Cooking From Scratch

Cooking from scratch doesn't sound very green, but it really is. If you are cooking from scratch, you are buying less packaged food.
Take for example baking bread. If you bake your own bread, instead of buying it in plastic wrapped packages, you are saving the environment one plastic bag a week from going into the landfill. I bake bread once or twice a week. I buy the organic flour and other organic ingredients in bulk so that there is less packaging going to our landfill.
By buying in bulk, and cooking meals from scratch it cuts down on the amount of garbage going into landfills across the country.
I know, you are reading this and saying "but I don't have time to cook from scratch". Yes you do. It really doesn't take that much longer to buy fresh, local produce and cook up a nice pot of hearty soup or stew. Think about how good that would taste over some canned soup in your cupboard.

Earth Day

Today is the 39th anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day was created to inspire awareness and appreciation our planet and Earth's environment. It was originally founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970.
Earth Day is an important day to our planet.
We at Cloverleaf Farm think that Earth Day should be practiced every day.
We are.
We made the decision along time ago to buy only products that are Earth Friendy. Now we are stepping it up a notch.
We already recycle, but realized this isn't enough. The plastic water bottles have long disappeared from our lives, but there are so many other products that are marketed in plastic. We don't want to be part of the problem, we want to be part of the solution. So, we have decided to stop buying products that are packaged in plastic as much as possible. This is a tough assignment, but if you look around, there are other options to many products. For example, you can buy lemon juice in a plastic bottle, or go to a natural food store and get it in a glass bottle. It may cost more in the bottle, and Cloverleaf Farm feels the future of our Earth is worth it.
Today in honor of Earth Day 2009, we will plant an Austrian Pine tree. It may be just a small step in making this a better planet, but it is a step just the same.

Recyling the Recycled

What is better than recycling? Recycling the already recycled.
This is a practice that we started while living in Conway, and could frequent the Dump Store. The Dump Store is a shed that unwanted, but usable items get put for further use. We have saved many an item from that store. We also have saved many an antique from the wood pile. Imagine, throwing away a 1940's armoire onto a heap of wood like it was trash. I took it home, fixed it up, and used it as an entertainment unit. We have also gotten bureau's, tables, sewing machine, and lots more.
We have been know to stop by the road when a free sign is out too. We picked up a set of dinning room chairs from the late 1800's at one of these free for all. This too is where I got my eliptical machine. The chairs needed some TLC, but I cleaned them up and they now have a home.
You wouldn't believe the things people throw out. It is actually a shame. If you are done using it, pass it on to someone else.
Always remember to recyle the recyled.

Recycling

The U.S has become a throw away society. If it breaks you throw it away. If it is outdated, it's tossed in the dump. How sad to think of all the things going into our landfills could be used by someone else.
Cloverleaf Farm recycles everything. We use and reuse everything. If something will have a purpose anywhere on the farm, it goes into the barn. Unless it will serve us no future purpose, it gets stored for a new life.
Jars store nails, screw, nuts and bolts.
Yogurt containers are saved to use as scoops in the animal feed.
Old clothes become rags for cleaning.
Old boards become fences for the pigs.
Now granted, there are some things that we can't recycle. Those go to the dump in the appropriate bin. For things that break that we can't fix, they go to the dump in the reuse pile for someone else to take.
We add less to the dump, which helps us all.