We have a whole bunch of awesome new books in the shop but if you’re a meat eater & especially if you’re interested in sustainable foods, Deborah Krasner’s new book, Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing & Cooking Sustainable Meat, may be the most awesome.  Heck, I’m a vegetarian & I can’t stop talking about & looking through this book!

As the title states, it is The Complete Guide to sustainable meat including recipes, of course, as well as raising, carving & sourcing sustainable meats.  She’s got recipes for beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, poultry & eggs (the-other-meat meat).  Heck, she’s even got a recipe for Pig Candy (a bacon peanut brittle treat that looks darn tasty).

Deborah Krasner is a James Beard Award-winning food writer & a really lovely person.  And (drum roll, please) she’ll be here on December 18th to sign her book & talk turkey (pork, beef, lamb, etc.).

So, if you like meat, sustainable food, bacon peanut brittle or enjoy comprehensive books with great photos & tons of info, stop in for the book &, on December 18th, stop in to meet the magnificent Deborah Krasner & have her sign your awesome meat book!

With the holidays upon us (Merry Chrismahanakwansakah everyone!), many people are stopping in the shop asking for gift suggestions.  And though we know the holidays are more than the sum of the booty you git under the tree, menorah or kinara we thought it would be helpful to share our Gift Suggestions.

When you stop in the shop, we’re happy to help you make a selection or you can grab a handy “Wish List” for the ladies, fellas, tweens or wee ones in your life… We’ve reprinted a few of our favorites below.  Needless to say, you can pick them up at Green in BKLYN.  Oh, & we can gift wrap them, if you’d like!

Fellas:

• Recycled Bicycle Chain Picture Frame & Bottle Opener/Key Chain
• Recycled Inner Tube Wallet
• Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing & Cooking Sustainable Meat
• Corona Beer Glasses (recycled bottles)
• Solar Powered Portable & NPR Maps

Ladies:

• Recycled Inner Tube Purse
• Alabama Studio Style: More Projects, Recipes & Stories Celebrating Sustainable Fashion & Living
  
• Pangea Organics Award Winning Skin Care Line
• Hand Wrought Recycled Steel Knitting Needles
• Marbled Silk Cards by Brooklyn Marbling

Wee Ones:

• Handmade Sock Monkeys from Fresh Art NYC
• Miss Brittany’s Organic Fun Dough & Recycled Crayons
• Der Bears – Softees from Brooklyn
• Wooden ABC Blocks with Pull Cart
• A-Z Place Mat Coloring Book

Tweens:

• Solar Powered Back Pack
• Super Size Baggu Bags & Zipper Sets
• “Strength & Power” Wish Necklace
• Letters to a Young Brother or Letters to a Young Sister
• “Original Ideas” Journal & a 7-Year Pen

Various & Sundries:

• SodaStream Seltzer & Soda Maker
• Recycled Bike Chain &/or Aluminum Frames
• Good Clean Love Organic Lube, Love Oils & 120-hour Candle
• Fobot Robots from Amy Flynn
• Bodum Coffee Presses & Organic Mind, Body & Soul Coffee
• Walking Brooklyn or 60 Hike within 60 Miles of NYC
• Original Tillamook Cheddar Artwork (from renowned dog artist, Tillie)
• Vintage Cartier Sterling Silver Salt & Pepper Shakers
• “You Are My Sunshine” Music Box & Zipper Pouch
• Reclaimed Mahogany Spice Block, Bamboo Salad Bowl & Serving Utensils

With the holidays upon us & the year drawing to an end, Green in BKLYN invites you to stop in for holiday gifts & a chance to win a little something for yourself… 

Celebrate 2010 with Green in BKLYN by entering our second annual drawing for our Green (in BKLYN) Gift Basket with eco-friendly gifts & treats worth at least $201.00. Spend at least $20.10 before 2011 & you’re in.

You may enter throughout the year (that is, until December 31st, 2010) at which time we’ll have our second annual Green (in BKLYN) Gift Basket drawing.

Since Green in BKLYN is a great place for your holiday gift shopping, the basket might include any of our great items…

• Individual Coffee Press/Insulated Mugs
• Natural Wax Candles
• Recycled Inner Tube Bags
• Award Winning Skin Care Products
• Solar Powered Chargers
• Handcrafted Items by Local Artists
• 50-Year Calendars
• NPR Road Maps
• Vintage Treasures
• Compost Pails
• Stainless Steel Tiffins
• 7-Year Pens
• Natural Oil & Reed Diffusers
• Stainless Steel Straws
• And lots more…

Stop in, look around & celebrate 2010 by entering with a chance to win the 2010 Green (in BKLYN) Gift Basket!

Some more eco-friendly  practices from Miss Cristina, our lovely intern.  This entry is on greener practices for  our precious babies.

