My husband and I agree on many important issues, but he is deeply, darkly suspicious of my BioBags.

We agree that composting is a win-win: good for our garden soil and its produce, good for the local landfill. And, if you play the Practically Green game, you get 50 points for composting. What’s not to like?

After all, the EPA estimates that food residuals account for 11.9 percent of the Municipal Solid Waste stream (or 29.2 million tons) and are the single largest component of MSW generated by weight. Staggering! Schools, conferences, prisons, and supermarkets are among the highest offenders. We don’t want to contribute our leavings to that disgraceful tally. But when Jack objected to my use of BioBags, an ingenious invention that keeps my sleek kitchen compost crock from becoming an oozing stinking slop pail on our kitchen counter, I had to investigate.

I called the customer service at Gardener’s Supply, where I purchased the Bio Bags. In seconds I was on the phone with Janet. I explained the situation as best I could:

My job is to collect the kitchen scraps; Jack’s job is to take them outside to the compost bin. I like to use bio bags, because they cut down on smell and mess. He thinks an unlined container is better. He says his mom never used a bag; he says the bags don’t break down; blah blah; he says the ones he threw into the compost bin five months ago are still sitting there. Shouldn’t they have decomposed by now, he asks me. And, even if they did decompose, Janet, he suspects these bags might be made of plastic that’s harmful to our soil and thus to our future vegetable garden and us. Is it? Could he be right? He thinks we should stop using the bags and go back to the old way: throw scraps into the compost crock and empty it when it’s full, smelly, and/or breeding fruit-flies.

“I really don’t want to go back to the old way, Janet. Can you please settle this?”

“I really don’t want to get in the middle of it,” she replied calmly, but I’ll try to help.”

I could hear gentle tapping on her keyboard at the other end of the phone: “Yes, as I thought: the bags are made of 100% biodegradable cornstarch. They’re totally fine for your garden. But the bags are apparently not breaking down fast enough. You may need to consider the heat in your compost. The more heat and moisture you have in the compost bin, the sooner the bag will break away,” she said.

“Heat?”

“What’s your mix of browns and greens?”  she asked me.

“Huh?”

Janet directed me to “All About Composting,” a superb rundown of how compost happens, including a primer on browns and greens.

From How Compost Happens:

Organic matter is transformed into compost through the work of microorganisms, soil fauna, enzymes and fungi. When making compost, your job is to provide the best possible environment for these beneficial organisms to do their work. If you do so, the decomposition process works very rapidly—sometimes in as little as two weeks! If you don’t provide the optimum environment, decomposition will still happen, but it may take from several months to several years. The trick to making an abundance of compost in a short time is to balance the following four things:

Carbon. Carbon-rich materials are the energy food for microorganisms. You can identify high-carbon plant materials because they are dry, tough, or fibrous, and tan or brown in color. Examples are dry leaves, straw, rotted hay, sawdust, shredded paper, and cornstalks.

Nitrogen. High-nitrogen materials provide the protein-rich components that microorganisms require to grow and multiply. Freshly pulled weeds, fresh grass clippings, over-ripe fruits and vegetables, kitchen scraps and other moist green matter are the sorts of nitrogen-rich materials you’ll probably have on hand. Other high-protein organic matter includes kelp meal, seaweed, manure and animal by-products like blood or bone meal.

Water. Moisture is very important for the composting process. But too much moisture will drown the microorganisms, and too little will dehydrate them. A general rule of thumb is to keep the material in your compost pile as moist as a well-wrung sponge. If you need to add water (unchlorinated is best), insert your garden hose into the middle of the pile in several places, or sprinkle the pile with water next time you turn it. Using an enclosed container or covering your pile with a tarp will make it easier to maintain the right moisture level.

Oxygen. To do their work most efficiently, microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. When your pile is first assembled, there will probably be plenty of air between the layers of materials. But as the microorganisms begin to work, they will start consuming oxygen. Unless you turn or in some way aerate your compost pile, they will run out of oxygen and become sluggish.

Bottom line: Jack and I will be tending our compost better now. Best of all, the bio bags are safe for the time-being.

The best source of information about compost? Easy: any active gardener will have strong opinions on the subject. You can get major points for composting at Practically Green. And, you might want to curl up with one of these books. Especially, this little brief from one of our favorite gardeners, Eliot Coleman.

News Picks:

Water Footprint: Find out how much water some of your favorite products use! Did you know that the “Global Water Footprint” for a single apple is about 18 and a half gallons of water? Reduce *your* Water Footprint with these actions.

Fall is coming, is your garden ready? If you’re a gardening newbie and just planted a garden this summer, here are a couple tips to increase your garden’s longevity. The legendary gardening gurus at Rodale have tips on fall garden cleanup that will have you looking like a pro come spring.

The Happy Planet Index: Nic Marks discuses why we should measure success in terms of happiness in this 16-minute TED Talks video, tracking well-being against the amount of resources we use. Though the U.S. does quite well in terms of well-being, it is one of the countries that also uses the most resources. What country should we emulate? You may be surprised!

Multi-Media Pick:

Cafeteria Man: Chef Tony Geraci is on a mission to make-over Baltimore public schools’ cafeteria food. In this 2.5-minute trailer for the movie “Cafeteria Man,” students complain of “mystery meat” and tons of pizza, pizza, pizza. Geraci plans to swap unhealthy mystery food for local produce.

Get PG points for your healthy food actions!

New and Cool Pick:

DIY mini BBQ for Labor Day Weekend: Recycle a container of Altoids Sours into a mini BBQ. All you need besides the tin are some salvaged computer fan guards and a few nuts and bolts. The kids will marvel at making the little cooker, capable of cooking a full sized hot dog or small hamburger patty. The kids will love to use it for some yummy s’mores too! Don’t forget the organic chocolate.

Are you eyeball-deep in back-to-school stuff right now?

Welcome to our world.

Here at Practically Green headquarters, we’re working on a set of back-to-school actions that will make this transition easier and healthier: overall better and fun!

In case you haven’t had a chance to check out Practically Green yet, back-to-school is the perfect entree occasion. Would you like to Carpool to school one day a week? Green your kids’ after-school snack? Use eco-friendly school supplies?

You’ll see right away that each of these positive actions comes with info on why it’s green, and how to do it, when you Switch to a reusable lunchbox, Cover textbooks with a paper bag, or Join an eco-action team at your school. Whatever you decide to do, you can recommend your favorite products, share your stories, and rate your experience.

But that’s not all, because Practically Green is also a game.

Playing is a breeze: When you say Yes, you get points!

To get started, take the Quiz. (It’s one of those tests where you can’t possibly fail and can only benefit.) Get your score. Check off the green actions you’ve already taken, and consider new ones. Earn points. Earn more points! Move up!

If you don’t want to play, that’s fine. You can still enjoy Practically Green. Our goal is to help you take eco-friendly actions in your daily life. Big things, like making your home as energy-efficient as it can be, or creating a healthy and waste-free kitchen (We’ve got 21 ideas on how to accomplish that one, like Switching to Teflon-free cookware, Using recycled paper towels, and Upgrading to an ENERGY-Star dishwasher.)

