Read through, and take a look particularly at the potential for self-adjusting glasses: these strike me as having real potential to not only serve the vision needs of many around the globe, but to also cut back on the resources that go into new glasses for changed prescriptions.

Of course, we’re always interested to know what you think.

Image credit: Mezzner

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1. Cool Ways to Recycle Old Eyeglasses
2. Another Option for Recycling that 2010 Calendar
3. Recycling Misconceptions – Part 1 – “All plastic containers with a recycling logo are recyclable.”

Most of us probably had similar reactions when we discovered the fact that the stinging nettle plant is not only edible, but even commonly eaten in other parts of the world: “Doesn’t that hurt?” No, apparently: cooking takes the sting out of the nettle, and the plant is commonly used in soup and tea.

But given that cooked stinging nettle is compared to spinach, it makes sense that there’s much more you could do with this wild plant. While I’ve never eaten nettle (that I know of), I’ve become intrigued lately with the notion of foraging… and stinging nettle is readily available almost everywhere in the early Spring. After a little digging, I also discovered this plant is really versatile, and works in recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

How to Forage for Stinging Nettle

Generally, you can’t pick nettle up at the store; you have to go out and collect it yourself. For an overview of how to forage for nettle, check out our sister site Eat.Drink.Better’s guide to the topic.

7 Nettle Recipes

OK, so now you’ve got all those nettle leaves; what do you do with them? If you’re not feeling the soup or tea recipes above, try one of the following:

Nettle pesto: Once you’ve got you nettle leaves blanched, you’re about halfway there with this easy non-traditional recipe for the Italian spread.

Nettle Aloo Saag: Like Indian food? This staple side dish is also pretty simple. (via The Kitchn)

Pasta with Nettles: Start craving lighter food when the weather warms up? This pasta dish with nettles, sorrel, and lemon sounds perfect for a Spring or Summer dinner.

Nettle Risotto: Yep, lots of options on the Italian-inspired front. Lots of directions for Hank Shaw’s recipe, but about half of them are for preparing the nettles. The folks at Marquita Farms have a couple of other options for this dish (plus others).

Nettle Rarebit: Or rabbit if you prefer.

Nettle Haggis: I always think of sheep’s stomach when I see the word “haggis,” but this recipe is free of that rather unpleasant element of the traditional Scottish dish.

Nettle Lasagna: Paul Wheaton of Permies.com records Jocelyn Campbell making foraged vegetarian version of this classic Italian baked favorite.

Know of other interesting ways to cook these edible weeds? Share them with us… if they look good, I’ll even add them to the post.

Image credit: Pokrajac at Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license

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1. Vegan Recipes Monday at The Higher Pie
3. How to Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products (with recipes)

There are many great and pleasantly simple ways to conserve water usage at home. Want to save an extra 50+ gallons of water each and every day? Here’s one way you may not have considered before: take a navy shower! No, you don’t need to shout “yes, drill sergeant” or drop and do fifty push-ups at any point in this process. It’s actually one of the better ideas to come out of the military…

A navy shower is a method of showering that originated on ships at sea, where freshwater supplies were frequently in short supply. The idea is quite simple: Turn on the water and rinse, turn off the water and scrub down with soap, and then turn on the water once again to clean off the soap. Really, that’s it.

Simple Home Water Conservation

Instead of having the water run for the entire duration of the shower (which is ultimately very wasteful – you’ll be no cleaner for it, believe it or not!), the shower is on for a mere two to three minutes.

Need more convincing? Amazingly, the average 10 minute shower requires 60 gallons of water. That’s 240 gallons of water for a family of four, just to shower once each day! A navy shower, however, can use as little as 3 gallons! To make the argument even more convincing, this resourceful individual did the math to calculate how much money that simple change would save you.

Combined with a low flow showerhead, you’ll be on your way towards greater water conservation at home!

Image credit: flickr via Squiggle

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3. Low Impact Living: Steps To A Water Neutral Home

Jes MaHarry has been a creator of sustainable, hand-crafted jewelry collections and a leader of mix-media design for more than two decades. Collectors and customers alike are drawn to Jes’ signature style of “finding perfection in what is imperfect” and combining unlikely pairs of raw and refined resources to make one-of-a-kind pieces.

Jes and her team of local artisans use only environmentally and people-friendly materials like reclaimed and recycled metals, conflict-free stones and non-treated gems, beads, feathers, shells, etc. in their collections. Her newest design is limited edition leather cuffs made from recycled horse harnesses and totemic charms.

