Seasonal Winter Produce

Just a friendly reminder to eat your vegetables, but to also make sure you buy ones that are naturally in season right now. Out of season produce is grown in far away lands and shipped to you at a high cost to the environment! Here's a list of what's in season right now, look for it when you do your grocery shopping....






Winter Fruit
Grapes
Meyer Lemons
Blood Oranges
Mandarin Oranges
Tangerines
Grapefruit
Limes
Avocados

Winter Vegetables
Winter Squash
Parsnips
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Kale
Spinach
Beets
Fennel
Leeks
Escarole
Brussels Sprouts
Mushrooms
Walnuts
*** availability and seasonality changes by region***

For the recipes in the pictures and other wonderful winter vegetable recipes check out these from Bon Appetit magazine's February issue. Remember to also buy the fruits and vegetables grown in YOUR area to downsize transportation costs and CO2 emissions.

For more information and facts on the environmental benefits of seasonal eating, read our past post on the issue.

Spring is just around the corner so take advantage of the winter bounty while it lasts!

Recycle your Cell Phone. It's an Easy Call

Recycle your cell phone. It's an easy call. Okay, we can't take credit for that fantastic little pun. It's actually the work of the EPA who have launched a new initiative to get more Americans to recycle their cell phones (and PDA's and cell phone batteries and other accessories). Here's the deal....while we all realize that our cell phone is the bloodline to our entire lives and feel deeply incapacitated if we forget it at home for even an hour (how did we ever survive before texting?!), most of us don't realize that there's a dangerously toxic side to your best pal, the cell, as well.

As the EPA explains: "Cell phones and accessories are made from valuable resources such as precious metals, copper, and plastics - all of which require energy to extract and manufacture. Recycling cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions, keeps valuable material out of landfills and incinerators, and conserves natural resources. Recycling just a million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road for a year." As of now over 80% of cell phones are NOT recycled properly, instead being trashed and ending up in landfills where they leach toxins into the air and water. However, If Americans recycled 100 million phones, we could save enough upstream energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. households for a year.

The good news? The EPA, along with 11 other companies (AT&T, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office Depot, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples, and T-Mobile), has started this nifty little program to make it super easy to recycle your cell phone. Here's how:

DROP IT OFF: Drop it off at any AT&T, Best Buy, Office Depot, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples, T-Mobile or LG Electronics store. For more info about Drop-off Spots, click here.

You can also MAIL IT IN to various companies such as Nokia and Samsung who will recycle it for you. For more info on where to mail it, click here.

Yes, we're saying that recycling these phones is as easy as a 5 minute errand at Staples. So if you've decided 2008 is your year to trade up to the iPhone, don't leave your old BFF cold, alone and scarred as it lies rotting in a landfill. Your old phone did a lot for you, it was there for you when others weren't. It always listened to you... Now it's your turn to give back.

5 Easiest Eco Changes to make in 2008

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is a great time to reconfirm your eco-mmitment to living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Last month we asked our readers "What were the easiest eco changes you made to your lifestyle in 2007?" These are the top 5...


1. Change all the light bulbs in your house to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs! If you are asking yourself "why should I do this, my light bulbs are fine?" then click here. Make sure you dispose of you CFL's properly though!

2. Bring your own reusable tote bags to the grocery store and say NO to plastic and paper bags. We guarantee once you start doing this, you'll never want to use those icky plastic bags again.

3. RECYCLE- set up a bin in your home, office and even at parties you attend. Click here for information on how to get started recycling!

4. Use a reusable water bottle or a glass (the one pictured is Lyd's fav, click on the picture to order one.)

5. Walk instead of Drive. Remember when you were a kid and you would walk 3 miles to the record store to buy the new Color Me Badd tape without thinking twice about it? Let's get that spirit back in our life! Instead of driving to the gym to work out and then driving pick up your dry cleaning and dog food, walk to do your errands and kill two birds with one stone. Yes, you can do this even if you live in L.A.!

If these simple lifestyle changes feel like an old hat/wide belt/low waisted jeans to you then send this post to 5 people in your life who may need a little bit of eco-encouragement to live a more ecologically conscious lifestyle. (And Green is the New Pink's New Year's resolution is to get our info out to even more people, so you'd be helping us too!)

Hope all the Green/Pinkers had a great holiday...here's to making 2008 all of our most green year yet!