So, whether you’re ready to investigate trying all-natural toothpaste or obsessed with insulating your roof, Practically Green can help you do it and enjoy the process!

News Picks:

Everyone knows what NIMBY means: “Not in My Back Yard” (raised-eyebrow alert). So what’s IOBY? “IN our backyards”! IOBY is a website that connects environmental projects in NYC with people who want to donate to them and volunteer. ioby believes that “environmental knowledge, innovation, action, and service begin and thrive in our backyards.” Here’s a post on Seventh Generation’s blog that tells more. What a terrific idea for a Back to School project!

SF’s list of green vendors now available to you: For the past five years, the city of San Francisco has instituted strict standards regarding the products their municipal departments buy: they have to be truly eco-friendly. What sets SF’s list apart is that they require manufacturers to fork over information that commercial guides aren’t likely to get. See which products made the cut!

Food for thought: put salad bars in schools! Whole Foods is teaming up with chef Ann Cooper to help schools switch from processed foods to fresh, natural ingredients. Their goal is 300 salad bars in schools by January. Click here to donate to Project Salad Bar, or simply visit your local Whole Foods. Get credit for your fresh food efforts at Practically Green.

Multi-Media Pick:

“The Majestic Plastic Bag” California is preparing to vote on the nation’s first state-wide plastic bag ban, and Santa Monica-based nonprofit Heal the Bay, filmed this nature documentary-style “mockumentary” to boost support for the ban. The state senate is expected to vote by the end of August (aka SOON!). While the votes are tallied, enjoy this gut-busting four-minute video.

Get PG points for switching to reusable bags at the grocery store.

New and Cool Pick:

You thought only your faucet had leaks: When you turn your electronics off, they’re not really “off,” they maintain a “trickle” of electricity, otherwise known as an electrical leak. This great article not only tells you how to track your product’s energy consumption, but also reviews lots of products to help you manage this. For example, Belkin’s Conserve AV power strip automatically turns off your DVD player, in home theatre and game systems when you turn your TV off. The Belkin Conserve Insight measures the amount of energy plug-in appliances draw. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Martha Rose Shulman’s weekday Food column at NYTimes.com is my equivalent of having a personal chef in my kitchen: here’s someone who realizes how busy I am and how determined I am to serve healthy delicious meals regardless. Someone friendly and inventive, impeccably thoughtful, worldly, always aiming to please and never ever full of herself. Oh, and this personal chef won’t fatten me up: she includes detailed nutritional information at the end of every recipe.

You can prowl the archive for hours or make snappy choices. Recipes are organized by ingredient (from A: Apricots to Y: Yogurt) or theme (B: Breakfast Grains to W: Winter Greens) This week’s theme was tomatoes. Next week: picnics. The following: stir-fry (she just bought a new wok). From the intro to “Recipes for Health”:

The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat.

Martha is a prolific author, including co-author gigs with Wolfgang Puck and Dr. Dean Ornish; she’s given classes all over; she’s great on TV; and she co-founded the professional foodie site Zester Daily. Her newest cookbook, The Very Best Of Recipes for Health, comes out this week. In short, she’s a rock star.

It fits that she has a busy cooking school – in LA. I’m scheming to attend…. It was a treat to have a conversation with her recently — about her column, her life, and Practically Green.

The Times column began exactly two years ago. I want the column to demystify healthy eating and empower people to cook, prepare their own food from fresh ingredients, as opposed to eating out or bringing in. The country has gone astray because we aren’t in control of what we eat! If you have an egg and a vegetable, you can make a meal. The recipes are very simple.

Which recipes have been most popular?

One is the Spicy Quinoa Salad. People seem to really love quinoa. It’s fantastic! The week that Obama was elected, that recipe was #3 on the most emailed list of all of The New York Times! Another recipe people really love is anything with beets. It’s always fascinating to me, but any recipe with beets is popular. [Note: I found 14 recipes for beets.] Sometimes recipes get REdiscovered, and I don’t really know how! One of those is one of the first recipes I did, for oriechetti, tomatoes, arugula and parmesan. It’s just a really great summer recipe.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

I took the Practically Green test and I got a 6 out of 10, and part of that’s because I have a landlord. I don’t know what kind of a dishwasher I have, but I do know that the fridge is Energy Star, because I bought it myself. I composted until my landlord freaked out; he thought it was attracting rats. [Sigh/humph.] I have a garden, and everything about it is organic. And I still compost because we have green baskets in LA – LA’s bureau of sanitation has a great recycling program. If you enter “green bin” in the search box on that link, you’ll get a pdf with the 3 different bins and what you can put in them, including a green one for compost. We put kitchen scraps into the bin that’s there with all the rest on the curb and it’s picked up!

I have a twelve year old. His generation is much more aware. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to eat crap if he gets a chance – he’s a healthy twelve year old. If he’s taking a long shower and I say, “Liam, you’re taking a long shower, it’s time to get out!” nothing happens. But if I go in there and say, “You’re really wasting shower water, Liam,” He’ll get out. They are getting the message.

Aren’t you a little bit hungry now? Motivated? Visit Practically Green for dozens of ways you can make healthy, eco-friendly decisions in your kitchen and at meal-time! Maybe you’d like to start with these three:

• Shop at a Farmer’s Market Each Week in Season (10 points)
• Buy Cereal Without Artificial Colors or Flavors This Week (5 points)
• Eat Meat Only on Weekends (Whoa! 100 points!)

Martha’s website: www.martha-rose-shulman.com Join her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @MarthaRShulman

“I’m a working mom taking a stand against yucky stuff in my food, cosmetics, etc. and gradually turning my family towards more eco-friendly, natural choices. I’m learning, so this is about our journey towards going green. There may be a few stumbles so hopefully you can laugh with me not at me!”

With that, Shannon Hoffman Hinderberger burst into the blogosphere on Working Mom Goes Green. She wrote about Practically Green earlier this month, and subsequently posted on adding “10 points to my Practically Green profile by drinking locally brewed beer.” Of course, we wanted to know her story!

Shannon grew up in Nebraska, where her “mom fed us as best she could….   on corn-fed beef, Kool-aid and Velveeta cheese.” She describes her green journey as a series of steps over several years:

Let’s just say I discovered veggies when I arrived in Bend, Oregon, seven years ago. I started getting Martha’s Stewart’s little magazine Everyday Food. There’s a website [and an iphone app], too. I use that as my bible.

Oregon is green, recycling is a big deal, and they rolled out these comingle bins at the same time we bought a house, four years ago. That was the next step. Then I got pregnant. I started to watch what I was eating. I was trying to eat more organic food. Then my son came. [Huge sigh] I had big aspirations. I wanted to breastfeed, use cloth diapers, make my own baby food. I went back to work and everything fell by the wayside. The day-care woman wouldn’t do cloth diapers. There was only one person in town who would, and she was booked.

