Roslindale’s First Community Kitchen

By Aviva Furman

On Saturday, December 3, the kitchen in the Roslindale Community Center was transformed into a hub of activity. Amidst chopping of vegetables and paring of fruits, friendly conversations got going and appetizing dishes emerged.

This was the scene of Roslindale’s first Community Kitchen. Twelve participants gathered to cook up a storm and went home with a variety of tasty vegetarian dishes. Participants, many new to each other, brought either a recipe and its ingredients, or contributed cash. We prepared eight dishes in two hours, no small feat on a 4-burner stove and single oven.

The aromas rivaled grandma’s house at Thanksgiving – without the turkey. Our Community Kitchen was a vegetarian affair. Dishes included chipotle spiced squash, lentil salad, a vegan macaroni and cheese, and poached pears. Some ingredients came from local CSA’s, and one participant even contributed pounds of fresh kale from her garden.

Community Kitchens are springing up in cities all over the US. They provide a fun way to get to know neighbors, learn new recipes, and stock the fridge with economical and healthy food.

Our Roslindale Community Kitchen had several unique features. Organic whole-wheat flour was available for purchase at the wholesale price of $.53 a pound thanks to local bakery Fornax. Cooks were treated to delightful live music on the fiddle and bass while they chopped, stirred and chatted, thanks to Kim Patch and Eric Smalley.

As one participant commented, "Music, food, and community. What more could you ask for?"

Community Kitchen is a project of GreeningRozzie, an organization whose mission is to make Roslindale a greener, more sustainable and more cohesive community The Roslindale Community Kitchen will continue as a monthly event. We welcome all participants. If you’d like to be on the Community Kitchen email list, contact ck@greeningrozzie.org.

GreeningRozzie Plants Trees at the Roslindale MBTA Station

By Amy Galblum

The Roslindale MBTA Station got a significant green facelift in the form of a dozen new trees -- a pin oak, and two sugar maples, crabapples and Japanese Lilac trees.

Community group, GreeningRozzie, led the effort. The group was awarded a grant of $2,500 from Grow Boston Greener for trees, mulch and fertilizer, and coordinated 20 GreeningRozzie volunteers who dug holes and the planted trees in and around the station’s upper parking lot.

“The large shade trees and smaller flowering trees will make the station more attractive, and tie it to the surrounding neighborhood,” said GreeningRozzie board member, Amy Galblum, who secured the grant funds and coordinated the volunteers. As part of the effort, the MBTA has also agreed to remove several dead and dying trees to give the area a more lively and welcoming look.

GreeningRozzie’s Tree Committee is planning more tree planting projects in the spring. Possibilities include planting in the lower area of the MBTA Station, other public spaces, and putting new street trees in empty sidewalk pits. “Roslindale is fortunate to have green parks surrounding the community -- the Arboretum, the George Wright Golf Course and Stony Brook Reservation -- but some residential streets are in great need of additional trees,” noted Ken Phillips, GreeningRozzie’s chairperson.

In a related effort to improve the Roslindale tree cover, GreeningRozzie and Roslindale Green and Clean are working to encourage residents to water newly planted street trees so the trees have a better chance of surviving. The Grow Boston Greener grant award specifies that the new trees at the MBTA Station be watered for three years to give them a good start.

GreeningRozzie has chosen to focus efforts on trees in part because research shows that that there are many benefits to adding trees to urban areas.
• Tree-shaded sidewalks encourage pedestrian activity – getting people to walk a few blocks rather than drive gives a city a friendlier atmosphere.
• Green areas encourage more healthy social interaction between adults and children and lower levels of graffiti and crime.
• Trees and other plants increase curb appeal and make the landscape more comfortable by providing shade and evaporation to lower temperatures.

The next GreeningRozzie Community Meeting is about street trees. Everyone is welcome. There will be a presentation on trees and information about future tree projects. It will be held on Wednesday, November 16, 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Roslindale Community Center at 6 Cummins Highway.

Grow Boston Greener (GBG) is a collaborative effort of the City of Boston and Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN). The group's goal is to increase the urban tree canopy cover in the city by planting 100,000 trees by 2020. This will increase Boston’s tree canopy cover from 29% today to 35%, by 2020 as the planted trees mature. GBG is funded through the Fund for Parks and Recreation in Boston.

GreeningRozzie’s mission is to make Roslindale a greener, more sustainable, and more cohesive community. It's overriding goal is to help achieve a 25% reduction in Roslindale’s carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

GreeningRozzie Community Meeting report: Canning Demo with Charlie Redd from Redds in Rozzie

By Eric Lewandowski

Charlie Redd, Chef-owner of Redds in Rozzie, a new restaurant in Roslindale Village, gave an informative hands-on workshop on the principles of canning and preserving fruits and vegetables at the October GreeningRozzie community meeting.

The chef discussed various methods of preservation, including fermenting, pickling, brining and jams and jellies, as a means to extend local produce. Redd said his restaurant cans local produce to use as flavor accents during the winter months. Redds in Rozzie sources local produce and humanely raised meats.

