Eco lunches

Peter's Eco Lunch. Homemade 100% canvas, REUSABLE, lunch bag featuring stainless steal cutlery and reusuable containers.

I’ve noticed lately two things:  1) there are a lot of tips to show you how to build a green lunch and 2) there is a lot of talk about how organic food doesn’t hold any more nutrition than conventional food.  The discussion that could happen based on these trends is amazing, and I would like to add a few points to hopefully further the discussion.

When I’ve seen eco-lunches discussed on a blog via Twitter or otherwise, they always point to something you can buy.  Sure, buying things is great for the economy, but it’s not so great for planet-wide-consumption practices.  So, unless you don’t otherwise have an option – for say a reusable lunch bag, and really, any bag will do, buying shouldn’t be your first choice, unlike what these blogs point out.  Which, incidentally, they always seem to direct you to some sponsor who just created this nifty Indian print eco-lunch bag for a small price of $39.95.  Convenient eh?  Regardless, the point they make is a good one – stop bringing stuff in your lunch bag that you throw away.  When I was growing up we had lunch pails.  And, anyone who’s seen an old movie probably will recognize the tin lunch pails factory workers 50 years ago brought to work.  Even commercials feature the coolers (Coolmate) that construction workers hoist on the steal beams from which they dangle while enjoying their lunch.

Reusable lunch holders are not a new topic, just revisited with Indian print.  So, let’s get back to that.  Stop bringing that paper sack.  If you do bring the paper sack, remember to recycle it when it’s all used up (too many folds and tatters to be used anymore).  If there are grease stains on it or oils leftover from your lunch, throw it in your city compost program or any program you know of that does hot compost.  Typical backyard composting doesn’t get hot enough to kill diseases or animal fats, which could attract rodents, something most cities want under control.  Hot composting usually yields temperatures that are, well hot enough, to kill any bad stuff.  Ask your local extension office for more details. We used to use a paper sack for Peter’s lunch, but after several weeks of use, the bag tends to disintegrate.  So, he asked me if I’d make him one.  I had left over duck cloth (100% cotton) from another project, so I used that.  Now he has a durable, very reusable, and washable canvas woven bag to carry his lunch.  If I were to do make more of these bags we’d want to use organic cotton or perhaps hemp.  And, we’d want to ensure, as best we could, that the cloth was being made at minimum in the US.  If you opt to buy a new lunch bag, make sure it’s made locally.  Organic products are better, but I wouldn’t suggest breaking the bank for any of those options.  Use what you have in your home first.

Vegetable medley, leftovers split into three containers - two for lunches, one for another meal.

So, your big container is now reusable, the next step is to make sure the rest of the lunch items are in reusable containers.  Remember, if a greenie is telling you something is completely wrong, they probably aren’t familiar with thinking about things on a spectrum.  For example, throwing away a plastic bag would be on the “wrong” end of a spectrum, whereas reusing a plastic bag would be one step away from “wrong”.  So you can think of all materials in that same sense.  The closer an item is to being reused multiple times and biodegradable would make have it fall on the “greener” end of the spectrum.  For Peter’s lunch, we use one stainless steal fork, two reusable plastic containers, one sandwich paper, and today, two plastic bags.  Occasionally, I will include a cloth napkin, depending on the meal as he doesn’t use these at work.  Ideally, we’d reuse the plastic bags, but the realty is we probably won’t.  So, this is a tick against our eco-lunch.  The plastic containers get reused until they break and fall apart, with repairs along the way to extend their use.  Clearly, we do not throw away the stainless steal fork.

Baked lemon-pepper chicken and herb-seasoned rice. Like the veggies above, the leftovers are split in three containers - two lunches and a larger container for another meal.

Finally, when considering an eco-lunch, it’s important to think about what you are actually eating.  If you package instant noodles and individually wrapped items, you’d have a few ticks against you in your eco-lunch.  The things you eat need to be green too (not just in color!).  So, make sure you’re eating as locally as possible and minimize packaging on those items.  Make your own snacks and cookies and package them in reusable containers.  Make fresh yummy dinners, and make extra.  Use those extras (otherwise known as leftovers) in your lunch.  Peter’s lunch contains two leftover dinners, a sandwich, a freezer burrito, and cookies.  He also takes a Nalgene bottle filled with water to work everyday.  Skip the sodas and bottled waters and bring your own beverages.  A Nalgene bottle is not the optimum bottle to use for anything considering it’s made of plastic and the BPA concerns.  However, it still functions and he’s owned his for more than 5 years.  If the Nalgene wears out, we may consider a Sigg or something similar (stainless steal, no BPA concerns, should last longer).  First though, we’d use what we have around the house.  Everything in Peter’s lunch is homemade except the freezer burrito and the peanut butter used for the sandwich.  I made the bread, the jam, and the dinners; and the cookies were a homemade gift from his mother.

