Spreading the Word About the DDG

The Downsizing Donation Guide, funded by a grant I received from Recycle CT , has been posted online since early in May. The Downsizing Donation Guide. It has been shared and posted on a number of sites, including the home page of HomeHaven, the agency that served as grant sponsor (www.homehavenvillages.org.).

I am in the process of trying to determine its impact thus far, but I am also hard at work at promoting it in person.

If you are in the New Haven area, I cordially invite you to the next edition of New Haven Green Drinks: Wednesday, October 23, from 6:00 PM to 8 PM at Nolo, a brewery restaurant on the former site of Jet Cleaners, 687 State Street, New Haven. Come to learn more about the The Downsizing Donation Guide and enjoy some friendly conversation. Hope to see you there.

Saturday Shorts: 02.20.16 An Eclectic Collection of Things

In a week in which we were all bombarded with news political, I discovered a few other things I’d like to share:

Instant Gratification Posing Challenges  

My friend Polly sent me this link from the New York Times on how much packing waste is being generated by online shopping, particularly when a product is put in a box and then in another box for shipping. In the article Amazon admits being “aware of the problem,” and states that it is working to reduce the amount of cardboard they use in packaging. To give you an idea of the scope of the problem, San Francisco’s main recycling processor, Recology, collects 100 tons of cardboard everyday. The article ends with a solution from a spokesman for Recology, “Slow down consumption. Slow down.” The photo showing one day’s deposits at Recology is truly terrifying.

“Made in America” Making a Come-Back 

Sometimes, however, there is a case to be made for online shopping. Sometimes what you just can’t find in a nearby store is easily found online. In my case I was shopping for a birthday gift and was hoping to support some of the Carolina sockmakers who are struggling to keep family businesses alive. I discovered USA Love List, a crowdsourced compilation of companies offering goods Made in America. The site is also an online magazine. By clicking through the links in this article on Made in USA Socks I found just what I was looking for and, with free shipping, I bet the socks don’t arrive in a box.

Bald Eagles Nesting in New Haven

On Thursday Anna Bisaro reported in the New Haven Register that a pair of bald eagles were spotted in West River Memorial Park. A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection confirmed that the two adult eagles appear to be building a nest and they anticipate the pair will be breeding in the park. The DEEP official went on to say that eagles return to the same nest and add to it each year; a nest can grow to a weight of hundreds of pounds.

Cooked Streaming on Netflix

Michael Pollan’s 4-part documentary series, Cooked, is now streaming on Netflix. The series is is based on the author's 2013 book with the same name. Each episode focuses on one of the four natural elements and its relationship to both ancient and modern cooking methods. Netflix promotes the series thusly, “As he tries his hand at baking, brewing, and braising, acclaimed food writer Michael Pollan explores how cooking transforms food and shapes our world.”

New Haven Green Drinks Going Strong

On Wednesday, Shannon Laun, of CT Fund for the Environment spoke to those gathered at Trinity Bar about the need to push forward with CT’s stalled Shared Solar Pilot Program.  [She promises some tools for advocacy; I will share as they become available.] The March edition of New Haven Green Drinks will be a benefit for the 2016 8th annual Rock to Rock Ride and will be held at Chipotle, 910 Chapel Street, New Haven.

World’s Happiest Man’s Secret Revealed

Matthieu Ricard, a Tibetan Buddhist monk said to be the “world’s happiest man” shared some of his secrets to happiness with Business Insider.  Ricard states that you can start by “thinking happy thoughts for 10 to 15 minutes a day…concentrate on not letting you mind get distracted and keep focused on the positive emotions…if you do that training every day, even just two weeks later you can feel positive mental results.” For more, check out Ricard’s 2004 TED Talk, The Habits of Happiness. 

That’s it for now. Happy Saturday. Hope you are enjoying (or have enjoyed) the day.

On My Radar 9.10.15

Upcoming September 2015 Events in New Haven (#GSCIA)

Get your Green on, New Haveners! You have no excuse for staying home with the plethora of mostly free events coming up. Some days are so event-full that it will take some planning on your part to hit them all. 