Redd, inspired by the overabundance of pumpkins this time of year, said that walking a small group of people through the techniques would help demystify the process and convey his excitement in using fresh and local in-season produce.

Redd ran pumpkins that were roasted in the oven at the restaurant earlier in the day through a food mill to puree them in preparation for the caning process. At the canning demonstration, held in the community center kitchen, the chef heated the pumpkin thoroughly and filled the jars up to just below the neck marking.

He put fresh lids and screw tops on the jars and put them in a large pot with a boiling water-bath for 30 minutes. While the Pumpkin was processing in the water bath Chef Redd talked about his experience and techniques involved in preserving vegetables and fruits and some of the issues to be aware of when preserving to prevent food contamination.

The chef  opened a jar of fermented dill pickles for the group to sample during the question and answer portion of the demo while fielding questions about his green business practices and back-of-the house operations. He spoke of his waste reduction and recycling strategies and commented on how the cost of operating business in an green or sustainable way is becoming less expensive, adding that he feels it is the right thing to do.

He also shared is recommended list of books related to canning:
How to Pick a Peach, by Russ Parsons
On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee
Blue Ribbon Preserves, by Linda J. Amendt
Preserving, The Good Cook, by Time Life Books
Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home, by Klaus Kaufmann
Independence Days, by Sharon Astyk
Quick Pickles, by John Willoughby & Chris Schlesinger
Ball Canning and Preserving Book

The meeting, coordinated by Eric Lewandowski, a Greening Rozzie board member, was attended by about 20 people.

Edible Garden Stroll and Harvest Potluck showcased Rozzie-grown bounty

By Karen Kirchoff

On September 25th a dozen attendees participated in the first Roslindale Edible Garden Stroll and Harvest Potluck. We enjoyed an afternoon together of music, food and garden visits.

As we ate home-prepared potluck meals made with local harvest, Kim Patch and Eric Smalley played live music on fiddle and bass. The delectables included kale salad, spicy sweet potatoes, tomatillo chipotle biscuits and poached pears. Country reels floated on the air as we enjoyed meeting new – and re-connecting with old – Roslindale neighbors.

After our sumptuous lunch, the group set out – many by bicycle – to visit six Roslindale produce-bearing gardens. The gardens reflected a mix of styles, sizes, influences, and produce. Our goal was to see the types of edibles gardeners were growing given the constraints and advantages of urban living, and to learn from their creative-problem solving.

The event was co-sponsored by the Community Garden Initiative of the Friends of Healy Field (FOHF) and GreeningRozzie. The Community Garden Initiative is organizing to gain neighborhood support for a Community Garden in a part of Healy Field that doesn't compete with current athletic uses of the field.

On the stroll we found a transplanted Mainer who eased homesickness by converting an entire front yard into a life-giving food oasis, producing peach trees and grape vines, tomatoes, kale and chard, among other vegetables. The garden is tended by parents and a young son.

An American family of Albanian and Greek descent on Belgrade Avenue re-sited their garden after observing urban run-off from their driveway leaching into their garden soil. A boundary line of fencing now resourcefully supports a profuse vertical garden of butternut squashes. Peppers, herbs, tomatoes, eggplants and grapes share garden space. Our hosts explained their pickling recipe and methods of preserving. A pining for the flavors of the mother country has nurtured a “thana” tree – a mildly sweet fruit tree native to Alabania. And a two-year old apple tree is yielding fruit for the first time. This garden is right along the commuter rail tracks and feeds four families! The elders of the family, whose English is limited, have handed down gardening knowledge and skills, demonstrating how three generations work together in their garden to harvest produce in an adopted new urban environment and country. We were reminded here that organic gardening is a wise, centuries-old practice.

Nearby, we discovered steep steps leading to a container garden “terraced” onto the pitched hillside. Here was creative adaptation to a challenging site.
Successful strawberries and herb crops abounded. One of these gardeners also tends a Community Garden plot on Cummings Highway in Roslindale. We were delighted to be invited to visit that plot on a future Edible Garden Stroll.

We found our next edible garden next to Healy Field the site of our hoped-for Community Garden in Roslindale. Here grass was completely removed to create a sanctuary of healing herbs, apple trees, vegetables, and flowers. We were shown how to make a “potato box” to grow this root crop, vertically increasing one gardener’s productive capacity.

On we went to a second-story dwelling where our intrepid host gardener had solved multiple urban garden challenges: situating a garden on a second-floor deck, getting soil to the second floor, and using ingenious container choices to house new vegetable crops. Barely six months old, this deck garden flourished, beckoning from the balcony’s wooden railing. We saw foot-long beans, green beans and sprouted beans. Our host talked about experimenting with container types and sizes for the profuse variety of green crops now popping forth on her porch. Recently relocated from Seattle, she said that having a garden was her first priority when settling in Roslindale. Now additional fall plantings of lettuces and greens are underway.

