Daylily - Not Your Average Flower

One of may varieties of daylilies in my garden. Though drought tolerant, water for longevity.
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Edible Flowers In The Garden: Daylilies

I'm sitting in the summer garden enjoying the light show being put on by fireflies, the sounds of the cricket concert, savoring the fragrance of the oriental lily and eating flowers. Yes, I said eating flowers - daylilies to be exact. The bud pictured was quite delish, had a crisp, fresh taste. All parts of the daylily can be enjoyed gastronomically. The buds can be tossed into salads raw or cooked with stir fries and soups. The flowers can be battered and fried or serve as toppers for a salad or pizza. Even the leaves and roots are eaten in China. You should taste a bud, then give yourself a day to be sure that you aren't allergic. Don't confuse daylilies, which have clumpy masses of grass like leaves with Asian or Oriental lilies, which I don't think are edible. Daylilies are a great plant for an organic garden, they are drought tolerant, hardy, easily divisible and spread nicely. They are available in a variety of colors, sizes and fragrances. Being edible is just icing on the cake! I would love to see more of these on urban farms.
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Organic Gardens Bear Fruit

Luscious everbearing strawberries grown in a pot in my organic curbside garden.
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Environmental Justice Comic Book: Greening and Enlightening Youth

The Environmental Justice comic book Brink City: Green In The Ghetto, is on it's third edition. It's published in Cleveland by Rid-All Corp and is written by Damien Forshe, Martinez Garcias, Randell McShepard and Matthew Pruitt. Themes are environmental justice, urban farming, pollution, food deserts, health and nutrition. Request a copy at ridallcorp@yahoo.com. Printed on 30 percent post consumer recycled paper and with soy ink. Cleveland is repping for the youth!!!
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Green Comic Book Addresses Urban Environmental Issues

Characters from the book include - Veggie Man, Derb, The Worm Man (aka Will Allen), Dr. Greenhand, The Woes and Mr. Info. A great way to reach youth to address green issues in the neighborhoods.
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Environmental Justice Comic Book: Brink City - Green In The Ghetto

Picked up this book at an urban agriculture grand opening this week. Themes in the book address soil issues, vermiculture, urban gardening, food deserts and mindsets. Good stuff.
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Environmental Justice Comic Book

A scene from the comic book "Brink City: Green In The Ghetto, that addresses food deserts.
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Green Internship: Post-conflict Natural Resource Management Intern, Environmental Law Institute

Post-conflict Natural Resource Management Intern, Environmental Law Institute

Post-conflict Natural Resource Management Intern, Environmental Law Institute

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/greendreamjobs.display/id/3052495?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SBGreenDreamJobs+%28SustainableBusiness.com+Green+Dream+Jobs%29

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Imported Fish with Banned Chemicals Reaching U.S. Consumers

Imported Fish with Banned Chemicals Reaching U.S. Consumers When you think about it, goodness knows what kinds of toxins our fish in the U.S. are exposed to, so imagine what a fish from a country with less regulation has to deal with. Next time you are in the supermarket, read the labels on the country of origin for many seafood products. You will be shocked. Knowledge is power, so do what you must do with this information.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics : Bath & Body Works Asked to Clean Up

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics : Get Involved Learn more about the petition to ask Bath & Body Works to eliminate unneccessary chemicals from its beauty products.

Fancy Vegetarian Event at Veggie U!

Toasting to a Fresh Future Veggie culture is alive and well in Cleveland, Ohio. So much so, that we have our own vegetable university to help educate the fourth graders and special needs kids on everything there is to know about vegetables and veggie culture. Vegetarians, don't get to geeked, because this is not a vegetarian curriculum. Don't turn your noses up too much, because educating children about the wonders of nature, gardens and vegetables can provide a gateway to vegetarianism and/or more plant based diets. If you want to promote a veggie based curriculum in your school, through Veggie U's "Earth To Table " science kits, click on the link.