We want the best for our children.  We want them to have happy, long lives of good health. But, as we find, many products targeted for use on children have harmful effects that can cause irreversible developmental problems.

Here are things to avoid in children’s products:

• Parabens
• Petroleum distillates
• Alcohol
• PVCs, found in many stores
• Fragrance
• Polycarbonate (code 7) plastic
• Bisphenol-A (BPA)

Tips

• Choose clear nipples made from silicone or, better yet, natural rubber.  Green in BKLYN has pacifiers made from natural rubber.  Great for baby!
• Buy baby bottles made from safer plastics (codes 1, 2, 4 & 5), glass or stainless steel.  Kleen Kanteen makes stainless steel sippy cups & Green in BKLYN has them.
• Make your own baby food: steam or boil organic produce & then puree in a blender, make large batches & freeze individual portions in ice cube trays.  Green in BKLYN’s stainless steel ice cube trays are perfect for freezing baby food – no BPAs & no aluminum!
• Don’t microwave plastic baby bottles. Heat liquids separately, then pour them into the bottle when they reach a comfortable temperature.

For even more info, stop in the shop & pick up these books that focus on safe baby practices: Smart Mama’s Green Guide & Green Baby.

Children are the future & as we instill habits that include natural & green choices, we offer them brighter tomorrows.  If we can provide them with better alternatives to harsh chemicals found in so many products, we can have healthy individuals who can lead the green revolution!  Go baby, go green!

If you’ve read Green in BKLYN’s blog before, you may already be familiar with our intern, Cristina.  Every once in a while she’ll drop in to share Green Tips & eco-friendly info.  Today, she’s checking in on how to eat sustainably…

Eating sustainably & healthier can seem a little tough at times, but there are really simple ways to do so while making a significant difference in your carbon footprint. Here are some easy tips that you can do:

• Buy loose greens instead of bagged or boxed greens – you’ll use zero packaging.
• Soak beans & grains over night – it cuts the cooking time in half, thus saving energy & money.
• Make your own seltzer – it keeps bottles out of the landfill & reduces the amount of energy used to make, ship & recycle those bottles.  Try Green in BKLYN’s SodaStream Seltzer Makers. They rock!
• Buy local – you can find a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)  or Food Co-op near you at the Eat Well Guide or at Local Harvest.  Or, if you’re in the neighborhood, check out our new local food co-op, the Green Hill Food Co-op .
• Read PLU codes- if the number on the sticker at the supermaket starts with 9, then the item is organic.
• Use healthier pots & pans (& ice cube trays) – traditional non stick pans contain carcinogenic chemicals (such as PTFE & PFOA) in the coating & plastic or aluminum ice cube trays contain BPAs or aluminum, respectively.  Cook with pots & pans made from stainless steel, pure cast iron or enamel coasted cast iron & Green in BKLYN has ice cube trays made from stainless steel.  No BPAs & no aluminum!
• Switch to organic olive oil – most mass produced olive oil is grown with pesticides which can be even more concentrated in the oil than in the olives.
• Use natural wax paper – use it instead of aluminum foil or plastic wrap. It’s compostable, reusable when wiped down & can be fastened down with masking tape. Or, if you’re wrapping up snack & sandwiches for lunch, use a Green in BKLYN Snack Taxi.  They’re washable, reusable & cute!
• Get glass containers – keeping track of which plastics are safer (#s 2, 4 & 5) & which are more likely to release toxic phthalated, styrene or BPAs when heated or warm (#3, 6 & 7) can be confusing. Use as little plastic in the kitchen as possible.  Green in BKLYN has tempered glass & stainless steel containers.  Or, if you must have plastic, we have (safe, BPA-free) #5 plastic containers made from recycled plastics.
• Buy in-season – buying produce off-season means that it’s more than likely covered in pesticides & shipped half way around the world, burning fossil fuels & disrupting nature’s course.  Buy produce when it’s in season & uy in bulk. Freeze it, pickle it or preserve it, so you can still eat your favorites off season.  Green in BKLYN has a some great books on preserving (Canning for a New Generation), safe meats (Good Meat) & sustainable food practices (Food Heroes) as well as organic gardening (The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener & The Complete Flower Gardener).

With a little time, energy & practice, eating more sustainably & more healthy is possible, easy &, of course, very tasty!

“In Our Back Yards” (or ioby) isn’t just the place we have out behind our homes (if we’re super lucky) but its also a place (ioby.org) to post a local environmental project that needs financial or volunteer support.

ioby (in our back yards) connects people to environmental projects in their own neighborhoods so they can support them with donations or volunteer time.

