Newsies!

We're going to be on the local news tonight! WE'RE GOING BIG TIME.

Wow. We can't believe this is happening. We'd like thank Charlottesville, the University, our families, and The Big Guy Up There. We couldn't have done it without you.

The full story will be on CBS at 5 and 6, with abridged versions at 7, 10, and 11 on other local news channels.  Chcchchchceck it out. We'll post a link once they have it up!

Sweet, sweet summertime.

Summertime DEFINITELY isn't over! This coming week, we want YOU to do the Indian Summer with us. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to reduce your carbon footprint in any or all of our 5 different focuses.

If you need a review of what it is we're doing, you can find that here- http://theindiansummer-cville.blogspot.com/2010/04/once-upon-time.html.


...Flip through the blog to find our thoughts, tips, and reflections, and decide how you want to ACT! (we'll be putting more posts about topics we haven't covered real soon). You can officially pledge by posting it on the facebook event page (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125133897540465), leaving a comment on the blog, or by emailing us at indiansummercville@gmail.com.


Some ideas of what you can pledge for the week...

- NO CARS to get anywhere in cville
- 5 minute showers
- Eating locally (one meal a day, three meals a day?)


Think about what you want to do, and prepare for that. For example, you might need to visit the market on Saturday (highly recommended anyway), or tune-up your old bike. If you need any tips or advice, be sure to let us know! We would love to help out in any way we can!


Peace, love, and everything local.

Dirty Thoughts

It had to be done.

Arley: Honestly, this has been one of the easier parts of the project.  I think most people recycle when its most convenient for them, and I was definitely one of those people before this project started.  So it wasn't the biggest life-altering aspect of what we're doing.  Its soooooo easy not to throw paper in the trash, or when I'm cooking to just throw away the parts I'm not using out of vegetables.  Recycling/composting is always right next our trash and composting.  The trickiest part has been packaging-which we've been able to avoid in a big way because we're shopping at the market! We buy a lot of fresh food, so its easy to avoid the packaging that processed food comes in.  Recycling and composting makes easy-breezy sense. It surprises me how many people don't do it! (13,000 pieces of individual paper are thrown away per year in an average American household, instead of being recycled. Yikes.)  Just doooo it people.  Plus, recycling and composting your waste is cheaper on your bills. So there's affordability in the Indian Summer! Holler.

Sarah: There's a reason there are so many triple R phrases, songs, and movements. Reducing, reusing, and recycling are awesome. Like we mentioned before we cut our trash in (less than) half at our house of twelve girls by recycling and composting. Arley and I have made very little trash. And let me just tell you, it feels pretty good. Composting is cool too. It makes sense. I can't believe I never did it before. I mean, you have nutrient rich waste that can be composted for better soil for gardening or whatever your needs. I just challenge any of you to really gage how much you are throwing away in any given day. Then figure out the week. And then the year. And then your life so far. That's probably a lot of trash. And it will probably be good for you to think about it. What if you could cut it in half or even more? What if everyone did that? Call me a dreamer, but hey it could be so amazing. Speaking of challenges...

GET READY FOR OUR INDIAN SUMMER CHALLENGE starting this Saturday (yes perfectly in line with the farmer's market for your convenience) where you can pledge to live a more mindful "Indian Summer"- style lifestyle for a week. You can pick one thing, a couple things, or do the whole she-bang that we are doing to come along with us! We will post more details and a facebook event to make it official very soon.

Trash Talk [take 2]

In honor of the theme, we have decided to recycle a post title.

Before we share our own personal reflections, we thought we might share one more really cool project that seeks to reduce our consumption by increasing recycling.  Check out William McDonough and Michael Braungart's cradle-to-cradle design.  Cradle-to-cradle creates products that never see the landfill in their entire life cycle-an important part of that is removing down-cycling from their life cycles.  Some materials are "down-cycled" instead of recycled, because the material in its re-used state, is lower quality or less useful than the state is was in before.  McDounough and Braungart co-wrote a book printed on plastic (cool, right?) that you can find here.  You should also check out the website about cradle-to-cradle design and certification.  They also made a documentary called "Waste=Food" that explores the unnecessary sacrifices we're making to consume. You can watch it on google video, which sounds kind of sketchy, but it works! Enjoy!

Peace love + everything local.

OOOOOOOOOOOH we're halfway there.

OOOOOOOOO-OH! Living...off the laaaaa-and.

