6 Not Extreme Habits for Eco-Eaters

{recycled canvas eco lunch-sack from a little lark, etsy}

Writing the Clean and Green Ingredients portion of my new book, which I just finished, was one of the hardest parts to write. That was in part because there is so much controversy and misconception around the idea of eco-eating, not to mention stigma, good or bad, depending on where you come from. I can see my dad's face every time I bring up the topic. I think he believes I'm going to tell him to line dry his paper towels and use them again. Lord knows I'm not. I'm a bit of a hippie, but moderately so. 

I admire folks like Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Everyday, and my smart friend Louisa Shafia, who wrote Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life, who really broke down food labels like organic and fair trade. I admire Louisa for pushing us to ditch our paper towel habit for good. I'm still working on that one.  

Still, even after 10 years working and training in food, nutrition and sustainable issues, I find all the labels and bylaws of eco-eating can make my head spin. They are important to try to understand, but here's what's most important--DO YOUR BEST. Do your best to eat mindfully, for your health and the health of everyone around you.

My best is committing to this super simple eco-eaters creed, which I hope you'll adopt, too. 

Six Not-Extreme-Habits for Eco-Eating 

1. Cook. Plastic take-out containers along are enough advertisement for cooking at home most days and nights of the week. It's tastier and healthier, too. 
2. Shop local. Opt for the food less traveled, which is often cheaper, full of vital nutrients and fresh-picked flavor. 
3. Buy and cook in season. Commit to eating what nature intended, when nature intended. All foods are the most nutrient-dense and flavorful in season.
4. BYO-everything. Bring your own wheels (bicycles rock!), your own water bottle, your own market bag, your own lunch to work. Bring your glass milk bottles back and buy olive oil in refillable jugs. Every little bit helps.
5.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Everything from storing leftover soup in recycled (sterilized) apple sauce jars to turning tin tomato cans into herb planters is a service to every other eater. Find new uses for old things in the kitchen and the garden.
6. Grow something. Anything. Trees, herbs, vegetables, even a house plant. One grown up tree can provide enough oxygen for a family of four. A 8-Square-Foot garden can provide a great many vegetables for two adults. Herbs grown in a window box save the shipping and storage of cut herbs that might otherwise go bad in your fridge. {Join our 8-Square-Foot Challenge this year!} 

I'm not going to win a Pulitzer prize for this basic list, and for sure, no one is winning one for bringing their recycled canvas lunch sack to work each day, either. But we can all use reminders that our efforts mean something. I hope our best gets us all closer to the point of all the labels and eco-efforts in the first place--cleaner, more delicious, more sustaining ways of eating we can look forward to enjoying again tomorrow. 

{Earth Day Weekend Project} Plant Raspberries

Last summer, our first in our house upstate, we chanced upon a roadside plant sale with a sign advertising raspberries, $5. Baby Greta had already established herself as a serious raspberry lover, like her daddy, and since it's always been my life-long dream to step outside the backyard into an orchard, or at least a bramble, I was in. I didn't know a thing about planting raspberries, but at $5 a tiny bush {and an old coffee can to leave your cash in}, there was very little risk. Between May and September, Greta and I picked handful upon handful of raspberries off those tiny bushes the grew, in full sun, up to my waist.

This Sunday is Earth Day, the perfect time to put something in the ground that will feed you and your family for years to come. Raspberries need full sun and some trellising, but beyond that, very little from you except water. Plant them as a hedge row, along a fence or any tucked away corner of the yard where they are easy to trellis, and ideally somewhere so close to the kitchen door you can pluck them off the bushes just minutes before you pile them on your weekend waffles or crepes. Spring is the best time to plant raspberries. Before you do, here's what you should know: 

look for.....

Everbearing Raspberries {sometimes called fall-bearing}, which bear fruit slowly but constantly throughout the growing season.  Raspberries come in all sizes and colors from red, purple, golden, or white varieties, so choose your favorite, or plant a bush of each if you have the space. The best sources to buy plants are always your local nursery, where they are likely to sell or at least know what varieties will grow well in your region, but you'll also find them a Home Depot and even some grocery stores, depending on where you live.

raspberries need.....

Raspberries need full sun, plenty of water and light pruning once or twice a year. They grow well in most soils, but prefer sandy loam soil with lots of organic matter {compost and hummus} added to the soil. The key elements are sun, space to grow year by year, and a sturdy trellising system that keeps the canes {branches} off the ground and allows for air to circulate and dry the berries during rainy spells. Plant raspberry bushes or canes in a shallow holes 2 feet apart, with 10 feet between each row. Cover the roots with about 3 inches of soil, not more. Prune each spring by removing tall canes and any weak ones, and prune again the fall after the last {or largest} harvest. 

eat them.....

