Local Harvest - Shop Locally, Think Globally

About LocalHarvest

LocalHarvest is America's #1 organic and local food website that maintains a definitive and reliable "living" public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. Their search engine helps people find products from family farms and local sources of sustainably grown food, and encourages them to establish direct contact with small farms in their local area.

The richness, variety, and flavor of our communities, food systems, and diets is in jeopardy. The exclusive focus on economic efficiency has brought us low prices and convenience through large supermarkets chains, agribusiness and factory farms, while taking away many other aspects of our food lives, like our personal relation with our food and with the people who produce it. More and more people are realizing this and are actively working to turn the tide and to preserve a food industry based on family-owned, small scale businesses. They are our best guarantee against a world of styrofoam-like long-shelf-life tomatoes and diets dictated from corporate boardrooms.

The Buy Local movement is quickly taking us beyond the promise of environmental responsibility that the organic movement delivered, and awakening the U.S. to the importance of community, variety, humane treatment of farm animals, and social and environmental responsibility in regards to our food economy.

Who Are We?

LocalHarvest was founded in 1998, and is now the number one informational resource for the Buy Local movement and the top place on the Internet where people find information on direct marketing family farms. Through their servers, website and websites of their partners they serve about one and a half million page views per month to the public interested in buying food from family farms.

You Can Help

First and foremost, be sure to type in the zip code where you live or the zip code of any area you will be visiting to find the best local farmers markets, farm stands, food co-ops, or U-Pick farms to purchase your fruits, vegetables, meats, soaps, etc.

You can also participate in LocalHarvest’s building process by encouraging your farmer, market manager, and restauranteur friends to visit localharvest.org and sign themselves up!

Finally, if you are a Sustainable Agriculture or Family Farming group, contact LocalHarvest to discuss how they can partner with you in support of your work.

For more information, be sure to visit http://www.localharvest.org.

(Most of the above info was gathered from the LocalHarvest website)

Xeriscaping in your home garden

What is xeriscaping?

Literally, the word xeriscaping comes from a combination of two other words: "xeri" derived from the Greek word "xeros" for dry; and "scape", meaning a kind of view or scene. While xeriscape translates to mean "dry scene," in practice xeriscaping means simply landscaping with slow-growing, drought tolerant plants to conserve water and reduce yard trimmings.

California's limited supply of water, subject to ever increasing demands, is just one resource saved by xeriscaping, thus resulting in immediate cost savings through lower water bills. Additionally, xeriscaping can reduce the amount of plant trimmings that must be disposed of or otherwise managed, thereby helping your community, and ultimately you, to save resources. A reduction in plant trimmings can reduce the amount of labor needed to maintain a given landscape. Or, put another way, reduced plant maintenance allows more time to be spent on other aspects of landscape maintenance, or on another landscape project.

Xeriscapes generally require less fertilizer and fewer pest control measures than traditional landscapes. Seeing as pesticides and fertilizers can inadvertently harm beneficial organisms as well as impact air and water quality, reducing their use is a good idea. And, of course, using less of these materials saves money.

Now, while indigenous plants are naturally accustomed to local climates and therefore good choices for water and waste efficient landscapes, xeriscaping doesn't mean one is limited to planting California native plants only. For example, one could draw from many available colorful drought tolerant plants native to other "Mediterranean" climates such as Southern Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, South Africa, and Australia. There are many excellent books that provide further information on this subject, as well as a growing number of nurseries that specialize in xeriscape plants.

Remember, xeriscaping:

* Conserves water
* Provides lots of attractive planting options
* Presents minimal pest and disease problems
* Thrives with little fertilization
* Requires low pruning and maintenance
* Saves valuable landfill space

Do your part by designing, installing, or converting landscapes to be low waste, water efficient, easily maintained xeriscapes.

Heating and Cooling Efficiently

As much as half of the energy used in your home goes to heating and cooling. As a result, making smart decisions about your home's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system can have a big effect on your utility bills — and your comfort. Take these steps to increase the efficiency of your heating and cooling system.

