When in Michigan...

We figured you only live in Michigan once. So what do we do with our day off of work? Go to the Auto Show. There are a lot of cars! Not being car people we enjoyed all the "weird" cars. Most of them were new electric ones that were small, very very small. So check out some of the new cars coming to a town near you.

New Years Resolution...Eat More "Food"

Yes you read that right. We want to eat more food this year. Thanks to reading Animal Vegetable Miracle and In Defense of Food, volunteering at SELMA, and many other things we have gotten a lot more involved in the food movement. While I wont go into the details here it involves cooking more, learning about where you food comes from, eating more local and organic food, and generally being more aware of what you eat. So eating more food means eating food that you can identify as food, not something that has been processed and packaged so much that for all you know it could be toy inside the box not something you eat.

So... step one make our own yogurt! Thanks to tips from Arthur's cousin Nick this weekend we took a stab at it. It took about 24 hours and we ended up with something that kind of looked like yogurt and definitely tasted like yogurt. The prep takes about 15 min and the rest of the time it just does its own thing. Here are the steps:

1. Boil the milk to 180 degrees and then let cool to 110.
2. Put a glob of yogurt into a glass container
3. Add the hot milk

4. Cover with a lid and keep warm (about 100 degrees) for 12+ hours. We used our oven, turning it on once in a while.

And then you have yogurt!

Green Thumb

In our quest to eat more "food" we decided to try to grow our own food. So over Thanksgiving my Dad, Arthur, and Paul built a raised bed in our backyard. They found used wood at the Habitat for Humanity Reuse Store, got a truck load of compost from Recycle Ann Arbor (for only $7), and plastic and metal to make a mini hoophouse from the Reuse Center. In one afternoon of work our garden was ready.

There is one hitch, we have never been very good at growing anything. So in our quest to have a greener thumb Courtney took a bulb forcing class this fall. The first bulb bloomed over the holidays right when we were leaving to drive east. We were so determined to be successful that the amaryllis came east with us and made it through a 14 hour car ride and a hotel in Niagara Falls Canada. So we are well on our way to being able to grow our own food.

Arthur and Paul showing off the frame of the raised bed

Arthur, Paul and Proctor adding the compost

The amaryllis made it to Canada

The amaryllis made it to Vermont

Reused Holiday Part II

We have fallen behind on our blogging and have lots to post (and will soon) but for now we want to give a resounding applause to everyone who took part in our reused holiday efforts. With a little prompting and excitement the creativity was overflowing and wonderful. Our gifts were wrapped in reused wrapping paper and ribbon(from last years gifts to beautiful magazine photos) and they all looked beautiful and creative. Our gifts were made out of recycled material including tooth brushes made by preserve (http://www.preserveproducts.com/toothbrush.html), a basket made out of magazines, and a humming bird feeder hand made out of used beer bottles (http://www.maho.org/store/Hand_Blown_Glass_C122.cfm). Our gifts were pre-loved with many wonderful books and a beautiful piece of art work. And we got gift cards to yummy dinners and local music shows that will bring us entertainment through out the long Michigan winter! Each and every gift we knew was chosen just for us and wrap with thought and love. What more could you ask for in a gift!

So thanks everyone to all the love, support, and creativity!

Reused Holiday

We have been quite on the blogosphere the last few weeks. No it is not that we went on a shopping spree, we just got busy.

Some of you might be wondering what we are going to do now that the holidays are coming up. Are we skipping gift giving? Are we breaking our pledge? Have no fear we are doing neither. While we can’t post exactly what we are doing… that would ruin the surprise we will post some tips.

First is that most people feel that holidays is an overwhelming and stressful time when it is suppose to be a time of thankfulness, family, and relaxing. So if shopping stresses you out and gets you down it doesn’t seem like something that should stay. There are lots of guides out there on how to change the holiday season starting with gift buying, gift giving, to traditions. Here are some if you are interested:

New American Dream: http://www.newdream.org/holiday/index.php

Discovery Chanel: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/holidays/

How about starting with the gifts. Here are some ideas:

1. Make something, we know everyone has a talent.

Here is an idea that I loved. How to use that ugly sweater you don’t like any more, or the sweater you shrunk in the wash? Make a great hat! http://www.craftstylish.com/item/28927/how-to-make-hats-from-recycled-sweaters.

2. Food:

Make something, who couldn’t use some holiday cookies. Or buy some local, organic, fair trade food. We all need to eat so you know the gift won’t go to waste!

3. Donations:

There are many people out there that could use some real holiday cheer. Here is a great website that we love that allows you to personalize the donation. http://www.globalgiving.com/

4. Activity

Give someone a gift of an activity. We never spend enough doing the things that make us happy. With a gift card to that activity we love we have no excuse. Yoga class, cooking class, paint your own pottery, movie pass, restaurant gift card… the list is endless.

The last part is the wrapping. We are using all reused materials. Martha Stewart magazines make great wrapping paper for any occasion, ribbon from last year is just as good this year, and take those boxes from work and bubble wrap and give them a second life to ship your gifts.

Not buying used doesn’t mean it is any less thoughtful (might argue more since we really had to put a lot of thought and planning into it), no less festive, and maybe even more fun!

Happy Holidays!

