We "know" HFCS Makes Rats Fat...So Now What Do We Put in the Easter Basket?

I was inspired to write when traffic spiked this week with the release of the Princeton Study on high fructose corn syrup. While the study only confirmed what I've thought to be true for a while, I was intrigued by Marion Nestle’s post on Food Politics. She took issue with many points in the study and then one of the investigators actually took the time to comment on her post and provides his explanation. In the end it left me more confused but still believing that there is a strong case for eliminating HFCS from your diet. In fact, I think Marion Nestle was only refuting the fact that sugar is any less bad for you…so she would ultimately tell us to skip the sugar, organic or cane or corn based and fill the basket with fruits, vegetables, books and maybe a little dark chocolate but being a bit more of a traditionalist I thought I would share some of my favorite ways to leave the peeps on the shelves. For more on this see 100 Ways to Kill a Peep.

Sjaaks has a good selection of chocolate bunnies and eggs although they are selling out fast. The Natural Candy Store has bunnies and jelly beans. Another easy favorite are Annie's Gummy Bunnies and a good staple for lollipops and hard candies is Yummy Earth. ...and if you just can't live without the annual cream egg here is a recipe for one you can make at home from Very Vegan Holiday.

So now you have your candy what should you put it in? We've been using a pastel metal bucket for a few years now and we just put it out at night and then the Easter Bunny fills it. If you don't have one on hand you can go eco and purchase Recycled Newspaper Baskets from Drugstore.com or if you have time and old magazines on your hands How About Orange has instructions for making your own baskets from recycled magazines. As for grass, colored construction paper cut into strips makes for great grass and you won't end up finding random pieces of it all over the place for the rest of the year.

We do always TRY to go light on the candy a heavy on the gifts so here are a few of my perennial favorites.

Stripes the Long Eared Bunny



Knuffle Bunny Plush and of course Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems.

Then this year I've discovered several cute Easter basket stuffers on Etsy. My favorite is Wool Crazy's Pocket Bunny.

Some old standards include Crayola Egg Crayons and The Velveteen Rabbit and finally if you are into the Easter Egg Tree here is another Etsy find by Drops Design.

For more on how to eliminate high fructose corn syrup read this post.

Tips for a more Sustainable Holiday Season

As our apartment slowly fills with Amazon boxes, I wonder if Sustainable Mom actually stayed in the country with Sophie and the snow blower. After a year back in New York, I am finding it difficult to live lighter in this mecca of conspicuous consumption...especially around the holidays.

In an effort to get myself back on track, I've compiled some ideas to help you and me have a simpler, lighter and more sustainable holiday season...or perhaps more accurately compiled a few ideas for how to avoid totally over doing Christmas on every level...

Sustainable Decorating

Although I bought a few decorations for the tree at the Hong Kong airport, decorations are better made and not bought. Since the Freen has been old enough to make art, I've been trying to save anything with a holiday theme and use it each year and now at five we've started to accumulate quite a bit. Even if your child goes to a school that refuses to give them a Christmas tree to color, you can use non holiday themed projects from the past year to make a collage on red or green paper.

If you are not lucky enough to have your own Kandinsky or if you prefer more traditional fare...Global Goods Partners has a great selection of silk ornaments including a Christmas tree and a Dove. Etsy also has great selection my favorites include the Bicycle Tube Snowflakes and this tin Christmas Tree.

According to Treehugger LED Christmas lights use 80% less energy than regular lights and last ten years or more. I have also read that like regular lights you can get bad batches which at the premium price can be frustrating. I didn't buy them this year only because I had some regular lights from last year left over and I wasn't sure about mixing. Regardless, for a single tree it may not be worth the investment, however if you are lighting the outside of your 7 bedroom colonial from top to bottom or a tree lined city block they may be worth the investment.

There is a lively debate online between real and fake trees but most agree that if you can have a potted tree this is your most eco-friendly option. We got ours at Stew Leonard's who tries to make you feel better about the freshly cut tree by printing on the tag that for every tree they sell, another one is planted. I have to imagine any self-respecting tree farmer does this since it takes seven years for a tree to become full grown, so while it helped allay any twinge of guilt as they tied the tree to the roof, it isn't much more the green washing by our everyone's favorite dairy farmer. That said, I can't with good conscience even engage in a debate about a fake Christmas tree because personally I would just opt out before bringing a fake tree into my home during the holidays, so all I can say is that if it is practical for you buy a live tree and plant it, do that. If not, then focus on recycling your gift wrap. Alternatively consider these other interesting albeit time consuming options. My personal favorite, a Christmas Tree made from plastic bottles.


