Left the grocery store with a broken heart

No it's not a new country song, it's honestly the way I felt when I left the supermarket today.  Trying to become more aware of my own plastic habits has made my eyes painfully open to the overwhelming amount of plastic that we are surrounded by everywhere we go. As I walk up and down each isle I suddenly feel the desire to cry and scream. "Look at all this plastic!!!! Where is it all going to end up??? Why are we doing this to ourselves????" Plastic shampoo bottles and plastic drink bottles and plastic baby bottles and plastic laundry detergent, plastic salad dressing, plastic ketchup... the list goes on endlessly. The more I look, the worse I feel and the sadness deepens when I realize how much of this plastic I need to take home with me.  Now of course I avoided the obvious plastic bags at checkout by bringing my own bags, and I just put loose veggies in my cart to avoid those bags until the cotton mesh produce bags I ordered from Amazon arrive, but what about everything else??? Some produce is already pre-packaged in plastic like strawberries, blueberries, grapes, celery, among others. Now pretty soon I will have my own strawberries to pick in the back yard, but in the meantime I am FORCED to accept yet another plastic, single use container or not buy strawberries. Which is the lesser of two evils??? Not being able to give my daughter a healthy lunch or adding more plastic to her diet and the environment??? Every loaf of bread in the store is wrapped in plastic, sometimes DOUBLE wrapped... what is that all about???? I think my next adventure will be making my own breads. I enjoy baking and I think making fresh bread will be very rewarding... I'll blog about how it comes out in the future and if anyone has any good recipes, feel free to let me know. When I got home I felt very sad and almost hopeless about the plastic situation. I will always do my part as much as I can and I hope my blog inspires others to do the same... as soon as I get some more followers!! But sometimes it feels like there is no way out of this plastic infested, chemical laden, consumerist society we live in. A friend of mine is building a house with her fiance and intends to live as close to nature and as far off the grid as possible.  I envy her and admire her and hope to one day be her neighbor!

Fresh out of the garden

Part of tonight's dinner consisted of salad made with spinach and red leaf lettuce pick right out of my own garden. That is the most rewarding part of vegetable gardening... when you get to harvest and enjoy your own produce knowing that it is organic and did not travel half way around the world wrapped in plastic to get to you. And the taste!!!! Nothing in the grocery store can even try to compare to the taste of something fresh out of the ground... the way it was supposed to be.  This was my first year growing spinach and what a success it was!! I will definitely be growing it again next year... I think I need a bigger garden!!

Drowning in Plastic

I have been thinking a lot lately about the serious amounts of plastic that we all use on a daily basis. Last time I wrote about plastic bags that we get while out shopping, but how about all the plastic that surrounds us on a daily basis. Here's how my day starts.... I wake up and the first thing I touch is my PLASTIC alarm clock, I then put on my PLASTIC glasses and head to the bathroom to sit on the PLASTIC toilet seat. I then go into the shower and use the PLASTIC shampoo, conditioner and body wash containers.  When I get out of the shower I brush my teeth with a PLASTIC toothbrush with toothpaste from a PLASTIC tube. Now imagine that I have only been awake for half and hour and so far everything I have come in contact with has been PLASTIC!
So I usually stop at Starbucks for coffee with my reusable PLASTIC cup and get a non-reusable PLASTIC straw, but today I decided to make another change. Do I really NEED a straw??? Nah! I can drink out of the cup, and with one simple decision I just stopped contributing to plastic straws washing up onto a beach somewhere.
Plastic has become part of our society, a part that is so well ingrained we can't even imagine living without it. As I type this blog on my PLASTIC laptop I am saddened to think about what our Earth is becoming... one big PLASTIC sphere!!
What's that you say?? What about recycling?? Recycling is a last ditch effort to try to handle the wasteful nature of the human race.  Most of the plastic we consume is either downcycled or not recycled at all.  Plastic is difficult to recycle because there are so many different types, that's what all those little numbers on the bottom of your containers are.  #5 is said to be best for human consumption, but guess what, it's the hardest to recycle. Aveeda has teamed up with some schools and organizations to collect #5 plastic caps and recycle them for their haircare products, but the overwhelming response has forced them to turn organizations away because they just can't handle all that plastic. Check out their website for more details.
There is a blog that I follow called http://myplasticfreelife.com. It is a really interesting blog about really challenging yourself to live without any plastic at all. I don't imagine I will be plastic-free anytime soon, but everyday I try to make another step towards reducing my consumption of single use plastics before we really are drowning in plastic!

