16th November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article that I saw yesterday but didn’t have time to post. It’s about a project approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality despite the objections of the Texas Railroad Commission and “every state and local official representing Montgomery County, and in spite of an administrative law judge’s recommendation to deny the permit because the well might pollute groundwater.” The article goes into a lot of detail about the backers of the project, who are Perry contributors, and what that may have had to do with approval of the project. The article states:
“These guys are used to getting what they want — you want a project to go through, you donate,” said Rebecca Kaiser, a Conroe-area homeowner opposed to the project. “It’s scary to think that this is going to end up doing something to our drinking water.”
Perry’s presidential campaign opponents have criticized him for “crony capitalism,” the appearance of a pay-to-play culture that gets favorable state government treatment for his campaign donors. Perry also has been criticized for state environmental regulation that appears to put business ahead of environmental quality and safety.
The article goes on to say:
The TexCom project became controversial not just because it was a waste injection well. It was an injection well in the old Conroe oil field where hundreds of oil wells had been drilled since the 1930s, potentially puncturing deep formations where the waste would be injected. Montgomery County homeowners and public officials are concerned that the injection well could pollute the aquifer that provides Conroe and the county with its drinking water.
Check out the whole thing!
9th November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out the events for the 5th Annual Edible Austin Eat Drink Local week here. Most of the events require the purchase of a ticket, but below is one event on December 7th that’s free:
Better Bites of Austin presents Local Food Holiday Gift Fair, hosted at The Domain II. Sample products from our best local food and beverage artisans and buy locally made treats for holiday gift giving. 4–9 pm.
8th November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had a really detailed article recently in which Austin Resource Recovery Director Bob Gedert was interviewed. Gedert talked about plans to expand recycling in Austin, and I thought these were exciting ideas to get Austin to zero waste by 2040. Here’s an excerpt from the article (I’ve highlighted some interesting suggestions):
The city started a program in 2008 that allows owners or renters of single-family homes to put all their recyclables, unsorted, in big curbside carts. Gedert recently signed deals with two local firms to sort and process those goods well into the future.
In the next few years, Gedert wants to add more goods — such as durable plastics, aluminum foil and small scrap metal items — to the recyclables accepted at the curb.
Austin already collects yard trimmings at the curb and turns them into Dillo Dirt at a city facility. But the plan calls for starting a program in 2015 to collect more organic goods — food scraps, yard trimmings and untreated wood — at the curb in a cart separate from recyclables. The city would compost those goods or hire a company to do so.
Currently, organic materials make up more than 40 percent of the trash Austin sends to landfills. That means a lot of material that could have another life as rich soil is going to waste, Gedert said.
The city collects recyclables every two weeks and trash carts once a week, but Gedert wants to swap those schedules about 2016 — in the hope that if Austinites are recycling and composting more, they’ll have less trash that can be hauled away less often.
The city also plans to add a second location, in North Austin , where residents can drop off hazardous items such as paint, cleaners, batteries and pesticides for the department to dispose of properly. The current location is in South Austin .
Aiming to make reuse simpler, Gedert wants to set up four “eco-depots” run by nonprofits where residents could drop off or take items that could be reused or repaired, such as furniture and toys, and creating a resource center where people could bring goods suitable for classrooms that teachers could retrieve for free.
These are all really great ideas I think. Adding durable plastics to the list of things that could be recyclable would be great, and I’ll admit, I thought aluminum foil was already accepted so adding that would be great too. Making it easier to get rid of hazardous materials correctly would also be a huge improvement. The eco-depots sounds like a great idea although some aspects of them may duplicate the efforts of Goodwill, but I think other cities have similar programs despite also having Goodwill/the Salvation Army.
Gedert also talks about possibly implementing a per-gallon trash fee, rather than the current rate configuration which is a base rate plus a rate for whatever size trash cart you use. I think getting rid of the base rate and more directly assigning costs based on causation also makes a lot of sense. Check out the whole article!
3rd November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Texas Tribune had this article today that states that U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul’ property from October 2010 through September 2011 was the sixth-largest water user among all Austin residential customers and that “The McCauls’ water consumption, 1.4 million gallons over those 12 months, comes to about 15 times the consumption of the average Austin home over that time.” This is not the first time he has made the list of top 10 water users in Austin, which in the past he has blamed on undetected leaks. Wouldn’t it bother you though if your water bill was unusually high for several years? Hmm… Check out the whole article, and the comments are pretty funny too.
