Seven Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

Wasteful energy consumption can cost homeowners thousands of dollars per year. Fortunately, there are many high-scale and budget-friendly approaches to amending this issue and making your home more energy efficient.

The tips below may seem surprisingly simple, at least in terms of how much you can save each year. It’s amazing how far some new light bulbs or a filter change can go toward reducing the cost of your energy bill — especially during particularly hot or cold months.

Here are seven ways to save money on energy costs:

Make Nighttime “Lights Off” Time

A device left on overnight here and there won’t make much of a dent in your electric bill, but consistently leaving your computer on standby or your TV blaring throughout the night can add up significantly. Make a list of devices in your home that consume energy and identify whether they are on during the night. In the instance of a computer, check for energy-saving settings that automatically shut your computer off if it idles for a certain period of time.

Change All Filters

From your air conditioning to your furnace, ensure all systems that use a filter are cleaned regularly. A blocked filter for any of these machines can result in it working harder, consequently using more energy. This is a very simple action, but it can save you money and help your system work much more efficiently.

Landscape With Energy in Mind

During the summer, homeowners can increase energy efficiency by planting trees and plants to serve as shading. If you place them in close proximity to your home’s windows, they can help keep out the heat, so you won’t have to spend nearly as much on air conditiong.

Use Energy-Minded Products

Fluorescent light bulbs use about one-third the energy of standard bulbs. Replacing all your home’s bulbs with energy-saving ones could result in substantial savings.

Update Old Electrical Appliances

Although your budget may not allow for an immediate upgrade, the tips above can help save on electrical costs. Those savings could be used to update old electrical appliances, replacing them with energy efficient upgrades. The impact of a new appliance can be massive. For example, 2001’s top-rated refrigerator uses 40% more energy than today’s top-tier refrigerators.

Insulate Wherever Possible

One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to save on energy consumption is to ensure windows and other locations in your house are correctly insulated. If any unnecessary heat or cold is seeping through cracks or gaps, it’s wasting your AC or heat.

Also, be sure to caulk any doors, windows, holes, and cracks that may be letting cold or hot air seep through. This includes electrical outlets, which are prone to holes since they may lead to outside walls.

Also, if you have a fireplace, it’s advised to install glass doors. That way, chilly gusts don’t enter your living space through the chimney.

Use Ceiling Fans Wisely

Ceiling fans have more power than you may imagine. They spread hot or cold air around considerably, aiding heating or cooling systems to the point where significantly less energy is used.

Run ceiling fans counterclockwise to help circulate cold air back into a room and clockwise for warm air. This is a simple yet effective trick that can significantly increase a heating or cooling system’s energy efficiency.

These seven tips can help you make your residence a more energy-efficient one, in both the cold winter and hot summer months. You’ll start saving money, and you’ll be helping conserve important resources, too.

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Dog and Cat Populations Are Approaching Human Numbers – Where Are the Pooch and Kitty Loos?

One hundred seventy-nine million dogs and cats live in the U.S. That’s more than the number of people who called this place home in 1959. Back in the days of doo-wop, pets roamed free and did their business wherever. Outdoor cats buried their droppings discretely; we never saw it. Nobody cleaned up after dogs.  Our job was to not step in it.

Fast forward to 2015. The U.S. pet population has grown to nearly half the human population, the highest concentration of pets in the world. Urban dogs and cats are no longer free range. We’re now expected to clean up after our pets, a process expedited by biodegradable poop bags, fragrant clay litter, and kitty bum wipes.

Yes, we’ve commodified pet care big time. The American Pet Products Association estimates that we’ll spend $60.59 billion on our pets in 2015. But we do a disservice to our pets – lights of our lives, best friends, playmates and family members – as long as we deny our responsibility as their environmental stewards. Much has been written about our pets’ conspicuous consumption and carbon paw prints. But we overlook what’s in plain sight:  the simple fact that we have no sensible, sustainable infrastructure in place for disposing of pet waste.

There’s no way around it; the rascals generate mounds of poo.  Our 83 million dogs produce 11 million tons of waste each year—enough to fill more than 100 football fields 10 feet deep.  Our 93 million cats download five million tons (500,000 dump trucks full) of poop and litter per year.

