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Friday, November 20, 2009
Greening Thanksgiving
Posted by Lisa Montelione on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:30 PM
So it’s a week out and you haven’t shopped, planned a menu or sent invitations. Good. There’s hope for you, unlike those annoying 'plan ahead' types. Here’s your task list for a green, somewhat sustainable Thanksgiving Day.
1. Send email invitations – granted it’s too late for real paper ones sent snail mail, so your fail to plan has paid off.
2. Make your shopping list on the back of one of those useless return address envelopes you get with bills you pay online anyway. Now would be a good time to make sure you change your billing preference to paperless. Do it Today! points for you here. Super geeks have eliminated paper billing use the iPhone iHost app for Thanksgiving.
4. Serve locally grown veggies. If you’re lucky enough to be a Sweetwater Organic Community Farm member, skip to number 5. If not, the market is open this Sunday from 12 to 4pm. (Or check out one of these other farmers' markets around Tampa Bay.)
5. Shop with a reusable bag. It doesn’t have to be one of those bought for that purpose, use the old beach bag (it’ll love you for the change of scenery).
6. Save time and energy - drag out the slow cooker. You’ll thank me later, since you’ll have plenty of time while your Green Bean Casserole, Corn Bread Stuffing, Pecan-Topped Baked Sweet Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce. Okay, so maybe you will really be thanking Stephanie O'Dea and her blog, CrockPot 365: A Year of Slowcooking. According to Planet Green: "When compared to a conventional oven which uses 2.7 pounds of CO2 for one hour of use, a slow cooker uses .9 pounds of CO2 for seven hours of use."
7. Reconsider the 20 pound turkey, yes, it looks impressive but do you really want to be eating turkey every day until the next holiday rolls around? And who says it has to be a turkey, if you don’t like it don’t be a slave to tradition. Vegetarians, it doesn’t have to be Tofurkey either: be creative and serve Roasted Vegetables and Pasta Bake on a beautiful horn o’ plenty shaped platter (and make sure to shop local).
8. Send leftovers with your guests; you’ll have them even with meticulous planning (and we’ve already established that doesn’t describe you) home in reusable containers. Proudly ask your guests to bring their own. This saves you from losing your stock forever and reinforces how wonderfully green and generous you are. Sharing the bounty of the feast and saving the planet at the same time. Wowza!
9. Thanksgiving clean up time is to America what Atlanta is to Lake Lanier (all non-green geeks, follow the link). Scrape dishes - don’t rinse and use the dishwasher; don’t hand wash. You’d have to run the faucet for less than 2 minutes to wash all your tableware to out wash a dishwasher. Using disposables? Pick up Terraware; corn based “plastic” ware. Even Publix carries this stuff now.
10. Resist the urge to collapse on the couch and watch TV, unplug the electronics and get out for a walk or pull out a board game. If you must watch the big game, invite your neighbors & friends who had their own Thanksgiving dinners to join you. It’ll mean that many less TV sets are sapping energy from the grid.
Remember to give thanks to your guests for putting up with your Earth friendly fiddling with their time honored Thanksgiving traditions.
Also, check out this chart about the carbon footprint of your Thanksgiving meal.
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