This year, a colleague told me about Square Foot Gardening.  This is the approach that the Green City Growers use.  Each raised bed is divided into a grid of 1 foot squares.  Each square has a different crop, and can be replanted several times throughout the year.  This approach takes very little space and is very easy to maintain.

I built 2 2×3 planters and planted with:

• mixed salad greens
• sumer squash
• cucumbers
• green beans
• cherry tomatoes
• big boy tomatoes
• parsley
• oregano
• dill
• basil

So far so good! I love going outside in the morning before work to water the garden and pick salad greens to bring to work for lunch.  It makes me feel really grounded and relaxed.

There have been some downsides lessons learned, but I’ll save those for another post…

• non-toxic
• made from recycled materials
• a better insulator than fiberglass (according to Bill Nye the Science Guy)

There are a couple of  downsides, however, including:

• the expense, which is significantly more than fiberglass
• the blue fuzz that has covered my basement

Overall the benefits outway the downsides.  Government rebates and tax credits help offset the increased cost.  The blue fuzz is annoying but easily remedied by vacuuming.  When I get motivated I will put a layer of Tyvek, which will not only contain the fuzz but also add another insulating layer.

The best part, however, is how much more even the temperature in my house was this past winter.  My house is about 100 years old, and was very drafty.  When sitting in the living room, you could feel a breeze coming through the windows, even when they were closed and locked. The combination of the insulation in the basement, airsealing the foundation of the house and caulking around the windows almost completely eliminated drafts.  This allowed me to use less heat and overall made the house much more comfortable.  I would definitely recommend these energy efficiency improvements to anyone, especially while the government rebates and tax credits are in place!

There has been a lot going on on the sustainability front though. Since August,  I’ve changed my old steam heating system with a high efficiency, hot air system.  I got insulation installed, and caulking done around my windows.  These changes have resulted in HUGE savings on my gas bills.  I’ll try to be better about blogging in the new year and write about all of these changes in more detail, as they each deserve their own post.

In the meantime, Happy New Year!

The energy audit guys were great. They explained that the levels were dangerously high and that they had to call the gas company.  They waited until the gas company arrived and investigated the problem.  They gas company did an inspection and found that because the CO was located only in the furnace that it was not an emergency, but we still could not proceed with the complete energy audit until the CO levels could be lowered.

I had the gas company come out again to try to fix the furnace, but unfortunately they could not get the CO levels to a point that was acceptable.  Looks like I’ll be spending several thousand dollars on a new furnace, but at least I’m alive!  The other benefit is that whatever boiler I install is guaranteed to be more energy efficient than what I have, lowering my bills and energy usage.  I guess every cloud has a silver lining …

Different Bed Sizes:

They offer different bed sizes with small being 4×4, medium 4×8 and large 4×12.  They can also do custom shapes.  For example, in my yard a 2×8 box will work better than the 4×4 but will cost the same because the total square footage is the same.  Regardless of size, however, the price for the bed includes the following:

• set up
• irrigation system with timers
• growing medium
• plants

Maintenance Plans:

Sample farm plan (used with permission from Green City Growers)

Once you decide to move forward with your new farm, you have several different options for maintenance:

• Weekly maintenance: For a weekly fee which varies depending on the size of the bed you have chosen, Green City will come to your house every week and water, prune, harvest or whatever else needs to be done.  This is a good option for people who like the idea of a vegetable garden, but don’t have the time or skill to take care of it properly.
• Monthly consults: For $85, the guys will come in once a month to check in on your garden.  They will help you fix any problems that may have cropped up and do some maintenance on the garden if needed.  This is a good option if you like gardening and don’t mind doing most of the work yourself, but could still use a professional consult once in a while to make sure you are doing things right.
• Self farming: If you are a pretty skilled gardener and feel you can go it alone, for $175 Green City will provide a 1 time consultation and tutorial on how to maintin your garden.  They will also come by for a visit one month later to see how you and your farm are doing.

This seems like a really intriguing option.  I’ve been using Boston Organics and have not been entirely happy.  The idea of being able to harvest vegetables from my own backyard is really appealing.  Now I just need to run the numbers…

I guess going green can be kind of like going on a diet.  To do it successfully it requires a total lifestyle shift.  Most of the time this is ok for me, but sometimes it just feels like deprivation and I give in to my old ways.  I’m not proud of it, but I am human.  I guess I’ll just pick myself up, dust myself off and get back on the green wagon tomorrow!

Newly Installed Farm in Brookline (Courtesy of the Green City Growers stream on Flickr)

I found out last week that B.Good, one of my favorite Boston area food establishments, has done something that makes me love them even more.  In addition to their delicious mango smoothies and baked sweet potato fries, they have installed an organic rooftop farm at their Brookline location!  Yes, that’s right, an organic rooftop farm!

The farm was installed and maintained by a Somerville company called Green City Growers.  This innovative company installs raised-bed organic farms in urban areas.  They can use a space as small as 4 ft by 4 ft.  They will either teach you how to care for your farm yourself, or they will come and tend it for you.  It’s a great alternative to a CSA, and I’ve decided to look into it for my own backyard.  I have a consult set up with Gabe next week and will keep you posted as I find out more!

• 2 zucchini
• 4 apples
• 1 bag of carrots
• 1 head of lettuce
• 2 kiwi
• 2 bananas
• 1 avocado
• 2 pears
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lemon

“No problem” I thought.  I can get through all of this in a week.  Well, I was wrong.  I gave the carrots to a friend, had another friend over for dinner and ate more fruit than usual, and still had a lot left by Wednesday afternoon (the day before my second delivery)  I found myself scrambling.  What would I do with a full head of lettuce, 2 zucchini, a cucumber and a lemon?

