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What's New at www.ecoplum.com
November 2010 Newsletter
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| Greetings!
One of the things I love about November is the NYC Marathon - anyone running in it this year? I can't run more than a mile (if that) so I am in awe of those of you who train for and participate in this event. This has nothing to do with EcoPlum, but the non-profit for which I serve as Board Chair has a team running and raising money for needy holocaust survivors - check out this recent write up about Blue Card in the New York Times. The weather is finally getting cooler (I'm sure the runners will appreciate that) and you may be wondering how to continue to use local ingredients when the produce pickings are slim. This month Anne shows us how to pickle, can and preserve local food for the winter! Speaking of keeping it local, I just learned I can get the squash I need for my Thanksgiving dinner from a public school right here in here in NYC! Who knew? In the third and final part of her School Food Revolution series, Emily takes us on a journey through schools growing veggies right on their roofs! Very cool. Designing Green with Robin Baron and Chyrso's Beauty Buys are both back this month: Robin takes on green flooring options for your home, and Chryso reviews eco-friendly hairsprays for those few remaining bad hair days this fall. Finally, one of our new writers, Mike, makes his debut with a step-by-step guide on how to compost with worms!! I know this is something my son would LOVE to do - but me - not so much. I'll stick with my indoor composting machine, no worms needed. Finally, please check out our latest EcoTip for some ideas on how to keep Thanksgiving green, and join me in welcoming our newest team member, Olga, who was instrumental in getting our new site launch completed. Thanks Olga! A VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES. Best regards, Gia Machlin
President and CEO
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and family!
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 Meet our team. This month...Olga!
Olga joined the EcoPlum team relatively recently, and she hopes to continue to make a difference by assisting our eco-conscious start-up.
Olga was born in Bulgaria, a small but beautiful country in Southeastern Europe, which she left shortly after she graduated from high school in order to further pursue her education in the United States. Three undergraduate and one master's degree later, she still feels she has a lot to learn, this time at the workplace. Olga now works full-time in healthcare information technology, applying what she learned at the Illinois Institute of Technology about SQL, UNIX-like environments, and data networks.
Olga is an avid reader and many of the books she chooses have to do with the sustainability of the world's resources. Could we do things better and where? Why and when did the consumption of raw materials accelerate? What facilitated this process? While finding answers to the questions she has, Olga also tries her best to green her lifestyle. She firmly believes we can all make a difference in some way, and that little things matter in their own way. |
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Featured EcoInfo:
Featured EcoLiving Ideas:
 Composting With Worms
Thinking of throwing your leftovers in the trash? While technically they are returned to the earth by being sent to a landfill, the environment in a landfill is not suitable for biodegradability. The dense packing often makes it difficult for microorganisms to reach biodegradable items. But if they are digested by microorganisms, the method produces methane gas, which is 21 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2).
An easy, fun, and environmentally friendly alternative to throwing away organic items is to compost them using red wiggler worms. All you need is a small bin, red wiggler worms and bedding.
The bin should be easy to find. It should be covered up, but not completely, as there needs to be some airflow into the container. Two-by-two foot bins that are 8-10 inches deep should be suitable for most homes. Your worms should be of the red wiggler type, which will thrive better and be willing to eat many different organic items. They can usually be bought at local bait and tackle shops for a low price. Earthworms tend to burrow, and they may not be able to live if your bin isn't deep enough. The bedding needs to be carbon based; so things like shredded papers and newspapers, dead leaves and composted animal manure, will allow the worms to have a habitat and will provide some essential nutrients they need to live.
Read More!
Featured EcoTipz:
 Green Thanksgiving Tips
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and what better way to give thanks to our planet than by having a green, eco-friendly Thanksgiving! Did you know that waste increases 25% per household from Thanksgiving to New Years?! Here are some great tips from Earth 911 to help reduce the amount of waste we produce this holiday season.
Instead of just going to any grocery store and filling up your cart with the usual holiday goodies, why not take a moment and actually think about where your food is coming from ? Try and purchase organic or local food for some of your holiday meal. You can also try a farmers market in your area. Not only will the food taste better, but it produces less carbon emissions since it's not being transported from across the country. When you do go to the store make sure to bring reusable bags. Read More!
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 | | Chard Growing in Pickle Barrels, Earth School, NYC |
Greening Our Schools: School Revolution Part Three
Last month, we learned about the individuals and organizations leading the "School Food Revolution." In this final article in our series, we'll find out why New York is at the forefront of that revolution. We'll tell you about some of the incredible projects several New York schools are launching to improve cafeteria food and educate their children about healthy eating and sustainability.