Every handmade piece is created as an extension of Jes’ heart, and many are chosen as part of the Jewels of Kindness program which helps to bring goodwill to charities ranging from animal to human rights to environmental issues. Charity and special event organizers are welcomed to contact Jes’ studio for potential fundraising opportunities.

Jes MaHarry

“With all the goodness that fills my life, I am always looking for ways to give back and create uplifting change,” Jes noted on her website. She added, “After all, what is the point of this life without exchange, without being able reach out to each other in a time of need?”

The latest expansion of Jes’ clothing, fragrances, body oils and accessories lines have given her more avenues to be more eco-friendly and socially responsible. Her locally hand-sewn clothing is produced from 100% organic fabrics and dyed using low impact natural pigments. Her line of oils and fragrances are mostly derived from wild or organic plants, and the accessories are adorned with recycled and reclaimed glass, cardboard and solid pine.

You can create your own collection of Jes MaHarry’s handmade, eco-friendly creations by visiting her website and social media pages, finding her jewelry in the Sundance Catalog, and/or in boutiques near you.

Images courtesy of Jes MaHarry

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One of the most toxic and carcinogenic threats in the human food supply is a natural chemical called “aflatoxin” that is produced by a fungus called Aspergillus.  This opportunistic plant pathogen has the capacity to grow on a wide range of foods and feeds (corn, peanuts, cotton seed, tree nuts, dried spices and chiles…).  The chance that it will contaminate a crop is enhanced by drought and/or insect damage – unfortunately both conditions expected to be more common with the onset of climate change.   We didn’t even know about this nasty chemical until 1960 when it was identified as the cause of death for more than 100,000 turkey poults in the UK that ate contaminated feed.  Since that time we have come a long way in learning how to protect crops from contamination where possible, or to detect the toxin and thus keep it out of the food supply.  The problem is that the degree to which people are protected from this threat varies widely around the world.  The need to solve that disparity will only become more urgent.

I maintain a Google Alert for “aflatoxin” so that I can keep track of what is happening with this risk around the world.  I’ll describe some recent news coming from regions with a very different status in terms of managing this threat:  the US, China and Kenya.

USA: Avoided Threats To Corn-Eating Dogs

In rich countries like the US, the food and feed industry generally does an excellent job of preventing aflatoxin contamination.  Most of the news items about aflatoxin from these countries involve things like ever more sensitive testing methods or advances in Aspergillus control.  However, late last year there was a rash of dog food recalls because of Aflatoxin.  Details have been hard to find, but the most likely explanation is that severe drought conditions in areas like Texas and Oklahoma increased the incidence of aflatoxin contamination this season.  One does not normally think about dogs eating corn, but corn-derived ingredients (corn gluten, DDG from ethanol production…) are plant-based alternatives to meat as a way to give dogs protein.  That these incidents were caught before any reports of dog injury is good news as opposed to an event in 2006 where 76 dogs died. The fact that the issue wasn’t caught before the products were shipped suggests that someone wasn’t being as watchful as they should have been in a drought year.  We have the awareness and the testing methods to prevent problems.  We just have to use them rigorously.

China:  A New Watchdog Agency Is Finding Many Problems

In a rapidly advancing society like that of China, aflatoxin management has become a new area of focus.  After the major scandal about melamine contaminated milk in 2008, the Chinese government stepped up safety monitoring for the food supply.  Not surprisingly, several issues are being found.  Milk contaminated with aflatoxin was recently discovered.  Aflatoxin was subsequently found in  peanuts and cooking oil in Guangdong Province.  Unfortunately, with a highly fragmented and rapidly changing food system, it is likely that it will take some time to fully protect the Chinese population from this toxin.

Africa:  Sometimes Even The Food Aid Is Contaminated

My Google Alert sent me a link to a particularly sad, but not uncommon article about an event in Africa.  This is from the text of An editorial in the Daily Nation from Kenya posted last Sunday:

At the weekend, Kenyans were treated to an unedifying spectacle of tonnes of relief food being destroyed due to aflatoxin contamination.  Hard evidence has been presented indicating the presence of dangerous levels of toxins in cereals sold in open markets as well as in urban food distribution chains.  After the contamination of maize in 2010, the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation promised to mop up and destroy the stock.  At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture promised to help farmers with better food drying technologies that would reduce contamination at the farm level. But the increasing cases during distribution indicate these agencies have not lived up to their promise or are not up to the task. It is unfortunate that a country which suffers perennial food shortages cannot protect the little that has been produced.

