Disclaimer: you might notice a lot of name dropping (product placement) in this issue. It’s an attempt to balance out the buy, buy, buy craze of the times with some local sustainability. So check out our green gift ideas.
Getting your gift list together? Please check it twice. Is it locally made and/or sold? Will it help the environment? Can it run without batteries?
1. Community Holiday Cookie Exchange, Thursday, December 15, 7 to 9 at the Chamber of Commerce Building 32 Commercial Street, Honesdale. Sponsored by Transition Honesdale, this is an exchange: you bring a plate or two, to take a plate or two. But here’s the thing—you’ll also learn how to make beautiful bows out of old magazines!
2. Calkins Creamery always has great gift baskets. This year they’re offering smoked hand-stretched mozzarella. Smokey Moo Mozz, and Georgic Quark, a kind of pasteurized farmer’s cheese as well as their old faithfuls including 4 Dog Dill and Udderly Hot. (What
are they doing when they come up with these names!) Visit them at
288 Calkins Rd, 9 to 5, or at http://www.calkinscreamery.com
3. Beach Lake United Methodist Church has added to it’s Equal Exchange array of coffees and chocolates. They now have teas and olive oil—all reasonably priced. (I’ve found the way to my son-in-law’s heart–partial to HOT hot chocolate–with their chili enhanced hot cocoa mix.) This is stuff you can’t get locally, but you can get it Fair Trade and Organic, so call (570) 729-7011 or email blumc@ptd.net to reserve yours.
4. Jo Clearwater makes lovely all-local, all-natural soups, breads and quiches you can give or eat yourself when you’re too tired to cook or don’t want to resort to store-bought. Reach her at 224-7687
5. A passive solar indoor clothes drying rack will save the lucky recipient hundreds of dollars over its lifetime. My favorite is the Expanding Indoor Clothesline, $53, made in Pennsylvania. Phyllis & Mark Terwilliger, TEAAM participants won one this fall and if you join Kick the Watt, (Sign up at http://seedsgroup.net/) you might win one, too.
6. Several of you have asked us about
solar leasing. Well the Dec/January 2012 issue of Home Power magazine has a great comprehensive overview of various options to get solar on your roof without the heavy initial cost. You can read it at the Honesdale library, or go to
http://www.homepower.com. Or reply to this and I’ll send you a copy of the article. You can get a gift subscription at their web site for $14.95 or $9.95 digital.
7. And for that really-special-over-the–top extravaganza, send someone to a 12 day permaculture course in Belize with top notch instructors including Hancock local Andrew Leslie Phillips and Albert Bates. The cost is $1,250, which includes all meals, course materials, expeditions, farm accommodation and, upon completion of the course, permaculture certification (but not transportation to & from Belize). For dates and full information, go to
http://www.hancockpermaculture.org/
Green the Green stuff
So what’s the greenest way to pay for your holiday gifts: coins, cash, plastic, Google Wallet or similar smartphone apps? Treehugger looked into production, recycling, server transactions, number of uses per unit…even the kind of ink used on receipts. Here’s the short answer, but go to the
full article for all the facts: