Earth Boxes – Product review

Posted on 2010/04/22 by greeninoakpark

You might recall in my post about the great potato experiment I mentioned steadying the garbage can with Earth Boxes.

You might have wondered what Earth Boxes are as well, and as I recall, I did promise to tell you.  Their website explains the concept and structure pretty well, but in short, they are optimized container gardening for plants that normally don’t grow well in containers.  They consist of a large rectangular box with plastic mesh in the bottom and space for a watering tube.  This creates a reservoir for water.  Potting mix is added on top of the plastic mesh, and lime can be added to it for vegetables that require it, such as tomatoes.  The number you can plant in each and their placement depend on the type of plants, and location of the strip of fertilizer at the very top of the mix depends on how many plants you’ve put in it.  A cover that reminds me of a giant shower cap (although it’s really to keep warmth and moisture in rather than out) goes on top of that, and a fill tube goes in the side. Then you cut an X in the cover for each young plant or seedling you’re putting in the Earth Box and plant them. Watering is done every day or every other day through the fill tube until the water runs out of the bottom, so you know when you’ve watered enough and over-watering is impossible.  Organic versions of the fertilizer and soil are available as well, as are refill kits.  No need to buy completely new Earth Boxes year after year as most of the components can be reused, so while the initial cost is high ($45-$70 for a kit depending on where you buy it, so shop around), it isn’t expensive over the long term.  For example, I have all of the lime and fertilizer I bought two years ago and both will last me several more seasons.

Obviously, they’re great for small spaces such as small yards, patios, decks, etc., but how well do they work?  What kind of yield do you get with fruits and veggies?  I can say with confidence that given enough sun, water, and fertilizer, the yield is really good and the results are quite tasty.  Earth Box seems to have perfected an optimal, self-contained ecosystem that nurtures plants well.

Here’s a photo I took about 2 years ago of the cherry tomato plant I put in an Earth Box just as it was bearing fruit. Those were the best cherry tomatoes I’ve ever eaten and my yield that year was as good as I got out of plants in the ground. For sweet peppers, I got much better yield from the Earth Boxes than I did from the plants in the ground.

So I give Earth Boxes a big thumbs up, particularly for those of us who lack acres of space.  They’re also good for steadying your makeshift garbage can potato planter, if you were wondering.

Posted in container gardening, earth box, product review, small spaces | 2 Comments

Earth Day Celebrations in Oak Park

Posted on 2010/04/20 by greeninoakpark

The Village of Oak Park will celebrate Earth Day this Saturday, April 24th at the Public Works Center at 201 South Blvd from 10am – 1pm.  Read about it here – and hope to see you there!

Posted in events, Oak Park | Leave a comment

Reusable shopping bags, packaging, and the three Rs

Posted on 2010/04/19 by greeninoakpark

Everywhere I look, particularly in Oak Park, I see reusable cloth bags, and I think this is a wonderful thing. Boring, beige, monochromatic bags.  Bright red bags with floral patterns.  Businesses doing their advertising via logos on reusable bags.  A veritable cornucopia of reusable bags.

This one is one of my favorites, although Trader Joe’s doesn’t sell it anymore.  It’s insulated and sturdy.

Still, I wonder if we can’t do a little better with some help from our grocery stores.  It’s fantastic that we’re cutting down so much on plastic bag use, but what about everything that goes into the bag?  Lots of cardboard, plastic trays, plastic produce bags, etc.  How much difference does it make to bring a reusable bag and fill it with packaging that goes into a landfill?

I’ll give the waste management company that picks up Oak Park’s recycling props – we can recycle a lot more than most places can, and I’m very glad of this.  They make it so easy too, as it all goes in the same bin.  Nonetheless, I would argue that the triple-R catchphrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is actually in order of preference, or greenness, if you will.  Reducing means less waste going out of our homes, less material going into making and selling products, and less energy used to produce said products, whether we’re talking about reducing units of product consumed or reducing packaging for a given product. It’s the closest to ideal of the three. Reusing means less waste exiting our homes, but we’ve still used energy and materials producing the product and its packaging. Recycling means we’re reducing some of the material we as a whole consume via product made out of recycled materials, but we’re using energy and materials to produce it, we usually don’t get as much recycled end material as we started out with unless it’s glass, and recycling requires energy use.  I think in a world where all or the vast majority of our energy came from renewable, green sources, this might change the equation drastically.  As it stands, recycling is worth doing and much better than adding to landfills, yet still the farthest from the ideal.

It’s still desirable, in my opinion, to engage in all three, and in my experience, the store that makes all three Rs the easiest is Trader Joe’s.   Quite a bit of their packaging can be recycled, or in the case of the cardboard they favor for certain vegetables, recycled or composted. I’ve already posted about reusing yogurt containers for legumes at the bottom of this post, and I’m hoping to find ways to reuse some of the many glass containers I get at TJs.  Maybe those can house some of the chipotle sauce I mentioned, but even when I recycle them I know that the end result is as much glass as was put in.  Trader Joe’s also welcomes – and sells –  reusable bags, and if I buy loose produce, the checkers never even blink when they see I’m not using clear produce bags.  They’re also the friendliest grocery store in town, and who doesn’t love that?  Well, okay.  Maybe very cranky people don’t love it, but I bet they’re not reading this.

Oh, and speaking of composting, where does that fall amongst the three Rs?  I’d say it’s reusing if you make actual compost and use it in your garden.

By pointing these things out, I don’t at all mean to nitpick or discourage anyone.  I recycle and I even buy some items made of recycled materials.  I avoid using paper towels almost 100% of the time, but when I do buy them, I buy recycled.  Recycled toilet paper all the way in this house too.  Sorry guests, I know it’s not the softest, but I think a market for recycled products greases the wheels.  No one is going to bother recycling paper and plastic if no one buys the result.  And while we have a long way to go, I believe it’s worth continuing on this path.  We can’t completely avoid consumption, either of materials or energy, but we can use our big brains to cut down on  our consumption of both.

Posted in philosophy, recycling, reducing waste, reusing | Leave a comment

Reusables

Posted on 2010/04/17 by greeninoakpark

One unfortunate aspect of our modern lives is how we tend to view so many things in our homes as disposable.  Much of it ends up in a landfill if it can’t be recycled.  So I’m on a mission to cut down or eliminate non-reusable items in the house, such as plastic baggies.  It’s too easy to grab one, stick food in it, and toss it when done. It’s much harder to save them and clean them over and over, and even if you do, how can you assure yourself that they’re really clean?  Coffee filters are similarly disposable, but buying reusable filters isn’t terribly expensive.

So yesterday, I found a reusable coffee filter at Target.  Honestly, I don’t know what took me so long.  They’ve been around for years.

It’s made in the USA, dishwasher safe, and cost me about $4.  I don’t make coffee at home often, but it will save me money in coffee filters eventually.  It’s easy to dump the used coffee grounds in the compost bucket as well, and compost loves used coffee grounds.  I used the filter this morning and it made great coffee.  I’m pleased so far with this purchase.

I’ve also started cutting down on using plastic containers for food storage and microwaving, or as much as possible anyway.  I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with the mountain of tupperware and similar items in the cabinet.  It’s threatening to revolt, I believe, but when I’ve let the herd reproduce indiscriminately for so many years, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.  Some containers have already become bulk food containers, and there’s much less BPA – and other – risk when they aren’t heated.  Some may be given away on freecycle, and some may get recycled or used for storage for other items that are not food.  I’m replacing most of it with glass, as glass is inert (so no chemicals leech into your food).  My brand of choice so far has been Pyrex.

I don’t mind used Pyrex at all, but I haven’t found a lot of it other than my Pyrex measuring cup at the local thrift stores.  Usually ebay has better prices on new items, but given the shipping charges, the best prices for Pyrex in my experience are found at Target.  Since I was there yesterday, that’s where I picked up these. If Pyrex items aren’t dropped, they should last years and years, and Pyrex is also made in the USA.  It’s probably not the best choice for those who have small children and you can’t recycle it like you can other glass, unfortunately.  The idea is that I’ll never have to recycle them.

Then this afternoon I walked to Green Home Experts here in Oak Park to find reusable replacements for sandwich baggies.  I decided to try a couple of these:

They have a plastic liner, which makes them easy to clean, and they aren’t air tight which is better for sandwiches in a lunch bag.  So we’ll see how it goes with them.  There are other similar choices if these aren’t exactly right.  I also met Maria, the President of Green Home Experts.  I hope to talk with her further about the store and write up a post about it soon.  Thanks again for the assistance with the snack bag choices, Maria!