First Lady Michelle Obama, chefs, nutritionists and health conscious parents agree: fried and high fat foods, trans fats and sweetened milks must be banished from school cafeterias to protect our children's health. One in five NYC kindergarten children are obese, and nearly half of all elementary school children are overweight. New Yorkers, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are taking matters into their own hands. In May 2010, the Mayor (who banned trans fats from city restaurants in 2006) and TV personality Rachael Ray, announced new initiatives to teach school children about healthy eating. The Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC is providing small grants to schools to get cooking and nutrition instruction and to plant gardens - there will be 50 by next year. Read More!
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 Designing Green with Robin Baron: Flooring
The 3 R's, we all know them...Recycle, Reduce, Reuse. Your options don't just end at one recycling bin in the kitchen...there is a whole world of green ideas for every aspect of your life... including flooring! There are many new creative ideas to marry your fabulous style with your eco-conscience heart.
Recycle. Manufacturers have found innovative ways to break down our old goods to create new materials for us to use as flooring, like these great recycled tiles from Sustain Interiors. Recycled glass surfaces in particular are one of the most energy efficient recycled options because the glass tends to be reused in its broken, as-is, state rather than using the energy to reheat and then reshape the glass. The glass can be crushed down to a powder, have coloring added and then pressed into a mold and baked for new tiles. Even better is the old Italian Terrazzo technique where flooring was created from concrete and the existing marble (or glass) chips. Read More! |
 Chryso's Beauty Buys: Eco-Friendly Hairspray
Welcome to my beauty column! We will devote this space to a different product category for the month, be it body wash, nail polish, or bath salts. We'll let you know which brand outshined the rest in the categories of safety, environmental responsiveness, packaging, practicality and results, so that you can make informed choices about what you slather on, dust on, and lather up with. This month we review hairspray...
I'm a child of the '80s, which means that neon hair bows and Aqua Net hairspray (and lots of it!) were my two best friends. As I entered my tween and teen years, the higher I could get my hair, the better. The process went like this: wash, finger-dry, tease, and spray, spray, spray!
I had no idea that the stinky glue-like stuff (gee, that should have clued me in) was not healthy for me to breathe - or ingest!
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who are exposed to high volumes of hairspray (say at a hair salon or in the girls' room at a high school), run the risk of skin irritation, bronchial irritation, and occupational asthma through inhalation and dermal absorption. An elevated cancer risk - particularly bladder and lung - is also suggested by the study. Read More!
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 Accidental Locavore: Keeping it Local in the Winter: Canning, Pickling, and Preserving
What about cooking scares you? There's very little that frightens me, or ever has. I'll make anything for anyone at any time. If it works, great, if not, there's always delivery. However. when you get into preserving food, there are a lot of scary bits, right? Not liking to feel as though there's a process that eludes me, I decided to overcome my fear of canning, pickling and preserving this fall. It goes along with my idea to start working with taking things "out of the box." There are so many different kinds of foods that we just assume come in packages; mayonnaise, bacon, granola, and yogurt, just to name a few. This winter, when the local pickings are slim, at least in New York, I'm learning how to make all these and more, and will take you on my journey.
The first thing is that they're all pretty easy to make, which makes sense if you think about it. Before there were supermarkets and all-night delis, people made all this themselves. Home cooks for the most part never cooked complicated things. And food preservation was about exactly that, preservation. Most of these took time to ferment, to pickle, and to preserve. Read More!
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Upcoming Events:
November 9
Green Drinks
6:00 - 10:00pm
Gallery Bar
120 Orchard Street
Register
November 15
Green Schools Alliance Fall 2010 Summit
5:30 PM - 9:30pm
The Nightingale-Bamford School
20 East 92nd Street
btwn Madison and 5th
New York, NY 10128
Register
November 18
5:30 - 9:00pm
Making Green from Green: Vertical Farm to Urban Table: New York's
Sustainable Food Journey
Citi, ICG Conference Center
388 Greenwich Street
Register
November 19-21
Contemporary Art Fair
Jacob Javits Center
Featuring Eco-Artist Sandhi Schimmel Gold
Mention EcoPlum (at show or online) to get a
10% discount on Sandi's art!!
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 Congratulations to David DeArmas, former Ecoplum Education Strategist, for passing his LEED AP Test!!
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October Green Drinks at Restaurant i (at the Charles Hotel) Sponsored by Ecoplum!
  
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Orange City, FL
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Ecoplum Pie Archives
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