Change your air filter regularly
Check your filter every month, especially during heavy use months (winter and summer). If the filter looks dirty after a month, change it. At a minimum, change the filter every 3 months. A dirty filter will slow down air flow and force the system to work harder to keep you warm or cool — wasting energy. A clean filter will also prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system — leading to expensive maintenance and/or early system failure.

Tune up your HVAC equipment yearly
Just as a tune-up for your car can improve your gas mileage, a yearly tune-up of your heating and cooling system can improve efficiency and comfort.

Install a programmable thermostat
A programmable thermostat is ideal for most of us who are away from our homes during set periods of time throughout the week. Through proper use of pre-programmed settings, a programmable thermostat can save you hundreds of dollars every year in energy costs.

Seal your heating and cooling ducts
Ducts that move air to and from a forced air furnace, central air conditioner, or heat pump are often big energy wasters. Sealing and insulating ducts can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20 percent — and sometimes much more.

Focus first on sealing ducts that run through the attic, crawlspace, unheated basement, or garage. Use duct sealant (mastic) or metal-backed (foil) tape to seal the seams and connections of ducts. After sealing the ducts in those spaces, wrap the ducts in insulation to keep them from getting hot in the summer or cold in the winter. Next, seal ducts that you can access in the heated or cooled part of the house.

Overview
If your HVAC equipment is more than ten years old or not keeping your house comfortable, you should have it looked at by a professional HVAC contractor. If it is not performing efficiently or needs upgrading, consider replacing it with an Energy Star unit. Installed correctly, these high-efficiency heating and cooling units can save up to 20 percent on heating and cooling costs. As a precaution, before you invest in a new HVAC system, make sure that you have addressed the big air leaks in your house and the duct system. Sometimes, these are the real sources of problems rather than your HVAC equipment.

Remember that getting the proper size HVAC system and a quality installation is essential to getting the most from your new equipment. When replacing HVAC equipment, bigger doesn't always mean better. If the unit is too large for your home, you will be less comfortable and might actually have higher utility bills. Oversized equipment will operate in short run cycles, not allowing the unit to reach efficient operation and remove humidity from the air — resulting in an uncomfortable home.

Please feel free to contact me for referrals should you wish to have your HVAC system inspected to ensure maximum efficiency and comfort, not to mention reduced energy bills and a reduction in your carbon footprint.

Air quality (or lack thereof) in your home

The air quality in your home and workplace directly affects your health. The average adult breathes approximately 13,000 liters of air each day, along with whatever Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants happen to be in the air. Your immune system works to protect you from harmful toxins your body encounters, but it can only handle so much. If you overload your body with too many harmful substances your immune system cannot keep up and your body suffers. In fact, the EPA has estimated that indoor air pollution kills 11,400 people each year.

Toxins such as VOCs can enter your home or workplace from the paint, flooring, stains, varnishes, plywood, carpeting, insulation and other building products used in their construction. These substances are released into the air through a process called offgassing. The offgassing can continue for years and therefore affect your health long after construction has been completed. Additionally, today's more airtight construction methods work to seal in these substances, rather than allowing fresh air to dilute them.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies have confirmed that indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air. The EPA's Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) studies found levels of about a dozen common pollutants to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas. Additional TEAM studies indicate that while people are using products containing VOCs, they can expose themselves and others to very high pollutant levels; and elevated concentrations of these compounds can persist in the air long after the activity is completed. During and for several hours immediately after certain activities, such as paint stripping, levels of common organic pollutants may be 1,000 times normal outdoor levels.

Once in your system, VOCs are stored in body fat and can lead to serious health problems over time. Many commonly used compounds are known carcinogens, but their use is not presently regulated. Indoor air quality has become a significant health issue; and should be considered by employers, homebuilders and contractors in every construction project.

Ironically, people often resist using green products saying that they're too expensive and don't work as well as other products. The reality is there are tremendous green products and non-toxic products available now that work amazingly well and are completely affordable. True, green products used to be expensive, but now they're often priced competitively, if not less, than conventional products. As a result, ultimately the question is how can you afford not to buy green? If nothing else, let your long-term health be your guide, and the savings will be beyond compare!