In case you were unplugged/on a desert island last Thursday evening, we had an amazing online event with Rodale News and Babybites via Twitter and Facebook. As the party progressed, we saw that we were launching a new online community: #SummerMoms!!

Our first recap is all about snacks and picnic food. We cannot possibly reprint ALL of the fantastic ideas in ONE blog post. Here are some highlights. We hope you’ll check out the full conversation via our Facebook page OR on Twitter with the #SummerMoms hashtag — and please join in!

This piece of the party transcript is annotated with helpful PG Tidbits!! e.g. Avoid food packaging and cling wrap containing PVC.

Enjoy! And please contribute your favorite ideas!

More #SummerMoms Ideas Coming Soon! Thank you.

^        ^        ^        ^        ^        ^

Q1: What is ur go-to packed picnic/snack during the summer?

@emjnj: I live by @bittman’s 101 Summer Salads. It was printed a couple of years ago in @nytimes. Love!  (PG: We love too! Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/22mlist.html?scp=1&sq=bittman 101 salads&st=cse)

• Anything from my CSA/the farmers’ market   (PG: here’s PG’s CSA action: 20 points!)
• Strawberries, my son loves them!

• Rainbow fruit kabobs, veggies/dip, and crackers/cheese  (from @Eatingrainbow)
• Frozen, organic grapes!   (Why is organic important? Check the Dirty Dozen: twelve conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that have the highest pesticide levels—even after peeling and washing.)
• Lots of berries and grapes. My 2 year old loves grapes!
• Picnics aren’t picnics without blueberries! Well, really any berry will do. :)

LOVE foraging for free fruit in the neighborhood! http://t.co/A4eAjgb (From @RodaleNews)

• Watermelon!
• Sliced watermelon! Perfect for hot summer days! :)

We love the resources over at ZisBoomBah Great ideas on kid–friendly veggies http://ow.ly/5pbW0 (From @KidsCookMonday)

We LOVE Kettle Organic Chips, a must-have in our picnic basket! http://ow.ly/5m8Pa (Yay for tasty chips “without transfats [partially hydrogenated oils], artificial flavors, preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup… with USDA organic certified chips, it also means the corn, corn oil, potatoes, & soy oil found in pretty much all packaged foods won’t be genetically modified.” More here.)

• fruit kabobs, homemade pita chips & various dips; watermelon slices  (From @FamDinner)
• Picnic snack has to be fruit. Right now we’ve got cherries up here in WA. If UR lucky, you have ‘em 2. (From @CelebrateGreen)

Crisp refreshing natural/organic wine! Hello, biodynamic rose. @AlexandraZissu. (From PG: “You just want a glass of wine, but hang on…. Before you sip, there are a few things to consider for you and the environment: farming practices, how the wine is made, and the impact of transporting the resulting bottles.” For the complete action please click here.)

• fruit fruit and more fruit! lots of cooler bags & ice packs help!
• oooh! frozen grapes are a good summer snack too!
• we love kind bars (PG: YES! We do too and we just submitted them to Practically Green as a recommended product!!)

PG Tip: “When shopping, always read ingredient lists. Snack bars have an extraordinary number of unregulated nature/natural claims on the packaging when the ingredient list reveals clearly that the products are not what they claim. This can be frustrating and challenging, but soon it becomes second nature.”

From @Famdinner: And we love @latejuly chips! have you tried them?!? They’re our new fave this summer. We’re all obsessed over here!

@Huntstevens:  We love their new chips. Super favorite! Especially Sea Salt! RT @AmyBurba: @famdinner My kids love @latejulyorganic snacks

(PG: we were all pert thrilled when @LateJuly herself arrived at the party a few minutes later!!)

• @Life360:  We love to keep it easy with fresh veggies & some peanut butter!
• @MomsCAF: Agreed! Fruit is super portable! RT @aroundtheplate Picnics aren’t picnics without blueberries! Really, any berry will do
• Nothing better than a fresh fruit salad for on-the-go munchies http://ow.ly/5m96e Some melon? Berries? No Pesticides please!  (PG: Check the Dirty Dozen! Check the Dirty Dozen!)
• Whole grain salads, basil pesto, just-picked cherry tomatoes. All family-friendly. @alexandrazissu
• So many great ideas! Carry snacks from home in WEAN CUBES http://bit.ly/k22yNJ They’re reuseable, glass, and seal tightly!  @GreenDepotLLC

• @Famdinner  And love frozen bananas on a popsicle stick – sometimes dipped and frozen with chocolate too for a real treat!
• @Amygaerlan: Fruits, frozen gogurts, and string cheese
• @MomsCAF: My grandmother used to freeze bananas that were half-dipped in dark chocolate. It was a fabulous on-the-go dessert!
• @Eatingrainbow  Here’s a pic of Rainbow fruit kabobs from my guest post @GreenHalloween http://greenhalloween.org/blog/?p=1920

• RT @babybites: @CelebrateGreen @alexandrazissu oh yes, pesto is GREAT!