The most surprising garden of the day treated us to sub-tropical growing in Boston. Here we found an astonishing variety of mature container trees and plants: figs, bananas, coffee, guava, strawberries, limes, and much more – all bearing fruit! Tomatillos, bay leaf trees, expansive varieties of herbs and vegetables – many from the Dominican Republic and the Carribean - nestled next to each other in container upon container of healthy produce. Our host conveyed a deep self-taught knowledge of botany, organic methods, plant propagation, rotation for soil health, winterizing methods, and greenhouse skills. In the ground we spotted squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and enormous pumpkins. Next to the garden, in a pristine koi pond, swim big healthy koi. Our gardener explained some of his propagation methods. For example, he takes one cutting from each of his plants before winter sets in to preserve the future of the plants in case any of the originals die during the cold season. Pepper plants are brought inside during the winter, seasoning the flavor and preserving the specimens.

Thanks to all our generous host gardeners, and to the participants who came to our first Edible Garden Stroll and Harvest Potluck. You made our day a success - one to look forward to again next year.

Interested in our 2012 Edible Garden Stroll and Potluck?
Contact: RozzieGrowsFood@gmail.com
Karen Kirchoff and Aviva Furman organized this event.

Watch for future GreeningRozzie events, and please join the Community Garden Initiative to plan for a community garden here in Roslindale.

Give Your Home an Energy Efficiency Makeover

By Eric Smalley

The nights are getting cooler. Though there are still cookouts and trips to the beach to be had this season, it's also time to prepare your home for fall and winter. The question is, what should you do?

There’s the usual stuff: Get your annual furnace tune-up and dig out your storm windows from the basement. This year, though, you can go beyond the usual and give your home a full-blown energy efficiency makeover - at little or no cost. Even better, you could save hundreds of dollars a year. This is all thanks to a major initiative by the City of Boston.

The Renew Boston home energy efficiency upgrade program from Boston's Environmental and Energy Services pays up to $3,500 for work on residents' homes, including insulation. A typical home that needs insulation and air sealing could save more than $800 a year on energy costs after the energy makeover, according to Renew Boston officials.

Improve the energy efficiency of your home and you're also reducing your contribution to global warming. Residential buildings account for 21 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.

The Renew Boston program is available to city residents who live in 1- to 4-family buildings and who earn between 60 and 120 percent of the median income in Boston. This is $30,751 to $61,502 for a single person household and $78,060 to $156,120 for a six-person household.

Sign up for a no-cost home energy assessment, and find out more details at www.greeningrozzie.org/renewboston.

The assessment is a great way to learn how energy-efficient your home is, whether or not your home needs or is eligible for all of the weatherization services. You'll also receive free high-efficiency light bulbs and water-saving devices. The program is open to landlords and tenants, as well as homeowners.

If your income falls outside of the eligible range, there are other programs you can take advantage of. For people with incomes below 60 percent of the median income, the federal low-income weatherization program provides free assessments and weatherization upgrades. Contact Action for Boston Community Development at www.bostonabcd.org/programs/FuelAssistance.html.

If your income is above 120 percent of the median income, the statewide Mass Save program can cover 75 percent of weatherization costs. See www.masssave.com.

If you want to make your home as energy efficient as possible, you can go a step further: Hire a weatherization contractor to perform blower door and infrared camera tests to show you where air and heat leak from your home, which can help you fine-tune your weatherization efforts.

Learn more about energy efficiency at the next GreeningRozzie meeting: Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center, 6 Cummins Highway in Roslindale Square.

Help spread the word about Renew Boston, and work to improve the energy efficiency of Boston's homes by telling your neighbors about the program and getting involved with neighborhood climate and energy groups like GreeningRozzie, West Roxbury Saves Energy and Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN).

As your thoughts turn to the changing season, keep in mind that now is a great time to save money, save energy and reduce your carbon emissions.

Eric Smalley is a journalist who lives in Roslindale. He is on the board of GreeningRozzie and a member of Creek River String Band.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

Suggestions for How to Live Fragrance Free

By Janet Levatin, MD

When I moved to Roslindale a little over two years ago, I loved the community right away. I rented a spacious, third-floor apartment on a quiet street with friendly neighbors. One of my favorite parts of the apartment was the beautiful back deck that was up in the treetops. Before I moved in, I envisioned myself dining there, doing yoga there, maybe even hanging a hammock there for relaxing on warm, breezy days.

But something interrupted my reverie. While on the deck I noticed an odor that was simultaneously sweet, bitter, acrid … and noxious.

I immediately identified it as exhaust from someone’s dryer vent carrying the scent of synthetic laundry product fragrances. Inclusion of synthetic fragrances in many products is a trend that has been growing rapidly in recent years. Many brands of laundry products (detergent, fabric softener, bleach, stain remover, and dryer sheets) contain synthetic fragrances. I react badly to fragrances, as do an increasing number of individuals. Exposure to the chemical-containing laundry exhaust would curtail my ability to use my great deck.

I embarked on a campaign to educate myself about fragrances and other toxic chemicals encountered in today’s world, and I learned a lot. I want to share this knowledge with my neighbors and community, as we all deserve to live healthier lives with less exposure to synthetic chemicals.

