On the verge of scurvy!

I suck at being “green”. I try. We try. But when it comes down to it, we suck.

One area I try every year to be good about is being a locavore. I love the concept and it makes sense. Support your local industry, eat food that is produced and grown near you and minimize the CO2 footprint of bringing your food to you. Great idea!

Except that nothing grows here in the winter!

Winter leaves us with apples (stored under nitrogen, which is fine, as a scientist I have no problem with this), potatoes and onions. And if I were a Top Chef contestant I am sure I could come up with loads of delicious combinations of these three ingrediants.

But about this time of year each year, we have had our fill of apples. Except Skadi, she could eat apples at every meal.

And then you buy the box of Cuties which are most definitely not produced around here, but the lure of citrus is irresistible in December. And mandarin oranges definitely do NOT grow anywhere near Washington State.

Then my son starts complaining. “I want fruit mom, I want blueberries.”

I am lucky to have a son that loves fresh fruit so much. I know many people who complain that their kids won’t eat fresh fruit. I am sure that it comes partly with growing up in Washington state, because as a kid, my fresh fruit consisted of Red Delicious apples, oranges and strawberries on occasion in Wyoming. Here in Washington States once cherry season hits in June it is an endless smorgasbord and we historically have eaten fruit salad as a side dish at nearly every meal on up through apple and pear season in the fall.

So that my kids don’t waste away to pale little scurvy ridden children I ran to Costco this past weekend.

And I loaded up.

We have kiwi from Italy, we have blackberries from South America, we have blueberries from Australia, we have artisan lettuce heads from who knows where. Or correction, we had blueberries. We don’t anymore.

Then the piece de resistance arrived – a case, big case too, of red Rio Grande grapefruit direct from the Southern tip of Texas.

Carbon foot print be damned. We need our produce.

A Problem of Apathy? (Part 2)

I really am not as apathetic as I sound about the environment. I just have my things that I focus on.

Yards and watering is one. It drives me bonkers when I see people watering in the heat of the day. Water at night or in the morning where you aren't losing so much to the air around. And don't get me started on the sprinklers that are on during the rain. I like drip systems and soaker hoses in my gardens. Also those big huge acre fully grassed yards. Sure, it's pretty I guess to have everything green and the same. But what a pain to mow. If someday I should have a large lot it won't be all grass, and if it is when my kids are older, it will be unlikely to have any grass. I look at those gardens in Sunset where the yard IS the garden... love that.

Paper products is another. The catalogs, the flyers, the ads, etc., that we get in the mail. I hesitate to actually stop them altogether through that website that eliminates junk mail, because they do have a place... right a few months before Christmas. Sure, inundate me then where I can sit down in the evening and scope out ideas for gifts from the comfort of my couch. And seasonal ones, because yes I am a sucker for cute Easter decorations and the like. The rest? Keep 'em.

We are trying to sell our old house right now by owner and a favorite tactic of local agents is to send postcards and flyers and "instructions" detailing how to sell your home (all the hard work it will take). They are just offering "tips"... they would never be trying to actually solicit from you the listing... never. One pair we get 5-6 pieces of mail from them every week. It is on my list to phone them and ask them to quit wasting resources because we are listing our home by owner because my mother in law is a licensed real estate agent AND if we did choose to go the agent route (and we might still) it won't be them! We would choose the agents/friends we bought this house with.

Ok, off my pulpit and back to the topic at hand. The sub-topic I have been avoiding and that got me thinking about formulating this post last week...

Cars.

We need a new one. It could be within a matter of weeks or a year. Whenever the Subaru decides to give up the ghost. It will happen.

Can I admit that I have never coveted a Prius? Never. I got semi-interested when the hybrid engine Highlander was introduced a few years ago. But the availability was slim at best.

A friend of mine from daycare commented the other day that he read on Facebook about the car dilemma. Then he commented, “well now you can get a smaller car!”

I think he was referring to replacing my 4Runner and so I reminded him that this is my husband’s car we are talking about… The Outback. Not MY 4 Runner.

I might as well get it over with… I LOVE my 4Runner. Love it. Yes, I am an evil capitalist gas-hogging SUV driving American. According to many out there, the source of all that is wrong in America.

While we were deciding the other day what to do with AB’s car (we ended up deciding to fix the transmission so it is drivable for some unknown period of time with a cracked head gasket while we figure out what kind of car we want), AB asked me, “if money was not an issue, what kind of car would you buy?”

We aren’t car people. I don’t have a specific car that I covet. I envision myself someday when kids are grown driving either a Volvo C-70 or a Benz. But frankly, I love my 4Runner.

AB’s idea is that he gets MY 4Runner and I get a minivan.

Oh joy.

Have I mentioned that I am NOT a minivan person? Just not. It is probably more practical to go that route, though not my chosen route. (I did remind him the other day that if he gets the new job he is applying for that HE can get a minivan and pick the kids up daily!)

One consideration is a truck. When I was a kid my mom had a car, my dad had a truck. It was just always that way. We are always needing to haul stuff and add to it that one component of our “when we sell the house” plan is to buy a travel trailer. With the 4Runner we are limited to a max weight of hauling 5000 lbs. Which then limits us to an “Ultralite” (which is fine) or a small travel trailer. We want hard sides because we aspire to use the travel trailer in different seasons (Olympics 2010, skiing, Yellowstone off season...). But if we were able to haul more the options become much better.

However, the question really becomes how “practical” is a truck really when you have two children and two dogs? I refuse to put my dogs in the back of a truck. And we really need space to seat 6 so that when we have visitors that we don’t always have to shuffle car seats and take two cars.

