More months have slipped under the door and the warm, beautiful, sunny weather--the abnormally warm, beautiful and sunny weather--is gone. For good this year, I think. As the local farmers' market wound down, it was kind of sad each week to see the diminishing selection of fruits and vegetables. And it focuses the mind on the idea that eating locally can be difficult. We have all become so accustomed to eating any fruit or vegetable at any time of the year, but that's not possible without paying a huge price in energy. We plan to continue attending the once-a-month market in New Haven, but I don't have much in the way of expectations for anything being grown outside a greenhouse. Not in Connecticut in winter, unless it's chunks of ice. That's a successful winter crop in these parts!
Meanwhile, we waited and waited and finally got our community garden plot. It's a little late in the season to get up much enthusiasm to work in that damp, cold soil. The pair of adjacent plots we selected had a great location, right near the water supply, but it hadn't been gardened in quite some time and not only did it have more than its fair share of poison ivy, but it had a couple of decent sized trees as well. Our wait was for the town to send someone in with a front end loader to get rid of the trees and turn over the soil a bit. Now, we have a lot of hand work ahead of us--the kind with hoes and rakes and spades. No one can seem to work up the whatever it takes to get started, so it looks like it will be a spring project. But that means lots of fun with the seed catalogs this winter. I hope to able to report next summer that our little gang of five is producing all the vegetables we can eat, and some pretty flowers for cutting, too.
Next week, the appliance tale--I promise!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Buy It, Pick It, Grow It Yourself: 21
This has been an interesting couple of weeks, green-living wise. We did very well last week with our local veggies. This morning we went back to the farmer's market and came home with even more yummy vegetables. We even got some eggs from a local farmer. When I asked him about his hens, he said, "They're my mother's chickens. They run around inside a big fenced area. They used to have the run of the whole place, but they came up onto our porch all the time and made a mess. Wife didn't like that." The eggs were delicious for dinner tonight, along with a big salad of mixed greens, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes and carrots--all local--and some really nice local bi-color corn.
Some freinds came to the market with us this morning. They've asked us if we're interested in joining with them and getting a community garden plot or two to grow some vegetables, and maybe some flowers for cutting, for our families. It sounds like fun, and we went to take a look at the plots. One double-sized plot (about 20 by 60) was devoted entirely to sunflowers and pumpkins. They had several pumpkins the size of coffee tables, and sunflower heads like small umbrellas. The interesting thing was that the entire area of the plot was covered with the vines to make these five enormous pumpkins. All that sunshine, dirt, fertilizer, water and photosynthesis by all those leaves working to make five pumpkins! We really got enthusiastic about putting the sunshine and cow manure to work for us making veggies, and I think there's a good chance we'll be getting a plot this week and starting to make it ready for spring planting.
We were on a roll, and it was such a beautiful day--about 60 degrees and bright sunshine--so we went to a local pick-your-own place in the afternoon. We came home with apples, peaches, pears and nectarines that are juicy and tasty. In fact, there's a homemade peach pie cooling on the counter right now. All this has gotten me thinking. FarmFront will be a green development, and that's really important. And a CSA farm will probably be a big part of the project. But maybe we can find a way to incorporate the notion of trying to eat local into the whole plan. I think one of the things that scares people is the worry that you can't eat whatever you want year round. And so they can't eat a balanced diet. But you can! And helping people know how to do that by eating what's in season on the farm at different times of the year could be a really interesting way to go. John even had the thought that the community might be able to share information and experiences after the farm gets going.
More later this week about the appliances that died and their (relatively) environmentally friendly replacements.
Some freinds came to the market with us this morning. They've asked us if we're interested in joining with them and getting a community garden plot or two to grow some vegetables, and maybe some flowers for cutting, for our families. It sounds like fun, and we went to take a look at the plots. One double-sized plot (about 20 by 60) was devoted entirely to sunflowers and pumpkins. They had several pumpkins the size of coffee tables, and sunflower heads like small umbrellas. The interesting thing was that the entire area of the plot was covered with the vines to make these five enormous pumpkins. All that sunshine, dirt, fertilizer, water and photosynthesis by all those leaves working to make five pumpkins! We really got enthusiastic about putting the sunshine and cow manure to work for us making veggies, and I think there's a good chance we'll be getting a plot this week and starting to make it ready for spring planting.