The food aid mention was Unimix that was to be distributed by the Kenyan Red Cross but which found to be contaminated with unacceptable levels of Aflatoxin.  In many poorer nations, Corn, peanuts, peppers, spices and other foods are commonly contaminated because of a combination of drought, insects, poor storage conditions and the like.  A more encouraging item that came up on my Google alert was the fact that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding work to make extremely cheap and easy to use tests for aflatoxin.  I also saw an article about a mobile maize dryer for use in Africa to reduce the risk.  All these things could help, but there is a very long way to go.

The Daily Nation editorial concludes by saying ”So far, the issue of food contamination has been handled casually and we feel it is time this was brought to the fore as a major food security concern because we cannot afford this kind of waste.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Please feel free to comment here or to email me at sdsavage@gmail.com.  My website is Applied Mythology.

Contaminated corn image by Pat Lipps, Ohio State University

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1. Food Supply Worries of an Agricultural Scientist Part 4: Aflatoxin
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3. Should “Charismatic Megafauna” be the “Face” of Climate Change

These examples of old eyeglass use show how either a small part of the pair, or the entire pair, can be re-appropriated in a simple way that can be done at home. There are even two examples of complex projects that were done completely from upcycled materials.

Rhinestone Necklace

Using a pair of cat eye glasses with rhinestones, the sides and hooks were both removed to allow them to lay flat. Then, two great looking chains were popped on the sides to make a unique necklace that is actually pretty trendy. The glasses are vintage 1950′s, and so not good for modern day lenses. Very cool, and perfect for a fashion statement.

Italy Map Necklace

Made by the Etsy store ZanneAvenue, these are one of many necklaces that have been created by taking one lens and carefully printing an image onto it. The backing is lined with fabric to help protect the image and make it more comfortable to wear. Every necklace from them is handmade to make them completely unique.

Dorothy Necklace

Another great piece by Zanne Avenue, this one has an image of Dorthy from The Wizard of Oz, as played by Judy Garland. It features a classic picture anyone will recognize, of her holding her dog Toto. You can customize it by selecting the leather cord color, the length, the size of the lens and a silver or gold rim.

Specs Appeal Necklaces

If you want to know how to make the kinds of necklaces that Zanne Avenue sells for yourself, this tutorial from Naughty Secretary Club will show you how. The process is simple enough that even a child (with supervision, of course) could probably make their own. It is also nice and cheap, using materials that a lot of avid crafters will probably have on hand.

Eyeglass Chandalier

Stuart Haygarth is well known as both a scavenger of used materials, and an amazing artist and designer. This piece is a gorgeous, cascading chandelier that takes an amazing 1,020 pairs of eyeglasses to create a masterpiece. Without a close look, you wouldn’t even know what you were seeing, as the light from within reflects off of the many pairs and creates a sparkling effect that blurs the line of the glasses themselves.

Eyeglass Chandalier 2

If you thought that first one was impressive, check this out. This bubble chandelier creates a kind of disco ball effect using 3,000 lenses alone, stringing each one separately into the right shape. The white light shines through and make a large, glowing orb. It is absolutely stunning to look at.

Conclusion

Impressed? I am, too. What are some of your ideas for upcycling old lenses? Let us know in the comments.

Annie is a creative blogger for Direct Sight, the leading UK-based provider of glasses. Please check the site for detailed information on buying glasses online.

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Composting is the most natural way to fertilize your garden by using nature to help nature and dispose of food waste.

Building Your Own Compost Pile

The actual design of your compost pile can vary. There are premade bins available at the hardware store, or you can make a homemade composter with as little as a hole dug in the ground. However, what you fill the pile with matters more than what you make the container out of.

Items needed:

• Green material – grass, leaves, coffee grounds, egg shells, peelings, manure (not dog or cat) etc. Anything high in nitrogen
• Brown material – paper, saw dust, twigs, straw etc. Anything high in carbon
• Shovel, pitch fork
• Lawn Mower *
• Whipper Snipper (weed whacker)*
• Gloves
• Patience

*Optional

Directions:

1.  Select a space in the yard for the compost pile.
2. Shred the green and brown materials as much as possible. The smaller the pieces the better for composting. Tip: Use the lawn mower and go over your pile of leaves or put the leaves in a garbage can and use the whipper snipper to make your own compost blender.
3. The compost pile should be 3 feet in each direction – height, width, length. Smaller piles won’t retain heat as effectively and won’t kill any harmful bacteria present. If you only compost safe items and keep pets and vermin out, there’s no cause for concern – but if you use the compost for your veggie garden, make sure you wash everything thoroughly.
4.  Layer together 6 inches of the browns and 6 inches of the greens then mix them together. Then alternative the green and brown material layers, add water as required until the pile is at least 3 feet high.
5.  Keep the pile covered from heavy rain. You want the pile to be as moist as a sponge and wait patiently for the microbes to start working.
6. In a few hours (depending on the outside temperature) heat will be produced – a great indication the microbes are eating the materials and creating compost.

