Green hotels and traveling

Does part of a vacation mean not making your bed, or even mean being away from your own house? Then you are most likely going to be staying in a hotel. Do I need to mention the obvious of a camping and tent vacation can be very eco-friendly!    …. Anyways, back to hotels. First: Remember you have choices. There is even the GREEN HOTEL ASSOCIATION.  “Green” Hotels are environmentally friendly properties whose managers are eager to institute programs that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste—while saving money—to help PROTECT OUR ONE AND ONLY EARTH! …”Green Hotels Association’s® purpose is to bring together hotels interested in environmental issues.” (From Green Hotel Assoc. website- http://greenhotels.com/index.php.)  Second: Even if your hotel is “not on the green list” there  are things you can do to help. Use you towels for more than one day and ask housekeeping to make your beds without changing the sheets. You don’t wash your sheets at home every day, there’s really no need to wash them every day when you are in a hotel. Third: Just like you hopefully do at home, turn off your lights when you leave the room, try not to waste water, and keep your “plastics” to a minimum. Forth: Buy “souvenirs” if want, but buy items that won’t just sit around at home and eventually end up in the land fill. If possible, support a local store, artist/crafts person. Don’t forget about your creative side, if you love to take photographs think about using the effort, time and money of shopping towards a photo print instead. When you get back home use some of your images from your favorite spots/memories of your vacation. In my mind, that is a true souvenirs – there are websites everywhere to make these items, just google Photo prints or Photo gifts, there are so many items you can make.

Just because you want to stay in a hotel doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time and earths resources to get to one of your liking.  Think about staying closer to your home area. Wherever you end up, remember to have fun! The biggest waste of all the resources, the earths and yours, is if you don’t have a good time! Now, let’s think for a minute about how you are going to get to your destination. “Planes are the worst for the environment, and (most) cars come in second place. Trains and buses have the least impact on the environment, so consider getting out of your comfort zone and taking a different means of transportation than what you are used to.” (from  Eco Friendly Living website.) If you do travel by car, how about considering Farm Markets and Local small restaurants for the journey as well as the destination, support the locals where ever you may be! Speaking of destinations, if you can, use public transportation. You will see things you otherwise might miss, meet local people, and get a better feel of wherever you are: take advantage of buses, monorails, ferries, and subways. OR, rent a bike! Read Mondays post about the many reasons that can be a great idea.

A few more ideas….

Make sure to that you are not wasting energy at home while you are gone… turn off your lights +  turn up your A.C. if you use one. There is a whole world out there full of Eco Friendly Resorts. This info is from Eco Friendly Living Website. To read the article on that site click here.

“Eco friendly resorts are the new big thing in vacationing. New hotels are increasingly building their hotels to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) standards. Some of the things these eco-friendly resorts are doing include:

~ Using recycled and/or reclaimed materials in building
~ Using renewable energy sources
~ Recycling within the hotel
~ Installing low-flow shower heads and other plumbing fixtures
~ Engaging in construction practices that are sustainable such as recycling on the job site, protecting the
~ Purchasing Food for Restaurants from Local Growers
~ Implementing educational programs and tours for guests
~ And much more…

Since you, the customer, are likely to pay the same to stay at an eco-friendly resort as you’d pay to stay at a normal hotel or resort, the major benefit is knowing that you are supporting a company that is doing what they can to support the environment. Since these resorts are built with green principles, there are also some health benefits associated with choosing a green hotel as they likely boast higher indoor air quality as a result of materials used during building.

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly resort for your next vacation, a partial list is available here.”

I can’t resist – Don’t forget Camping is fun too!

A Night Out
Zoie in her tent for a true night out!

or … is she waiting for a knight!?

See you on Friday!

Summer means vacation, wind in your hair and ride a bike!

It’s that time of year when many folks go “on vacation.”  You have been working at many things for a while now, including trying to be green. Now it is time for a vaca, how does one do that and stay “green?”

Let’s be honest the least carbon footprint for your vacation is to stay home, a “staycation.” While you are enjoying your home and the close by things to do you can be “ecologizing” your house, changing your ways to more eco-friendly products. How about taking day trips on a bike!? Ron has taken a vacation to  an urban city and is enjoying his great new Sprint Bike from Schwinn – it is a “classic singlespeed with an industry-proven frame and quality parts package.” http://www.schwinnbikes.com/bikes. I took a “staycation” a few weeks ago and LOVED it ♥♥♥! It was relaxing, fun and stress free. I highly recommend it. 