Anyone can post a project &, of course, anyone can donate time & money. So… If you’ve got a great idea for environmental change in your neighborhood, or help with a project, go to ioby’s website or, if you’ve got questions about how it works, call 917-464-4515 or email info@ioby.org to talk to Erin or Brandon about your idea for neighborhood change.

PS – It’s never too early to start planning — and fund raising — for your spring projects.

And, if you’d like some inspiration, read some success stories to find out how ioby’s community can support work just like yours. Or join ioby at their Benefit Event event on November 11^th at Brooklyn Brewery, where you can:

• Sip on a Backyard Blazer (ioby’s signature cocktail made with Tuthilltown whiskey)
• Grab a pint of your favorite Brooklyn Brew – right from the tap
• Or a glass of Gotham Project Riesling – right from the keg
• Nosh tasty comestibles created by Dirt Candy & JoeDoe
• Meet the ioby 2010 Heroes In Our Backyards
• And, help build neighborhood support for grassroots environmental projects!

ioby’s Benefit Event

• What: iboy’s First Annual Gala Fundraiser
• Location: Brooklyn Brewery
• Address: 79 North 11th, Brooklyn NY
• Date: Thursday, November 11th, 2010
• Time: 6:30pm til Quittin’ Time

No, it’s not a diet plan.  It’s GrowNYC’s Million Pound Challenge.

Grow NYC is recycling unwanted clothes at local green markets in an effort to keep one million pounds of textiles out of landfills.

So if you’ve got unwanted clothing, paired shoes, linens, hats, scarves or belts, drop them off at one of these green markets:

• 97th Street
• Fort Greene
• Grand Army Plaza
• Inwood
• Jackson Heights
• McCarren Park
• Thompkins Square
• Union Square

Materials will then be sorted into different grades (i.e., usable/non-usable, cotton scrap, cotton blend scrap & synthetics). They’ll be sold for reuse as clothing or linens or to recycling markets that turn materials into wiping rags, fiber for car seats & insulation.

All this recycling & reusing will account for a saving of 1,000,000 pounds of discarded waste by December 31, 2010.

And since the average New Yorker tosses 46 pounds of clothing & textiles in the trash every year (accounting for 6% of our entire residential waste stream or about 193,000 tons of material), stepping up to the Million Pound Challenge will really help make a difference.

Thanks to Grow NYC for making green easy!

Just a reminder: Every Sunday in September, Myrtle Avenue is closed to car traffic from Clermont to Hall for Move About Myrtle.

With tons of events on the Avenue, Green in BKLYN has scheduled a month of Sundays full of all kinds of fun.  For the full schedule, check our blog: Move About Myrtle is Back @ Green in BKLYN.  For this week, look below!

Sunday, September 19th

• 12-6: Ranjit Bhatnagar‘s Installation Tweets Beautiful Birdy Tunes
• 12-2: Vokashi Reps Answer Some More Composting Questions
• 2-4: Honey is Extracted & Labels are Made with the Three Sisters Honey Family
• 4-6: Thomas Chatterton Williams Signs Losing My Cool: How A Father’s Love & 15, 000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture
• All Day: DROP OFF BOOKS FOR DONATION to the Ingersoll Cornerstone Community Center Library

And don’t forget:

• Sunday, September 26th: Bike Day on the Avenue & the Big Bike Thing @ Green in BKLYN

Just a reminder: Every Sunday in September, Myrtle Avenue is closed to car traffic from Clermont to Hall for Move About Myrtle.

With tons of events on the Avenue, Green in BKLYN has scheduled a month of Sundays full of all kinds of fun.  For the full schedule, check our blog: Move About Myrtle is Back @ Green in BKLYN.  For this week, look below!

Sunday, September 12th:

• 12-2: Tillamook Cheddar, Renowned Dog Artist, Makes Art & Meets the Public
• 2-4: Vokashi Reps Answer More Composting Questions
• 4-6: Kate Hanley, Author of The Anywhere, Anytime Chill Guide: 77 Simple Strategies for Serenity, Leads a Lollipop Meditation
• All Day (12-6): Drop Off Electronic Waste for Recycling by the Mac Support Store

And don’t forget:

• Sunday, September 19th: Book Donation Drive for the Ingersoll Community Center
• Sunday, September 26th: Bike Day on the Avenue & the Big Bike Thing @ Green in BKLYN

• DATE: Saturday, September 18, 2010
• RAIN DATE: Sunday, September 19, 2010
• WHAT: Beach Clean Up @ 10am-1pm AND Performance @ 1-1:40pm
• WHERE: Manhattan Beach @ Oriental Avenue & Hastings Street TRANSPORTATION: Q train to Brighton Beach, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B1 bus to Hastings Street OR the B or Q train to Sheepshead Bay, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B49 bus to Hastings Street