Here you go, in chronological order, starting with this Saturday. 

Saturday, September 12

8-10 am, Quinnipiac Meadows Nature Preserve

1040 Quinnipiac Avenue

HAWK WALK and TALK

Free Event. Sponsored by the New Haven Land Trust. 

According to the Land Trust, “It's a great time of year to observe hawks and other migrating birds! Bird expert and past president of the New Haven Bird Club Mike Horn will be giving a guided walk at our Quinnipiac Meadows Nature Preserve this Saturday. All are welcome (except out-of-control children). Rain or shine! If you have them, bring binoculars and see you there!”

Also this Saturday…

Saturday, September 12

GREEN EXPO (11 am -5 pm) 

CT FOLK FESTIVAL (11 am -10 pm) – 10 Years Young!

Edgerton Park, located off Whitney Avenue near the Hamden-New Haven town line. Free Admission!  The full program and list of participants is available here. 

Monday, Sept 14

7:30 PM, BAR, 254 Crown Street, New Haven

New Haven Green Drinks meets at a special day and time in order to participate in TRANSPORTATION on TAP, hosted by goNewHavengo, the group that asks you to “Think outside the car.” Eat pizza, drink beer, and learn about transportation in New Haven. Attendees must be 21 or over.

Tuesday, September 15 - Tuesday, December 1

(with a few exceptions)

5:30 - 7:30 PM

DIVERSE VOICES: Environmental Leaders on Climate Change and the Environment

Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven

The public is invited and welcome to attend this series of lectures offered as FES810 at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. More here. FREE.

The event-full Saturday, September 19 kicks off with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk or bike across the soon to be opened new southbound Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.

Saturday, September 19

10 am - 3 pm

GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION

on the new Southbound Q-Bridge

Access provided at the intersection of Hamilton Street and Ives Place.

Only pedestrians and bicycles will be allowed on the bridge. The event planners promise family-friendly activities, refreshments, stunning views, and great photo opportunities. More information here. 

From there it’s just a hop and a skip over to the 6th annual East Rock Festival…

Saturday, September 19

11 am - 7 pm

EAST ROCK FESTIVAL

Orange Street between Willow Street and Cottage Street

This free festival celebrates all the East Rock neighborhood has to offer with food vendors, live music, demos, kids’ activities, and information on area non-profits.

And, if you plan it right, you can quench your thirst for a good cause…

Saturday, September 19

4-7 pm

BEER and OYSTERS in the GARDEN

Fred Cervin Bioregional Garden

608 Whitney Avenue

A fundraiser for the New Haven Land Trust. Standard ticket is $30.00 in advance. Support community gardening, environmental education, and nature preserves. More information is available here. 

Friday, September 25

5:30 pm (ish) at the flagpole on the New Haven Green

CRITICAL MASS

Critical Mass is a cycling event held on the last Friday of every month. Part of the worldwide Critical Mass movement, New Haven's “Kinder and Less-Critical Mass” is a monthly celebration of bicycling. The ride is generally slow; length may vary. The size of the group can reach 200 in the summer months! 

There ought to be something in here for just about everybody. Get up. Get out. Go New Haveners, Go!

Meatless Monday: Slow Food Arrives in New Haven

Slow Food International is a global grassroots organization founded to “counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.” Its origins can be traced back to a protest in response to the arrival of McDonald’s near Rome’s Spanish Steps in 1986. Today there are over 100,000 members in 1300 local chapters.  One of the newest is right here in the New Haven area — Slow Food Shoreline, founded in the late summer of 2011.

The chapter’s board has been very busy over the past few months, making their presence known up and down the Connecticut shoreline. The board members were the invited guests at New Haven Green Drinks on January 18. Chapter chair Michael Cook presented a summary of the group’s history and goals with his talk: “What is the Opposite of Fast Food?” In New Haven, everyone is connected. Chris Randall, executive director of the New Haven Land Trust, was in attendance, camera in hand. You can see his photos from the evening here.

