Sharing the Love for Green

Around my office, I’ve earned a reputation for being green. Sometimes I think I startle coworkers when I unexplainably grab pop bottles out of the trash to take to the recycling bin. Others have also had the misfortune of throwing away a pop bottle or piece of paper in front of me. I wear my emotions on my sleeves, so you can imagine the horror on my face when this transpires in front of me.

Because I think that these actions ultimately cause some coworkers to feel guilty, they often feel compelled to rationalize their actions: “It’s just a habit to throw paper away.” “I recycle at home, but I hate walking down to the kitchen at work just to recycle a plastic bottle.” Etcetera, etcetera.

While for some time I’ve been leading by example, I’ve decided that it’s time to ramp up my efforts around here. I started today by finding an empty box and donating it to a good-intentioned coworker for her personal paper recycling. I have the same system at my desk. I throw paper into it daily, and when it gets full, I carry it down to the recycling bin to empty it.

While I realize that this is just a small step, I hope that I can continue to impact changes like this throughout my office. Even if that means collecting boxes and distributing them to each and every coworker for their personal paper recycling.

How Does My Garden Grow?

This summer, I’ve been especially amazed by the size of the veggies from my garden. A 5.5 pound zucchini named Mammoth takes the cake, but I’ve also picked several other zucchini nearly the same size and huge tomatoes as well.

Normally when I see very large food items – think extra large chicken breasts, apples the size of melons – I’m turned off. That commercial chicken was probably injected with steroids and antibiotics, and the apples may have been grown in fertilizer-enhanced soil and sprayed with pesticides. All these things are very unhealthy and completely unnatural.

But I credit the large items growing in my garden to composting. I’ve talked about composting before, but I must reference the importance and simplicity of composting again, as I’ve seen its benefits of late. Composting is the most natural way to get important minerals and vitamins back into the soil. It’s especially important if you use the same patch of land for your garden year after year.

Composting it’s also nature’s way of recycling. Before I learned any better, I figured that food scraps tossed into my regular kitchen trash bag would just disintegrate at the landfill. But because the food is locked into a trash bag and crammed into a heaping pile with other trash, it pretty much just sits there…for a long time. (And to be honest, thinking about everything in a trash bag disintegrating back into the ground really freaks me out.)

I’ve had people ask me – is it better to throw produce scraps away or put them down the garbage disposal? My answer: Neither. Start a compost pile and send those nutrients back into the earth. Spread the compost in garden and around your flower beds in the fall. Give the earth a little something back for all its given you!

How to Eat Local Year-Round

In my last blog entry, I mentioned the benefits of eating locally grown produce. I failed to mention that eating locally grown foods in general is best – this includes dairy, meat, etc. The less distance food has to travel from the source to your plate, the better for you and the environment.

Anyway, back to the point of this entry: How can I eat locally grown foods year-round? My answer…Learn to love your freezer!

Now that our garden is in full swing, our freezer is growing crowded by the day.

Here are some things I’ve prepared and frozen:
- tray of roasted vegetable lasagna (veggie from the garden, tomatoes used to make sauce)
- pesto (basil from the garden, other herbs from CSA)
- eggplant, breaded and fried, for parmesan
- tomato sauce
- zucchini bread
- blueberries (picked in August)
- strawberries (picked in June)

I have to admit that I’ve spent many nights this summer prepping and cooking these veggies for consumption either now or this winter. In fact, I mentioned to Dan recently that in our next house, I want a great view out of the window over my kitchen sink because I feel like all I do anymore is clean dishes and stare out that window.

While the amount of veggies we sometimes have seems overwhelming, I’ve decided to freeze whatever can’t be used now. (I’ve also tried pickling, but I’ve failed miserably two years in a row. More to come on this topic…)

Like I said in the last blog entry – while you may not have a large garden or may not be a member of a CSA, take advantage of fresh, seasonal produce. Purchase extra seasonal fruit and veggies now, and freeze them for consumption during the winter months. I promise that while it might seem a pain to do double the prepping and cooking now, you’ll be happy you did it come winter.