Sixty percent of dog waste and most cat waste is bundled in plastic and trashed: streamed to sealed local landfills where it takes generations to degrade while emitting methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.  The plastic wrap is a forever gift to the universe. As for the 40% of dog waste left at ground zero, don’t kid yourself, poo is potent stuff.

For a small bay watershed (up to 20 square miles), two to three days of droppings from a population of 100 dogs contribute enough bacteria, nitrogen, and phosphorus to temporarily close a bay to swimming. Dog poop left along trails or walkways threatens native plants while spoiling urban landscapes. And it’s still your job to not step in it.

Eco-minded pet removal services, dog day cares, shelters, dog park managers, and vets search for alternatives to dumpsters.  No one but trash haulers will take pet waste.  Food scrap and yard waste recycling programs list pet waste on the “no” side of acceptable refuse. Water treatment plants won’t process large offerings of pet poo. Biodigesters and other trash-to-energy operations are scarce in the U.S.

The EPA says “go for it” – go ahead and flush that dog doo down the toilet. Not real convenient or appealing, right?  The feds leave pet waste disposal to the states, which often delegate responsibility to local jurisdictions (“You take it…no, you take it”). Some districts offer residents rebates to purchase pet waste composting systems or sponsor pet waste recycling classes. Most say trashing is the only option, cautioning pet owners to “double bag it.”

Ah – but don’t we have bigger dogs in the race to zero waste?  Aren’t our huge quantities of food scraps and yard waste a bigger priority?  According to the EPA’s “Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2013 Fact Sheet,” food accounts for 14.6% of residential waste and has a paltry 2.1% recovery rate.  We have a better handle on recycling yard trimmings, which make up 13.5% of refuse but have a 23.6% recovery rate thanks to longstanding municipal collections and traditional composters.

A 2006 San Francisco analysis found that pet poop comprised nearly 4% of residential waste. This might be a conservative figure since trash from pet business and parks wasn’t part of the tally. Why should we be concerned with 4% of the pie chart when food and yard waste add up to 28%?

For one thing, carnivore waste, like raw human waste, involves serious sanitation and pollution issues. Collecting and recovering organics containing harmful pathogens require due diligence, systematic treatment and testing.  Most organics recycling facilities aren’t technologically or financially equipped to accommodate potentially hazardous source material.

But, when it comes to long-range planning, let’s be practical.  While we’re developing systems to efficiently boost food and yard waste recycling, shouldn’t we be combining pet waste and disposable diaper recovery with these two other source materials? Shouldn’t we be thinking our way around comingled pet waste, plastic bags, and clay litter at the product source?

The average dog poops more per day than the average person.  The average cat produces somewhat less waste but also generates an indeterminate amount of trashed litter. Throw in the tons of plastic we use in a foolhardy attempt to sanitize this absurd process.

Add it up and you find that U.S. pets in 2015 generate roughly the same amount of solid waste as the U.S. human population in 1959. Can you imagine an advanced country in 1959 not providing a practical sanitary disposal system that works for its 178 million people? I have a hard time wrapping my head around that one and hope you do, too.

Pet Poop Facts

Human population in 1959: 177,829,628 – U.S. Census Bureau

Current pet population: 83 million dogs, 96 million cats in the U.S., total 179 million – U.S. Humane Society

Pet population concentrations

Top Ten Countries With Most Pet Dog Population
Top Ten Countries With Most Pet Cat Population

Pet products spending

Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics

Pet waste quantities

  • Average dog produces .75 lbs. of waste per day (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
  • Average cat produces .3 lbs. of waste per day (no data, based on author verification)
  • Dog waste weighs average of 35 lbs. per sq. ft. (no data, based on weight provided by Sam Johnson, owner, Pet Scoop, Denver, Colorado)
  • Assumption: cat waste and dog waste have similar weight