Now for the meta-discussion.  Normally, I would prefer not to buy something to solve a problem, but if I can buy something once and keep it for years rather than buying several things over and over, I’ll achieve several things. I’ll reduce my consumption of material resources, I’ll cut down on the energy needed to produce those products, I’ll reward makers of green products with my money, and I’ll save money over the long term.  Besides, do you really want to try reusing paper coffee filters?  You could, but don’t don’t say I didn’t warn you if your coffee eventually has a greenish tint.  And they look a little scraggly when you run them through the dishwasher, don’t they?

So here’s an example of reusing without buying something new for that express purpose.

What’s this?  Trader Joe’s yogurt?  Actually, no, not anymore.

It’s red lentils.  All my bulk legumes are going into clean Trader Joe’s yogurt containers, I may start putting rice in them too, and maybe by the time I have enough, I will be successful in making my own yogurt in reusable glass canning jars (which I can flavor with my diy vanilla extract).  So far I’ve made a combination of yogurt and, well.  I like to call it gloppy mess.  My adventures in yogurt and gloppy mess-making will be the subject of another post, perhaps when I get it right.  ‘Til next time.  In the meantime, what are some of your favorite reusables?

Posted in food storage, reducing waste, reusing | 4 Comments

Beauty products – African Black Soap

Posted on 2010/04/16 by greeninoakpark

Every once in a while, I’ll profile a particular beauty product or cosmetic, and here’s the first installment in Green In Oak Park’s beauty product series.

As you might have guessed, I’m pretty careful about products I use on my face, body, and hair.  I want to avoid certain things, and that list can get a bit long.  Many times people assume this must mean the products I buy are expensive.  In some cases, that’s somewhat true, but in most, it’s not.

I struggled for a long time to find a facial cleanser that suited my needs.  It couldn’t moisturize too much, nor could it dry my skin out.  Ideally, it would help clean out pores, help prevent acne, and tone. I went back and forth between the Oil Cleansing Method and the very unnatural Proactiv.  The Proactiv works well on acne and can do some pore cleansing, but since it’s contraindicated during pregnancy, I have to wonder about its long-term safety even for those who are not pregnant.  It’s also drying for a lot of people, and some find that it just stops working for them after a certain point.  Not only that, but it’s expensive.  The oil cleansing method has some drawbacks too, namely that if I miss any of the oil with the washcloth, I’ll most certainly break out.  It also takes a very regimented routine – at least in my case – to use a clean washcloth every day.  My skin would most certainly react to washcloths that are not clean, and that’s a lot of washcloths to go through in a short period of time.  Using the wrong oils or the wrong proportion of castor oil to moisturizing oil proved very problematic for me as well.  Anyone who is acne-prone should probably avoid using olive oil in their OCM mixture.

Enter African Black Soap – a catchall term for many types of similar soap made in Western Africa.  The exact recipes and African names vary from place to place, and the most commonly found African Black Soap in the States is known as Ose Dudu.  Ose Dudu literally means “black soap” in Yoruba.

I found some locally-made African Black Soap at an herbal shop, but apparently the man making it went out of business.  I was sad for him and disappointed for myself – it’s risky to try new things when you have reactive skin, and once you find a good product, it’s not so easy to switch.  Getting sensitive skin back to a good state poses some challenges, and using the wrong product can exacerbate everything.  Finding real African Black Soap can prove difficult as well.  There are many products out there wearing the label, but not all are the real deal.  I also wanted one that was fair trade, meaning the African women who make it are paid a livable, fair wage, and I wanted to stay as organic as possible.

There are several choices out there.  Out of Africa is easy to find, even at Walgreens, and there are various e-tailers selling on their own sites and on ebay.  I found some at Earth Alkemie.  The soap they carry is fair trade and largely organic.  You can choose between a few types as well, depending on your skin’s needs, and the prices are definitely reasonable.  The bars are wrapped in cello bags that I can compost and I’ll reuse the postal box they came in as well.

You can see from the picture that the texture and color isn’t uniform and even.  This is typical of African Black Soap but it doesn’t detract from the benefits in any way.  It’s rough around the edges, so to speak, because it’s handmade, usually from the ashes of various leaves and oils such as shea butter, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, etc.  It’s not going to look uniform like Zest or Irish Spring.