The next scheduled event is Slow Food Shoreline’s first monthly Food Swap, this coming Saturday, February 4th at Woodland Coffee. What is a food swap? According to information on the group’s website, “A Slow Food Swap is part silent auction/part village marketplace/part fun-loving open house where your homemade, homegrown, and foraged creations become your own personal currency for use in swapping with other participants.” Read more about it here. 

What else is on the calendar? On February 11, Slow Food Shoreline will be tabling at the opening of “Big Food: Health, Culture and the Evolution of Eating,” a hands-on exhibition at Yale’s Peabody Museum. And, Slow Food Happy Hour returns at New Haven’s Soul de Cuba on Monday, February 13 from 5- 7 pm. 

On December 11, I attended my first event as a chapter member — an Art Tour at the Yale University Art Gallery, led by board member Vanessa Lamers who is also a graduate student at Yale and a Wurtele Gallery Teacher at the museum. Our guide took us on a tour of food-themed pieces in the gallery’s collection — from an Assyrian tablet dating from 900 BC to a modern-day sculpture by the artist Marisol. At each piece, after listening to  a short description of the artwork and its historical context, we were asked a couple of questions to guide us in our thinking. Why did the man in the Assyrian tablet have wings? Was he plucking dates or watering them? Why are there oranges on the floor in Manet’s painting of the woman reclining in Spanish costume? What was Marisol trying to tell us in her self-portrait “Dinner Date,” where the meal before her is a TV dinner? [A particularly interesting question for s Slow Food group to consider.] This afternoon of guided reflection was a welcome break in the busyness of the holiday season and a good way to meet chapter members.

The group contemplates “Dinner Date”

Such study has been proven to increase one’s observational skills. In fact, we in the Slow Food group were being guided in our observation of works of art in much the same way new medical students are taught to observe. All first-year students at the Yale School of Medicine are required to spend time looking at paintings in a visual tutorial which has been a part of the school’s curriculum since 1999. According to a 2009 article in Yale News, Dr. Irwin Braverman had been trying to find a way to increase observational skills of medical students. Linda Friedlaender, a curator at the Yale Center for British Art, was frustrated by the misdiagnosis of her close friend’s illness. A chance meeting brought the two together, and the class was born. The program was proven so successful that by the time the article was written, a decade later, over 20 medical schools were including a similar program in their curriculums.

Have a great week. I hope to see some of you locals at one of the next Slow Food events in and around New Haven. I’ll “see” the rest of you back here next Monday.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”

Freebie Friday Returns!

Freebie Friday returns with Google Goggles, a free Mobile App with many uses, both practical and fun. Google Goggles lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web; it’s ideal for things that aren’t easy to describe. Scan a barcode, and you can find out about a product. Scan a menu in a foreign language, and you can get a translation. You can even take a photo of a landmark or a piece of art, and Google may be able to tell you what it is. This link will let you see Google Goggles in action.  


Google Goggles is being continually improved. According to the support page, right now it works best for printed text, barcodes, logos, and landmarks, and not so well for photos of animals or furniture. 

Here is perhaps one of the products most valuable uses. Do you have a stack of Sudokus you could never solve? Take a photo of one with Goggles and just see what happens! Or watch this video.

And, now that I have your attention, please read on for some news and a few important reminders of upcoming events:

UPDATES from NEW HAVEN

The Long Wharf Nature Preserve will remain intact! Connecticut DOT Commissioner  James P. Redeker has announced the reconfiguration of the Exit 46 plan which would have taken a portion of the preserve. You can read the details in an article from the New Haven Register. According to this article, Redeker said the new plan actually improves traffic flow and safety more than the original proposal! 

Elm City Market posted progress photos. There are now 650 members and counting.

DATES TO REMEMBER

September 17

Slow Food’s $5 Challenge 

Take back the 'value meal' by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person.

and a special opportunity from Slow Food USA … during the month of September, you can become a member for whatever you can afford to pay. With over 25,000 members and 250,000 supporters, Slow Food USA is part of a global, grassroots organization which believes that food and farming should be sources of health and well being for everyone. Through national advocacy, local projects and bringing people together through the common language of food, Slow Food USA members and supporters are making it easier to access real food that is good for us, good for those who produce it, and good for the planet. Any donation this month will allow you to join … give it a try. 