Football field math / dogs

  • 83M dogs x .75 = 62,250,000 lbs. per day or 22,721,250,000 lbs. per year or 11,360,625  tons per year or  around 11.4 M tons of dog waste per year
  • 1 football field = 57,600 sq. ft. (includes end zones)
    dogs produce 22,721,250,000 lbs. waste per year
  • 1 cu. ft. of dog waste = 35 lbs.
    22,721,250,000 lbs. divided by 35 lbs. = 649,178,571.429 cu. ft. 649,178,571.429 cu. ft. covers 64,917,857.1429 sq. ft. and is 1 ft. deep 64,917,857.1429 sq. ft. divided by 57,600 sq. ft. = 1,127.04613095  football fields 1 ft. deep or 112.704613095 football fields 10 ft. deep

Dump truck math / cats

  • 96M cats X .3 = 28,800,000 lbs. per day or 10,368,000,000 lbs. per year or 5,184,000 tons per year or 5.2M tons of cat waste per year. 5,200,000 tons divided by 500,000 = 10.4 tons, average dump truck capacity

Dog waste water pollution

“For a small bay watershed (up to 20 square miles), 2 to 3 days of droppings from a population of 100 dogs contribute enough bacteria, nitrogen, and phosphorus to temporarily close a bay to swimming and shellfishing.”  Pollution Prevention Management Measure

Human waste quantities

On average humans excrete 128 g (.28 lb.) of fresh feces per person per day – Rose, C.; Parker, A.; Jefferson, B.; Cartmell, E. (2015). “The Characterization of Feces and Urine: A Review of the Literature to Inform Advanced Treatment Technology”. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 45 (17): 1827–1879.doi:10.1080/10643389.2014.1000761. ISSN 1064-3389.

(.28 lbs. vs. .75 ave. dog)

But that’s an educated guess. Because, as it turns out, there are no definitive figures. In his book Nanomedicine, Dr. Robert A. Freitas Jr. cites three studies in putting his daily figure at 100-200 grams — that is, .22 to .44 pounds a day. A 1992 study in Gastroenterology found an average of 106 grams a day among 220 UK residents, but with the caveat that “data from other populations of the world show average stool weight to vary from 72 to 470 g/day.” The Merck Manual says that Westerners grunt out 100-300 grams a day (.22 – . 66 or .44 lb.). See more

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Is Wi-Fi Making Your Child Ill?

Lately, there have been claims that radiation from Wi-Fi technology can lead to certain types of cancer and other diseases, especially in children under 5 years of age.

France recently banned Wi-Fi in day care centers to protect the children from exposure to electromagnetic wave radiation and reduce their risk of incurring cancer or other diseases.

Though there is no concrete scientific proof that relates diseases to the use of Wi-Fi technology, a British radiofrequency and electromagnetic fields expert, Dr. Erica Mallery-Blythe, is advocating for relinquishing wireless gadgets.

In 2009, Dr.Mallery-Blythe noticed the increase of certain ailments among people exposed to wireless technology. Some of these issues include insomnia, fatigue, headaches, palpitation, and even neurological disorders, like Alzheimer’s and autism.

One of her strongest cases was a nine-year-old girl who experienced headaches and other neurological symptoms in 2011. Dr. Mallery-Blythe determined the culprit was the wireless technology close to the young student’s classroom seat.

According to the school, the Wi-Fi exposure in their building adheres to internationally accepted standards set by the government. Dr Simon Mann of the Department of Health said that they stand by Public Health England (PHE), that there is no evident reason Wi-Fi shouldn’t be used in schools and other places.

Claims of Harmful Effects

There has been a lot of literature about the harmful effects of wireless technology on the biological system. The powerful Council of Europe committee, which is composed of 47 member states, claimed back in 2011 that devices with wireless capabilities have “potentially harmful” effects on people and should be banned from schools. The Council had been calling for the ban since 2011, even before France did.

Germany has taken steps to persuade people to avoid using wireless technology whenever possible, so has Los Angeles in the USA.  In 2007, a BBC Panorama programme found that the readings next to a classroom laptop showed radiation at double the level only 100 metres from a mobile phone mast.

According to studies, children who are five years old and below absorb up to 60 percent more radiation than adults because they have thinner skulls and their brains still have a high water content. In some Western countries, brain tumours have become a more prevalent health condition among children than leukaemia. Glioma, a brain cancer related to mobile phone usage, has increased fivefold among people age 20 and below since 2008.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer and some parts of the World Health Organization claim that electromagnetic fields can be carcinogenic. The Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure further claims that EMF is even more harmful to children and foetuses.