Yes. Puns. Jokes. Cheese.


But we really are halfway there. Today-this Sunday-is day 40.  Tonight-this night-marks the end of the halfway point of our 80 day trip.  It's been great, challenging, fun, and transforming.  Thanks for keeping up with us! We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have!

Peace love + everything local.

PS Our thoughts and reflection on recycling/composting to come soon!

RE-lapse in time.

So folks, sorry about the lack of updates on our blog. But no worries, we are still kicking. 

Lesson of the past couple weeks: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. RETHINK everything you do.

Tips for Reducing:

Avoid packaging! Why do you need a new grocery bag every time you go to the store? Why does your toothpaste need two packages? Why have we tricked ourselves into thinking that NEW = BETTER? 

Listen to this: you can reduce trash, pollution, and the money we spend on plastic bags by bringing your own tote bag to the store (any store, not just groceries!).  Avoid buying things with excess packaging! Use your consumer power for something good!  Buy used stuff.  It's more eco-friendly, and its cheaper too! Not to mention the hipster status you get from thrifting...And borrow things from your friends.  You probably have plenty of friends with similar needs, tastes, and interests, so if you really need or want something, you can find a friend to help you out!

Tips for Reusing:

IF possible, reuse. It's awesome. Keep cans/containers/bottles to store things. Buy whatever food you can in bulk, and reuse containers for that (Integral Yoga and Wholefoods are great places to buy in bulk). Give clothes to Goodwill or our local favorite SPCA Rummage. Use creativity and reduce trash impact. If we make a conscious effort to watch what we throw away, we will find that we are throwing away things that could be reused, or recycled for that matter. 

UVA recycling has some super good tips and events: 

http://utilities.fm.virginia.edu/recycling/guide.aspx

and for Charlottesville:

http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=566

Tips for Recycling:

Just do it. Please. Our house has gone from two large trash-cans a week to one small one by using the reducing/recycling/ composting magic formula!!! How cool is that?

Since Sarah is 21 now...21 things you didn't know you could recycle found here: http://www.greenamericatoday.org/pubs/greenamerican/articles/21Things.cfm

We'd like to add aluminum foil to the list. Just clean it off if food is on it. Just think about how much aluminum foil we through away? It's the same as the cans we so love to recycle! And aluminum is one of the easiest materials to recycle (less downcycling, more recycling!) So next time, think about recycling your aluminum foil.

Tips for Composting:

"Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil. It is the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. It's easy to learn how to compost." http://www.howtocompost.org/

In short: Keep a bin under the sink or somewhere in the kitchen where you can keep all natural trash from fresh foods. All fruits and vegetables/seeds/greens/eggshells/paper-towels/anything biodegradable. Do NOT put meat or cheese...or you will have some problems. Every couple of days, throw it in a pile where you put the old on top and the new compost on the bottom to let it break down into good nutrient dense soil.

We hope you found these helpful and challenging!

Peace love and everything local.

Trash Talk

Next, we're focusing on recycling and composting.  To get things started, we thought we'd go back to the beginning [where trash comes from].  Check out this neat video on our consumption patterns here in the US-it's part of Annie Leonard's project "The Story of Stuff".  She presents some compelling insight into our systems and mindsets about the "stuff" we make, buy, use, and throw away.  She focuses on trash in the last few minutes of the clip, so pay special attention there!  She did such a great job, we thought we'd let her do the talking.  Enjoy!

http://www.storyofstuff.com

Food for Thought

So the concentration on blogging about eating local food has come to an end. And since we like to talk about feelings, well here they are.

Sarah: Today I ate a locally grown concord grape. Alright I ate more than one. They are divine. I don't think people know how grapes can taste until you have one. It brought me right back to being at my grandparent's farm picking grapes off the vine in the hot sunshine and pretending that's all I had to live off of as a self-proclaimed explorer of the land. One of my many imagination-filled adventures in this humble and beautiful property. Honestly,  I was most nervous about eating only local food when it came to the idea of the Indian Summer. And to be frank, I'm very much appeased on the matter. Seriously, it really isn't that hard. You spend the extra time preparing yourself by buying fresh food and making it. And it just feels right. I  was scared I was going to be hungry all the time, or wouldn't be able to live without chocolate or cereal or sugar, etc. But I'm not.  I'm sure as time goes by, there might be some small problems, but I think we can handle it. We eat exactly what we buy. We don't waste anything that's for sure. And no junk food. I feel better. I just feel like it is real food. From the earth. Everything is so much more tasty. And I'm even learning to cook things I didn't know how to prepare! Arley's the real cook, but I'm learning. And I'm learning more and more about how eating locally is just so much better for the world and for yourself. Like our previous post on the theory of this practice mentions, I feel better about putting local food in my body for health, energy saving,  and so many more reasons. Being involved with the UVA garden also brings me to form a physical close relationship with the earth. And I love it. Seeing how small a seed is brings a sense of mysterious wonder to my thoughts on the magic of growing and creation. And the cost of it all? Well yes it's more expensive, but if there's one thing to spend money on, shouldn't be what is going into your body rather than on top of it or on whatever we spend high dollar amounts on?