Now that I’ve been using it for a few months, my skin is clearer and less oily where it tends to get oily, as well as less dry where it tends to be dry.  People credit ABS with getting rid of all sorts of skin issues: acne, eczema, rashes, rough skin, oily skin, dry skin, to name a few.  I will say I notice it cleans out my pores well, and I suspect that it helps draw any toxins in the pores out.  I’m of the opinion that many skin problems, aside from beginning with inner health issues, tend to correlate with trapped toxins in the skin.  Healing the problems within is ideal, but pulling toxins out of clogged pores is a very good thing too.

I tried the smaller 2oz first and then ordered several 3oz when I was almost done with the 2oz.  The 2oz lasted me almost about a month and a half and cost about $5 with shipping.  The 3oz bars I bought cost about a little less than $6 each with shipping.  Buying and using African Black Soap is so much cheaper and better for my skin than $46 for Proactiv every six weeks or so.

Posted in beauty products, fair trade, skin care | Leave a comment

Great Paint Exchange in Oak Park

Posted on 2010/04/16 by greeninoakpark

Locals – The Great Paint Exchange is tomorrow at the Public Works Center at 201 South Blvd. Half to full cans of unwanted paint are accepted from 9-11am and cans can be taken from 12:30-2:30pm.

Posted in events, Oak Park | Leave a comment

Natural pest control, rodent edition

Posted on 2010/04/15 by greeninoakpark

Pests. I don’t mean your kid brother, although he may qualify in the strictest sense. I mean smaller pests, such as mice who enter your house and decide to stay for tea and crackers, and squirrels who nibble on the fruits of your hard work in the garden.  What can you do to keep them out?

Mice are a tricky sort.  Their bodies compress more than you could imagine and they can fit into holes you never thought they could use for travel.  Our neighborhood has a veritable nation of mice, perhaps with their own flag, and so more than once we’ve had some unwelcome house guests when, for example, the basement door was left open. The most basic method of prevention of course is making sure they never get inside, and in our case that meant never leaving the basement door open and unattended and either plugging up holes in the house near the ground with steel wool or fixing them with concrete. Mice won’t dig or chew through steel wool but of course you have to make sure the steel wool will stay in place.  An actual repair is better, if you can swing it.

But what do you do when they’re inside and you’re not keen on glue traps, snap traps, or poison?  The first mouse who came here to live decided it didn’t like the electronic sonic repeller I plugged in and decided to  leave, but the subsequent mice haven’t paid it any mind. Live traps often worked well, if they’re the bigger size.  I found that greasy corn chips worked better than the usual recommendation of peanut butter or cheese.  You’ll probably have to figure out what floats your unwelcome houseguests’ boats, whether that’s peanut butter, crackers, corn chips, or caviar.  Caviar is clearly not the frugal option. You can also buy natural mouse repellent, but a cheaper solution is to use some cotton balls and the active ingredients of the repellent. Those happen to be peppermint and spearmint essential oils. In a pinch, peppermint oil by itself may work, but the combination of the two works better.  Put a couple of drops on each cotton ball and put 2-3 cotton balls in hidden spaces in each room.  My suspicion is that the smell makes them feel ill, so consider leaving a mint-free trail outside, if you can figure out where the hole to outside is.  This isn’t a viable option if you’re allergic to either oil, and keep in mind your house will smell like toothpaste for a few days.  That’s better than having mice, at least to most of us.

Squirrels are a different matter most of the time. Usually you want to keep them away from your garden instead of out of your house, but controlling any aspect of the environment outside presents some challenges.  I usually do the following:  I plant marigolds wherever I don’t want squirrels, namely in my deck planter with my herbs and in my flower bed with my vegetables, and I use garlic-scented pellets and cayenne pepper in the dirt, both of which I have to refresh quite often. And then when these methods aren’t perfect, I give in a little bit.  On my deck there is a small built-in container off to the side.  I put deer corn in it.  I get the deer corn at Menards, which is a local home improvement store like Home Depot, but you can also get deer corn at Cabelas or most stores that sell hunting supplies.  Of all the things I’ve tried, that seems to have the most success.  The squirrels apparently think it’s delicious and don’t bother with much else when they’re helping themselves to deer corn.

There’s a plethora of information about pest control of the creepy-crawly kind.  I don’t have much experience with that, so when I post about that, it will be an assimilation of research rather than my own anecdotes.

