Our Greener Life

Before you buy a can, carton or bottle of commercial vegetable juice, consider making your own. There is no great mystique to making vegetable juices, and you don’t need an expensive juicer. The following recipes can be made in your blender.

Here are two basic vegetable juice recipes. Think of them as springboards for your own vegetable combinations. Depending on the season and what is available, you can make a healthy vegetable juice any time of year.

Tomato-based Vegetable Juice
Ingredients:
-3 cups chopped, fresh tomatoes
-1/2 cup chopped green cabbage
-1 stalk celery, chopped
-1/4 cup chopped onion
-1 clove minced garlic
-1 small cucumber
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-1 tablespoon chopped, fresh parsley
-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
-Red pepper, cayenne, or chili sauce to taste (start with 1/4 teaspoon)
Optional: 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender and turn blender to high speed (liquefy). If you need to add some liquid, add water a tablespoon at a time.

Green Vegetable Juice
This is a slightly sweeter juice that you can also freeze into popsicles.

Ingredients:
-2 large leaves of kale, chopped (middle stalk removed)
-1 cup fresh spinach leaves, chopped
-2 medium apples, chopped
-1/2 cup chopped broccoli
-unsweetened, natural apple juice

Place all ingredients in the blender except the apple juice. Add apple juice to cover the ingredients and blend on high speed until liquefied. Add stevia or raw honey if you prefer it sweeter. This juice is also good with a squeeze of lemon juice.

It is tempting to think that entertainment for children involves spending money or wasteful consumption, but there are wonderful things you can do as a family that are both green and fun. Spending time as a family and getting outdoors are both healthy activities, emotionally and physically. This spring, turn off the TV and computer, and head for the outdoors! Here are some ideas for how you can participate in green outings with your family.

Look to Your Community

Part of going green is using less fossil fuel, so choosing outings close to home is a good place to start. Take a look at your local newspaper, library, or online and find out what events are happening close to home. Perhaps there is an art and craft fair, street fair, or live music. Families can often find things to do together close by. Take a bus if you need to, or include other families and car pool.

Take a Nature Walk or Hike

The whole family can get in on this. Bring a field guide and identify plants, or choose plants or rocks ahead of time to give your family something specific to look for while you are on the hike. In the spring, new flowers and plants are just emerging, so it is a good time to look for flowers that will be covered up with overgrowth later in the summer.

Visit a Nature Preserve or National/State Forest

Preserved lands are an eco-friendly place to visit and play. Depending on where you live, this may be an outing close to home.

Outdoor Adventures

Another green way to enjoy the outdoors is to participate in adventurous activities like white-water rafting or canoeing. Whole families can go rafting together, and canoeing is good for families with older children.

Picnic

The old-fashioned picnic is still a fun way for families to spend time together. Pack your own food and bring drinks in reusable containers. Take a kite along if the spring wind is right, or bring a Frisbee or ball.

Be Prepared

Bringing your own food, drinks, sunscreen, etc. to a family outing increases the eco-friendly factor. Being prepared means you are less likely to stop at a drive-through to buy food with excessive packaging, or go to a drugstore for miscellaneous items you forgot.

Family outings do not have to be wasteful. Take some time to prepare and enjoy the spring weather as a family.

Growing your own vegetables is a very satisfying, eco-friendly, and money-saving venture. So why not try it? Perhaps you are limited in space, or don’t have the tools to break up the ground for a garden, or the sunny spots on your property do not correspond with the best soil. A vegetable box can help remedy these problems and give you fresh produce.

While you can make your planter any size, or even make a series of small ones, if you are going to grow vegetables it will need to be at least 8 inches deep. Here is how to build a basic vegetable planter that is 6′ x 2′.

