Congratulations to KIWI-staffer and blog guru, Marygrace Stergakos, who was married this past weekend to Sam Taylor.

All of us at KIWI wish Mr. and Mrs. Taylor a life filled with happiness!

Looking for a fun family activity for a hot summer’s day? Make scrumptious homemade ice cream-in-a-bag with your kids. Not only will it beat the heat, it’s a great activity for a play date! All it takes is a little milk, vanilla, sugar, salt, ice and 15 minutes. Add your own twist with fresh fruit, candy, or sprinkles and whip cream on top.

Ingredients:
½ cup organic milk
½ tsp. organic vanilla extract
1 ½ tbsp. organic sugar (or to taste)
6 tbsp. rock salt
Ice

Supplies:
1 quart-sized plastic bag
1 gallon-sized plastic bag

Preparation:
1. Pour the milk, vanilla, and sugar in the quart-sized bag. Make sure it’s sealed tight, so salty water won’t get in it!
2. Fill the gallon-sized bag with ice and add the salt.
3. Place the quart bag into the gallon bag and seal tight.
4. Now for the fun part! Set a timer and tell your little tike to shake the bag as fast as he can for 10 minutes. Don’t be afraid to get creative with this part: “I combined it with a trampoline one time and asked my kids how many bounces it takes to become ice cream,” said Lynn Brunelle, kids’-science-book author and mother of two.
5. Remove the smaller bag from the ice, and wipe it down so you don’t get salt in your ice cream. Scoop out your cold treat and enjoy!

*Tip: The bag will get very cold, so wrap it in a towel or have your child wear gloves.

Serves 1

—Stephanie Hacker

Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz regarding San Francisco’s pending recycling legislation, which would make the practice (as well as composting) mandatory in the progressive California city. Today, SF mayor Gavin Newsom announced that he will be signing the bill into law, making it the first of its kind that will require residents to recycle, plus businesses to compost their food scraps. The new law is part of San Francisco’s larger goal to achieve zero-waste status by 2020.

The fine for not recycling? Up to $1,000.

While most people see recycling and composting as a good thing, some are uncomfortable with such a  law, fearing that legislation like this will only snowball. Will people start being fined if they don’t feed their children organic food, for instance? If they drive their car instead of walking, bicycling, or using public transportation? (more…)

Did you know that Hammonton, NJ is the Blueberry Capital of the World? Lucky for us in KIWI’s New Jersey office, Hammonton is less than a half-hour away, meaning we have access to one of the best, most abundant sources of blueberries on the planet! Pretty cool, huh?

This was the first week that I saw blueberries at the farmer’s market, and they couldn’t come soon enough. During the winter, I sometimes make a compote out of frozen berries to stir into my oatmeal. And it’s good…but it’s not the same as putting a fresh one in your mouth and having it POP when you bite down. So yeah, I like to eat my blueberries straight out-of-hand (though they’re not bad in pies, muffins, or smoothies, either!)

Further, when doing some research on The Dirty Dozen, (twelve fruits and veggies that are most important to buy organic) conventional blueberries were listed as a safer alternative to conventional cherries or strawberries, which are both part of the must-buy-organic list. Conventional blueberries may be safer, but those suckers have pretty thin skins, so I’ll stick with organic.

What about you? Do you seek out organic blueberries? What are your favorite way to eat them?

-Marygrace, KIWI Staffer

In an effort to help consumers learn about the chemicals often lurking in conventionally-grown food, The Pesticide Action Network recently launched WhatsOnMyFood.com, a website that seeks to spread awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides on our health and environment.

Synthetic pesticides play a huge role in conventional farming practices, and have been implicated as a cause for range  a range of illnesses including autism and Parkinson’s disease. PAN is committed to working towards the reduction of pesticide use, as well as collaborating with partner companies to voice their collective opposition against the use of chemicals in our food.

Case in point: the average American child receives more than five “servings” of chemical residues in their food and water each day, according to WhatsOnMyFood?. Further, the website allows you to search by food or pesticide to learn what’s potentially hiding in your meal. It also offers ways for concerned parents and families to take action in the fight against the use of these hazardous materials.

