What's the point of this thirsty green lawn?

Way back in 1989, Michael Pollan wrote an essay in the NY Times entitled “Why Mow?” in which he outlined the case against lawns. Now more than ever, the time has come to re-think the value of our suburban lawns.

You might be surprised to learn that grass is the most common irrigated crop in the US. We grow 3 times more grass than we do corn! 30% of our drinking water is used to water this grass. 70 million pounds of pesticides per year is used on this giant lawn of ours.

Global weirding is shifting our weather patterns, last summer saw record droughts. This winter in the northeast isn’t even a winter while in Rome, the Colosseum got 8 inches of snow yesterday.  These shifting weather patterns can play havoc on our food supply. Here in suburbia, the average irrigated lawn can consume close to 90 gallons of water daily and doesn’t produce a single serving of food.

It’s time to grow food, not grass.

Even if you don’t have a green thumb to transform your lawn into a highly productive vegetable garden, there are people in your community with these skills. Many small farmers are looking for land, if you have an acre of sunny lawn, it wouldn’t be hard to set up a win-win situation with a local small farmer.

I’m not the only one with this brilliant idea and desire to turn the lawn into a food producing oasis. Here are two books I’d like to refer you to.

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn was published in 2010 by Fritz Haeg  His book and website has beautiful photos of edible transformations, click here.

Food Not Lawns by H.C. Flores

Food Not Lawns is an organization that was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1999 by a small group of activists who had been cooking Food Not Bombs (free meals in the park) for several years and decided to start gardening too. The book, Food Not Lawns came out in 2006, its an inspiring resource to turn your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community. There are chapters of Food Not Lawns all over the world, click here to find out more.

I hope this will be the year that more thirsty lawns are turned into veggie gardens. Everyone wins with this green strategy. With skyrocketing gas prices  and wacky weather that show no sign of slowing down, for now on the best food will be grown closest to home.

Celery Garden

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a blog post about growing celery by cutting off the end and placing it in water. We eat LOTS of celery here at the Rubin Rodeo so I thought I’d play around with it. Low and behold, it works!

It’s really simple, just cut the bottom 1-2 inches of the base of the celery into 1/2 inch of water. Within a few days, the center part will start to grow.  Once it gets bigger with some visible small roots, just transplant it into some soil.

Here are some photos of my celery garden. While I was at it, I tried some other veggies as well. Bok choy did exceptionally well, I now have more than 6 little plants which I transplanted into an egg carton with some soil and worm poop, which is an excellent nutrient rich medium for growing plants.

I’ll be transferring many of these celery plants to the  Mount Kisco Child Care Center where I am working as a consultant to their Feed Me Fresh food and garden program. The children there are also starting  to compost kitchen scraps and leftover fruit and veggie peels from snack time. Very soon, they’ll be getting their very own worm bins too.

Bok Choy plants transferred to egg carton, enjoying the sun

Bok choy, celery, carrots and cabbage

Yesterday was Groundhog Day. The day when Punxsutawney Phil comes out from his burrow to check in on the weather.  According to folklore, if it is cloudy when Phil emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks

Today, Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter.  But winter hasn’t even really made an appearance this year. Yesterday was sunny and 60, today is 45. Down coats, winter hats and boots remain on store shelves. Rock salt and snow shovels are overly abundant at the hardware store. Friends of mine who have invested in Wovels haven’t had a chance to take them for a spin.

Many of my friends are happy about this lack of wintery weather. Even though I’m not a fan of cold and snow, I’m having a hard time doing the happy dance, the lack of winter has got me deeply concerned.  We need winter, more than many people realize.

There are reasons for the seasons. Winter is a time for slowing down, for turning inward. For re-charging our batteries so that we can be full of energy for the spring season ahead. My acupuncturist, Jason Elias has written an insightful piece on his blog about Winter, you can read it by clicking here.

Plants and animals need the cold weather and increased darkness too.  In our part of the northeast, extended periods of cold are necessary to prevent an onslaught of insect pests in the spring.  More deer make it through a mild winter, resulting in more Lyme disease carrying ticks and more frequent attacks on my Hosta plants!

Let’s hope we get a cold snap sometime soon. But not like the one gripping Eastern Europe right now, check out the images from the severe cold there.

Not long ago, keeping backyard chickens was a patriotic duty. Perhaps that time has arrived once again.