What you’ll need:

1. Four pieces of lumber, 6 feet long, 4 inches wide, and 2 inches thick (6-foot long 2×4)
2. Four pieces of lumber, 2 feet long, 4 inches wide, and 2 inches thick (3-foot long 2×4)
3. Four pieces of lumber, 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 4 inches thick (8-inch long 4×4)
4. Galvanized nails or screws, at least 4 inches long
5. Power drill (if using screws)
6. Hammer (if using nails)
7. Shovel or tiller
8. 8 bricks

Directions:
1. Lay two of your long pieces of lumber on the ground (you don’t have to build the box where you will be using it- you can build it on your driveway, patio, garage, etc. and then transport it). Make sure the two pieces of lumber are flush all along their lengths and sides.

2. Using the screws or nails, attach two of the 8-inch 4×4 pieces of lumber to the short ends of the long pieces of lumber, one 8-inch piece per short end.

3. Repeat step 2 with the remaining two 6-foot pieces of lumber and two 8-inch 4×4 pieces.

4. Turn these long pieces on their sides, like two walls. Position them 2 feet apart.

5. Using the nails or screws, attach one of the 2-foot pieces of lumber across the bottom ends of the long boards, nailing/screwing it into the 4×4 pieces.

6. Repeat step 5 with another 2-foot piece of lumber on the other lower end of the long boards.

7. Attach the remaining two 2-foot pieces of lumber to each end of the box, this time on the upper ends of the long boards, flush with the other 2-foot pieces.

Now you should have a long box consisting of two pieces of lumber per side.

8. Using a shovel or tiller, clear the vegetation from a sunny, 6-foot by 3-foot area (unless you don’t mind picking out a lot of weeds that will make their way up through the soil!).

9. Position your planter box over the now-bare earth.

10. Position the bricks along the four corners of the box to stabilize it.

11. Fill box with garden soil and plant your vegetables. Check with local construction companies or builders who may be willing to give you “fill dirt” or topsoil at a good price (or even free if you haul it yourself).

While gardening itself is a “green” activity, there are ways to make it an even more eco-friendly experience. Sometimes, gardening deviates from the natural and enters the realm of the harmful. For example, some gardeners use chemical fertilizers without even realizing it, and weed killers and pesticides can be a part of even the smallest garden. So here are some tips to make your gardening ventures greener.

Compost

Perhaps the simplest and most basic thing you can do to begin the greening of your gardening efforts is to start a compost pile. You can actually make compost indoors under the right conditions – indoor compost bins are available, with or without worms. You can recycle your kitchen scraps into compost by tossing them into your outdoor pile or bin. Once it’s broken down, this compost will serve as a natural fertilizer for your garden.

Natural Pest Control

It is tempting to shoot those pesky bugs with some commercial poison from your local garden center. But before you reach for the synthetic pesticide, consider some natural alternatives.

* Natural pesticides are available commercially and are often found on the same shelves as the synthetic versions, so read labels carefully. Natural pesticides are usually soap-based or made from other natural, biodegradable substances. They usually work mechanically, not chemically.

Insecticidal soaps are usually derived from oils (saponified vegetable oil is the greenest choice). Diatomaceous earth is another example of a natural pesticide. This fine powder is made from fossilized diatoms and works by “drying up” insects, snails and slugs. Neem oil is a natural insect repellent, and is found in certain commercially available, natural pesticides.

* Home-made pesticides are inexpensive and quite effective. You can make your own insecticidal soap using a tablespoon of natural, biodegradable dish soap to one gallon of water. You can also purchase neem oil and use it in your home-made insect sprays.

* Arrange plants for natural insect repellents. For example, basil repels aphids, so plant it near tomatoes. Garlic bulbs planted around tomatoes and fruit trees can repel pests.

Go Native

Native plants have more natural disease and pest resistance, therefore requiring less chemical intervention in the form of fungicides, pesticides, or weed killers.

Eco-friendly Containers

There are pots and planters available that are made from recycled materials, such as rice hulls or scraps of glass. You can also recycle containers that your find around your home by converting them to planters. Consider unusual items such as old cooking pots, teapots, baskets, dish pans, and even milk jugs. Glass containers can be used to make terrariums.

These are just a few tips to help assure that the garden will always be greener on your side of the fence.