It’s officially spring for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, which means that this weekend it is also the time of the year in which many people all over the world will be celebrating the Christian tradition of Easter.

However STOP! Before you all gorge on chocolate Easter eggs (vegan, fair-trade & organic of course!) please consider the true meaning of this time of year. No, no I don’t mean the resurrection of Jesus Christ – I am talking about the true historic celebration that civilisation across the world have celebrated in various ways throughout history. I’m talking about the ‘Spring Equinox’ (also known as the Vernal Equinox).

What is the spring (Vernal) Equinox

An equinox is a moment in time when the centre of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth’s equator. This occurs twice a year, usually around March 20th (Spring Equinox) and September 23rd (Autumn Equinox).

During an equinox the daytime and nighttimes are almost exactly 12 hours long, and very close to being equal to each other.

History of spring (vernal) Equinox

As far as I know there are no exact facts about when Spring Equinox was first celebrated, however ancient civilizations (including the Inca’s, Egyptians etc) created festivals linked to the position of the sun. In fact some of the ancient civilizations even built monuments linked to astronomical events such as the equinoxes, for example:

The Great Sphinx (constructed over 4500 years ago) faces due east on the Vernal Equinox, perhaps the ancient Egyptians did construct this as an astronomical marker.

The Ancient Mayan Caracol Tower and Temples of the Sun and Moon also have alignments that coincide with the sun’s position on the Vernal Equinox.

The Stonehenge (approximately over 3000 years old) also marks the position of the rising sun on the Vernal Equinox.

Spring Equinox – new beginnings and fertility

Whilst this astronomical event may have many names and be linked into various celebrations (Norwuz, Sham El Nessim, Ostara) its key themes universally are new beginnings and fertility. Which makes perfect sense seeing as it is the time of year when the days become longer, the sun more prominent which warms the earths soil, which then encourages plant life to grow, as the plants grow they provide food source for animals (and humans). So nature knows that this is a good time of the year for animals to stock up on food and gain energy for breeding and creating new life.

Celebrate in true eco style

This weekend instead of celebrating Easter / Spring Equinox (or whatever name you may give to this astronomical event) please don’t gorge on chocolate (that the confectionary companies love to tell that you NEED to buy and then over package) or buy a pack of hot cross buns, dont jump in your car to go away for the weekend and cause congestion on the road or even just think “Yippee, time off work”.

Instead connect to nature and celebrate the earth’s true new beginnings and Mother Nature’s fertility.  For example I am going to celebrate by going nature walks and I also aim to do some meditation and draw in on the energy of this amazing planet and the cycle of life.

If you too want to celebrate in a natural and environmentally friendly way then why not sow some seeds in your garden, plant a tree or even treat yourself to a pot plant so that you can bring nature indoors to you.

Remember sometimes it’s the simplest celebration that can bring the most fulfillment and of course leave the smallest ecological / carbon footprint.

Spring blessings everyone x

Time flies! On March 20th it will officially be the start of spring, thus I thought it best to finally provide you all with a detailed update of my New Year Green Pledges which I first wrote about in the post titled Belated new year greetings and green pledges.

I would like to highlight that I am not like Mary Poppins (practically perfect in every way) so whilst I have worked very hard to fulfil my New Year Green Pledges there are areas in which I could perform better.  However as a vegan and activist, I agree with what Katleen Baum said in her recent GGG post with regards to vegans having to frequently defend themselves as they can be scrutinised and judged almost immediately as people like to try and trip you up to find a weakness or hypocrisy in your beliefs and actions.

Anyhow moving swiftly on please find below an update of my pledges, if you have any questions just ask and if you can offer me any constructive advice / support then please do!

Pledge 1 –  Buy no NEW clothes at all

I am proud to announce that I have not brought any clothes at all! I am however recycling an old chunky scarf by unravelling it and knitting a cardigan.

Pledge 2 – Make my vegan diet at least 80% organic, locally sourced and word free

This pledge got off to a pretty good start but then instead of bananas and tofu, it turned out that during February it was caffeine and dark organic chocolate that was my weakness. However I am back to being super healthy again and practically living off a large weekly organic fruit and veg box containing approximately 80% locally sourced food but with some items such as peppers coming from Spain or Italy and occasional fruit from further afar (but not air freighted).

