It's a Nice Day for a Green Wedding

As I've been reading quite prolifically these days at the intersection of enivronmental and social justice efforts, I am heartened, rather than roused to cynicism, by the mainstreaming of organics and green commodities. As this NYT article demonstrates nicely, the "green wedding" trend is allowing an increasing number of folks to celebrate, raise consciousness, and include all one's extended loved ones in an event that truly takes loving the earth and all of its inhabitants as the big point of departure. (What a nice intervention.)

Back to the Feminist Future with Mud Floors and Quilting Bees

We have begun to seriously reconsider how a healthy lifestyle and a feminist politics of consumption requires concerted attention to the commodity chain. Here are two interesting points of intervention:

As mainstream takes note of the environmental fringes in natural building, NYT writes about mud floors, and the women's enews folks follow the feminist impulse in women's crafting, knitting, and DIY community.

In "Young Women Re-Craft Feminism as DIY Project," Courtney E. Martin points out that "almost half of crafters in the $13 billion-a-year industry are under 45 years of age and two-thirds are women," and, increasingly, these women see themselves as making a difference on several fronts:

. . .[I]n an era of rising anxiety about the effects of globalization--on everything from the economy to social cohesion to the biosphere--many young women in their teens, 20s and 30s are joining a push to make things local and more personally connected. And for many of them knitting and stitching is the way in.

OED Sustainable Practice of the Day

xeriscape, v.

The OED word of today arrived as encouragement to continue transforming the garden into a space where plants may thrive long after I'm gone! This garden is but one example. (See links below.)

OED DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2003

Hort. (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

Also with capital initial. [<>ERISCAPE n.]

trans. To landscape (an area) in such a way as to minimize its need for irrigation, esp. by using plants and features suited to a dry climate. Also intr.

1987 Los Angeles Times 5 Nov. 1 Several homeowners throughout the county have had their yards ‘xeriscaped’ to save water and maintenance costs. 1990 Southern Living Mar. 92 (heading) Xeriscape to save water. 1992 Kiplinger's Personal Finance Mag. May 106/1 The Carlisles..Xeriscaped their small garden. 1997 Salt Lake Tribune (Nexis) 15 June (Utah section) B1 If all Salt Lake County residents were to xeriscape -- or convert their yards into native, thirstless landscapes -- existing water supplies would satisfy population growth for decades to come. 2000 ANQ 13 44 Recently, a woman in an Albuquerque subdivision xeriscaped her garden. [Suggested addition] 2007 GS&F "Among the many things we hope to do with the abundance our planet offers is to create "thirstless gardens," through sustainable practices, such as xeriscaping," exclaimed Sombramorena (TM) from her Southern California apartment complex.

For those thinking about relandscaping their apartment complexes or creating other sustainable homescapes, the internet yields various "xeriscaping" resources such as Xeriscape demo gardens and Green Builder (with detailed practical advice on green building and landscapes).

Vegetarian Link of the Day

Vegetarians often create "paradise," wherever they are! This picture gives some insight into how (link) folks are "making it" in L.A.

A Sustainable Clothing Network is Haute!

As many of my readers know, I've been referring to the Revolving Closet Project for years, based on my rewarding experience in college with sharing clothing among 8 or so young women who wore roughly the same size and had a common interest in off-beat fashion, as well as in handmade accessories and shoes reflecting our diverse, multinational backgrounds, home regions, and travels.

Our shared closet nurtered our friendships, as well as our growing, collective awareness. We learned that our relationships extended to women's collectives, local artisans, vendors in out-of-the-way markets, and thrift-stores in various Metropoles, and that we were constructing our own "organic" approach to fashion. We felt cool, and we were often haute!

Now as so many people wake up to the ways that uncritical consumption of so-called "Fast Fashion," ignores the Full Circle of Life, including everything from the environmental impacts to the hijacking, commercialization of women's body images to the real repercussions for workers everywhere, perhaps we get another chance to be on the cutting edge of chic!

Check out this article in the NYT!

And don't forget to check the related comments. I'd love to see your answers to the question, Would you lease your clothes? (Leave a comment for me here!)

Reasons and Ways to Eat the Things We Least Prefer

Just the other day, I received an email requesting recipe-suggestions to make quinoa more palatable. This was a challenge, precisely because I LOVE QUINOA more than almost anything. One important point of awareness that this friend, who is so boldly challenging her own palate, has raised for me, is that food allergies often assail those of us who neglect to vary the foodstuffs we love. Of course, this wasn't the reason in her case, but as I reflected on my sense that I will eat anything that is vegetal and good for me, I had to admit that there are foods that I find difficult to use when I see them in my box (and so guiltily watch as they languish at the bottom of my fridge. What a missed opportunity to do as my sage friend and change things up a bit. (Hay que variar!)

The obvious squandered opportunities includes carrot tops--and here I vow to post a singular, proprietary (just kidding) recipe utilizing carrot tops, very soon--but radishes also come to mind, so I began to look and here (click) I have a found a few recipes for radishes and even radish-top soup on the web, and below are some ideas for quinoa and a link or two.

Cheers!

On Coaxing Quinoa to Express Its Tastier Virtues

1. Spice this lovely "fruit" up by cooking it in vegetable stock, or sauteing an onion/shallots to throw into the water. . .I like to add vegetables (carrot, corn, edamame are fine frozen). There are suggestions for toasting it, too. Also try using less water when cooking it, boil it fast and add more water as you go if it needs it.

2. And then there is also eating it cold. Made like tabouleh sweet or savory with vinegar/oil/lemon dressing overnight, one might add cucumbers/tomatoes/lots of parsley/avocado/pinenuts/dried cranberries.

3. Or consume it for breakfast as a hot cereal with fruit/raisins/nuts.

4. Usually I make something with flavor to go with it. My all time favorite is sauted onion/tofu/kale with bragg's on quinoa. I didn't used to like it, but somehow my taste changed--so much better than soy souce (much less salt, not fermented, full of amino acids).

5. I also like to treat it like pasta/polenta, with something saucy or curried. There's a recipe for ratatouille here on this very blog!

Commencing a Relationship with Quinoa

Useful Tips on Preparing Various Bulk Grains

Watch the Nobel Lectures December 10

The nobel lectures, held in Oslo, will be shown on the Peace Prize website on December 10, and available "on demand" thereafter.

(Prepare your media player.)