Posted in gardening, natural pest control | 4 Comments

Herb Gardens

Posted on 2010/04/15 by greeninoakpark

I’m fortunate enough to have a deck and a deck planter that gets lots of sun, and herbs are ideal for it.

These pictures were was taken a couple of years ago.  You can see a thriving dill plant, marigolds to repel squirrels, and some of those soft maple helicopter seeds I hadn’t yet removed in that small section of the deck planter. 😉  And you can see mint at the beginning of the growing season in the planter under the deck. I normally grow short carrots (with mixed success, as many come out a bit gnarly, shall we say), basil, oregano, tarragon, dill, parsley, and rosemary in my deck planter and mint in the container under the deck.  This year my oregano and tarragon have already started coming back, and I’m starting the rest from seed, which is generally cheaper in the end than buying plants, particularly with plants you can harvest and save seeds from.

You also have much more control over what you grow when you buy seeds than when you buy plants. This year, on the recommendation of my friends at Serenity Acres, I bought mine from Seeds of Change, which is also where I got my seed potatoes.  They’re organic and not genetically-modified.  It’s important to me to keep diversity alive and to grow food for nutritional value and taste rather than its ability to travel long distances, and Seeds of Change is a company I’m happy to support with my dollars.

Herbs don’t require a lot of maintenance.  Obviously the more weed-free your container is, the better.  Most herbs don’t taste so good if you let them flower, so aggressively pluck off any flowers you see, particularly on dill, oregano, and basil. Basil becomes bushier and not so leggy if you pinch leaves off the tops of stems rather than lower on the stems, and it tends to like a lot of water. Most other herbs are happy with moderate amounts of water, and they all like sun.  I don’t keep mint in my deck container, only in the one under the deck. That’s because mint should be in its own container, lest it take over any other space you might put it.  It spreads as far as it can and seeds itself everywhere.  Naughty mint!  Anyway, just in the container under the deck, I have more mint than I know what to do with, really.  That too is already starting to come back for the growing season.

With the possible exception of oregano which has a stronger flavor when dried, most of these herbs taste so much better when fresh and plucked right from the deck.  Their scents are so much more pungent and complex, and the experience of growing and harvesting plants myself  gives me a great sense of satisfaction.  Before winter arrives, I plan to take some of these plants inside and harvest and dehydrate the rest in a food dehydrator.

If you don’t have much space, consider growing herbs in containers, whether it’s outside or inside.  Even if you’re a master chef, I’d be willing to bet your cooking will improve right away.

Posted in gardening, herbs, small spaces | Leave a comment

Not sure what to call these besides delicious

Posted on 2010/04/14 by greeninoakpark

They’re not exactly tacos in the most widely- used sense, but that word probably describes this dish more accurately than any other.  And they’re not at all a traditional Mexican dish that I know of, but they’re popular in this house, so I thought I’d share them with you.

They’re fairly simple to make – they consist of:

– whole wheat tortillas with this chipotle sauce (I use veggie broth in place of beef) on half
– chunks of cheddar cheese on the half with the sauce
– green pepper and chicken strips (veggie in my case) on the other half
– a bit of black pepper

All folded in half and baked for about 12 minutes at 375 deg F on a baking sheet.

It’s really the combination of the cheddar and the sauce that makes this dish, in my opinion.  The green pepper and veggie chicken add to it too, but the sauce and cheddar are the stars.

You can vary the amount of canned chipotles in the sauce to make it milder or spicier, and you can use the taco-sized tortillas or the big burrito-sized tortillas.  Also, the sauce freezes well, and because it’s impossible to purchase such a tiny can of chipotles and difficult to purchase such small amounts of many of the other ingredients, I will often make a triple or quadruple batch and freeze the rest in very small canning jars.  Later on, I’ll buy the other ingredients and defrost a jar for lunches for several days in a row.

Cost estimation depends on your choices in individual ingredients, but I estimate about $3 a serving.  Not the cheapest thing you can eat, for sure, but much cheaper than dining out and possibly tastier.  Happy eating!

Posted in food, recipes | 1 Comment

Building a gutter-less rain barrel

Posted on 2010/04/12 by Green In Oak Park

I’m not quite handy enough to try this myself, but here’s how to make a gutterless rain barrel, aka a Drain Barrel.

Posted in conservation, links, rain barrels | Leave a comment