We were on a roll, and it was such a beautiful day--about 60 degrees and bright sunshine--so we went to a local pick-your-own place in the afternoon. We came home with apples, peaches, pears and nectarines that are juicy and tasty. In fact, there's a homemade peach pie cooling on the counter right now. All this has gotten me thinking. FarmFront will be a green development, and that's really important. And a CSA farm will probably be a big part of the project. But maybe we can find a way to incorporate the notion of trying to eat local into the whole plan. I think one of the things that scares people is the worry that you can't eat whatever you want year round. And so they can't eat a balanced diet. But you can! And helping people know how to do that by eating what's in season on the farm at different times of the year could be a really interesting way to go. John even had the thought that the community might be able to share information and experiences after the farm gets going.
More later this week about the appliances that died and their (relatively) environmentally friendly replacements.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Eating Local: A Trip to the Farmers' Market:20
We went to a local farmers' market today. Notice I didn't say "our" local farmers' market, because there are several--open on different days of the week--right around here. The one we chose today was in my old New Haven neighborhood. We lived in the Westville section of New Haven for 9 years beginning in 1987. We were on a beautiful old street--just one block long--that looked like something straight out of the fifties, even though the houses were all built around 1910. In fact it looked so much like the fifties that this past July, the film crew for the newest Indian Jones movie picked that street--right near our old house--for filming what I think is meant to be Mr Jones' house. (But I digress.)
The market was set up at the far western edge of Edgewood Park, a rambling, handsome old park that gives the neighborhood a lot of its character. So here we were, driving from our house 10 minutes away in the 'burbs to a farmers' market on our old urban turf. The market was small, six or seven produce stands and a man with a small table of books about Judaism, which seemed oddly out of place. But the rest of the stands were packed with all the fruits and vegetables of the season. Tomatoes, of course, many varieties and colors. Peppers, collards, green beans, eggplants--some no bigger than a big guy's thumb--herbs, corn, broccoli, mesclun, potatoes, blackberries, blueberries (yep, end of season), lemonade, breads, pies, spices. There was even a meat table that we, veggies that we are, avoided. It was fabulous! We came home with enough vegetables for the week. The prettiest was our collection of heirloom tomato varieties:
That's a bunch of cilantro right next to it. Oh, and a clock taken apart to have it's battery changed in the background. If you look closely, you can see that the tomato basket has several small red peppers of an unusual variety mixed in. 
That's a pepper right up there at 10 o'clock. It is supposed to be very thick-fleshed and sweet. Yum!
I'm reading a really engrossing book right now. It's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. You may recognize her name as the author of The Bean Trees or The Poisonwood Bible. This book is non-fiction and chronicles her family's attempt to live for one year on local food. I'm five or six chapters in, and enjoying it very much. She uses her usual way with words to deliver a short-course education on Americans and their relationship--of lack of it--to their food sources. And to the plight of the small family farm. Thanks, Mary Ellen, for lending this one to me! I'll report back here when I've finished it.
As I give more and more thought to where my family's food comes from, I find myself standing in the store just horrified. Guatemala, Ecuador, California, Mexico. This is how we manage our all-fruits-and-vegetables-all-the-time lifestyle. Growing up, we pretty much ate what was in season. And that was in NY! I see that it's important to get back to that way of thinking and living. As Ms Kingsolver says, there is a cost associated with watermelon in winter, the cost in fossil fuel of shipping a fruit "the size of a toddler" to your doorstep. I think she says the average ratio of calories consumed in shipping to calories of edible food in the US is 87 to 1. So tonight, it will be local tomatoes, corn and collards for dinner.
Just as an update, Natalie has been off to college now for two and a half weeks and having a great time. I'm proud to report that she is the Student Government House Environmental Representative for her dorm. One of her courses is Environmental Challenges and Politics in the Developing World. She's having to keep a one-month journal of every single thing she uses, eats or otherwise consumes or throws away as part of the course. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about that when she's done. Maybe she can guest-blog!
