Feeds
Sometimes a novelty becomes a necessity. Take New York’s farmers markets. A visit to one of the city’s outdoor food extravaganzas was once an entertaining field trip on an autumn Saturday, an excuse to sip apple cider and run my fingers across bright orange carrots with their thick green tops (so different from the shiny, leafless tubes wrapped in plastic in the produce aisle) and beets and potatoes still spotty with dirt.
I’ve moved more than 20 times in the last 10 years. That’s 20 nights spent wrapping plates and bowls in smudgy pages of newspaper, writing “FRAGILE” in block letters on the tops of boxes headed on an uncertain journey. Twenty days spent stuffing T-shirts and tights and worn-out flannel pajamas into suitcases that are always too small; more than 20 hours cursing my collection of purses and my love of shoes.
I have a car. And I live in New York City. Along with a monthly payment, insurance forms and parking tickets, the acquisition of this vehicle — an unfortunate requirement for my husband’s line of work — has awakened an almost vehement determination not to use it.
No pain, no gain, right? Fearless green advocate Marisa Belger took tiny needles in the face to see how this natural treatment would work on her mommy wrinkles. “I believe in aging gracefully, but I don’t believe in aging without a fight,” she says.
Short on space but big on taste? Why not grow your own local, sustainable food against a city skyline? GreenDAY’s Marisa Belger highlights a popular new trend that has urbanites reaching new heights in gardening.
Some do it solely because of the money-saving potential. But others do it to relax, de-stress, or seek satisfaction. Here, GreenDAY’s Marisa Belger explains how making or repairing your own stuff can actually improve your well-being.
There seems to be a palette evolution with chocolate consumption and I’m proud to announce that I’ve graduated to the next step. First there was drugstore-quality milk chocolate in all of its Trick or Treat incarnations: individual kisses, snuggled against peanut butter, pressed against caramel and nougat or sprinkled with peanuts or almonds. Then there was introductory dark chocolate — heavy on the sugar and cocoa butter, light on actual cocoa content. After that I moved onto what I thought was the chocolate big leagues — dark chocolate made with 70 percent or more cocoa content. At this point chocolate was no longer a child’s distraction, it had developed into something serious — to be savored, appreciated and analyzed — not unlike a fine wine.
Sometimes a lot is simply not enough. This has been my guiding principle as I unhesitatingly embrace a more-is-better philosophy about the beauty products that make their way into my bathroom cabinet.
Enticed by a BlackBerry? Crazy for an iPhone? I am. But before I ditch my cell phone for something snazzier, I’m taking a moment to consider what the future holds for my old device. Will this outdated cell end up bouncing around the back of a drawer with other obsolete phones? Or will my old cell phone live on my desk as a makeshift paperweight? Perhaps my toddler will bury it in the backyard with a handful of his puzzle pieces and one blue sock. Or maybe it will end up in the trash.
During the approximately 36 weeks that I was pregnant, there was one sentiment that I heard more than anything else: Things will change. According to my sister and my mother; my best friend and my co-workers; the women who sat next to me on the subway and the women who stood on line with me at the post office; the only thing I could count on as new mother was that nothing would remain the same.
Sometimes the second feels like the first. Though I was technically a mama last Mother’s Day, I was too busy trying not to drop my then 3-month-old on his head to enjoy my first day of maternal acknowledgement. But now, 15 months deep into life with a kid, I’m more than ready to revel in every minute of the holiday ... my holiday.
As I work toward living a greener life, I’ve discovered that I not only possess a talent for organizing my family’s recycling — blue bin, black bin, silver bin, glass, plastic, paper — but I’ve also uncovered a flair for excuses. I’ve become highly adept at creating reasons why I can’t make a wiser green choice. Sometimes it’s convenience. Sometimes it’s time. Often it’s money.
As my offspring stumbles and waddles his way from infancy to full-blown, upwardly mobile toddlerhood, I’m discovering that it’s never too early to steer him toward healthy, eco-conscious choices. Though I don’t doubt that W. is smart and capable, it’s clear that he’s not going to magically morph into a responsible citizen without some coaching and encouragement.
After more than a decade of cramped, urban living, I’ve finally graduated to the big time — and have the kitchen to prove it. Though our apartment in Brooklyn has a handful of attractive features — a backyard complete with multicolored perennial flowers, an old-fashioned bathtub, multiple fireplaces — the spacious kitchen with its center island (finally, room for chopping!), extensive cabinet space and double-sided sink has captured the majority of my love and affection.
Do you drive? Use electricity? Travel by plane? Unless you live off the grid in a self-sustaining house powered by solar panels, consume only food you’ve grown yourself and travel only as far as your feet will take you, the answer is an environmentally unfriendly “yes.”
An expensive dress that’s worn once, invitations that are read and then tossed, leftover food that’s thrown out, flowers that are displayed and then discarded ... without considering the environmental impact of your celebration, the biggest day of your life could also have a major impact on the planet. And with more than 2 million couples making it official each year, the cumulative effect of all this merrymaking may be reason enough to add environmental awareness to your wedding to-do list.
Whether you’re a design junkie who obsesses over every piece of furniture in the house or a low-maintenance IKEA type, there’s no question that the surfaces on which you sleep, eat and lounge are a big part of your everyday life. And like most choices we make, the furniture that fills our home not only affects our comfort levels, but also has an impact on the environment and our health.
Winter has just made its official, blustery entrance into the Northeast — accompanied by its usual entourage of frosty annoyances: slush, black ice and a wind-chill factor in the single digits — and my mind is already wandering. As I delicately traverse the slippery patch of ice that has taken up residence on my front stoop, peel on my long underwear and scrape inches of crusty snow off of my windshield, one thought refuses to vacate my mind: I’ve got to get away.
While there’s never been a better moment in time to green your gift giving — environmentally conscious presents are cooler than ever (check out my green gift guide next week) — I continue to be partial to the gift of information. This year, I will be furnishing my loved ones with an essential green read.
By the eighth month of my pregnancy, I had become accustomed to the blank stares and raised eyebrows I received at each mention of my doula. Maybe it was the “doo” or maybe it was the “lah,” but there was something about the tone and feel of the term that rendered the uninitiated people in my life either instantly confused or quickly judgmental.
Though I didn’t make a formal announcement or send out a mass e-mail, this year I officially decided to kick a couple of bad eco-habits. Plastic grocery bags were first on the list.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the towering piles of old magazines filling the corners of my apartment gave me a strange but definite kind of joy. I’d look toward a stack of wrinkly New Yorkers — from a subscription spanning 2001 to the present day — or a collection of shiny Gourmets —purchased sporadically, not a subscriber — and feel the potential of the stories I’d yet to read, the recipes I’d yet to concoct.
Let’s talk transportation. If you are truly interested in living an environmentally conscious life, one of the quickest ways to make a positive eco-impact is to adjust the way you travel from point A to point B. This is because the cars we own play a significant role in the amount of greenhouse gases we emit.
What happens when a cosmetology school dropout named Spirit is unable to open the organic spa of her dreams?
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