How to Be Thrifty and Self-Sufficient Ideas Nos. 2 – 7: Handy Guide to Eco-Friendly Living
04 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in DIY, Green Mansions, Thrifty and Self-Sufficient
Although this article from the Trib is geared towards renters, it most certainly applies to home-owners and those that still live with their parents. This useful guide contains several great green and money-saving ideas, from using gray water to scavenging for useful items from the likes of Craigslist, clothing swaps, and even recycling bins.
New Tasty Vegetarian Recipe Blog
23 Sep 2010 1 Comment
in Food
Attention all food lovers! Check out The Scarlet Begonia Cafe, a blog dedicated to inspired vegetarian cuisine, written by our favorite yogini and Green Mansions Foundation contributor, Randa. You’ll find delicious recipes accompanied by beautiful photographs. Bon appetit!
Here’s a sample of one of her creations – looks divine, doesn’t it?!
How to be Thrifty and Self-Sufficient Idea No. 1: Save Those Seeds!
23 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Food, Gardening, Thrifty and Self-Sufficient
Have you tried any local produce that you’ve absolutely fallen in love with? Next time, save the seeds so you can use them for next year’s garden. Last year, Green Mansions Foundation grew delicious jalapenos and decided to give seed saving a shot.
It’s about as easy as it sounds – we harvested the seeds, dried them on the window sill for a few days, stored them in a labeled paper bag, and put them in a lower cabinet (any cool, dry, and dark place will do). We planted the seeds in our basement nursery this March and transplanted them to the garden in May. This year’s crop and some of the seeds we are saving are shown below.
We’re repeating the cycle this year – we’ve got ourselves homegrown, pesticide-free seeds that keep giving without any extra cost to us. This is an idea we love and we’ve done it with most of our vegetables and some of our flowers!
New Series: How To Be Thrifty and Self-Sufficient
04 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in DIY, Sustainability Tags: DIY, self-sufficient, series, thrifty
Green Mansions Foundation is working on a new series, entitled “How To Be Thrifty and Self-Sufficient.” In these trying times, we are doing everything possible to reduce our bills, reuse what we have, and come up with creative ways to solve everyday problems. Be on the look out for upcoming articles and please give us your imput – what do you do to save money and stay sustainable at the same time?
Urban Bee Keeping
02 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in DIY, Food, Organic Tags: beepods, DIY, EcoFair360, honey
Did you know that by eating local raw honey, you may reduce seasonal allergies? Honey contains small amounts of pollen, which when eaten, can allow your body to build up immunity to allergens. With beepods, you can now produce your very own honey, even if you live in the city.
We had the opportunity to sample spring and autumn honey collected from beepods at EcoFair360. The autumn honey is our personal favorite and truth be told, it is the most delicious honey we’ve ever tasted. We were also able to see how the beepods are configured. They are minimalistic yet attractive, and are spread out horizontally, which makes the hive safe and accessible to manage. Each comb is able to be pulled up separately, so there is no need to tear a hive apart for inspection.
Beekeeping is not as time-intensive as we thought it would be. Approximately 30 – 45 minutes needs to be spent with the bees every two weeks. Beepods also provides “Beesentations”, workshops, classes, and mentorships for those that are interesting in raising their own bees. We’ll stick to supporting our local honey producers, but if you are adventurous, urban beekeeping may be for you.
Summer Grilling Ideas
29 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
We recently looked through a back issue of Real Simple magazine and discovered several easy-to-make marinades and glazes. Here are a few of our favorites, several of which require items from our garden (yay):
1/3 cup olive oil, 1 thinly sliced lemon, 6 sprigs of rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Best with chicken, chops, shrimp, summer squash, zucchini, and red onions.
1/4 c low-sodium soy sauce, 1 tb grated ginger, 1 tb sesame oil, 2 thinly sliced scallions, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper. Best with beef pork, shrimp, salmon, bell peppers, eggplant, and mushrooms.
1/2 c cilantro, 1/4 c OJ, 1/4 c olive oil, 1 halved and sliced jalapeno, 1/2 tsp kosher salt. Best with chicken, steak, chops, scallops, mahi mahi, bell peppers, summer squash, and zucchini.
1/4 c honey, 2 tbs low-sodium soy sauce. Best with steak, chops, ribs, salmon, bell peppers, eggplant, and mushrooms.
1/2 c apricot jam, 2 tbs white wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp kosher salt. Best with wings and pork.
What To Do With All That Squash?
29 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Food, Gardening, Organic Tags: baking, basil, bread, garden, organic, recipes, squash
Currently, our squash and cucumber plants are engaged in battle. Each one wants to dominate the garden, but only one will win. This year, I believe it will be the cucumbers. However, we are still left with many delicious yellow squashes, but have frankly become bored with the same old recipes. Steamed squash. Grilled squash. Baked squash. We’ve had each countless times this summer and we are in desperate need of new recipes, as there are about a dozen squashes in need of eating at any given time (free squash to the first ten takers!)
So, Green Mansions Foundation has spent the morning looking up new and creative ways to consume said squash. Here are a few of the tastiest-sounding recipes we could find. We’ll let you know how they turn out. Any suggestions?
Paula Deen’s Southern-Style Squash Casserole Recipe - mmm, loads of butter and a cracker crust. We don’t think we can go wrong with this one.
Squash and Onions and Brown Sugar – Sweet and simple.
Smothered Yellow Squash with Basil – Combines two of our favorite garden plants! Plus, this recipe uses olive oil instead of butter.
Summer Squash Bread Recipe - A twist on the traditional zucchini bread. Add pecans for sweet crunchiness.
If You Happen To Be A Visual Learner
22 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
Check out this informative how-to pickle making video from Miscellanea:
Pickle Update
22 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in DIY, Food, Gardening, Organic Tags: canning, cucumbers, DIY, jarring, organic, pickles
With the help of Pick Your Own’s handy guide, Green Mansions Foundation made 7 Ball jars’ worth of pickles. Using cucumbers from our ever-expanding garden (seriously, we should set up a farm stand outside of our front door), we jumped into our first home canning adventure. Was it as easy as we thought? No. Was it worth it? Definitely. The results? Not out yet. We have about 3 more days worth of waiting before we try out our test subjects. We’ve included a few photos of the process below.
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