However I can not live on fruit and veg alone as I would not get all my nutrients, so I have been supplementing my vegan diet with:

Nuts – predominantly:

Almonds (100g of Almonds contain 16.9g protein, 4.2mg iron, 250mg calcium, 20mg vitamin E, 3.1mg zinc and 0.92mg vitamin B2)

Walnuts (100g walnuts contain 10.6g protein and 2.4mg iron)

Almonds and Walnuts can be grown effectively in the UK. In fact through my local veg box scheme I recently purchased a large string bag full of shelled almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts (I am slightly allergic to hazelnuts so passed these onto family and friends)

When I purchase my next home (with the aim of hopefully staying there forever) I would like to plant a nut orchard comprising almonds, walnuts, sweet chestnut and also pine kernels which can be grown in the UK too.

For further information about growing nuts in the UK please click here.

Seeds – predominantly:

Pumpkin seeds (100g pumpkin seeds contain 29g protein, 11.2mg iron and 1144mg phosphorous )

Sunflower seeds (100g sunflower seeds contain 24g protein and 7.1mg iron and 120mg calcium.)

Flax seeds (100g flax seeds contain 18g protein, 255mg calcium, and 644mg phosphorus. Rich in Omega 3)

Again all of these can be grown in the UK, however I don’t think that the seeds I sourced are of the
UK variety. (if anyone knows of a supplier – please let me know)

Beans and Legumes – predominantly:

Lentils: I incorporate dried puy lentils into my cooking at least once a week and whilst they can be grown in the UK (though not guaranteed with success) the lentils that I purchased were of European origin. (Puy lentils are originally from France)

Dried beans are also included in my diet and it is quite easy to get UK sourced beans. You can make a range of interesting and exciting dishes with beans ranging from soups, pate’s, three bean chilli, Mexican wraps etc.

Chickpeas have a major role in my diet as I absolutely love hummus! However in order to reduce packaging I have started to try and make my own from dried chickpeas, organic lemon and locally sourced garlic. Chickpeas are typically imported in from Asian countries however they are also grown commercially in Southern Europe too. However I am going to start reducing my hummus intake as I perhaps have rather a lot.

Grains, cereal etc – predominantly:

Oats (from Scotland), Wheat (from UK), Millet (not sure), Quinoa (Can be grown in Europe)Brown rice (the rice I got from the Co-Op said country of origin Italy – apparently Italy is the leading producer of rice in Europe)

Herbal tea:

Last year I harvested lots of herbs from my garden and when at home I enjoy pots of delicious herbal tea such as thyme, peppermint, rosemary, sage and also nettle (which is high in iron). At work I usually drink lots of tap water and also herbal infusions from teabags.

Pledge update – conclusive remarks

Whilst my diet is 100% vegan, at the moment it’s probably approximately 90% organic and only 60-70% locally sourced and word free. I don’t think that I will be able to have a 100% locally sourced healthy vegan diet until I am able to be more self sufficient and grow my own nuts and legumes.

Pledge 3 – Grow more vegetables, herbs and fruits

This is not convenient at the moment as I am about to begin the process of selling my house thus even if I sowed some vegetable seeds in my garden I may not be there to harvest them. However upon selling my house I will be completely downsizing and going to move from Nottingham to the South of England to live with my fiancé where we will be renting a bedroom from a live in land lady who also has another tenant (4 people in a 3 bed roomed houses is very eco friendly).

In order to achieve my pledge of growing more fruit and veg (and also because I love gardening) I will be putting my name down for an allotment plot as soon as possible.

Pledge 4 – Buy no presents – instead make them

Forgive me for I have sinned. The last two presents I gave were store brought (books and cd’s) as opposed to home made, my excuse – I was too busy studying. I promise to try harder.

Pledge 5 – Cycle instead of getting the bus

I have walked to work on a few occasions (1 hour 20 mins) however I have yet to get my bike out and cycle to work. After Easter I WILL start cycling to work again.

When I received details about this event in Nottingam the organiser said “The name of the event is ‘Smarter than Yeast?’ Check out the dictionary definition of yeast and let’s hope we can prove we are!”

‘Smarter than Yeast’ is a day of fun and education for people in Nottingham who are concerned about environmental issues taking place on Sunday 3rd February, 2.00pm – 10.30pm at The Art Organisation, 21 Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3AJ

From 2pm to 6pm there will be:

A free shop – Take home some new (to you!) clothes

V3 Power- Learn about renewable technology and hand built wind turbines

Still Within- Find out about permaculture

From 6pm to 10.30pm there will be:

Peak Oil Talk – by local Ecological Economist Brian Davey

Plus – Eco Poetry, Collaborative Art, Live Music & Veggie Food

If you would like to showcase your group or share skills at this event contact Hannah or May at maisiebate@hotmail.com.