The market was set up at the far western edge of Edgewood Park, a rambling, handsome old park that gives the neighborhood a lot of its character. So here we were, driving from our house 10 minutes away in the 'burbs to a farmers' market on our old urban turf. The market was small, six or seven produce stands and a man with a small table of books about Judaism, which seemed oddly out of place. But the rest of the stands were packed with all the fruits and vegetables of the season. Tomatoes, of course, many varieties and colors. Peppers, collards, green beans, eggplants--some no bigger than a big guy's thumb--herbs, corn, broccoli, mesclun, potatoes, blackberries, blueberries (yep, end of season), lemonade, breads, pies, spices. There was even a meat table that we, veggies that we are, avoided. It was fabulous! We came home with enough vegetables for the week. The prettiest was our collection of heirloom tomato varieties:
That's a bunch of cilantro right next to it. Oh, and a clock taken apart to have it's battery changed in the background. If you look closely, you can see that the tomato basket has several small red peppers of an unusual variety mixed in. 
That's a pepper right up there at 10 o'clock. It is supposed to be very thick-fleshed and sweet. Yum!I'm reading a really engrossing book right now. It's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. You may recognize her name as the author of The Bean Trees or The Poisonwood Bible. This book is non-fiction and chronicles her family's attempt to live for one year on local food. I'm five or six chapters in, and enjoying it very much. She uses her usual way with words to deliver a short-course education on Americans and their relationship--of lack of it--to their food sources. And to the plight of the small family farm. Thanks, Mary Ellen, for lending this one to me! I'll report back here when I've finished it.
As I give more and more thought to where my family's food comes from, I find myself standing in the store just horrified. Guatemala, Ecuador, California, Mexico. This is how we manage our all-fruits-and-vegetables-all-the-time lifestyle. Growing up, we pretty much ate what was in season. And that was in NY! I see that it's important to get back to that way of thinking and living. As Ms Kingsolver says, there is a cost associated with watermelon in winter, the cost in fossil fuel of shipping a fruit "the size of a toddler" to your doorstep. I think she says the average ratio of calories consumed in shipping to calories of edible food in the US is 87 to 1. So tonight, it will be local tomatoes, corn and collards for dinner.
Just as an update, Natalie has been off to college now for two and a half weeks and having a great time. I'm proud to report that she is the Student Government House Environmental Representative for her dorm. One of her courses is Environmental Challenges and Politics in the Developing World. She's having to keep a one-month journal of every single thing she uses, eats or otherwise consumes or throws away as part of the course. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about that when she's done. Maybe she can guest-blog!
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Progress Report: 19
Since I last posted, we've been down to the farm for a visit and have met with Lee-Anne Milburn, the NC State professor who taught the Landscape Architecture course this past spring that focused on FarmFront. I hadn't met her before, although John had, and the three of us had a very nice meeting one dark and stormy night in Raleigh. Okay--it wasn't all that dark, but it was stormy.
I enjoyed meeting Lee-Anne and want to thank her for all the information she gave us. That included a final report on the FarmFront project from the class. If you want to read it, it's a PDF file available at the Farmfront site. Here's a teaser of a sample of the kind of thing you'll find there.
There's a lot to read and look at there, and I hope to be able to present parts of it on the blog in the coming months, perhaps with some additional material.
We're at the point now where we have a better idea of the kind of information we need next. Knowing all we do now, we are close to ready to approach builders and get some numbers. We need to know what the development would be worth if it were done in a traditional manner versus a sustainable manner. With so many people involved in this project, there is an unfortunate but real bottom line here--it must yield as much or at least close to as much from the sustainable path as from the traditional route.
I enjoyed meeting Lee-Anne and want to thank her for all the information she gave us. That included a final report on the FarmFront project from the class. If you want to read it, it's a PDF file available at the Farmfront site. Here's a teaser of a sample of the kind of thing you'll find there.
There's a lot to read and look at there, and I hope to be able to present parts of it on the blog in the coming months, perhaps with some additional material.
