We're not living in a straw-bale house, off the grid, with composting toilets or anything (yet) but we do try to live relatively lightly on the land and keep our bodies free of toxic stuff, etc. (as Americans go, anyway).
This kind of stuff became even more important as we were thinking about having kids, and yet more important when Lilienna was born with that extra little chromosome. I get more and more questions from friends on these kinds of things recently - maybe this stuff is catching on? I wanted to throw some of how we live out there - feel free to laugh, ask questions, or give us some fabulous advice... ;)
We buy organic as much as we can. Probably three quarters of the food in our house is organic. Most people either say 'what the heck is organic anyway?' or 'isn't that really expensive?' when this comes up. Pretty much, organic food is raised without synthetic pesticides, etc. - here's a USDA brochure that goes into a little more detail. And yes, it is more expensive at the grocery store, but I think we even that out by belonging to Tait Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we buy a share of organic vegetables from a local farm and pick them up every week. Man, are they good, and if you do the math it's a lot cheaper than buying the same conventional produce at the grocery store. I've felt better since I started eating organic, and I'd like to think that Lili has thrived eating mostly all organic food. Check out this site to find a CSA (or farmer's market, crunchy food store, etc.) in your neck of the US wilderness.
We eat gluten-free, which isn't crunchy by itself, but it makes for a way of eating that I think is much healthier. We eat very little highly processed food - cooking is a bit more work than, say, frozen dinners, but it's a whole lot yummier too. Eating GF means you have to 'know your ingredients', so the simpler, the better - which leads to buying more locally made food.
We bought an old house in an old village that needed a bit of love rather than a new one in what used to be woods. Of course, that means more work for us to make sure lead paint and drafts stay away from everyone, but I love our house and the stories it tells.
Well, we're really not that crunchy, because I'm not coming up with a laundry list of other things we do to reduce our footprint. I guess we've changed light bulbs to compact fluorescents, and we drive a car that gets pretty good gas mileage; but I've got a bigger list of things we need to do on this front: insulate, compost, buy wind power, go solar...
Any other crunchy wannabes out there?
This kind of stuff became even more important as we were thinking about having kids, and yet more important when Lilienna was born with that extra little chromosome. I get more and more questions from friends on these kinds of things recently - maybe this stuff is catching on? I wanted to throw some of how we live out there - feel free to laugh, ask questions, or give us some fabulous advice... ;)
We buy organic as much as we can. Probably three quarters of the food in our house is organic. Most people either say 'what the heck is organic anyway?' or 'isn't that really expensive?' when this comes up. Pretty much, organic food is raised without synthetic pesticides, etc. - here's a USDA brochure that goes into a little more detail. And yes, it is more expensive at the grocery store, but I think we even that out by belonging to Tait Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we buy a share of organic vegetables from a local farm and pick them up every week. Man, are they good, and if you do the math it's a lot cheaper than buying the same conventional produce at the grocery store. I've felt better since I started eating organic, and I'd like to think that Lili has thrived eating mostly all organic food. Check out this site to find a CSA (or farmer's market, crunchy food store, etc.) in your neck of the US wilderness.
We eat gluten-free, which isn't crunchy by itself, but it makes for a way of eating that I think is much healthier. We eat very little highly processed food - cooking is a bit more work than, say, frozen dinners, but it's a whole lot yummier too. Eating GF means you have to 'know your ingredients', so the simpler, the better - which leads to buying more locally made food.
We bought an old house in an old village that needed a bit of love rather than a new one in what used to be woods. Of course, that means more work for us to make sure lead paint and drafts stay away from everyone, but I love our house and the stories it tells.
Well, we're really not that crunchy, because I'm not coming up with a laundry list of other things we do to reduce our footprint. I guess we've changed light bulbs to compact fluorescents, and we drive a car that gets pretty good gas mileage; but I've got a bigger list of things we need to do on this front: insulate, compost, buy wind power, go solar...
Any other crunchy wannabes out there?
Crunchy Lili picking out some mums at Harner Farm
3 comments:
You KNOW I call you guys "crunchy, tree huggers who live in the wilderness" with love! You guys are my favorite of all tree huggers! AND you have even rubbed some of your hippieness off on me!
We're kind of crunchy-lite. We eat organic when it's on special offer, watch the ingredients, have half a dozen energy-saver bulbs and feel guilty each time we use the car - not quite enough to stop us using it though.
David, you heard a lot about "crunchy" (similar, I think, to the earlier? term "granola") from me, your mom, when you were little, but you and Sara have taken it much further. Bravo!!!!!
The food at your house is UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS. Q.E.D., I guess!!!
And may I "spill the beans" that your gluten-free started out for a KNOWN allergy reason - but then turned out to be better even for those with NO known allergies. I still haven't tried that myself at any length. :<(
Sept. 11 made me say, oh, no, the price of gas is going to go through the roof, so for purely selfish reasons I got my 2002 Prius, which now has 161,000 miles on it. It's good to know it is helping the environment some - but I have to admit the large number of miles isn't exactly green!
I would LOVE to have a wind turbine in NH, but the latest I heard was that the wind in our village was not good enough.
Thanks for the reminder about CSA's. I MUST check around here! (Philly) Your fresh veggies are the best.
Love the picture of sweet Lili - be well - love, Grandma Marian xxxooo xxxooo xxxooo
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