CSA farms are starting to organize now for their 2010 membership

Want to go local in your own food supply? Minnesota CSA farms are starting to organize now for their 2010 membership. This Minnesota Department of Agriculture website has an interactive website to help locate potential farms: http://www3.mda.state.mn.us/mngrown/searchresults.aspx?location=&products=3 . A further excellent resource for finding a farm is the published online list from Land Stewardship Project : http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html .

CSA's or Community Supported Agriculture farms grow and harvest for their members, who get a "share" of the farms production. Different farms have different arrangements regarding drop-off locations, the number of weeks, pricing, farm involvement such as potlucks, and what food products they will include. Some feature meat shares, cheese shares, and fruit shares in addition to the standard vegetable offerings.

By signing up with a farm, you are ensuring the freshest produce for your household while reducing the food miles of your household's diet. Plus, your dollars support a Minnesota farmer!

Got Ice? Get Grit!

The winter of 2009-2010 has been treacherous in terms of sidewalk ice in Minnesota. December rain initiated the slickest sidewalks in memory which was followed by periods of melt...snow...melt plus more icing. For a household trying to be earth sensitive, the options for deicing and sanding do not meet the grade.

To some degree, all deicing salts have impacts to pets, plants, concrete and even more alarming, on watersheds. Salinity of urban waterways are of increasing concern, so much so that the City of Saint Paul has just decided that deicing salts will no longer be used on city side streets (intersections and grades excepted). The commonly used sand isn't without issues either. Sand has small enough particles that it washes from our driveways, streets and sidewalks directly into rivers via city storm sewers.

How to avoid these eco-pitfalls? Timely shoveling is really the ounce of prevention. Try to be aware of what precipitation is coming your way and make the effort to move it off and treat right away. Also, make sure you have access to a good chopper. Ice choppers are a necessary tool in the battle of slick sidewalks.

Still slick? Try CHICKEN GRIT for good traction (pictured above)! Grit is generally too heavy to wash into storm water systems. Further, the little bits of angular granite that chickens use to break down food in their crops are great for biting into icy surfaces. Finally, once the snow and ice are gone, you can sweep up your grit and save it for the next season. Chicken grit can be found at farm stores.

As a last resort, reach for the deicing chemicals, only after implementing timely shoveling, ice chopping and grit. But, know your salt because not all deicing salts are equally damaging and different salts work at different temperatures. For example, in extreme cold, calcium chloride is the only product that will work and using any other product is not effective. However, under most circumstances, grit and elbow grease will suffice.

Midwayites! Get Thee to a Home Energy Workshop!

*Save Energy and Money at Home!*

This February, residents of Hamline-Midway have a unique opportunity to
participate in a home energy efficiency program that can save hundreds of dollars per home. The program, Neighborhood Energy Service, starts with a
free *neighborhood workshop on saving energy and money* in your home. Workshops for Hamline-Midway are scheduled for:

• Feb. 11th (6:30pm at the Hamline United Methodist Church—1610 West Hubbard Ave) and
  
• Feb. 13th (10am at the Hancock Rec. Center—1514 Englewood Ave)
  

At the workshop you’ll be able to schedule a home visit, where the Home Energy Squad will *visit your house and install energy-saving materials*. Materials include compact florescent lights, a programmable thermostat, door weather stripping, and a low flow shower head.

Finally, you’ll receive one year of personalized home energy reports. These custom reports compare your home’s energy use with the average Minnesota home of the same size.

This program provides *goods and services worth up to $400, and enrollment only costs $30 per home*. This incredible deal is made possible by the generous support of the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

To participate, RSVP for one of the free neighborhood workshops by contacting Michael Jon at 651-646-1986 or email michaeljon@hamlinemidway.org.

The program is provided by a partnership of neighborhood organizations, including the Neighborhood Energy Connection, the Metro Clean Energy Resource Team, and the Hamline-Midway Coalition. Other partners include the Center for Energy and the Environment and Xcel Energy.

Treasuring Waste: MIMO & Yogurt Cup Collection

Americans are hooked on garbage, 4.5 pounds of it generated per day per person according to EPA 2008 estimates (pdf). Sadly, 60-85% of that is recyclable! Somehow, our society tolerates throwing away materials that can be reused or regenerated into new products. Garbage is a resource, which does not need to include waste-to-energy power plants. Grass-roots neighborhood level activities can urge the reversing of this trend. For example in SE Como, this neighborhood is trying to reduce the amount of reusable furnishings lost to the trash during college move-out schedules in fall and spring. SECIA has coined this as "MIMO" or move-in/move-out. The organization has a grant from the MPCA to work on a pilot that redistributes usable items left on curbs and alleys. The program will feature a re-use "store" that will be set-up during key weeks when college students are on the move.