September 21

5% Day at Whole Foods in Milford.

Whole Foods in Milford will donate 5% of all sales to benefit New Haven’s Common Ground High School. 

September 21

New Haven Green Drinks

6-8 pm at 

Cave A’ Vin, a newly renovated wine bar at 975 State Street, near Edward Street.

This evening’s program will be a departure from the norm. Instead of a speaker, it will be a “special fun event to get everyone to meet new people.”

September 24

Moving Planet 

At the 350CT event people will come to the New Haven Green via bikes, on foot, carpools, mass transit, anything and everything BUT carbon-intensive travel, for a central celebration with tables, music speakers, art, and a bike-powered outdoor screening of the movie Wall-E! The date is fast approaching, check out the ActNH site for opportunities to volunteer.


TGIF! Be sure to come back for my Meatless Monday post when I hope to report on a very successful $5 Meal!

Late March 2011 News Roundup & Blog Updates

NEWS from ALL OVER:

The International Pancake Races [see my blog post on 3.7.11] were held on March 8. Liberal, Kansas beat Olney England. Liberal now leads Olney 36 to 25. 

The hearing for the proposed storm water authority in New Haven on March 17 was contentious. The authority would be financed by a fee levied on all property owners, tax-exempt or not, and would be based on the amount of impermeable surface on their property. A well-organized and vocal group of clergy turned out in great numbers to protest the levying of any fee against those “doing God’s work.” The New Haven Independent covered the lengthy meeting in great detail. The proposal was tabled for a second time. 

A huge full moon filled the front window of the bus I boarded in Lexington, Massachusetts on Saturday evening, March 19, just after sunset. Dubbed a “Supermoon,” it was the largest and brightest moon in nearly 20 years. The NASA site explains the phenomenon far better than I ever could. You can see some stunning views of this moon rising over US cities here.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been questioning the safety of the Indian Point Nuclear Reactor since he was the state’s attorney general. In light of the recent disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, he brokered a meeting with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 22 and exacted an agreement that the NRC would make Indian Point “top priority,” that it would share data on seismic risk, and that state personnel would be included in the commission’s on-site inspection of the facility. Indian Point is up for relicensing in 2013. Indian Point is less than 50 miles from New York City (a 72 mile drive from New Haven, closer as the crow flies) and is situated near a fault line.

It’s Spring in New Haven, but you’d never know it. Snow fell on Monday. A little more fell this morning and a bigger storm will arrive tonight. Still, it is highly unlikely that this year we will exceed the winter snow total set in 1995-1996. We will have to settle for second place.

NEW (OR NEARLY NEW) VENTURES in NEW HAVEN:

Elm City Market received a big boost when Webster Bank committed $4 million to finance the opening of the co-op. Elm City Market has 450 members and is now expected to open this summer. It will employ more than 100 people and expects to source more than 50% of its products within 400 miles of the market.

Downtown grocery shopping will return when Stop & Shop opens at the site of the former Shaw’s in the Dwight neighborhood on April 15.

The venue for the March 16 New Haven Green Drinks [see my blog post on 1.10.10] was Elm City Handmade, “a maker’s showcase in the heart of the ninth square.” Artist Lisa Spetrini was a wonderful host and gave an enthusiastic run-down on the venture, the space, and all that happens there. Elm City Homemade features products from a number of “makers” ranging from terrariums to hula hoops, including bags by GG2G [see my blog post on 7.7.10], as well as vintage clothing, and other surprises. A participant in Project Storefronts under the auspices of the New Haven Department of Cultural Affairs, Elm City Handmade is open from 1-9 PM Tuesday through Saturday, and on Sunday from 1-5 PM. NBC-30 featured Project Storefronts during the winter holidays. 

Adjacent to Elm City Handmade in the former home of United Way is The Grove, a coworking space, billed as “a new kind of social space.”  Its members are “value-driven, collaborative people building innovative solutions for a radically better world.” You can meet them here: you, too, can become a member. The Grove is a Groundworks initiative, directed by Ken Janke and Slate Ballard. Their story is here.