These days, I believe the best food grows closest to home. Raising chickens can be a great way for families to enjoy healthy fresh eggs and develop a deeper connection to their food.

Last year, I helped to make a film called Chicken Flick. The purpose of the movie was to shine a bright light on families raising backyard chickens and to help change zoning laws so that everyone can enjoy a small flock in their yard.

We’ll be screening the film at the Greenburgh Nature Center next Wednesday February 8th at 7:30. If you can’t make it to the Nature Center, I hope to post the film online here on this blog on Thursday of next week. Stay tuned!

Here’s the info:

CHICKEN FLICK – BACKYARD CHICKENS FOR ALL
WED, FEBRUARY 8, 7PM REFRESHMENTS / 7:30PM PROGRAM
Imagine your breakfast omelet made from your own fresh, organic, Omega-rich eggs! Come watch “Chicken Flick”, a short film made by local environmentalist filmmakers Nikki Coddington and Susan Rubin. You will meet four Westchester County families who are enjoying the fun and benefits of raising chickens in their own backyards. After the film, you can ask questions of the filmmakers and the panel of local chicken owners – You may even walk away ready to take up this easier-than-you-think, fun and profitable hobby yourself! Chicken Flick was made by Coddington and Rubin at the Jacob Burns Film Center and Media Arts Lab on behalf of Transition Westchester, a grassroots initiative that seeks to build community resilience. This program will be held at the Nature Center in partnership with the Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group. FREE

Snoopy doin' the happy dance

One of my friends called me this weekend to see how happy I must be now that the Obama Administration announced that they are denying the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. My friend knows how involved I’ve been with Tar Sands activism since I was arrested last summer in front of the White House in an act of civil disobedience.

Has President Obama proven to be a friend of the environment by saying “no” to the big oil bullies this time around? Have we really won this fight? I’m not yet sure whether a happy dance is called for at this time.

We’ve had some momentary victories in the past few months, but big oil has deep pockets and responds each time with a new twist and turn. These are interesting times indeed.

Its important to note that whether we keep the giant pipeline from being built is not the core issue!

With or without the Keystone XL pipeline, the Tar Sands are now being extracted from the earth and are already being refined all across the US in increasing amounts. BP is expanding their refineries in places like Toledo, Ohio, where they are spending billions of dollars so that they can refine the gunky crud. This process will spew extremely toxic byproducts loaded with heavy metals and sulfur into the air, land and water around facilities.  No doubt, this will be spun somehow to seem like “jobs”. Ugggh.

This giant machine strips the earth to get to the tar sands

  The Tar Sands is without a doubt the most environmentally destructive project ever unleashed by man. To get to the bitumen requires strip and open-pit mining, and the refining process is unusually energy-intensive. To produce just one barrel of oil, it takes three tons of tar sands and several barrels of water.The photos of  Alberta Canada, where once intact and beautiful ecosystems are being ravaged can bring tears to your eyes. Click here to see them.

So while I may be doing a short happy dance for the fact that President Obama said “no” (for now) to the pipeline, I’m well aware that the battle to save our mother earth from this distruction must continue.

The Tar Sands pipeline will continue to be an important battle. The longer we can delay the infrastructure that ties the world’s future to oil sands or fracking or mountain top removal, the better our chance to switch to clean, renewable energy.

But most importantly, whatever happens with the pipeline, it marks the turning point when the environmental movement woke up from  its “sign this petition” armchair activist mentality. We have now realized that showing up and putting your body at risk is powerful and effective.  My experience in front of the White House last summer transformed my perspective on fossil fuels and climate change, many of my fellow “jailbirds” would agree. Direct action works.

The core issue is we need more people to care enough to show up.

There will no doubt be more opportunities, so stay tuned!

Also if you haven’t already, visit www.TarSandsAction.org and join their mailing list.

This Ted X presentation gives a visual journey of Canada’s tar sands. I highly recommend you watch it and share with your family to get up to speed on this important story.

Earlier this week, I started a little online Sustainable Book Sale. So far so good. It’s turning out to be a win win win as my readers are getting great books at great prices that will help their health. And no new trees are being destroyed to make more books.

