What’s going on in sustainability:

For this installment, I really have no one underlying message, just a few observations

The first is that I understand the winter is the perfect time for eating or ordering out. Cold kitchens and the small selection at the farmer’s markets don’t make for the most exciting cooking experiences. I made the joke that in West Philly, people stock up on take out menus rather than the staples. We live in a city, I understand convenience. However, that’s no reason to stock up on styrofoam and plastic containers. Aside from it being unsustainable to fill your trash can with these materials, it is even more damaging when trash service has been suspended for a week due to snow and the overflowing trash cans on Baltimore Ave. are spewing trash all over the streets. Now is the perfect time to become very mindful about bringing your own containers to dinner to take leftovers, or if you want to be very radical, order that General Tso’s tofu and give the Chinese restaurant your own container, deterring them from using styrofoam.

The second is what I would love to do in my house, yet haven’t. With the extremely cold temperatures, I think it’s ridiculous to be running a refridgerator. Aside from the kitchen probably being at the same temperature, and my basement being even colder, if I was to build just a cold frame outside, to keep the squirrel’s away, I could unplug the fridge. This device really is one of those one of the most taken for granted appliances we have. It’s like heating your house up so high in the winter that you run an air conditioner to keep cool. Fridges account for almost 40% of all energy use in American households. If you are really thinking about reducing that energy bill, that could be a great step. I think it’s one I’ll be taking soon. Just build a container outside your kitchen door for things that need to be really cold and store everything else on dry racks in the basement.

As for my own little projects, we held our first meeting for the Cooperative Garden I’ve been talking about. By this spring we hope to be providing supplemental income to 4 or 5 young people in West Philadelphia to grow vegetables to be sold at farmer’s markets and local grocers.

Tomorrow night is also our first meeting of Philly Farmers. This meeting spawned from the conversations on our Philadelphia Urban Farming Network listserve, and will be a chance for Philly Farmers to organize around common needs and create fresh ideas to improve our local food system. If you are interested in coming, please contact me through this site. It will be at 7:00 at 4905 Cedar Ave. in West Philly. Please bring a dish for the potluck and your energy to really create viable production in the city.

Good look on the winter projects. Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.