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Vegetable Garden Tips and a Gardening Cookbook to Boot

Chris — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:46:49 +0000

Spring is still calling... very softly for those of us up north, but when that warm sun teases me through the window I start to get in the mood to play in some dirt and try my hand at growing some nice healthy weeds along with my spinach and basil.

Last year I had discovered Square Foot Gardening one of the best selling garden books on Amazon and at the time had noticed a follow up book aptly named All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook. Now, I am a complete cookbook geek especially when they have good pictures (why a cookbook wouldn't have enticing pictures is beyond me) and this Square Foot Gardening cookbook is a beauty.

Mel Bartholomew Speaks about his Gardening Cookbook

Plenty of nice large colorful pictures of not only the dishes, but also of the vegetables and herbs - even if you aren't a gardener you'll have fun with this gardening cookbook. (But after reading this cookbook I'm sure you'll be at least a little bit inspired to try your own garden)

The author, Mel Bartholomew is a whiz in the garden (how beautiful are those plants in his garden by the way? I wanted to eat right off my monitor but it zapped my tongue) he often says eat fresh, eat healthy and eat what you grow and with a garden like that I'm sure you could make fantastic salads right out of the garden.

Not only does the Square Foot Gardening Cookbook have more than 135 recipes to enjoy the harvest from your square foot garden (or farmers market, or store if you haven't braved the garden gnomes) Mel adds harvesting techniques and yield information for each of the seventeen vegetables, fruits, and herbs and adds money saving tips, square foot garden tips, and even a kid's gardening corner for lots of family fun.

If you didn't catch my last post on EarthBoxes vs Square Foot Gardening take a peek and try one of these easy methods for yourself then have fun with some fresh from the garden recipes.

Other Gardening Tips in the Square Foot Gardening Cookbook

Planting schedule for continuous crop harvesting
When to harvest plants
How to harvest
Tips for storage
Plant spacing
Kids corner for family fun

All New Square Foot Gardening
List Price: ~~$19.99~~
Sale Price: $9.49
You save: $10.50 (53%)
Eligible for free shipping!

Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work
List Price: ~~$19.99~~
Sale Price: $5.50
You save: $14.49 (72%)
Eligible for free shipping!

This Post on the Square Foot Gardening Cookbook Shared on Real Food Wednesday

Vegetable Garden Tips and a Gardening Cookbook to Boot is a post from: Earth Friendly Goodies

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FastSkinz: Record Setting Speedo for Your Car

Chris — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:32:45 +0000

What would you do to save $250 a year in gas? Wear a pink TuTu and dance around the office singing I'm a Little Teapot? How about outfit your car with a Speedo? Both sound a little on the crazy side but the latter is actually an option.

Well not really a Speedo but a vehicle wrap material, called MPG-Plus™ that is made by FastSkinz, Inc. This vehicle wrap, that works (and shares a very similar name) like Speedo's Fastskin swimsuits reduces a vehicle’s drag by altering the distribution of air pressure surrounding the vehicle. In other words when air flows over the small golf ball like dimples on the surface of the wrap the drag on the vehicle is reduced resulting in a 20% improvement to fuel efficiency.

In an interview with SkinzWraps CEO Peter Salaverry (FastSkinz is a subsidiary of SkinzWraps) by Popular Science magazine recently it was revealed that you can outfit your car with one of these sexy dimpled fuel saving wraps for around $1,800 and on average they estimated you can save up to $250 a year on gas.... so if you do the numbers you'd have to keep that on your car for 7.2 years to make up your cost.... is it worth it? Maybe, maybe not, but I bet you'd have plenty of fun on the driving range or the swimming pool for that matter. (FastSkinz 5 year warranty does not cover swimming pools however)

FastSkinz: Record Setting Speedo for Your Car is a post from: Earth Friendly Goodies

Organic Pico De Gallo Recipe Earth Friendly Style

Chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:48:37 +0000

Hey eco guys and gals, what do you get when you throw in some funky groovy tunes, a little organic produce, and a dash of salt all whipped up in high speed? Why, it is this little video on how to make Pico De Gallo!

I had to come up with some ideas for supper tonight for a good friend of ours so I thought I could go for some chicken fajitas with a dash of pico de gallo - so I turned to the fine folks at youtube for a basic pico de gallo recipe and then let my kitchen creativity take over... (I like to get a basic recipe and then play with it - and wish for the best)

First a trip to the local farmers market or organic grocery to pick up some organic goodies and then let the kitchen knives whirl into action - or in my case slowly hack at the ingredients and watch out for fingers - eeek!