Disputes Against EMF’s Harmful Effects to Humans

There may be a lot of claims from the growing anti-wireless technology groups about how EMF can harm humans, but there are also a lot of disputes over these claims and there are studies that conclude these fears of adverse effects are actually myths.

The Australian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Agency, the Australian government’s agency that looks into radiation, claims that there is no scientific evidence that “low” RF-EMF from WiFi technology has any adverse effects on children and human beings. According to the agency, WiFi radiation in schools is low powered.

EMF expert Dr. Vitas Anderson from Two Fields Consulting reassured people that there is no need to relinquish their wireless gadgets. He claims that France’s ban on Wi-Fi in schools is “over the top.” Anderson said there were two views when it comes to EMF: the government’s view of WHO claiming that EMF exposure below the international limits is safe and the minority view that asserts Wi-Fi is dangerous. And just like climate change, even if there is a consensus of 98 percent that it actually exists, sceptics will still find studies to prove otherwise.

Suggestions

Dr. Mallery-Blythe recommends keeping your mobile device switched off unless it is really needed and to avoid carrying it close to your body. She suggests using Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi and disabling the Wi-Fi if possible. The Australian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Agency suggests the same protocol if you are skeptic about Wi-Fi safety.

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Foods You Can Grow and Store All Winter – The Lowdown on Storage Crops

Eating local is something many of us strive for, but it can be easier said than done. We are at the mercy of the growing season for whatever local fresh produce is available and at the mercy of our work schedules for the time to track it down.

Farmers markets and local farm stands are a great place to find in-season fruits and veggies during a good part of the year, but busy schedules and weekend obligations can make regular market shopping difficult. The reality for many of us is that quick trips to the grocery store on the way home are what we can manage.

Some stores will carry local produce when they can, but most of the year it is imported from other regions. Additionally, prices are often higher for local because small farmers can’t offer stores the same wholesale margin as giant corporate farms. Those of us who garden can only enjoy meals from dirt to plate for so many months before the growing season ends.

Still, we know how important it is. We know that buying from local farms strengthens our local economy. We know we reduce our impact by supporting sustainable agricultural practices and reducing the distance our food travels to reach us. This is why we need to know more about storage crops.

Storage Crops to the Rescue!

Storage crops are foods that will last most of the year under the right conditions and include foods like potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, root vegetables, winter squash, and pumpkins. The right conditions may seem daunting and mysterious, as root cellars have become something in our grandmother’s stories of the past, but just because you don’t have a root cellar doesn’t mean you can’t keep storage crops through most of the winter.

I have used my garage, pantry, attic, and closet to store local staples and had great success. Sure, some things only make it to April, but there’s enough produce growing again by that time that it really doesn’t matter. You can make the most of a single trip to the farmers’ market or a local farm stand in the fall and stock up a store of these crops at excellent prices. It takes a little planning, but there are many creative ways to keep your food supply local year round.

Potatoes

People have been raising families on potatoes for centuries. They’re versatile, they’re nutritious, and they’ll keep for months. They are easy to grow and don’t require a lot of garden space. There are even creative options like vertical potato cages that allow you to keep layering as the foliage climbs upward. If you don’t have room for gardening, or have a larger family than you can grow enough potatoes for, many farmers offer them at discount bulk prices as a storage crop. The important basics are storing them in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place; 50 to 60 degrees is your target temperature. Cellars and basements are ideal, but covered boxes in the garage, or bins in the bottom of your kitchen cabinets will keep them for quite a while. You can make a lot of different local meals centered around potatoes in the middle of the winter, which makes them a storage crop staple. Depending on the variety of potato, storage conditions, and outside temperatures, potatoes will keep up to 6 months.

Onions

Let’s face it. Almost every recipe calls for onions, so stocking up on your own local supply of this vegetable is going to take you a long ways towards a more local year-round diet. Much like potatoes, farmers will offer discounted prices on bulk quantities in the fall, so calculate how many onions you think you might use per week and do the math to find out how many pounds you need. Onions need cool, dark, well-ventilated storage conditions, but unlike potatoes they need to stay a little more dry. I like to store my onions in baskets, mesh bags, or hanging braids in my attic. Garages are also a fine place, but cellars and basements can lead to spoilage. Under the right conditions, onions will keep up to 6 months.