As I shift my focus in 2012 onto growing more vegetables and learning about permaculture principles, I feel its important to make way for new books. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share my beloved books with you, knowing they’ll have a good home and will be appreciated.  Today I took a look at my library and noticed that I have a huge amount of books that help with stress reduction. For more than a decade, I’ve been a student of meditation and guided imagery. I’ve got a ton of books on these topics.

I feel that stress reduction is as important as the quality of the food we eat. Stress plays havoc on all facets of digestion and is implicated in worsening most chronic disease states.  And besides, it just plain sucks to be stressed out!

I’ve bundled my books into small collections that can help to transform your life in a good way. Here’s the latest batches:

Meditation Classics

Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This timeless book on mindfulness meditation will help you to see opportunities for mindfulness in all facets of your everyday life.

Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron. This little book contains 108 short essays on compassion and fearlessness. Pema is an American Buddhist nun, she offers strategies for seeing and thinking differently. Really useful in these tumultuous times.

Pass It On: Five Stories That Can Change the World by Joanna Macy I picked up this gem last fall when I was fortunate to attend weekend retreat with Joanna Macy, a spiritual activist and huge environmental inspiration. This sweet little book of inspiration and possibility will help you to be hopeful in difficult times.

Asking price $14  A savings of  $25 off the original prices

When it comes to meditation, there are many, many paths up the mountain. Way back in the summer of 2001, I spent some time in Pune, India at the Osho Meditation Resort. Osho was one wild dude, a truly spiritually incorrect mystic, who had a lasting impact on how I look at life. This collection of meditation and stress reduction books is a little more offbeat than the one above.

The Eclectic Meditation Collection

Meditation: The First and Last Freedom by Osho  This practical guide offers many many different meditations that are great for beginners or seasoned veterans. Open up any page at random and see if the meditation suits you!

The Tao of No Stress: Three Simple Paths by Stuart Alve Olson I found this little book to be very helpful in using Taoist principles to eliminate stress completely. In addition to philosophy, it gives step by step instructions on how to massage stress away and breathing techniques as well. This tiny book packs a wallop of good info.

Unclutter Your Mind: 500 Ways to Focus on What’s Important by Donna Smallin.  Books like this can keep you off of anti-depressant meds! This collection of one minute tips can help you to enjoy a simpler and more rewarding life. The world would be a better place if everyone read little gems like this one!

31 Words to Create a Guilt-Free Life If you’re like most people, myself included, guilt can find a way to cloud a sunny outlook. This tiny portable book offers up 31 strategies to help you release that guilt and put a little more light and freedom back into your life.

Asking price: $14   A $30 savings off original prices

Meditation isn’t just for grown ups! In my years as a parent and as a teacher of children of all ages, I’ve worked to include forms of mindfulness, creative visualization, relaxation and stress reduction into my work. I have a feeling that this collection of books for children will be snatched up quickly!

The Children's Meditation and Imagery Collection

Mindful Movements: Ten Exercises for Well Being by Thich Nhat Hanh This simple illustrated book is great for both kids and adults. It includes a DVD of Thich Nhat Hanh, a well known Vietnamese Buddhist monk, and members of his Plum Village Sangha demonstrating the Mindful Movements.

Teaching Meditation to Children by David Fontana and Ingrid Slack  This book is a practical approach to teaching meditation to children from 5 to 18 years old. Its loaded with practical exercises for kids, I’ve used some of these when I taught 8 WAH!-  8 Weeks to Amazing Health to middle schoolers in NYC. Also good info for using meditation for kids with asthma and insomnia too.

Guided Imagery for Healing Children and Teens by Ellen Curran Visualization is a powerful tool, guided imagery is a way to use imagination in a focused way to help the mind and body to self-heal. Good stuff!

Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children for Learning, Creativity & Relaxation by Maureen Murdock This book is loaded with exercises designed for ages 3 to 18 to help build strong self-image, stimulate creativity and cultivate inner peace. Both parents and teachers will find this book very useful.

Asking price: $21   A savings of $61 off original prices

Contact me via email if you’re interested in any of these book collections! DrSuRu@me.com

If you’re local and want to suggest a barter instead of cash, I’m open to that too!

A note about shipping: if you live outside of driving distance, I can mail you the books. Shipping costs should run about $3

You already know I’m a stickler about clean food. I do my best to prepare most of my food at home from scratch and so far I’ve posted over 60 of my recipes on this blog.  I’m a stickler for clean water too. Even though your water may come from a town water supply, it may contain some questionable elements that are actually added by municipalities in the interest of your health. The two elements I’m talking about are Chlorine and Fluoride.