Helping Hands Community Thriftstore and Furniture Bank is looking to fill its warehouse. Helping Hands opened in February. Located at 1593 State Street, New Haven in the former home of the Costume Bazaar, its hours are 9:30 AM-5:30 PM Mon-Sat. Its mission is two-fold. The Furniture Bank is open to needy clients of partnering social service non-profit organizations. For the partnering organizations, donating is a fundraising activity: each organization receives 18% of the sale price of any goods donated in their name. What a great motivation for doing a little spring cleaning! The list of what Helping Hands does and does not accept is available here. 

On a recent visit to Nica’s Market I purchased a loaf of fit bread which came in a neon green bag. It made terrific toast. Fit is baked by New Haven’s newest artisan bakery, Whole German Bread. Check out this story in the New Haven Independent to read more about the bread, its bakers, and how the business came to be. 

NEW HAVEN BICYCLE HAPPENINGS:

March’s Critical Mass [see my blog post on 5.4.10] ride will depart from the flagpole on the New Haven Green at 5:30(ish) this coming Friday, March 25. The idea behind these monthly rides? As Aretha would say, “A little R-E-S-P-E-C-T” for cyclists. Bundle up.

On Tuesday, March 29, the new Smart Cycling Handbook will be introduced in an event on Pitkin Plaza, the front yard of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop. At 10:30 AM New Haven Mayor John DeStefano will speak on behalf of the city and in support of the handbook.  This handy guide contains everything you need to know for safe biking in the City from routes to rules to repair tips.

Saturday, April 30, is the date of the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride in New Haven.  This event is a day-long celebration of Earth Day. Hundreds of riders traverse the city from West Rock to East Rock in a relatively flat and easy 8.5 mile route, stopping along the way to rest, eat tasty food, help plant some trees, and explore. There is a 22+ mile route for the more hard-core riders. The registration fees and pledges collected support local environmental organizations. Start training now! You can register here.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, March 26

8:00 PM: Bach Collegium Japan, JS Bach: Mass in B Minor. Special Performance to Benefit Yale’s Relief Efforts for the Japan Earthquake. Woolsey Hall at Yale. Presented by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. $15 ($8 students).

Saturday, March 26 

8:30-9:30 PM: Earth Hour

Friday, April 22

Earth Day

Saturday, April 30

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Visit this site for a location near you.

BLOG NEWS:

My blog’s page views crossed the 10,000 mark on March 20! And, just so you know, my own personal page views are not counted. Thanks everyone.

Be sure to come back for this week’s Freebie Friday.

GG2G “Saved and Made in the USA”

The next time you are driving past a billboard on I-95 in Connecticut, imagine this. You may well encounter the very same billboard again sometime soon — but in a state you may not recognize. If it is a billboard owned by brothers Bruce and John Barrett, there is an excellent chance that it will be re-purposed, perhaps as a designer bag.

In 2004, Dayan “Day” Moore started GG2G (the acronym for Green Gifts 2 Give and 2 Get) with her friend Alison Grieveson “to create accessories that were in keeping with their re-use & recycle philosophy.” Day was a guest speaker at a recent New Haven Green Drinks to which she brought samples of her bags and talked in particular about the challenges of finding local sources for the materials needed to fabricate her products. In her factory in Milford, Day manufactures two major collections.

ReVinylized® Bags are fabricated from recycled local billboards (those belonging to the Barretts). The billboards are cut locally, washed locally using a non-toxic cleaner made by a local company, and sewn locally. Day estimates that GG2G has diverted thousands of pounds of billboards from the landfill.

The Salvo! Collection is the newer, luxury line, offering bags created of vinyl scraps salvaged from a manufacturer of restaurant seating.

All GG2G bags are lined with 100% organic cotton created by Harmony Art. The webbing is made in the USA, as are the notions, whenever possible. A portion of each sale is donated to Farm Sanctuary. 

Dayan Moore is a 2009 Eileen Fisher Women’s Business Grant Recipient. Her eco- and animal-friendly accessories are carried in fine boutiques around the country.