Important Tips:

• Keep the compost pile in the same location for a few years – helps to build your own eco-system of compost-friendly organisms and insects.
• Use equal amounts of green and brown material (Editor’s note: at the very least…  a 2:1 ratio of brown to green often works best)
• Regularly turn the heap to aerate it

Composting in Winter

Composting can begin at anytime of the year. The Winter is a great time to start because the composting process should be complete when Spring arrives.

The key to composting in the Winter is to encourage the microbes to get back to work or to start working and create the compost you need. You need to generate heat to get them working again. Items such as coffee grounds, horse manure – if you have a supply available – and molasses (mixed 1 part per 20 parts water and poured on the more absorbent compostable materials) will help to raise the temperature.

Other options to keep the compost temperature up are insulating it with bales of hay and leaves. Also in the Winter you don’t need to mix up or ‘aerate’ the pile.

Composting in Spring

The Spring is a fantastic time for composting. The warmer temperatures are ideal for the microbes to start eating the waste and creating the compost you need. The compost pile will start to really come together and if the temperature stays at above zero for a long period of time (hopefully it will!), you should have usable compost in about 20 – 21 days. When you’re ready to plant your flowers you’ll have natural fertilizer to go with it.

Composting in Summer

Summer gardening is primarily about maintaining what you already planted in the spring. The hot temperatures in the summer can stop the microbes from working effectively so keep the compost pile moist during a dry spell, and keep it out of direct sunlight.

Composting in Fall

As the leaves start to fall off the trees and fall on your lawn you have a great source of food for the microbes. Instead of bagging the leaves and throwing them out, shred them up and put them in the composter. If you have space available, keep a bag of leaves for an extra boost over the winter months when you can add it to the compost pile.

Using Humus

Compost has the odor of freshly turned soil on a forest floor, and once the microbes are finished turning your banana peel to humus it’s ready to be used in your gardens. There might not be such a thing as ‘bad’ compost, but it should be crumbled, dark and soil-like, and none of the original material should be identifiable.

There you go some ideas and tips on how to change your used coffee grounds into free natural fertilizer. Setting up your compost pile doesn’t require a lot of time, energy or money. The key to composting is patience. Let the microbes do the hard work so that you can enjoy the fact you’re helping the environment.

Jeremy enjoys educating people about how to live greener lives. He wrote this post on behalf of EasyApplianceParts, a DIY repair resource and retailer of appliance replacement parts.

Image credit: Torfaen at Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license; kirybabe at flickr under a Creative Commons license

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Make no mistake about it – the Pacific Northwest of the US has long been a frontrunner in the green movement. Then again, this isn’t a huge surprise. The area features majestic mountain ranges, lush forests and continually evolving eco-friendly towns and cities. Many residents make sustainability a priority, and the following demonstrates five ways the Pacific Northwest keeps pushing green forward.

Portland, OR

The Rose City is often featured atop lists of America’s greenest cities. Such was the case in 2008, when Popular Science magazine put Portland at No. 1.

But what makes the city of over 583,000 people so sustainable? Well, one major piece of the Portland puzzle is its urban growth boundary, which has helped create 10,000 acres of parkland within the city limits. Additionally, half-size city blocks and the fact that Portland is relatively flat compared to its neighbor to the north, Seattle, make it an easy place to walk. And if Portlanders aren’t getting around on foot, they’re likely biking (Portland has 324 miles of bikeways) or using public transportation.

If all of that doesn’t impress you, maybe this will: Portland created a Green Investment Fund – the first city in the US to do so. This is a five-year, $2.5 million investment given to commercial, industrial and residential green projects. Lastly, the city also has 35 buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, the most LEED-certified buildings per capita in America.

Farm-to-table food services

Farmers’ markets are popular throughout the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, Pike Place Market is a tourist magnet as well as a terrific farm-to-table example. Now organic produce delivery services are bringing the farm directly to Pacific Northwest locals and cutting out trips to the supermarket, helping to reduce their carbon footprint.