My new Berkey Filter

Chlorine is added to water supplies to disinfect the water in transport pipes, just like the chlorine you put into a swimming pool to kill unwanted germs. But it’s not as cut and dried simple as that! Chlorine introduced into the water supply reacts with other naturally-occurring elements to form toxins called trihalomethanes (THMs), which eventually make their way into our bodies. THMs have been linked to a wide range of human health maladies ranging from asthma and eczema to bladder cancer and heart disease. The good news is that chlorine dissipates rapidly when water is boiled or left standing and exposed to air, it can also be easily filtered. Just about every filter system takes out 99.9% of the chlorine in your water.

Fluoride is another matter. It is not as easily filtered as chlorine is, it also does not simply evaporate like chlorine does from water. Fluoride is added to municipal water system under the false assumption that it can help to decrease tooth decay. As a retired dentist, I’ve done extensive research about the problems with putting fluoride in municipal water supplies. Last January, I wrote Why Your Dentist Doesn’t Know the Scoop on Fluoride. If you need more convincing that fluoridated water is not good for your health, visit Fluoride Action Network and you can spend days reading all the research and info there.

Most basic water filters do not take the fluoride out. Up until now all I’ve been able to find are expensive reverse osmosis systems that often require a plumber to install. I just recently discovered the Berkey Filter which has an additional filter that takes out fluoride. I bought one. It was reasonably priced, easy to assemble and looks cool on my kitchen counter.

Being a non-stop idealist I’ve been trying for years to convince my town to take the fluoride out of our municipal water supply. It would save money and protect the health of the community.  Instead of continuing to bank my head against the wall, I’ll just tell my friends and neighbors to get a Berkey Filter instead.

Eat More Kale T shirt dude

In light of the recent David and Goliath battle that the Eat More Kale dude is waging against fast food chicken giant Chick Fil-A, I thought it might be a good idea to post a few ways to cook kale. I hope that you’ll support kale in many ways.

Eat it as often as possible!

Grow it in your garden!

Buy an Eat More Kale T shirt to help spread the word!

Sign the petition to support the Eat More Kale T shirt dude in his intellectual property fight against the fast food chicken giant, click here.

If I had to name one vegetable that is the all time best veggie, I would have to say it would be kale. It is easy to grow here in the northeast, it actually gets better tasting as the temperatures plummet. Although I’m not one to get suckered into terms like “superfood”, I’d have to say that kale is truly a superfood. Deeply green colored, this leafy is an exceptional source of chlorophyll, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C.

There are many ways to enjoy kale. One simple way would be to toss it into your soup! Its the kind of green leafy that holds up nicely in warm liquids.

Another way is to steam it. Super easy and quick. I would recommend stripping the leaves from the stems first as the stems take longer to cook.

My youngest daughter, Mikey loves kale sauteed with carmelized onions. The slower and lower that you cook the onions, the sweeter they get. Toss the leaves of the kale in at the end.

Here’s the recipe that we use many times each week to get our kale fix:

Mikey Rubin’s Sauteed Kale & Onions

1 small onion, cut into thin slices

1 bunch kale

extra virgin olive oil

Heat a saute pan over medium low heat and add about 2 teaspoons olive oil.  Add onion slices and saute slowly until onion is soft and translucent and just beginning to brown. This should take about 20 minutes.  (Shorter if you put the heat up a little higher, but stir and watch carefully that the onion doesn’t brown.)

 Wash the kale, cut off the stems and chop into small pieces.  Tear the leaves into bite size pieces.  Add the stems first in with the onions and cook an additional 5 minutes until beginning to soften.  Add the leaves and mix well, cover and cook another 2 – 3 minutes , stirring occasionally, until the leaves have wilted and are bright green.

Happy kale eater

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life…

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

One wolf is evil — he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.”

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied: “The one you feed”.

When it comes to shopping, I’m not really a militant anti-shopper. I do have to live in the real world, and with three daughters, its often not so easy to avoid shopping altogether. So when I shop, I do my best whenever possible to buy something I can believe in. What kind of world do I want to “feed”?  Big box stores with cheap stuff made in China? Or a small merchant making quality products with love and care?