As for us? We’re going organic whenever possible. What about your family?

-Brittany, KIWI Staffer

Here’s the latest and greatest of what’s going on in the mom blogosphere.  Interested in having your blog featured?  Let us know in the comments!

• Are you a tea fan? Tree Hugging Family reviews Earth Mama Angel Baby’s organic Mama-To-Be tea sampler (thumbs up!), and holds a tea sampler giveaway.
• Lots of us have been experiencing never-ending rain, clouds, and cool temperatures. Beat the summer gloomies by looking on the bright side with Secret Mom Thoughts.
• Pure Mothers serve up an environmentally-responsible slice of strawberry rhubarb pie.
• If you’ve yet to do any berry picking this year, GreenStyleMom’s experience will inspire you.
• Mindful Momma admits it–you can’t be 100% green 100$ of the time! Check out the eco-confessional.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

KIWI is looking to speak with some moms about the ways they keep their family healthy. Post-dinner walks? Lots of whole grains? If you’re interested in sharing, leave your e-mail address in the comments!

Our sun-loving crew compiled a list of the best summer-related content KIWI has to offer. Whether you’re into surfing, nature walks, gardening, or cooking, you’ll find plenty of ways to have fun all summer while being kind to the planet. Read all about it at kiwimagonline.com/summerfun.

Whether it was time spent at the local animal shelter, reading to sick children, or preparing meals in a soup kitchen, I always leave my time spent volunteering with a real sense of optimism. This might seem counter-intuitive–after all, I’m sometimes exposing myself to some pretty upsetting situations. However, giving back always makes me feel like something that really needed doing was done, and fills me with a sense of empowerment that it was within my capacity to do it.

Volunteering is one of the best ways to instill in our children a sense of social responsibility and compassion. Fortunately, there are countless ways to give back no matter what your family’s interests, especially during the summertime when schedules tend to be a little more open. You can check out Volunteermatch.org to find opportunities in your community, or consider some of these family-friendly options.

1. Elect to take part in an Adopt-A-Grandparent program at a local nursing home or assisted living facility. Better yet, find out if any of the residents have summer birthdays, and throw a giant birthday bash complete with balloons, simple party games, fun music, and from-scratch cupcakes.
2. Hold an all-natural lemonade stand where you know you’ll get lots of thirsty customers (maybe a local baseball field or community pool?). Donate all proceeds to your favorite charity.
3. Make fun kits complete with coloring books, non-toxic markers or crayons, stickers, playing cards, puzzles, and pocket novels, then deliver them as a family to patients at a nearby children’s hospital.
4. Wake up early one morning and head over to your local park with a supply of trash bags. Have a competition to see which family member can find the most litter.
5. Special Olympics games occur throughout the summer in nearly every state, and volunteers of all ages are needed to make the events happen. To find one near you, click here.

Does your family have a regular volunteering outlet? How has it helped everyone grow and learn?

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

In December, Lynn’s dad/Corey’s granddad passed away, two weeks short of his 100th birthday. This will be the first Father’s Day we’ll share without our beloved “Grandpal.” How to honor him? We’ll gather his great-grandchildren together and re-tell the stories he shared so many times, about his days at Camp Utopia when his boat got stuck on Rattlesnake Rock or the time he was chased by a bear. Whether they’re true (or partially), or embellished (for sure), doesn’t matter. Remembering how his eyes lit up as he recounted his adventures will be enough. We’ll sing a few of his favorite tunes (though none of us can play any song on the piano as he did, in the key of C), and salute him by savoring his favorite apple cobbler. We won’t be buying Grandpal a gift this year, but we’ll plant colorful perennials in his honor and understand that each Father’s Day from now on will be about remembering.

-Lynn and Corey Colwell, mother-daughter duo and co-authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family.

Here’s the latest and greatest of what’s going on in the mom blogosphere.  Interested in having your blog featured?  Let us know in the comments!

