Started on July 8th & continuing through October 28th, the Myrtle Avenue Farm Stand is offering fresh, affordable, community-run produce every Thursday from 4pm-7pm!

Set up at the Ingersoll Community Center (at 177 Myrtle Avenue between Prince & Navy), the Farm Stand also offers games, workshops & educational activities for the whole family.  And, twice a month, Fort Greene’s Community Chefs serve up easy, healthy, homestyle recipes.

The Farm Stand is open on Thursdays rain or shine.  EBT/WIC/FMNP are accepted.  And the program is part of the Myrtle Eats Fresh Initiative (funded with support from the Community Experience Partnership).

For more information, contact MARP at 718-230-1689 or visit www.myrtleavenue.org for an up-to-date calendar of events.

Set up at the Ingersoll Community Center – 177 Myrtle Avenue (between Prince & Navy), the Farm Stand will also offer games, workshops & educational activities for the whole family.  And, twice a month, Fort Greene’s Community Chefs will serve up easy, healthy, homestyle recipes.

The Farm Stand will be open on Thursdays rain or shine.  EBT/WIC/FMNP are accepted.  And the program is part of the Myrtle Eats Fresh Initiative (funded with support from the Community Experience Partnership).

For more information, contact MARP at 718-230-1689 or visit www.myrtleavenue.org for an up-to-date calendar of events.

Reprinted from LOHAS, the following information by Patty James includes small suggestions for big change…  Fifty-two simple ways to be healthier… One a week?  Sounds doable…  Here’s to our health – salud, y’all!

According to an annual survey, over 100 million people at the beginning of each year vow to make improvements to their life, most dealing with various aspects of their health.  Whether it is to lose those pesky ten pounds, cut out the junk food or quit a nasty habit, four out of every five people who try to make those changes fail to keep at them.

Big changes are often daunting & hard to fold into your everyday life; they are simply not sustainable.  Try a new healthy habit a week.  These are small changes that can make a big impact on not only your health but the environment’s health as well.

1.     Drink 8 glasses of pure water a day.
2.     Get rid of any junk food in your house.  If it’s not there, don’t go get it.
3.     Limit your caffeine intake: 1-2 cups of coffee a day.
4.     Plan your weekly meals on your day off.
5.     Spend 30 minutes twice a week cutting up fresh veggies to have them ready at all times.
6.     Keep seasonal fruit at home & eat it when you’re hungry or when a sweet tooth strikes.
7.     Substitute raw nuts & seeds for processed granola bars.
8.     Don’t drink alcohol on an empty stomach; it’s hard on your stomach & burns up B vitamins.
9.     Eat raw vegetables every day.  Raw veggies contain important enzymes that can be lost when they’re cooked.
10.   Purchase as much of your food organic as you can.  Your body will appreciate it as will our planet.
11.   Next time you make cookies or cake, substitute half of the butter with applesauce, pumpkin or prune puree.  Less fat; more nutrients.
12.   Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.
13.   Vary your food; if you eat it today, don’t eat it for 4 days.
14.   Different colored food has different nutrients, so eat from the rainbow.  Red peppers, orange carrots, green kale, etc.
15.   Thicken soups with pureed beans.  Delicious & added nutrition.
16.   Don’t drink water from plastic bottles.  Polycarbonate water bottles (labeled #7) contain bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches from the plastic & has been linked to chromosome damage & hormone disruption.
17.   Start your day with a glass of fresh lemon water – 1/2 to 1 juiced lemon in water. Your liver loves it.
18.   De-stress.  Find out what works for you.  Warm baths?  Exercise?  Reading?  Yoga?  Walks in the woods?  Find out what calms & soothes you & practice daily.
19.   Move daily.  Find the movement that moves your body & eases your mind & make it a part of who you are.  If you enjoy it, you will do it.
20.   Eat at a table, cloth napkin on your lap & chew well.  Be thankful.
21.   Next time you want scrambled eggs (or tofu), sauté some veggies first, then add eggs.  Try eating your veggies all day!
22.   Dry brush your skin before you shower in the morning.  It’s good for your lymphatic system & your skin will be so much softer & healthier.
23.   Have at least one day a week without meat.  Meatless Monday perhaps.
24.   Eat more beans!  They’re high in protein, dietary fiber & taste so good.
25.   Use whole grain flour in your baking instead of white flour.  Whole-wheat pastry flour is a fine grind &  much healthier than the white stuff.
26.   Remove white sugar from your diet or at least limit it.  Use maple syrup, honey, agave or stevia instead.
27.   Don’t eat fake food! No artificial anything!
28.   Don’t eat out as much. Cook more.
29.   Exercise your mind!  Learn a new dance, read a good book.  Learn a new language.  Keep your mind moving as well as your body.
30.   Learn to communicate better.  Speak your mind, kindly & be done with it.  Don’t hold grudges.  Forgive yourself & others.
31.   Make your own vinaigrette for your salads.  Olive &/or flax oil, lemon juice or vinegar, a little Dijon mustard, a minced garlic clove & a little salt and pepper.
32.   Use sea salt instead of the highly processed salt you find in many grocery stores.
33.   Reduce salt intake.  Use fresh herbs & lemon juice to boost flavor.
34.   Try to stay off computers & away from anything electronic two hours before bed for a better night’s sleep.
35.   Use plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
36.   Switch to whole wheat, corn or quinoa pasta (there are many selections) instead of pasta that uses refined flour.
37.   Don’t eat or drink any food with trans-fat.  Watch those non-dairy creamers!
38.   Add more leafy greens to your life-kale, chard, spinach, radicchio, etc.  They are wonder foods!  Steam the greens for a couple minutes, drain & set aside.  In a pan sauté some onions, garlic & shitake mushrooms in olive oil for a few minutes.  Add the kale back in, stir & serve.  Yum.
39.   Use less cheese in casseroles that call for cheese.  Instead sprinkle grated cheese on top.
40.   Begin each day with a good stretch & some deep breaths.
41.   Try new ingredients.  Buy a kohlrabi or something you’ve never tried before & go from there.  Keep yourself inspired.
42.   Don’t reward yourself or your family with food.
43.   Try to eat whatever food is in season; it’s more nutritious & tastes better.
44.   Don’t go hungry.  Eat healthy snacks so you don’t overeat later.
45.   Watch what you put on your skin.  Many products are loaded with chemicals that you shouldn’t rub into your skin.
46.   Bake instead of frying your meats & fish.
47.   Increase Omega 3 fatty acids in your diet.  Sources include walnuts, flax seeds & oil & cold water fish such as salmon.  Healthy fats are important to good health.
48.   Increase your intake of legumes: lentil, beans & peas. They are good sources of protein, dietary fiber & blood sugar regulators.  Try split pea or lentil soup for breakfast!  Think outside the box.
49.   Take supplements.  Begin with a good multivitamin & speak with your health practitioner about others that may be needed for your optimum health.
50.   Watch your portion sizes as well as your plate & utensil sizes.  Some forks & spoons look like garden utensils.  Try chopsticks & eat slowly.
51.   Shop in the outside aisles of the grocery store.  Most of the more processed foods are located in the middle isles.
52.   Play!  Everyone needs to have fun!

