Sign Up for The ROOT Cafe Local Holiday Dinner & Pottery Sale!

Join the ROOT Cafe for a local foods community dinner on Friday, December 4 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Little Rock. Dinner will be followed by a short presentation about handmade pottery and other local crafts in Arkansas given by four of the state’s most talented and highly-acclaimed potters: Jim and Barbara Larkin of Foxpass Pottery (Hot Springs) and Fletcher Larkin and Beth Lambert (Little Rock). There will also be a pottery sale after the presentation featuring unique pieces, both functional and decorative, by all four artists.

WHAT: Holiday Dinner and Handmade Pottery Sale

WHEN: Friday, December 4 – 6:30-9 p.m.

WHERE: Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock

Dinner will be a sit-down meal made from fresh ingredients sourced directly from local farmers and will include dessert. Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under. Space is limited. Please RSVP to therootcafe@yahoo.com and specify meat or vegetarian option.

Come spend a night with friends and family, finish your Christmas shopping, and support some of Arkansas’ finest artists!

Saturday To-Do: Celebration of Living Gifts @ Heifer Village

Join Heifer International for Celebration of Living Gifts, tomorrow between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Heifer Village in Little Rock. During Celebration of Living Gifts, visitors can meet some of the animals, including sheep, chickens and a goat that Heifer provides to families around the world. Get inspired to give your family and friends Heifer gifts this holiday season. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Heifer recipients eventually become donors themselves as they “pass on the gift” of offspring of their cows, goats and other livestock to others in an ever-widening circle of hope. You can take pictures with the animals as you make your Heifer donation. Some of the other fun activities include creating a unique picture frame for your animal photo and making your own ornament. Bring your family for a day filled with the spirit of giving to others. Free admission. No reservations required. Learn more at www.heifer.org/heifervillage/familyevents.

Meet Local Green Peeps!

Chances are, if you are reading this, you support green causes. You go to meetings, you visit local farmers’ markets, and soon you start running into familiar faces. You know their names, but have you ever wondered what they do to be ? Well, Meet Local Green Peeps! hopes to satisfy your curiosity about area green people and what they do to be GreenAR in the Natural State. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Vital Statistics (Name & Location): Nancy E. Landrum, Sherwood, AR

What Do You Do?: I teach strategic management and sustainable business courses at niversity of Arkansas at Little Rock. In addition, I research and publish on topics related to sustainable business (my new book has just been released! Sustainable Business: An Executive’s Primer). I have a consulting business, Sustainable Business Design, and I am working with others to launch the Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas. As if these ventures don’t keep me busy enough, I am the proud mother of two lovely daughters.

Steps Taken to be GreenAR: I do all I can to support the growth and development of the local sustainable business community. I am also trying to be a good role model and teach my children to make sustainable lifestyle choices and to give back to our community. For example, for my daughter’s 8th birthday, instead of additional gifts (which we don’t need), her chosen “birthday gifting project” asked for ready-made food and snack items which we delivered to a local food bank.

Hard-to-Take Steps: Reducing the impact of my daily commute and travel between meetings/appointments. I wish I could live the “slow” life, but it’s a far off vision.

Future Steps to be GreenAR: Promote wider adoption of green business practices; continue the journey toward making better lifestyle choices and teaching my children.

Favorite AR Groups: It would have to be our fledgling Sustainable Business Network of Central Arkansas. I’m quite excited at the potential and look forward to this group taking off. We expect this group to be a source of networking, education, mentoring, and promotion for sustainable and green businesses.

If You Can Do One Thing to Make the Natural State Even More Natural, What Would You Do? Improve recycling programs across the area, expand public transportation options, require sustainability education in elementary, secondary, and higher education, create more options for renewable energy… oh, wait, did you say “one”?

Know a green Arkie? Leave a comment and let me know how I can get in touch with him or her.

How Green Was Your Christmas?

Now that Christmas is over, I’d like to share what I gave others for Christmas. This year’s Christmas turned out to be incredibly stress-free, thanks to my giving almost everyone the same things. I gave Eddy’s family the following:

• Preserve Toothbrush
• War Eagle Mill Yellow Cornmeal from Springdale
• Harvey’s Dark Honey from Sherwood
• Homemade Wild Plum Jelly made with foraged wild plums
• Homemade Orange Pecans made with Arkansas pecans

Eddy and I gave our friend an air popcorn popper that we bought from Hillcrest Junk Company, along with green coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s. He has since started roasting coffee at home.

