After comparing prices on body lotions today, I wandered into the “bulk” section of Rainbow Grocery’s health and beauty section, where huge pump bottles full of lotions and shower gels and shampoos sit on a shelf off to the side. I had seen these plenty of times in the past but had never stopped to examine them until today.

The idea is that you can buy a reusable (and recyclable) plastic bottle, with or without a pump, and fill it with the product of your choice. You are charged for the bottle the first time — a 16-ounce bottle cost .95 cents — but only for the product when you reuse the bottle.

And it is the product that makes this such a great deal.

Today I bought 16-ounces of Alba Unscented Original Body lotion and a 16-ounce bottle for a grand total of $7.39. Compare that to buying the same product in the manufacturer’s packaging — 12-ounces for $10.95 — and I saved $3.56 and gained 4-ounces of product. Next time it will be even cheaper since I’ll bring in my bottle and reuse it.

The lotion itself is terrific — I am a big fan of all the Alba products I have tried. Add to that eliminating waste and saving money? It is the perfect example of reduce, reuse, recycle and might just be enough to make me remember to bring my bottle back to Rainbow for a refill.

A little lesson about freshness:

I asked my man for a wheatgrass juicer for Christmas this year, which he dutifully bought for me. I immediately went out to my local produce market and bought a bag of wheatberries, envisioning a harvest within a couple of days.

Well, I waited and waited and waited and after a couple of weeks I had wheatgrass but it was scraggly and sparse and just not at all what I see at my local juice bar. It was pathetic and unusable.

A few weeks ago my friend Joshua, who is a natural foods chef, came over to do sort of a food consultation. He was teaching me to make quinoa and when I pulled my box of Trader Joe’s quinoa out of the cupboard he said, “You know, you really should buy everything in bulk. Not only is there less waste, but everything sold in bulk is fresher and more nutritious than stuff that has been sitting around in a box for God knows how long.”

Whatever, Joshua.

Earlier this week when our third attempt at growing wheatgrass failed we nearly threw in the towel completely. But then I remembered what Joshua said and on a lark I trotted down to the health food store and bought a bag of wheatberries from the bulk bin.

Within a day they looked like this, with nearly every kernel germinated:

Later that same day, they looked like this:

Today, they look like this:

OK, fine, Joshua, you were right. And it does make sense. If our food is traveling huge distances to get to us — Byron remembers that the first batch of wheatberries we bought were from Greece — it is losing the life inside of it as time passes. I wouldn’t buy fruit from Greece for precisely this reason, but for some reason I never thought about it when it came to beans and grains, which we buy a lot of.

Not only was there no box or bag to dispose of (I can bring the bag back and reuse it next time I buy wheat berries) and no biofuels required to ship it but the quality is clearly superior. It makes sense; a store is only going to carry in bulk those items that it sells a lot of and which move quickly. Lord knows how long that bag of wheatberries was in the produce market before I picked it up.

This wheatgrass is a different animal completely that the first batch, lush and healthy and a shade of green that puts Emerald City to shame. It even creates its own dew, right there in my laundry room.

This is a lesson in localism that hadn’t occurred to me before. Isn’t it fun to learn something new?

As faithful readers of Eco to the People have noticed, posting has been very light over the past several months due to personal drama behind the scenes. My mother died, my sister became a mother and, all in all, it has been a roller coaster ride of emotion. Combine that with germy airplane rides, takeout food and a lack of sleep and I have been a bit of a mess.

After months of upheaval I am in the process of healing my mind and body. I am lightening up my workload and trying to get regular exercise. One of the best places to start, for me, is with food. I find that eating whole, organic foods makes me feel restored almost immediately and upon my return to San Francisco this spring I did a two week cleanse to jump start my “recovery.”

(You can read about it here, and here and here.)

I also met with my friend Joshua Clever, a natural foods chef who has committed to help me (and you vis-a-vis me) learn more about healing through food. My first lesson with Joshua: How to cook quinoa and incorporate it into my meals.

Quinoa is one of those “perfect” foods, in that it combines a bevy of vitamins with a big punch of protein. Depending on the variety of quinoa you use (red, black or white) the grain is 12-18 percent pure protein. It is also a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

It is no wonder then that the Incas held quinoa up as a sacred crop, calling it the “chisaya mama” or the “mother of all grains.”

My first few attempts with quinoa were pretty pathetic. Twice I made what I thought would be a delicious lentil/quinoa combination only to create a 10-pound grey blob that tasted like paste.

I was not impressed by quinoa until Joshua taught me to make it the right way. I own a rice cooker, which makes it perfectly, but I have also tried it on the stove and it comes out just as nicely. The key is the right quinoa-water ratio – one part quinoa to two parts water – and then to let it do it’s thing. I was stirring it and checking it, which in the end created a porridge-like consistency rather than a fluffy, nutty one.

For quinoa newbies, I have found the red to be the easiest to work with. It is sturdier and I have had more success with it than with the white variety, which can get mushy.

So far I have perfected one quinoa recipe that I’d like to share. This is made with quinoa from the bulk bin of my local health food store. If you don’t have a store that sells quinoa in bulk, Trader Joe’s makes a decent red quinoa in a box.

To save time, I prepare a cup or two of quinoa and then store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week. Just add a little water to to a pan and gently steam the amount you plan to eat until it is warm. Or eat it cold.