Creating an eco-lunch needn’t be difficult or stressful.  Just remember to keep basic sustainability concepts in mind:  the three Rs and the triple bottom line.  Reduce, reuse, and recycle your lunch and containers as much as possible, eat locally created organic foods, and enjoy!

The other point I wanted to discuss was organic food.  I’ve seen several studies lately that are spilling the beans on organics:  they do not have more nutrients than “conventional foods”.  As surprising as this may be to some, I find these studies odd because I don’t recall many greenies making that point.  The point made, often, about organics and being better for you has to do with how they are created.  Sort of garbage in, garbage out.  If something is created embroiled in pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, wouldn’t you then be full of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides if you consumed said item?  Remember we are taught when little that we are what we eat.   Where are the studies being done to link the food we eat to rising rates of cancer?  Where are the studies being done to show that people who live in agricultural areas replete with pesticide use also die of cancer or certain types of cancer at rates higher than the “norm”?  Those are the studies that should be done regarding organic foods.  There are suggestions that the purer the soil the purer your food, but aside from that, what I recall, no one has laid claim to organics having more Vitamin A than the next carrot.  My suggestion?  Ignore the studies that are trying to pull the wool over your eyes regarding organics.  Organics are better for you, better for the people that grow and pick them, and ultimately better for our planet.

Mulch Mulch Mulch

Apparently people like mulch!  This blog has seen a steady increase in hits since I posted the ‘free mulch’ tidbits several weeks ago.  So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to preach to the choir about some mulch benefits:

• Mulch keeps the soil warmer
• Mulch retains more water
• Enough mulch naturally squelches weeds
• Mulch adds more nutrients to soil, especially compacted soil
• By adding more nutrients, mulch helps attract beneficial creepy crawlies – like worms & bugs
• Worms & bugs help aerate the soil, making it less compacted
• Less compacted soil is better for growing things
• When we have things growing in our yards, we attract beneficial insects
• Bees are beneficial insects/pollinators
• We would do well to attract bees
• So mulch, mulch, mulch!

That’s all for now folks!

Levi by the irises in the drive.

Iris close up.

Close up of mulch by the garage.

Hydrangea and blueberry on the south side.

Overview of backyard.

Poplar Suckers

The History

While putting the Tolman Guide together, we learned that poplar trees are great soil remediators. They take up toxins from soil, cleaning the soil. I already knew that sunflowers do the same thing, and in ten years sunflowers when planted on a brownfield will clean the land. What I didn’t know, and was sad to learn this year, was that poplars are not ideal for urban spaces.

In fact, the poplar tree can be so prolific as to act like a weed. Because of the compaction and density of houses, poplar trees don’t grow like they would in open country, and the trees (according to three arborists, 2 certified) are weaker and prone to falling as they get older. My husband and I were quite disappointed to learn this because we had been quite pleased with the very quick shade they brought. Several of the ’suckers’ shot up 6+ feet, some reaching 15 feet, in about 18 months!

It started with the neighbor wanting to cut down his ‘problem’ tree. He hired a tree guy (not a certified arborist) to cut down this tree he thought would impact his foundation in 40 years. This was the summer of 2007. The tree is directly on the property line, and we wanted the shade and did not want to pay this shady tree guy, so we instructed him to leave ‘our’ tree alone. Shortly after half of the tree was felled, we began noticing these weedy things in our yard. The ‘weeds’ followed the root line of the felled tree. This summer, 2008, we consulted our Audubon book and learned our prolific weeds were indeed white poplar. These suckers, as they are called, kept popping up in odd and annoying places, and they were getting more difficult to mow over; so we called in the professionals.

We had three arborists come out. Two are certified with the ISA. The low-ball bid (the first, non-certified) quoted $300 to remove all the trees. There were about a half dozen. The second, $600, and we’d get the wood chips they would make on-site. The third (Green Options) quoted $2000 but offered a home remedy. All agreed we were addressing the problem at an early, preventive stage.