Here are some of the facts according to www.womensvoices.org and University of Washington professor Anne Steinemann:

Research has shown that exposure to some fragrance chemicals can cause headaches, breathing difficulties, skin rashes, nasal inflammation, diarrhea and vomiting in infants and can also exacerbate asthma. Some fragrance chemicals can also block or mimic hormone reactions in humans and other animals.
Fragrance ingredients that are known to be toxic (synthetic musks) can be found in human fat, blood, and breast milk, and in the bodies of the majority of newborn babies. The more exposures a mother has to fragrances during pregnancy, the more chemicals will accumulate in her baby’s tissues.
When a product contains the ingredient “fragrance,” that fragrance can be composed of up to several hundred individual chemicals, most of which are synthetic.
Manufacturers of scented products are not required to list ingredients that compose the fragrances (in some cases they are considered “trade secrets”). This makes consumers’ ability to purchase healthier products challenging.
Even products labeled “all natural,” “green,” and “organic” can contain synthetic fragrances and other synthetic chemicals, as there is very little regulation of product content or labeling in the U.S.
Fragrance chemicals from soaps, shampoos, and laundry products that go down our drains are collecting in soil, water (rivers and lakes), and a variety of animals that live in or near water.
Women are disproportionately affected by exposure to fragrance chemicals, as they do most of the shopping for products, do most household cleaning, and have a greater percentage of body fat than men (and chemicals tend to be stored in body fat).

So what’s a consumer to do?

Buy cosmetics and body care products that are free of some of the most dangerous chemicals, including parabens, phthalates, and synthetic musks. Please visit www.safecosmetics.org, www.cosmeticsdatabase.com, and www.storyofcosmetics.org for more information on choosing healthier personal care products.
Choose healthier cleaning products that are free of toxic chemicals such as bleach and synthetic fragrances.
Some of us may even choose to make our own cleaning products, thus insuring that they contain safe ingredients.
Demand that companies list ingredients on their products and begin using safer formulations. At www.womensvoices.org you can find links for contacting some of the major companies using toxic ingredients and ask them to make changes.
We can also seek more effective regulation of the cosmetic and cleaning product industries by communicating with our legislators and with the FDA and demanding that safer products become the standard.

How to get involved in GreeningRozzie

Save money and the environment while you help GreeningRozzie: Renew Boston will give $50 to GreeningRozzie for each person who signs up through our website for a free energy audit. The audit will determine how your house can be more energy efficient, it will provide discounts on energy improvements, and for a limited time, people who qualify as low-income households can get up to $3,500 of energy upgrades. Go to www.GreeningRozzie.org/RenewBoston for more information and to sign up.
Join GreeningRozzie or sign up to help at www.GreeningRozzie.org or email Ken@GreeningRozzie.org.

GreeningRozzie events this month

Aug. 17 – GreeningRozzie's monthly community meetings (third Wednesday of every month), 6:30-8:30 p.m., Roslindale Community Center
Aug. 18 -21 – GreeningRozzie's table at Boston Greenfest, go to www.bostongreenfest.org for more information and a schedule of events. Volunteers welcome to help staff our table, contact Ken@GreeningRozzie.org.

GreeningRozzie's Information Tables at the Farmers Markets, Saturdays, 9-1:30, Adams Park:

August 13 – Kids Health and Fitness - Lead: Sam Warren
August 27 – Green Products – Lead: Janet Levatin,

Janet Levatin is a GreeningRozzie board member and holistic physician in the Boston area.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

Why We Support Expanded Bottle Redemption Bill

By Amy Galblum

Enacted in 1983, the current Massachusetts bottle bill has provided an economic incentive of 5 cents per bottle for consumers to return used beverage containers; it has had impressive results important to all of us.

Currently, 80% of redeemable bottles are recycled in Massachusetts. After more than two decades, the effectiveness of a bottle deposit has been proven. In a meeting with GreeningRozzie Board members last week, Jim Hunt, Mayor Thomas Menino’s chief of Environmental and Energy Services, noted that, “The current bottle bill is the most successful recycling program known to mankind.”

The success of the current bottle bill can be measured in keeping our streets, beaches and parks clean. However, they are not clean enough.

The 1983 “Beverage Container Recovery Law” covers only beer, malt, carbonated soft drinks, and mineral water. In the last decades there has been a noticeable increase in the sale of bottled water, sports drinks, iced teas, coffees, and flavored water. Unfortunately, only 20% of these non-redeemable bottles are recycled, even with the ubiquity of curbside recycling, single stream bins (large household mixed recycling), and increased public awareness. We can do better, and we can do it with the expanded bottle redemption bill now before the state Legislature.

Industry representatives and lobbyists from beverage suppliers and grocery stores are against the expanded bottle bill and are once again poised to derail any additions to the list of redeemable bottled drinks.

They have threatened us with the specter of higher prices even though surveys have shown that prices are not higher in New England states with bottle deposits than they are in states without bottle deposits. It is also clear that voluntary recycling supported by industry voices is no match for a bottle redemption fee. The expanded bottle bill has been characterized as a tax, but a bottle deposit is not a tax as it is redeemable and will actually save tax money now set aside for trash collection. There are already systems in place in grocery stores and redemption centers for recycling and deposit returns that could be expanded to include more bottles.