Anyhow, I started to look at the labels on household products, food, baby products. One day I picked up my husband’s shaving cream and I read the label. I told him, There’s propane in this! He said, I don’t want to put that on my face any more! I thought, I have to do something: I’m going to blog about this.

Sound bites from a few recent posts:

If you don’t have any idea what to do with a certain veggie, ask your friends. I often use Facebook to poll my friends on what to do. You’ll get some amazing results from folks that have tried the veggies.

Announcing her Summer Hair "No-product, No-blowdry" Challenge

I’m not going to hide it. I like Wal-Mart. And I like Wal-Mart even more now that they’ve partnered with Seventh Generation….

If you could only keep 100 items? What would they be? I think this would be easy to do if children weren’t involved. My son alone has more than 100 pieces to his Thomas the Train set!

Son Ben at age Two

Shannon has joined Practically Green’s Motherboard. We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting her as much as we have!

Find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shanlee?ref=ts

Twitter @shanlee

email her: Shannon@workingmomgoesgreen.com

Subscribe to http://www.workingmomgoesgreen.com/

See all Shannon’s links here: http://flavors.me/shanlee – _

Emily Luchetti is a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef and the executive pastry chef at Waterbar and Farallon Restaurants in San Francisco. She’s the author of, most recently, A Passion for Ice Cream and is working on the forthcoming The Fearless Baker, out in Spring of 2011. Emily is an organic food afficionado — and, she’s my aunt!

During a recent visit, Emily agreed to collaborate on a recipe to suit Practically Green readers: easy, quick, healthy, and appropriate for green living.

I use the freshest, best-quality ingredients available and never mask their basic flavors by adding too much sugar. Chocolate desserts taste like rich bittersweet chocolate; peach desserts taste like ripe, juicy peaches.

My mouth was watering already.

The recipe we finally decided on was Bountiful Berry Compote with vanilla ice cream:

Berry Compote
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar (we used sugar in the raw, organic works too)
Large pinch of kosher salt
1 pint (2 cups) fresh organic strawberries, hulled and quartered if small, cut into eighths if large
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 pint (1 cup) fresh organic raspberries
1 pint (2 cups) fresh organic blueberries

To make the compote: Put the orange and lemon juices, sugar, and salt in a large sauté pan. You can add sugar to taste, depending on how sour the orange juice is and how sweet the berries are. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid reduces slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the strawberries, blueberries and butter, gently stirring until the butter is almost completely melted, about 2 minutes. Add the raspberries and continue to cook just until the raspberries are warm, about 30 seconds. Do not overcook, or the berries will break apart.

Scoop some vanilla ice cream into bowls and spoon the berries and some sauce over the top. Or, separately pass the ice cream and compote in two large bowls. Serve immediately.

Strawberries and domestic blueberries are in the “dirty dozen”, and you can get PG points for knowing and for buying organic.

To further explore the notion that this dessert is healthy, I decided to research which vitamins the berries have and why they’re good for you and your family:

Strawberries:
• One cup contains over 100 mg of Vitamin C, necessary for immune system function and strong connective tissue; Calcium, for strong bones; and Magnesium, good for your heart and may protect against some diseases.
Blueberries:
• One cup of blueberries will also give you Vitamin C, a little less than strawberries, but blueberries have fewer calories. They also contain Lutein, important for healthy vision.
Raspberries:
• Have the least amount of calories of the three, and also contain Lutein.

→ Did you know that the pigments that give berries their gorgeous blue and red colors are also good for you? The phytochemicals and flavonoids in them can potentially help prevent certain forms of cancer, and the ones in blueberries may help prevent bladder infections.

Phytochemicals? Flavonoids? Back to researching….

Phytochemicals are natural chemicals in fruits, veggies, nuts, and legumes that positively affect your health. Flavonoids, found in colorful skins of fruits and veggies may work as antioxidants.

Antioxidants protect the cells in your body from “oxidative” damage. As the body uses oxygen, by-products known as “free-radicals” can cause damage to cells. Antioxidants, like the ones in blueberries, are known to repair these free-radicals.

Phew, I need some ice cream after that.

Emily chimed in on how desserts fit into her healthy, practical lifestyle:

Too many people falsely believe that you have to sacrifice desserts to be healthy and physically fit. But the key is moderation, not abstention. Avoid processed foods and enjoy an occasional dessert. I eat well and exercise to stay healthy but also because I want to be able to eat desserts.

You can visit Emily’s website here, check out her books here, and her blog here.

Buy some organic fruit, organic juice, enjoy with a nice bottle of eco-friendly wine, there are PG points for all of that.

News Picks:

Five kids who are changing the world: Read about five inspiring kids who are making the world a better place. Whether it’s growing organic crops and donating them to soup kitchens, or knitting home-made hats to fight hunger, these kids make us feel better about the world we live in.

How to turn an old iPod into cash: Every time you turn around, Apple is releasing a new generation of the iPod — making them smaller, more fun colors, touch screen…. (Does anyone remember the iPod with the original scroll wheel and four individual buttons?) It’s enough to give you whiplash! This article uncovers a few ways you can get cash for even the most archaic of gadgets, so you can get rid of that iPod mini collecting dust in your desk drawer. As a bonus, you can get 10 PG points for recycling your electronics.

Can we green our Planes next? Have those monthly business trips or annual family vacations put an annoyingly significant dent in your carbon footprint? Hopefully, soon this will be less of an issue. Many airlines are testing plant-based biofuels in an effort to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Multi-Media Pick:

Farmers market frenzy: Happy national farmers market week! People everywhere are becoming more interested in farmers markets, PG is lucky enough to have one right outside of our office in Boston on Tuesdays and Fridays this summer. You can find one near you here. Get 5 points on Practically Green for buying local produce. Check out this video featuring organic farmer Rebecca Schwen, as she discusses the growing interest in farmers markets.

New and cool pick:

Scrub your veggies clean: Skrub’a is a cool line of gloves you can use to scrub those veggies you just picked up at the farmers market, without losing any of the nutrients. There are different colors for veggies, carrots, and potatoes, and they sure beat the heck out of peeling or using (gasp) a paper towel.

News Picks:

Eco-friendly cook out: Here at PG, we enjoy a good summer cook-out. But the cook-out has always been one soirée that poses many green problems: paper plates are a must, the kids love hot dogs, and did we just see you reach for that lighter fluid? This article will help you with all of your green cook-out woes, and give you a piece of mind at your next backyard bash.

Green Innovation at its Finest: Freeaire is a refrigeration system that amazingly uses the greatest source of refrigeration ever created: winter. Developed by Richard Travers and based out of Vermont, this system helps save money, energy, and the earth. Brilliant. Check out Freeaire on the Science Channel here.

Multi-Media pick:

The Tip-Tank Game: First, we want to apologize for giving you another way to put off paying those bills/cleaning the kitchen/finishing that report. That being said, you MUST try this game from our new obsession, Water Use it Wisely! In the Tip-Tank Game, you must find all of the matching pictures before the water runs out, learning tips about saving water along the way.