Photo Credit Flickr by thefourthcraw


and by all means skip the inflatable plastic Santa for goodness sake.

Sustainable Gifting

Around 125,000 tons of plastic packaging are thrown away over the holiday season. Take your own reusable shopping bags when you do your shopping.

Make it yourself. If you have skills and time use them. Nothing is more special than a gift made by a loved one. My mother in law is talented at knitting, quilting and cross stitch and we are lucky enough to have a hand quilted Christmas tree skirt, personalized Christmas stockings and an Angle for the top of the tree so even though she can't always be here for the holidays we have her to thank for how warm and inviting our home looks around the holidays.

Keep it simple with one large gift instead of lots of little gifts. This is a tough one for me as I still equate how good a Christmas is with how long it takes to get all the gifts unwrapped. I've been known to wrap things that I've already used just to have more presents under the tree.

Shop locally from small merchants.

When buying presents, keep an eye out for those with minimal packaging, or items packed in recycled or recyclable materials (e.g. cardboard).

Another good choice is a Global Exchange fair trade store.

Give a membership or donate in the name of a friend to an organization working in a subject area of interest to them

Give a gift certificate for your time - child sit, or pet sit. Offer your talents, such as photography, financial planning, or hairstyling. Make dinner for someone or cook and deliver it to them.

Give an experience such as tuition for an unusual class. For kids, consider giving an environmental excursion, like a whale-watching or camping trip.

One of the best gifts I received in sometime was an Epicurious Tastebook. My mother in law made one for every woman in our family and it was a collection of all of our family recipes.

Collect photos and put together a photo album. Make a calendar for the coming year using your own photographs.

Give the gift that keeps giving a Community Supported Agriculture membership - Visit the Local Harvest site to find a CSA near you and purchase a share for a friend or family member.

Wrapping

Buy recycled wrapping paper, vintage or use Lucky Crow gift bags which offer a sustainable alternative to disposable gift wrap.

Reuse boxes when I packed up Christmas last year, I saved almost every box, ribbons and and reusable tags.

Buy cards made from paper and without lots of added decorations, as these cards cannot be recycled or just go electronic.

Then be sure when celebrating and entertaining buy organic, local and seasonal foods and avoid non-recycled disposable serve ware.

Wishing you and yours a Happy Healthy Sustainable Holiday Season!

A Long Time Coming - Sustainable Motherhood Returns

It has been some time since I've posted...three months to be exact.  While I could probably write a book about the last few months, but for the time being, I've decided the best way to share it is through a brief time line.  Enjoy...

11/22/08

After four months of negotiations, inspections, repairs and waiting, we finally closed on the sale of our house in Greenwood Lake.  That same morning, after only a week of negotiations, I signed the contract on the job that I had arguably been working toward for ten years. 

11/27/08

We celebrated a great Thanksgiving in York, PA.

11/29/08

With the help of family and friends, we moved from Greenwood Lake to our new house in Warwick, that we were renting until the expected close in the middle of December.

12/2/08

I started my new job and joined my husband in the grind of the two hour commute to the city. 

12/5/08 

It snowed a lot.

12/8/08 

My commute home took four hours.

12/14/08 

Twelve inches of snow fell.

12/15/08

We didn't close on the house, but were told not to worry, as it would only be a matter of days.

12/19/08 

Holiday vacation began and I celebrated being off until 1/5.

12/22/08

We didn't close on the house and were told it would probably not happen until after the holidays.

12/25/08 

We celebrated a  great Christmas with our family.

12/26/08 

I celebrated a great birthday with my family.

12/29/08 

We installed all the new light fixtures,= and the custom black out shades, that we knew we shouldn't have bought just yet, but didn't care because we loved the house and we were staying no matter what.

12/30/08 

Despite offering market price for the house, having an approved mortgage, and being "excellent buyers", the bank still didn't approve the sellers' sale of the house. WTF

12/31/08

We celebrated a great New Years with friends at our new house.

1/1/09

We made good use of the black out shades on a very sunny New Years Day.

1/3/09 

We bought a snow blower.

1/5/09 

Back to school began with the Freen pulling my hair out in the morning when I dropped him off at school.

1/6/09 

The Freen cried and pulled my hair out when I left him at school again.  The head of the nursery school assured me this was normal.  I assured her that the Freen had been attending school for the last two years and that this in fact was NOT NORMAL.