Like the Cherokee story of the wolves, whenever you spend your money, you’re voting on what sort of world you want to create. Here’s a recent news story about a small business who is being bullied by a billion dollar fast food franchise.

The Eat More Kale T-shirt

There’s a small eco-friendly T-shirt making company in VT  called Eat More Kale.  A simple design and a great message. Kale is the queen of superfoods, I encourage everyone to eat more kale all the time.  We cook kale here at the Rubin Rodeo many times each week.

The Eat More Kale company’s sole proprietor, Bo Muller-Moore, has used the EAT MORE KALE logo in his t-shirt designs for more than 10 years. He was inspired by a farmer who suggested the “eat more kale” line and hand created the logo. He prints each shirt by hand, and started out selling the T shirts at local farmers markets.  He recently applied for a federal trademark on his business name. A federal trademark would block other artists from copying his design (which has happened in the past) and protect the livelihood he’s worked so hard to build. But if Chick-fil-A, a multi-million dollar fast food company, has its way, Muller-Moore won’t be able to protect his business. The Corporate Goliath has threatened to block EAT MORE KALE’s trademark attempt and shut the business down. Chick-fil-A uses the slogan “Eat Mor Chikin,”and it alleges that EAT MORE KALE confuses CHICK-FIL-A customers and dilutes its multi-million dollar industry.

My trademarked House of Health

Somehow I’m not convinced that the Eat More Kale logo or T shirt could really put a dent in profits for the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant company in the United States. I had a similar experience with the American Lung Association when I applied for a trademark on my answer to the USDA food pyramid, called the House of Health. The Lung Association had a team of lawyers protecting their trademark of their Health House, which had to do with indoor air quality. Anyone who applied for a trademark with either the word “house” or “health” got stopped by the legal team. After two years of back and forth, I ended up with no choice but to  settle with them and changing it to Dr. Susan Rubin’s House of Health.

Both situations are classic cases of big corporations or organizations will lots of money to be able to hire big legal teams vs. a small proprietor simply trying to do a good thing.

Eat More Kale: a great message

You can help the Eat More Kale guy two ways. Sign the Change.org petition, click here

Another way is to buy a T-shirt or Sticker that says EAT MORE KALE. I’m getting one for everyone in my family for a holiday gift. Its a playful logo with a good message. And now you’ll be helping to support a small business as it does battle with a giant fast food chicken company. Click here to visit the EAT MORE KALE site.

And remember the story of the wolves when shopping for anything. What kind of world do you want to create?

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, I blogged 30 Soups in 30 Days in November and 31 Healthy Hints for the Holidaze in December. By the way, if you want to see any of those soup recipes, simply type in “soup” in the search box in the upper right. The holiday hints are still there too, just write “31 Healthy Hints” in that search box. The soups and healthy hints are still very useful, so go and check them out.

This year, the Occupation of Wall Street and the rest of the country has grabbed my attention.  Occupy Wall Street. started in mid September and continues to grow bigger each day. At first, I have to say I was weary of this leaderless, amorphous protest that was so different from the very highly organized Tar Sands Action I have been involved with since last spring.

As weeks turned into days and as one small occupation in lower Manhattan blossomed into occupations throughout the country and the world, I began to pay deeper attention and got involved. At the core of this creative grassroots protest lies two huge points: our widening income disparity and the fact that our democracy has been co-opted by corporate power.

Unlike most movements, this one is horizontal and “leaderless”, not vertical with one leader. Its hard for many to grasp this concept, but it gives everyone a voice.

It is holding a space where the discussions can take place on their own terms about what is broken and what needs fixing.  It is underpinned by a realization that this is a crucial time of change where everything is on the table, where business-as-usual is no longer an option.  It isn’t making demands because that would put the power in the hands of the people in power to decide whether or not to respond to them.  It is holding the space for the conversations, and is doing so on its own terms.

I encourage you to look beyond whatever the corporate controlled news media is telling you about the Occupy movement. If there is one nearby, go and take a visit or head over to Occupy Together to learn more. Or stay tuned to this blog as I report my experiences with the occupations I’m visiting.  Many of the issues I’m passionate about: food, the environment and sustainability, are being creatively addressed via the Occupy movement.

We’re living in interesting times, many are waking up to what’s wrong in the world. We need to in order to repair the damage and create a more fair, more compassionate planet.