An expanded bottle bill is in the interest of all Boston residents. There are too many environmental advantages to turn it down.

Currently, more than 1 billion non-carbonated containers end up as litter, buried in landfills or burned in incinerators each year in the Commonwealth.

According to Kenneth Kimmel, Mass Department of Environmental Protection commissioner, an estimated 750 million of those bottles would be diverted from the solid waste stream under an updated law.

A bottle redemption cost would be the best and most cost effective litter prevention measure possible. The expanded bottle bill would save money for the city of Boston – an estimated $500,000 per year in costs for glass and plastics that would otherwise be tossed into the trash.

Would the industry like to contribute that amount to the city of Boston to cover the costs they now incur?

The GreeningRozzie board supports bills intended to expand the bottle law to include other drinks and recommends that residents and business owners in Roslindale also back this initiative.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

Learn About Buying Local Food and Sharing

By Ken Phillips

Local food and food sharing is important to GreeningRozzie because buying local supports the local economy, lowers our carbon load from less transportation required, and the food gets to us sooner after it's picked - it's fresher.

Kate Cannery of Needham’s Neighborhood Farms says, “Once you have good food, you’ll never go back.”

Local, sustainably grown food is also more nutritious. According to U. S. Department of Agriculture research reported this year by Mother Earth News, “The commercially grown vegetables, fruits and grains that we eat today are significantly less nutritious than these foods were 100 years ago, or even 30 years ago.”

According to the article, protein concentrations in wheat and barley dropped 30-50% from 1938 to 1990. Calcium content in broccoli dropped 66% from 1950 to 2003. Yields may have increased from “fertilization, irrigation and other environmental means” but the value of the food decreased. Even worse “nutrient declines in processed foods are much deeper and broader than the declines of fresh, whole foods.”

In my experience, food grown locally is completely different from food grown commercially. It seems that commercial food is grown to look good, have a long shelf life, and tolerate more transport. In France and Switzerland, emphasis is on shopping frequently for the freshest local food: fruits, vegetables, grains and meats. Many restaurants feature seasonal food, and emphasize the taste of food grown or raised locally. The changing recipes add variety throughout the year.

There's something very nice about eating locally – consuming what the ground supports for you here and now.

GreeningRozzie board member Kim Patch belongs to a CSA that has been offering locally grown vegetables year-round for the past two years. Some vegetables are stored in the ground and harvested from under the snow, others are stored in greenhouses.

"Some of the winter vegetables taste different - the carrots get sweeter," said Patch. “We also get things like garlic, onions, parsnips, squash, cabbage and kohlrabi year-round,” she said. "A couple hundred years ago eating more locally and knowing what local carrots tasted like in the winter was more commonplace. I like going back to those traditions."

Eating locally is better for the environment, and better for us. It's nice being closer to the real world, said Patch. "You're more connected to the place where you live and the weather and how it connects to your food." It also builds community. "We're in a pickup group with neighbors," said Patch

GreeningRozzie has plans to increase the sense of community through local food potluck parties. We're thinking it would be nice to share thoughts on local food, healthier food and more economical food by having a series of potluck parties where we'll bring food made with local ingredients.

One goal is to figure out how to be more economical in acquiring organic and whole foods like grains. We may, for example, buy a 50 lb sack of organic whole grain and split it up as part of a potluck party. Kate Hebel, UMass Extension volunteer, believes that “potlucks can help diversify your diet by introducing you to new foods and help foster community spirit.”

Barbara Kingsover wrote “Animal Vegetable Mineral” about eating local for a year. Her family had a farm and access to farmers markets. They gave everyone in the family one exception to the local food rule – her husband chose coffee, her daughter chocolate, another daughter dried fruit, and she chose spices. Each also had to find the best source for the exceptions. This story shows that you can source a large percentage of what you eat locally with a little ingenuity.

GreeningRozzie also has an idea for a "tool share." We can share tools relating to all kinds of home activities including gardening and canning. We’d like to see GreeningRozzie help people do as much local food as possible because it's good for people (especially kids) good for the environment, and good for local farmers.

At our next community meeting on Wednesday, July 20, we'll explore what we as a community can do, including planning local food potluck parties where we share ideas, sources, food, and recipes, and explore bulk buying of organic and whole foods and tool sharing. Join us at the Roslindale Community Center at 6:30 to hear local experts on these topics and to contribute your own ideas.

Come to the meeting to help the GreeningRozzie effort to:

Promote and provide information for better family food
Promote purchase of food produced locally
Help everyone grow their own food in yards, porches and balconies and in school, residence and community gardens
Advocate for better city, state and national food policy.