Garlic

Garlic is one of those foods that doubles as a medicine and overall health booster, so I try to put it in as many dishes as I can. Garlic is easy to grow and doesn’t require a lot of garden space, and I have managed to grow my entire garlic supply for the year for quite a while now.

This year I planned ahead and grew extra to plant as the following year’s garlic seed so I wouldn’t have to buy it. Garlic can be grown, cured, and braided for hanging storage, or it can be purchased from a farmer in bulk. You want to store it pretty much the same way as onions. Because it can be stored hanging in long braids, it doesn’t take up much room and adds a festive look to your storage area. You can easily get away with never buying garlic from the grocery store again. You can easily get away with never buying garlic from the grocery store again. Under the right conditions, hardneck garlic varieties will keep up to 10 months and softneck garlic varieties will keep up to a year.

Winter Squash and Pumpkins

I heard something in the news recently about the expected canned pumpkin shortage for the coming year because of this past spring’s wacky weather in the Midwest, so now is a better than ever time to start buying and storing local pumpkins and winter squash. This is a fun crop to stock up on, because it can involve an October trip to the pumpkin patch. Usually farms with a u-pick pumpkin field will also offer a variety of squash in their farm stand. As long as there is a stem left on them and they are kept below 60 degrees, with low humidity, squash can keep until the following summer in your garage, attic, closet, or sometimes just sitting out on your kitchen counter. They are more prone to spoilage than the other storage crops, so it is important to sort them regularly and eat the ones that don’t look like they’ll make it. The great bonus thing about having a lot of storage squash is that every time you cook one, you can roast the seeds as a healthy snack. Depending on the variety, storage conditions, and outside temperatures, pumpkins and winter squash will keep up to 8 months.

Storage Crops are Winter Staples

Once you get in the habit of planning winter meals around the storage crops you have on hand, you will find yourself with a delicious, nutritious, local and seasonal diet. Potatoes provide plenty of potassium, iron, B6, and fiber. Onions are high in Vitamin C, B6, essential minerals, and fiber. Garlic is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, selenium, antioxidants, and Vitamin C; and also provides anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties. Winter squash and pumpkins are a straight up superfood, offering high levels of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, antioxidants, polysaccharides, and fiber. Let’s also not forget the seeds, offering a powerhouse of nutrients in a tiny, crunchy package.

There are even a few other veggies that will keep as storage crops with a little ingenuity. Root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, turnips, and beets will keep for months in the refrigerator or a bucket of moist sand. Apples can keep for months if stored in a cool place and sorted regularly for rot.

Remember that the lack of a root cellar is not holding you back. There are a lot of storage options that mostly fit the criteria and will give you months of local meals. Now that you know the low-down on storage crops, it’s the perfect time of year to get out there and stock up. You will thank yourself for it in January.

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A Guide to France’s Emerging Progressive Badassery

Supermarkets that donate their excess food to people in need, roofs covered in greenery, the private sale of glyphosate banned… Should we expect anything less from a country as committed to strikes and protests as France?

Recently, France has been riding a streak of increasingly environmentally and health conscious decisions by their government that have the potential to change the way the world looks at these issues. When a developed nation with worldwide leader status like France enacts a new policy, other countries look at them as an example of what could happen if they, too, were to try something new. Whether or not you know much about or agree with France’s politics, many of their recent steps towards greener and healthier living deserve a closer look.

Reducing Food Waste

Around a third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted or lost every year. The richer the country is, the higher their rate of food waste. Developed countries are more likely to experience higher levels of waste at later stages in the supply chain. Due to a law unanimously approved by French parliament in May of this year, large supermarkets in France are now required to give unsold food to charity or donate it for animal feed. Prior to this new law, pouring bleach over unsold food to discourage dumpster diving was a common practice. While businesses opposed to the law claim they should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding food waste, the law (if not repealed by the French Constitutional Council) has at the very least inspired a closer look at reducing or recycling food waste options.

