12th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Eating locally and seasonally is very green because it takes less traveling for the food to get to your plate, but it also has the added benefits of making the summertime heat, bugs, sun, and allergies more bearable. This article from the Statesman discusses how eating local, seasonal food can provide all sorts of benefits, from repelling bugs to preventing allergies. Here are some of the suggestions:
- To cool down: tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe and other melons, cucumber, okra, spicy peppers, and cooling herbs like mint
-To protect your skin: summer squash, cantaloupe, tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, broccoli, spinach, green peppers, and aloe
-To repel bugs: basil, rosemary, lemongrass, foods rich in garlic and vitamins B1 and B12
-To prevent allergies: okra and local honey
photo credit
12th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
A couple of weekends ago I decided to try and fix up some of our dinning room chairs. Several of the chairs had had beverages spilled on them over the years, and being covered in an off-white fabric, they were looking pretty dingy. Plus the paint on the chairs was chipped and old. So I took the seat covers off (they just unscrewed), repainted the chairs ( Krylon sells low VOC spray-paint), and recovered the chairs with some new fabric ($10 at JoAnns – enough to cover 3 chairs). It was pretty easy, especially with the staple gun, and much cheaper than buying new chairs.
some tea stains 
post stapling
before and after
“Cutting Down on Stuff” is part on an ongoing attempt by Carsi and I to try to cut down on buying new consumer goods to avoid creating more “stuff” in the world.
12th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 3 Comments
Check out the new edition of Paul Robbin’s Austin Environmental Directory 2010 – it has everything you would ever want to know about any environmental issue affecting Austin, and is extremely thorough. Want to know about where in Austin to recycle hard-to-recycle items? Or what restaurants are vegetarian friendly in Austin? Interested in joining a volunteer group? Or want to know what rebates are available in Austin for environmentally friendly purchases? Or a list of all the parks and farmer’s markets in Austin with maps included? It has all of this and much more, so check out the online edition or pick one up at Whole Foods, Magnolia Cafe, or Book People.
And here’s a Statesman article about the author and new directory.
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