New and Cool Pick:

Chemically Naked: A new line called Chemically Naked by Kaia House not only has all-natural nail polish that comes in a variety of chic colors, but also (drumroll please…….) all natural nail polish remover! A great way to get ten points on your Practically Green profile and fulfill your “use natural nail polish” action.

Lots of us are getting our hands dirty in the garden the summer, and even more are eating wonderful food from farm stands and local co-ops. How about growing veggies in Alaska? Today we heard from our friend Debbie Clarke Moderow, a musher, mom, and gardener who lives eight miles south of Denali National Park. Debbie has run the famous 1,100-mile Iditarod race across Alaska twice; she and her husband and their two kids have thirty-seven sled dogs who are “the center of our household.”

We’re refreshed just thinking about being there!

“I loved the quiz at Practically Green. It encouraged me! Alaskans are behind, you know. Yes, we have some LEED National Park Service buildings, but for most of us, recycling might mean leaving stuff off that would get shipped to Seattle. So that sets you back, you stop doing it. Alaskans face recyclng challenges, due to low volumes and long distances. We are trying hard however! We have changed our habits over the years. We use cloth napkins. And when I took the quiz I thought, I’m not doing that badly! I liked it, and I wouldn’t like it as much if it made me feel guilty.”

“This is a really unlikely place to have a greenhouse. The summers are so short. But the days are so long and the temps so cool, nothing bolts! Right now my greenhouse is a jungle! I don’t have anything that isn’t organic in the greenhouse. I love going out there, cutting some chard and eating it. It makes me really happy.”

Debbie is working on a memoir as part of her work toward an MFA in Creative Writing at the Rainier writing workshop. Here’s a preview, reflections on gardening near the Arctic Circle:

Like many details in our Denali Park home, my greenhouse bears no resemblance to those of my Connecticut childhood. My mother was a horticultural wizard, and although we never had a greenhouse, I often tagged along when she went to visit others’. Those wondrous glass caverns were set on manicured lawns, beneath towering oak and maple trees. A visit inside revealed rows of orchids and lilies, begonias and geraniums, destined for blue ribbons in the upcoming garden shows.

No, my greenhouse would not turn heads in Fairfield County yet I know Mom is smiling down at my little treasure. Hand-built by my husband and son for my 54^th birthday, my greenhouse is tiny – 8’ x 10’ if you stretch the measuring tape. It has a Dutch door to keep out the arctic hares, one window, and a ceiling fan that comes on (a few times a week) when the temperature rises above 75 degrees. It sits fifty yards from our sled-dog team, and as I run to it in the mornings before feeding the dogs, they serenade me with an exuberant “it’s-a-new-day” howl.

The dogs’ home – our home – is located just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in a landscape fiercely bound to winter. Summer is short here – some say you might miss it if you travel out of state for a weekend. Still, the hours of daylight are long, offering the possibility of horticultural miracles. My greenhouse holds the warmth of the midnight sun, and yet stays cool enough for leafy crops to thrive for long weeks at a time. Stir fried greens with eggs and goat cheese for breakfast, basil pesto, butter leaf salads with pea pods and radishes–these are a few of the delights we are enjoying this season. Aware of the recent heat wave in the “lower-48,” last week I walked into my little warm haven, closed my eyes, inhaled and tried to recall summers when this would have felt cold.

Young greens by Debbie

It’s mid-July, and there’s a new chill in the air. The long hours of daylight have peaked, and now a construction heater sits alongside my peas and rainbow chard, set to turn on when the night temperatures drop below forty. I know harvest will take place in the next four to six weeks, but with the trusty heater, my crops just might make it to September 1. There are other things to harvest between now and then. The blueberries along the dog trail are ripening, and they’ll be followed by plentiful low-bush cranberries. By mid-August we’ll be running the dogs daily, then coming in for lunch salads and the traditional blueberry pie. Finally we’ll busily gather what’s left in the greenhouse and preserve what we can for brightening the dark winter nights. I’ll sadly close her up, but not before detailing the drawings for the little addition we’ll add in the spring. Maybe I’ll try some of those geraniums next summer.

Debbie is a Princeton graduate who found her way to Alaska after college and never looked back. She works for Innisbrook, the ubiquitous school fundraising gift-wrap outfit: “Innisbrook is striving to be the greenest it can be….they’ve introduced paperless online ordering, taken tubes out of the inside of the rolls, all of our giftwrap rolls are printed on partially recycled paper, etc., but let’s face it, my friends who are really green wrap their presents in cloth!”

We focus on solutions at Practically Green – and not on lousy news — but this week, an astounding alert about lead in fruit juices and packaged fruit simply won’t go away. We share it with a dismal sensation: how could juices labeled organic, and sold at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and other grocery stores we trust, possibly be harmful?

We don’t know the answer to that question, yet, but we’re glad that the Environmental Law Foundation is on the job. In case you’re not familiar with the ELF, here’s its mission:

The environment is the place where we live, work and play. Given accurate and complete information, and the opportunity to make a choice, people will choose products or actions which improve or do not degrade the environment. However, not everyone in our society has a choice about the quality of his or her environment. Those who most need the Environmental Law Foundation’s resources are those who lack choice and lack access to the political and economic power that ensures choice.

On July 9, the ELF filed a pre-suit complaint against dozens of fruit-juice and packaged-fruit companies:

“Notices of Violation of California Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law, alleging the toxic chemical lead was found in a variety of children’s and baby foods.  The specific food categories included apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail.”

Please scroll to the end for the full list of juices and fruits that didn’t make the grade. The ELF website includes the full story, press release and useful links:

California Department of Health, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch,www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/CLPPB/Pages/FAQ-CLPPB.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Why not change the blood lead level of concern at this time?” (June 1, 2009), http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/policy/changeBLL.htm

Toxicological Profile for Lead, U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services, Public  Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2007, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13.htm

We thought the answer to this FAQ would be especially helpful to Practically Green blog readers:

Q. Sometimes my child’s lunch has 3 different items that are from your list!  What should I do?

A. The most important step you can take is to become informed.  Find out about the levels of lead in the fruits, juices and other items your child consumes regularly…. Decide for yourself and your family whether there are more protective alternatives you can choose.  Stay informed and support efforts to clean up our food supply.  And remember, the American Academy of Pediatrics has long recommended placing limits on the amount of juice consumed by children.

The list of the good and the not as good: http://www.envirolaw.org/documents/ProductsTestedforLeadFINAL.pdf

If you have further information or perspective on this, please comment. Thank you.

It’s a hazy week for news – kids settle into the July routine, the stock market rolls up and down, the oil spill lingers, generals come and go, and extreme heat seizes the Northeast. Still, we have to eat.

With hot weather in mind, Practically Green served a dozen no-cook recipes and, due to an in-pouring of additional and excellent tasty culinary ideas from all of you, we’ll run a sequel soon.