Ron w/Schwinn Sprint Bike
Ron with his Schwinn Sprint Bike ( @RideSchwinn )

You can also take a Bike Vacation with a group on a tour, I went years ago with a fantastic group called Freewheeling Adventures (click name to get to site.) There website says “Extraordinary Active Holidays since 1987” and I would defiantly agree!!! Cathy and Philip run a top-notch business. If you want a “green” vacation, to meet new friends, and get some great exercise – check them out. They run trips all over the place, from Canada, their home base, to South Africa.  Not only are they very nice folks who will take great care to make sure your trip is amazing, they too have an Environmental Conscious listed right on their site. Although they are probably not “local” to you, supporting folks that are running a business with an eco mind IS important. After all, not every one great can live right in your area. Think about a eco/green vacation with the outdoors, a bike, and the open road!

Fun Food Fridays: Cornbread, the all american bread.

Corn seat
A summer's day!

Fun Food Friday ends our week of corn. By now I hope you have had a fresh sweet local ear of corn in its pure “au naturel” state of on the cob. I eat my plain, straight up, no butter, no salt and let the corn taste shine through. However, we spoke of corn on the cob on Monday, corn with herbs on Wed and so today is another one of my favorites – Corn Bread. I must admit, although I do eat this straight up as well, a little butter on toasted corn bread is a bit of heaven!(Recipe at end.)

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq.html “Corn bread was not invented. It was a product of cultural exchange and practical necessity. Corn [aka maize] is a new world food. Native Americans were cooking with ground corn long before the European explorers set foot on New World soil. The food we know today as “corn bread” has a northern European (English, Dutch, etc.) culinary heritage. Why? Because the new settlers often had to “make do” with local ingredients [corn meal] when their traditional ingredients [finely ground wheat] were in short supply. When colonial American recipes carried the name “Indian” in their title (Indian bread, Indian pudding) it was because one of the ingredients was cornmeal. ”

This is what the food historians have to say: “Native Americans roasted their corn and ground it into meal to make cakes, breads, and porridges…The new cereal was precious and helped the early settlers to survive those first harsh years. ..Before long uniquely American dishes were being developed on the basis of this new grain, including an Indian bread called pone’ or corn pone’ (from the Algonquin word apan,’ [meaning] baked) made of cornmeal, salt and water. This was later called corn bread’ and has been a staple of American cooking to this day…Once the [corn] crops took hold throughout the colonies, cornmeal foods were everyday fare…” —Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 96)


http://www.edibleparadise.com/ ” Cornbread is an all-American bread…The settlers soon learned how to fashion breads from the meal ground from corn. And the rest is history – baked cornbread, hoecake, corn pone, johnnycakes, hushpuppies – all began here.”

Real Southern Cornbread
http://www.edibleparadise.com/bread/47/243-real-southern-cornbread.html

  Print Annaliese Keller

This special recipe came from Ann Parker, a Georgia native, who is now a food writer and restaurant reviewer for The Santa Cruz Sentinel. In her soft Southern drawl, which becomes more pronounced when we’re talking about food our mamas used to make when we were growing up, Ann explained, “The secrets to my ‘muthuh’s’ wonderful cornbread: stone-ground cornmeal, buttermilk and a cast-iron skillet. She generally uses Yelton’s or Tenda-Bake self-rising cornmeal, but our favorite is Perkerson’s, which is harder to find. The recipe can be halved for a smaller skillet.”

INGREDIENTS:
2 cup self-rising* cornmeal
2 eggs, beaten
3-4 tablespoons cooking oil or melted butter
2 cups buttermilk, approximately
(*or add 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda to plain cornmeal)

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 450°F.
* Coat a large cast-iron skillet well with oil and put it in the oven while preparing the recipe: it should be good and hot!
* Measure the cornmeal into a medium-sized bowl. Combine the beaten eggs and oil in a separate bowl and mix lightly; pour into the cornmeal, add the buttermilk and mix well with a wooden spoon. The batter should be soupy:  thick but not sticky, with a definite “shine” to it (add more buttermilk until it shines).
* Remove hot skillet from oven, and carefully pour the batter in – it should crackle! This makes a crunchy, delectable crust.

*Turn oven down to 425°F and bake 40-45 minutes, or until the top is slightly browned and the sides pull away.

*Let the skillet sit on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving. The hot cornbread is wonderful with butter, honey, jelly or apple butter. Also very good toasted under a broiler for breakfast the next morning (if you have any left).

SOURCE: Recipe courtesy of Ann Parker’s mother, Cynthia Parker, Athens, GA

More RECIPES: Boston Brown Bread, Anadama Bread, La Beth’s Vanilla Cornbread, Texas Cornmeal Muffins with Jalapeno, and Sweet Cornbread Muffins

Whole Foods- Waterman St, Providence R.I.

Car illustration
And we are off to a great day of new friends and fun at the Whole Foods/ Waterman St. Block Party!