Viva la Veggies!

Toyota Prius Parking Perks

As if there aren't enough perks associated with owning a Toyota Prius, excellent parking spaces is just one more to add to the list. I nabbed a parking space closest to the building today in the special designated areas for hybrid and low emission vehicles. I was told that this is a required feature of a LEED certified building. One that I can appreciate!
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Organic Fair Trade Tea at Discount Prices

I will be enjoying this delicious fair trade organic tea featuring rose buds tonight. Purchased it at a discount store called TJ Maxx or HomeGoods, where I have found some nice deals on fair trade and organic goods. The packaging is also eco-friendly, made with 100 percent recycled materials and soy-based ink. http://www.numitea.com/.
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One Man Economic Engine: Will Allen of Growing Power in Cleveland

Will Allen of Growing Power in Cleveland to launch our newest Urban Agriculture and Youth Education initiative.
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Eco-Friendly, Water Friendly Curbside Gardens

This is a snapshot of one of my curbside eco-friendly gardens. It features native redbud, daylilies, hibiscus, grasses, echinops, butterfly bush, clematis, daisies, coneflower, sedum, oriental lilies, elephant ear, irises,phlox and a few annuals and edibles tucked in. I rarely have to water it, kids, birds and butterflies love it and it pretty much takes care of itself.
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Urban Curbside Garden

Spotted this oasis of lush nature at the corner of a city street in our Chinatown. Was on my way to grab some Thai for lunch and "hello", I was greeted by this curbside garden! It features daylilies, echinops and sunflowers. In Asia, daylily buds are eaten in stirfries.
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Urban Curbside Garden Cleveland Chinatown

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Urban Curbside Garden: Chinatown

 Sunflowers!

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Green Jobs: Associate Attorney , Lawyers for Clean Water, Inc

Associate Attorney , Lawyers for Clean Water, Inc. Green job opportunity in the legal field. Looking for someone with a passion for the environment, great legal skills and a sense of humor!

House Republicans Ready to Vote to Eliminate Efficient Lightbulbs!

House Republicans Ready to Vote to Eliminate Efficient Lightbulbs!A burning issue for our nation that requires congressional action. ASAP! Really?

Program Officer, World Wildlife Fund

Program Officer, World Wildlife Fund Diverse candidates encouraged to apply. D.C. based.

Small Wind Turbines Getting Popular, Home Depot Starts Selling Them

Small Wind Turbines Getting Popular, Home Depot Starts Selling Them

Raw Breakfast Idea

Take advantage of in season fruits to make a great raw breakfast fruit granola. This has bananas, nectarines, cherries and grapes, topped with chopped almond, honey and almond milk. You could add flax seed for mor crunchiness and fiber.
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Organic Garden Edible Flowers

Daylilies from my organic garden. A beauty to behold and a pleasure to the palate. I added daylily flower petals to my pizza last night with fresh basil from the garden. My son enjoyed it. The taste? Very mild, with a delicate, slightly fragrant sweetness. The buds of the flower can be stir fried and supposedly tastes like asparagus and green beans. I will let you know soon.
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Children Love Organic Gardens

This Oriental lily is one of many lilies in bloom this month in my organic garden. More kids passed by today and complimented the garden, one young lady confessed to picking a purple coneflower because "to give to my mother, cuz she doesn't have a garden like this". She told me she likes roses, but not tomatoes, so I gave her a mini tour. She liked the apricot geraniums and hydrangeas. I told her to feel free to pick flowers for her mom. I am pleased because it was my intention to plant a garden that was pleasing to kids and that they could enjoy picking a flower or two or berry to please their moms and their tastebuds. Ahhh nature!
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Bird Egg

Found this little treasure on my walk. Nice color.
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Urban Foraging: Raspberries In The City

Found this patch of raspberries drifting over the fence of an abandoned property. Would make a nice pie, right?
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Great Green Gardening Books: Have Your Flowers and Eat Them Too

Since "permaculture" became a part of my vocabulary, I have felt some guilt about the wealth of flowers in my garden. I have over the past few years made efforts to increase the number of edible plants that my sun restricted garden will allow, so imagine my delight when I discovered that many of the flowers in my garden are actually edible! Recipes include,  zucchini blossom fritters, lavender shortbread, rose sorbet, stir fry daylily buds. Hallelujah! Want to learn more about edible landscaping and gardening? I recommend the books presented in this post. I read all but the Edible Wild Plants book, which will be my next acquistion, of course.

