It's Easy Being Green

Scientists are beginning to prove many of the benefits behind eating organically grown produce. Researchers at the University of California, Davis just wrapped up a study that’s lasted 10 years. The group compared flavonoid levels in tomatoes that were grown conventionally and organically. Conventional farming uses fertilizers and insecticides to help the plant grow and maintain production. Organically grown produce zeros in on soil health through composting and manure applications and not using any chemicals. As it turns out, the organically grown tomatoes had a much higher level of flavonoids.

Flavonoids are known to help protect against heart disease, cancer and other age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. One of the lead scientists on the project says the way our produce is grown has everything to do with how much good stuff it brings to our dinner table. The study’s authors, Alyson Mitchell and Alexander Chassy theorize that plants grown in an organic way devote more of their energy to producing flavonoids which in turn provide more protection from pests. But, Mitchell says there are some exceptions and not all organic tomatoes will contain the same amounts of flavonoids. She says that’s because soils, stresses and growing methods will widely vary between different organic farms.

This research goes a long way to prove that organically grown produce is much better for your health and in the long run. To read more about Mitchell and Chassy’s research, please click on this link.

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In 2007, the Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year was “locavore”.  A locavore is a person who eats exclusively locally grown food.  It may sound like an easy task to undertake eating only what is produced in your local area but you may find the idea a bit more difficult to stomach that you might originally think.

The global marketplace has opened up markets near and far spanning our great globe.  As a result, much of our produce at the supermarket could be making a trip 3,000 miles or more in the making just to get to our dinner tables.  That trip turns into a major waste of natural resources and there are many long-term environmental impacts of transporting produce all that way.  Not to mention that it has been in transport for about two weeks by the time it arrives at the store.  So, it was either picked way before it was actually ripe or it’s been genetically modified to survive the long journey and maintain its “freshness”.

These days it’s fairly easy to spot produce grown in a far away market.  Just look for the static sticker to see where it was grown.  You might feel like you’re taking an around the world cruise just in the produce department by reading grown-in labels from Chile, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand and the list goes on and on.  Many grocery store chains like our local Albertson’s have realized the locavore movement and now specifically point out locally grown produce in their sale fliers.  Health food and natural food stores have been the leader in this arena for sometime, taking careful note of where all their food is coming from and it’s far reaching impacts.

If you truely believe in the locavore movement, you might have to make some major modifications to the meals you eat depending on the season you’re in.  Follow this link and take a look at what produce is available in each season near you.  For instance, here in Arizona we don’t have any produce listed as locally grown right now.  Our last listed harvest was in December and was for pecans.  You certainly can’t just live off pecans until produce becomes available in June again, so you might have to make some adjustments to your comfortable radius that produce comes from.  While many are die hards about this movement and stick to a 100 Mile Diet, I tend to think a little wider when it comes to my produce.

If you’d like to learn more about the produce grown in your region, head over to the Local Harvest website to check out small farms and farmers markets in your area.  Happy eating!

Do you think you could be a locavore?  How committed could you be to eating locally grown foods?

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We are just 18 days away from the first official day of Spring, the Spring Equinox happening on March 20th this year.  In many parts of the country it seems the veil of Winter has been lifted already and we’re beginning to thaw out.  Is it just a teaser or has Spring really sprung?

If you happen to live in a warm part of the country, you might already be planning your first Spring garden party.  If so, how would you like to make a nifty drink dispenser that not only tastes good but can be composted when you’re done?!  Check out Elizabeth’s Drunken Watermelon on Tap for the super idea and instructions on how to put it together.  I guarantee this one will be a crowd pleaser at your next outdoor get-together.   If you don’t want to make the beverage alcoholic you can of course substitute it with another beverage.  Watermelon punch, lemonade or iced tea anyone?

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I had some fun today and put together a quick mini-movie to enter in El Polo Loco’s latest contest promoting their fresh, citrus marinated, flame-grilled chicken. The idea is that it’s a lot of work to get the same flame-grilled, citrus taste yourself and the results might not be so wonderful. I tried to add a little humor into mine. Watch it below! Head on over to watch the other grilled chicken videos.