Further, in the Midway area of St. Paul, neighbors are setting up yogurt cup collection, another example of reuse! The collected cups will be made into seed starting kits. In both cases, community members are deciding to take the issue of waste into their own hands and find a better solution. Presently this is the answer to institutionalized waste; personal choice and action! Here is the yogurt cup collection announcement:

HMEG Announces a Yogurt Cup Re-Use Collection in the Midway at Shirtz Unlimited on Snelling Avenue. The Hamline Midway Environmental Group (HMEG), in partnership with the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM), invites you to recycle your large and small yogurt cups (with lids) to reduce waste! HMEG has arranged a neighborhood drop-off location at Shirtz Unlimited, a locally owned shirt screening business, on Snelling Avenue near the intersection of Minnehaha Avenue. The yogurt cup recycling is sponsored by the Recycling Association of Minnesotawww.recycleminnesota.org). The yogurt cups will be re-used to make seed starter kits for sale to the public. To recycle your yogurt cups and cottage cheese containers bring them to the Shirtz Unlimited store (755 Snelling Ave N, 651-645-3311). The pilot re-use program accepts only CLEAN single serving (6oz) and 32oz containers for recycling. Don't forget the lids! Please, no Yoplait brand or six-pack containers.

HMEG Support Letter for Frogtown Farms

Hamline Midway Environmental Group

c/o Hamline Midway Coalition

Hamline Park Building
1564 Lafond Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104

651-646-1986

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Frogtown Gardens

843 Van Buren Ave.

Saint Paul, MN, 55104

Dear Frogtown Farms Developers and Supporters:

The Hamline Midway Environmental Group (HMEG) congratulates you on your vision for bringing a sustainable working urban farm to the Frogtown Neighborhood. It would be a cutting edge demonstration of how grassroots residents of inner city neighborhoods could work together to build food equity, vibrant good health and environmental justice.

HMEG supports your efforts and will work with you and other supporters of this plan to see Frogtown Farms become a reality.

The Hamline-Midway
Environmental Group is a interest group of District Council 11. Its mission is to create and nurture a healthy and
sustainable environment in the Hamline-Midway community of St. Paul Minnesota. Members of HMEG worked to support community members who are active in improving the sustainability of the neighborhood. Areas of focus include community gardens, food justice, backyard poultry, rain gardens, rain barrels, local foods, composting, recycling, bike/walk initiatives and urban forestry.

In Solidarity,

The Hamline Midway Environmental Group

To learn more about Frogtown Farm see their website or find them on Facebook

Earth Friendly Family Travel - Breakfast Milk in the Bud Light cup?

My family took a two day get-away to Duluth last week for some swimming and sight seeing. While its fun to take those trips, we are quite disgusted by the way traveling generates so much waste. Disposable serveware at meals, beverages in disposables, no recycling bins and housekeeping are all culprits in filling up our hotel trash bin.

Earth friendly family travel for us means:

• Bringing our own water bottles and thermoses so that we do not need to acquire disposable beverage containers.
  
• Bringing along a small set of dishes including a cutting board, knife, and small mixing bowl.
  
• Collecting all recyclables and toting them home- paper, cans and plastic! It is a bit easier to commingle these while on the road and then sorting them once home.
  
• Collecting all compostables and toting them home to the composter- coffee grounds, orange peels and paper with food waste are all examples. Yes, we really do this on car trips. Its not really that big of a deal once you designate a spot for compostables to go. The hotel ice bucket sure works well for this job!
• Bring along a dishwashing wand and dish soap to clean up our dishes. The kids are sure more eager to help with this job when we are vacationing.
  
• Reusing any plastic cups and plates that we do acquire. Who wants their breakfast milk in the Bud Light cup?
  
• Bringing along some food. Takeout meals means takeout food packaging. By having sandwich fixings, fruit, a bag of salad and snacks on hand we can make lunches in our room and avoid more packaging while saving some change. A few spare sandwich bags in the suitcases allows us to have the sandwiches with us on the road.
  
• Declining housekeeping during our stay. Many hotels are doing this more routinely, even promoting their "eco-business". These claims are often akin to greenwashing considering the rest of their practices are so wasteful (Where are the recycling bins exactly?). But regardless, by declining housekeeping, we minimize the amount of laundering required for our stay along with less garbage bags, plastic cups, shampoo bottles consumed.
• Bringing our own shampoo and conditioner. There is never enough in the little hotel bottles anyway.
  

Granted, we buck the disposa-society trend hard, and definitely are not within the norms set by our fellow vacationers. However, the reward of a trashcan NOT filled with clamshells, foodwaste and recyclables is motivating, and allows us to have a more carefree vacation. We are looking for more ideas, please suggest yours!

Christmas Trees and Natural Decor can go to Ramsey County Brush Sites

Smart thinking Ramsey County! There are a few winter dates being made available at the compost sites, just in time to take holiday greenery. Additionally, a handful of sites will be open once per month during the winter season. Details can be found here.

In the Midway, you can bring holiday greenery to Pierce Butler near Vandalia on January 9th (9am-5pm) or 10th (11am-5pm). Please remove wires, ribbon, ornaments, lights, tinsel, tree bags and tree stands prior to drop off. Leaves, branches, natural wreaths and other plant waste are also accepted.

For gardeners, hen keepers, and home composters, this is a valuable back-up to our systems we have at home or if we have a tree come down during the winter.