Greentime Episode #9 - Garden Update, Voluntary Simplicity, and Gifts

May 25, 2007at 5:25 pm · Filed under reduce, gardening, simplicity



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Amy jumps in this week with an update on the garden. After that, she introduces the concept of voluntary simplicity, its implications for work, consumption, and gift giving, and talks about using Freecycle.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG-4 Video (protected) (.m4v)

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7 Comments »

  1. Ilona said,

    May 26, 2007 @ 10:25 am

    Cool gifts to give: Homemade gifts, such as cake mixes in a jar … http://www.recipelink.com/holiday/merrygifts.html

    Even better, http://www.xmasresistance.org/

    Don’t limit your gift-giving to one day out of the year :) Participating in the Xmas resistance for the past 5 (6?) years has freed me up both money-wise and stress-wise in December.

  2. Beth said,

    May 26, 2007 @ 3:16 pm

    We have a backyard garden and our squash tend to take up a huge amount of space so I was wondering about the squash planting in containers and how that would go. We’ve been growing for three years and its really a process of trial and error, like, dont plant 10 types of tomatoes when you only have three people in your house that eat them lol. We had a LOT of spaghetti sauce last year, even after giving a ton of them away.

    I try and give usefull gifts/gifts that keep on giving. Used book stores have great finds a lot of the time, and things like mini herb gardens or handmade organic soaps tend to go over fairly well. And of course in the summer and early fall we give veggies by the bushel full!

    I also want to say that I really love what you guys are doing and I look forward to each new episode :) You have some great ideas!

  3. Amy said,

    May 30, 2007 @ 10:03 am

    Hi Ilona,

    I love the cake mix in a jar idea! It’s great. Cakes are good too :)

    Amy

  4. Amy said,

    May 30, 2007 @ 10:05 am

    Hi Beth,

    Thanks so much for the comment and the support! I’d be so happy for one tomato at this point. We are getting more beans, though.

    I’d love to make some organic soaps. Do you have a resource for that? I’m going to attempt to do some body scrubs with the herbs at some stage. Be on the lookout for that one!

    Amy

  5. Deb C said,

    May 31, 2007 @ 6:33 am

    I like to give spices and dried herbs as gifts (packaged in small re-usable glass jars, of course). Sometimes I make up my own rubs and spice mixes as well. I find small baskets at thrift stores or tag sales and use fabric to wrap the whole thing!

  6. Rhett said,

    May 31, 2007 @ 6:37 am

    Deb,

    That’s a great idea. There’s a certain hilarity here in that my family is filled with gourmets, including myself, and we so often end up buying each other premade spice baskets, but when we sit down to dinner have endless discussions about some handmade seasoning one of us just thought up. Why on earth have we been buying cooking gifts from stores when we care so much about our handmade seasonings and sauces?

  7. Vanessa said,

    June 3, 2007 @ 2:00 pm

    Word — I’m freecycling stuff all the time now, and every time it’s been a complete success. No weirdos, no-shows or scams. I love it.

    I also love your cat — wanna trade? :)

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