Projects Page

Alison will be one year old next week!!  It is incredible how fast these babies grow and learn.  It amazes me how far she's come, how far we all come, in just a short time.

With toddlerhood fast approaching, I've been keeping my eye out for fun eco-related projects to do as she grows.  To that end, I've started a new page called Projects where I'll house links to the best ones I've found.

Treehugger.com posted an article about a recycled garden wall that not only looked awesome, but would make a great project for an older kid.


Photo Credit: treehugger.com / Rosenbaum

You can find more information about this project and more pictures here.

A Girl & Her Melon - CSA Part II

I exposed my love affair with our CSA in last week's post, but now I want to talk about the interesting side-effects of the CSA on our daughter.

There has not been a single type of food that Alison has rejected since we've started feeding her our delicious CSA produce.  This could be her personality, or perhaps it is the variety of foods we've been able to introduce at a young age.

To keep her busy while cooking, I always give her something to play with.  A tiny potato once stuck around for a week until it got soft because it became her best friend.  A variety of fresh produce is also perfect for teethers: cold carrots, cucumbers, and kale stems all seem to be gum-soothers.

 Kale!

The CSA has been an incredible way for us to bring the outdoors inside our apartment.  You don't need to be surrounded by nature to have fun with it and appreciate it.  How do I know?  Check out how much fun (& learning, I suspect) Alison had with this Ambrosia Melon:

This is the kind of good old-fashioned fun that lets you escape a world of plastic toys and concrete.  This is the kind of fun I want my child(ren) to have more often.  If you can't have a garden, the CSA is your next best thing.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - Part I

I have been eating WAY more produce this year, now know what a shallot is, and have a great recipe for beet chocolate cake all because of CSAs.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is like bringing the Farmer's Market home with you every week.  Most work like this:

1. A group of local farmers organize to offer the local community their fresh produce.
2. You buy a "share" of the CSA and in return get a box or bag of produce - whatever was just harvested - each week during the growing season.
3. Since you don't pick exactly what you'll be getting each week, recipes are usually included with the box so you can learn new ways to eat new foods!

Depending on the CSA and region, the length of the season and how the food is delivered varies.  We bought into the Food Matters CSA which serves Northern Virginia.  Our growing season lasts from March 5 - November 19 and includes farmers from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.  We've gotten an amazing variety of foods so far.  A lot of different types of greens in the spring (red lettuce, romaine, kale, mustard greens), dried beans, fruits (strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches), goat cheese, tomatoes, corn, onions, and the list goes on and on with something new arriving every week and some favorites sticking around for a few weeks. 

 This was our produce from the very first week: shallots, carrots, red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, kale, and wildflower honey!

I have to say that I LOVE my CSA!

First, it's all organic, so I feel really good about sharing the food with our new eater. 

Second, it hasn't traveled far and so it tastes really, really great.  Freshness really does make a difference! 

Third, I am learning so much about cooking!  Each week brings something different and since I wasn't a master chef to begin with, I usually have to look-up a couple new recipes.  I've found allrecipes.com to be an excellent source for CSA-based recipes.  All you need to do is type in the ingredient you have at the top and it will bring back a list of recipes ranked by hundreds, sometimes thousands of amateur cooks who have tried the recipes.  It does take a bit longer to plan meals each week, but it's worth it to discover how best to cook each fantastic new food.

Fourth, I'm saving time each week by simply picking up a bag of pre-packed produce.  If I didn't have the CSA, I would probably spend longer walking through the Farmer's Market and, for me, it's a lot easier to wrangle the baby into the car, then to navigate a market with her in tow.

Fifth, as I mentioned above, our family is eating more produce.  I don't want any of this amazing stuff to go to waste, so we try really hard to eat it all each week, which leaves less room for over-priced, over-packaged foods.

I highly recommend joining a CSA.  To find one near you, either google Community Supported Agriculture or try one of these helpful sites:

Local Harvest
USDA

Camping with a Baby

In the last two weeks, I've taken Alison on her first two camping trips.  Since we live high up in an apartment building with no real yard, I figured getting Alison outside constantly for 2-3 days at a time would be a great nature learning experience.  Camping in a tent with an infant, however, is not the easiest task.

 Alison DID end up loving the camping trips and spent a lot of time inspecting/eating the flowers around our campsite.

Where will the baby sleep?

If you have a large enough tent, I highly recommend bringing the pack n' play along.  That gives the baby a semi-comfortable place to sleep and also contains her when you don't want her running around.  This worked well for the first camping trip where I had borrowed a friend's larger tent.

A pair of friends brought their pop-up tent and an 8-month-old with them.  They took the table out, put one of the cushions on the ground between the seats, and bolted a board to the end to form a little crib area.  That worked pretty well.

Our family trip to Shenandoah was in a three-person tent with no room for the pack n' play.  I brought an extra sleeping mat, a sheet, and a blanket and situated Alison above my head.  However, it was obvious that she wasn't comfortable on the mat and we had a rough first night.  The second night she ended up moving to the tent floor between my husband and I.  Good thing no one rolled over.

What about food?

Camping food is notoriously unhealthy (mmmm, s'mores), so I brought some store-bought baby food for the trip.  I normally make my own food, but that needs to be refrigerated, which is not always possible while camping.

What else should we bring?

Bring a fan.  It was hot, hot, hot both trips and there is nothing worse than a baby who can't nap because they are uncomfortable.  Also bring layers just in case it gets cold.

Organic mosquito spray because babies are tasty.

Clothes you don't care about.  Alison's camping onesies are now two different colors - dirt-crusted on top, and clean where her shorts came up to cover them.

Shoes might have been nice for walking babies.  Alison doesn't own any yet because I've read shoes can inhibit learning to walk properly.  However, when concrete gets super-hot, it's probably more important to have those feet covered.  We had to swoop in and rescue her more than once.

A fence?  If you can think of a good way to ensure the baby doesn't get into the fire, bring that.  It is a lot of work to constantly remind a 10-month-old to stay away.

Additional gear: I don't think you need to run out and buy anything, but I got a kick out of this site.  For those of you that have the space and like to have specialized gear for your baby, this site has all kinds of things from baby tent cribs to carriers: https://www.mountainbaby.com.

What about activities?

People who sell things are pretty ingenius.  If there's something you like to do, chances are good that someone has come along with a product that will allow you take your baby.  Love hiking?  Get a baby backpack carrier (we have this one and like it a lot)!  Want to bike?  Get a trailer or child seat.  What about boating or floating?  They make life jackets for kids as small as 20 lbs and floaty toys for even smaller ones, which you can get online or I've seen them at Toys 'R Us.  Obviously, you should use your parental sixth sense when determining whether an activity is safe for a baby.

 Alison is reminding us to always bring along some water!

What about the neighbors?

This is a tough one.  I'd hate to wake up the entire campground with my child's crying.  Luckily Alison went right back to sleep quickly and the people around us were really nice about it.  Nursing usually gets the kid back to sleep fast, but I was ready to sit in the car a while just in case.  I never had to.

Bottom Line

In spite of the extra planning, the bottom line is that getting your kids outside early and often is wonderful for them and camping is a great way to do it.  I've noticed that Alison tends to learn faster outside and seems generally happier.  Based on the past two weekends, I can't find any excuse to wait until a child is older, so, go out, have fun, and be a family.  We'll see you on the trail!