FINALLY:

• @CelebrateGreen: Homemade “Gorp” – Raw mixed nuts and dehydrated fruit.

And the reply, from @MommyPosh:

@CelebrateGreen homemade “Gorp”? that sounds interesting… never heard of that combo

*   *   *       Thank You, Inspiring & Inspired Summer Moms!        *   *   *

It’s Summer, and the Living is Healthy!

Practically Green is throwing a

Summer Online Social with

Babybites and Rodale!

Thursday, June 23, 9 to 10 pm EST

Topics: Kids’ Health & Everyday Products and On-the-Go Eating

*        *        *

Amazing Goodies:

Personal Q&A with PracticallyGreen’s Founder, Susan Hunt Stevens (email/phone/skype) @huntstevens

Gift certificate for brunch for 4 at L’artusi restaurant, New York  @lartusi

25%-off at Kaight NYC for 24 hrs for all participants (code TBA at party) @kaightshop

Complimentary nutrition consulting in person or online with the NYC-based @NutritionTwins

*        *        *

Be there via Twitter and/or Facebook!  Your choice! Party with us on our customized chat box on the Practically Green Facebook page. If you’re partying via Twitter, please use http://ow.ly/5n2iY, hashtag #summermoms

*        *        *

Special Guests

Alexandra Zissu, Author, Editorial Director of Practically Green @alexandra zissu

Laurie David’s Family Dinner team @famdinner

Susanna Schultz of Green Depot @GreenDepotLLC

Corey Colwell-Lipson of CelebrateGreen & GreenHalloween @celebrategreen

Tami O’Neill of Meatless Mondays & Monday Campaigns @MeatlessMonday

Leah Zerbe, Editor & Lifestyle Expert from Rodale.com

RSVP: Leave your Facebook name or twitter handle in the comments section below to RSVP.
Ex: Twitter- @emjnj OR Facebook- Elise J.

babybites.com, @babybites, facebook.com/Mommybites                                                                                                                                           Rodale.com, @rodalenews, facebook.com/rodalenews

PracticallyGreen.com,@practicallygrn, facebook.com/practicallygreen

Did we mention how much we love working with our Editorial Director Alexandra Zissu?

I am not sure how she does it all. I suspect she has no sleep, perhaps she has an identical twin. How else could she produce Practically Green’s actions, write occasional pieces for The New York Times, consult on healthy living, advise her mother on wallpaper, think of putting her woolens into the freezer in moth season (i.e., now), play in afternoon puddles with her kindergartener? And always look so stylish when we skype? (And I think she might be married to some sort of a celebrity, too….)

I may never know. But on top of all that, Lexy’s book The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat, is about to come out. Every carnivore on your list should own it. It’s just in time for grilling season and Father’s Day, and we want to announce it to the world. (Click here for a meatball recipe…. For The Perfect Steak, see p. 175. For Bite-Your-Tongue-Tacos, p. 185. For Chicken Rub: p. 216. I could go on and on.)

*          *          *       OVER TO LEXY:      *          *          *

There is tremendously much to be gained from exclusively buying and eating meat from animals that were raised sustainably: it’s better for the animals, it’s better for the earth, it’s better for the farmers, it’s better for us. I believe so strongly in this that I devote an entire chapter to understanding what this means and how to obtain it in my second book, The Conscious Kitchen. But one chapter wasn’t quite enough. Which is why I spent the past year and a half plus writing a book, my fourth, The Butcher’s Guide To Well-Raised Meat: How To Buy, Cut, And Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, And More, with Joshua and Jessica Applestone of Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, New York. It comes out June 7^th and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Beyond the writing there were visits to farms, slaughters, slaughterhouses. I watched countless animals being broken down from whole to parts (oddly ballet-like and beautiful to see burly men and women find and coax out cuts like constellations in a sky of flesh); a lost art in a world of shrink wrapped meat parts in supermarkets. I even donned a mesh apron and attempted to carve a little myself–it’s a lot harder than it looks.