Happy Belated New Year!

Well, it has been quite some time since I last posted which I apologise about and as this is the my first post of the year I thought that I would follow Arcadia’s example and post my New Year resolution and also some green pledges for 2008.

New Year Resolution

My one and only New Year resolution is to get a distinction in the first year of my Environmental Studies degree. So far my studying is going very well and I will be posting an update shortly.

2008 Green Pledges

In 2008 I pledge to make my life greener by…

1) Not buying any NEW clothes at all.

How many items of clothing do we wear at once? How often do we end up wearing our old favourites? With this in mind I am going to save money and simultaneously help reduce the amount of energy needed to produce, transport and sell clothes by pledging to buy no new clothes in 2008 at all. Instead I will alter existing clothes, use recycled material to make my own and swap clothes with friends.

2) Making my vegan diet at least 80% organic, locally sourced and word free

I already have a pretty good diet, however since going vegan I have perhaps had too many soya based products which have been grown and transported from quite far . Thus going forward I aim to have at least 80% of my diet organic, locally sourced and word free (with the aim of getting to 100% eventually) as whilst I am prepared to give up caffeine and chocolate I don’t want to give up my daily banana, weekly cartoon of soya milk and fortnightly tofu just yet.

In case you have not come across ‘word free’ before (New Connsumer magazine brought it to my attention) it involves buying food with no packaging – or if it has packaging then only without writing on it. So basically it involves having nothing processed, nothing label-slapped, nothing mass produced, nothing shrink wrapped.

For those of you who are wondering what on earth I will be eating, I promise to write more about this in a future post (linked to my veganism update)

3) Grow more vegetables, herbs and fruits

This will help me in achieving the above and also help me with the below.

4) Buy no presents – instead make them

Instead of buying people presents I will make them instead, for example knit scarves using recycled material, hampers containing home grown and made goodies such as chutney’s / pickles etc, personalised cookery books and cuttings of plants (provided in newspaper plant pots).

5) Cycle instead of getting the bus

Over the winter I have been really bad and caught the bus to work instead of cycled and I do feel guilty. So I pledge to cycle more in 2008 and stop taking the easy option of getting the bus.

I will keep you updated on how they all go.

Listening to the fireworks and thinking about butternut squash soup, I suddenly realised I’ve only eaten 3 courgettes this year.

That’s not because I don’t like them – I really do. There just don’t seem to have been any!

This time last year I had a freezer full of courgette soup (ask me if you’d like the recipe; it’s lovely, honest!) and was glad to have a break from them. But this year, I feel in need of more.

Our next door neighbour is a superstar and has an allotment or two, which he keeps beautifully. And it’s common for me to arrive home to find a bag of courgettes at the front door – all shapes, sizes and colours. But this year it hasn’t happened – not once. I did wonder whether the arrival of another noisy baby had finally tipped the scales of neighbourly love…

… But if you take a meander around the allotments, it’s clear to see what’s up. The first frosts struck when the courgettes were still pencil-sized. The harvest didn’t happen.

What’s going on?

Is this just a Cirencester thing or is anyone else missing their courgettes this year?!?

In the UK this weekend the clocks will be going back and the winter nights will be drawing in, indicating a time of year that most of you will want to be getting all cozy indoors.

However this winter please make sure that you don’t forget your feathered friends, those beautiful garden birds that provide much pleasure with their playfulness in the garden and chirpy song. At winter garden birds need a helping hand through the provision of nutritious food to keep them warm during the winter months and in preparation for the breeding season.

Some may argue that by feeding garden birds it is interfering with nature – however we have already interfered with nature by building too many houses, mass agriculture, use of pesticides killing useful plants for birds, and removing hedging containing nutritious food and replacing it with walls and fences instead.

Thus it is my personal opinion that feeding the garden birds is good, because not only does it provide pleasure in watching them feed it also helps conservation efforts especially in urban areas where there is a lack of suitable natural food sources.

However when you feed your garden birds it is important to consider the following:

• Chose the right food and feeder for the birds you are trying to attract
• Don’t feed them bread (bloats their stomach) or salty products (as it will dehydrate them)
• Do buy bird food from a reputable company (I use http://www.walterharrisons.com/ as they also donate money to Notts Wildlife Trust for every bag of bird food sold
• Be careful where you put bird feeders in order to not attract vermin, if possible move them to different parts of the garden regularly for hygiene reasons.
• Wash the bird feeders regularly with boiling water and suitable non harmful cleaning product to ensure that disease is not spread (always use rubber gloves when handing bird feeders for your own protection)
• Do put out water (for example using a bird bath, or upturned dustbin lid) as it is important that birds have access to clean drinking water.

