MEMBER'S DISH :: Black eyed Peas and Mushroom Ragout

Black eyed Peas and Mushroom Ragout

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced vertically
1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, tough part of stems removed, thickly sliced
1/4 pound mixed mushrooms (such as cremini, baby bella and oyster mushrooms), sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 1/2 cups mushroom or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
2 cans (15-ounce) black-eyed peas, drained
1/2 teaspoon salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco
1 bunch hearty greens (kale, turnip, mustard or chard) washed, thinly sliced and blanched
serve over polenta or mashed potatoes.

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add onion, mushrooms and garlic; sauté until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add broth, tomato paste, wine, black-eyed peas, salt, pepper, honey and Tabasco; bring to boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Stir in greens; cook until thoroughly heated. 3. Spoon Polenta or mashed potatoes into serving bowls. Top with ragout and garnish with Parmesan shavings, if desired.
Recipe by Crescent Dragonwagon.



HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Created by greensprings0

BOOK CORNER :: Members Suggest

Members recommend good reads, either fiction or non-fiction and for adults or young readers.

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
By Charles Eisenstein

AMAZING book! I can't put it down and I know that I will read it again. Eisenstein covers the history of money from Greece and Rome to the present. He discusses the "common wealth" from a time when land was not owned. Our current economic situation is discussed in detail. He does not leave us hanging but spells out the many things that can happen, and how to begin adjusting today.









Passion and Purpose: The Power of Conscious Capitalism
by John Mackey
Suggested by www.etsy.com/shop/herbanlifestyle








Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health
by Gene Stonw
What a perfect way to start a new year by eating a whole foods, plant based diet. This book is full of research findings supporting a plant-based diet and how this way of eating can help prevent heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The China Study (another eye opening book) is mentioned frequently to support this way of eating.
Suggested by needlesandkims







The Lorax speaks for the trees: "Unless someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not." Read it before the movie comes out in 2012
Members recommend good reads, either fiction or non-fiction and for adults or young readers.

Suggested by greensprings0

ORGs WE ❤ :: Members promote

Each month team members highlight and promote their favorite .Orgs that are doing amazing things; news of progress our world!

Seed Savers Exchange
"Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, our members have been passing on our garden heritage by collecting and distributing thousands of samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners."
Highlighted by herbanlifestyle

I love Freecycle! According to their website, Freecycle is " a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills." I've been participating for over 2 years now, and think it is one of the most brilliant organizations ever created. I've found homes for so many things I no longer needed, and gotten many wonderful things that I did need, for myself and my classroom. I'm very thankful for its existence, and how it has made it easy for regular people to do their part in helping the earth while saving money!
Highlighted by EarthenKnit

Lomakatsi is my favorite because it works with the community by planting trees with school kids, educating and providing jobs for people through out Oregon and was started by my son. I am one proud mama!
Highlighted by greensprings0

POETRY :: Jiddu Krishnamurti

Photo by GreenSprings0

If you hurt nature you are hurting yourself

Nature is part of our life. We grew out of the seed, the earth, and we are part of all that. But we are rapidly losing the sense that we are animals like the others. Can you have a feeling for that tree, look at it, see the beauty of it, listen to the sound it makes; be sensitive to the little plant, to the little weed, to that creeper that is growing up the wall, to the light on the leaves and the many shadows? One must be aware of all this and have the sense of communion with nature around you. You may live in a town but you do have trees here and there. A flower in the next garden may be ill-kept, crowded with weeds, but look at it, feel that you are part of all that, part of all living things. If you hurt nature you are hurting yourself. --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Shared by curlymonkey

GARDEN NOTES :: Member updates

Each month team members offer personal gardening updates that captures the work of the seasons; prepping, planting, and harvesting.

Here in the DC area, we've had a mild winter. Here is a bunch of herbs I harvested in December from my garden! I used them for seasoning in our Christmas dinner.
Update by herbanlifestyle

I am VERY excited about this season. I am working on a new garden. Right now it is about 20x30. It has a chicken coop, 2 raised beds for my kiddo's and plenty of room for me to plant a wonderful garden full of vegetables and herbs. So far I am getting the hard scape items set up, and then I will begin to work on the soil (although I have already begun my compost pile!)

Update by CMonetGarden

In the fall I put glass on our planting boxes and have been harvesting enough greens to share with the neighbors. 
Update by greensprings0

We live in a condo with outdoor balconies so I don't have the option to do a lot of gardening - what I gardening I do is limited to containers. I just discovered this great eco-friendly product that I can use as liners in larger fiberglass pots to give my plants better aeration. I sent an email question and got an answer back immediately from the company president! They were very helpful and I want others to know.
Update by mypuppypie

TALKS, DOCS, and FLICKS :: Members pick

Members pick features that educated, inspired action, or have had an impact on their lives when young or as an adult, direct and immediate, or slowly resonating over time.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
This documentary really moved me. I happened to know two of the activists who went to prison for over five years! One was a neighbor and one was the wife of my daughter’s friend.
Shared by greensprings0

Watch If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front Trailer on PBS. See more from POV.

