Mr. Hank's Corner 11/1/18

I am so excited about our upcoming beach cleanup day this Friday November 2 and hope that many of the families can be out there helping to improve one of the most precious resources we have and that is our ocean.

So many of the students learned about how precious water and how pollution not only damages life around these waterways, but the access to clean drinking water during their visit with the Wyland Foundation exhibit. So having a day out there following such a cool exhibit is so valuable.

I wanted to include some other ways you could make a positive impact just in your own home as well.

How can you be more sustainable and help reduce your carbon footprint? 11 easy to follow steps that we can all do to help make a bit of a difference.

1. Shop at your farmers markets for fresh seasonal food that did not travel thousands of miles. Also, this makes it fun to try new recipes. http://sdfarmbureau.org/BuyLocal/Farmers-Markets.php

2. Purchase your fresh food in consumable, reasonable quantities and commit to eating or sharing all of it. Buy in bulk and put it in mason jars. Brown rice, quinoa, granola are great examples.

3. Write down what you plan to make after you purchase your food or before purchasing. This is a great way to get the whole family involved in preparing food together. Make sure you have a plan for each ingredient you purchased. Also, write a list to go grocery shopping. Buy only what you need for about 2-3 days at most. Produce stays fresher, also allows you to eat foods that are more nutrient

4. Pick a prep day to get ahead for the week, so you have food already started to make weeknight meals happen quickly. Again, a great way to get the kids involved in the process. I always say if kids help grow it, or make it, they will most likely eat it.

5. Make your own compost or locate a compost hauler near you, to avoid sending food to landfills. It is a simple as a bucket with a lid from Home Depot. Look online at places like Peaceful Valley at www.groworgainc.com or your local nursery.

6. Purchase a reusable water bottle to help eliminate those 1 time use water bottles. It takes 3 liters of fuel to produce 1 liter of a plastic water bottle. Also, get reusable bags and rotate them in your car by always keeping maybe 2 available. I keep a bag near the door to remind me to take it daily.

7. Recycle. Typically plastics that are labeled #1 or 2 can go into your curbside recycle. Also, look at Edco Disposal for more information. https://www.edcodisposal.com/corporate/recycling-information/recycling-dos-and-donts.html

8. Plant flowers that are native to your area. San Diego is great for Coastal Sage, Manzanita, Coyote Brush, California Sagebrush, Milkweeds. Help our pollinators. Visit Green Thumb Nurseries at www.greenthumb.com

9. Use soap and water as a natural pesticide. I use Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint.

10. Round Up! NO WAY!! Use vinegar solution to get rid of weeds or make it a fun exercise at home with the kids and see who could pull the largest weeds. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-vinegar-salt-weed-killer-49329.html

11. Try to carpool if you can to school, work or child activities with other families and friends.

These are just a few simple steps that we can all do to help make a positive impact at home, work and right here at Bella Mente Montessori Academy.

Last week we had a great turnout "Making Squash 3 Ways" well, actually we ended up making squash 4 ways with a bonus recipe for my butternut squash soup given out as well. It was so fun to make these dishes that I had to make myself a lasagna over the weekend because there was none left after the class.

A few wonderful tips I love to share with people comes from one of my favorite books "The Art of Simple Food" by Alice Waters. She mentions 9 really important things to think about when it comes to food. This time around I want to touch base about Eat locally and sustainably. Why? As Alice puts it you should learn where your food comes from and how it is produced. Look to buy from farmers or producers who care for the land, if possible organic, humane, and environmentally sound. Seek out diverse variety of vegetables and fruits and those that are seasonal as well.

So during the last "Cooking it up with Mr. Hank" we ate what was in season and those were squashes and they were made into all the courses of a dinner from the salad, main dish and dessert. Participants learned an important cooking technique called blanch. Blanching vegetables such as kale and spinach which was used in our lasagna means cooking them briefly in rapidly boiling water and then transferred into an ice bath to stop the cooking process but keeping the vibrant colors of the vegetable. Blanching is perfect for many of your leafy greens such as kale, chard, beet greens, mustard greens, spinach, dandelion, collards as such. Once blanched you could add these greens to stews and soups or stuff in pastas into a stuffing or just season with soy sauce and eat by themselves. You can get very creative with these nutrient dense greens or just keep it simple. These only need to be added to boiling water for a minute before the ice bath so it is not a very long process. Well, until next time I hope you can do your part to keeping our water ways clean or better yet ask your child how they could help keep our waters clean and together we could make this place better than we started with.

If you are interested in helping out in garden email me Mr. Hank Stelzl at Hstelzl@bellamentecharter.org