If you would like to help your feathered friends, then this weekend is a good time to start as it is the RSPB’s “Feed the Birds Day” and it is still “Wild Weeks” which I mentioned in the ‘Go wild this week’ post.

To celebrate Feed the Birds day there will be a variety of events happening across the UK including one at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Chilwell, Nottingham on Sunday 28^th October. Such events will provide you with guidance on how to help your feathered friends.

In addition to feeding your garden friends, this weekend why not put up a nest box or even plant some native hedging which will provide your garden friends with natural and nutritious food.

I beleive that local, fresh and organic food can help to prevent ill-health and also help heal those who are ill. Which is why I am  supporting Nottingham City and QMC Hospital’s proposal to have an on-site kitchen using sustainable development technologies at the hospital.

The proposed kitchen would supply patients with freshly cooked food, brought in from local farmers. This would replace the existing food contract that the hospitals have with a large food contractor who currently provides cook-chill meals and delivers these from its Colchester base.

If you would like to provide feedback about this proposal (I have) then write as soon as possible to:

Mr John Hughes, Catering Manager, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Hucknall Road, Nottingham, NG5 1PB.

For those who do not live in Nottingham or the UK even, why not encourage your hospital to use local food and cook it on site too.

Do you have a wild streak? I hope so, as I want to challenge ALL GGG readers to go really wild and do at least one thing to benefit wildlife this week as part of the BBC, Wildlife Trust and BTCV Breathing Places ‘Wild Week’ (22^nd to 28^th October).

Breathing Places and ‘Wild Week’ aims to encourage everyone to get outdoors and get in touch with their ‘wild’ side. Whether it’s by participating in an organised Breathing Places event, building a bee hotel or even creating a ‘Breathing Place’ for people and wildlife in the local community. I think initiatives like ‘Breathing Place’s and ‘Wild Week’ are fantastic for enthusing people into the wonders of the natural world and to help them become hands on in protecting our green spaces and the wildlife that depends on them.

Like many countries, the UK is losing brown field sites and even green spaces due to property and commercial development. If we continue to develop at this scale then it could damage wildlife habitat and scupper plans for habitat creation.

You may be thinking “Well, what can I do?” I’m only one person I can not possibly help to save all those species or prevent the loss of green space”. But you can, and if all GGG readers did at least one thing during Wild Week then it’s a start, and if you continue to do at least one simple thing a week or a month then united we can make a difference, remember “Think Global, Act Local”.

And don’t worry you do not need to have any conservation skills or wildlife knowledge to make a difference, you could do some of the simple following actions.

• Feed the birds
• Plant a window box
• Create a compost café
• Go Peat Free
• Volunteer for wildlife
• Adopt a species

There are lots of other simple but effective actions that you can take to go wild and help protect wildlife, if you are struggling for ideas then why not do a search on the internet or borrow a wildlife book from your local library. I personally will be going wild this week and intend to do the following things.

1)             Sow native flowers around my pond

2)             Put up another bird box

3)             Go for a nature walk and do some species surveying

How about you? What wild things will you do this week?

What do you do with 20 kilos of apples?

What can’t you do!  After harvesting a ridiculous amount of apples from my future in-laws allotment plot I have spent evenings baking and making various apple related goods, including cider vinegar, apple chutney, apple pies, apple tarts, apple and cinnamon buns.

As well as stocking up my freezer and pantry, I have distributed these goods between family, friends and work colleagues. All of whom have been most grateful, it does go to show you don’t need to give people expensive gifts to make them happy.

If you do have space in your garden I reccommend that you do plant some fruit trees and bushes so you can make your own delicious food too. Even in a small space you can have fruit trees because you can purchase restricted rooted trees which will grow in pots. So go on, get planting a fruit tree this autumn.

Have you got a favourite “green” book – or recipe book?
Would you like to tell people why you like it?
We’ve just launched a book review section on the Vegbox-Recipes website and we need your help to get lots of great book reviews on it.
Maybe you’ve got a favourite recipe book that you just couldn’t do without? Or maybe it’s a great gardening book? Or perhaps one of those green books that are set to become a classic?
So if you’d like to help out and help people choose the right books for them, please take a moment to fill in our book review form.

http://www.vegbox-recipes.co.uk/resources/essential-reading.php#form

Thank you!
Clare