Part One: What IS a locavore?

A locavore is a person who seeks out locally produced food. There are differing intensities of locavores, including those who grow their own food, those who only eat seasonally grown fruits and vegetables or those, like me, who make an effort to purchase foods from within a 100 mile radius of my home when I can.

Why eat locally, you ask?

According to locavore.org, “our food now travels an average of 1,500 miles before ending up on our plates. Because uncounted costs of this long distance journey (air pollution and global warming, the ecological costs of large scale monoculture, the loss of family farms and local community dollars) are not paid for at the checkout counter, many of us do not think about them at all”. Moving towards local food sources has many benefits, including providing us with a “connection and responsibility to a particular locality”, and helping us to understand about the “foodshed” that we live in.

How do you start?

According to an eco-friendly website called simple-green-frugal.blogspot.com, finding resources “is, by far, the most difficult part of being a locavore. The good news is that once you identify your sources, being a locavore is almost as easy as shopping at those big-box stores. Except now, your food will taste better, it will be more nutritionally-dense, and you’ll be helping the environment and your community in the process”. As you expand your cooking ability, you will be able to incorporate more local food sources into your favorite recipes.

But how is it thrifty?

Consuming high-quality, nutrient dense foods is definitely a good choice for frugal families. When you shop at the big box markets, much of what you get is low in nutrients, high in calories and less than satisfying to your hunger. Serving slices of local artisan bread with local butter, on the other hand, will fill up your family with high quality calories and help the environment in the meantime.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, as we do, we have a short list of our favorite companies that we like to buy from. Here are a few:

Cowgirl Creamery
Straus Organic Yogurt
Organic Valley
Point Reyes Farmstead Original Blue Cheese
Willie Bird Turkeys
Beckmann’s Old World Bakery, Santa Cruz, CA.

Wherever you live, there is a lot of information on the internet from the locavore communities regarding eating locally. To find information about your geographic area, Google the word “locavore” and the name of your city, region or state and see if you can find some helpful links. Here are a few sample websites we liked from around the country:

Chicago – http://www.thelocalbeet.com/local-eating-links/
New York City – http://www.localfork.com/locavoreguidenyc.aspx
New Hampshire and Vermont – http://uvlocalvore.com/

Good luck becoming a locavore!

Darcy Ratner
Co-founder, Rubbingnickels.com

a friend

Eco-thrifty is Rubbing Nickel’s nickname for something that is easy on the environment but also easy on your pocketbook. It is always nice when you can choose the “organic” or “all-natural” version of a product you use, but often, these products cost as much as three times the amount of a comparable product. We’ve done some research and are providing you with a list of health and beauty products that meet our criteria for Eco-thrifty which, in this case, is under $9. I found a number of them at Safeway so they are easy to find as well. We hope you choose to use them whenever you need products.

1. Method Body Wash Marine Naturals – Safeway Club Price – $5.99 – Smells fresh and clean.

2. Shikai Hand and Body Lotion Yuzu scent – Safeway – $6.99 – Shea butter gives it great feel.

3. Burt’s Bees Lip Balm – Vitamin E and Peppermint – Safeway – $2.99 – Put it in the pocket of your ski jacket.

4. Organix Anti-Breakage Hair Serum with Coconut Milk – Safeway – $6.26 – The perfect smoother to use after blow drying.

5. Tom’s of Maine Crystal Confidence 24 Hour Deodorant, Citrus Zest – Drugstore.com – $3.19 – Great scent.

6. Jason Natural Cosmetics Powersmile, All-Natural Whitening Toothpaste, Peppermint – Drugstore.com – $5.99 – Whitens with bamboo powder. How Cool!

7. Freeman Good Stuff Organics Foaming Facial Cleanser, Antioxidant Rich Pomegranate Extract – Drugstore.com – $8.99 – Antioxidants to help slow aging in the skin.

8. Nature’s Gate Organics Organic Fruit Blends Shampoo, Color Protecting, Persimmon & Rose Geranium – Drugstore.com – $9.99 – Sunflower Seed Extract protects color.

