• Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds – Concord, MA
  In addition to selling ‘pasture raised’ eggs, they also sell pasture raised chicken and pork, free range beef and lamb.
• Allandale Farm – Brookline, MA
  Sign up for an Egg CSA share and starting in June, for $100 you’ll receive one dozen eggs for 20 weeks. The eggs come from their free-range chickens.
• Chip-In Farm – Bedford, MA
  Inquire about the Fresh Eggs from their ‘free running’ chickens.
• Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm – Hardwick, MA
  You can purchase their humanely raised chicken, lamb, beef, and pork year round through their CSA programs or at our farmers’ market locations or by special order with winter delivery available.

Struggling to find farm fresh foods in your area? Visit FromTheFarm.com a new online Farmers Market where you can buy farm fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, flowers, fish, gift baskets, and more – all shipped direct to you from the farmer who grew the product for fresher food. Nothing is ever stored in a warehouse, just direct from the farmer to your kitchen.

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks

Well, perhaps for those of us in the Boston area, there is the new Somerville Winter Farmers Market to tide us over! Looking forward to dropping by this weekend. There are promises of freshly backed breads, deep-freeze proof root vegetables like turnips, parsnips and beets, anti-biotic free meats, fig scones and honey cakes, and, drum-roll, Massachusetts produced wines from Zoll Cellars, Coastal Vineyards, and Turtle Creek Winery!

Very exciting news. Hope to see you there!

The Somerville Winter Farmers Market takes place at the recently renovated Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA.
Open Saturdays 10am -2pm January 8th through March 26th.

For me it’s a holistic thing, good food makes me feel good and foods that have a smaller carbon footprint make me feel even better about what I am eating – looking at it as healthy for my body, my heart, my mind and the planet. One easy way to take a step closer to a healthier diet is to adopt the lifestyle of Meat Free Mondays. It’s good for your health because it cuts down on the amount of saturated fat in your diet (which aids in weight loss and lowering risk of diseases like cancer and diabetes) and good for the planet because the meat industry is one of the biggest generators of greenhouse gases, a huge consumer of water and nearly half of all the pesticides used in the US are used in meat production!

I am for the most part already a 2/3 vegetarian, but dinners still are centered around meat, so committing to Meatless Mondays is a good way to ease my way into a less meat-centric diet.

Here’s a typical Meatless Monday:

Breakfast is the easy one for me – a bowl of hot oat bran, raisins and a giant grape fruit.

Lunch – a fresh pita from the local bakery with a homemade hummuss spread (thanks Nate – he taught me how easy it is to make, can of chick peas, dash of salt, splash of olive oil and a splash of lemon – add tahini and or garlic for a more seasoned taste), stuffed with a greek salad – lettuce, pepperocini’s, olives, feta, carrots and cucumbers; a piece of fresh fruit.

Dinner – typically when I think Meatless dinner, I go straight for the spaghetti, but here are 3 meatless mondays recipes that will make you forget all about the meat!

1) Last-Minute Vegetarian Lasagna (Courtesy of Real Simple)
Ingredients:
* 1 26-ounce jar pasta sauce
* 2 30-ounce bags frozen large cheese ravioli, unthawed
* 1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water (best way to remove the water is to thaw it, drain it in a colander and then squeeze out excess moisture with your hands)
* 1 8-ounce bag shredded mozzarella
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350° F. Coat a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with cooking spray and spoon in a third of the sauce.
2. Arrange 12 ravioli on top and scatter the spinach over them. Top with half of each cheese. Cover with another layer of ravioli and the remaining sauce and cheese.
3. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 to 10 minutes more or until bubbly.

We like to spice ours up with a little jalapeno or red pepper flakes mixed in with the sauce.

2) Black Bean Veggie Burgers (w/salad & roasted rosemary potatoes) – (Courtesy of Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients
* 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
* 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
* 1/2 onion, cut into wedges
* 3 cloves garlic, peeled
* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1 tablespoon cumin
* 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
* 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Directions
1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

3) Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad – (Courtesy of Mark Bittman)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cooked quinoa or other small-kernel grain or 1 cup raw
1 large or 2 medium (about 1 pound) sweet potatoes
Salt
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
1/4 cup minced red onion or shallot
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic, sherry, or red wine vinegar
1/4 cup minced fresh chives or parsley leaves

Directions:
1. If you haven’t already, cook the quinoa or other grain. Drain in a strainer and rinse. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato and dice it into 1/2-inch or smaller pieces. Cook it in boiling salted water to cover until tender, about 15 minutes; drain well.
2. Toss together the potato, quinoa, bell pepper, and onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Whisk the oil and vinegar together and toss the salad with about half of this mixture; add all or some of the rest to taste. Taste and adjust the seasoning, garnish with the chives and serve.

I am obsessed with quinoa and this from the master of cooking made easy, Mark Bittman, is divine. Although, my husband constantly complains of being hungry after a dinner of quinoa, so you might need something hearty to pair with this meal.

Here are some great reference books for exploring vegetarian cooking and learning how to incorporate more vegetarian meals into your diet:

• The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman
• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
• The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores Will Devour by Kim O’Donnel

Still struggling to cook meatless? Our recommendation – opt for Indian or Thai take-out, they’ve got plenty of delicious vegetarian dishes! Mmm Ghana Masala! Or try out some Indian cooking of your own with these 12 Vegetarian Curry Recipes.