Green as Far as the Eye Can See

New roofs have an amazing potential. In March of 2015, France followed Germany, Australia, and prominent cities like Toronto, Canada in promoting green roofs, requiring all new roofs in commercial districts to be partially covered in plants or solar panels. The law lets the business choose which option they would prefer, although either option results in significant environmental, practical, and potentially financial benefits. While environmentalists say the law is too limited because it applies only to commercial buildings, it is an important step forward into incorporating green energy and thinking into everyday life.

People are already familiar with the environmental benefits of the sun. Solar panels can save money on energy bills, provide energy security, independence, and reliability, and reduce the use of fossil fuels with their renewable, consistent energy source. Roofs with plants on top of them are more open to creative interpretation, as there’s a choice to be made between growing food or choosing a more ornamental option. Even the ornamental greenery option provides a range of environmental advantages. Plant life filters pollutants in the air and alleviates stress on the sewer system with its natural ability to manage rainwater. Both options also increase the value of properties through aesthetic improvements and by prolonging HVAC, heating, and ventilation systems.

The Ban of Glyphosate

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Round-up and an all around health hazard, is treated somewhat differently in Europe than it is in the United States. While the interests of the corporations manufacturing the pesticides still triumph in the U.S., several European countries have taken a World Health Organization report of glyphosate’s role in causing cancer seriously. In June 2015, France banned the sale of glyphosate over the counter, joining countries like the Netherlands. Banning glyphosate three months after the announcement of the WHO cancer study shows how quickly a government willing to put its foot down could make a difference in minimizing the amount of hazardous herbicides and pesticides all around us. At the very least, the French government is displaying a heartening distrust of Monsanto.

Our Oh So Chic Canary in the Coalmine

That’s great for France, but what about people who live in the U.S.? While the U.S. is a much larger country than France, keeping an eye on how other developed nations around the world are responding to the need for greener energy, less wasteful policies, and a reduction in the harmful, cancer-causing substances can give us needed ammunition. Seeing a country enact at least three major green policies in less than a year can be an incredibly convincing to those struggling to hold us to the crumbling status quo.

Maybe we can also find inspiration in our own lives. We can add a solar panel, reevaluate our food waste, go organic in our own gardening, or take the next step in our environmental journey. After all, the French can’t beat us in everything.

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Glyphosate Drenched Crops

When you shop for produce and see that higher price placed on the organic varieties, chances are you think there probably isn’t that much difference between the two. Surely conventional agriculture doesn’t waste chemicals. They only use them when they need to – when insects or fungus attacks the crops, right? Wrong.

Conventional produce has been through a storm of chemical treatments. The use of chemicals is so insidious, it often begins with treating the dirt and the seeds before planting. Then chemical fertilizers are used in addition to insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides during cultivation. Some fruits have been tested to find 13-15 different pesticides remain after harvesting. Now a new practice is being employed – pre-harvest desiccation. Crops are drenched with an herbicide prior to harvest to hasten and even out ripening and to control weeds for the next crop.

Unfortunately this process results in huge pesticide residues in our food, even in certified non-GMO food. That’s right, your food could be non-GMO Project verified and still have been drenched in glyphosate just prior to harvest. The foods that are approved for Roundup application and/or another pesticide just prior to harvest are as follows:

  • Wheat
  • Cotton (cottonseed oil)
  • Alfalfa
  • Oats
  • Sugar cane
  • Beans
  • Mustard
  • Oilseed rape
  • Rye/Triticale
  • Lentils
  • Peas
  • Flax
  • Sunflower
  • Pulses
  • Soy Bean
  • Sugar beet
  • Potatoes
  • Chick Peas
  • Feed barley
  • Canola
  • Corn

Unfortunately, Roundup is not the only chemical approved for use just prior to harvest. Other approved pre-harvest chemical desiccants include:

  • Reglone
  • Diquat
  • Glufosinate
  • Carfentrazone-Ethyl
  • Cyanamide
  • Paraquat
  • Diquat Dibromide
  • Carfentrazone
  • Cyclanilide
  • Diquat
  • Endothall
  • Thidiazuron
  • Tribufos

No one denies that these chemicals are toxic. The argument in favor of desiccation and other synthetic chemical treatments is that the dose of toxin is so low, it isn’t harmful to apply it.

Toxicology is based on the following 500-year-old idea that is fundamentally flawed.