Here's all the organic goodies you'll need for this Pico de Gallo Recipe:
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium sweet yellow onion
jalapeno or Serrano peppers (1 or more depending on your heat tolerance)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 garlic clove (not a traditional Pico ingredient but I like-a-da-garlic)
1-2 limes
sea salt/pepper to taste

Wave your magic kitchen wand and whallah! Instant Pico De Gallo - oh wait first chop 'em up and mix 'em. Let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours or better yet over night and you have one perfect pico.

This post has been added to Fight Back Fridays for on a wonderful (new to me) blog called the Food Renegade. The Food Renegade and the fine folks who participate in Fight Back Fridays celebrate real earth friendly (and people friendly) food. Food that is locally-grown, sustainably produced and all-around good for us. Stop by Fight Back Fridays to learn how to prepare healthy foods, find new recipes to try, and new ways to be frugal & thrifty while still eating nutrient-dense whole foods.

Pico De Gallo Recipe Update 2011:

I was just making up some pico a moment ago and remembered this pico de gallo recipe I had written about in 2009 - time flies eh? It is interesting to see this was the first time I discovered Fight Back Friday's at the Food Renegade if you haven't stopped by I encourage you to do so - plenty of earth friendly food and natural health tips.

Back to the topic at hand my original Pico de Gallo recipe was made before I learned about fermentation and the wonderful health benefits of cultured and probiotic foods. So what I thought I'd do today was experiment with this Pico de Gallo recipe and see what a ferment would do to it.

How to make Fermented Pico De Gallo

Now traditionally if you are making a fermented salsa or lacto-fermentation as it is also called you would use Whey (the watery substance you see when yogurt separates) however since I didn't have any old yogurt sitting around or a magic whey wand, and since I had just finished making some brine cured pickles I figured I'd try a simple salt ferment with this pico de gallo recipe.

The ingredients are still the same you just need more sea salt. What I would so is after cutting up the cilantro I'd sprinkle sea salt over it, cut up some tomatoes sprinkle more sea salt and so on in layers until all the ingredients were mixed together. All total I used about a half tablespoon of sea salt for the above amount of ingredients. Then it is simple cover the mixture leave it on your counter for a couple days and enjoy your fresh fermented pico de gallo! If you still have any left after the first serving seal it up and put 'er in the fridge.

This post on my Pico de Gallo recipe was shared on Real Food Wednesday.

Organic Pico De Gallo Recipe Earth Friendly Style is a post from: Earth Friendly Goodies

KipGrill: Earth Friendly Rotisserie Grilling

Chris — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:53:04 +0000

When I fist saw this video for the KipGrill I was thinking "wow solar or wind powered grilling!" Not quite, but still super cool. Here's the deal, the KipGrill uses the ascending hot air from the coals to drive the rotisserie, therefore no electricity, batteries or other power sources are needed making this one wicked earth friendly outdoor rotisserie grill. Well almost.

You still have the environmental impact of the charcoal briquets but there are some eco-friendly charcoal options (again mostly eco-friendly). Check out The Naked Wiz's Lump Charcoal Database for a rather extensive selection of all natural and sustainable charcoal briquets. If you love charcoal or wood grilling you'll go nuts over this selection of goodies to try.

Have a happy Memorial day and happy grilling from Earth Friendly Goodies!

KipGrill: Earth Friendly Rotisserie Grilling is a post from: Earth Friendly Goodies

And Let the Earth Friendly Goodies Begin

Chris — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:07:50 +0000

Welcome to the new Earth Friendly Goodies blog.

The idea behind Earth Friendly Goodies started as a place for us to review eco-friendly products (originally eco-cool handbags and backpacks - be sure to check out our store link for these reviews) along with links to stores that sell these fun friendly products. Simple right?

Well not long after putting together a few reviews we started reading some eco-conscious blogs to see what all the other eco-geeks were doing. And do you know what? We were bitten by the blog monster - you know the one, the one that lurks within great blogs that pulls you in and won't let you go for hours.

So after we finally distracted the blog monster with a piece of our organic chocolate chip Clif Bar, we followed that inspiration and decided to dip our toes into the blogging pool to see just what might bite.

While the design of the Earth Friendly Goodies blog is still a work in progress, we just couldn't wait any longer to get started. Every day we find some eco-cool product that demands to be shared with everyone so why wait any longer? In fact just testing out the 'ol video feature here led me to find this little treasure: A compostable chip bag from SunChips coming in 2010 - give 'er a peep, and have a mighty fine day!

And Let the Earth Friendly Goodies Begin is a post from: Earth Friendly Goodies