Every year, I drop the phone books left on my doorstep directly into the recycling bin. Honestly, I cannot recall the last time I used a phone book – I never use phone books, I’d rather look something up online than pull out the phone book and try to find what I am looking for. It is an absolute shame all of the waste that they generate.

I did manage to track down a few of sites that help you get your name on the ‘do not send’ list: Super Media Directory Opt Out, Yellow Pages Association and Yellow Pages Goes Green. Although won’t know until next year if any of these work……

Photo credit: Wallula Junction

Tired of replacing your ink cartridges or looking to save money on ink cartidges? Well, Dutch design firm SPRANQ, has developed a new “ecofont” that uses 20%  less ink than standard fonts. Their big idea sprang from looking at  “Dutch holey cheese.”  The theory being that you’ll save ink where the tiny holes are punched out with out compromising the verdana-esque font.  Although not recommend for say, your resume, the eco font is a great alternative for interoffice documents, notes, rough drafts etc. And it’s free.  Download your free copy at Ecofont.

He discussed a whole host of ways to curb your carbon foot print, some easier than others. I put together a ‘to do list’ based on his lecture, a few small steps towards my own carbon neutrality Maybe you’ll find something on my ‘to do list’ that you can check off too (I just checked off two!):

Quantify it, first off the key to reducing your carbon footprint is quantifying it; “what gets measured gets done.” So, get a sense of how many kilowatt hours, how many gallons of gas, how many gallons of water, etc you use and a month and the dollar amount per unit. So, when you cut out, say, 10 gallons of gas a week, you are saving about $10 a month cutting your carbon footprint at the same time.For example, I recently learned that a plasma TV, left in standby mode otherwise known as ‘off,’ consumes 1452.4 kilowatt hours. That stat alone doesn’t mean much to me, but when you tell me that 1452.4 kilowatt hours is the equivalent of $159.76 a year, now that is something I can understand! So, if instead of just shutting off my TV when I go to bed or work, if I actually on plugged it, I could see a huge energy savings. Now think of households that have 2 or 3 flat screen tv’s and the savings really adds up. To find out the cost of other standby appliances check out this chart by Good Magazine. And if you really want to measure your energy usage, think about investing in a TED Home Energy Monitor (www.theenergydetective.com/store) that displays your current energy usage.

Insulate your electrical outlets – it never occurred to me that heat could be lost through the outlets in your walls. Now all of my outlets are insulated with foam outlet insulators. I got them 5 for $1 at the show, but you can find them at any home improvement store.

Remove your air conditioning window units in the winter months, otherwise it is the equivalent of leaving window open all winter long. I know it is a complete pain to lug that beast out of the window, but it really makes no sense to leave them in year round. (okay, this one is not on my list, I don’t have an air conditioner, but I cannot tell you how many of these I see hanging out of windows in the northeast just blowing energy and dollars out the window)

Turn your water heater down to 120 degrees If you can turn you water on and it scalds you, then water is too high!!!!! And better yet, when you go on vacation, set your water heater to vacation mode and save ever more.

Get a free energy audit from your utility company, or better yet get a professional audit for a more complete diagnosis (runs $300-600) using a blower door test and infrared technology. They often seal some your leaks as part of the audit, typically, saving you 10% on energy costs on the spot and potentially much more down the road.

Test your toilet for leaks an easy way to test for leaks, drop a few drops of food dye into your tank, if the dye leaks into the bowl, then you have got a leak and should reseal your toilet. No leaks here!

Put a lid on it and only heat what you need, often times people heat up way more water than necessary to boil pasta and they boil the water without the lid on it. Heating up water in the smallest pot possible, with the least amount of water and with a lid will cut down on energy use.These are just a few examples of really easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint and save money.

Preserve is phenomenal company that has been using reclaiming #5 plastics (think yogurt containers and tubs of butter and even Preserve’s own toothbrushes and razors) since 1996 to create a whole host of high quality products from toothbrushes and razors to colanders and cutting boards. And now they’ll be instrumental in keeping the plastics, carbons and ion exchange ions found in Brita water filters out of the landfills. It pains me to think of all the filters that could have been kept out of landfills over the last 17 years.

To find a drop off location near you click here. If there are no locations nearby, you can mail your filters directly to Preserve. Here’s how:

1. Dry the filter by shaking off excess water and setting it in a dry place for at least three days.
2. Wrap the filters in a plastic grocery bag, then pack it in a box. (Boxes and bags will be recycled.) If possible, send multiple filters at a time via ground shipping.
3. Mail filters via ground shipping to: Preserve Gimme 5, 823 NYS Rte 13 Cortland, NY 13045

As luck would would have it, I bumped into the Director of Sustainability for a nearby prep school, who responded with a yes and no. Yes, if composting is not an option and sending your waste to the trash is the only alternative and no, as energy is wasted, water is wasted and the matter must be chemically treated in a sewer treatment plant instead of naturally biodegrading chemically-free in a compost heap.

It was agreed that the absolute worst thing you can do is send organic waste off to a landfill.  When organic matter is packed into landfills, the natural decomposition process is hindered due to insufficient exposure to microorganisms, oxygen or sunlight.  This significantly slows the process, but more alarmingly, creates copious amounts of green house gases as instead of off-gassing carbon dioxide, methane is emitted.  So nature’s pollution free recycling process becomes a threat to our environment.

So the take home tip here–compost if you can, use the disposal if you must, and NEVER put organic waste in the trash.  A related tip from my father-in-law, NEVER put eggshells down your disposal as they are so light that they tend to stick to your pipes and is the main cause of clogged pipes!!