My favorite takeaway: buy fresh ripe fruits and veggies, wash and chop them when you get home, put them in the fridge, and presto! Your fridge is an inviting treasure chest, and not a stale, forbidding cavern. A-ha!

A couple of weeks ago, Slate’s intrepid Green Lantern reporter Nina Shen Rastogi asked the question,

“what’s the best way to keep a fully stocked, varied fridge and pantry without creating lots of unnecessary waste?”

The answers are in. We’ve gathered highlights, ranging from obvious to uncommon — and all of them practical, green & appetizing, we hope. Bon appétit!

Plan ahead.

My husband and I plan out all of our meals for the week in advance, then we go to the grocer and buy only what we need for that list. We do a smaller shop mid week to top up on fruit, milk, etc but we find we waste very little.

Roasting chicken? Use the whole bird.

My brother claims I get more out of a chicken than anyone he’s seen, so here’s what I/we do: First, roasted with herbs, garlic and olive oil for dinner. That night, carve it all the way – put the “good” chicken in the fridge; pour the juices from the roasting pan in a gallon freezer bag, along with the bones, and freeze. Use the fridge chicken over the next few days for chicken dinner, sandwiches, tacos, chicken salad (w/ tarragon–mmm..), omelettes, etc….

or… Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado Cucumber Salsa. Thanks to the New York Times for this recipe.

Draw pictures of your groceries on a fridge whiteboard.

I also tend to get carried away at the farmers market. Then everything gets put away in the fridge and two weeks later I excavate dessicated garlic scapes (or something) from the back of the crisper drawer. My husband also forgets that I got berries for his cereal and they just sit there. To avoid all this, I have a small magnetic whiteboard on the fridge. I keep a list of the fresh produce on it – sometimes I draw pictures (strawberries are easy, broccoli is hard). It keeps things top-of-mind, so I can think of good uses.

The classic by M.F.K. Fisher

Read MFK Fisher’s book How to Cook a Wolf. While slightly out of date, it shows just how much you can get out of food and avoid waste.

Note on How to Cook a Wolf: a Bible on food appreciation, written by the legendary gastronome Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, and published in 1942 (at the height of World War 2 food rations), this book deserves its own post. Sample memorable line: “Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg, until it is broken.”

Visit PracticallyGreen.com to learn new ways to eat fresh and local, compost happily, and green your kitchen this summer!

What to eat when the weather is torrid? Or was that horrid? As our friend Dominique put it, “I’m eating whatever is in the fridge; there isn’t a remote possibility that I’m turning on the stove.” Here’s fresh inspiration! A cool, refreshing dozen of ideas for what to do when it’s too hot to cook. I’m guessing you’ll devour and glug glug slurp your way through all of them.

1) Simple + elegant from Louella, cheesemaker gourmande at Narragansett Creamery:

Freshly juiced ginger + pineapple juice + lemon – chilled.

Louella keeps her cool while hefting cheese

2) From Carrie, hostess extraordinaire:

To drink: Big jug of lemonade with ice and mint in it.  To eat: arugula salad with cherry tomatoes, blueberries, chopped grilled chicken, shredded parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Organic goat cheese marinated in herbs optional.

3) From Katy, host of  “The Main Course” radio show in NYC, via Blackberry:

Whole grain salads! Filling, healthy, and minimal cooking except for processing the grains. Quinoa and bulgur take only a few minutes of stove time. And can be varied with loads of different ingredients, chopped herbs etc.

4) Priscilla in New Jersey, certified cake addict:

My favorite summertime lunch is Brown Rice and Red Bean Salad with Cashews (it’s served cold and is so yummy!). It also makes for the BEST leftovers too! As for dessert, I’d choose something from my favorite Babycakes cookbook by Erin McKenna…. Tough choice there, that’s for sure! Nonetheless, I’d choose the ice cream pie. Both dishes for the gluten-free vegan, of course.

5) Here’s an easy-to-follow list from Elissa in Manhattan:

Icy cold watermelon is what makes this bearable. Cantaloupe. Grapes straight from the fridge. Lemonade. Ice pops. And gazpacho (now I’m dreaming of some for lunch!).

6) From Rachel, who knows where, on her Blackberry:

…. focus on salads. I made an arugula salad last night that was weather appropriate and fish is light (but you do have to cook it). Avoid the oven if you can bc it really heats up the house!! Hope that helps a little bit!!

7) Libby says: Strawberries with brown sugar and yogurt for dipping!

From Maggie in Portland, Maine:

I just blend say a banana, OJ, strawberries, raspberries (whatever I have in the fridge) with 2 spoonfuls of Greek yogurt (if you use vanilla you don’t need honey, if plain a squirt of honey is good). Then fill up ice cube trays or popsicle molds and freeze them. I just ordered the speedy popsicle maker from William Sonoma and I will let you know when I get it–it freezes them in seven minutes!!

9) From Sarah, mother of an adorable toddler Red Sox fan:

For Cole, I have been giving him yogurt (if you freeze yogurt tubes they make great healthy popsicle treats).  Lots of fruit. He loves peanut butter on apple.  Or I mix some yogurt and fruit and make a smoothie for him.  I cooked some veggies and he has just been eating them cold. As for drinks.. I know it is only 8am, but nothing is better than a cold beer on a hot day!

10) From Heather, a Twitter/Facebook/blogger czarina:

I just read somewhere (which escapes me) that slow cookers and toasters are better to cook with as they expend half the CO2 and energy of an oven while keeping your kitchen from becoming a sauna.  All I want to eat in this weather is veggies!

11) From Kristen, in Yarmouth Maine, “Kickass No-Mayo Slaw,” reprinted here from her local paper:

~2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
~1 minced garlic clove
~1 Tbsp mild jalapeno pepper, minced
~1/4 cup peanut oil
~2 carrots, washed, peeled & shredded
~1 apple, washed, peeled & shredded
~1 cup red cabbage, shredded
~2 cups green cabbage, shredded.

Sauté garlic in a small amount of olive oil, in a saucepan over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until translucent. Combine garlic with remaining ingredients. Refrigerate for at least twenty minutes.  Arrange on a beautiful platter.

12) One more mouthwatering bit of advice, from MaryLea of PinkandGreenMama.com:

We love fresh local/organic produce from our CSA– we have been eating a ton of salads, peas, squash, cucumbers, mint, basil, and greens. In a few weeks we will have our tomato crop join the group. I love gazpacho, cucumber and onions, mint sun tea, mint mojitos, cucumber water, grilled veggies/fish/chicken, watermelon, sauteed summer squash, zucchini, and onions (we eat them alone or thrown into pasta/pasta sauce/chili). Chilled soups with melon and/or cucumbers/mint are good. This is a great time of year to try solar cooking and grilling outdoors to keep the heat out of your house. We’re also big fans of homemade Popsicles and homemade ice cream/frozen yogurt. I just made a yummy batch of lemon basil frozen (organic) yogurt last week! My favorite summer gelato flavor is pineapple basil (yummy!)