"And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!"
- from How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess

Local Thanksgiving Part II

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful (and successful!) Thanksgiving. Bebeth, Mark, Sabine, Deborah, and Proctor joined Arthur and me in our small apartment for the holiday. We had a wonderful time and we will post more about all that we did (including a 7 hour car ride on Friday!) but for now we will post about our experiment with a local food Thanksgiving.

To achieve our task we spent all of Wednesday shopping for food. We will post all of our sources below for those who live in Michigan, but for those who don't we managed to buy everything we needed from four places, Whole Foods, The Peoples' Food Co-op, Zingerman's Deli, and the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. We are willing to bet that as long as you don't live in Alaska there are similar sources in your area. Here is our menu:

Breakfast:
Local bread (made locally with local flour)
Local eggs
Local bacon
Coffee
Tea

The Main Menu
Appetizers:
Cheese and crackers (1 cheese made with local milk in Mi and the other made in MI)
Wine (local red and white)
Main meal
Local Turkey
Gravy (grease of the above turkey)
Mashed potatoes (Local potatoes, milk, and butter)
Angel Biscuits (local milk)
Local Rainbow Chard
Roasted vegetables (Local carrots, turnips, onions, brussel sprouts, cider)
Stuffing (Local bread, apples, mushrooms, onions)
Cranberry sauce (Local cranberries)
Dessert
Pumpkin Pie (Local pumpkin and eggs)
Apple Cherry Pie (Local apples and cherries)

We managed to make everything we would have wanted without sacraficing (just a little digging) and every dish had at least 1 local item. What we didn't do local was spices and flour (we could have done the flour and salt local, it just would have taken a more planning and driving, so maybe next year), but coffee (it was organic fair trade) tea, and a few spices can just not be gotten locally. We also made cards for each dish identifying who grew the item (if we knew) and how far it came to get to us. It is thought that the average meal travels 1500 miles
(http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1749) to get to your plate, check out our pictures and you will see we didn't do half bad!

Thanksgiving

As a bonus we had local decorations, dried leaves and winter squash.

So it was a yummy, fun, and thankful for our food Thankgiving!

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For those who live in Ann Arbor here are our sources:

White wine
Sandhill Cranes Vineyard
Jackson, MI
40 Miles

Red Wine
Bowers Harbor Vineyard (Whole Foods)
Traverse City, MI
250 Miles

Turkey
Ernst Farms (Ann Arbor Farmers Market)
Ann Arbor, 14 Miles

Cranberry Sauce
Blueberry Heritage Farms, Cranberries (Whole Foods)
Holland, MI
160 Mile

Apple Cherry Pie
Calders Dairy, Butter (Coop)
Carleton, 30 Miles
Michigan Cherries (Coop)
Alex Nemeth Orchard, Apples (Farmers Market)
Ypsilanti, 7 miles

Pumpkin Pie
Nemeth Farm, Pumpkin (Farmers Market)
Milan, 17 miles
Sweet Spot Orchard, Eggs (Farmers Market)
Blissfield, 44 miles

Mashed Potatos
Nemeth Farm, potatos (Farmers Market)
Milan, 15 miles
Calders Dairy, Milk (Coop)
Carleton, 30 Miles

Stuffing
Wollfe Orchards, Apples (Farmers Market)
Tipton, 32 miles
Michigan Mushrooms, mushrooms (Farmers Market)
Alpena, 225 miles
Mill Pond, bread (Farmers Market)
Chelsea, 18 miles

Roasted Vegetables
Tanre Farm, Carrots (Farmers Market)
Chelsea, 18 miles
Sweet Spot Orchard, onions (Farmers Market)
Michigan
Murkel Gardens, turnips and brussel sprouts (Farmers Market)
Chelsea, 18 miles

Gravy
Ernst Farms, Turkey (Farmers Market)
Ann Arbor, 14 Miles

Rainbow Chard
Tantre Farm (Farmers Market)
Chelsea, 18 miles

Angel Biscuits
Calders Dairy, Milk (Coop)
Carleton, 30 Miles

Mantoro Cheese
Reny Picot (Coop)
Benton Harbor, 146 miles

Cheese
Calders Dairy, Milk
Carleton, 30 Miles
Made by Zingerman's deli
Ann Arbor, 0 Miles

Local Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time of food and family. This year we thought it might be nice to try to do a local* Thanksgiving, as our way of giving thanks for our food. By eating a local meal we would know where our food came from, who grew, raised, or made it, how far it traveled to get to us, and that it was all in season. So far we have scouted out a local source for:
butter
milk
wine
turkey
pumpkin
apples
carrots
onions
winter squash
cheese
potatoes
eggs
bread (made with local flour too!)

We are still looking for:
Cranberries (they do grow in Michigan!)

So if anyone out there knows of a local source for cranberries or knows any good Thanksgiving recipes for our seasonal and local feast do pass them along! After the holidays we will post again the sources we found and the recipes to go along with them in case any others would like to try a more local holiday!

*The traditional definition of local is with in a 100 miles of your location. We are being a little flexible in that definition and including anything that is Michigan grown (wine and cranberries are grown in Michigan but are with in 150 miles of Ann Arbor). We are also not having a 100% local meal as items such as spices and yeast are not grown in Michigan and will be included in our meal.