The Remedy

James Kinder of Green Options saw our plight and suggested we do it ourselves. Being in the infancy of the problem, he instructed us as follows:

1. Cut all tall (tree like, not weed like) suckers
2. Within one half hour of cutting, saturate fresh trunk with vegetable oil

The trees take big gulps of oxygen trying to survive after being cut, and by dousing them with oil, you effectively suffocate the tree preventing it from spreading.

Next, you have to take care of the weed-like suckers. Kinder gave us a homemade recipe for weed-killer. He told us that Roundup is actually based on a similar (or the same) base as vinegar, it just has all the unneccessary stuff added.

Homemade Weed Killer Recipe

• 1 gallon white-distilled vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dye-free liquid soap (like dish soap)
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

1. Add all ingredients in a pan
2. Boil
3. Put in spray bottle
4. Spray on plants while hot

Next, cover the severely affected area with newspaper, then add 90% weed-free topsoil. The area should be ready for planting in about 6 months.

The Results

We noticed results with the weed killer within a few hours, most noticeably 24 hours after application. You spray the leaves of the sucker, and within a day the sucker begins to wilt. Some plants come up easily, some do not. We ordered 4 cubic yards of screened, weed-free topsoil. We covered the area, about 15′ long and 3′ wide, with newspaper, a few sheets thick throughout. Then we shoveled the dirt onto the newspapers. Then the rains came. We’ll catch up in 6 months and see how well it worked. Kinder instructed us that the few suckers that will remain should then be easy to pull up by the roots.

It’s important to remember that all ingredients are found in the kitchen. Most people have vinegar and vegetable oil on-hand. I didn’t ask what properties sea salt added over iodized salt, but would conjecture the lack of iodine. Some grass was killed, but we buried the rest in soil anyway. This process is green, but do be mindful of the smell of the hot vinegar concoction; I have not had levels tested for toxicity.

The Urban Homestead

A lot dealing with sustainability answers the question, “How can I do for myself?” A major component of sustainability is keeping things local, and what’s more local than supplying for yourself from your place on this earth? Whether it be an apartment, a small house with a small yard, or a farmhouse, a new book breaks it down in simple ideas for the Average American.

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency (review and blog) examines this question in a simple, easy-to-read format. It’s what we did with the Tolman Guide, it but makes the techy stuff easier to swallow. In The Urban Homestead you will find easy to understand tips for making your own cleaning products, how-to-compost and what to look for, and even a lengthy section on fermentation and storing food.

I will admit, I was a bit envious when I read it. The thought, “We did this first!” kept screaming through my head. But, they did it in a manner that’s easier to understand, and they hit many highlights of living in the city.

A must-read for any person who wants to live closer to the land in the city.

Where can I buy an Earth Machine?

At Metro’s Swan Island Paint Facility, of course! Here, they sell the home-composters for the bargain price of $35, half off retailers price. Get yours today, and get there early as there is usually a line!

Backyard Chickens Part Two

The trek into having chickens has become more informative. For the City of Portland, a permit for chickens is only required if you have 4 or more chickens. It is suggested that you follow the guidelines for having 4 or more chickens even if you have less, just in case you want to have more later. Plan ahead, in other words!

The City of Portland decides the code and Multnomah County enforces the code. The basic requirements are that the coop’s outer reaches (the chicken’s enclosure) is not less than 15 feet from your neighbors home. Although the requirement is quite flexible, it is suggested that you keep the coop on your property and contact all neighbors within 200 feet of the chicken enclosure. Keep the odors under control, and don’t feed the chickens things that will attract rats.

For more information, check out the following links:

• City of Portland Code, Title 13-Animals
• Multnomah County Health Department, Vector Control, Nuisance
• Multnomah County Health Department, Specified Animal Brochure
• Growing Gardens, Chickens
• Portland Ground, examples
• The City Chicken
• Backyard Chicken

What should I compost?

If you don’t want to tend to a compost pile, an easier way may be worms and Vermicomposting. You could start by calling your plant stores/nurseries and see if they have anything.

It was good timing then for the website! Check these sections out especially…

• http://www.tolmanguide.geog.pdx.edu/rainbarrels.htm
• http://www.tolmanguide.geog.pdx.edu/waterconservation.htm
• http://www.tolmanguide.geog.pdx.edu/composting.htm

This is a nifty set of pamphlets the NRCS put together…

• http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/backyard/

University of Wisconsin did these, here’s a link to all sections which are formulated for the Midwest, especially Wisconsin/Michigan along the lakeshore. You should be able to download all the info. They changed it slightly in the 2 years since I initially found it – but all the info should be there.

• http://clean-water.uwex.edu/pubs/home.htm