This song by Chad and Jeremy was popular in the 70’s when I was young. It must have been a favorite of mine because I still remember all the words. 

Shared by greensprings0




I love this video about Tesla and How our future would have been with Tesla Tech. The video highlights his inventions and intentions. At the end is a message on how simple messages are found in nature that show us how to be.
Shared by LookForFiddleheads

GREEN GOALS :: Members Strive

Each month members discuss Eco issues and solutions.
Members were asked: Can you please share with us how you view the objects that you make in the context of needs and contributing to restoring a healthy system of exchange?

The main ingredient in most Simply Rustic products is Fair Trade, Wildcrafted/Organic and Unrefined Shea Butter. The Cocoa Butter and Mango Butter used are also purchased Fair Trade. It is very important to me when purchasing the shea butter that the African women who extract the shea butter are paid fairly for their hard work, have safe and healthy working conditions and sustainability practices are used when growing and harvesting the karite tree. The company I go through also supports a health insurance program where their insurance premiums are paid yearly.
Overall I wish I could do more (and someday plan to) but for now, I’m hoping this gives the African women a sense of self-worth and allows them to provide more for their families.
simplyrustic2011

We all need to wear clothes. After researching fiber and textile I can understand film and book genres that depict "gentle people" living on a "providing planet" that they honor. So often these citizens are shown wearing burlap, linen, cotton, or silk. The clothes are flowing and not constructed or constricting. There are usually no colors since things are kept natural. These all illustrate the purest form of clothing known and it is the truth of the matter. I have discussed this with many, and though it seems like a boring wardrobe there are ways to enhance and modify a direction like this. I always keep in mind pure clothing and how we are in motion. I offer mostly natural color tshirts. Only a few times have clients asked for white because they were a concerned about the actually color of natural. Though I do offer hand-dyed (for now), I have noticed that more people are drawn to the natural organic cotton because it has a feeling of pure and gentle. I think when wearing one of my tshirts, or an plant fibers, there is potential for conversation and learning about natural fibers.
lookforfiddleheads

I love having the opportunity to teach my children basic skills like gardening, sewing and crafting.

CMonetGarden

MEMBER'S DISH :: Really Easy Vegetable Soup

Really Easy Vegetable Soup


1 medium chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped celery
2 regular size cans diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans chili beans
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste


Saute the onion, green pepper and celery in a small amount of oil until soft. Add canned vegetables, including all liquid. Bring to a boil then add cabbage, just pressing it under the liquid. Season to taste. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.


Created by needlesandkims

ECO-SPOTTING :: Members report

Each month members observe their surroundings in search of beauty and eco progress!

It is late December and we still have some hummingbirds in our gardens. Usually most have left by now. I try to keep enough plants growing to help feed the few resident hummingbirds that have decided to end winter here in South Louisiana.
Reported by gabriellesgarden

This year my pledge is to give back to the community even more. I bring food to the www.ashlandfoodproject.com/ . I am teaching soap and salve making to school kids (in hopes that it won’t become a lost art), organizing herb walks, and participating in food drives.
Reported by 

greensprings0


Sustainable DC Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray has started an initiative to to help develop a strategic plan for a more sustainable future for the District.
Experts and other citizens are being asked for their ideas on how to make DC the greenest city in the U.S. Working groups are developing plans to address the topic areas of the built environment, climate, energy, food, nature, transportation, waste, water, and the green economy.
Reported by herbanlifestyle

It is something very simple, but the stars are SO much brighter in the country!

Reported by CMonetGarden

Our local library, the Louisville Free Public Library, is hosting a TEDxManhattan Viewing Party Webcast and Local Discussion on Creating sustainable Food Economies on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 9:30AM Registration is on the LFPL website.
Reported by needlesandkims

The month of December, the Rhinelander, WI Animal Shelter was offering $20 Cat and Kitty Adoptions. Their goal was 20 adoptions and as December 24th…60 cats and kitties have been adopted. Many happy cats, kitties and families this holiday season.
Reported by simplyrustic2011

POETRY :: Unknown

by vilhelm via morguefile

Ponderosa

The tree is a library
The trunk a tight-rolled scroll
The bark coiling layers of scribbled sheets
Pressed together, holding their truths close
Against sun and rain and fire
Deep furrows channel the bark
Erode the text, obscure what is written
But each season, life writes a new page
Records, with incised lines and curving figures
Selections from the infinite world of incident
Written in overlapping fractal script
In characters of color, shape, and shade
Ochre, cinnamon, sepia; no two alike
The tracery of experience, an alphabet
Limitless and direct
The tree’s base is deep in discarded letters
Each a puzzle piece, indecipherable
Not renounced but outgrown
An earlier draft now erased, yet
Still embossed on the page beneath
I spread my hand upon the sun-warmed bark
Grasp the greatness of that ancient book
Unable to read a single word, I am content
With the beauty of the lines
The magic contained in words unread

This story tells the history of a tree and has this beautiful poem included. Happy New Year.
Shared by GreenSprings0