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Podcast: Download (Duration: 10:58 — 12.6MB)
Today’s Stories:
Target Misses the Mark with Organic Food
San Franciscans Forced to Compost and Not Bothered By It
Coal Plants Not Smoking, But Pollution Still Exists
Blue Earth, an environmentally friendly mobile phone
2009 Solar Decathlon Winners Announced
Podcast coming – sorry for the delay…
Time to get those seedling gowing. If you haven’t already the warmer weather signals it’s time to start prepping your back yard garden for this year’s growing season. It all starts with the soil. Whether your soil is sandy or clay the best way to improve it is with organic matter in the form of compost. We’ve got a beginners video guide to composting with master composter Elisa Margarita at newlygreens.com. Ideal soil is deep, loose, and well-drained.
Finally if you are in the Montclair area, Terra on Church St. has a nice selection of organic herloom seeds available. Nice if you did not get your seeds on order yet as they usually take a few weeks to arrive and it’s really time to get things started.
*SUPPLEMENTAL INFO*
I was just speaking to our friend Matt (Episode 3) who spent a couple years working on an Organic CSA (Episode 4) about soil prep and he had some great additional advice:
Greg: I recall you using some kind of organic plant feed, like seaweed or something. Where did you find that?
Matt: It was Neptune’s Harvest Seaweed Extract. You can also purchase Kelp Meal (dry seaweed) which feeds the soil. I am going to be tilling in Kelpmeal in my garden next week. I got it from www.gardensalive.com
Greg: Any experience using leaves as mulch or compost?
Matt: We always used leaves in our garden, straw resists more weeds through the season because it breaks down slower.
Greg : There is still straw in my soil and I’m a little concerned its going to burn up my nitrogen. I hear pee’s got a lot of nitrogen in it. 
. Any thoughts?
Matt: Pee is actually a great fertilizer, 10 parts water to one part urine. If you ate a lot of seaweed you could do away with the kelpmeal
You could also use bloodmeal (not smelly) or fish emulsion (which smells awful but works great, wear gloves). Blood meal would be tilled into the garden along with kelp meal, compost etc to build soil. Fish emulsion is a concentrate (same brand as that kelp extract, neptunes harvest) that you mix with water and feed like conventional fertilizers.
Podcast: Download (0.4KB)
Here come the leaves! While you’re out picking up Mother Nature’s doin’s, take the opportunity to give back to your soil by composting. At the most basic, you can use a mulching lawnmower to mow your way to a healthier yard (and save yourself some backbreaking labor). With a little more effort you can collect your leaves to use as your “Browns” stock all year long. The golden rule of compost is 50% Greens / 50% Browns layered together like a lasagna. Sprinkle in finished compost as the “Cheese” to get things started. Whenever you add food waste (Greens) add a shovel full of your leaves (Browns) to control smells and insects. Turn once a week.
Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 23 percent of the U.S. waste stream, as documented by EPA. An estimated 56.9 percent of yard trimmings were recovered for composting or grasscycled in 2000, a dramatic increase from the 12 percent recovery rate in 1990.
Leave Out/Reason Why
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/composting/basic.htm
Podcast: Download (36.3MB)
Extreme Green Segment:
Organic Farming and CSA
Host Transformation:
Connie & Greg join a CSA!
“O” Goods:
Composting 101
Special Guest: Elisa Margarita
Show #4 Air Date: October 2007
Show Summary:
the Newly Greens hits the farm! The average meal travels 1,500 miles to your plate and they are usually laced with pesticides when they get there. Join Connie and Greg as they investigate “greener” options in the form of organically and locally grown food. They also dig into composting with Certified Master Composter, Elisa Margarita.
Extreme Green – Organic Food and CSA’s
Greg and Connie join Leanord Pollara of Upper Meadows Farm in Montague NJ to explore the workings of an organic farm. The organic market has consistently grown 20% a year since the 1990’s. There are five main drawbacks to today’s traditional food culture:
1) Pesticides – Approximately 400 different pesticides used, designed to kill anything that might harm the crops.