1/7/09 

Another ice storm crystalized the fact we had actually moved to Narnia.

1/8/09 

50mph winds blew down the mountain and ripped through our yard, lifting our recycling through the air, spreading it all over our neighbor's ice covered yard at six in the morning, before we even started the commute.  I began to question our decision.

1/9/09 

Still no word from our sellers, so we called our lawyer just to see if we might be able to get out of the contract and he told us there wouldn't be an issue.

1/10/09 

We found a two bedroom, no fee, one month free apartment, on the 31st floor with river views just twenty blocks from my parents. 

1/11/09 

Our babysitter from before we moved out of the city called us to tell us she was looking for a job. 

1/12/09 

The repo man was on the front lawn looking for our sellers, who apparently owned a gray Ford Expedition along with the house we were living in.  I decided it was time to get the hell out of their house.

1/13/09 

Sears took the snow blower back and we got a full refund.

1/14/09 

It snowed 12 inches.  We stayed with my parents in the City for a few days.

1/18/09 

Flat Rate moved all our belongings into the City in the snow.

1/19/09

We unpacked all our belongings again.

1/22/09 - Now

We settled into our new, albeit significantly smaller digs, got the Freen enrolled in summer camp, swim lessons, t-ball and kindergarten (hopefully), and enjoyed a much deserved adjustment period.  

Needless to say December and January were a crazy couple of months and since then we've been catching our breath and wondering why the hell we ever left New York in the first place.  I wish I had been able to blog the whole time, however, priorities being as they are, I had to focus on our lives first.  That said, now I am back and I have the new perspective of living sustainably in the City, which while easier in many ways, also presents its own challenges like $7 half gallons of organic milk and a son who raises his arm for a taxi whenever we leave our building. So stay tuned and thanks for waiting.

Getting a Grip with November's Sustainable Mother of the Month

It is with great excitement that I announce November’s Sustainable Mother of the Month, Frances Moore Lappe. She has inspired millions to embrace a more sustainable diet and to question America’s grain fed, meat based diet. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold over three million copies and has been called “the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined”. Authors Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver have both proclaimed that Diet for a Small Planet and Ms. Lappe’s most recent book, Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, are must-reads for President-Elect Obama. In addition to authoring 16 books, Ms. Lappe is the co-founder of Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, the World Future Council and most recently the Small Planet Institute.

My Aunt Catherine (one of last month’s Sustainable Five) told me about Ms. Lappe’s body of work after hearing her speak in Gloucester, Mass. last summer. After reading, Diet for a Small Planet, I approached Ms. Lappe, who despite her incredibly busy schedule with speaking engagements and foundation work, generously offered up her time for an interview. I had the privilege of speaking with her last week and came away with a more optimistic and hopeful outlook on how we as individuals, and ultimately members of the global community, can affect change and come together to solve the problems of not only our environment, but of global poverty and hunger. Below are highlights from our conversation; however, my words do not do it justice, and I recommend that everyone visit the Small Planet Institute website to see how you can get involved and read Getting a Grip and Diet for a Small Planet to get a better understanding of Ms. Lappe’s philosophy.

SM: The first edition of Diet for a Small Planet was published in 1971. You've been at the forefront of the environmental movement in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s and now. Are we seeing a resurgence of 70s ideals or have you seen steady growth throughout the decades and are we just finally reaching a tipping point? If so, what took so long?

FML: I feel personally an enormous change has occurred in the last fifteen years. In my book Democracy’s Edge the chapter on food is called Choice – it is about living democracy and how citizens are engaging at an individual level. At the time that I wrote the 20^th Anniversary Edition of Diet for a Small Planet, I didn’t see this in the food movement, then more than 15 years later when writing Democracy’s Edge, I observed a huge change. Now I would say the food movement is at the forefront of the living democracy movement.

That said, while individually and locally people are making a statement with their food choices, at a global poverty and hunger are both getting worse. I try to capture this in Getting a Grip. To quote my good friend “Things are getting worse and worse and better and better faster and faster.”

We must as a society reframe our core assumptions about how the world works. In Getting a Grip I argue that the dominant ideas driving our world are mal-aligned with nature, including human nature. They are based on the false premise of scarcity and lead us actually to create the very scarcity we say we fear.

SM: Can you define a “living democracy”?