I once went on a trip to a Wal-Mart with Jessica, one of her apprentices who now owns a shop in L.A., and the master butcher who has taught generations of chefs at the Culinary Institute of America. There we read packages for three straight hours, getting a true sense of what conventionally-raised meat looks like. Back at the shop, Jess walked the apprentice through a taste test: the Wal-Mart meat versus what she sells. I balked, refusing to put conventionally-raised meat in my mouth. There was a little tension that day, but I think everyone understood it was my deep conviction and understanding of what happens to conventionally-raised animals that made me the right writer for this project. Kept in cages and pens, hopped up on drugs (scary hormones and antibiotics), and fed the most horrible genetically modified crap imaginable.

It is amazing to me that the general public knows so little about what they eat, and yet willingly dines on — and feeds their children — meat from truly unhealthy animals containing residues of these drugs and this feed. We are what we eat. We are also what the animal we ate ate, too. If I served you a plate of chicken shit, would you puree it and spoon-feed it to your baby? No. But this is considered acceptable cattle feed, according to our government. And we offer those cattle to our families. I. Cannot. Put. That. In. My. Body.

Sustainable isn’t a government defined or third party certified term, unlike USDA organic. The key factor in something truly sustainable is therefore human interaction: I know my butcher and they know their farmers and their slaughterhouse guys and how they operate. This trust is better to me than USDA organic. I know the right questions to ask anyone selling at the farmers’ market to see if I also trust them. It’s clearly not as deep of an understanding as I have with my butcher, but we describe in The Butcher’s Guide To Well-Raised Meat the sort of questions you want to have answered to establish a similar trust. I prefer meat from local small farm pastured animals to something that might be raised on a big farm far from where I live, then frozen and shipped to me, even if the latter has been certified organic.

Finding sustainably raised meat can be a challenge. But in The Butcher’s Guide To Well-Raised Meat we explain how to find it no matter where you live. So if you don’t happen to live in and around the Hudson Valley, or near Brooklyn, where Fleisher’s is opening a second shop in September, you can still find well-raised meat near you. Just because something is local doesn’t mean it is automatically sustainable. You’re looking for healthy farming practices that don’t harm the environment, humane animal treatment, support of farming communities, fair wages and treatment for laborers. And you need to know your producers so you can trust what they’re saying about pesticides and fertilizers, hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics. Fleisher’s doesn’t freeze and ship; that’s unsustainable.

Consumers can play a big role in what is and isn’t sustainable. Not only should we be seeking out sustainable meat, but also we shouldn’t be eating tons of it. Raising animals for food is an energy intensive experience. To lower the impact, we can reduce how much we eat. This will also help even out the cost of switching from conventional (cheap) to sustainable (more expensive) meat. We have great tips in the book on how to eat pastured meat on a budget. Being a conscious consumer means understanding that if you’re buying from people who are raising and selling whole animals, it’s sustainable to eat the whole animal. There is only one hanger steak on an entire steer. So if you get to a shop or a farmers’ market and there is no hanger left, that’s why. Don’t walk away because you didn’t get what you wanted; it’s the rare person that gets the hanger when you’re not buying boxed conventional meat. Buy something else. Ask what else tastes similar that is still available, or what else might be good. And don’t forget to ask for cooking instructions or check out the recipes in The Butcher’s Guide To Well-Raised Meat. Something that was outside roaming instead of penned up all of its life will be leaner and more muscular and therefore need to be cooked differently.

Enjoy!

P.S. Just noticed the tiny tagline on Lexy’s website, an enchanting stream of consciousness rivulet: “research obsessed writer trying to help you make the world a better eco friendlier place one simple nontoxic step at a time for us and our children and their children and the earth we share”. Exactly.

Early bird reviews:

“Particularly handy are the easy-to-use guides that reveal the best cooking methods for specific cuts of meat, ensuring that you’ll never make the mistake of deep-frying a cow spleen again. Let grilling season commence! TimeOutNewYork

“…clear, useful instruction on dealing with cuts of beef, lamb, pork, and poultry, interesting meditations on sustainable dining, and a dozen or so recipes thrown in for good measure.”
 Publishers Weekly

News Picks:

Practically Green is co-hosting a Twitter Party!
Mark your calendars for Thursday, November 11, 4-5 PM EST (1-2 PM PST)
How clean is your shower?