I mumbled under my breath to Hans what my ultimate choice would be… thankfully I don’t fear scorn from my husband.

A Sequoia.

Then I can take my gas guzzling, SUV driving to the extreme with the step up from my beloved 4Runner.

And maybe what the real option is to take the Subaru and the 4Runner to the dealership and ask for a deal on a Sequoia (for me) and a Prius (as a commuter car for AB). Then I can at least offset my carbon footprint. When I get scorns of disapproval I can nod at the Prius?

I know, I know... why the guilt? Someday I may have an answer for you.

This post is now open for flaming.

It's Not Easy Being Green (Part 1)

Considering we live in the Evergreen state - we don’t live in the “greenest” of regions. This is kind of funny given the Department of Energy’s stronghold on the area. Washington state has a reputation for hippies, trees and ecological friendliness. Thanks to the west side for all that. We reside in the east side. The land of nuclear waste and open desert – yes desert in Washington state – at least half the state is high desert. And no, I am not joking.

I think back to living in Boulder, Colorado from 1991 to 1996 and I don’t think this region is even close to catching up with Boulder in the 90’s. Though Boulder IS a special circumstance… those of you who have visited, understand. It may be more fair to compare to Reno in the late 90’s. I would put the area on par with Reno… which doesn’t say much to compare it to the great state of Nevada where (when I lived there) you could smoke in grocery stores.

Parts of our town recently received the first installment of a pilot recycling program. A dumpster for recycling that if I understand the program correctly (our old neighborhood is part of the pilot, not the new) decreases trash pick up to every other week, with the off weeks being recycling pick up. I am hoping that the pilot program gets picked up and we will soon have our own recycling bin at the new house.

However, I do understand the economics of recycling at least a little. Statistics show that a lot of recyclables actually end up in the landfill. And when you live in a small region that doesn’t have local recycling infrastructure, the benefits of recycling are quickly outweighed by the cost to ship/truck the recyclables to a larger population center (which may or may not then be recycled per the above).

When I was a little girl my grandmother and I would walk around her neighborhood (not the best part of Casper, WY) and pick up aluminum cans. Then we would take them to the big recycling center in town where they would weigh them and we would get a few bucks for ice cream. I started recycling way before it was “the thing” to do. Interesting though that now any aluminum cans usually end up in our trash. (Though AB and I have both quit drinking pop and so we don’t have the aluminum can dilemma in our home anymore.)

Now? I hate to admit that our recycling is limited to cardboard and whatever glass and plastics we pull together the week or two leading up to the needed trip to the recycling drop off. I do make an effort to reuse plastic bags though and I would eventually like to switch the kids over to cute Bento boxes for lunches instead of baggies containing their food.

Then there is the whole organic push. As a chemist I believe in better living through chemistry. And in some instances, organic farming does not mesh with sustainable farming. Though the details on this are admittedly vague to me. However, nearly everything lately is labeled “organic!” and much of the processed foods (gasp, yes, we eat processed foods) that we enjoy sport the label. It is almost to the point that going non-organic is hard. (Not that in the large scheme of things, I care one way or another about this one, I have bigger things on my list of concerns.)

I am admittedly a part time locavore too. We look forward to eating the locally grown produce every year and enjoy the seasonality of lots of fruits and vegetables. The Farmer’s Market is a favorite outing on Saturdays and the single most authentic Farmer’s Market I have ever attended. In Reno, the food was trucked over from the Central Valley in California and was essentially the same produce you were getting at the store except that the proceeds were going directly to the farmer instead of to the grocery store and whatever route it then takes to the farmer. This was except for asparagus and garlic. I loved the Boulder Farmer’s Market and I still hold a strong preference for Colorado corn and peaches. But likewise, those were trucked in from all over the state. This area has afforded us the opportunity to become true locavores…

in the summer.

But our locavore status wanes around October and doesn’t pick up again until June. A true locavore would maybe not eat any vegetables then, I suppose? Or maybe they would have been more organized than I am and have canned and preserved all summer. (Something I would LIKE to do.) Nope, in the winter I buy my broccoli from somewhere, my bell peppers from Mexico or Chile and we eat a lot of canned fruit from anywhere BUT China. I buy berries in the winter from Costco because walking by the plump blueberries without grabbing a quart in the dead of winter is nearly impossible. I tell myself that this is ok, because it is supporting farmers in other countries. Which is the better trade off – supporting other countries or the environmental cost of shipping the produce? No idea.

Oh then there is light bulbs. A year or two ago there was a huge push at my son’s school to replace ALL your light bulbs with compact fluorescents. We happily wrote our name down on the list and the number of bulbs we replaced so that the 1st and 2nd graders could calculate out how much energy we had saved as a school. Then I noticed something. Those bulbs freaking suck. The light is awful. They are fluorescent bulbs – the same ones that everyone complains about as being artificial in office buildings. The twitch and take a few seconds to come on. Then they don’t just burn out, they die a slow death whereby the light gradually fades. Oh and they don’t work with dimmers. Found that one out recently after I replaced four bulbs in ceiling fan and turned them on, adjusted the light and then jumped as I listened to all four pop. That was a waste.

I can deal with compact fluorescents in a few places – the high ceilings of our garage where it is a serious pain to change the bulbs. Outside on the patio for the same reason. The spare bathrooms. Basically areas where the light quality doesn’t really matter and/or where it might be a pain in the butt to change the light bulbs.

To be continued...