[youtube pwehwmTobno El Polo Loco]

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Would you like to take a few simple steps to make sure your Super Bowl party is a little friendlier on our environment? Well you can and it’s pretty darn simple just by choosing a few key products that help us all tread a little lighter on our planet. I’m not talking a smörgåsbord of vegan food with a bicycle powered television pumping out the highlights of the game either!

Every Super Bowl party will inevitably have beer. So why not go the sustainable route and pick some beer that’s not only tasty but eco-friendly. New Belgium brewing company, brewers of Fat Tire and a variety of other lip-smacking good beers take pride in helping out our environment. The all employee owned company runs its brewery off of wind power and even takes extra steps like turning the steam generated in the brewing process into even more electricity. I’ve also heard they compost their leftover grains and hops. Frog’s Leap Wine is a great choice if you’d like to sport a little vino in your red plastic cup. The winery uses organic grapes and water-saving farming methods. They’re also 100% solar powered.

But what about chips you say? Pick up some bags of Kettle brand chips. The Salem, Oregon snack food company has restored damaged wetlands at their corporate headquarters where blue herons have now returned en masse. They also operate one of the largest commercial solar power arrays in the Pacific Northwest, saving 65 tons of CO2 every year and they buy wind power for the rest of their electrical needs. Agricultural waste left over in the potato chip process is turned into animal feed or compost and their used cooking oil is turned into bio-diesel, powering a fleet of company cars. That’s pretty cool!

Maybe you need some plain yogurt to make dips. Stonyfield Farms, a New Hampshire based company, supports many organic farms. They have a tree planting program to offset their CO2 emissions and they give 10% of their profit away to environmental causes every year. That amounts to about $3 Million dollars in donations every year.

Want dessert? Try some pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Though they’ve been bought out by Unilever, the company is still doing good. They donate about $1 Million annually and donate to local community projects. The company started an alliance for dairy farmers. It’s a way to keep them in business while improving their environmental practices.

If you need some pre or post game enery, try a Clif Bar. The company’s products are certified organic and are packaged in recycled goods. They moved a bakery near a distribution center to reduce greenhouse gasses, their employees get paid for volunteering in the community and they can get money toward the purchase of a hybrid or bio-diesel vehicle.

Last but not least, when it comes time to cleanup, you can use environmentally friendly cleaners made by Seventh Generation. I’ve talked about the company before. You can read their benefits on the environment and look into other green cleaners by checking out this blog post. Simple steps and easy products to make your gathering greener.

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Our night turned interesting rather quickly!  I ran home from work to have dinner with Talina like I do most weeknights.  We had just sat down to a meal of chicken and asparagus when she started smelling something weird, like a burning smell.  Like most guys, the smell didn’t hit me for a few more minutes after my better half already noticed it.  Concerned about the smell, I ventured into the kitchen to see what was going on, expecting that maybe a small bit of food was burning in the oven or the burner on the stove was left on.  I found neither.  In fact the stove and oven had been turned off for more than an hour but yet there was a thin, blue smoke pouring out of the vents on back of the unit.

The fumes were burning my eyes and lungs but I figured simply unplugging the cord that provides electricity to the igniters on the gas stove would solve the problem and get rid of the smoke.   A few minutes later, smoke was still wafting from the back of the stove and filling up the house.  At this point I decided it was out of my hands and called 911.  They told us to evacuate the house until the fire department arrived.  Luckily we didn’t have to stand in the snow and cold for very long because the firehouse is right around the corner from our house!

The firemen were perplexed but decided to shut off the gas and haul the still billowing stove out into the snow in our backyard.  They used their nifty infrared heat device to figure out what was burning inside and began methodically taking the stove apart to work their way into the internal components.  Inside, the firemen found that one of the igniter wires for the burner had arched with another piece of metal or wire and started the insulation burning.  A few handfuls of snow and a couple cups of water later, they deemed the fire officially out.  Whew!  We dodged the big bullet on that one.  There was no damage to the house but it wreaks of electrical fire now and we’re without a stove.  Now we’ll have to get in touch with the property management company to get us a new one.  What fun!

Talina posted some pictures of the mayhem on her blog.  Check it out!