1st November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I tried out this new recipe last night for butternut squash and roasted-garlic bisque and really enjoyed it. It was pretty easy to make with a hand blender, and it had relatively few ingredients. I like to try and make recipes that use up a lot of things from our CSA veggie box, and don’t like to buy a lot of extra vegetables, so while I did buy some carrots from HEB for this recipe, I opted to leave the celery out since I knew we probably wouldn’t eat the leftover celery. I followed the advice of some of the reviewers on Epicurious and roasted the squash first while I roasted the garlic, and then took it out of the oven at about 30 minutes. This made it easier to get the squash separated from its skin and cut down on the time the coup had to simmer. I also left out the sage and I made this vegetarian friendly by using vegetable broth. Here’s the original recipe from Epicurious:
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Rub cut surfaces of garlic with oil. Put halves back together to reassemble heads. Wrap each tightly in foil; bake until tender, about 40 minutes. Cool garlic in foil.
Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots and celery; sauté until onions are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add squash, broth and 2 tablespoons sage. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered until squash is tender, about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, unwrap garlic. Squeeze from skin into small bowl. Discard skin. Mash garlic with fork until smooth.
Stir garlic into soup. Working in batches, purée soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Refrigerate uncovered until cold. Cover and keep refrigerated. Bring to simmer before continuing.) Stir in 1/2 cup cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer soup to tureen. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon cream.
Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sage.
1st November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I came across this article “Plastic Bags are Killing Us” by Katharine Mieszkowsi and found it very interesting and a good reminder of why Austin would consider banning plastic bags. Here’s just an excerpt, but I encourage you to read Mieszkowsi’s full article as it’s very educational and well written. I’ve left in the hyperlinks she included, which are interesting to explore as well, and I’ve highlighted some parts I found most intriguing:
The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. They’re made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recentstudy found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they’ve been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It’s equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil.
Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide — about 2 percent in the U.S. — and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend eternity in landfills, but that’s not always the case. “They’re so aerodynamic that even when they’re properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and become litter,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. It’s as litter that plastic bags have the most baleful effect. And we’re not talking about your everyday eyesore.
Once aloft, stray bags cartwheel down city streets, alight in trees, billow from fences like flags, clog storm drains, wash into rivers and bays and even end up in the ocean, washed out to sea. Bits of plastic bags have been found in the nests of albatrosses in the remote Midway Islands. Floating bags can look all too much like tasty jellyfish to hungry marine critters. According to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. The conservation group estimates that 50 percent of all marine litter is some form of plastic. There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In theNorthern Pacific Gyre, a great vortex of ocean currents, there’s now a swirling mass of plastic trash about 1,000 miles off the coast of California, which spans an area that’s twice the size of Texas, including fragments of plastic bags. There’s six times as much plastic as biomass, including plankton and jellyfish, in the gyre. “It’s an endless stream of incessant plastic particles everywhere you look,” says Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of education and research for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation,which studies plastics in the marine environment. “Fifty or 60 years ago, there was no plastic out there.”
Following the lead of countries like Ireland, Bangladesh, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan, some U.S. cities are striking back against what they see as an expensive, wasteful and unnecessary mess. This year, San Francisco and Oakland outlawed the use of plastic bags in large grocery stores and pharmacies, permitting only paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled content or otherwise compostable bags. The bans have not taken effect yet, but already the city of Oakland is being sued by an association of plastic bag manufacturers calling itself the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling. Meanwhile, other communities across the country, including Santa Monica, Calif., New Haven, Conn., Annapolis, Md., and Portland, Ore., are considering taking drastic legislative action against the bags. In Ireland, a now 22-cent tax on plastic bags has slashed their use by more than 90 percent since 2002. In flood-prone Bangladesh, where plastic bags choked drainage systems, the bags have been banned since 2002.
The problem with plastic bags isn’t just where they end up, it’s that they never seem to end. “All the plastic that has been made is still around in smaller and smaller pieces,” says Stephanie Barger, executive director of the Earth Resource Foundation, which has undertaken a Campaign Against the Plastic Plague. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade. That means unless they’ve been incinerated — a noxious proposition — every plastic bag you’ve ever used in your entire life, including all those bags that the newspaper arrives in on your doorstep, even on cloudless days when there isn’t a sliver of a chance of rain, still exists in some form, even fragmented bits, and will exist long after you’re dead.