All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy. –Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim Paracelsus

While it is true that even water can kill you if you drink an excessive amount, the idea that small doses of poison can’t hurt you is illogical. In conventional agriculture, everything you eat includes poison. Why would you want to eat any poison with every meal, increasing your toxic load each day?

Recently, we are learning more and more about how toxic glyphosate truly is.

Unfortunately, the other chemical treatments are not any better. A drop of Reglone on your fingernail can cause your nail to shrivel up, fall off, and never grow back. Any exposure to the eyes can blind you, permanently. It doesn’t take very much Reglone to kill you, and in higher amounts it can even be fatal from contact on the skin.

The more we realize how pervasive the chemical treatments are in conventional agriculture, the more we realize the value of voting with our dollars for organic food.

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Fresh, healthy, Local and Sustainable Fruit Year-Round

We all know that fruit is good for us. The steady stream of research and articles on the subject reminds us constantly of the amazing antioxidant benefits of blueberries and how an apple a day keeps the doctor away. When we go to the supermarket, we know we are supposed to do the healthy thing and load up on fresh fruits, right? But are those fruits really fresh and really good for us? How far did those strawberries have to travel and what did they spray on them to keep them looking “fresh” in the middle of winter? Were they grown in a way that positively or negatively impacted the waterways and wildlife in that area, not to mention the farmers who grew them?

You can always make the choice to “vote with your wallet” as I like to say, and buy certified organic from the store, but this can be expensive for many of us, and the reality is still that if it’s not in season where we live, it had to travel a long ways to get to our produce section.

The good news is, there are many ways you can add more fruit to your diet, and still keep it healthy, local and good for the environment. There are plenty of small farms out there growing tree fruits and berries, and this is the perfect opportunity to get to know them. Buying, picking and growing fruit in quantity when it is in season is very economical, and although fresh fruit may not be available all throughout the year, there are some simple ways to store and preserve it at home so that you always know exactly where it came from.

Visit Your Local Farmer’s Market

If your town or urban neighborhood has a farmer’s market, this is the place to find your local fruit. Farmer’s Markets give you an opportunity to have a conversation with farmers directly about how they grow their crops, whether they are organic, and which varieties they recommend. Farmers tend to highlight freshness with the produce they bring to market, so you will know it was picked the day before or even early that morning. Some farmer’s markets also continue through the holiday season, allowing you to continue buying local fruit that farmers have stored in their own cold storage.

The other added benefit of a trip to your local farmer’s market is the community building aspect of getting to know your farmer and your fellow like-minded locavores. Throw in some live music and healthy food carts, and you can’t go wrong for a fun weekend activity. When a fruit is in season, expect to find whole flats available at discount prices that you can preserve for the year ahead. Some farmers also offer “seconds” or not-so-perfect boxes of fruit at a deep discount, that is perfectly good for canning or freezing.

U-Pick

I can’t recommend this option highly enough, especially if you have kids. While the low prices and feeling of self-sufficiency are reason enough to get your fruit in this manner, what it comes down to is that it is really just plain fun.

What’s not to love about making an outing to visit a farm, spending some time outside picking fruit, snacking as you go and maybe having a picnic lunch while you’re out there? You will get to know firsthand exactly where your fruit came from as you create good memories and start traditions to pass down in your family.

Farmers charge less per pound for fruit they don’t have to spend time picking, plus they will usually offer a discounted price based on your quantity, so stocking up for the year at a U-Pick farm really does pay off.

Grow Your Own!

You don’t need a lot of land to grow a lot of food. Depending on the size of your yard, you can plant fruit trees, berry bushes, and strawberry beds to create a productive, edible landscape. Raspberry patches can produce an incredible amount of fruit, strawberry beds planted with ever-bearing varieties can be harvested multiple times throughout the growing season, and a single dwarf fruit tree that is properly pruned can produce a massive amount of fruit. From the five blueberry bushes growing in our yard, we were able to freeze 30 quarts and have fresh berries to eat all summer.