Practically Green @PracticallyGrn
Along with:
RodaleNews @RodaleNews
Organic Authority @OrganicAuthorit
Aquasana @Aquasana
Women’s Voices for the Environment @Women4Earth

We’ll be tweeting about safe soaps and shampoos, chemicals in unfiltered water, and taking action. Follow the link for more information including how to join! Plus get PG points for reusing and reducing water.

TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch: A big name for an even bigger problem. The garbage patch, a not-so lovely collection of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean, is thought to be at the very least the size of Texas, but probably closer to the size of the U.S. This TEDx event, starting today at 8:30 am PST, features different speakers who will share observations, solutions, and ideas on how to illuminate plastic pollution, including PG favorite Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish.

Hair relaxing is anything but relaxing: Brazilian hair-relaxing treatments were recently profiled in The New York Times for their powerful fumes and potentially dangerous ingredients — including formaldehyde. Stylists who apply the product have reported nosebleeds, breathing problems and eye irritation. It’s time to accept those luscious curls, ladies! Get PG points for using natural hair care.

Multi-Media Pick:

The Family Dinner: Environmental activist Laurie David of the Natural Resources Defense Council is focusing on the importance of the family dinner these days. She shares a few of her techniques to get your whole family involved and having fun. What a great way to bond!

New and Cool Pick:

Ahhaproject and an “ah ha” moment: This bag designed by Ahhaproject shows how much biomass your trash accrues, and is completely biodegradable. As Inhabitat puts it, “a full Ahha bag is sufficient enough to drive a car 16 miles, do 66 pounds of laundry, boil 100 cups of tea, use your fridge for 200 hours, recharge your mobile phone 300 times, toast 500 slices of bread… need we say more?” A friendly reminder to waste less!

News Picks:

Ever stress that EVERYTHING is toxic these days? Here at PG we know you want the absolute best for your child in every regard, especially heath. Sometimes, however, learning every little detail about every possible toxin in every possible product can be overwhelming. Here is a great post from our friends over at Healthy Child, Healthy World on how to cope.

Do your soil a favor, use Fall leaves for composting: With Fall officially beginning this week, here’s a seasonal tip for you: try not to rake those leaves away into the windy abyss! Instead, start a compost pile! Not only will your garden thank you for it, you’ll get PG points as well. Throughout the Fall holidays, you can add apple cores, pumpkin rinds, and the like to build up nutrient-rich soil for spring bloom.

Share the Harvest: Speaking of Fall trends, if you’re in the Vermont area and have some free time tomorrow, you should take part in the Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival. The festival will include tons of family fun, local products, entertainment, and even agricultural education for kids! Not in the Vermont area? Don’t fret. Visit Local Harvest to find a farm near you and check out their events calendar. Get PG points for shopping local.

Multi-Media Pick:

The new baby carrots campaign: When we first heard about this “BABY CARROTS, Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” ad campaign on Twitter, it struck us as a rather odd approach to selling vegetables. This campaign has come into fruition (no pun intended): a high school in Syracuse is getting a vending machine chock full of baby carrots! The carrots come in three different styles of packaging to catch students’ eyes. Unlike the other vending machines in the cafeteria, the baby carrots machine will be on all day, available for snacking. Take a look at this video from CNN’s “eatocracy” on the new program.

New and Cool Pick:

F. Rock Bags featured on NBC: We have told you before about F.Rock, a fabulous company that makes custom men’s bags that are not only gorgeous, but made from 100% reclaimed fabrics and leathers. Their bags were most recently worn by a character on NBC’s new legal drama, “Outlaw” — and F.Rock now makes an iPad Bag. Perfect for all of you busy moms and fellow bloggers on the go!

Have you ever wished you could ask a food or cooking question and quickly get a bunch of creative and practical answers from experienced, knowledgeable home chefs? Well, now you can! Food52 is launching their FoodPickle service online and on Twitter @foodpickle. Simply type in your question, include a photo if you like, and voila! Answers come from the Food52 community, a robust and growing cadre of home chefs: at this writing, there are over 15,000 registered users.