And further down in the article:
The only salient answer to paper or plastic is neither. Bring a reusable canvas bag, says Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. However, if you have to make a choice between the two, she recommends taking whichever bag you’re more likely to reuse the most times, since, like many products, the production of plastic or paper bags has the biggest environmental impact, not the disposal of them. “Reusing is a better option because it avoids the purchase of another product.”
31st October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Elections are November 8, and early voting is ongoing throughout Austin. One of the propositions on the ballot, Proposition 8, involves water conservation. Check out this wiki article on Proposition 8 and read about the pros and cons, educate yourself, and take the opportunity to vote. Check out this link for a list of early voting locations.
28th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
In discussing Austin possibly implementing a plastic bag ban, a question that comes up is why the City of Austin just doesn’t expand our curbside recycling program to include plastic bags. KUT had this article which explains why the City doesn’t offer this (basically because it’s difficult and costly), and gives some insight on how even some companies that are able to recycle plastic bags (making, for example, decking material) require that the bags be very clean first, because it’s too costly for those companies to clean and dry the bags prior to recycling. Here’s an excerpt:
Unlike other plastics, the city does not accept the plastic bags in its single-stream recycling program, although some big-box stores collect them.
The main reason you can’t recycle plastic bags in your blue bin is that they clog up the processing equipment.
“The plastic bags wrap around anything that rolls and turns,” said Bob Gedert, director of Austin Resource Recovery, the city’s department for both solid waste and recycling.
“The workers have to shut down the line and actually pull and cut and remove all the plastic bags from the line,” he said. That costs the city $175,000 a year.
Gedert says that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to reuse and recycle the bags. Some stores such as H-E-B, Wal-Mart and Randall’s collect them.
That free service really took off three years ago, when major Austin retailers voluntarily cut back on plastic bag use as a way to stave off a city ban then.
Another reason Resource Recovery doesn’t collect plastic bags is that ensuring that the bags are clean and dry is pretty labor-intensive, says Eric Lomardi, executive director of Eco-Cycle, a nonprofit recycler in Boulder, Colo.
Eco-Cycle works with the city of Boulder to accept plastic bags. But Lomardi says they do not process them.
“When you come here you have to talk to an Eco-Cycle staff person before we let you leave us anything, because the materials that we recycle here — plastic bags, Styrofoam — a lot of things that don’t make money,” Lomardi told KUT News. “We can’t afford to clean it up for industry, so you have to do it correctly. And we educate you face-to-face about how plastic bags have to be prepared for us to be able to recycle them.”
And while you can currently take your bags to large stores like an HEB or Walmart and recycle them there, given that the bags need to be clean and dry in order to be recycled, it would be interesting to know what percentage of what is collected in Austin is actually in usable condition for the companies collecting bags from those large stores….
The article also notes that “Retailers argue that if plastic bags are banned, stores will no longer have any incentive to accept them.” Hmm…I doubt the distribution of bags is in any way comparable to the number collected through the local large stores…I’m guessing there’s not such a huge amount of participation in the recycling program to begin with compared to the thousands of plastic bags in Austin that are distributed each month.
26th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had a recent article I was reading today about how some other cities have implemented a plastic bag ban. It’s pretty interesting to see how cities in Texas, California, Oregon, etc. have handled this. Below is a summary of what the Statesman found by interviewing representatives from cities across the U.S., but you can read the article to find details about specific cities:
Cities and environmental groups say the bags clog drainage systems, jam recycling machinery, are ingested by marine life and take eons to decompose in landfills. Plastic bag producers counter that the bags are convenient, reusable and can be recycled into other bags or materials such as decking.
The American-Statesman spoke to officials in a dozen cities about the scope of their bans and whether they’ve been effective. A few patterns emerged:
• The bans are varied, some applying to all stores, and some covering only large retailers.
• Several of the cities have also imposed a fee on paper bags, which some say take more fuel and energy to make and transport than plastic.
• Most cities put their bans in effect months or years after passing them, to give retailers time to phase out their stock of plastic bags and retrain employees.
• Several cities did outreach and education efforts, such as airing radio ads and giving away reusable bags, to alert customers to the change.
• Because many of the bans are less than a year or two old, there isn’t much data available on whether they’ve worked well.