How to get involved:

GreeningRozzie's Monthly Community Meetings, Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Roslindale Community Center
July 20 – Local food potlucks, bulk purchases and tool sharing – Kim Patch
Aug. 17 – Green products: How to have a healthy home – Janet Levatin

GreeningRozzie's information tables at Roslindale Farmers Market, Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Adams Park

July 23 - Trees and tree care - Pam Sinotte
Aug. 6 - Green Streets in Roslindale, Liz Carver and New England Climate Action Summer Bike Team
Aug. 13 - Kids health and fitness - Sam Warren
Aug. 27 - Green products - Janet Levatin

Volunteers needed

Media and PR. Volunteers to send announcements about GreeningRozzie events to newspapers, organizations, schools, websites, and other contacts.
Community resources. Volunteers to collect information about resources in Roslindale that support green efforts

Sign up at www.GreeningRozzie.org. For more information, write to Ken@GreeningRozzie.org.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

Try Edible Landscaping for Garden Ideas

By Amy Galblum

Gardening has become an increasingly popular pastime at the same time that there has been an explosion of interest in healthy and locally produced food. And what could be more local and healthier than food grown in your own yard? Maybe you have a few favorite vegetables in a sunny spot out back, or even a full vegetable garden, but consider planting more edible foods around your yard – even in the front of your house!

There are many reasons to add edible plantings to your landscape. You can enjoy the freshest and tastiest berries, ripe fruits, and new and interesting herbs and vegetables at the same time that you enhance the beauty and interest of your yard. There is great satisfaction in growing your own edibles, and gardening in a way that is creative and adds to the overall sustainable footprint of your household and community.

Edibles can be included in your home landscape in a variety of ways. As an easy first step, tuck some attractive small vegetables and herbs into an existing open spot among perennials or annual flowers. Have you noticed the lovely window boxes in front of one of Roslindale’s newest restaurants, Redds in Rozzie on Washington Street, featuring luxuriant lettuce plants and mint?

Another fabulous “looker” is the newly trendy Romanesco broccoli. Shaped like a pyramid, this broccoli resembles a cauliflower but is light green in color. Most interestingly, the broccoli's floral pattern approximates a natural fractal – it has been used by math teachers as a demonstration model. I used it as a centerpiece on my table for a couple of weeks last fall before it landed in a pot on the stove.

In her book, “The Edible Front Yard,” Ivette Soler notes that, "out front you need to make deliberate choices that give your edibles as much ornamental appeal as any well designed-garden." She presents several criteria, including that entire plant must have a pleasing form and should not be chosen only on the merits of its flowers (or vegetable or fruit), it should offer at least two reasons to plant it (such as color and form, or texture and seedpods), and its leaves must hold up for the entire growing season.

Some attractive edible plants that fit these criteria include kale, multi-colored chard (with its eye-catching rainbow stems), chives (which have a charming spring bloom), sage, rosemary, thyme and rhubarb.

Berry bushes can also be very appealing additions to your landscape. Raspberries are expensive in the markets because they are difficult to store and ship – so why not have a patch in the backyard where you can pick them fresh before breakfast? Raspberry (and blackberry) bushes spread easily but domesticated varieties are unlikely to become a pest. They are both prickly, so it is wise to put them in an out-of-the-way spot.

High-bush blueberries (of which you must have at least two varieties for pollination) are a great choice with their charming bell-shaped flowers, shiny summer leaves and flaming fall foliage. Then there are gooseberries, currants and strawberries (low-growing ground-cover type plants) that can all make great additions to an urban backyard garden and delicious grazing opportunities for urban residents. A sampling of each could afford you the chance to make a rhubarb, strawberry, gooseberry, currant pie, as I did a number of years ago.

Fruit trees, such as dwarf apple, peach, pear or cherry trees, fit nicely into an urban yard. Even a crab apple tree has an edible fruit. Nan K. Chase, in her book, “Eat Your Yard,” recommends specific crab-apple varieties and provides recipes for crabapple jelly. She also provides recipes for the fruits of other interesting trees including the quince and nearly-forgotten paw-paw tree.

Think about how existing structures around your house might be enhanced with edible plants. A front entry could be topped with an edible vine-type plant such as a grape, or hop vine, or the surprising cool-weather kiwi. A wall or front stairway could be the backdrop for bushes or even an espaliered (trained to grow against a flat surface) apple or pear tree.

If you are deterred from the idea of planting an edible landscape because your yard is shady, you will be pleased to know that there are options for those with less sun too, such as arugula, chard, kale, lettuce, nasturtium and parsley.

Edible landscaping is back in fashion, and hopefully you will be inspired to make some delicious landscaping changes as the summer kicks off and your garden beckons.

Author Amy Galblum will be making a presentation on edible landscaping at the next GreeningRozzie Community meeting on Wednesday, June 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

Wake Up the Earth by Composting

By Karen Kirchoff

Six light-green lettuce sprouts emerge from a seedling tray, exuberant and healthy. Each of these sprouts will soak up a few sunbeam hours a day, “hardening” into sturdiness before transplanting. Spring has arrived!

It’s time to shovel up the most important garden tool you have: Your soil.

All over the city, gardeners are preparing their soil for spring plantings of vegetables and flowers.