We're at the point now where we have a better idea of the kind of information we need next. Knowing all we do now, we are close to ready to approach builders and get some numbers. We need to know what the development would be worth if it were done in a traditional manner versus a sustainable manner. With so many people involved in this project, there is an unfortunate but real bottom line here--it must yield as much or at least close to as much from the sustainable path as from the traditional route.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
A Green College Whose Colors Are Blue and White: 18
A month? There's no possible way it's been that long since I posted last. I must have hit one of those wrinkles in time. I want to thank my regular readers--both of you--for your patience. ;)
Since I'm here and I'm yappin', let me tell you a little about what has been and will be going on in my life. In the past month, my daughter Natalie, a senior in high school, got all her college application replies and made her decision about where she will go. This fall, she will be enrolling as a freshman at Connecticut College, an excellent and relatively small private college on the coast in New London, Connecticut. She is tentatively interested in environmental science and Conn College is strong in that field. My son Colin, a senior at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, completed his senior thesis in April. He's a double major in film and psychology, and his thesis was a film, mixed live action and animation. His film was selected as the best senior film and he will be graduating with honors on May 27. We have a lot of doors opening and closing around the Theys house in the coming months. Lots of changes and excitement and a lot of tears, too, I'm sure.
Have you ever thought about the monumental task involved in dealing with a campus? Not just on the level of classes, and schedules and housing and food, but in dealing with the enormous energy and materials requirements. Connecticut College operates as what they call an Environmental Model. In 1931, they established a 60-acre arboretum adjacent to the campus. They expanded the arboretum concept to eventually include the campus's entire 750 acres.
They were one of the first colleges to offer a "Human Ecology" major going back to the 60s and they established a campus-wide recycling program around 1970. You can read more about what they've been doing--which is a great deal--here.
At the lunch for admitted students, we sat with the Campus Environmental Coordinator. She talked about the challenges involved in getting people from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests to "buy into" programs that make life a little greener. It seems to me that college is a great time to do this. Students' minds are probably as open as they'll ever be. I'll be watching this closely, because if we can't count on getting students on board, I'm not sure what that says for the future. But in the meantime, we're very pleased that there's such a green college in the family.
Since I'm here and I'm yappin', let me tell you a little about what has been and will be going on in my life. In the past month, my daughter Natalie, a senior in high school, got all her college application replies and made her decision about where she will go. This fall, she will be enrolling as a freshman at Connecticut College, an excellent and relatively small private college on the coast in New London, Connecticut. She is tentatively interested in environmental science and Conn College is strong in that field. My son Colin, a senior at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, completed his senior thesis in April. He's a double major in film and psychology, and his thesis was a film, mixed live action and animation. His film was selected as the best senior film and he will be graduating with honors on May 27. We have a lot of doors opening and closing around the Theys house in the coming months. Lots of changes and excitement and a lot of tears, too, I'm sure.
Have you ever thought about the monumental task involved in dealing with a campus? Not just on the level of classes, and schedules and housing and food, but in dealing with the enormous energy and materials requirements. Connecticut College operates as what they call an Environmental Model. In 1931, they established a 60-acre arboretum adjacent to the campus. They expanded the arboretum concept to eventually include the campus's entire 750 acres.
They were one of the first colleges to offer a "Human Ecology" major going back to the 60s and they established a campus-wide recycling program around 1970. You can read more about what they've been doing--which is a great deal--here.
At the lunch for admitted students, we sat with the Campus Environmental Coordinator. She talked about the challenges involved in getting people from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests to "buy into" programs that make life a little greener. It seems to me that college is a great time to do this. Students' minds are probably as open as they'll ever be. I'll be watching this closely, because if we can't count on getting students on board, I'm not sure what that says for the future. But in the meantime, we're very pleased that there's such a green college in the family.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Student Proposals--The Presentations: 17
On March 28, John was in
Almost all the students proposed some form of cluster housing, except for one. That’s probably to keep the amount of paving down, since driveways and roads can be shorter with cluster-site housing. The one proposal that didn’t include any houses proposed converting the entire property into a horse farm for use by NC State’s
Another proposal was to convert the farm to a pecan farm. The farmhouse would become a restaurant that specialized in pecan-themed cuisine. The clustered houses in this proposal was grouped into small “villages.” Another proposal used five acres of the farm for solar collectors, so that the developed housing would not only be off-grid, but would be a net-energy supplier.