On Monday there was a public meeting for Austinites to comment on the proposed ban, but this even more recent Statesman article notes that before that meeting, Mayor Lee Leffingwell stated that “The decision to (have a ban) has basically been made,” and that “[W]e want to do everything we can to minimize the impact. We don’t want to create a hardship.”
City Council staff should have a proposal ready soon for a December or January vote by City Council.
25th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
APL is having a new program that starts this Saturday and runs till March 3, 2012, to encourage people to borrow books from the library rather than buying books, which wastes more paper. Their website says all ages can participate, and by participating you may win a prize. It sounds like a great program to encourage kids to participate in. They’re having a kickoff party this Saturday, where there will be crafts for all ages and you’ll get a free redbud seedling. Here’s the info:
Attention tree lovers of all ages, the Leaf for a Leaf program promotes borrowing library books to reduce the number of trees that are cut down to make paper. Learn to improve the air we breathe, minimize environmental impact, and enhance your surroundings. The program celebrates trees in the late fall through the early winter because it is the best time to plant them in Central Texas. This year Leaf for a Leaf takes place from October 29 through March 3. Make sure to participate in our Leaf for a Leaf reading contest. Turn in a card at the Twin Oaks Branch, 1800 South Fifth Street, for every five books you read. The more you read, the better chance you have of winning a big prize. So what are you waiting for? Start reading a leaf for a leaf now!
October 29 from 1 to 3 p.m.
Leaf for a Leaf Kickoff Party @ Twin Oaks Branch, 1800 S. Fifth St.
Let’s celebrate Arbor Day! Join us for tree-themed kid’s crafts and a terrarium workshop for teens and adults. That’s right, you can walk away with your very own terrarium. Everyone who attends will receive a free redbud seedling. Austin Parks and Recreation’s Urban Forestry experts will be on hand to teach you how to care for your new tree-to-be. There will also be cookies for all.
25th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
For this weeks vegetarian meal, I wanted to share this Epicurious recipe for chard, onion, and swiss chard frittata. The original recipe had some sausage in it, which I left out and the flavor wasn’t lacking at all as a meatless dish. This was extremely easy to assemble and tasted delicious. Plus our CSA veggie box came with swiss chard and onion so I didn’t have to run out and get anything.
This was supposed to be an appetizer, but I made it our main course. An egg dish like a frittata or omelet is an especially good vegetarian meal for a busy weeknight since you can quickly whip it up, sneak in some veggies, get some protein, and usually get away with only dirtying one or two dishes.
Here’s the recipe, as modified to be vegetarian:
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray 8 x 8 x 2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add Swiss chard and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Drain. Finely chop chard, then place in kitchen towel and squeeze dry. Set chard aside.
Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to skillet and sauté until soft, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Whisk eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in large bowl to blend. Add chard, then feta; stir to blend. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish.
Bake frittata until set in center, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer baking dish to rack and cool frittata 15 to 20 minutes. Place platter atop dish with frittata. Using oven mitts, hold baking dish and platter firmly together and invert frittata onto platter; place another platter atop frittata and invert again so that frittata is right side up; serve warm or at room temperature. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Place frittata pieces on rimmed baking sheet. Cover and chill. Rewarm in 325°F oven until heated through, about 10 minutes.
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Frittata-Bites-with-Chard-Sausage-and-Feta-359351#ixzz1bpnIpPYP
21st October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
It’s been awhile since I posted a new way to cut down on stuff, i.e., a way to cut down on buying new consumer goods to avoid creating more “stuff” in the world, but I thought I’d share my positive experience at the Austin Shoe Hospital with you and hopefully others will give them a try rather than trashing their old shoes.
Generally I wear black pumps to work every single day, although sometimes I’ll change into black flats if I’m going to walk to lunch or even just walk to my car. Still, even with mostly just indoor wear, the heels of my pumps generally don’t last too long and before I know it, the rubber tip on my heels start to wear away and the metal post that makes up the heel of a pair of high heels eventually starts to show through. At that point the metal post can get caught on carpets, dent hardwood floors, and just looks pretty bad in general.
This happened somewhat recently to a pair of black, chunky, Steve Madden pumps. Since I had worn these shoes comfortably for almost a year and a half (!) before they started to look really bad, I thought it would be worth trying to save them. I also had a pair of sandals whose soles were separating, so one day at lunch I stopped by the Austin Shoe Hospital on Congress to see what they could do with these two pairs.