• Muthering Heights marvels at her daughter’s growing sense of curiousity about the world around her.
• Just in time for Father’s Day: The Green Mom Review talks earth-friendly shave gel for dad.
• Got any birthdays coming up? Try this yummy carrot cake recipe, courtesy of Thrifty Mom to Three Boys.
• Kingdom Twindom shares her experience with natural oatmeal baths for baby.
• Balloons are festive, but they’re no party for the environment. Learn why at Mom Goes Green.
• Enviromom beautifies her pantry with earth-friendly shelf paper.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

Yesterday, the Senate approved The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which, if passed, would reduce youth smoking by 11% over the next decade. President Obama has already said he will sign the bill when it reaches his desk, resulting in a victory for anti-smoking advocates everywhere, including Washington group the Campaign Tobacco Free Kids .

With the new law in place, the FDA would have the ability to set standards forcing manufacturers to reduce nicotene content in cigarettes. It would also call for more restriction in cigarette advertisements, making outdoor advertisingof tobacco within 1,000 feet of schools illegal. Further, cigarette packages will no longer be allowed to use terms like “light” or “low tar,” and will be required to display large health-hazard graphics.

If passed, the law would be the first federal smoking regulation since 1988, when cigarettes were banned on commercial airplane flights.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff writer

According to a recent study published in journal Climatic Change, the color white could significantly offset CO2 emissions, playing a role in the combat against global warming. Using white paint or  materials for the roofs of city buildings is just one facet of what scientists call geo-engineering, or a positive manipulation of the Earth’s environment.

How does it work? Think about your clothing choices on a hot, sunny day. Donning a black t-shirt will make you feel a lot hotter than if you wore a white one. The relationship between color and heat absorption works the same for buildings. Roofs currently make up 20-25% of urban surfaces, with most of them being black or near-black. The dark color absorbs vast amount of heat and so causes buildings to warm up faster, translating to higher energy use in the form of air conditioning. By switching to white roofs, which reflects rather than absorbs heat, we can offset 24 billion tons of CO2. According to scientists, that’s like taking all of the world’s cars off the road for 10 years!

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

If school hasn’t already ended in your area, the time is probably coming close. Over at KiwiCommunity, we’ve got a whole host of budget- and family-friendly activities that will quickly get you into the summer spirit. Curious? Here’s just a taste of the fun:

• Visit a local stable to learn how horses are cared for. Find out if you can bring carrot sticks or rolled outs to feed them.
• Hang an old sheet on a clotheslines, then fill spray bottles with a mixture of tempera paint and water. Spray away for a unique, colorful masterpiece!
• Make ice pops with 100% fruit juice.
• Turn your garage into a neighborhood theater and put on a play.
• Make dreamcatchers.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

Swimming pools are summer vacation icons. Whether it was playing Marco Polo with my eyes closed, psyching myself up to jump off the high dive, or waiting through the agony of adult swim, as soon as I get a whiff of that chlorine smell, I immediately think back to those gloriously hot, sunny days. Unfortunately, while the smell of chlorine conjures up some pretty sweet nostalgia, the stuff certainly isn’t doing anything for my health. As a chemical bleaching agent that is actually toxic in large doses, chlorine can pose a real health risk to swimmers big and small.

Although chlorine has been used since the 1920’s to keep pools clean,  chlorinated water has been found to irritate the eyes and skin, as well as trigger asthma. When the stuff interacts with the dirt and sweat on our bodies, it forms a harmful chemical called trichloramine, which a 2003 Belgian study found in high concentrations in blood samples of children who frequently swim in pools.

(more…)

If you’re in the Philadelphia area, help Heart Gallery Philadelphia promote adoption awareness on June 20th with its Fourth Annual Gala exhibit. On display at the Please Touch Museum during the month of July, the exhibit features portraits of 30 foster children awaiting adoption in the Philadelphia area. The Heart Gallery seeks for the exhibit to raise awareness for the need of adoptive families through providing a face and voice to some of the children in the area looking for their “forever family.”

To learn more, visit heartgalleryphiladelphia.org.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

Here’s the latest and greatest of what’s going on in the mom blogosphere.  Interested in having your blog featured?  Let us know in the comments!