One student envisioned all the houses in the developed area grouped and facing one another in small groups or rings. Not concentric rings--just a series of rings. The driveways would come into the backs of the houses and all the house fronts would be facing into communal property in the center of the circle. Another proposal was based on a kind of traditional urban Chinese architecture called Siheyuan. Four houses face one another on the perimeter of a rectangle with a wall filling in the spaces between houses to complete the rectangle. 
And one other plan called for 50 houses ranging from 1600 to 2400 square feet. The farm would become a site for community supported agriculture with crops grown for the development and the greater community. The horse coop would remain and there would be an ecocamp with both after-school and summer programs that would be run out of the farmhouse.
Most of the students incorporated passive solar and other standard green-housing features into the proposed homes. One even envisioned cycling homes, in which members of the development community would be able to live in different sized homes in the community as their needs changed.
I was sorry that I had to miss it. John really enjoyed the whole experience and was quite impressed with the variety of ideas and ways people viewed the farm and the property. I hope to have more details here after we receive the plans at the end of the course.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Encountering Concrete Examples: 16
Right now, John is in North Carolina for two reasons. First, he's there for his mother's 88th birthday party. Some of the family got together today and celebrated. Happy Birthday, Mom! I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'll bet the farm is beautiful right now. We still have snow on the ground in Connecticut, even though this was a freakishly snow-free winter.
The other reason for the visit is that this Thursday, the NC State class will be presenting their first stage proposals and we've been invited to attend. These will be proposals for conventional development. The rest of the term will be about preparing proposals for green development. It's quite exciting, getting to this stage. I hope to be able to report back next weekend on what John learns.
For today, though, I wanted to talk more about --yes!--countertops. Mark asked last week about concrete countertops. I know these are becoming quite trendy and I wanted to take a look and see: are they environmentally friendly? From what I've read, I think the answer is yes and no.
Apparently, the culprit in concrete is Portland Cement. Portland Cement, named after the Isle of Portland in southern England, is the binding agent in concrete. It isn't that the Portland Cement is environmentally unfriendly when it's in place in the countertop. It's the process of making the Portland Cement that's the problem. It uses a lot of resources and produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. But, it seems you can work part way around that by making concrete with half Portland Cement and half Fly Ash, a by-product of coal combustion. The claims are that it even makes the concrete more resistant to wear and staining. Here's a link to an article about slag cement.
This is one more case that points out how difficult it can be to decide what's truly green and what isn't. You have to look at the whole picture, from start to finish, and take into account all the energy and material costs that go into making a product--and its components. You also need to give some thought to what happens when an item becomes broken. Can it be fixed in an environmentally inexpensive way? Or does the first crack, tear or other breakdown mean nasty repairs, or worse, replacement. It's tempting when a product is cheap to simply toss it and get a new one when you're tired of it. That doesn't tend to be the case with something like countertops, but still, it's worth thinking about.
The other reason for the visit is that this Thursday, the NC State class will be presenting their first stage proposals and we've been invited to attend. These will be proposals for conventional development. The rest of the term will be about preparing proposals for green development. It's quite exciting, getting to this stage. I hope to be able to report back next weekend on what John learns.
For today, though, I wanted to talk more about --yes!--countertops. Mark asked last week about concrete countertops. I know these are becoming quite trendy and I wanted to take a look and see: are they environmentally friendly? From what I've read, I think the answer is yes and no.
Apparently, the culprit in concrete is Portland Cement. Portland Cement, named after the Isle of Portland in southern England, is the binding agent in concrete. It isn't that the Portland Cement is environmentally unfriendly when it's in place in the countertop. It's the process of making the Portland Cement that's the problem. It uses a lot of resources and produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. But, it seems you can work part way around that by making concrete with half Portland Cement and half Fly Ash, a by-product of coal combustion. The claims are that it even makes the concrete more resistant to wear and staining. Here's a link to an article about slag cement.
This is one more case that points out how difficult it can be to decide what's truly green and what isn't. You have to look at the whole picture, from start to finish, and take into account all the energy and material costs that go into making a product--and its components. You also need to give some thought to what happens when an item becomes broken. Can it be fixed in an environmentally inexpensive way? Or does the first crack, tear or other breakdown mean nasty repairs, or worse, replacement. It's tempting when a product is cheap to simply toss it and get a new one when you're tired of it. That doesn't tend to be the case with something like countertops, but still, it's worth thinking about.
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