If you have other Eco-thrifty products you like, please post to this blog so we can share the info with others.

a friend

For me, feeling that something is clean is closely related to its smell. Take the leading name-brand laundry detergent, for example. I LOVE the smell that it gives to the clothes. Unfortunately, my son and I are severely allergic to the perfumes that give it its fragrant scent. In cleaning the home, I also love the smell of bleach and lemon-scented furniture polish, but are they the best products to use in our fragile environment?

There are other cleaners on the market that claim to be “green”. Whole Foods has some that are fabulous, though paying $8.00 for a bottle of cleaner seems excessive. Chlorox is also trying to be more “green” with its line called Green Works, which I actually use (when I can get it on a club card discount). But for this holiday’s housecleaning, let’s rub some nickels and talk about the tried and true natural cleaners that we know are safe to breathe and will be safe going down the drain.

According to Whole Foods Magazine “simple ingredients like soap, water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, borax and a coarse scrubbing sponge can take care of most household cleaning needs“. So how, specifically, should we use these household items?

Glass Cleaner – Use ½ white vinegar and ½ water.

Oven Cleaner – Make a paste of baking soda, salt and hot water.

Wood Polish – Mix two parts olive oil with one part lemon juice.

Floor Cleaner (ceramic, stone, marble and tile) – Add 2 tsp. of liquid dish soap to a bucket of warm water.

To Brighten Your White Tablecloth – Tie up the peel of one lemon into a cheesecloth and add it to your washer.

Using these natural products will make you feel much better when your kids drop food on the floor and use the “five second rule” or your dog licks the inside of the oven while you’re bent over cleaning it. We hope you have a green and clean holiday.

Darcy Ratner, MPH, lives in the Bay Area and is trained in Community Health Sciences.

References: Country Home magazine, April 2008, p. 34, and Whole Foods Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2.

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Is your utensil drawer starting to look like your junk drawer? Do you have a pile of Tupperware with no lids? Is your fridge so full that you don’t have room for your leftovers? If so, you need a Quick Kitchen Re-org to boost your meal prep potential. If you stay focused, this should take between 45 minutes and 90 minutes (depending on how many phone calls, Facebook posts or emails distract you) but will give you more room to function and a feeling of Zen when you open your fridge, pantry or drawers.

To get ready for your re-org, you’ll need three or four paper bags. Label one with “Goodwill” or a charity you know will take kitchen items, label one “recycle,” label one “trash” and label one “food bank”. Make sure your dishwasher is empty so that you can toss in containers and jars from the fridge once they’re emptied. Clutter-free counters are essential to provide a good “staging area” for emptying out drawers and sorting items. Put on some music (I prefer disco when organizing) and zip down this list of areas that will need the most attention.

Refrigerator – You would be surprised how quickly things go bad in the fridge. There is an informative webpage called whatscookingamerica.net/Information/FreezerChart.htm that will help you decide what is still good. Some shocking examples include the fact that chili and soups only stay good in the fridge for 3-4 days and ketchup and chili sauce last only one month. Pull out those crisper, cheese and meat drawers as well for who knows what lurks in the bottom. If you’re really ambitious, pull everything out and wipe down the entire fridge with Fantastic or Windex.

Utensils – This is the drawer that is usually the most problematic when I do a kitchen re-org. Pull out all of your utensils and put them on the counter. If you have doubles or triples and things that you never use, put them in the Goodwill bag. Sort the remainder by how you use them. I keep stove-top utensils in a crock on the counter so I can reach them quickly when I’m cooking. I keep baking and food prep utensils in a drawer, organized in shallow baskets so they don’t get tangled.

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Last time we looked at the simplest form of home composting: using a plain old bucket to collect your kitchen scraps. You may need to graduate to more sophisticated means, especially if you have more kitchen and garden materials than you know what to do with. If so, there are several commercial compost bins available.

Stacking bins, sometimes called “Biostack”, are made out of recycled plastic, have a capacity of 12 cubic feet and are easily assembled. The Biostack stands approximately 28” x 28” x 34” high, and is weather, rot and rodent resistant. This style can sometimes be found at Costco for under $100. Many cities or counties offer these bins for free or at a reduced rate for residents.

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