I was told that it would cost $20 to fix my sandals, and advised it probably wasn’t worth it. Even repaired, the sandals would have still been very flimsy and impractical for long walks, so I decided to take their advice and not fix them. I appreciated that, rather than try to make $20, they were upfront about the value of fixing them. Instead, I agreed to just have my pumps fixed, which they said they could fix for $10 – since those shoes had always been so comfortable (or as comfortable as high heels can be), it seemed worth it to have them fixed.
My shoes were ready in 3 days, and they look good! You can still tell by looking at the inside of the shoe that they’re old, but from the outside they almost look like brand new shoes. Not only did they fix the heels, the people at Austin Shoe Hospital shined my shoes as well. Good as new, and if they last for another 1.5 years it will certainly be money well spent!
20th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman today has an article about how the drought has been affecting local farmers and will continue to affect those consumers who try to support locally grown food. For example, the article says that “The Del Valle farm is selling Wheatsville about nine dozen eggs per week, compared with the normal 75 to 100 dozen” and that “Boggy Creek Farms has provided produce to Whole Foods since 1991, but this year they couldn’t grow enough vegetables to do so” as they had to commit what they were able to grow this year to their farm stand.
And with a shortage of local food, the concern is that prices for consumers will go up and drive some consumers away. Says Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery on South Congress, “When calories are so cheap, people aren’t willing or able to spend more for local food.”
Hopefully Austin has enough of a base dedicated to locally grown food that these farmers will still be able to make something off what they are able to grow in these conditions.
18th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Today is the last trash run, sponsored by the Livestrong Austin Marathon. You can get a work out in and collect trash to beautify our city, and you get free food at the end. Today’s run meets at Double Dave’s on 3000 Duval street at 6:00. Here’s some info from the website:
“Do you like to run? And do you like our beautiful city of Austin? Want to let these interests mix, combining running with an opportunity to keep our city beautiful? Then join the staff of the LIVESTRONG® Austin Marathon and Half Marathon® for our summer series of trash runs!
In order to give back to the Austin community that we love, the LIVESTRONG® Austin Marathon and Half Marathon® team is organizing groups for our “Run, Recycle, Refuel” events. The goal is to run along different sections of the Austin Marathon® and Austin Half Marathon® race route, pick up waste along the streets, and finish the run by rewarding the efforts of the volunteers with happy hours at a local neighborhood restaurant.
The organizing staff and volunteers will meet at 6:00pm and plan on running from 6:15pm to 7:00pm, wrapping up the run at the restaurant with happy hour until 8:00pm. Each run would cover about 2-4 miles and locations would rotate to cover different neighborhoods on our race routes. Helping the effort will be local businesses, government agencies, eco-friendly advocates, and area runners. Any and all additional support would be greatly appreciated!
So turn on your GU-dar and join our intrepid team of trash runners for a 3-mile trashlek on the Austin city streets—no trasholes allowed! (Don’t understand that last sentence? Check out our friends at Atayne for an explanation.) And to top it off, each of the runs will be followed by a happy hour at one of Austin’s many great restaurants!”
14th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day sent me some information about a few upcoming Austin fall events, including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s fall plant sale this weekend. There will be a chance to sample some Mrs. Meyer’s products at each of these events, so not only will you get to spend some time outdoors enjoying the fall weather at these events, you will also get a chance to try out some green cleaners/hand soaps at these events. I’ve only ever used Mrs Meyer’s toilet bowl cleaner, so I’m excited for a chance to try some other products for free.
Here are the events:
Sounds fun!
11th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
A friend recommended I try this recipe from smitten kitchen to use up some of the butternut squashes I’ve been getting in my CSA box, and man was it good. I tend to make too many Italian type dishes, so this was a good change. Paired with some crusty break or a side salad, it makes a light, healthy vegetarian meal or snack. Here’s the recipe from smitten kitchen:
Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
Adapted from Orangette, who adapted it from Casa Moro
Yield: 4 servings
For salad:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoons ground allspice (I skip this)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups)
1/4 of a medium red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
For tahini dressing:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a few pinches of salt. Toss the squash pieces until evenly coated. Roast them on a baking sheet for 25 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.