Drawing the Line

We’ve had a red, white, blue, and green holiday here, drawing the window shades (it’s a heat wave), using our new Skoy cloths, hanging laundry out to dry, and composting every last carrot shaving. I even detoxed my sponge in the microwave for the first time ever (high for 60 seconds).

On the whole, my delightful (and eco-obsessed) husband and I are in agreement on such household matters, but I am learning that there are certain actions that will never take seed in him.

For example, every time I go into our bedroom I see that the shades have been opened, even at noon in a heat wave. Who can blame him? He wants to see the view. I say nothing, simply close the shade again.

For another thing, he rinses every dinner dish so completely that there’s absolutely no need to then place it into the dishwasher. You can put his dishes right back in the cabinet. I have explained to him that his obsessive rinsing is not only unnecessary, it’s wasteful (of water, of the energy to heat the water, of washing the same dish twice, of his time), and he nods, and he keeps doing it his way.

Which brings me to my point: There will be times when your loved ones do not do what you want them to do, no matter what. They may have their reasons (e.g., the view; or maybe he’s solving the world’s problems while he’s rinsing those dishes) — or they may not. Regardless, it’s important to know where you draw the line. I do not wish to be a bossy nag, of course!! And probably you don’t either. But still.

Last week I caught up with our thoughtful friend Lisa Thomson, who writes the marvelous daily blog Mom’s Green Shopping List. Among other things, we talked about this very subject: where to draw the line with one’s spouse. Here’s Lisa’s story, which is about drawing the line and a whole lot more:

What I want to tell people is, you don’t have to change everything overnight. You can do it slowly, one thing at a time. My husband and I have a paper towel war. He wants paper towels. I stopped buying them. I wouldn’t get them. I said: Go buy them yourself! He hates going to the store. So for six or eight months we’ve been without paper towels. I have a basket of rags in the kitchen, another basket at the top of the basement stairs going down to the laundry. It’s fine, he’s used to it. So, I tried to get him to stop using Kleenex to blow his nose, but he won’t do that. Not happening. I stopped bugging him on that.

It took me eight years to get pregnant. Finally I got pregnant — and right away my husband was diagnosed with chronic leukemia. He was given five years to live. Our family doctor recommended a book called Foods That Fight Cancer. This book was amazing to me. I realized for the first time that foods affect your body: whatever you put in your body affects you. I completely changed how I eat, how I cook. Specifically, we eat a lot of blueberries. We use lots of spices – turmeric, cumin, ginger. We eat greens, broccoli, cauliflower. We avoid processed food and sugars. Sugars feed cancer.

I read labels on everything. I can spend a lot of doing this in a store – I get asked three times if I need help but No, I’m just reading the labels.  I like to read books, too. Right now I’m reading Building Green, Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, 101 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet Before You’re 12! (It’s very good.) Global Warming for Dummies, Ecological Gardening.

My daughter Lydia, aged four, is so aware that if I leave a light on for an extra minute, she’s on me. We were walking the other day — Lydia, our dog Brutus, and me. She said, look, Mom, there’s a blue butterfly on Brutus’s nose! I said, Oh, I wonder where that came from. She replied, It flew down from Saturn because Saturn had to cut down all their trees to make toilet paper. She has the biggest imagination.

Lydia and a caterpillar

Visit Lisa’s website MomsShoppingList.com, visit her Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter @MomsGreenList.

Have a terrific Red, White, Blue, and Green long weekend, everybody! Here are a few snippets for a great holiday. First, of course, we hope you’ll head to PracticallyGreen and answer a few quick questions for suggestions of things you can do to make your life healthier and safer for you and your family — this weekend and anytime.

In a BBQ frenzy? Dive into Self magazine’s special burger section for mouthwatering recipes from beans, turkey, and spices. How about Rosemary-Sage Burgers With Apple Slaw and Chive “Mayo” or Portobello-Black Bean Burgers With Corn Salsa? YUM! http://www.self.com/about/burgers

Annie Leonard at a shoot for her new movie

Got sunburn? Stay indoors and watch The Story of Stuff, Gasland, Food, Inc. and get ready for Annie Leonard’s new movie, The Story of Cosmetics, releasing at the end of the month.

Kids bouncing off the walls? Plan a trip to your local library! Massachusetts libraries have a “Go Green at Your Library” summer reading program, featuring a special program for teens: tnk grEn (Think Green) .

Going on a trip? Ask if your hotel offers eco-friendly amenities, such as opting out of daily housekeeping service – for a $5/day credit! Read about two Phoenix hotels who’ve jumped aboard the burgeoning movement of green travel hosts.

Annika and Kerry

Beach reading: Eco-awesome designers Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager run London’s Junky Stylish fashion label. They make wedding dresses from men’s white button-downs and set up an O.R. in NYC last week to transform unwanted maternity wear, tuxes, kimonos, and pinstripes into high-fashion garb. Isn’t it somehow patriotic to remember our British cousins on Independence Day?  In the July 5 New Yorker magazine. Or pick up the book, Junky Styling: Wardrobe Surgery.

Anyone who’s visited Napa Valley is likely to give you bossy suggestions of when to go and what to do there. This famously heavenly verdant squiggle of farmland north of San Francisco inspires loyalty. Napa is home to world-class wines, restaurants, yoga, farms, artists, and sublime ambiance. Green is not merely an option here: green is a way of life.

My personal Napa must-dos include 1) as many meals as possible at Ubuntu, where local organic veggies rule (click here for the “current crop” list), and where the wine list is over 70% sustainably produced — and which has a spanking-new Michelin Star (congratulations!); 2) yoga classes in-between delectables (there’s a sweet studio on the second floor of the restaurant); and, 3) a visit to the Oxbow School, where the chefs are aligned with the Slow Food movement and inspired by nearby guru Alice Waters. “No Bug Juice Served Here,” they like to say at Oxbow.

Practically Green’s friend Jeff Deasy wrote this report on Napa for his blog at AmericanFeast.com, and we’re reprinting an excerpt here with his permission.

Farm-to-table dining has been a growing trend for some time and there is no sign it will slow anytime soon. The movement to serve fresh, local, sustainably harvested food is offering truly distinctive dining experiences and helping raise awareness of the delicious alternative to heavily processed foods shipped from factories.

One meal at a good farm-to-table restaurant should convince anyone that foods are at their most flavorful and nutritious when served at their freshest. Eating seasonal foods produced without chemicals, whether grown at home or in a community garden, or purchased from a trusted local farmer, makes for better health and a cleaner environment.

The Bounty of California’s Napa Valley

The Napa Valley in California is one of America’s most rare and precious agricultural preserves. Home to the founders of America’s fine wine industry, its towns and villages also present a bounty of crops for an authentic farm-to-table dining experience regularly enjoyed by visitors and locals alike. The very word Napa stands for ‘Land of Plenty’, the original meaning given to the region by its first inhabitants, the Wappo Indians.

