Growers and Grocers

My kids like toaster pastries for the same reasons I almost never buy them: they’re ultrasweet, smeared (and sometimes filled) with sugary frosting, and although they don’t remotely resemble anything like an actual “pastry,” they’re weirdly addictive. Most trips to the grocery store include a pass through the seemingly ever-expanding toaster-pastry aisle and a brief, […]

It began innocently enough. In 1953, just 10 years after penicillin became widely available, Lain Macleod, the then minister of Health, told the House of Commons in England that feeding antibiotics to farm animals to make them grow faster would have “no adverse effect whatever on human beings.” Government research had, in fact, only looked […]

One thing my husband and I have been searching for in our new home is someone who sells whole sides of beef.  I think we’ve found someone, which is excellent news.  Beef from cattle raised on small farms is at least an order of magnitude better than what the grocery store carries, even those with […]

Local, seasonal, vegan, and ninety-five percent organic. A daily feast will maintain optimal nutrition levels and a sample sale size. In New York’s East Village, Angelica Kitchen has maintained an exquisite reputation since 1976, with a visionary philosophy that has only recently become a haute trend.
The floor to ceiling glass exterior wall reveals […]

In addition to trying to break the paper plate habit (or at least curb it), I’m also working on cutting my paper towel usage, but it ain’t easy. 
Enter Peaceful Company.  They have come up with a biodegradable cleaning cloth that, no joke, does the work of a stack of paper towels.  The sponge is dishwasher-safe, made […]

Chef and popular cookbook author Deborah Madison has long been a champion of eating local, shopping fresh and visiting farmers’ markets.  With nine cookbooks already to her credit, she is currently working on her latest, What We Eat When We Eat Alone, with her painter husband, Patrick McFarlin.  Although it will have some recipes, this […]

I love entertaining, and if I can incorporate “going green” along with it, even better.  I’m a little late to the party on this one, since it was published in 2006, but it still ranks as a cool find in my book.  Danny Seo, a popular environmental activist and columnist for Country Home magazine, recently […]

London-based singer KT Tunstall is perhaps best known for her breakout hit, “Suddenly I See,” but did you also know that with her recent success she decided to redo her London apartment to be more environmentally friendly?  She shares the space with her drummer boyfriend Luke Bullen and the redo features solvent-free paint, recycled radiators, […]

We’ve just moved into a new house here in the Pacific Northwest and this summer we want to grow some of our own vegetables.  My oldest son is very excited about the idea of zucchini fresh from the garden, which is interesting because he won’t eat it if I buy it from the grocery store.  […]

I admit it.  Kicking the paper plate habit is a tough one for me.  Between frequent entertaining and usually a case of less time, more chores, sometimes it’s just too easy to use paper plates and pass up our proper dinner plates.  With a five-year-old that likes to clear the table (which I’m all for!), […]