Eddy and I decided to give each other experiences. We haven’t hiked Pinnacle Mountain in awhile, so we plan to do that soon. We also plan to forage acorns so that we can make acorn flour. I have tentatively agreed to play Ultimate Frisbee with him, and he has tentatively agreed to place row covers on my garden.

What did you give for Christmas? Share how you gave green by leaving a comment!

Green Gift Idea: I Heart Used Cookbooks!

Several years ago I placed a moratorium on buying books. Why buy when I can borrow? Nonetheless, I exempted one type of books from the moratorium – cookbooks. I love cookbooks. I love flipping through the pages and getting new ideas. Since I only buy books used, I buy my cookbooks at River Market Books & Gifts. Th place sells gently used books for great prices. Some of the amazing deals I have scored there include:

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison for $5
• The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins for $6
• Good Food Book by Jane Brody for $6

And the great thing is the proceeds from the store benefit the Central Arkansas Library System.

So this Christmas how about buying used and helping an amazing local resource? Give your special someone a used cookbook from River Market Books & Gifts! For more information about River Market Books & Gifts, please visit its web page.

Green Gift Idea: A Case for French Press

Eddy calls me a coffee connoisseur. I consider myself to be a coffee geek. I roast my own beans and visit local coffee shops when traveling. I can also tell if coffee had been brewed by a drip coffeemaker or French press. Drip coffeemakers rarely make good coffee for several reasons. First, they use paper filters that soak up some of the coffee’s oil, making the end result taste weak. Second, when you use a French press, you steep coffee for several minutes before filtering out the grounds. This allows for a complete saturation of the coffee grounds, whereas when you use a drip coffeemaker, the water just passes through the grounds as fast as gravity allows. Third, when you use a French press, you control the amount and grind of coffee as well as the steeping time. I use a French press because I think it brews better coffee. 

I use a French press for another reason: environment. I hate appliances that use electric-resistance heat and try not to have them as much as possible. What do I mean by appliances that use electric-resistance heat? Well, appliances such as coffeemakers and hair dryers burn tons of coal to heat water to turn a turbine to generate electricity just to be transmitted to your outlet and get turned right back into heat. Oftentimes these appliances access just 25 percent of the original heat produced by burning the coal at the power plant. What a major waste of energy! Incandescent lightbulbs use electric-resistance heat. So do hair dryers, electric heaters, electric baseboard radiators, electric coffeemakers, electric stoves, heating pads, and electric towel racks. If you want to save energy, get rid of them as much as you can! 

Although I minimize the use of hair dryer,  I would have to think long and hard about getting rid of it. Getting rid of electric coffeemakers, though, is a slam dunk case. You save energy, and you drink better coffee. So this Christmas, how about helping your special someone save energy and drink better coffee? Give a gift of French press!

Green Gift Idea: Plastic Bag Dryer

Having trouble figuring out what to give your special someone for Christmas? How about a plastic bag dryer? I have one, and I love it! I try to minimize the use of plastic bags, but since I freeze lots of local produce, I confess, I have plastic freezer bags around the house. I reuse every one of them, though, thanks to this nifty device. After I finish using frozen local produce, I wash the bag and put it on the dryer to dry it. Then, I reuse the bag to freeze more produce. It costs less than $20, so it’s easy on your wallet as well as the environment. Several retailers, including Gaiam, offer this item, so check them out and compare prices. 

So give eco-friendly products this Christmas and help your special someone go green!

Green Gift Idea: How about Flours & Grains for Christmas?

For the past several years, I have been giving consumables as Christmas presents to people. I purchase locally-made consumables such as honey or items that help people to go green such as CFLs. Last year I gave homemade jellies, eco-friendly trash bags, and CFLs for Christmas. This year I plan to give War Eagle Mill cornmeal. War Eagle Mill cornmeal is fantastic. It makes amazing spoonbread. Eddy’s mother loves War Eagle Mill cornmeal so much that she asked if we would bring it to Thanksgiving in Virginia. We did, and I plan to give it to people for Christmas.

Wanna give War Eagle Mill products to your special someone? Order them with me because War Eagle Mill gives free shipping on orders above $75. If you would like to place an order with me, check out their website, www.wareaglemill.com, and leave me a comment. Be sure to specify the product you want and the quantity. I plan to place the order on Monday, December 8th, so let me know before then. Pickup will be at my place. I will email you when the order comes.

Whether you want to give War Eagle Mill products as Christmas presents or start eating locally-milled flours and grains, bulk purchasing reduces ecological footprint. So let’s do it together and save some greens, too!