This autumn, my husband and I have been busily jumping on the local food bandwagon by buying up as much local produce as possible and preserving it to last us all winter. One of the the things that small farmers do in order to stay afloat in competitive markets is to create “value added” farm products. In a sense we are adding value of our own by cooking and canning our purchases, creating a final product that is worth a lot more than the original produce.

Here in Eugene, September was apple season, apples were literally falling off the trees all around town. We splurged on an apple peeler/corer, and then dried a whole bunch of apples in our dehydrator. We also cooked up a large batch of apple chutney. We love curry and Indian food, but mango chutney is expensive and decidedly not local. Apple chutney is a delicious alternative and now there are 20+ jars in our cupboards.

Last week, with the first fall rains looming, farmers at the market were selling 10+ pounds of tomatoes at discounted prices, so we bought more than 30 pounds and proceeded to process them. Now we have many cans of salsa, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes ready to feed us all winter.
photo credit: Jasmine&Roses

“Biofuel use ‘increasing poverty’
A palm oil plantation in Ivory Coast
Palm oil is one of the biofuel crops stirring controversy

The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says.

Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world’s soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest.

The group also says biofuels will do nothing to combat climate change.”

What I find frustrating about such reports and the race to jump on the biofuel bandwagon is that we have completely missed the point of using biofuels. Growing crops, particularly food crops, to produce fuel makes no sense. In fact, corn isn’t even a particularly good source of biofuels. What makes a lot of sense is recycling wastes to produce biofuels.

Biofuel recycling in Olympia, WA at “The Reef“. Photo by DreamsJung. Used under creative commons licensing.)

In 1995 I saw this documentary, “Fat of the Land” about a group of women travelling across country asking greasy spoons to donate they frying oil to fuel their van. It was a fabulous mix of grrrls in 50’s dinner dresses and grrrls in getting greasy mixing chemicals. The lesson of the movies is that there are a lot of resources that go to waste in this country. Making better use of those resources makes sense. Hopefully since “Fat of the Land” was made there have been reforms in what happens to used vegetable grease and more of it is being recycled into biofuels. I haven’t done the research to know how many companies out there recycle waste cooking oil, but if you are interested, here’s one company in the Bay Area doing it – Blue Sky Bio-Fuels.

Bio-fuels can be a part of the solution but only if we do them right and recognize their limitations!

In Spain makers of “cava” sparkling wine are doing their best to adapt to climate change. The traditional sparkling wine is more vulnerable than other varieties to rising temperatures. In response wine makers are changing their cultivation practices, harvesting rain water to use during longer periods of drought, and even harvesting earlier in the season or at night. No one knows how successful these practices will be.

Luckily, wineries in the American West are doing well for now. Increasingly wineries are choosing to “go green” by growing organic, biodynamically, or with respect for workers rights. Benziger Winery, in the Sonoma mountains grows their grapes biodynamically. Biodynamic cultivation practices are more They were recently featured on the Sundance Show, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.”Even the big networks and national magazines are starting to cover sustainable living options. Newsweek Magazine is now covering organic and biodynamic wines.

On the fair trade front, you can now support farm workers and their families, who are often the most severely affected by unsustainable practices by California’s large vineyards, by purchasing Black Eagle Wines.

For those of you who like the occasional martini, Qino One Vodka is not only organic and fairtrade, but also the only vodka I have ever heard of made from quinoa, the superfood of the Incas. I love to eat quinoa. It seems sort of a waste to distill it.

Gratuitious green consumerism: Inspired by a New York Times article, Ianqui meditates on “Eco-Snackwellism.”

Nature in Los Angeles: If you haven’t read Jenny Prices’s now year-old, two-part article “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in LA,” you’re missing out: Part One, Part Two.

DenoueDenim-ment: Check out what the California Academy of Sciences is using to insulate their new building.

Peak oil play: Derek Williamson of the Powerhouse Museum interviews the creators of the online game World without Oil.

Going batty: Those of you with a creative streak (or, OK, an architectural background) should check out the competition to design a bat house for London.

Vacation planning? Consider a toxic tour.

V-G Day: No, not victory over Germany–I’m talking about the resurgence of Victory Gardens. This time planners have a different kind of victory in mind.

History lesson. Check out this terrific glossary and timeline of green urbanism from The Next American City website.

We love green LA girl for the diversity of green living options she shares with her readers. Check out her blog, and then read her posts at BlogHer, where she’s a new contributing editor.

Scandinavians love their bicycles. Via Gristmill. Point of honor mentioned in the article: Green West’s home town is the only city to have earned platinum status from Bicycle Friendly Community.

From Treehugger: A black-screen version of Google, dubbed Blackle, might save 750 Megawatt-hours per year. Blackle isn’t a product of Google itself, but it uses Google’s search engine–and provides only the search engine, not all of Google’s tools. Wouldn’t it be terrific if Google provided an alternative, lower-energy version of its complete suite of tools for those of you who can stare at a black screen all day without getting depressed?

Environmental Design+Construction Magazine provides details of the Bronx Zoo’s “Eco-Restrooms”. Do you know of any similar facilities in the western U.S.?

America’s Best Inns and Suites are now offering “eco-rooms.”

Hawaii is updating its energy strategy. The Rocky Mountain Institute reports:

New renewable energy projects are underway on three islands. On Maui, a 20-megawatt windfarm became operational in 2006 and a major wind developer is pursuing another 30-megawatt windfarm. On the Island of Hawaii, a new 10-megawatt windfarm was added in 2005 while another windfarm has retired about 7 megawatts in older units and is repowering with 20 megawatts of capacity. On Oahu, HECO has announced its intention to build a new nominal 100-megawatt combustion turbine peaking unit to be fueled by biofuels. Hawaii’s agricultural history and climate make it an ideal location for the production of biofuels, which can not only reduce Hawaii’s dependence on oil but also bolster the state’s agricultural sector and economy.

You can watch a video on some ways the new California Academy of Sciences’ building is taking the environment into account. Among the impressive stats: the roof will feature a million native plants.

(photo by Gerald Yuvallos and used under a Creative Commons license)

Green Options shows us how to get rid of mosquitoes without using pesticides.

Constructed wetlands don’t work as well as the real thing. Well, duh.