Haiku Friday

California

Eating squash grows old,
In the blue sky winter days;
Brown hills turning green.

25 Green Days of Christmas

Day 5 --

No Gift Cards

I am in Safeway. No, don't even think about it. I am not buying food. I am buying bus tickets.

The woman in front of me is buying six dozen cupcakes that look as plastic as the boxes they're in and a man with a banana and a pear that looks hard enough to hammer nails is in line behind me. The checker starts wrestling a plastic bag onto two of the boxes of cupcakes but it keeps catching around the cupcake wells. The woman is looking for her credit card. I start looking for something to count.

I don't look far. The check out stand is filled with rows of plastic gift cards for every retailer ever incorporated. Thirty six different big names to be exact. "What happened to personal checks?" I ask myself. "What about plain old cash for Christmas? Why more plastic?"

"Yes, I know a recipient might go out and purchase a bottle of absinthe now that it's legal instead of a sweater or a book, but so be it. It's a gift. Let them do what they want. What's going to happen to all that spent plastic?"

My tirade is getting into full steam and the gentleman behind me clears his throat. I watch the woman competently manage her cupcakes without the bags that are now wrangled on the counter and move forward. Plastic bank card in hand.

"Thirty seven," I say silently.


Day Six --

Green Dimes

I know I am not the first person to suggest this service as a great green gift but it's new to me and I'm excited about it.

Green Dimes stops junk mail. Seems impossible doesn't it? All those value pack coupons, credit card solicitations with 0% interest. All those catalogs! And Green Dimes makes them stop. Who wouldn't love this?!

Green Dimes also plants trees. The sign up cost is worth just that; stopping the junk mail is nearly an afterthought, a bonus, a dream that might come true.

I signed up a few weeks ago but it's too soon to realize a difference.

My secret guilty pleasure is Green Dimes only stops the catalogs I ask them to which means I can continue receiving Garnet Hill and Crate and Barrel, which makes this gift perfect for everyone, light green and forest green people alike.

We all make a difference.

25 Green Days of Christmas

Day Four --

Save the Ocean

This idea is inspired by the Takeout Queen who carries the Seafood Watch Guide in her purse to refer to at take out counters and restaurants across the county. I'm sure she would use it at the grocery store too if she went to one, although the only fish I ever see her eat is salmon.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a printable version of the guide that can be cut out and folded to half the size of a twenty dollar bill to include in holiday cards or gifts for all the Takeout Queens of any gender on your list.

There are guides for the different coasts, Hawaii, the central US and the southwest (which I find curious). There are even guides in three dialects of Spanish.

25 Green Days of Christmas

Day Three --

I read somewhere about using old business cards as gift tags but I'm taking the idea a different direction.

Using found leaves as gift tags. The cute guy came up with bay leaves, which is brilliant. I thought eucalyptus because they have interesting color patterns. Both types lay flat and are easy to write on.

We also have sycamore trees down the street with leaves bigger than dinner plates that we can't help but scatter about the house each year that would be plain art as a gift tag. They don't lay flat when dry however, but instead assume the shapes of wings in the moment before flight has begun.

25 Green Days of Christmas

I've written before about how the eat local movement has arms and keeps popping up outside of my kitchen. So no surprise that the focus now is to look for ways to reduce our carbon presence for the holidays.

I'm making an ongoing list, 25 Green Days of Christmas, and inviting everyone to post ideas that step outside the traditional red bowed box towards a greener, sustainable holiday filled with more good tidings and less garbage.

Day One --

I bought bad ties at the thrift shop for a dollar each to use instead of ribbon. If they don't get worn for real or costumes, or reused as ribbon they can be returned to the thrift store. Each one is a find.

Day Two --

This is the cute guys idea. Use canvas grocery bags as gift bags. "They'll forget the gift inside but think of us every time they get to the check out line and remember they left their bag in the car."

Goulash, Quiche and Cornmuffins

The cute guy is one happy man today. I cooked. Twice.

First we had an updated version of the goulash I ate as a child. That goulash had hamburger, green beans and potatoes. My updated local version had Prather Ranch Italian sausage, onions, garlic, harbanero, rainbow chard and Petaluma potatoes. We ate it watching the Silence of the Lambs. I won't talk about what was eaten on that film.

Then I made my first ever quiche pie from the Tassajara cookbook with mushrooms, more potatoes, oh what a day!, kale and thai peppers that should have been minced instead of sliced; whoa baby. And we watched Waitress. My pie was good but hers were over the top.

And because it was a day without rules and the oven was on I threw in winter squash for later and made corn muffins with Full Belly Farms cornmeal I've been longing to put to use. We ate them with honey and no napkins nested in blankets on the couch.

And couldn't stop smiling.

Haiku Friday

An Unlocal Day

Two Haiku Fridays -
One completely forgotten.
One a diet coke.