Many Napa Valley restaurant chefs cultivate their own orchards, vineyards and gardens teeming with rows of basil, eggplant, squash, pomegranates, figs, tomatoes and of course grapes. The freshness makes a huge taste difference, as is regularly noted by restaurant patrons and those culinary institutions dishing up annual accolades. Even those who do not have gardens of their own largely rely on the bounty of area farms and local farmers markets.

Click for the Napa Valley Destination Council’s recommendations for Agri-Eco Tourist destinations.

Here’s a list of Napa Valley restaurants with edible gardens of particular note:

• Ad Hoc

• Bouchon bistro

• Bardessono Inn

• Brix Restaurant and Gardens

• Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen

• The French Laundry

• Long Meadow Ranch, Winery & Farmstead

• Meadowood Napa Valley

• Ubuntu.

• The Carneros Inn

For more information about America’s legendary wine, food, and wellness destination, go to: The Legendary Napa Valley

To follow American Feast on Facebook go to: American Feast on Facebook

To follow American Feast’s Founder on Twitter go to: Jeff Deasy on Twitter

We’re huge fans of Alexandra Zissu and fascinated to be having a conversation with her about conscious green living. Zissu lives in New York City with her family. She is a writer, editor, speaker, a self-described green-proofer and the author of The Conscious Kitchen (2010) and The Complete Organic Pregnancy (2006). She’s expecting “twins” in 2011: two books are due out – one with Jeffrey Hollender, who is the co-founder of Seventh Generation; and the other with her grass-fed and organic butcher. Her “Ask an Organic Mom” column is featured on TheDailyGreen.com.

I go around to talk about The Conscious Kitchen, and sometimes a total newbie will say, ‘I can’t do this, it’s too much.’ My advice is, take a few first steps.

To begin, learn a little bit. That’s what my book is for. It’s small, to fit in your purse, to take with you when you shop. Conscious means being aware.

Then, open your cabinets. What’s in there? Where’s it from? Peru? Argentina? What are the ingredients? Read labels! I find them fascinating. I love going into supermarkets to read labels. I can’t believe some of this stuff is actually food.

Next, look in your fridge to see what you have in there. After all, you brought that there! Would you prefer to have something else? You know, it’s not so easy to switch out your couches and mattresses, but it is really pretty easy to change your food. Make a list of what you want to have in your kitchen. Find out where you can go to get it easily. Obviously we don’t want to make fifteen different shopping trips, we’re all busy. But chances are you have a good market near you. You can decide to change Today! I find food is very empowering. [For Zissu’s current thinking on choosing meat, see her recent post at www.dinneralovestory.com]

From there, as long as you’re in the kitchen, why not look under the kitchen sink?! I mean, really! You can drastically improve your exposure, to toxins, instantly, by using safe and healthy products for cleaning your house. Why not? The green products cost exactly the same, they work just as well! Seventh Generation is great, they even have a disinfectant now. There are many other brands to choose from – or you can make your own! Then your kids can help you clean! My four year-old daughter just loves to clean the glass table top.

On indoor air pollution:

It’s hard to be up in arms about something that’s invisible. The oil spill is so visual, and that’s one reason people are so angry about it. But there are things spilling and gushing out in our houses, too! I know that’s a terrifying thought. It’s a huge, huge problem. But again, nobody put those products there except you! It’s amazing — we are willing to spend our hard-earned dollars on these harmful products, we bring them into our homes, and then they pollute us — and our families. I think it’s a no-brainer: simply replace those products.

Other easy things to do – this one is free. I love things that are free. Take off your shoes! It’s the personal-hygiene equivalent of washing your hands. Simply remove your shoes when you come in the house. If you live in the country, you could be carrying in pesticides and dirt; if you live in the city, you could be bringing pesticides and dirt, and also things like car-exhaust residue. I just read that Brooklyn, New York, has the second-highest pesticide content outdoors of all American cities — second only to LA. It’s because of all the treatment to get rid of roaches and rats. So just do it, it’s free: Take off your shoes.

Visit Practically Green to switch to all-natural cleaning products, choose organic food, or learn more about the “dirty dozen.” You can even get points for taking off your shoes!

And do visit http://www.alexandrazissu.com/, friend Alexandra on Facebook  at http://www.facebook.com/alexandrazissu, and tweet with her @ alexandrazissu

If you have read about the eating trend Weekday Veg, then you may have said, “Sounds great, but how can I come up with enough vegetarian meals for a week that my family will actually want to eat?” Why not subtract the meat from a family-favorite recipe?

Here is a recipe that I came up with for one of my favorite dishes: tacos. Feel free to add your own flair!

Lauren’s Meatless Tacos
1 package frozen BOCA Ground Crumbles
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (or basil if you don’t like cilantro)
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4-6 taco shells or warmed whole wheat tortillas
Garnish: 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup guacamole, 1 cup salsa, 1 cup cheddar cheese.
In a nonstick skillet on medium heat, add the oil, onions, and BOCA Crumbles. Cook two minutes and stir occasionally. Then add the garlic, salt, chili powder, and cumin. Stir to coat crumbles and cook for 8 minutes more or until heated through (160 degrees F). Turn off heat and stir in cilantro and cheese, just until the cheese melts. Transfer taco mix evenly onto tortillas and garnish with sour cream, guacamole, salsa or more cheddar cheese. Ole! Bon appetit!

During my search for other favorite dishes I got some help from our good friend, Matt Gregory, the founder of EatWithMe.com. For this blog post, Matt informed me of an awesome new book called Double Take by A.J. Rathbun and Jeremy Holt. The book features recipes that can be transformed into vegetarian or meat dishes–how convenient, economical, and efficient!

The following recipe has been excerpted from Double Take by A.J. Rathbun and Jeremy Holt, © 2010, and used by permission of The Harvard Common Press.

Lasagna
A layered pasta dish revered by many the world over (with good reason, as it’s easy to make, hearty as all get-out, and scrumptious), lasagna traces its history to Roman times—the name comes from the Latin word lasanum, which means “cooking pot.” If you have time, consider making the lasagna noodles, too, because homemade noodles are so tasty, and because the recipe is simple. Just remember the Italian phrase un uovo per etto, or “1 egg for every 100 grams” (about 3 1/2 ounces) of flour. Although the ingredients are straightforward, any Italian will tell you that mastery of pasta making takes a while, so practice often. But if you’re in a hurry and decide to go the pre-made noodle route, we won’t laugh at you—as long as you save us a corner piece, that is.

