SAVING THE WORLD WITH FOOD AND REUSE

What's cool about Ann Arbor is that there is a pretty strong sense of buying local and seasonally. Also it helps that my friends (66% of them, or in other words 2/3. Two friends, people. I've been here a week.) in Ann Arbor are pretty environmentally conscious and compost and recycle, etc. I actually got PLASTIC SHAMED by my friend Jackie at Target because I bought a plastic bin for my laundry. I KNOW. But I really couldn't afford to buy the wicker basket and I kind of hate the cloth baskets because mine always break or they don't seem sturdy enough for the mounds of clothes I wash every.... few.... weeks. Heh. Regardless, two things I've done lately to help save the planet a la Captain Planet (or Michael Pollan):

1. Eat locally. Last Friday, my friend Kim (you know the last 1/3 of my three friends in AA) took me to FM@SELMA, or Friday Mornings at Selma, which is a local food breakfast salon, as they say. I believe it's not fully registered as a nonprofit yet, but volunteers help make morning meals, and the food is mostly from the owner's backyard. Yes, it's at a house! The pictures above are of the backyard at SELMA. Quite adorable; better yet, sustainable. Sunseed Farm is stationed out in the front yard Friday mornings selling some of their produce. I received some wicked fresh corn, which they told me to eat raw. Try it. So good, and so much better than boiled corn. I'm sold. I also went with my friends K&J to pick up their CSA package from Zilke Farms, and I got a free eggplant from the owners since I kept going on about how much I love the purple stuff.

2. Reusing items. I recently bought some organic cotton produce bags. I believe Whole Foods provides options to reduce the amount of plastic bags used in their store by also giving out brown paper bags instead of those gross plastic bags for when you buy vegetables and fruit. Why not bring your own? I bought mine from reuseit.com. I also bought a really cute reusable cloth sandwich bag. Easy peasy.

recycle recycle recycle!! t