FML: Living Democracy is a dynamic culture grounded in the values of inclusion, fairness, and mutual accountability. As voters, workers, students, employers, parents, community members and clients, we all shape its norms and expectations. Living Democracy is never finished. The market can remain open and fair only in a democracy where wealth is kept widely dispersed. To establish such democratic governance, the power of money cannot influence political decisions. In Living Democracies, citizens work to remove the influence of wealth from public decision making. They view the market as a tool, not an automatic device beyond human reach. They use their polities to decide what should be a market commodity (and what is too precious to be allocated by the market) and to create “values boundaries” (from environmental protections to anti-trust laws) around the market’s functioning.

SM: In 2007 a U.N. official called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity,'' saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry. As an expert on global causes of hunger, how do you feel about ethanol and other biofeuls?

FML: I see it as a symptom, just as I do our crazy grain fed and meat centered diet. With the world food crisis becoming more and more critical – what ordinary person would have thought to come up using corn to fuel our cars? No regular person asks for these things. It is only corporations operating outside of a democratic framework and driven by one rule — highest return to existing wealth. They help transform plenty into scarcity for so many.

SM: In Diet for a Small Planet, you say changing the way we eat will not change the world, but it may begin to change us and then we can be part of the changing world. Do you still believe this is true today?

FML: I recently found the original manuscript for Diet for A Small Planet. In it I describe how I used to feel powerless walking into a super market but that once I learned about the origins of my food, I felt I had power – knowledge is power. In Getting a Grip I use the term Power Shopping – where you make choices based on your knowledge. My friend Hans-Peter Durr said that once we understand ecology we see “there are no parts, there are only participants, and every choice we make is involved”. How we use food to get to these deeper questions about democracy is very important.

I want to see us as a society link farming and nutrition. Ultimately, using food as the thread to link democracy and ecology and food is great place to start. Here in Boston a school district has started serving fresh food and no junk food and the kids love it. It is incredibly positive. I am a firm believer in the power of ideas but we’re trapped into a world view of our economy versus our principles. We’ve got to use the food movement to crack that nut.

SM: If there was one thing you could get people to change beyond their diet, what would it be?

FML: I tend to not prescribe a particular focus. What I propose is a frame shift. The issue behind all the issues is: how do citizens to gain their voices? The issue isn’t diet, or energy, or lightbulbs. It is democracy itself. In Getting a Grip I go into greater detail on how to achieve a living democracy. I am also invovled in the network called Strengthening Our Nation’s Democracy. We have proposed to the Obama Administration to create an “Office of Citizen Engagement” to bring citizens in to be problem solvers. My goal is to create a more living democracy so that no matter who you are and what you care about you can engage.

SM - In a blog entry on Huffington Post, you call on Obama to help move our democracy to a new historical age. What is your greatest hope for the Obama Administration?

FML: During the campaign, Obama said “It’s not about me. It’s about you.” I only hope that this approach is realized and that he really invites us in. If that were to happen.. then wow. We can’t make this change happen, unless citizens are engaged. The kind of changes required are so deep, we won’t make them unless we feel we are part of it.

SM: In 1985 you wrote, What to Do After you Turn off the TV. You wrote this before 24 hour children's television/pre-school on TV, video games for toddlers, and Baby Einstein DVDs for infants. What can you tell our readers about how raising your children without television impacted their development and your relationship with them?

FML: I have a two year old granddaughter now and I wish that we could get that book back in print. Not having a television was one of the best choices I ever made. I shared custody with my children’s father and I never wanted to lose a moment with them. I never even used a babysitter. Now I am so incredibly close to both of them. They are both such creative people, my son Anthony created Guerrilla News Network and recently published his first graphic novel, Shooting War filmmaker and my daughter Anna is also a writer (Grub – Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen) and works with me at the Small Planet Institute in addition to having her own site promoting a healthy local sustainable diet for all called Eat Grub. I can’t help but think they are so creative because we would come home from work and school and they would sit and write or draw while I cooked dinner. They had the opportunity at a very young age to explore their imaginations through art and the games we made up. I strongly believe that the more we can engage children and the more we can trust them to explore their own minds the better off they will be.

SM: So you co-founded the Small Planet Institute with your daughter Anna, tell me about your work, working with your daughter and how our readers can support your work.

FML: The Institute is my daughter and I doing our thing — helping to awaken people to their own power and giving them tools to create a world that works for all of us. My most important work right now is Getting a Grip, as it speaks directly to the turn we need to make right now. I want to encourage people to take advantage of resources on the website and get re-engaged in our democracy. On the site there is also more information about Anna’s Take a Bite out of Climate change campaign. Finally, The Small Planet Fund was created to to support courageous movements bringing to life citizen-led solutions to hunger, poverty, and environmental devastation around the world.

