Day 70 of our Green Year: Planting Great Trees

Who likes fruit? Who likes fruit trees? Who likes to pick the fruit right off the tree and eat it without having to worry about pesticides? I think the answer to this is that we all do. Sadly, most of us do not have fruit trees in our yard. However, you can easily get seeds for them, and all it takes is a trip to your grocery store.

So, for the 70th day of Our Green Year, we have decided to start planting seeds from the fruit we buy instead of simply tossing it out. This will help us create great fruit trees and add a bit more oxygen creators to our environment.

Now granted, we eat a lot of fruit and we can't use all the seeds, but many of the seeds may not grow, and using the following method, Layla and I can begin to make fruit tree saplings and sell them at Farmer's Markets for people. We will also be giving it to people as a green gift.

1. The first thing you need to do is wrap the seeds in moist peat moss and put this all in a plastic bag. Then, stick it in the fridge for about three months.
2. Transfer the seeds to flats and add some more peat moss, then cover and leave them in a warm and dimly lit area. Make sure you poke holes in the cover so the air can circulate.
3. Allow the seeds to germinate. This can take quite a while, but you just need to be patient and watch for any signs of growth.
4. Take the seeds to a well-lit area once they germinate. You should always keep these small fruit trees indoors and away from harsh conditions outside. They will die if your are not careful.
5. Once the trees are ready, transplant them and keep repeating this step depending on how large the tree grows

In total, this can take over half a year to a year, but trust us, it will be great when you are eating fresh fruit in a few years and helping out the environment by reducing your dependency on fruit grown elsewhere, while giving the Earth some more trees to take care of our air for us.

NOTE: Tomorrow, Layla and I are going to be hiking up Mount Roberts for our town's tradition of raising the Canadian flag on top of the mountain for Canada Day, so the blog tomorrow will be later in the day.

Also, here is a great video you should all check out. Thank you to No Impact Man and his great website for showing it to me. 350 Challenge
Got any suggestions for what we can do to go green? Want to share your own green stories with us or send us photos of you going green? Then send us an e-mail at crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 49 of our Green Year: Baking Bread

If you have watched the news in the past few weeks, you know that the cost of everything is going up. The main cause of this is energy. Around the world countries are investing in ethanol, which takes land away from food production and puts it to fuel production. As well, the cost of transporting food is higher because of higher gas prices, so it is a double edged sword. This means that in some parts of the world, the cost of bread has gone up as much as 60 percent, which is a huge amount for those who are struggling through each day.

Canada has so far been almost immune to the problem, but it is not going to last. As a result, for the 49th day of our Green Year, Layla and I are not only supporting local flour producers by buying local flour (by local I mean B.C. and Alberta), but we are also making our own bread so we don't contribute to the environmental cost of transporting bread.

When we are able to make things local, either vegetables, fruits, herbs, meat or even bread, we are helping to take the strain off the world by being self-sufficient. Layla and I don't have enough room to grow wheat of course, so we have to buy that, but we are buying our eggs local, and trying to buy our yeast local too.

Making bread is quite easy, and here is a simple bread recipe:
http://www.best-bread-recipes.com/white-bread-recipe.html

Do you have pics of you making some bread, or anything else green? Send it to us and we will put it on our site. As well, if you know of any media who would be interested in our story, contact us at crwbaird@gmail.com and let us know!