University of Washington

Recently named as the “Coolest School” in America by environmental organization the Sierra Club, the University of Washington in Seattle (and smaller campuses in Bothell and Tacoma) puts a focus on sustainability. The campus is mainly hydropowered, featuring three farms, a student-run Campus Sustainability Fund, and several new buildings that have earned LEED Gold ratings.

Squirrel lady

Admittedly, whether Melany Vorass of Seattle is pushing green forward or back to the pioneer days is up for debate. The urban foraging teacher traps eastern gray squirrels in her front yard, drowns them and cooks squirrel risotto. “I know how out there it sounds,” she told The Seattle Times, “But the alternative is to close your eyes and eat what comes on a Styrofoam tray.”

Competing for the future

Both Portland and Seattle are the locations for the largest sustainable “living buildings” ever proposed in North America. The City of Portland is helping to fund the $64 million, seven-story Oregon Sustainability Center while the Bullitt Foundation is funding Seattle’s six-story Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction. Both have the goal of a triple net-zero goal in energy consumption, water consumption and waste output. Both buildings will use non-toxic and renewable building materials.

This post was written by Bryden McGrath, a freelance journalist and photographer, intern, and recent college graduate from Seattle.

Image credits: dieselboii at flickr under a Creative Commons license; Bryden McGrath

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3. An Update…

By Lester R. Brown

We distort reality when we omit the health and environmental costs associated with burning fossil fuels from their prices. When governments actually subsidize their use, they take the distortion even further. Worldwide, direct fossil fuel subsidies added up to roughly $500 billion in 2010. Of this, supports on the production side totaled some $100 billion. Supports for consumption exceeded $400 billion, with $193 billion for oil, $91 billion for natural gas, $3 billion for coal, and $122 billion spent subsidizing the use of fossil fuel-generated electricity. All together, governments are shelling out nearly $1.4 billion per day to further destabilize the earth’s climate.

The government of Iran spent the most on promoting fossil fuel consumption in 2010, doling out $81 billion in subsidies. This equaled more than 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Saudi Arabia was a distant second at $44 billion. Rounding out the top five were Russia ($39 billion), India ($22 billion), and China ($21 billion).

Kuwait’s fossil fuel subsidies were highest on a per capita basis, with $2,800 spent per person. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar followed, each spending close to $2,500 per person.

Carbon emissions could be cut in scores of countries by simply eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. Some countries are already doing this. Belgium, France, and Japan have phased out all subsidies for coal, for example. As oil prices have climbed, a number of countries that held fuel prices well below world market prices have greatly reduced or eliminated their motor fuel subsidies because of the heavy fiscal cost. Among those reducing subsidies are China and Indonesia. Even Iran, which was pricing gasoline at one fifth its market price, dramatically reduced its gasoline subsidies in December 2010 as part of broader energy subsidy reforms.

In contrast to the $500 billion in fossil fuel supports in 2010, renewable energy received just $66 billion in subsidies — two thirds for electricity generation from wind, biomass, and other sources, and one third for biofuels. Not only do fossil fuel subsidies dwarf those for renewables today, but a long legacy of governments propping up oil, coal, and natural gas has resulted in a very uneven energy playing field.

A world facing economically disruptive climate change can no longer justify subsidies to expand the burning of coal and oil. The International Energy Agency projects that a phaseout of oil consumption subsidies by 2020 would cut oil use by 3.7 million barrels per day in that year. Eliminating all fossil fuel consumption subsidies by 2020 would cut global carbon emissions by nearly 5 percent while reducing government debt. Shifting subsidies to the development of climate-benign energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal power will help stabilize the earth’s climate.

This data highlight is adapted from World on the Edge by Lester R. Brown. For more data and discussion, see the full book at www.earth-policy.org.

Image credit: Paul Resh at flickr under a Creative Commons license

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Small rustic cabin at Urnatur retreat center

As soon as I discovered this collection of small houses, I was taken. Wow! These rustic cabins with green roofs, treehouses, and small homes are located at Urnatur, in Sweden, an eco lodge and retreat center.

Urnatur is a family-owned retreat and tree house hotel, with private cabins in the incredible Swedish forest. It’s a place where individuals can go to learn about traditional skills (foraging wild foods, traditional building), or simply go for a bit of downtime. Just by looking at their beautiful cabins in photos online, I am already relaxed and retreating…

Here are six gorgeous houses at Urnatur.

Take me there! For more photos of Urnatur and their tiny houses, check out their flickr photostream. And here’s more information about the retreat center.

 Photo credit: flickr via The Anthropologist

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