Quinoa Taco Bowl

This is nutritious and a great way to reuse leftover beans and/ or chicken. The chicken and cheese can be left out if you’d like to make this a vegan dish. This will serve 2 people.

Ingredients:

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 cups cooked (or canned) black beans

leftover chicken, shredded (optional)

lime juice

salt and pepper

1 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 avocado, sliced

shredded cheese (optional)

picante sauce (optional)

Instructions:

Sautee onion for a minute or two, then add tomato and garlic. Sautee until soft and fragrant. Add in black beans and chicken and heat through. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime (or to taste) over the pan and srpinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, put quinoa and water in a covered pan and simmer on low heat until warm. Stir occasionally so that the bottom doesn’t burn.

When everything is hot, put quinoa in a bowl and top with the chicken/bean mixture. Top with avocado and cheese and sprinkle with picante sauce. (I like Valentina.)

Enjoy!

The BP oil spill is one of the most depressing sites I have even seen. This op-ed by Susan D. Shaw for the New York Times, who recently did a dive into the oil slick to observe the wildlife below the sludge, illustrates the effects of this disaster in a way than photos of the surface never could.

Click here to read the article.

More bad news from the Gulf Coast.

The New York Times is now reporting that there are workers, who are trying to clean up the massive BP oil spill, complaining that chemicals being used to fight the gulf oil spill are making them ill.

Read the article here:

Worry About Dispersant Rises as Men in Work Crew Complain of Health Problems

My niece Lucille was born earlier this month and I am more than a little bit obsessed with baby items as a result. This kid is going to be tricked out when it comes to eco-friendly clothing an accessories.

Almost nothing I have seen is cuter than the summer weight Sleep Cocoon from Nature Baby, an organic sleeping bag that even the most active baby won’t be able to wriggle out of.

The cocoon is designed to be worn over baby’s pajamas. The sack, much like a sleeping back, zips down around the toes, making it impossible for little ones to get a chill from kicking off their covers at night.

Little LuLu’s sleep cocoon is in the free range print, with farm animals printed on 100 percent certified organic cotton that has not been treated with any flame retardants or other nasty chemicals. Each cocoon has domes at the shoulder and a double tab zip for easy nappy access.

The summer weight cocoon, with a jersey cotton inner lining, retails for $69. The winter weight cocoon, with a merino wool lining retails for $120. The one-size-fits-all sack will hold babies up to 24 months old.

Scientists and environmentalists say that the government and BP used improper measuring techniques and that the spill was much larger than estimated.

To read this article on the New York Times website, click here.

by MELENA RYZIK

How do you one-up a Dumpster pool?

For David Belt, a developer who created a stir last summer by installing do-it-yourself swimming pools made from Dumpsters in a semi-secret location in Brooklyn, the answer was once again in trash.

His latest project, called “Glassphemy!,” is billed as a psychological recycling experiment. The idea is to make recycling a more direct, visceral experience and to purge some New York aggression simultaneously. The installation, set like the previous project in a private space along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, is a 20-foot-by-30-foot clear box, with high walls made of steel and bulletproof glass. People stand on a high platform at one end of the box and a low platform on the other. Those on the higher platform take empty glass bottles and just chuck ’em into the box — aiming, perhaps, at their compatriots across the way, who are safely outside the onslaught zone. The bottles smash fantastically, artfully designed lights flash, and no one is harmed.

“Recycling’s so boring,” Mr. Belt said. “We tried to make it a little bit more exciting.”

Click here to read the rest of this article on NYTimes.com.

It also meant encountering fur-laden dust bunnies the size of a kitten and dust clouds reminiscent of those aerial shots of Iceland. This was some serious cleaning.

By Saturday  night my apartment was starting to look great. I, on the other hand, was falling apart. All that cat hair and dust, combined with the pollen outside, created an allergy attack the likes of which I haven’t seen in years. My eyes and nose were weeping and I sounded like little Peggy Ann McKay.

Of course, I was out of my prescription allergy medication. Desperate measures were in order.

At the urging of my boyfriend I used our neti pot.  I slightly was dubious; I felt too far gone for a little bit of salt water to offer any relief.

Whaddaya know! It helped. A lot. The neti pot works by flushing your nasal passages of irritants, in my case half a cat. A solution of warm water and a pinch of sea salt goes in one nostril, through your septum and out the other nostril. It isn’t nearly as gross as it sounds, and doesn’t feel any different than getting a little bit of water up your nose while swimming.

My nose stayed clear for the rest of the evening, which allowed me to sleep peacefully. Always happy to get my hands on a chemical-free, eco-friendly solution that works, I’ll use my neti pot in the future before I reach for my medication.

For a demonstration on how to use a neti pot, check out this YouTube video. (I’d like to tell you that I looked this polished and serene when I used mine but that would be a bold-faced lie. I recommend a bib of some sort, or you can do it in the shower or bath.)

You can purchase neti pots at any natural food store. I purchased mine at Rainbow Grocery.

Don’t try this at home:

Earlier this week I posted an article I wrote about a company called 3SecondReceipts, which aims to eliminate paper receipts on college campuses.

Great minds think alike, I guess. Later that same day I received an email from Houston Neal, director of marketing for Software Advice inviting me to take a poll on paper receipts.

The accompanying blog post by Don Fornes is a good one, which I thought I’d share. Check out the post and scroll to the bottom to take the poll.