Secondhand Nation

Locavores Delight: Farmer's Markets in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area

Here are two great features from that dead tree behemoth, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, that will come in handy while you try to hit local farmer's markets during our cruelly short produce season:

Interactive Map of Farmer's Markets

Day-by-Day List of Farmer's Markets

Yes, I am partial to my local readers, but aren't we supposed to be doing everything locally these days?

For those folks who don't live in glorious MN, I'll throw you a bone, too.

Local Harvest

Laundry List

Sweet suffering one-eyed Jesus! 

Now we're giving fish sexual identity hang-ups just by washing our clothes in detergents that leach toxic chemicals into the water supply!

This is ridiculous!  Even chores people hate are killing the planet.

It''s high time I preach the gospel of laundry to y'all. I've been itching to start evangelizing about this topic, anyway, since these days, I'm madly in love with my laundry line.  Isn't she a real sweetheart?   

(Extra Brag:  I don't even buy new clothspins!   Every time I hit up a thrift store, I check their bagged-up items and have been consistently lucky.) 

Here are some ideas for greening your laundry so that washing yer dirty undies doesn't make boy fish into girl fish.

First, make sure the laundry soap you use isn't full of phosphates and shit that cause algal blooms and the aforementioned intersexed fish.  Here are some good places to start:

Annie Berthold-Bond, DIY Green Clean Goddess!

Sweet Grass Farm's Laundry Soap

Solay Simple Himalyan Salt Laundry Soap

Mrs. Meyers

Caldrea

More Products & DIY Recipes

Second, if the weather and your living arrangement permit, hang your laundry outdoors.  Question any neighborhood association covenant stipulations against outdoor laundry lines -- advocate for changing such rules in defense of the planet!  This is a growing movement - check out the Laundry List's blog - and you are not alone!  Your neighbor's clean laundry, flapping happily in the breeze, should never be compared to a junker car on blocks or rusting broken appliances.

(Long Rambling Aside: neighborhood association rules tend to suck ass!  Some of them act like they've been elected the Royal Beige Police.  Excuse me, I don't want to live in U-Taupe-ia. Concentrate on dealing with the meth labs and that bitch screaming at her grandkids that she's gonna "beat their ass!" and back off about oversize basketball hoops and lawn ornaments.) 

I realize that having a dryer is handy, but you really should give the sun something to do besides hand out skin cancer to everyone.  Sunlight is a powerful bleaching agent that makes your clothes smell heavenly.  Wouldn't you rather get out of the dingy basement and chat with neighbors while putting that solar power to work and lowering your gas bill?

Third, avoid the dry cleaner.  Use a wet-cleaner, if you must.  The nasty stuff the dry cleaning process releases into the environment is hair-raising. 

If that's not enough badgering, here's some more laundry tips from Treehugger here. 

There is one catch to all this laundry love - I hate putting away my clothes!  I wait breathlessly for my friend Amber's invention of the clothes storage system that incorporates laundry baskets instead of drawers.  Come on, Amber!  Patent that shit and make millions!