offer on that monster 2500 sq ft home fell through in ’04, we were going through some kind of ‘need things’ phase, so glad we’re past that. We have been moving towards living more simply the last two years, progress is slow, the big step coming with this move. We plan on getting down to only the necessities, I doubt we can, at this point, do the 100 Things Challenge, but that would be so cool to work towards. Part of our plan is to just be more mobile, to know that if we had to leave our home, we’d be ok.

Truth is, it’s not this stuff that makes us happy, it’s spending time with each other as a family. We love to travel, go camping, cook, play in the pool, take walks on the beach, movie nights, etc. Everything we do is to create more time to be together, and I mean everything. Getting rid of the stuff creates less clutter, less to put away, less to clean, less to worry about, less to maintain, more time! Having a smaller home means less energy usage, less to heat/cool, lower bills, more money to do things together.

People often wonder, often comment to me about how frequently we are away, “how do you do it”? It’s all about priorities. We have them, and make them happen! This step to reduce the stuff in our lives goes towards that goal.

I’ve had my nose in information on minimalism lately and thought I’d share a few of my favorites!  Hopefully they can help you simplify your life as well!

Rowdy Kittens (how purrfect!!)
Tiny Revolution
Zen Habits

Enjoy!

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ~Native American Proverb

Mother Earth Day is officially April 22nd.  It began in 1970 in the United States and was taken international in 1990, with organized events in 141 nations that year.  It is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.

Since this issue has been forefront in my life for as long as I remember, I feel it necessary to use April as the month to post about all things GREEN:-). There are so many ways to go GREEN, from what you eat, water/electricity usage, what you drive, to what type of businesses you support. It can be a very overwhelming thing to ponder, and with many other concerns in ones life, sometimes the environment takes a back seat. What most don’t realize is, most of the time, saving money and supporting the environment goes hand in hand, but we’ve gotten so used to the ease that modern day technology has given us, we’ve forgotten or never learned how to do things more naturally.

Let me begin by saying that my current foot print on the earth is, in my opinion, very muddy and dark. There was time I was much more “Crunchy” and have been taking strides to get back there again. We will be taking a leap later this year with downsizing. We will be moving back into our other house, we’ve been renting it out for 8 years now. It’s only 900ish sq. ft. We are a family of 4 humans, 8 cats and 2 dogs, so luckily the back yard is good sized, for St. Pete, and there is a separate 200 sq. ft. unit out back as well. We won’t have a dishwasher and will be using our clothes line again, like we did the 2 years we lived there before, when we cloth diapered our new baby, I have pictures:-).

I’m really looking forward to it, the need to get rid of half our furniture to fit in there, less STUFF!

Anyway, this is the first of many posts about going GREEN. I follow many blogs on this topic and I’m excited to share them with you, hopefully they’ll be helpful to your journey in going GREEN too.

…

This morning I took myself for another early morning walk on the beach and I noticed the litter dotting the sand. A variety of things, beer cans, Caprisun pouches, a little boys polo shirt, plastic bags, etc. This of course isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this. When my family and I go for walks at night we make it a point to pick all the various trash we come across. I can’t consciously be ok with seeing litter and not pick it up. How would that be any better than those who left it behind?  Now, I’m aware that not all litter is there for a conscience reason, it may have blown overboard on a boat and washed up on a beach, it may have been accidentally left there unnoticed. There are always exceptions. Littering is one of my greatest pet peeves and when I see it happen it gives me a little growl.  I once was at a gas station and witnessed someone, whom had just been pumping gas, open there car door while waiting to be let into traffic and throw a full McDonalds bag of trash on the curb.  URRRRRGH.  What?? and Why??  Is it laziness, lack of caring and responsibility, the idea that someone else will clean it up?  Whatever, it’s just wrong.

Anyway, I was smiling ear to ear when on my walk back, (I had been picking up litter on the way), I came across a gentleman who had a bag full of trash he had picked up and he let me add mine to his collection.  We both thanked each other for helping to clean up the beach and went on our way.

Where ever there is bad, there is also good:-)

Happy day!

I’ve considered myself somewhat of a tree-hugger since, well forever. Unfortunately, this is one of the areas that I’m certainly Perfectly Flawed. This Going Green, is overwhelming. Where do we start, what can we do, can we really make a difference? The answer is YES, yes we can! Start small and be ok with the smallness of it, then add a little at a time, at your comfort level. Here in St. Petersburg, they are beginning recycling pick-ups again this October. So if you’re one of those that hasn’t been taking your recyclables to the drop off receptacles, now is your time!

Wish my fridge looked like this, ha.

There are many little things you can do, right now, to begin going green:

Turn off the water as you brush your teeth.
Change all your light bulbs to fluorescent.
Find local food by shopping Farmers Markets, etc.
Keep an eye on the thermostat.
Turn off computers at night.
Shorten your shower.
Use warm or cold settings on the washer.
Give things away.
Recycle. Reuse.
Go paperless (ex. pay bills online)
Plant a tree.
Inflate your tires.
Turn off your lights when not in use.

These are easier things, and no, I’m not doing them all (ha. I love a long shower), but I’m working on adding them to my daily routine. Don’t ever feel that you’re not doing enough. Every little thing counts. So regardless of if you only recycle or if you compost everything and are vegan, etc. What you’re doing is helping to make a difference.

If you’re really hard core, here is a list of 99 Skills for an Eco-Friendly DIY Lifestyle, Whoa. How many do you do? I have really good intentions but….

Here are some other sites if you’re looking to expand your Greenness.
Green Guide
The Daily Green
Care2
Planet Green
TreeHugger
Organic Trade Association
Eat Wild Find Local Food:-)

Most Sunday mornings PFMan makes the family blueberry pancakes.  This has been going on for some time now.  Several months ago, in the process to use more natural and organic ingredients, I started buying unbleached flour.  I didn’t understand using a product that used chemicals to bleach something simply for aesthetics. I mostly think things look better in their natural form anyway.  Well, the pancakes were different.  The taste was there, but the consistency was denser and it seemed as though they weren’t cooking all the way through.  He started changing up the amounts of ingredients, cooking them longer, went back to the recipe to make sure he wasn’t messing something up.  So I finally delved into the differences between bleached and unbleached flour, seeing as how this is the only thing that had changed.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Both bleached and unbleached flour goes through a bleaching process.  Bleached flour has bleaching agents such as benzoyl peroxide or chlorine gas added to aid the process along more quickly, where as unbleached flour will, over a period of weeks, undergo a natural chemical process in much the same way in which a sliced apple turns brown.

The agents which are used in bleached flour also alter the protein content, making it less than that in unbleached flour making bleached flour best for baking cookies, pancakes (aha), pie crusts and waffles.  Unbleached is better for yeast breads, Yorkshire puddings, cream puffs, Danish pastries, and popovers.

So I guess I’ll give into bleached flour for some things now and use unbleached on others:-)

There is a lot more information to be found about different flours at this link by Cooks Illustrated.  And another good reference here!

Mangia!