Introducing Sustainable Baby Steps: And an Awesome Giveaway!

Tara of The Organic Sister has been a virtual friend of mine for a while.  She is someone I am always drawing inspiration from and always enjoy her blog.  Tara and I are also on a Visionary Moms Team together so I have gotten to know her better over these past few months through phone conversations and online forums.  Tara is a hard working, dedicated, creative, inspirational, and all around amazing Mama!  Her newest endeavor is her website Sustainable Baby Steps.  

Tara is celebrating the official launch of Sustainable Baby Steps with a BIG giveaway on her blog! Visit Sustainable Baby Steps: Great Big Giveaway! to enter for your chance to win one of many fantastic, sustainable prizes!

Tara was kind enough to answer a few questions for us...please enjoy this interview!

Suzy: Can you tell us a little bit about what Sustainable Baby Steps is?

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps is a website dedicated to answering the question "How do I go green?" It's about spreading awareness through knowledge and inspiration, keeping things simple and understandable and not overwhelming people with a doomsday mentality or the feeling that it's all Too Big or Too Much to handle.

Suzy:  Where did the inspiration to start this website come from?

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps started out as a weekly blog post on my blog a few years ago. It was a combination of my extensive research into the issues around environmental degradation and my passion for spreading the word about sustainability. I love the topic and wanted to share it! But I quickly came to see the subject as bigger than a blog feature and I really had the vision to take it further. I wanted to make "going green" feel manageable, fun and affordable, so I took my time over the last year really clarifying my ideas and format for the site and working toward building it. And I'm nowhere near complete! The topics behind sustainability are vast and Sustainable Baby Steps will be my labor of love and my contribution to the green living movement for some time to come.

Suzy:  How did you first become interested in living a sustainable lifestyle?

Tara: It wasn't a major or obvious part of my childhood (although simple living was), but the principles of conservation, and care of our natural resources has always made sense to me. I remember digging through the compost pile and feeling passionate about stopping littering. Being kind to the Earth was never a question of why. As I started my own household, I naturally became more and more intrigued in providing a healthy environment for my family and the question of "How do I do this?" surfaced. What started as an interest and investigation into organic foods quickly led to an understanding on sustainable farming, environmental degradation, our consumer impact and on and on.

Suzy:  What advice can you give my readers who are trying to make changes to live a bit more "green"?

Tara: There are so many places you can start, but a few jump out as being the most beneficial: addressing the issue of where our food comes from, whether it's sustainably grown or raised and the impact it has on the environment is probably one of the biggest issues we face today; the next would be the damage we do to our bodies and our ecosystems with things like pesticides, cleaners and other chemical or synthetic products. Educate yourself on the issues, and then start with one area that you can change: throw out the toilet bowl cleaner and replace it with baking soda, find one local farmer or CSA or replace your plastic tupperware with glass or stainless steel containers.

Suzy:  One Small Change is all about making small changes each month to lessen your carbon foot print.  How can Sustainable Baby Steps help people who are involved in the One Small Change Project? 

Tara: Sustainable Baby Steps is jam-packed with ideas on conservation and lifestyle changes. You can check out the sections on Going Green At Home, or Eco-friendly Holidays for plenty of inspiration and information on the things that matter most.

Be sure to subscribe to the free Going Green! newsletter for monthly updates from the site, relevant environmental articles, interviews and special offers from some great sustainable companies.

And stay tuned as the articles and content on Sustainable Baby Steps continues to grow!

Suzy:  Thanks,Tara, for taking the time to talk to us about Sustainable Baby Steps!

Tara: Thank you Suzy for being a part of this movement and allowing me to spread the word! It's awesome to work with so many other families and individuals interested in making a difference.

Introducing Sustainable Baby Steps: And an Awesome Giveaway!

October Change Update

How is your October change going so far?

October Change Update

The Garbage Garage

"You'll begin your adventure through the Garbage Garage by entering the Mountain of Trash, a tunnel-like hallway where you'll be surrounded by trash" I was intrigued when I read this on the Garbage Garage's brochure. I had heard about the Garbage Garage, which is located at our county's landfill, but had never thought to actually go there.

Then I couldn't stop thinking about the Garbage Garage. I was so curious about it and kept thinking about how neat it would be to teach my kids about trash. We try to reuse and recycle around here and have really been focusing on reducing lately, but did my kids really understand why we do all this? Probably not. I mean I could tell them why, but I am not sure they really tune in when I talk about things like trash and landfills.

This is a great visual of how much waste would be created in just 2 weeks from a sack lunch when using paper bags, juice boxes, etc. vs very little to none when using a lunch box, cloth napkin, reusable silverware, etc.

So, we took a trip to the Garbage Garage...that is literally made out of mostly reclaimed items. The garage is filled with trash, information, games, videos and displays to really get you thinking. And what a great way to show your kids and get the conversation started on trying to reduce our carbon footprint.

I didn't realize it takes 300-500 years for a disposable diaper to break down!!

If you are in the Larimer County area I would highly recommend visiting the Garbage Garage! And if you are not in the area, check to see if your county has an educational center at the landfill. I learned things, the kids learned things, and best of all, we are more aware and ready to make changes regarding our waste!

Magnolia is mad at how many useful items get thrown away each day!

*This post was taken from the Hip Mountain Mama Blog.  This was originally posted on March, 10, 2010

The Garbage Garage

Freezing Kale

*A post taken from my Hip Mountain Mama Blog on June 25th 2009

June 25, 2009

I am fairly new to growing veggies. This is our third year to grow a garden, but the first year to attempt kale and spinach. To our excitement, they have really been thriving. I am positive our compost has a lot to do with how well our garden is growing this year (and all the rain we have had). I have been happily plucking spinach and kale from the garden every morning, before I even get dressed, to put in our breakfast smoothies.

