The Nibbana Family

This year, we started a vegetable (and fruit) garden.  One of the plants I was most excited about was tomatoes.  I haven’t grown tomatoes since I was very small, but I love to eat them!  We planted two large pots in May, and they are HUGE!  There are many tiny green tomatoes growing.

The tomatoes in the pictures are roma (oblong) and celebrity (round).  Roma tomatoes are good for canning and sauce, but I will attest that they taste great raw!  Celebrity tomatoes are more of an all-purpose hybrid.  They are supposed to be easy to grow, and so far, I would have to say that is true.

One of the best things about having fresh tomatoes is using them in a cold pasta salad.  Tomatoes, pasta, olive oil, garlic, basil, and a bit of parmesan cheese make for a tasty summer dish.  Mmmmmmmm!

a story by Ari (age 6)

One day I saw a field. It needed some work. People had littered and it was weedy. I wanted to fix it up. As I started the work, flies surrounded me. “What shall I do?” I asked myself, “Shall I continue or not”? I decided to ignore them. They buzzed around me everywhere I went. I felt like I was a queen fly!

I recycled all of the trash. I sorted it and put it in my recycling bin. I put some things in my compost bin and had only a little trash to throw away. I weeded the field and put the weeds in the compost bin too.

When I got done, everything looked so beautiful that I couldn’t even believe my eyes. There were fields of muliticolored flowers and light green grass. I saw one tree that was so tiny. It had no grass surrounding it because I had just planted it and removed the nearby grass. It was a beautiful miracle.

Now other children can see the fantastic field and play it in. The Earth is happy too because it looks great and it is clean.

Living in a condo keeps you from doing a lot of environmentally friendly things you might do if you lived in a house.  One of those things is composting.  Lately, I have learned about composting that I can do here, even though I am in a living space without a yard.  I will soon begin to compost my kitchen scraps by vermicomposting.  Vermicomposting is a large, unsightly word that describes the method of breaking down organic matter into dirt using worms.  It is well-suited to small spaces where it may not be possible to have a typical compost bin.

While it is possible to vermicompost using buckets or totes, I am planning on buying a worm factory.   A worm factory is a nifty contraption that allows the worms to move upward as they create “black gold” soil (see “continuous vertical flow” here).  I am hoping to cut our trash down to a minimum and feed the worms!  The worms run around $25 for a pound of red wigglers, which I am told is the best composting variety.  I’m going to spend the next week shopping around before I buy, and I will post what I purchase and where in Post 2.

Happy Composting!

How do you balance being eco-friendly and yet still keep your family safe from germs?  You’ve most likely heard about anti-microbial soaps and how some germs have become resistant.  In the kitchen, there is a solution!  In the book Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck, I read about her “dual spray program”.  She keeps two spray bottles handy – one with vinegar and a dark colored one with 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  The dark bottle is for the hydrogen peroxide, which needs to be kept away from light so it doesn’t break down.

How does it work?

When the hydrogen peroxide is exposed to light, heat, or organic materials it releases its extra oxygen, so that pure water and oxygen are produced.  Micro-organisms find pure oxygen to be exceedingly toxic.  You can actually see the reaction as the hydrogen peroxide bubbles!   In Sandbeck’s book, she states that hydrogen peroxide kills 100x as many bacteria as vinegar, but when used in conjunction 10x more bacteria were killed as the hydrogen peroxide alone.

The dual spray system is good for these uses:  disinfect countertops, stoves, sinks, and refrigerators, raw foods, and processed foods (do not use on marble countertops and the vinegar may be harmful to calcium-based natural stone).

To disinfect surfaces, spray with one bottle then the other.  It is not necessary to rinse.  Many people dislike the smell of vinegar, so you may want to spray the vinegar first.  Produce and meat can follow the same method – spray with vinegar then the hydrogen peroxide.  The hydrogen peroxide rinses the vinegar off.  Non-cardboard processed food containers should be washed of any material that spilled, then sprayed with hydrogen peroxide then vinegar, and wiped down.

A final note: cutting boards.  Most people think that a plastic or glass cutting board would be cleaner than a wood one, but the opposite is true.  Both a study in 1992 and one in 1993 showed that the wood cutting boards were less likely to harbor germs such as salmonella, listeria, or E. Coli.  The wood fibers actually soak up and kill the bacteria.  More information on these studies can be found in Ms. Sandbeck’s book.

As you may be figuring out by now, my main “hobby” is trying to find ways to live more naturally, or as Chuck sees it, “harder.”  My response to an item we need to purchase might be “get the organic one” or “eww, that is filled with chemicals,” at which point we usually choose my product or a happy medium (ok, occasionally he wins).  My reasons are not to be difficult or annoying, but because I feel that there are so many potential hazards in products available that choosing something with fewer chemicals is less likely to be harmful to myself or my family.

Now, to get to the point of this post – stinky pits.  One of the products I am trying to avoid is antiperspirant.  Why, you ask?  Because of the aluminum.  Aluminum compounds are the most extensively used antiperspirants, and they work by stopping or limiting perspiration, which reduces the moist climate in armpits for bacteria, the source of the stink.  You may wonder why aluminum is a problem – I did.  I found out that aluminum is neurotoxin, “a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells, usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels.“  The effects of neurotoxins are based on the toxin itself and the dosage, but I decided not to take any chances.  I threw away my antiperspirant.

First, I tried walking around with nothing on and discovered that I after a few hours no one wanted to be near me.  Over the next several months, I tried a lot of different deodorants – mostly the natural ones, but nothing worked for more than a few hours.  I finally discovered Funk Butter.  The stuff is amazing – it works for 12-48 hours with no stink and the Black Cedar Fig scent is wonderful!  I was delighted to find that this cream deodorant was handmade too.

Months went by.  One day I noticed a rash appearing under my arms.  After some research I found that many users had the same issue (usually attributed to the baking soda, but sometimes also to the essential and fragrance oils).  Sadly, I switched back to antiperspirant for my wedding.  did not want rashy armpits with my sleeveless gown!

After we returned from the honeymoon, I began my research again.  I tried everything, but found that one of the best “armpit regimes” was washing with baking soda and using Thai Crystal Spray Mist.  The baking soda can be harsh, so I can’t do it every day, but I mix it up with washing with Burt’s Bees Shampoo Bar (I have no clue why this works) and the baking soda, using the crystal spray after both.

I’m not saying I smell like roses, but you can get close to me and not hold your nose, even after most long days!