Meanwhile, make the tahini dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and whisk to blend. Add the water and olive oil, whisk well, and taste for seasoning. The sauce should have plenty of nutty tahini flavor, but also a little kick of lemon. You will probably need to add more water to thin it out.
To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and cilantro or parsley in a mixing bowl. Either add the tahini dressing to taste, and toss carefully, or you could serve the salad with the dressing on the side. Serve immediately.
Check out smittenkitchen.com for some step-by-step pictures and give it a try!
11th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Edible Austin had an article in its newest issue that spotlights a local business, Organics by Gosh, which for the last 20 years has been composting food scraps as well as landscaping scraps in Austin. It’s a very well written article that you should check out here, and I think it’s wonderful there are businesses like this in Austin. Here’s an excerpt:
Composting isn’t a new idea, of course, but few people may know that for more than 20 years, Organics by Gosh has been the leader in commercial composting in Central Texas—offering service to a variety of businesses and industries from hotels, schools and cafeterias to manufacturers and grocery stores. The company hauls just about anything that was once alive, including plants, trees, grass, shrubs and food. They collect it and place it in mound upon mound of composting earth. The finished product results in an entire retail selection of potting soils, fertilizer and decorative “stone,” much of which is sold to landscaping companies as well as area nurseries and large home-improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Owner Phil Gosh has been in the composting business most of his life—taking over his father’s Houston-area business in the 1970s and launching Organics by Gosh in Austin in 1995. For Gosh, the business is simply about managing our resources well. “We’ve created a program that allows us to take a product and create a higher value out of it,” says Gosh. “All of our composting material comes from within a 30-mile radius to keep our energy local. Instead of trash, it’s a resource…a treasure.”
Just this year, Gosh’s business became the first in Central Texas to receive the necessary permits to compost meats, fats and dairy products, and has since launched a food waste-diversion program to service restaurants and hotels. “This has put us into a much bigger arena,” says Gosh’s organic recycling coordinator Gina Spratt. “Food coming out of our waste stream is a big deal. It’s the next big step, besides single-stream recycling, and we’re excited to put that onto the plants of Austin instead of having these things going into our landfills.”
Making a difference in Austin is a primary goal for Gosh. The City of Austin has an official goal of diverting waste from landfills and incinerators by 75 percent by 2020, and 90 percent by 2040. Organics are believed to make up between 50 to 70 percent of our overall waste stream. Taking everything from backyard land debris to food waste out of the general waste-disposal stream would leave significantly less to pile up in landfills.
Read the whole article!
10th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
KUT had this article, which is fairly short and informative about how Texas may have to reconsider its electricity production in that face of increasing water shortage. We get a lot of our power from goal, natural gas, and nuclear plants, which can require a lot of water to produce energy and stay cool.
Slightly cooler fall temperatures are putting less strain on power plants to generate energy, but the persistent drought isn’t. Most of Texas’ energy comes from plants that are coal, natural gas, or nuclear. All three types depend on large amounts of water to generate electricity and cool down. If weather experts are correct in predicting a prolonged drought, power plants will need to figure out how to operate with less water.
The water that power plants use is often drawn from rivers that have been drying up since the beginning of the drought last fall. Unless Texas gets at least half of its normal rainfall between now and spring, which isn’t in the forecast, Kent Saathoff said the situation could get worse.
There’s some hope though in new technology:
Michael Webber, an energy policy expert at the University of Texas at Austin, recently published a report on the potential benefits of power plants installing more efficient technology. According to his data, the water that would be saved could equal the amount consumed yearly by 1.3 million people.
“You could switch to dry-cooling power plants or hybrid wet-cooling systems that build in some resiliency against drought, so that’s another approach. You can also look at advanced nanotechnologies to improve the heat capacity of water, so you need less water for cooling. So, there are a lot of options but we have to try them and see what works best,” said Webber.
4th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out these innovative costumes on the Daily Green’s website! My favorite is the kidnapped mermaid:
although Wall-e is also really cute:
Check them all out and find out what they’re made from here!
30th September, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This week I finished another batch of compost for my garden, made over several months from our food scraps, issues of the Statesman I bring home from work, and occasional grass clippings.
I’ll let it settle for a few more days on the plastic tarp I collected it on before I add it to one of my gardens. Go me! Click here to learn more about rebates the city of Austin has for compost bins as well as free composting classes the city offers, which is how I got a $75 rebate on my compost bin.