2) Additives – Things like MSG are neuro-stimulants associated with neurological disorders like migraines, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
3) GMO – Genetically Modified Organisms (foods) are everywhere and they do not need to be labeled. Almost all corn and soy in the US are GMO. Although the USDA has given the ok for GMO’s, many people feel that this genetic tinkering could have unknown long term effects. There is some speculation that the sharp rise in peanut allergies in children could be the result of genetically modified crops.
4) Hormones – Hormones are used to accelerate growth in meat and poultry. There are suspected links to developmental problems in young humans, early puberty, obesity and diabetes
5) Antibiotics – Antibiotics are used widely in industrialized farming. These antibiotics remain in the meat we eat and give rise to more resistant bacteria and potentially more serious illnesses.
The Dirty Dozen
Check out the list of foods dubbed The “Dirty Dozen”. This is a list of fruits and vegetables that you should always buy organic, whenever possible, because their conventionally grown counterparts tend to be laden with pesticides. “They cost about 50 percent more — but are well worth the money”. This site also gives you tips for better conventional choices if you can’t afford or find the organic versions. You can also check out The Organic Trade Association for more information on organics and GMO’s.
Organics and Kids
Connie also recently attended a seminar with Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green. He has a top 10 list of foods that should be eaten in the organic form, especially for children who tend to eat a lot of these foods.
They are as follows:
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
Participating in a CSA is a good choice for many reasons. One of them is the idea of eating foods that are grown locally. According to the World Watch Institute, a typical meal in a mid-western U.S. state travels an average of 2577 kilometers. Researchers estimate that this food requires up to 17 times the petroleum and generates up to 17 times the transport-related carbon emissions than the same meal made from locally-grown ingredients. Food transportation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The growth in the distance food travels has also corresponded with an increase in food packaging, as food products are designed for longer journeys and shelf lives. In addition, there is a large amount of food waste, which unfortunately is not always composted. Source: ZeroWaste.
Where can I find a CSA or Farmers Market in my area?
localharvest.org
Where can I find organic non-GMO seeds for my garden?
According to Len of Upper Meadows Farms, these are some useful sites for seeds and farm/garden supplies.
highmowingseeds.com
halcyon.com
attra.ncat.org
Where can I find more information on Upper Meadows Farm?
Visit the Upper Meadows Farm Site! uppermeadowsfarm.com
“O” Goods – Composting
The “O” Goods segment strives to illustrate that for every choice we make, or product we buy, there is usually an alternative available that is healthier for people and the environment. Whether it is organic, less toxic, or provides fair trade for people around the world, these healthier alternatives are the choices we seek.
Connie and Elisa Margarita deliver this week’s “O” Goods composting tips.
Elisa completed the Master Composter certificate course offered by The New York City Compost Project.
Want more information on the certification program?
The New York City Compost Project.
Composting
According to the NYC CP, “The average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste each day—adding up to more than one million tons of organic material a year. When we discard this “waste,” we lose a potential resource that can help beautify our parks, gardens, and blocks…even our windowboxes and houseplants.”
A Guide to Composting:
These sites all offer great information for composting. But remember to add the same amount of “greens” and “browns” by volume. (i.e.: one bucket of greens should also get one bucket of browns added to the pile).
compostguide.com
hgtv.com (type “compost” into their search box)
nyccompost.org
Greg and Connie – Host Transformation Update:
As mentioned previously, a big part of our “NewlyGreen” transformation is making some honest determinations about what we really need to do to live our ideal, sustainable lives. So, for this phase we’re joining a CSA! We’ve been talking about it for a long time and it’s finally time to put our money where it counts. We chose an individual share from a local CSA. It’s costing us 335/yr for the veggie and egg plan. They offer fruit also but we decided to start with just the veggies and eggs. We’ll keep you posted!
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