One less plastic bag

Being green has basically become a way of life for me, but there are times when I make some not-so-green choices.  Whether its a conscious bad decision or one I realize later was not so good, I am certainly not perfect when it comes to making the most environmentally conscious choice.  I ALWAYS bring my canvas shopping bags when I do my weekly grocery shopping, but there are plenty of times where I run out to pick something up and forget my bags.  If it's only one or two items I will most definitely carry them out in my own two hands, but if it's more then a few things I have to resort to the *gasp* dreaded plastic bag :(  Now any plastic bag that manages to make it's way into my house always gets a second life, usually consisting of picking up doggie waste.  So I was thinking about how many plastic bags are getting used on a daily basis and it really made me feel guilty about ever forgetting my reusable bag. Let's think for a minute... almost 3 million people live on Long Island... so if everyone used 1 plastic bag a day that would be 3 million plastic bags a day, 21 million in a week, 93 million a month and 1 billion 95 million a year.  Now we're just talking Long Island here and we're only talking 1 per day. How many bags do you think the average person gets at the grocery store... 20? 30? What about department stores, drug stores... etc... we're getting into some serious #'s here!! So the point of this is that the reverse is also true... if everyone refused 1 plastic bag per day on Long Island that would be 3 million less plastic bags in the environment a day... etc... So I challenge you my friends to really try to start reducing your plastic bag consumption.  If you forget your reusable bags, use your two hands if it's only a few items.  If you don't have any reusable bags, you can get some almost anywhere now-a-days. 
So why should we even care about reducing our dependence on plastic bags anyway??? Well... were do I even start.  Let's start with aesthetics.  I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I feel like every time I am driving around lately I see some random plastic bag flying through the air, usually until it finds itself lodged in a tree, also a hideous sight.  If it doesn't get stuck in a tree some where, it might make it's way to the ocean.  I don't know how many of you know this, but sea turtles eat jellyfish.  Now have you ever seen a plastic bag floating in the water? Well from underwater, plastic bags often resemble jellyfish, which the turtles then try to snack on, which you can imagine is not healthy for the turtles.  And if you're still not convinced, there's always that pesky little fact that plastic is made from oil and if anyone has been to the gas station lately you can see how this could be a problem.
So my overall point is, don't beat yourself up if you forget to bring your reusable bags sometimes.  Just try to make a conscious decision to reduce plastic bag consumption whenever possible and be one more person using one less plastic bag. 

Dirt is good for the soul!

So today I spent some time outside planting some Gerber Daisies, Sunflower seeds, moving some bulbs around and of course watering my veggies. But the most exciting part of the day was when a friend of mine finally brought my tree for me!!! I am busting!!!! I can't wait to plant it tomorrow, and oh yes, pictures will follow.
I don't know what it is about being in the dirt that makes me so happy... Maybe it's the fresh air or the sunshine or the birds chirping or maybe it's all those things combined and then some.  The reason my blog is called "Barefoot in the Garden" is two-fold.  First, I literally LOVE to be barefoot whenever possible, especially in the dirt.  The other reason is that when God created the perfect world for us in the Garden of Eden, we were of course barefoot.  It's all about the natural way things are supposed to be.  Being close to nature makes me sooo happy... being outside recharges my battery and lifts my spirits no matter what mood I may be in.  That is why I am so adamant about being "green", about taking care of the natural world, and respecting the beauty that is all around us.