Thank goodness for the internet and a comment from a CSA savvy friend who had made a comment about lettuce soup a few weeks ago.  Lettuce soup you say?  Yes, lettuce soup.  Sounds pretty terrible, but tastes surprisingly good!  A quick Google search brought me to a recipe that sounded pretty straight forward.   The result was a green soup that tasted like a combination of potato and cream of brocolli.  As I said, tasty.   Okay, the lettuce was taken care of so I moved on the zucchini.  A quick and delicious batch of zucchini bread fixed that problem.

Next I had to figure out how to eat all of this soup and zucchini bread since my next veggie box had arrived! Well another friend over for dinner solved the soup problem, and zucchini bread freezes well.   Hopefully this will be the last time I face this problem since  I cut down my order frequency to every other week…

It was also a good test of my “greenness” since my aunt and uncle have been doing the green/sustainability thing since before it had a name.   In fact they are my green gurus, and much of what I know about sustainability I learned from them as a child, when my sisters and I spent summers with them.

They live on the West Coast in an area that was very rural until very recently, and was filled mostly with hippie transplants from other places when they got there in the early 1970′s.  They built their first home themselves, and lived there for years without running water or electricity.  Only after the birth of their second child did they move to a modest home on a small farm with a well and a septic system.  They reuse, recycle or compost almost everything.  They grow their own fruits and vegetables, raise their own chickens and sheep, and drive a hybrid.  Their washing machine is a front loader and their hot water heater is tankless.

Because they live on a farm with only well water, they are extremely conscious of their water consumption.  They were the first to introduce me to the concept of “If its yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”  As a city kid I was horrified that there were people who didn’t flush the toilet every time they used it, and quite frankly even today I would rather save water in other ways.  I also couldn’t understand their obsession with shutting off the lawn sprinklers, until they were accidentally left on one night and we didn’t have water for a couple of days.

So when they asked if they could stay with me I was very excited to show them how much of what they had taught me I actually adopted.  The first thing I did when they arrived was give them the eco tour of my apartment, pointing out the counter top compost container, the compost bin the yard, the organic milk, eggs and vegetables in the fridge, the bowl filled with organic fruit on the dining room table, the CF light bulbs.  I was a little nervous.  Would they approve?  Had I done enough?

Overall, I think they were happy with what I had done, but my uncle pointed out my areas of improvement.  He followed me around the house shutting off lights that I had left on, and suggested that I put all of my electrical appliances on power strips and turn off the power strips when the appliances aren’t in use.   I thought those were great suggestions for next steps.  I have a long way to go before I get to their level of greeness, and I don’t ever picture myself living without plumbing and electricity. (To be fair though, at this point neither do they.   I think we would all agree that  home powered fully by wind and solar would be nice. )

I feel very lucky to have had them as such a strong influence in my life.  Everyone should have such great mentors to help walk them down the path to a green life!

These developments are really sad, and upset me on a very personal level.  Every year a group of girlfriends and I make the trek to Western Mass or Southern Vermont for our annual “Maple Weekend.”  We have a core group of five, and periodically there are guest appearances by other friends or family members.  This year we had our first outing with a baby, when one of my friends brought her 8 month old daughter for her first maple experience.

Regardless of the destination, the trip consists of making the rounds from one sugar shack to the next.  This year we had a light year, visiting only 3 or 4 shacks on our one day outing.  In past years we’ve done two day trips  and visit up to 5 shacks per day.  We even have a theme song that we listen to as the expedition gets under way (courtesy of BV): “Maple Syrup Time” by Moxy Fruvous (a cover of a Pete Seger song).

Red Bucket Sugar Shack (That's steam from boiling the maple sap!)

The one thing that all of the shacks we visit has in common is that they boil their own syrup, other than that they are very different.  We usually start the day at a shack that serves a solid breakfast complete with all the maple syrup you can eat.  One year we went to a place where they gave out shots of maple syrup.  Yumm!!!

Next we move on to a place with maple cotton candy and maple roasted nuts.  They even have maple kettle corn.  After a couple of additional stops we end the day at Scary Jerry’s, where they make the most amazing maple bakes beans, cole slaw and sugar on snow (you guessed it, maple syrup served over actual snow).  You can only imagine what its like in the car home with 5 of us all hopped up on  maple sugar!

The sign inside "Scary Jerry's"

This weekend is one that I look forward to every year, and the years that I have missed have been very sad for me.  I can’t imagine what it would be like if the maple industrydisappeared from New England.  While I would be sad for myself and my friends, I would be even more sad for the people who have dedicated their lives to maintain this age- old tradition.  I don’t think any of them are getting rich as it is, and if they didn’t have maple sugar to rely on for income, I’m not sure what they would do for work.  The areas they live in are quite rural and I don’t think there is much opportunity for work outside agri-tourism.

In the meantime, I plan to do my part to stop climate change by buying local and supporting these great entrepreneurs!  Here are some of our favorites:

New Favorite This Year:

Hanging Mountain Farm
(and they are open year round)(Amazing Oatmeal & Egg Bake)

413-527-0710

188 North Rd, Westhampton, MA 01027
hangingmountainfarms.com

Old Stand Bys:

South Face Farm Sugarhouse

755 Watson-Spruce Corner Road
Ashfield, MA 01330

413-628-3268
http://www.southfacefarm.com/

Red Bucket Sugar Shack

413-238-7710

584 Kinnebrook Rd, Worthington, MA 01098
(great variety of products including kettle corn and cotton candy)

Windy Hill Farm (Scary Jerry’s)
West St, Worthington, MA 01098
(savory lunch stop and Sugar On Snow)

High Hopes Sugarhouse
413-238-5919

1132 Huntington Rd, Worthington, MA
(don’t eat her but stop for the photos)

Happy mapling!