First Grain Order

I hope everyone had a great Earth Day. I encourage you to set goals to remember caring for the earth everyday of the year.

I will be placing our first grain order on Monday April 27th. Which means orders must be in by Sunday April 26th. We are going to start out small and then add more options as interest in the group grows. All grains are no-gmo, certified organic, if ever something is not I will indicate that. Pricing does not include shipping as there is no way for me to calculate it until I know how much we will be ordering.

Short Grain Brown Rice - $1.50 p/lb
Rolled Oats - $1.02p/lb
Couscous Made from Durum Wheat - $2.45 p/lb

Please include your name, phone number and e-mail address. Along with which items you would like and how many pounds. To sign up click below:
http://greenchronicle.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-grain-order.html

On Monday I will post a more accurate price (price based on quantity) and I will also include shipping cost. Please check the post at that time. If you wish to make any changes to your order, please do so before 4:00 PM.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for your patience, as we progress with the this the process will become smoother I am sure.

Sign Up Here

Organic Food Coop

One facet of my Green Dream is to have a strong coop of organic food in the Youngstown area. At some point, I will elaborate on the need for an organic diet with as much non-genetically modified ingredients as possible. But for now I just wish to share how the coop will work.

• I have researched several suppliers of bulk organic grains. The more we buy the more we save. I will obtain the products from the best priced supplier, unless I can find a local supplier. If there is a local supplier, I will go with them.


• There will be no cost for being part of the coop, but it is your responsibility to pick up your order at the agreed location. For now, I will take the risk and purchase everything and then have each of you pay me by check or cash.


• My goal is to place one order a month as to cut down on shipping cost and carbon emissions. I will place the order on the last Friday of every month, so your orders must be in by then. I will post when the order arrives.


• For the first month (at least) we will just order some staples. If I see this is working, I will expand the items.


• I will provide the initial price per pound including shipping. If we have enough participants that the price is reduced, I will notify you.


• Please indicate which items you would like me to order and how many pounds of each.

Tomorrow's post will include the list of items and the cost.

Earth Day

I have a dream, well I have many dreams. Dreams and goals are what motivate us. Without a vision the people perish. One of my dreams is to encourage sustainable, healthy, green living in the Youngstown, Ohio area (and anywhere else life's journey will take me). I want people to know that living green is something we all can do. So maybe we can't all go out and buy a Smart Car or even fit our family in one; but we can all do something. And as we each start adding those some things together we can begin to make some big changes. I hope to provide practical ways to make changes. I must admit that I currently am not eating as organically as I would like, nor am I living as green as I hope to be some day. But every step in the right direction is setting us in positive motion. So let's look at Earth Day, and get when step closer to a greener community.

Something very interesting to me is that my parents, native Brazilians, have extremely light carbon footprints. Why is it interesting? Because they don't even know what a carbon footprint is. Brazil is the largest recycler in the world, at least last time I checked. Today, their efforts to be green include the politics of global warming. But they have been green for decades, because they have had to be. With such a large population of very poor people - "reduce, reuse, recycle" was not a mantra for being a responsible citizen - it was and is a means of survival. Thankfully, I have inherited my parent's ways of saving money, which also happens to be green. I enjoy living frugally, because it allows me to make a huge impact on the environment and live very well. How can I live well and be frugal? Stay tuned...

A few things that I do include:
I am striving for a paperless office. I have reduced my files tremendously. This was a matter of purging more than anything else and is a work that is in constant progress. The idea of being completely paperless is an inspiration to me - not a current reality. In my business this has been a shift in practice and policy. Much of my work is done via the Internet or by telephone vs face to face appointments. This has saved me time, resources, paper and money. I do very full loads of laundry in cold water. I turn my lights off. I buy less in plastic packaging, buy less in general. I am more aware of consumerism than ever before. I am very mindful of using my car time and stacking my errands.

The company I work for has planted over 870,096 trees; those are the ones that folks reported. I know that there were many more because I never reported mine and I bet others forgot to share their totals too. This makes me very proud to be part of my company. This 2009 Earth Day Wangari Maathai 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement will ceremoniously plant our millionth tree at corporate headquarters this earth day. This film clip from Taking Root shares part of her passionate story. Inspired by Wangari our tree loving sales leader Ellie Rogers fostered the Million Dreams Million Trees Campaign

Let's make a difference. Join me in my dream.