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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Wouldn’t it be great to reduce the Utilities line item in your household budget? The first step in achieving an energy-efficient home requires an understanding of how your energy is being used on a daily basis. Makes sense, but how?

Most energy suppliers around the country now offer Energy Analyzers. These are simple to answer questionnaires or “audits” about your home. They ask questions about the size and type of appliances you own. To answer the questions, collect your most recent Gas & Electric bills (as few as 2, as many as 10), and input the information requested about your actual usage. The Analyzer will compare you to average users, as well as give you very specific tips for how to reduce expenditures in each category (i.e. heating, cooling, hot water, lighting, and appliances).

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a friend

1. Revisit your clean/dirty criteria for clothes. Being more conservative about what you wash can save a lot of water in the long run. Hint: sometimes all a garment needs is a spot cleaning with a damp washcloth and a mist of lavender sheet spray or a 5 minute turn in the dryer with a dryer sheet or the steam cycle (if you have it).

2. Switch to an earth-friendly brand of laundry soap and bleach. There are so many chemicals in the world, why add more?

3. Set up a drying rack in your laundry room or garage for delicates. You can bounce them for five minutes on “air” to take out the stiffness after they’ve dried. Electricity saved is nickels earned!

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a friend