During a recent Arnold Arboretum “Urban Veggies” class, Abby Hird emphasized basic garden elements that will nourish these lettuce blooms. Pointing to a large outdoor circular bin, Hird showed table scraps and kitchen waste decomposing within: veggie peelings, citrus rinds, eggshells, and even torn-up egg cartons.

“Compost really started with people just digging a hole in the ground and burying their waste,” Hird explained. As she used a shovel to turn the black mass in the compost pile, a vapor of heat rose. The class shared a collective gasp of surprise and delight on that April night: compost biology before our very eyes! This compost will “wake up” garden soil for lettuce leaf plantings.

Evidence of composting has been found as far back as the early Romans. If you haven’t considered making your own compost, this is a good year to start. The beauty of making compost is the sustainable cycle it creates: table waste becomes nutrient-rich food for your garden and lawn. Your composting efforts will reduce your household’s contribution to landfill waste. And you will be making steps toward a green environment.

Lisa Becker, of Mass Audubon Habitat, is an avid composter. “Good composting makes life happy for the FBI: fungi, bacteria and invertebrates. These tiny creatures of nature do all the work in composting, breaking down all your waste into black gold: chocolate cake-like soil! The FBI need water, food, air, and a place to live,” explained Becker, “and your compost pulls them into your garden.”

Becker will be talking about compost at the next GreeningRozzie meeting on May 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center.

She teaches that a good compost recipe has “brown” (carbon) and “green” (nitrogen) materials mixed together, preferably in a 3:1 ratio. This ratio allows for good aerobic activity by microbes and keeps the mixture from being smelly. As one website put it: “Too much brown slows it down; too much green makes a scene.”

“Brown” compost sources include “dead, crunchy leaves” and mulch. “Green” sources include vegetable scraps and grass clippings. Others advise pine needles, corn stalks, and paper for added “brown” materials and coffee grounds, seaweed, and overripe fruit for “green” sources.

When compost is added to soil (1/4th to 1-inch around plants), the soil is inoculated with beneficial microbes. These microorganisms then make essential nutrients available for plant growth: natural sources of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other elements. Nothing is wasted. A wonderful system of symbiotic relationships now enhances the food soil web of your garden. This “microbial manifest destiny” is self-sustaining over time.

Compost is additive nutrition to your soil. It gives soil structure, strengthens plant roots, deepens their root systems and builds defense against disease. Compost doesn’t depend on fossil fuels, as does synthetic fertilizer. It’s a fun project to do with your family and friends. As Hird put it, “I told all my friends to give me their kitchen scraps for my compost pile!” In exchange, people share their veggie bounty.

All this soil nutrition without spending a dime on synthetic fertilizer. Compost, in place of chemical fertilizer, also avoids toxic run-off into groundwater. Research has shown that synthetic fertilizers deplete the long-term immune capabilities of plants, weaken their root structures and cause plant dependency on the chemical soup.

Compost improves plant health by increasing the plant’s own defense system against pests and disease. Why use pesticides, which are linked to human health consequences such as leukemia and endocrine disorders, when simple, cost-effective kitchen home gardening methods can prevail?

Synthetic pesticides cause the most risk for children and pets. Synthetic pesticides also build pesticide resistance in pest species, requiring more frequent and more intense applications – and more expense – over time. Compost is a safe, cost-effective alternative to both synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use in your lawn and garden.

Writer Michael Pollen has documented the cost of not growing local food. Each item of non-local food in U.S. households has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. North Americans pay $0.85 of every food dollar on processing, marketing and transportation. Hundreds to thousands of food dollars can be saved per household per year when food is grown in local yards and community gardens.

Small kitchen compost buckets can hold your vegetable scraps until you need to dump them outdoors. A suitable size for a compost pile in the yard is 3 feet x 3 feet x 3 feet and can be made with a circle of hardware cloth. Other options are a rotating drum or the nifty new Brave New Composter.

Compost typically matures through a four-season cycle, ready in time for your yearly plantings. Special amendments can speed up the cycle.

Becker uses her compost bins to produce mulch for her gardens. She mows her fallen leaves in autumn, recycles them in her compost pile, and by spring has “rich, bark-like mulch.”

This past year, Lisa experimented with leaving a layer of fall leaves spread over her garden and was rewarded with being free of weeding “thousands of maple saplings” that typically appear in spring. Over this leaf layer, she will now spread her rich, dark compost mulch to add attraction and nutritive value to her garden soil.

Back at Hird’s vegetable garden, she is ready to “wake up” her soil with mature compost. And her beautiful lettuce seedlings will bring local food straight from garden to dinner plate.

Get involved

Join GreeningRozzie at www.GreeningRozzie.org
Come to GreeningRozzie’s next monthly community meeting, Wednesday, 6:30-8:30pm at the Roslindale Community Center, for one action topic and planning
May 18 – Hands-on home composting demo
June 15 – Gardening and edible landscaping
Support GreeningRozzie’s information tent at Adams Park Farmers Markets, June 4 – opening day and World Environment Day – Composting demo
June 11 – Sustainability day – gardening and chickens info and demo
volunteer to increase composting in Roslindale, prepare a monthly newsletter, and collect information about resources to support our green efforts.
For more information, email Ken@GreeningRozzie.org.

