mangogirl's Profile

While I love homemade chips, heating vegetable oils makes them highly carcinogenic. A better choice would be organic beef fat or coconut oil.

I grow beets just to have the greens to eat regularly. I put in a square foot garden with raised beds 5 years ago and quickly realized I was a waste of water. I now grow all my own veggies in 5 gallon buckets that I build into sub-irrigated grow containers. I grow tomatoes, onions, lettuces, beet for the greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, cucumbers for pickling, Malabar spinach, and all kinds of flowers that attract butterflies and lady bugs....

If you do high heat composting then you can put things like dryer lint in, as long as your clothing isn't polyester. With high heat composting you can put bones, fat, almost anything that is natural and will break down. This type of composting with kill toxins (like drugs) and give you amazing soil in far less time that the way most people compost. And you do not have to turn it at all, the heat (160 degrees) will cause it all to breakdown very quickly. To learn more- http://humanurehandbook.com/store/THE-HUMANURE-HANDBOOK.html. This book can be read for free on line if you search his site..

I found these antique mason and Queen jars in a box set out for garbage in my neighborhood! Soma are tinted buue and some a real pale green.
http://optimumnutrition.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/food-preservation-sustaining-life-from-sustainable-gardens/

When I think of "green" kitchens I think less of the original building of it and more about to set it up to to support sustainable choices. Composting, canning, cooking all food from scratch, making bone stocks, recycling...

This coming winter will be my third year I have insulated with bubble wrap. I leave it up year around in my bedroom even though I have wooden shades; it really insulates well and gives privacy too. It drops my electric bill by 1/3!

I am a total techie, love the ways it can save me time, same the planet from using so much paper (notes, lists, calendars on iTouch, no phone books, etc.)...But I make everything I eat from scratch (yogurt, vinegars, baked goods, ketchup, jellies), grow my own vegetables and herbs, never use a dryer, keep driving to a minimum, make my own clothes, don't use paper towels, use a sawdust toilet, make my own compost, built an outdoor shower..hand water all my plants from rain barrels, work full time (50 hrs a week). I have done these things all my life...I love that all the green choices I have been making for 45 years all cool now. We are all responsible for being good stewards of our planets. Yes, it takes more work, but is enormously satisfying.

http://optimumnutrition.wordpress.com/my-present-level-of-living-green/
Chef Millie Barnes

Buying disposable anything makes no sense! Cloth dish clothes and towels, baby wasclothes in the bathroom...all can be washed over and over..no plastic packaging, no waste. I used cloth diapers, cloth napkins, no paper towels in the kitchen...ever..raised my 5 kids as a single mom, rana resturant, used no dryer...as a single mom. It's just habit. I have 20 dishclothes, about 25 dish rags...and a huge amount of cloth napkins...same ones for 20 years now.

You should never heat or cook with olive oil, they are healthy in small amounts, when unheated. only buy oils that expeller pressed, then refrigerate them; they are very unstable oil, rendered carcinogenic when they are damaged by light, heat and air. When used to fry foods, polyunsaturated vegetable oils produce a toxic compound that has been associated with a variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and liver problems.

When sautéing or frying, use organic butter or coconut oil. They are great sources of health saturated fats.

My house is painted with every room in the house in different shades of blue, except the hall, which is Chinese red. The mood is calm and exciting at the same time..and very restful. My artwork is mostly all primary colors, wonderful against the blue with lots of white woodwork.
And I LOVE that piece of art too, the one in the first picture. Wow.