SM: What is your favorite, recipe or meal from a Diet for a Small Planet?

FML: A couple Christmases ago Anna and I made the walnut cheddar loaf. It was a great holiday treat.

Walnut Cheddar Loaf
5 to 6 servings

2 T. oil for sauteing
2 c. chopped onion
1 c. coarsely ground black walnuts
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
2 T. lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
salt to taste
2 T. nutritional yeast
1 t. caraway seeds
1 1/4 c. cooked brown rice (1/2 c. uncooked)

Preheat oven to 350.
Heat oil and saute onions until translucent. Mix with remaining ingredients and put in an oiled loaf pan. Bake for 30 min.
Complimentary protein: rice & milk products
(suggests serving it with a cheese sauce and sprinkled with whole walnuts)

People always say they love lentil soup recipe.

Bengali Lentil Soup

1 cup red lentils
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon yellow or black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons jalapeño pepper (1/2 small), seeded
4 cups onions (2 large), finely sliced
5 teaspoons garlic (3 to 4 cloves), sliced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Add lentils to water in a large saucepan. Add turmeric and stir. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are soft. Add tomatoes and salt, and cook for a few minutes longer. Reduce heat. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet. Add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds and sauté until fragrant, for just a few minutes. Cook at a low heat and be careful not to burn the seeds. Add jalapeño, onions, and garlic, and cook until golden brown (about 10 minutes). Add onion mixture to lentils and cook for a few minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add fresh cilantro leaves to the lentil soup and cover to steep for a minute. Serve while hot.

SM: How do you stay motivated to change the world? Perhaps more importantly, how do you motivate others to change the world in the face of a global economic crisis?

FML: I think the main thing is to recognize is that this turn towards an ecological world view does not represent sacrifice. It is the way to healthier and richer lives with better and healthier jobs. The worse myth out there is that facing the climate crisis has to involve a trade off. So much of the current framing around the environmental crisis misrepresents the problem and the solutions. It feed into the stress and insecurity we feel now and leave us feeling hopeless. I want to see us shed this disempowering world view. Our collective society must make a mental shift to achieve true change.

SM: Please share anything else you would like with our readers regarding sustainable motherhood and/or living a more sustainable life?

FML: The only other thing I often say to people when they feel stymied in anyway is that they should practice the buddy system. People should find at least one person who is passionate about the change they want to see. Especially now with all these wonderful tools like meet up and face book it has become easier to find like minded individuals. Having just one buddy can empower us to engage and keep you motivated to stay at it when thing look glib.

Dreams Of My Dad - A Landslide Victory for Barack Obama

Six months ago I did not believe this could happen. My father did. He had the vision. He believed that Obama could unite the country and reestablish America as a beacon of hope in the world. Last night as I drove home from bringing the Freen to vote with his father, Fleetwood Mac's Landslide came on the radio, which incidentally is the song my father and I danced to at my wedding, so it carries some additional weight. As I listened, I was filled with hope that not only would Obama win, but that he would win by a landslide. Then for the next three hours I sat, flipping channels from network to network, as each one turned more and more States my favorite color, and then at 11:00am I too finally believed.

This morning on the way to school with the Freen, I flipped as I do everyday through the radio stations and there was an undeniable positive energy, a new enthusiasm, an indescribable joy not only in the music but in the voices of the djs. My father is a musician and I credit him both for my taste in music and my political beliefs. Last night Senator Obama was too humble or perhaps too smart to play celebratory music during his victory speech but my 12 year old brother took it upon himself to blast Queen's We Are The Champions out their apartment window on the Upper East Side and it would seem today that the radio stations are taking it upon themselves to celebrate as well. So I have put together a YouTube video mix in my father's honor because I believe for at least one day we can celebrate the power of the people, the power of those who believed America would do this and what better way than through the power of music...even a little 80s music (sorry dad you couldn't help the decade I grew up in).


Jonh Lennon - Imagine


Marvin Gaye - What's Going On


Black Eyed Peas - Where is the Love


The Beatles - Revolution


Bonnie Tylor - We Need a Hero


Madonna - Like a Prayer


Will I Am - Yes We Can


Pat Benetar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot


Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - I Wont Back Down


Journey - Don't Stop Believing


Fleetwood Mac - Landslide


Queen - We are the Champions

The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun