You don’t need a huge backyard to produce a significant amount of food. You can grow some of your own produce in containers on front porches, balconies and windowsills. Here in our Santa Ynez Valley some of us have enough land to have a substantial garden. Raising your own food isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for you and your wallet.

Square foot gardening gained popularity with the home farming movement in the 1970s and has recently undergone a huge resurgence. It is easy and yields beautiful results. Gardens are built in a raised bed or box divided into a grid. Because plants are grown so close together, these gardens maximize production while using a minimal amount of space. In theory, each square should contain a different type of plant. Be creative and feel free to plant whatever you like. Grow in season, show a little love and your garden will thrive.

You will probably not grow every kind of vegetable that you would like to consume so for the ones that you don’t grow—visit your Farmers Market.

The choices you make in what you consume and how you consume it do matter. You don’t have to obsess over every purchase—just be aware of the difference your shopping power can make.

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Locavores are people committed to eating only foods that have been grown and produced locally. They are at the forefront of the local food and Slow Food movements, and they restrict their diets for environmental, economic and gustatory reasons. Some like the challenge of cooking with seasonal foods, others say food that goes from field to plate in one day just tastes better.

The definition of locavore, however, isn’t as strict as it sounds. Locavores set their own radius for what they consider “local”. That can limit them to 100 miles from home or be as broad as the entire state. Some locavores also make exceptions for mainstays that aren’t local to most places such as sugar, salt, coffee and olive oil. (Although in the Santa Ynez Valley we now have a thriving olive oil production.)

The movement sounds expensive but it’s actually in keeping with slow economic times-locavores sometimes supplement their food with produce from their own garden. After all, it doesn’t get any more local than your own backyard or balcony garden.

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For everyone’s safety, monitor your medicine cabinet.  Rid your medicine cabinet of unused, unnecessary or expired prescription medications immediately.  You can do so by participating in the local prescription drug “take back” programs available nationwide.

In response to growing demand for a safe, convenient way to dispose of household medications, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department has teamed up with County Public Works to install drop boxes at each of the Sheriff’s nine substations throughout the county.

Our wastewater treatment facilities are not designed to remove any of the chemicals found in medications, so these materials remain untreated in our water system.  Medications thrown in the trash are also in danger of being picked up by individuals or ingested by pets.  In our landfill, medications can enter the environment.

The following can be deposited in the drop boxes:

• Over the counter medications
• Prescription medications
• Medication samples
• Medications for household pets
• Medicated lotions and ointments

It is requested that you keep medications in their original containers and remove or scratch out all personal information, including your name, address and phone number.

Our local drop boxes are located at:
Solvang Sheriff’s Station-1745 Mission Drive (805) 686-5000
Buellton Sheriff’s Station-140 West Highway 246 (805) 686-8150

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The most eco-friendly option to paper towels and likely the most inexpensive in the long term is to dedicate a drawer in your kitchen for reusable washcloths and towels that will last for years.  Yes, you will have to launder them and that requires energy and other resources, but this impact is far less than the impact of continually producing, distributing and disposing of a paper towel that we use just once.

If you just aren’t ready to give up paper towels completely, then pick a better paper towel.  Look for towels made from recycled paper.  Specifically those made with a high post consumer content of 50 percent or more.  That is the recycled paper you and I as consumers generate.  Now when you reach for a paper towel at least you aren’t reaching for a virgin paper product that will never get used again.  Paper towels and napkins can’t be recycled because they are usually soiled with grease or food residue that can contaminate the recycling process.

Don’t worry is the recycled paper products you buy are not gleaming white.  Paper isn’t white naturally.  It has to be bleached.  When pulp and paper mills use chlorine-based bleach the result is toxic emissions into our air, land and water.  So feel good about your selection of slightly off-white or brown recycled paper towels (and napkins) knowing that you are not only reducing waste, you are reducing pollution in the environment too.  For help selecting chlorine-free paper towels and napkins with the most recycled content visit DoYourPart.com/columns.

Habits are hard to break but it is easy to reduce your dependency on paper towels and the added benefit is that you will also save money by buying less paper products.  Whether you cut out paper towels completely, cut back on how many you’re using or pick a smarter paper towel you’ll be doing your part everyday to live a greener, more eco-friendly lifestyle.

Based on an article published in the Charlotte Observer.