Monday, July 14, 2008

Green: Red light

I've been taking steps to lessen my family's carbon footprint. Tiny steps, albeit but steps nonetheless. I've switched from heavily chemical-ed cleaning supplies to the Method line of more environmentally, safer, non-bleach smelly products. They're heavily available at Target and I heard you can get them at Costco but I've never seen it myself. I also switched from my regular Cascade dishwasher detergent to a Green version. The only thing I haven't switched so far is laundry soap and that's because I haven't read wonderful things about the product's ability to thoroughly clean clothes. Also, I haven't given up my Clorox Antibacterial Wipes. Because really: what's the point in Going Green if the salmonella on the kitchen counter is going to kill me?
In conjunction with Going Green at home, I'm trying to live a more simple life in general. Before buying that crap from China at Target, I really weight how I'll use it and for how long. Of course, this is hard with a small Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, Cheetah Girl loving girl but I'm trying.
Another way I'd like to change my lifestyle is eating more organically and locally. Except that's pretty hard to come by here. There are no Farmer's Markets (that I know of - and I've looked), there's no co-ops or specialty stores featuring locally grown produce, meats, etc. Down the street there used to be a farm that grew it's own strawberries and other fruits & veggies but they sold their farming land to a nursery who stores their potted plants on the land now.
I'm hoping to recruit some new, local readers. Not only for socializing and networking purposes but I truly hope they can point me in the right direction for a solution to this problem.

Do you know of any locally grown, possibly organic places to purchase produce, herbs, meat, etc?
Also, are you local to the South Florida area? Are you a new reader? Are you an old friend who reads this blog faithfully and sends me emails instead of leaving comments? (Ahem - KIM!) Tell me so in the comment section.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm in South Florida but I have no idea. :( If you find any please let me know, though!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link! I found a co-op not too terribly far from here in Boynton that I might use.

Phone Photo Project by Kim said...

OK so...you called me out specifically! So I will leave comments here!

One...I don't know of local things in south florida being I do not live there BUT I have been changing to a greener lifestyle!

So far we have switched 80% of our lighting fixtures to the compact fluorescent bulbs, turned the AC up to 83 for during the day, we are also looking into purchasing tankless waterheater! These are all energy saving things.

Chris is in the process of getting all the things to make his own biodiesel. Being that diesel is 4.75 a gallon right now and he has a very large diesel vehicle. I have even resorted *gasp* to driving no faster than 60-65 mph. on the highway (I drive 40 miles to work one way...that is round trip 80 miles just to work and back...NOT counting running kids places!)! Although, i will let you know how that goes being that I just started it and haven't calculated my MPG yet!!! That takes some getting used to!

Next...we compost AND we have a worm farm! The worm farm is great because the water that you keep them moist with you collect at the bottom and is the worlds perfect fertilizer!!! So we water all the plants with that water! Plus they eat all our trash...banana peels, egg shells, carrot peelings etc... We compost everything the worms cant eat like garlic skins, onion, etc...plus the worm bins are not HUGE...so leaves and other things go into compost and we get really nice soil out of it for FREE...essentially from our garbage!

I also have my own herb garden...italian basil, lemon basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and sage..oh and mint too! We are working on our garden again...that got away from us with the baby and everything! Fresh herbs are waaay better than anything store bought and cheap!!!

Ok...so my suggestion is...grow your own small veggie garden and herb garden! We are working on our veggie garden for the fall. Then make a worm farm (they are very easy to make and you can buy a premade one of the net) and make something usefull of your fruits and veggies that go to waste!

So yeah..that is my two cents...LOVE YOU LOTS!!!!