Teaching Wellness October 1, 2017

How Do Your Eating Habits Impact the Environment?

Help sustain our fragile planet while you enjoy healthier, less expensive meals.

  Here are some tips to get you started.  Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday and learn more or share your own suggestions.  

Eat foods in their original form.  
No processing to degrade food value, no packaging to deplete the environment.

Grow your own  
Food is right outside your door. What could be more convenient? Don't have space for your own garden?  Help a friend or neighbor with their crops and share the bounty.

Buy and prepare only what you need. 

Learn how experts such as Kitchen Karate and My Fitness Pal help you determine the right quantities of food to purchase and prepare for your meals.  

Save Water
Eat Lower on the Food Chain

Eat Lower on the Food Chain
Replace beef with other forms of protein to save water, money and lives.  And when you do consume animal protein, look into how it was raised.  Choose farmers who use more humane practices at all stages of meat production.

Prepare  and eat meals at home. You will burn about 250 calories for each meal you prepare.  If you have young children, include them in all phases of the process, from menu planning to cleaning up.  You will teach them a valuable skill which is empowering and a money saver.  

Mar Vista resident and Green Committee Chair Jeanne Kuntz is a certified wellness coach.  Stop by the Green Tent and get a free consultation on habit change.  Learn more at her  website, Teaching Wellness .

Master Gardeners, September 24, 2017

FAVA BEANS !

Join the UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners this Sunday, September 24 beginning at 9 a.m. at The Green Tent. As usual, they’re bringing hand-sown, home-grown seedlings and seeds to give away, and they’ll answer your burning gardening questions till 1 p.m.

Not just good for your tummy but good for the soil, FAVA beans help fix nitrogen in your soil.  

Baby container lettuce will make your little ones feel like giants!

And baby tuscan kale makes a lovely green smoothie, salad or side dish.

Swiss chard is hearty and lasts for years.

Arugula adds just a touch of leafy spice to your life

Sweet william is pretty but also edible! 

Cilantro doubles as an herb and a spice — seeds become coriander, and you can either replant the seeds or grind them into powder for seasoning 

Parsley is always refreshing

If you’re new to gardening, try one of these excellent classes taught by Master Gardener volunteers.

And don’t forget: bring your plastic “pony packs” to the MG booth and they’ll fill ‘em with more plants for the Mar Vista Community.

Repair Cafe September 17, 2017

What do you do when you've got something you like but it no longer works? Throw it out and buy a new one? Stick it in the attic, the basement or under the stairs? Pay to get it fixed? Fix it yourself? Chances are you toss it out. Or maybe you store it away until that magical day when you can figure out what to do with it.... right.

There's another solution: bring it to one of the local Westside Repair Cafes.  They will be running a "mini Cafe" this Sunday at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. offering knife sharpening, small appliance repairs and sewing/mending tasks.  

The Westside Repair Cafe is a volunteer-run, community service dedicated to encouraging the repair and reuse of goods rather than relegating them to landfills. It's an extension of Our Time Bank's Sharing Economy program to further support sustainable living solutions.

How does it work? What can you bring? Do you need to register ahead of time? How can you volunteer? Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday and get all your questions answered.

Straight Trash Talk

Green, Black or Blue Bin - Where does it go?

Are you a recycling expert? Stop by the Green Tent this weekend to test your knowledge with a sorting game, learn about the recycling process and commit to reducing waste. Get your recycling questions answered. Hear from a recycling pro and learn what to do with your Household Hazardous Waste.

In 2015, Californian’s produced 4.7 lbs of trash per person, per day and diverted 63% of waste from landfills, but we can do better! The City of LA’s goal of zero waste is within reach as long as residents are expert recyclers! Recycling right saves natural resources, decreases pollution and saves landfill space.

Guest Rachel Adell is a local Mar Vista resident and self-proclaimed enthusiast of all things trash and recycling. Her love of garbage fuels her blog Straight Trash Talk and earned her a job in local government working on municipal recycling, education and policy. Rachel’s goal is to share her love of waste and help the public understand their role in waste creation and reduction.