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.

What’s It Mean to be Green?

By Ken Philips

GreeningRozzie was created in February 2010 by a group of residents who believe that Roslindale is a perfect community to pioneer innovative and involving community activities to improve our environment, reduce our impact on global warming, and ensure a greener world for our children and grandchildren. In just a year, it has conducted 20 events and attracted hundreds of interested people.

Vision for the community

Our vision for Roslindale is a community with shade trees on every street, compost bins and gardens in every yard, balcony or even sunny window, and rapidly growing consumption of nutritious local foods at home, in restaurants and in schools. We see a community where residents are making their homes, their lives and their community greener, more sustainable and less expensive.

We want to help people to save money through more energy-efficient houses, apartments and businesses and to improve their family’s health (which also saves money) through better food and nutrition, more walking and biking, and healthy habits and reduction of toxins. We want to find ways to reduce waste and pollution in homes, restaurants, businesses, in transportation, and in everyone’s daily lives. We want to involve children and youth, parents and seniors, schools and churches, and businesses and organizations.

We see a community where residents are advocating for greener practices by local restaurants and businesses and holding our elected leaders accountable.

It is mostly by doing little things, as well as some big things to be sure, that we will make Roslindale and our lives better – by buying and preparing locally grown food; growing more of our own food; having more trees for summer cooling and winter warming as well as beautification; reducing energy use in homes and transportation; composting, recycling and using less water to reduce waste and pollution; shopping locally, driving less and walking, biking and even ride-sharing more; and having healthy and hazard free homes. All of these activities make a greener Roslindale and will also save money.

We will also help create a more vibrant, sharing and caring community simply by doing things together for our common benefit. And through community action we will do our part to achieve a healthy planet for our children and their children.

History – How we got started

Founded just 12 months ago, GreeningRozzie has already accomplished a lot toward its mission of making Roslindale a greener, cleaner and more cohesive community by working together to promote and implement grassroots projects and activities.

In its first year, GreeningRozzie held 12 community meetings, organized and staffed information tents at 12 Farmers Markets in Adams Park, and presented demonstrations and talks on topics including solar power, canning, chickens, composting, fitness for kids, cosmetics, toxic exposures, and home energy savings. In December, GreeningRozzie and the Roslindale Congregational Church presented Roslindale’s first annual Green Film Festival featuring Fern Gully.

Due in part to the efforts of GreeningRozzie, Roslindale ranks #1 in signups for Renew Boston’s energy audits and upgrades. The group is fueled by volunteers with a passion for improving our local environment. It was featured in the Roslindale Public Library windows during August on the theme of “Go Green.” GreeningRozzie and RozzieBikes marched in the 35th annual Roslindale Day Parade in October.

In December, members elected the Board of Directors including myself, Kim Patch (vice chairman), Pam Sinotte (treasurer), Janet Levatin (assistant secretary), Amy Galblum (secretary), Liz Carver, Karen Kirchoff, Eric Lewandowski, Eric Smalley, and Sam Warren. GreeningRozzie, Inc. has been incorporated as a Massachusetts organization and has applied for federal nonprofit status.

Activities – What we want to do in 2011

At its next community meeting, the group will decide its overall goals. One proposal is to help achieve a 25% reduction in Roslindale’s carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2020 (based on the target set by the governor and recommendation of the Climate Action Leadership Committee).

New members and volunteers are warmly welcomed to help GreeningRozzie with projects in the following areas, all of which will contribute to the overall goal:

Green Spaces: Caring for new street trees; comprehensive tree census and planting; community gardens; empty tree pit inventory and plan; and a guide for street and yard tree planning, planting, maintenance, and protection
Local Food: Potluck parties; bulk purchasing of organic supplies; and exploration of a winter farmers market
Energy Efficiency: Assessing energy loss pilot; energy audit promotions; and neighborhood energy demonstration and education gatherings
Waste Reduction: Community, citywide and home composting; tecycling improvements; and plastic and paper bag advocacy and education
Water Conservation: Green roofs and environmentally safe lawns
Efficient Transportation: Sustainable transportation; Rozzie Square traffic improvements; and bike and walking tours
Healthy Homes and Gardens: Green products; urban gardening; common security clubs; and a bartering and tool exchange
Education and Advocacy: education and demonstrations at the Farmers Markets June to October; greening business; window exhibits; Roslindale Day Parade; social media, and PR and outreach.

How to get involved

Join GreeningRozzie at www.GreeningRozzie.org.
Come to GreeningRozzie’s next monthly community meeting, Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Roslindale Community Center, for one action topic and planning activities
April 20 – Short talks on keeping chickens and bees and pushing projects forward
May 18 – Short talks on composting at home and pushing projects forward
Support GreeningRozzie’s information tent at the Farmers Market most Saturdays, June through October.
Volunteer for an activity or suggest a new one. Email ken@greeningrozzie.com

This article first appeared in the Roslindale Transcript.