Even if you live in a small space, raspberries and blueberries can grow in pots, dwarf fruit trees have been developed for patio growing, and strawberries can be planted in vertical containers with holes on the sides or in old gutters along your fence or balcony. You may not have room to grow enough quantity for preserving, but you can grow your fresh day-to-day eating fruit for the summer and stock up at the farmer’s market for long-term storage. Aside from the cost of plants, soil amendments and your water bill, this is a very low-cost option for securing your yearly fruit supply.

Go Gleaning

If you take a walk around your neighborhood in the fall, you may notice fruit trees on abandoned lots and in public spaces dropping fruit all over the ground. Urban foraging, or gleaning, is a great way to get your local, organic fruit and keep it from going to waste. Fallen fruit in parks and public areas creates a lot of mess and clean-up labor when it falls on sidewalks and lawns, so you are doing landscape workers a big favor.

You may also have a neighbor who is too busy or physically unable to harvest the fruit in their yard. It never hurts to ask if you can harvest from their trees, and offer them a portion of the fruit in exchange. It’s a good way to get to know the people in your neighborhood and build community. Some places even have gleaning groups that go around and help each other harvest fruit to share amongst themselves and donate some to local food banks. It is truly the “waste not, want not” principle in action, and it’s absolutely free.

Go Wild!

Few things can rival the flavor of wild berries, freshly picked from the vine. Blackberries, huckleberries, black cap raspberries, and a whole abundance of delicious fruits grow all around us in forests, fields, and the wild spaces. In some places, blackberries are so invasive that you don’t have to go far to find a patch to pick from. This, like U-picking, is a great activity for those with kids. Many families still carry on traditions of going on outings up into the high mountains to pick huckleberries in the late summer, to freeze and use in family recipes from jams to pies.

One of the best resources for where to find the best picking spots are your own grandparents or the elderly people you know. They have likely spent many a day out picking wild berries in their youth, and would enjoy sharing their experience and pointing you in the right direction. The other great thing about this method of gathering fruit is that it doesn’t cost a thing.

Preserve the Bounty

Here is the important key to keeping your fruit supply local. Many of us live in places where fruit doesn’t grow all year. Rather than going to the grocery store for a pint of strawberries from Mexico in January, why not thaw a pint of local strawberries from your freezer? Instead of buying a bag of dried fruit with added sweetener and preservatives, you can snack on a handful of delicious dried plums from your backyard.

If you spend the time stocking up over the summer, all the fruit you need is right there until it comes back into season the following year. Freezing, canning, dehydrating, and cold storing are all fairly simple methods of keeping your fruit supply local through the winter months. Things like apples, pears, and kiwis will often keep for several months in root cellars, garages, or any place that stays cool without freezing. Berries can be frozen in baggies or containers. Peaches, plums, and pears can be canned in a simple honey syrup, and jams can be made out of just about any kind of fruit you like.

For folks that are just plain busy, your freezer is your friend. Once you have gone about gathering and storing your fruit for the year, you will gain the satisfaction of doing things for yourself, some peace of mind, and closer connections with your food and your farmer. The Ball Blue Book of Preserving, and The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest by Carol Costenbader are a couple of excellent resources with instructions and recipes for canning and other preservation methods. Also, most state universities offer Master Food Preserver programs through their extension offices, similar to the Master Gardener program.

A Mountain Hearth Recipe for Strawberry Jam and Life

Ingredients

A local Farm
Friends and People You Love
4 cups fresh picked strawberries
3/4 to 2 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup water
3 tsp Pomona’s Pectin
4+ tsp Pomona’s calcium water (comes with pectin)

Take a trip out to your favorite local farm with your friends and the people that you love. Make a day of it, pack a picnic lunch, and enjoy the experience. Pick as large a quantity of strawberries as you can manage processing, and “vote with your wallet” to support your local farmer. Then it’s time to get your supplies, get home, and get to work, because fresh strawberries don’t keep long.

Mash the strawberries and stir in lemon juice and sugar. I always go with the middle ground and use about a cup. The cool thing about Pomona’s Pectin is that you can use whatever type or amount of sweetener you want. I like having options. Then boil your water and pulse in a food processor while adding pectin powder. Blend for about 2 minutes. Stir this into your fruit mash. Then add the calcium water until the jam starts to jell. Ladle into clean jars leaving about an inch head space and freeze. I keep mine up to two years in the freezer and it’s a wonderful year-round treat!

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