Raspberries are loaded with fiber, vitamins A, C, folate, antioxidants and minerals. The seeds also contain vitamin E. Eat them whole on top of pancakes, waffles, crepes or ice cream, stirred into muffins or made into pies, cobblers or buckles. They are extremely good eating, and the most healthful, straight from the bush.

{Grow} The 8 Square Feet Challenge + Garden Tool Giveaway

 {Photo by Dana Gallagher for Whole Living}

What if I told you all the produce in this beautiful plate of pasta was grown in just 8 square feet, in Brooklyn no less?

The recipe for this Vegetable Garden Linguine comes from Whole Living magazine, one of my favorite mags ever. In this issue, they challenged several Brooklyn-based gardeners to grow a feast in just 8 square feet. Not only are the recipes in this story so simply good, the planting strategy attached to each recipe is incredibly practical and easy to execute today. I mean truly, today. You could head to your local nursery directly after reading the article and put your plan into action. It's that simple. 

You have to admit, if we can do it in NYC you really can do it anywhere. With a single raised beds or several pots, just 2 by 4-feet in space, you just might amaze yourself at what you can grow, too. 

I was so inspired by the can-do spirit of this article that this Earth Day, and all summer long, I'm taking the challenge and asking you to do it with me. Leave a comment here to commit to grow at least one homegrown produce-based feast this summer (butter, olive oil, eggs, pasta, cheese, salt, pepper, spices and other pantry staples are free-bees). Check back with me from time to time and tell me how your garden is growing via comments (and leave your names, I want to learn about you!). 

When your feast is complete, send photos of your garden, the meal and your recipe to grow(at)edibleliving(dot)com. The Edible Living team and I will choose a winner based on resourcefulness, creativity, and of course taste. I'll feature the winning recipe and photos right here, with your story. And, to keep your garden growing, I'll send the winner, and the two runners up each one of my favorite gardening tools from Williams-Sonomas' new gardening line, Agrarian, like this gorgeous Joseph Bentley cultivator, below. 

Okay, let the growing begin. Who's In? 

{Happy Earth Day!}

{photos by Dasha Wright and Robert Jacobs}

Up north, we wait a long time for garden season, but this year the wait seemed even longer. Last summer, as my belly grew round with the babe, I spent hours and hours tending our small community garden plot, laughing with wonder as the little one inside me kicked and squirmed. When I finally met our giggly girl, Greta, I couldn't wait to take her back there to see our garden with her own blue eyes. 

She was born in November, and the garden sat under a pile of snow for months on end. We'd walk by often during these long winter days, checking for peeks of green, but still the snow fell. 

Finally, five months to the day after Greta was born, we got a rare April day so warm that we headed outside with her hands and feet bare. As she is everywhere in life, she was eager, engaged, reaching out for everything with her curious hands, delighting in the textures and colors of the world around her.  I was thrilled that this place I love seemed just as full as wonder and discovery for her, with more curiosities to offer her than anything she'd seen inside four walls.

We spent that day at the house of our friends Robert and Dasha,  both photographers, who captured Greta's first earth day on film in their own sprawling gardens ~  those first moments as her bare feet touched the soil, her tiny hands reaching for the green shoots of spring onions, and even the I'm pooped mamma tears that ended our garden play-date before I wiped her muddy toes and tucked her into the corner of their plush couch for her afternoon nap. 

It's a rare child who doesn't delight in the texture of warm, damp earth between their toes, the dance of poppies nodding in the wind, and the close attention of their parents sitting side by side with them in the soil.  I wrote about how and why to make your garden a special place for your babes in Mothering Magazine, but in case you missed it, here are my favorite three tips for gardening with a child of any age:

Schedule Garden Time
kids thrive on schedules and predictability.  Schedule a time each day or week to spend in the garden with your child.  Your little one will recognize it as a special bonding time and place where you work as a team to grow healthy foods together.

Build a Food Vocabulary
Babies and young children love the sound of their mother’s voice.  Talk to them while you garden; explain what you are doing and give names to the tools you use and veggies you grow, helping them build their nutrition and food vocabulary season by season.

Designate a Bed In the Garden
No matter how young your little gardener is, pick a patch of soil just for them where the rules and rows of gardening don’t apply. Throw caution to the wind and let your littles dig and experiment at their whim, giving them a sense of independence and pride in what they grow.

There's never been a better time to get started gardening as a family than on Earth Day. You don't need a sprawling garden or any fancy gardening gear, just a few seeds, and a pot, and a little one you love. For more tips on getting started, here's my post on five gardening basics {click here} to grow on. 

Happy Earth Day!

* Special thanks to Robert and Dasha for sharing their little oasis and beautiful photographs with us. *