So...

So, we got our next electric bill and it was our lowest usage to date! Even as the weather has gotten hotter. I think it may have something to do with the fact that the kids are in day care rather than being watched in the home, but I'll celbrate anyway!

Some Truly Geeky Anticipation…

My husband and I are eagerly awaiting the delivery of our latest energy bill from Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE). We don’t have a gas line, so all of our energy usage is found in our electric bill. I literally keep clicking on the site to see if it is available (today they will release it).

“What is so exciting about our electric bill?” you may be asking yourself. Well, under the fearless leadership of my husband, we have been seriously trying to minimize our energy consumption (as many American families seem to be these days). It’s actually turned into a fun game for us - putting power strips on timers, finding our absolute tolerance for heat and humidity, measuring the wattage of all of our appliances...

As you can see from the pretty line/bar graph below, our 2008 daily usage (in blue) is down from our 2006-2007 daily usages by ~20kwH a day (with the exception of January when our heater was not working correctly). So, naturally, you can see why it is with eager anticipation that we await the delivery of our July electric bill. Is our trend continuing? Will we have our lowest energy usage ever?! We’ll have to wait to find out.

Getting Kids In Touch with Nature

Having 3 little boys and witnessing the effect that television can have on them, I have become pretty gung-ho about making sure they experience nature and gain an appreciation from the natural world. I find that if you spend two hours exploring the outdoors (be it in my back yard, at a park, or camping) they are much happier kids than after the same two hours of being inside watching TV or even just playing with toys.

Unlike previous generations when you went outside to play at the first chance and came inside "when the streetlights came on", it is an effort to get these kids to spend time outside. I found a great new resource that is just starting out called "Nature for Kids". It is a blog and a discussion forum and additional resources all about just activities to do with kids in Nature. I just love the concept and I hope that it gets much more participation!

May I Have Your Weeds, Please?

I don’t know whether it is my quest for a simpler life or the pain of the economy, but I have become very fascinated with the idea of foraging for food in my own back yard – or other people’s back yards as the case may be. I have discovered that all kinds of yard “weeds” are edible and also have a lot of nutritional benefits. There are even organizations that are just dedicated to promoting this as a practice good for the environment.

For example, naturalist “Wildman” Steve Brill has a whole website dedicated to it. He includes tons of information on identifying plants that are edible and is working on a book for foraging with kids. An organization called Plants for a Future has a searchable database of edible plants with all kinds of information on uses of the plants and any hazards or warnings about their usage. It is an excellent free resource.

Some of the weeds I’ve tried so far…

• Purslane – This is an exceptional weed. I love the taste of it (it is juicy and citrus-like). The leaves are high in Omega-3 Fatty acids and the stem is high in Vitamin C. I spotted some Purslane in a friend’s yard and transplanted it to my herb garden (as pictured). I would be very excited if it took off in my own yard! I’ve eaten this right off the stem and put it into my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Dandelions- Everything about the dandelion is edible. The greens are even sold in stores like “Whole Foods” for use in salads or to be cooked like spinach. The flowers can be eaten in a salad or used to make wine. I also used the greens in my “Garden Weed Pesto”.


• Wild Blackberry – We have some of this in the back yard (as well as the local park). The kids gathered some black berries and we tried to eat them with whipped cream. The flavor actually wasn’t that great. Maybe they weren’t ripe enough. I’m going to see if they are better cooked or in a fruit smoothie.

Things I’m going to try soon include clovers and oxalis. We have a ton of this and I’ve read you can cook it up the clover as you would spinach (oxalis should only be eaten in small quantities). Maybe I could make a nice weed quiche.

Some words of caution… There was just a story on the news today about a whole family that got sent to the hospital from poisoning due to insecticide on their mint leaves.

1. Don’t eat any foraged food that is from an area that may be exposed to insecticides, road salt (from snow), or any foreign chemical substances that you don’t know about.


2. Make sure to clean anything that you pluck from your yard thoroughly.


3. Make sure you can absolutely, positively identify something before you eat it. Many plants in your yard are poisonous.

I’m not sure that my neighbors appreciate the encouragement of clovers and dandelions in the yard. Good thing we don’t have a home owner’s association!