I started to realize that I needed to be plucking more or else it is going to go bad or the bugs will eat it. So, I went out and harvested a ton of the greens for freezing. We now have a ton of kale and spinach in the freezer to use this winter and are awaiting the next round of kale to come up in the garden.

I used to be very intimidated by freezing produce...like it was going to be this big huge task that I would never be able to complete. Well, I was wrong. I went to my friend google and asked how to freeze greens. Google showed me many websites that calmed my fears and showed me step by step how easy it is to freeze greens.

In a nut shell, you harvest, you wash, you blanch (2 min in boiling water), you soak in ice water, you drain, you freeze....easy peasy!

Through my google search I found a few different methods for freezing my kale and below is the method I went with.

Have fun!

~~HMM

Harvest your Kale wash it in the sink with water

Blanch your kale, by submerging in boiling water for 2 minutes


After the 2 minutes is up, transfer the kale from the boiling water into a bowl of ice water for about 2 minutes (save the boiling water for the next batch)

Then you can either lay it out to dry, or put it in a salad spinner. I just dried it a bit in a towel then put it in the zip lock freezer bag. You can use a vacuum sealer if you have one, or do what I did. Zip the bag closed all the way except for one little opening big enough for a straw. Stick the straw in and suck all the air out, then zip it shut all the way.

Then label your bags and stick them in the freezer! All done!

Freezing Kale

Nature Bracelets

One of the things I encourage people most who are involved with this project, is to get out and enjoy nature.  As humans we are supposed to spend most of our time outdoors using our shelters for warmth, sleep, healing, rituals, or gatherings.  I believe this because as I look back on history, this is the way it was.  Being outside in nature wakes up our inner spirit, makes us feel alive, and can be very healing to any mental or physical ailment.    It is also a great reminder of why we are protecting our Earth and treating her with love and respect.

If you have children, you will notice that if they are playing outside, rarely do they need something to play with.  My kids are always exploring the landscape looking for rocks, bugs, and other natural items to play with. 

That being said, it can be fun to direct kids in a way to help with their imaginative play.  One activity that we learned over the summer from my daughters Nature and Science School was to make nature bracelets.  All you do is put a piece of masking tape around their wrists sticky side facing out and send them outside.  They will use the tape to stick on pieces of nature that they collect along the way...seeds, leaves, dirt, anything they can find!  When they are done they will love their new nature bracelet and find wonder in all the interesting things they have found!  An alternative to the bracelet is to put the tape around their ankles and have them walk around in a dense area.  When they walk about they will find all sort of things stuck to their tape.

Enjoy..and remember to spend some time outdoors today!

Nature Bracelets

Tiny Changes This Season

I have had some emails this week from people concerned that they are just too busy this season to make any changes.  I completely understand about being so busy that you don't think you can fit 1 more thing into your life.  Here are a few thoughts on this issue.

First of all, there are so many tiny changes that can be made that will not impact your life on a day to day basis.  Like, how about washing your clothes in cold water instead of warm or hot?  Just a flip of a switch and you are done.  Or while you are food shopping skip the conventional dairy products and buy only organic.  This will only impact your grocery bill by a few dollars and it will impact your health by leaps and bounds.   Another easy change that comes to mind is putting a plastic bottle filled with water in the back of your toilet.  This takes minutes to do and will have a large impact in reducing your water use.  These are all easy, low stress changes that can be made in a matter of minutes.

Another thought I have on going green during this season is to starting thinking holiday!  At the end of this month we will be celebrating a very wasteful and unhealthy (but fun) holiday, Halloween.  How about giving out organic candy this year, or forgetting about it all together.  If you have a party this year, try decorating with what you already have in your home or make your own decorations.  If you and your kids are dressing up, look in your closets or ask friends to borrow costumes before hitting the store.  (Last year Andy and I used our own clothing and a few accessories from the kids to dress up like hippies from the 70's, as you can see in the photo above.)
Next month we will talk more about going green for the Thanksgiving holiday so stay tuned.

Yes, we are all busy as we live in a society that accepts and praises busyness.  If you can slow down a bit, this will be the best change you can give yourself.  If it is not possible to put on the breaks this month, then try to take just a few moments to think about One Small Change you can do to make a difference. 

If you have ideas for busy folks for a low stress easy change, please leave a comment with your ideas!  Offering an idea to someone else is one awesome small change that you can do right now!

Tiny Changes This Season

My One Small Change:Spread the Word

So after much thought on what my One Small Change would be for October, it came to me. Honestly this project has lost some steam over the past few months. We originally had over 400 members and we are now down to just a few...so what happened? Well, life happened and I totally understand that. For example, this month, I just wanted to ignore the project...I have so much going on and this just seemed like one more thing on my list. But...that is not the point of this project...the point is that we can all make 1 small change each month. Even if that 1 change is picking 1 tiny thing and sticking with it. Even if that 1 tiny thing is to use cloth napkins once a week, or picking 1 grocery item and switching it to organic, or telling 1 friend about this project.

So, for October, I am making it my One Small Change to spread the word about this project. If you haven't decided on your change yet, then make this your change also. Even if you tell 1 friend, you have made a difference. Let's post it on our facebook, twitter, and blogs. Talk to our friends, co workers, and spouses about it. If everyone involved in this project can get 1 person to join us, we can continue to make an even greater difference!

And a big congratulations for those of you who have stuck with this and are making changes that will benefit our earth and every living being on earth each and every month! You rock!

My One Small Change:Spread the Word

October Change

What are you planning for your One Small Eco Change this month?

October Change