Beautify the Environment — YOUR environment

Wooh, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this GYK blog — sorry to you, both readers and the blog! I’ve been truly busy with my job and the whole New Year/Decade thing, that I hadn’t been keeping up with this blog. But from now on, I’ll make sure to check in more often and update regularly & better 😉

A"beautified" NYC Dumpster (source: The New York Times)

Anyway, the real reason I came to write on this blog today is to discuss this article I read earlier today, and the concept of ‘beautifying ugly objects’ which was discussed in the article. (By the way, this post is not related in anyway with kitchen or food — instead it focuses fully on “green” part of this blog Green Your Kitchen) You can see the full article featured on New York Times by clicking here, but to give you a brief summary, the article talks about how a young Roman woman — along with two of her friends — wallpapered a couple of dumpsters on the streets of Manhattan, NY. And it added how “it’s a simple concept, beautifying an ugly object.” Basically, the article was showcasing an example of how the public space/fixtures could turn from ugly to beauty with a simple idea, and how that task of “beautification” was able to turn ugly dumpsters into ‘street artifacts’, only with a little extra care.

As I was reading through the article, I was able to recall a same idea that I encountered back in 2002 — back then, my home country co-hosted the FIFA World Cup

 

Green Toothpicks

I changed the overall appearance of this blog today, to better reflect its contents and to look cleaner. I’m not sure how others will adapt to it, but I like it and hope you guys like it as well! — Tell me if you don’t, and in that case, some suggestions could help. 🙂

Now, to get to the point, I introduced reusable straws a few days ago, which can contribute to a cleaner environment. And to provide you with information on more TINY things that could help our environment BIG, I’m now introducing to you the Green Toothpicks – toothpicks that are made from starch.

Starch Toothpicks

 

My eggs cost $4 a dozen???

Yes…I buy organic locally-grown eggs.  However, I did some research before doing so.  I didn’t just buy eggs because they say organic, free range, or cage-free on them.

To me, organic has to do with what they’re fed and (hopefully not) injected with:

• no hormones
• no antibiotics
• organic feed (which has a whole other sort of debate in and of itself)

Whereas, in the US, free range means NOTHING.  It’s a word on a carton.  There is no standards, so just don’t buy it!!  There is no specific set amount of time that a chicken needs to be outside in order to label them “free range”.  Read this article for more info.

A main reason why go for the big O, is mainly because of the quality of the goods (in most cases).  With eggs especially, uncomfortable quarters and poor feed of chicken lead to sub-par eggs.  I can actually taste the difference in the eggs.  Call me crazy all you want.

Happy chickens make happy eggs 🙂

My suggestion is to go to a local co-op or farmer’s market and talk to the producers/farmers.  Get the specifics of how they treat the chickens as well as what they feed them.  Most of them of honest and reliable people who know what they’re talking about, but don’t take my word for it until you talk.

 

Welcome to “Green Your Kitchen”

I’m not a fan of buzz words like green, environmentally-friendly or organic.  So, as a reader, you inevitably ask, “why name your blog ‘Green Your Kitchen?””  To which, I immediately respond by saying, “because it gets people’s attention easier and to be somewhat ironic.”

So the purpose of this blog is uneducate people on what they think they know about the environment in relation to the kitchen (what we buy, what we use, and what we eat).   Also, I want people to realize that they should place emphasis on the creation and execution of solutions instead of complaining and pointing fingers (i.e. big corporations ).

Stay tuned for more to come.