Feeling Good about Eating (Very) Local

Last night as Dan and I sat eating our halloumi kabobs for dinner, I realized that every vegetable on our plate came directly from our own garden. The only items on the plate that weren’t grown in our backyard were the halloumi cheese and couscous.

I’m proud to admit that on the majority of nights in our house this summer, most of the food we’ve eaten has been grown in our backyard or on a farm nearby. While we have a large garden ourselves, we’re also members of a community supported agriculture (CSA) initiative, Lakewood Earth and Food (LEAF) Community.

To show you how it can be done, here's our menu from this week:
Monday – Calzones (sauce made from tomatoes from the garden); salads (tomatoes, cucumbers from our garden; lettuce from CSA)
Tuesday – summer squash gratin (zucchini, yellow squash, tomato and basil from our garden); small baguette
Wednesday – roasted vegetable and black enchiladas (peppers, zucchini and squash from our garden)
Thursday – halloumi kabobs (zucchini, squash, peppers, tomatoes from our garden)

Eating locally grown foods has wonderful benefits. Here are a few:
It’s good for the soul: For me, working in the soil is relaxing, refreshing and stress-reducing.
It’s better for your health: Local vegetables are picked at the peak of ripeness, meaning your body receives the most nutrients available. When veggies are picked under-ripe and transported hundreds of thousands of miles, they don’t have a chance to naturally develop the best nutrients your body needs.
It tastes better: You decide which tastes better - a tomato picked off the vine on a hot August day and served for dinner that night vs. a tomato covered in some waxy film that has been touched by hundreds at a large, chain grocery store.

While we all don’t have the chance to eat locally every night of the week, I urge you to take advantage of local produce during the summer. Go pick berries with your friends and family, take a trip to your local Farmer’s Market; buy the locally grown produce available in your grocery store. Give it a try and see if you feel better – physically and mentally – about the choices you’ve made.

What I did with Mammoth...

Mammoth was a large zucchini (If you have no idea what "Mammoth" is, scroll down to the last posting). To think that there are others like it in my garden scares me. But my challenge this past weekend was to cook that son of a gun, and I was (mostly) successful.


Here are the zucchini recipes from this weekend:


Blueberry-Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used all whole wheat, it's much more filling)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries
Handfull of chocolate chips

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans. Top with chocolate chips.
3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.


Stuffed Zucchini (an original - so simple and delicious!)

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, slices in half, cored
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup Boca crumbles or ground turkey
1 onion and 2 cloves garlic, sauteed in olive oil
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan cheese


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix 1 cup tomato sauce, boca crumbles, onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, egg and parm in a bowl.
Place zucchini in pan. Stuff with mixture. Top with tomato sauce.
Bake for 45 minutes.


I also made roasted vegetable lasagna, but I really don't feel like explaining the recipe since it's pretty long. But here's one that's pretty similar.


All this cooking and I still had some zucchini left. I ended up putting it into the compost pile because it had lots of seeds at the end and was pretty tough. I guess my sister Ashlee was right - I shouldn't let my vegetables get so big. But anyone else who has a garden knows that once the vegetables start coming, it's hard to keep up with them.

Is That a Zucchini in Your Garden (Or Are You Just Happy to See Me)?

Knock, knock...who's there? It's me - Green Kristine. I know it's been a long time, and there may not be anyone left reading my blog. I completely understand. I hate when blogs are sporadic - it's very frustrating.

But I now have two topics on which I must blog. Get ready for a comeback!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a avid gardener. In fact, it's one of my biggest sources of happiness and stress relief. Some days I just sit on our porch staring at my garden. It's amazing how from something so small as a seed, such wonderful things are produced.

Anyway, I was out in the garden yesterday for my daily harvest, and I stumbled upon what I thought was a dead animal. To my amazement and surprise, it was the biggest zucchini I've ever seen - 5.5 pounds to be exact.

While some say that my garden does wonderfuly well because of dog pee, Morris and Zoe are not peeing in the garden. I like to think it's just a little extra TLC that keeps my garden growing - including lots of watering, composting and regular attention.

"Mammoth" will be turned into a wonderful dinner of stuffed zucchini Sunday night.

And check back next week for the recipe and, who knows, I may have a new posting up by then.