Would you like a non-biodegradeable styrofoam container to take your food home in... no thanks, I've got my own

So I don't know how many of you like to go out to dinner, but what happens when you don't finish your meal? Do you just chuck it? Not if you don't like to waste! So what are the alternatives. Most of the time the waitress/waiter will ask if you want your food wrapped which usually means a giant styrofoam container that will sit in a landfill until the end of time! So here's where some planning ahead comes into play. We all have Tupperware, or some other form of plastic reusable containers at home, so why not just stash a few in your glove compartment?? I like to use the ones that Chinese food comes in. It's such a great feeling when you know that you just made such a simple, yet important environmentally conscious decision.  That's what I want this blog to be all about. Simple changes that we can all make. I follow a few blogs about people giving up plastic all together, which I think is totally awesome. I however do not have the time to figure out where/how to get/make everything I need that currently comes in plastic. For me it's just about making better choices when ones are available. Canvas bags at the grocery store, or no bag at all when I'm buying one item and I have 2 hands!! Bringing my own container for leftovers and using my Lifefactory GLASS water bottle that I LOVE!!!! Check them out Lifefactory.com. I would gladly welcome any suggestions that anyone else has, and I definitely have more of my own, but I am just trying to write a blog here, not a novel! Keep it Green!!!

Earth Day success.... well sort of!

So I was really determined to plant a tree yesterday, a Weeping Cherry to be exact... however, the person who was supposed to deliver it to me flaked on me!! So it looks like I will be planting it next weekend instead, but at least it will be getting done... eventually. 
I did however plant my spring veggies... 

                                                         ...broccoli, cauliflower, peas, spinach and red leaf lettuce. There is nothing more rewarding and environmentally responsible than growing your own veggies.  My garden is organic (no chemicals to pollute or bodies or our aquifers), and no burning fossil fuels to transport vegetables that have been grown halfway around the world.  Now don't get me wrong, I do buy veggies at the store when I have to, but the spring/summer is a great time to decrease your reliance on store bought veggies and grow some fresh ones in your own garden.  The taste of fresh produce is incomprable to anything you'll find at the store and there is nothing like the feeling of going out to your backyard, and harvesting dinner. Another bonus, if you're fortunate enough to have a large enough garden, is that you can share your harvest with friends, family and local shelters who will be glad to get some fresh donated produce. Over the summer I grow zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, beets, and possibly some other things. We also have our own strawberry patch and blueberry bush which my daughter loves to go and pick fresh berries off of.  Last year we decided to try asparagus which is a perennial and to our surprise, this year we have little asparagus shoots growing... soo cool!!!

So even if you don't have a lot of room in your yard, even a small plot of land can grow some wonderful, fresh, organic produce.  Make sure you pick a sunny spot, because veggies love sunshine. You'll want to make sure you water often enough that they don't get dried out and wither, but not too much that the roots rot.  If you're going to plant a garden, a rain barrel would be a great idea to go along with it. I'm planning on putting one in this year, which I will blog about another time.

Happy Earth Day!!!

Since it's foundation in 1970, Earth Day has been a way for people to really focus on the Earth and how we can stop polluting and start caring.  So what are your plans for Earth Day?  As cliche as it sounds, I'm planting a tree for Earth Day.  I'm also planting some spring veggies in my veggie garden, which I will talk about more in a later blog.  I'm definitely walking to Starbucks (to avoid using the car since Starbucks is only half a mile away) with my reusable cup to get my free cup of coffee.  I'm avoiding unnecessary electricity, like the t.v. and computer (except for writing my blog).  So get outside everyone, enjoy the beauty around you, and try to make as many Earth-conscious choices as possible, and then share with me tomorrow how you celebrated Earth Day!!

Welcome to my blog!!

Ok... this is the second attempt to post a blog... still working out all the bumps here.  So I've been wanting to start a blog about the environment for a while now and with it being only 2 days until Earth Day, what better time to start!!  I hope you will find the information I share to be interesting and useful.  I care a lot about the world we live in and I think there are so many small steps that we can all take to make a difference.