Serves 4 vegetarians and 4 meat-eaters

1 bunch kale, escarole, or Swiss chard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound hot or sweet Italian sausage, loose or removed from casings
1 recipe fresh pasta, rolled into thin 3- to 4-inch-wide sheets; 1 pound store-bought fresh pasta sheets; or one 8-ounce box dried “no-boil” lasagna noodles
1 recipe tomato sauce or 2 cups store-bought marinara sauce
1 recipe Béchamel Sauce
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (4 ounces)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Remove the large fibrous ribs from the kale and coarsely chop.
3. Heat 2 skillets over medium-high heat, then add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil to each pan and heat for 15 to 30 seconds. Add the sausage to one pan and the chopped kale to the other. Cook the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces, until no longer pink, and set aside. Cook the kale until nicely wilted, 5 to 8 minutes, and set aside. Drain or blot away some of the sausage fat if it seems excessive.
4. For the vegetarian lasagna, spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9-inch square casserole dish. Top with a layer of the pasta, another layer of tomato sauce, a layer of the béchamel, and some of the wilted kale. Continue layering the components in this way until the casserole is filled to about 3/4 inch from the top, using all of the kale for the vegetarian lasagna. (Each lasagna should have about 3 layers.) Add one final layer of béchamel, and sprinkle 1/2 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top.
5. For the meaty lasagna, repeat the process in step 4 in a second 9-inch square casserole dish, subbing in layers of sausage for the kale.
6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the lasagnas are bubbly and the cheese is nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Note: Have no time or inclination to make fresh pasta but love its addictive taste and texture? Find a nice Italian restaurant in your neighborhood specializing in fresh pastas and see if they will sell you some. Since Italians tend to be superlative hosts and hospitable to a fault, especially when someone shows an interest in Italian food, there’s a good chance that some fresh pasta can be had with little effort on your part. Of course, it certainly helps if you also frequent the restaurant for an occasional meal.

Make It All Vegetarian: Omit the sausage, and use 2 bunches of kale.
Make It All Meat: Omit the kale, and use 2 pounds sausage.

Craving for more? We like the Double Take recipe for Po’ Boys Sandwiches. So divine! You can gain PG points by switching to a Weekday Veg diet, so why not try it out?

What recipes do you transform? Is there a family favorite meat dish recipe in which you can swap out the meat? Share with us! Our tummies are grumbling…

Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myrrien/402735533/ & http://www.harvardcommonpress.com/double-take/

Today was my very first CSA pick up ever.  I’ve been waiting all spring and was extremely excited to see what was in store for us on this rainy June day. My CSA is through Allandale Farm, which is–incredibly enough–inside the Boston city limits and been operating since 1762. The CSA pick up line was filled with young moms and kids–and I was not the only one in work clothes,  heels sinking into the farm mud.

We are splitting a full share with two other families. Initially, I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough for everyone. As you can see from the photo below–no worries about that.  We received an ENORMOUS head of Napa cabbage, 2 heads of red leaf lettuce, bags of spinach, mixed greens, watercress, scallions, kale, and something called a spring garlic. We also got a very nice note from the CSA manager letting us know everything was picked this morning, along with recipes for Napa cabbage and black bean sauce (we’re making it Saturday) and a spring garlic-lemon vinaigrette.

Tonight we cooked the spinach and –as advertised by the slow food movement–the taste of something picked at maturity and eaten the day it is picked is just so much better. I also know it was grown using organic methods so it’s pesticide-free.  I’ve actually met the man who grew my food. This weekend, he’s taking all the kids of CSA members on a tour of the farm. One of my neighbors is using our kale to make soup for us to share next week. We’re planning a CSA group dinner for the week after that.

CSA stands for community supported agriculture and I always thought the community support had to do with the financial model. But it’s clearly more than that. A CSA share rebuilds relationships–with the farmer, the farm, the seasons and the food; with neighbors or friends who help you eat (or figure out what to do with) a giant napa cabbage; and if today is the norm, that line is quite a social scene. I knew a CSA would be affordable and delicious. I didn’t realize it would be this fun.

Learn more about joining a CSA including why it’s green and how to do it.

Are you in a CSA?  What came in your box?  Any recipes or photos to share?

School is where you learn, right? So why is it that many school cafeterias still offer the opposite of healthy good food — salty chips, sugary white-flour cupcakes, deep fried tater tots?

Because kids are picky?

Because it costs less?

Because the food distributors have a stranglehold on the kitchen buyers?

Because the parents couldn’t care less what their kids eat?

Hold it right there. This is arguably the most conscientious generation of parents in history. And that’s why, along with the enormous muscle of leaders like Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver, they’re beginning to have an influence on school food.

Lunch is one thing, though; snacks are another. They’re usually served by…. other parents. Today’s guest blogger explains how to take back the snack. Even a pre-schooler can do it.

“I cook a lot, and my kids are good healthy eaters, but as they go out into the world they’re exposed to more and more processed stuff,” Eileen Glanton Loftus explains. “The other day my seven-year-old played soccer for an hour, and afterwards there was a snack, of course: Doritos — at 9:30 in the morning! The Doritos come in these huge packs of twenty bags! I started thinking: it’s junk food, it’s using lots of plastic, it’s countless trips from the factory to the store, the whole thing. I’m not anti-junk food, but I think there can be fresh options too. This story about Nora was just a small moment in our lives, but I realized it was important.”

Taking Back the Snack

We suburban parents are quick to embrace the rituals of modern parenthood. We do yoga with our infants, we buy strollers fit to handle any terrain, and as soon as our kids are old enough, we sign them up for sports. We buy tiny cleats, perhaps a lawn chair for watching games from the sidelines. And we sign up to be “snack mom.”

If you don’t have small children, you may be surprised by how frequently they eat. This is not actually a problem – most pediatricians and nutritionists advocate three modest  meals and two small snacks. It’s the quality that makes my head spin. At preschool and sports practice, kids routinely down potato chips, doughnuts and cookies, usually with a chaser of juice.

Do not, for a moment, think I’m a total purist. I ingested plenty of Pringles and Pepsi as a kid, and I truly believe that my parents’ willingness to supply a reasonable amount of junk food is the reason I don’t wildly crave it now.

But I think we parents can aim a lot higher. Why not try an orange after soccer practice, or grapes instead of Goldfish if you must provide a “snack that begins with a G.” Kids will complain for a while, but I think it’s never to early to introduce Michael Pollan’s maxim: “If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry.”

The last day my 4-year-old daughter was responsible for her class snack, I asked her what she wanted to bring. She thought for a minute, then said, “How about bananas?” We hit two different stores, looking for the perfect state of ripeness, and she proudly took them to school to share with her classmates. Not every child ate one … but most did.

Two mothers stopped me in the hall that day to thank me. I was proud to tell them that it wasn’t my idea at all. It was a surprisingly radical move by my little daughter.

If you’re ready to take back the snack, or if you already have, please go to Practically Green and tick off actions such as

Buy organic or all natural chips for this week’s groceries (5 points)

or

Replace soda with fizzy all natural juices or sodas regularly (10 points!)

We discovered Eileen’s delightful post on Eat With Me, a food blog founded by another Practically Green guest blogger, Matt Gregory. Eileen is a former reporter for the Associated Press and has written Good Housekeeping and Forbes among other publications. A mother of three young children, she is on a constant quest to feed her family delicious, healthy food that is not shaped like a nugget. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia. This blog was originally posted at http://www.eatwithme.com/2010/06/03/take-back-the-snack/