Green and Greenish Summer Reading List: So Many Books, So Little Summer

Okay, it's July already, so I need to get busy on my green summer reading list - a carry over from years of high school Honors English. So here the green books I am reading or would love to read this summer. So far, I'm reading and coloring, The Botany Coloring Book, an excellent, fun and relaxing way to bone up on plant biology (I confess. I'm a green geek.). The very first chapter gives a nice primer on the sun's connection to various sources of energy - renewable and non-renewable. If you don't feel like reading, you can just grab a few colored pencils, sit or lie in your favorite spot and color away. Great, green therapy.

Organic Garden Goody: Bell Pepper "Fries"

Remember that luscious, shiny purple pepper from my organic garden? Wasn't sure if I was going to cook it or eat it raw. I decided to make raw bell pepper "fries" by slicing eat and seasoning with salt, pepper and olive oil. Muy delicioso!
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Purple Beauty Sweet Pepper

This pepper should be pretty sweet. Should I stuff it and bake it or enjoy it raw in a salad?
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Green Groupon or Daily Deal Site Alternatives

Four daily deal sites that are better for the planet than Groupon | MNN - Mother Nature NetworkI was conducting some research for a post on Green Daily Deal site or Groupon alternatives, when I discovered this article.  Let me add to the mix.Websites,   www.PureCitizen.com, www.LovingEco and www.Greendeals.org are additional options.  Each has its  own flavor, style and mission, so I suggest you subsribe to all via email, FB or Twitter to assess which best meets your needs and interests. That is my strategy. These sites are great avenues for supporting greener and ethical companies, but without breaking the bank! If you are a green business owner, these Green Groupon sites can be a fantastic way to gain exposure for your products and services.

Take Action | Encourage Hersheys To Use Fair Trade Cocoa

Take Action | International Labor Rights Forum i just sent a request to Hersheys asking them to commit to slave free and fairly traded cocoa products  You can too, just click on the link  Hersheys, America's most loved candy maker can make an impact and lead the nation in ethical chocolate production

The Cancer Project / Fourth of July Menu

The Cancer Project / Fourth of July Menu Have a great holiday!  The cancer project is a nutrition oriented project, which seeks to reduce cancer rates through the promotion of a plant based and fat free diet. I took a series of their classes a few years ago and was cleverly introduced to new foods and recipes via live recipe demonstrations and taste tests

- never was the word vegan or fat free mentioned(because people woulld have run for the hills), but you figured it out by the third class. The recipes presented today contain no fat, but feel free to add a splash of olive oil - it's the holidays! there is also a raw sorbet dessert recipe at the end.

Preserve, The Eco-Friendly Toothbrush

Packaging aka envelope. Awwwesome.
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Eco-Friendly Toothbrush

The handle is made from recycled, BPA free plastic. When you are ready for another brush, return the handle in the original package which is also a postage paid envelope! Cool. That is good design.
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Thrift Find: White Party Season

I saw this crisp white designer top a couple of weeks ago when me and my girls had a thrift store shopping day. Didn't buy then, but lucked up and found it still there today, just in time for tonight's wear all white party. $12 bucks.
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Good Green News: Bike Highways, Green Business Financing and Green Cities

Innovative Green Business Financing in Vermont; Sustainable Maryland Certified Launches; Interstate Bike Highway Resumes; NC Takes Cleantech Census; Texas Passes TV-Takeback Law