I’ve been passing this around to every student and every teacher I know:

In this video, called The Lazy Greenover, Brita shows some of the fruits of their partnership with Nalgene to create FilterForGood — a campaign to reduce bottled water waste.

I’m sure some of my readers are students or at least know students — listen up! You could win one of five $10,000 Eco-Challenge grants just by submitting a proposal letting FilterForGood know how you would make your campus more sustainable.

Check out the website for more information!

Mold. At the first sign of it I tend to throw food out… unless I convince myself that I feel bad for letting it mold (beause it was either expensive or delicious), in which case I put it back in the fridge and hope that magic food fairies will come and fix it so that I can eat it and get my money’s worth.

On fridge clean out day, I always cringe at the sight of the half-full garbage bag filled with spoiled and unwanted food. Am I wasting food items that don’t necessarily need to be wasted?

This article on Boing Boing caught my eye: When is it OK to eat moldy food?

The USDA (that’s the United States Department of Agriculture, not the United Square Dancers of America, of course) recently did a study on moldy foods and released the Safe Food Handling fact sheet.

Surprise, surprise — in the end they do recommend throwing out most moldy foods. But the advice within the chart for how to salvage other foods is great!

Generally I live by the “if it smells bad or feels slimey, I won’t eat it” rule but after reading the chart I’ll never eat a moldy dollop of sour cream again. (Bleh!)

Be sure to check it out for yourself, you scrape-it-off-the-top types.

Alright, this might be the coolest DIY I’ve ever stumbled upon!

How to make eco-graffiti — no spray paint, markers, or nasty toxic chemicals, just… moss! I have a few friends who are guerrilla gardeners here in Ottawa and I’m definitely going to recommend to them that they try this out.

The moss continues to grow and changes patterns — it really is living art. How creative is that? Living and breathing art!

I, for one, could definitely see decorating the back of my house in a giant green piece of art. It’d really be something to see it move and grow over the summer. Maybe next year!

How-to: How to make moss graffiti

Forget pesticides! It’s not hard to have a beautiful pesticide-free lawn, all you need is a bit of time and a little elbow grease.

• Did you know that grass actually grows best when certain kinds of organisms are present? Forget shooing them off (she says politely, knowing full well that pesticides do much more than shoo…), let them play! Earthworms eat and recycle (heh, poop) plant material that releases nutrients into the roots of the grass helping it grow! (via)
• Mow your lawn at the high end of its range — that way the roots have a chance to really develop. Deeper root systems can tolerate drought, heat, shade, disease, and pests much better. (via)
• Leave the grass clippings on your lawn! I know, I know — you don’t like how it looks, right? But trust me, it adds plant nutrients and organic matter to your soil. Researchers have estimated that grasscycling reduces fertilizer need by 25%! Saves you money and effort and keeps grass clippings out of landfills too. (via here and here)
• Don’t overwater — I mean, not only is it a huge waste of water (this is a personal pet peeve of mine) but overwatering helps weeds grow, causes oxygen starvation of grass roots, and makes your lawn’s roots shallow. Eep! Here’s a hint: If the top two inches of your lawn are dry, then it’s time to water. If not, leave it alone! (via)

According to the University of California’s integrated pest management program, “A vigorously growing turf resists pest damage and weed invasion.” So keep it growing healthy and strong and you shouldn’t have any need for pesticides!

After writing up yesterday’s Stewardship Ontario post, I did a bit more digging and found that there’s more to know!

As an enhancement to the Stewardship Ontario program, many cities around Ontario have signed up to the Take It Back! Directory — a handy source of information for residents looking to get rid of unwanted items.

The directory connects Ottawa residents to local businesses and organizations that reuse, recycle, or safely dispose of the unwanted material. Almost 600 partner retailers are now accepting 130 different household waste products that don’t belong in the Blue or Black recycling boxes. Take it Back! partners divert household waste from going to landfill each year. That’s the equivalent weight of almost 300 mid-sized cars.

