Carol Bernick

First nice day and had a lovely trek up to Ramona Falls.  

The strawberries at NSM looked SOOOO good on Sunday but they were all in plastic boxes so I passed.  

Meeting one of our board members and picked a woman owned restaurant.  Today would have been my father's 93rd birthday.  He and my mother were early environmentalists (mostly borne out of frugality).  We ate all manner of food well past its prime (spoiled!), reused cottage cheese and mayo jars as "tupperware", put newspapers out for the boy scouts.  It drove me somewhat crazy as a kid, but I have an iron stomach so can travel anywhere without getting sick and have always rinsed out and reused my produce bags because doesn't everyone?!

Shopped at my favorite store on Broadway owned by a woman I've known for 15 years.  Love supporting her business.

I love blueberries.  I usually spoil myself and buy them all year round. But I have not bought them for the last two weeks because this time of year you cannot get them other than in those plastic containers.  It's like they are screaming:  Blueberries are not in season so why are you buying them?!  Packaging, transportation impact.  It's good to look around and see what IS in season and adjust accordingly.  I am committed to going back to the farmers market more often.

I've done well patronizing women owned businesses but not as well on my two meatless meals.  I realize the importance of living more intentionally because my "failure" is really laziness.  With the week-end here, I can recommit to be planful for next week.

Did you know that "use by" and "best by" dates are almostly universally tied to when the flavor is at its peak and has NOTHING to do with food safety. The USDA recommends that you use your senses (small, sight, taste) to determine whether to each something that is "expired."  Great information on the USDA website.  Add the "Learn the Truth About Expiration Dates" as a challenge and get more points (and maybe save some money by not throwing away so much!)

I had bacon with breakfast but a vegetarian lunch and I've checked that I met my challenge of 2 vegetarian meals per day. So now I'm committed to my dinner being veggie.

I had a breakfast meeting today with a Board member. We selected a woman owned restaurant that I'd never been to and it was terrific:  Fuel on NE Broadway.  Yum!

A friend who is a master recycler reminded me that the most important element of "reduce, reuse, recycle" is REDUCE.  I was about to make a small purchase and realized I could really make do just fine with what I already had.