• Looking for some quotable inspiration? Sweet Serendipity has some kid-related words of wisdom.
• Green Kiddos has the scoop on cloth diapering 101.
• Mothering Nature borrows a hilarious tradition called Not Me Monday. Just read it!
• Get ready for Father’s Day with some dad appreciation, courtesy of The Bean Blog.
• Cut yourself some slack! The Tranquil Parent tells how to give yourself a break.

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

Depending on where you live, you might see strawberries as a spring thing. But here in New Jersey, I mark the appearance of local strawberries as the start of summer fruit season. It won’t be long now before the farmers market stalls are flooded with raspberries, cherries, blueberries, and then (my favorite!) peaches and nectarines.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get back to strawberries, which are popping up all over the place in those cute little green boxes and baskets. Usually when I go to the market, I’m tempted to buy a ton of them—after all, the season isn’t very long, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts!

Quite unfortunately, the seasonal availability of strawberries is a lot like a box of berries’ lifespan—short. Case in point: yesterday morning I was slicing up some fresh strawberries to accompany my morning porridge. I noticed I had about two servings’ worth of berries, but since I was the only one eating them, the rest would have to wait til tomorrow. When I came back this morning, however, each of my remaining strawberries had grown their own little white fur coat of mold.

The moral of the story, of course, is not to buy less local strawberries. Instead, just eat them faster! If you really get tired of having the plain old berries, try one of these ideas:

• A spinach salad with sliced strawberries
• Strawberry compote served warm over vanilla ice cream
• Chocolate-covered strawberries (getting fancy!)
• Homemade strawberry jam
• A strawberry-pickle smoothie

Just kidding about the last one! What are your favorite ways to eat strawberries?

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

If you’ve ever wondered about what it might be like to sleep under the stars, now’s your chance–The North Face has designated June to be National Camping Month!

Throughout the month, The North Face will be holding free educational events and community activities in an effort to encourage families to spend time enjoying the outdoors through the simple act of camping. A press release for the company stated that according to the Outdoor Industry Association, there was an 11.6% decrease of participation in outdoor activities among kids ages 6-17 between 2006-2007. Hopefully, The North Face’s initiative will help foster enthusiasm among kids to spend time in nature!

Whether your family spends a night sleeping in the backyard or plan a whole weekend escape to the natural world, make the effort to camp this month!

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer

While you might not be able to control every snack your little ones eat, you can control the snack’s environmental impact, thanks to TerraCycle.  The company  keeps non-recyclable packaging like cookie wrappers and drink pouches out of landfills by turning them into cool, re-purposed items like kites or backpacks, and has recently partnered with snack giants Frito-Lay and Mars.

The program works when consumers form Chip Bag Brigades to collect used chip bags. They hope to keep more than 5 million bags out of landfills, and what’s more, for each one TerraCycle receives, Frito-Lay will donate two cents to charity. There are currently 1,000 chip bag collection sites, with more in the works.  To learn more about the program, as well as how to start your own Chip Bag Brigade, click here!

-Marygrace, KIWI Staff Writer and recycling enthusiast

Going green has gained enormous support and popularity around the world so what comes next?  An environmental film festival… Duh! On June 5-6, the Ketelhuis Cinema in Amsterdam will offer environmental films, interviews with directors, and world premieres for the eco-minded.  Strawberry Earth is the host and Green Choice will be using green power for the entire event.  The film festival is donating funds to make the location a greener environment.  The Ketelhuis Cinema will also contribute funds to Greenpeace for the next ten years! “Besides getting an eco-education, your money also supports a really cool local project.” (Treehugger.com)  Learn more about this film festival.

– Brittany, KIWI intern and cinema addict

Here’s the latest and greatest of what’s going on in the mom blogosphere.  Interested in having your blog featured?  Let us know in the comments!

• EnviroMom made compost! What about you?
• Got an old cell phone you’re looking to get rid of? The Clothesline tells you how.
• If you live in Northern California, check out The Green Parent’s guide highlighting local, earth-friendly stores, markets, forums, and events.
• Tree Hugging Family compiles a great list of eco education websites for kids and teens.
• More news on the dangers of BPA, courtesy of The Smart Mama.