Arley: COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE. I've been drinking coffee, to varying degrees but definitely regularly, since I was 11 or so. No good for my body.  And I'll be completely honest--not drinking coffee all of a sudden is very hard.  Its one of those things that I could justify--what's wrong with getting fair-trade, locally roasted coffee from Shenandoah Joe's? Nothing, really.  But the Indian Summer is all about cutting excess out of our lives, and getting down to the basics. And basically, my body doesn't need coffee. I just made it think that it does.  I don't want to "justify" all the little things I sometimes want to do--borrow milk from our other roommates, use another roommate's left over cheese; I'm just excited to explore what it means to really live radically-even if it's just for 80 days.  Echoing what Sarah said, eating locally really is great.  I'm pretty sure we make our roommates jealous over our dinners pretty regularly.  My favorite dish to cook is homemade pasta + noodles! It's just a classic, and absolutely delicious when everything is so fresh.  And it's way more filling too! My favorite times are when people say, "Wait. Where did you get that?".  Another awesome thing is how helpful people in Charlottesville are.  Its amazing the time and effort people are willing to offer us, even when they know they won't get anything in return. In places like Albemarle Baking and Integral Yoga, even after it was pretty clear that I would necessarily be able to buy their products (like with flour), managers were still willing to talk to me for a good 10 or 15 minutes on where I should go to find things I need for our diet.  That has probably been the most awesome thing for me--getting to connect with different people around town who are selflessly interested in supporting us.


So there you have it. Feelings. Share yours. Maybe go to the market and prepare yourself a gourmet tasty fresh meal. Invite friends. We guarantee you'll enjoy it.

next topic: recycling and composting and trying not to make trash. pretty interesting stuff. check it out in the days to come.

Amuse Bouche

We bet (or at least we hope) you are wondering how you can make a difference.
Here are some tips, tricks, and places (in Charlottesville) for eating local.

TIPS:
-Cooking fresh food can be time consuming, but if you make double the amount for dinner, then voila you have a quick tasty lunch for the next day.
-Buy only what you need for about a week, because it will go bad.
-Baking with honey is the bomb. In baking, you use about half the amount of honey that the recipe calls for sugar. And reduce all other liquid ingredients by about a quarter of a cup each.
-WADE'S MILL has local grain aka FLOUR, which apparently everyone knows about because it's always out of stock. But if you find it, it's worth it!
-Yogurt making is fun. You basically heat up milk and add a tablespoon of live-culture yogurt. You can find recipes all over the internet. Don't use skim milk. It's chalky. Or spend way less time by buying it for pretty cheap at C-ville Market.


Which brings us to PLACES:
- THE city farmer's market- everything is there. pretty obvious right? some things available here that you can't necessarily get in local food grocers.
- Integral Yoga- people are nice and helpful. nice selection of local produce.
- UVA student garden- we love them. we shall be involved. learning. food. yum.
- Rebecca's- random local products, maple syrup, salsa, and some meat, etc.
- Main Street Market- it's a cool place. check it out. Feast, local butcher, local flower shop Hedge.
- C-ville Market- really inexpensive local foods. we love.
- The Virginia Store- nuts, wine, jams, etc.
- Whole Foods- good place for people who live in the north part of town.
- Kroger- voted by Arsdale as best place to buy local milk and butter, believe it or not.

RESTAURANTS:
- Brookville Restaurant
- The Local
- Fine Arts Cafe
- Feast


As always, try to bring your own reusable grocery bag when you go grocery shopping. If you have any other tips and favorite places, please share in comment section. We love sharing.


Peace, Love, and Everything Local!