“Take it Back! retailers and charitable organizations each year stop over 500 tonnes of material from going to our municipal landfill through their take back efforts. The Take it Back! initiatives of local businesses and charities within my Ward and across the City are saving landfill space through their combined environmental efforts” – Councillor Georges Bédard.

On the Take It Back list of drop off locations for the Ottawa area are these phenomenal eco-friendly places looking to help out. Here are some of my personal favourites:

Topia Greenstop (1621 Woodward Dr.) – Here you can drop off all kinds of things like rechargeable batteries and appliances. Give them a call today and find out where and when to drop off your not-quite-garbage. (1-613-722-0660)

Twenty-Twelve Electronics Recycling (14 Bexley Place) – Owner Nancy Coulter took back 12 tons of e-waste in 2006! Call ahead though, and let them know you’re bringing things to them so they can make room! (1-613-596-031)

For further help with the Take It Back program, check out the City’s website here!

Mmmm so delicious.. just look at this!

Every February friends and I have Baconfest — yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like and it’s delicious (if not nearly fatal).

Baconfest is a potluck party where everyone brings a creative dish FULL of bacon. We’ve had bacon cookies, bacon Caesars, a whole turkey wrapped in bacon and stuffed with bacon stuffing… and, though it was before my time in said group of friends, I’ve heard amazing tales of the bacon maple walnut cheesecake. My heart hurts just thinking about it… in more ways than one!

Here is my favourite. It’s straight to the point and is full of things I love: Chocolate and bacon.

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Ingredients:

• One 12oz Bag of Semi-Sweet organic chocolate morsels/chips/chunks
• One Pound of raw bacon
• Large skillet, double boiler, tongs, cooling rack, plate & paper towels.

Method:

1. Take the bacon from the packaging while you are heating the skillet to HOT first.
2. Then put bacon strips into skillet and turn them as needed with tongs – cook until chewy or crispy – your choice. If it gets too crispy, chocolate will not adhere well or you will get a chocolate bacon lump.
3. Remove bacon and place it on a paper towels.
4. Fill bottom of double boiler with water and bring to a medium high heat.
5. Put top of double boiler in place and melt chocolate in it a little at a time, stirring constantly.
6. Dip each bacon strip into chocolate and lay it on cooling rack.
7. Place cooling rack filled with bacon into refrigerator for 20 minutes.
8. Remove bacon strips from the cooling rack and serve.

I’ve experimented with making many different kinds of candy from a bunch of different weirdo delicious and good-for-you things — vegetables, fruit juice, veggie juice, cactus, meat, nearly everything can be made from into candy if you cook it in sugar and coat it in chocolate!

Today, I’ll be sharing some recipes with you for some unconventional confection — try it and let me know what you think!

As a side note, I’ve fed this to unsuspecting dinner guests before and most of them are absolutely sure that I’ve used plantains — just to give you an idea of what this candy tastes like.

Potato Candy

This recipe for vegetable based candy often and does not require much cooking or ANY candy thermometer. The recipe makes 64 pieces of candy and is absolutely delicious, but you’ll have to trust me on that until you try it yourself!

Besides the plain style of candy, you can add 5-6 drops of peppermint oil and tint the candy pink or green with a good quality food coloring, or use your imagination with other flavors and colors.

Bring on the candy!

Last week I wrote about how to make your own baby wipes at home. Jodi, a regular reader, wrote in and had this to say:

My concern with the addition of vinegar or sanitizer is if baby has diaper rash it could burn, also, would you put vinegar or sanitizer on your privates? And have you ever run out of toilet paper and had to use paper towel (It has happened to everyone…lol) its scratchy, even wet. If you use the solution (minus the vinegar) and a wash cloth it works wonderfully.

In hindsight, I agree — won’t vinegar sting? And sanitizer, while better smelling, will likely sting too. So what’s our solution, folks? What can we use that will clean and moisturize at the same time (within a budget, of course). Jodi says wash cloth, but I know many of you don’t want to go that route — so what do we do?

I would really love your ideas and input! Leave a comment!

Shiho shows you how to make an indoor mini planter using a recycled aluminum can, linen, and gardening twine.

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