Since Green in BKLYN has opened, I’ve become obsessed with the Priti nail polishes that we carry in the shop.  Priti is the name of the company.  Very pretty is how said nail polishes appear on one’s fingers & toes.

Priti nail polishes contain no toluene, formaldahyde or BDPs.  Their extraordinary soy polish remover moisturizes nails instead of drying them, smells great & contains no acetone.  All are safe & completely non-toxic!

• What: Priti Manicure Day @ Green in BKLYN
• When: Thursday, February 11th  12-4pm
• Where:  432 Myrtle Avenue (btw. Clinton & Waverly)
• How:  Call 718-855-4383 for reservations

Green Brooklyn… Green City Fair & Symposium will be held on Thursday, September 24, 11:30pm-6:00pm at Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street).

The free event, sponsored by CENYC, includes information from local experts about the many ways New York City is creating a more sustainable future including:

* The State of the Climate (12pm – 1pm) featuring Dr. Radley Horton, Columbia University & the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Hugh Hough, The Climate Project & Dr. William Solecki, Hunter College.

* Green Your Business (1:30pm-2:30pm) featuring Andrew Kimball, President of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a Representative from Green Depot & Vanessa Knight, Director of Sustainable Business Network of New York City.

* Local vs. Organic: And Why We Care (3pm-4pm) featuring Michael Hurwitz, Director of Greenmarket, Anna Lappe, bestselling author of Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet & Justone Bossert, Red Jacket Orchards.

Don’t forget to bring your textiles for recycling & reuse! They might even get turned into artwork during a day-long interactive art project by Derick Melander.

Implementing small changes where & when you can makes a big difference in moving toward & living a greener lifestyle.  If you decide what your priorities are & think about where it would be easiest for you to begin, starting there can make it easier to work up to bigger & more difficult issues.

With that idea in mind, here are a few more easy steps to living greener…

1) For instance, you can start by replacing your light bulbs as they burn out with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) & replacing your cleaning supplies as they run out with environmentally friendly ones.  CFLs use 75% less energy & last up to seven years.  Simple & significant.

2) Another easy-to-implement strategy is to buy items with less packaging.  Consider what would happen if you bought toilet paper in double rolls, which contain twice as much as a regular size roll.  The number of cardboard tubes inside the rolls is reduced by half as is the amount of plastic used to wrap the packages.  If you recycle the cardboard tube that remains & open the plastic wrap at the top of the package & reuse the wrap as a trash bag, even better.  And, finally, if you buy recycled toilet paper, that’s even more eco-friendly!  And easy, too.

3) And finally, support your local community both socially & economically.  It can be done simply by buying your food, gifts, crafts & home items from local producers & businesses.  It reduces the distance traveled & resources used in the transportation of those products as well as keeps other resources close to where they came from – strengthening the community & making it easier to get what you need close to home.  Convenient & easy & a lot more fun than traveling all over the place to get your stuff done!

First, thank you to Lissa for including us in her blog, To the Nines, and for introducing us to The 3/50 Project! Both are so exciting for us!

The 3/50 Project encourages folks to keep local, independently-owned businesses in business & proposes that we select our three favorite independently owned businesses and spend $50 at them each month, arguing that our participation in the project really stimulates our communities and our local economies. They go into detail in their flyer below & at their website.

This Project is inspiring & exciting. Because I’m a small business owner, of course. But even more so because it was so important for me to open my business in my neighborhood, to support my community & to serve my neighbors… I’m inspired & so pleased to hear about people who feel the same & have taken action to support their beliefs, let alone a movement that does that. Very exciting!

The site is One-Earth.com & does what we planned on doing in the store… Create a card catalog of green resources.

However, while we planned to have folks fill out library cards with local green resources & put the cards in our card catalog (literally in the shop & virtually on our website), Steve has created the card catalog on-line & includes more resources than our wonderful Brooklyn neighborhood has to offer.

In their own words, “One-Earth.com works like Wikipedia. Find & post environmental solutions, businesses, organizations & events in your city. And, the site is free for everyone to use.”

Currently they have resources for Berkeley, Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco & (drum roll, please)… Brooklyn! The site is & will be as good as its users make it.

Soooo, if you’re looking for eco-friendly resources or have some you’d like to share, go to One-Earth.com & add your stuff there! It’s fun, easy & ever so green!