Arley+Sarah

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

SO for the first segment of our Indian Summer, we are concentrating on, you might have guessed it, FOOD!

And if you've asked yourself why are these crazy girls concentrating on only eating local food, well hey you are in the right place to find out!

1. It's just better for the earth. It's the right thing to do to make everyone happy and healthy. SO much oil, water, and other fossil fuels and resources (including food) are wasted in the production of food.
example: for 16 lbs of grain and soy fed to beef cattle, we only get 1 lb of meat on our plates (the grain has 21x more calories, and 8x more protein, but only 3x more fat than the 1 lb)

2. So much is wasted in the production of food when there are people starving everywhere.
  "One billion people in the world are chronically hungry and one billion are overweight. "

3. Fresh food uses less water.
example: the ratio of water to produce 1 pound of protein from the food source from fresh to processed food in
        corn to canned corn 1/390mgs
        hamburger to hotdog 60/880mgs
        rice to minute rice 1/700 mgs

4. HEALTH "So many of our most dreaded diseases are related to the 'food' we now eat--the good news- we can reduce our chances of getting these diseases [obesity, cancer from antibiotics, heart disease, hyper-tension] when we control what we eat."

5. The definition of food has changed in our society. Now children answer that food comes from a box or a store. Some cannot identify vegetables in their natural shape. Do not realize they come from the ground.

6. We are constantly consuming hidden sugars, instead of eating more raw and local food.

7. "Whenever you eat what might be called inefficient food [ex. beef], you're consuming more of the planet's energy than you need to live well."
example: "Eating a typical family-of-four steak dinner is the rough equivalent, energy wise, of driving around in an SUV for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home."
-free-range, humanely raised beef is important (for ethical, environmental, and health reasons), but we need to consume less meat in general. "Eat less meat, but eat better meat."


Stay tuned for tips on what YOU can do to make a difference (specifically in Charlottesville), and reflections on our personal experiences.

In the beginning.

The Indian Summer has officially begun. On our first night, we had lots of friends over for desserts made a la local.  Check out the pics below!

What we used to eat.

What we're eating now!

Local eggs + honey for baking!

Our first Indian Summer lunch.

Good fruit.

Our friends started arriving!

It's dessert, not desert, because you want more.

Apple cobbler/peach cobbler.

Carrot cupcakes!

Our friends, enjoying some dessert and company.

So many people!

One of the guests signing the guest book.

Yeah. That salad was good.

Stay tuned for our official carbon footprint calculation!

T MINUS

7 DAYS.
7 DAYS.
Indian Summer officially begins in 7 days.

During the Indian Summer, we'll focus on reducing our carbon footprint through 5 different ways: (1) Local food & goods; (2) Recycling & composting; (3) Electronics; (4) Water ; and (5) Walking, biking, and mass transit.  While we keep our carbon footprint as low as possible, we'll spend about a week and a half focusing on each part in our blog, telling you all about our tricks, tips, and experiences!  First, we'll spend 8 days on food (and finish the Indian Summer with 8 days on local goods).

A few things we'll be sure to have up in the next few days: the start of an Indian Summer Bookshelf, A Few of Our Favorite Local Things, a space for people to make pledges along side of us, and shout outs to some very supportive, helpful people in this process.


Peace, love, and everything local!

A VERY IMPORTANT DATE

[AUGUST 24th-NOVEMBER 11th]


So, these dates are based on the time an Indian Summer would be. In ancient Rome, the "dog days" went through August 24th. In Western Europe during the Middle Ages, they celebrated St. Martin's Day on November 11, which was the end of their Indian Summer (which conveniently for us, is  80 days). SO there you have it. That's why we are doing it when we are doing it. Get pumped.

Funnertime.

We have been too silent for too long. The time has come to speak up.  What have we been doing all summer?

Sarah: Well, to be frank, I cannot wait to get back to Charlottesville to begin this adventure. I am currently in Disney World in Orlando working in a quick service restaurant. Let's just say it is the opposite of our plan in the Indian Summer. And as fun as this place is, I can safely say I am very excited to eat healthy, local, and fresh food. There just is so much waste--and I know they are following  regulations and that's just how commercial places work, but it makes me sad (I will stop here, but check out my blog for more about summer project). It has been hard here because we are sleep deprived, working hard and having fun and trying to find time and places to eat. So let's just say I'm not that proud of how I've been eating and not exercising (besides the standing on my feet and walking for 7 hours at work).  Today I finally had a couple hours to go grocery shopping and I had the best spinach strawberry salad ever. Well, when you are craving vegetables like a desert craves rain, you think it's the best ever. It was pretty stellar. That's really all I have to say. Alas, I haven't had much time to research a lot this summer, but I think it will happen as we go.