Food52 was launched by food journalists Merrill Stubbs and Amanda Hesser and celebrated its first birthday this week. We called Merrill to find out how the past year has gone, and what’s up next.

We had the idea to celebrate great home cooks in a way that was not happening online. We wanted to provide a voice for user-generated recipes from regular at-home cooks. There’s a huge sea change going on in the food movement — to organic, to farmer’s markets. Amanda and I’d been aware of it for a while. People are returning to their kitchens and seeing cooking as pleasure rather than as a duty. Americans are rediscovering the social aspect of eating and cooking together. There’s an explosion in underground restaurants and urban farming. People are quitting their jobs at corporations to start making cheese! It’s great! We wanted to help move all of this forward.

Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs (photo by Sarah Shatz)

Here’s how it works: Every Friday at noon EST, Food52 announces a new food contest. Submit your recipe (see rules here), and it’s considered by Amanda and Merrill. “We’re looking for originality, for a technique that’s cool, or for a combination of ingredients that’s promising. Maybe it’s a good version of something we’ve had before that’s intriguing. And we always ask, Is it going to work! And of course, does this sound yummy? Is this delicious?” Merrill estimates that 15% of the submissions move on to be tested. They then cook the finalists – twice – and the Food52 community votes!

Editors’ Picks are the recipes that didn’t win first prize – “sort of an honorary mention,” Merrill says. All of these recipes are searchable in order of “most recent” or “most buzz.”

Amanda and I are always looking for fresh whole foods. We promote that as much as possible; it’s what we’d naturally choose. There’s no hard list of ingredients we won’t include, but we naturally shy away from processd and unnatural foods. One exception is pecan pie, which has corn syrup. How can you NOT include pecan pie?! People love new or unusual ingredients, like agave, or quinoa. Our community is very focused on healthy eating – just last night on FoodPickle, we had a question about what’s the most environmentally friendly salmon.

The winning recipes being are collected for a book, The Food52 Cookbook, to be published by HarperCollins in Spring 2011 — it’s a two-book deal, so this will become an annual event, we hope. Starting in October, Food52 is also running an annual Tournament of Cookbooks: “The Piglet.” Vote!

So what does Merrill do when she’s not cooking, testing, and dreaming up new contest ideas? Well, she’s a newlywed. And, she’s on the Green committee of her apartment building on Brooklyn, which has community composters and a garden. “We’ve put LED lights in our common area, and we’re starting to put them in our apartment, phasing them in. Every time I change a light bulb now, I think, I don’t have to do that again for a while!”

Follow Amanda and Merrill on Twitter: @amandahesser, @merrillstubbs, and follow Food52: @food52. Join them on Facebook. And if you’d like to learn more about delicious cooking and healthy things you can do in your kitchen, visit Practically Green! We’ve got dozens of eco-friendly, how-to ideas — like cleaning your microwave w/o using chemicals to buying organic fruit and vegetables, to trying all-natural mac ‘n cheese for one week.

Okay, we just couldn’t resist showing you one more Food52 recipe, an Editors’ Pick:

News Picks:

A new definition of dumpster diving: For those of you who follow us on Twitter (@practicallygrn), you know that we are just thrilled with this story! A year ago a guerilla design project turned dumpsters into swimming pools in Brooklyn. They were such a hit, more pools popped up this summer, including some on Park Avenue in Manhattan! What a great way to be resourceful and have some summer fun!

Pencils? Check. Paper? Check. Net-zero energy? Check! The first public net-zero energy school will be open for classes at the end of the month. The school was built as a teaching tool for students to learn about energy conservation, solar energy, water conservation, and recycling. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Lounging around: How about a 33 ft. long hammock made of 4,278 feet of rope from recycled bottles! The Boston project was a result of the first-ever $1,000 grant from The Awesome Foundation, and it’s meant to help bring city-dwellers together. What better way to get to know someone than to share a hammock?

Multi-Media Pick:

Green your kitchen: We taught you how to clean your microwave without using any chemicals, now Danny Seo can show you how to clean your coffee-maker, sponges, and garbage disposal as a part of Epicurious’ “Green Kitchen Videos.”

New and Cool Pick:

Oldie but goodie: Ok, so this product is far from new. You’ve likely been using it for decades! However, Crayola recently “plugged in” their solar-powered factory. Crayons will be made with solar power, marker barrels with recycled plastic, and colored pencils with reforested wood.