Arley: I've been living in Charlottesville this summer, taking class, working, and of course, hitting up the market!  The Indian Summer transition has been a little slow so far.  Right now, I am adding more local produce to my diet (and trying to transition out of any food from far away).  My friend Will planted a garden by the side of my house! Which means I'll be eating SUPER local tomatoes soon.  I also have cut back on meat a lot-I'm not buying/cooking meat myself, and I'm mostly not eating any meat at all, especially red meat.  Sometimes though, I eat chicken or fish.  I think my body needs some time to get used to the veggie diet. But I'm excited to be on an all-local fresh diet soon! I think I'll feel great.  Also, I never work out.  So I PROMISE you I will go running at least 3 times this week, for at least 2 miles each time.  That way, when I can't take a car anywhere, I can survive biking several miles around Cville's very scary hills everyday. I just started class again, so between taking class, working, and just hanging out with people, it will be a challenge to keep all that balanced.  It'll be great I'll keep you posted from Cville!



Things to look forward to in the next few weeks: a list of books and resources we find helpful as we get closer to the Indian Summer; some recipes; fun stories; sweet pics of what the Indian Summer looks like; and the sweet happy reunion of Sarah and Arley.

The Wonder Symposium

UVA hosted the Second Annual Sustainability Symposium waaaaaaaay back on April 20. Sure that was a long time ago (an entire month, right?), but it was just so great that we're still not over it. The Symposium was kind of like the kick-off to the Indian Summer. That's when it all became official. We had the AWESOME opportunity to talk to lots of amazing people: from county and city workers, to representatives of Aramark (UVA's dining services), to really excited community members who had great ideas and suggestions for us (like the idea that we can have people pledge with the Indian Summer!). Our main goal in participating in the symposium was to meet people and start talking about our ideas. That's where the Indian Summer is at right now: we just kind of came up with this idea out of nowhere, and we're really looking for information and support from the community! So, if you have any ideas, comment on the blog, or shoot an email to indiansummercville@gmail.com and let us know what you think!


Peace, love, & everything local.

I'm Just So Puntiful

"If I were punished for every pun I shed, there would not be left a puny shed of my punnish head." -Samuel Johnson

I just love puns, so of course "The Indian Summer" is a pun. We are calling it an Indian Summer for two reasons. First, we got the name from the extremely low gross carbon footprint of India in comparison to other countries, specifically the US. Secondly, we were inspired by the old phrase "Indian summer", which means unseasonably warm weather in the fall, in places where it is typically cold during that time. So we're going to have an "Indian summer-footprint" during the "Indian Summer time"--beginning in mid-August through early November. The time is based off of a few ancient festivals that mark a typical Indian Summer.

Clever? Yes. So if you're interested in joining in some way, look forward to some info on how you can pledge to reduce your carbon footprint in one area (ie water, electricity, food) during that time.

Once upon a time...

...two girls decided to change the world around them. You see, they noticed a few things:

1. The US contributes to 20% of the world's carbon emissions, with only 5% of the world's population.
2. India has an almost inverse relationship with 17% of the world's population, but 5% of its carbon emissions.
3. This disparity is simply not OK. We need to make more sustainable lifestyle decisions.
   
4. Charlottesville has some awesome resources to live a more conscious life.

So they decided, that for 80 days, they would embark on epic adventure. For 80 days, they would get their carbon footprint as low as possible. They would radically change their lifestyles. How?

eating only local foods
consuming as many local goods as possible
recycling and composting all waste (zero trash)
limiting use of electronics
walk, biking, or only using mass transit
and reducing water usage

They conjured up a three-fold strategy: Plan What will they do? How will they do it? How can they measure the difference they make? Who can be a part of this? Act DO IT. Beginning in mid-August, radically change the way they live to get their carbon footprint as low as possible. At the same time, they'll get to build relationships with those around them: like local farmers and business owners, among others. React They'll tell others about their experiences, and ask the community to partner with them on this journey. They'll also create art inspired by their experiences.


Those two girls are Arley Arrington and Sarah Tisdale. To learn more about the Indian Summer and ways to get involved, stay tuned!