aqua pod: floating fish farm

Ocean Farm Tech
The Aquapod® farmed fish cage is an unmoored, maneuverable container with its own built-in thrusters. Designed by a team led by Cliff Goudey, the director of the MIT Sea Grant's Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center, a prototype was constructed for a technical feasibility test this summer in the waters off of Puerto Rico. This method is both healthier and less polluting.

The project is funded by NOAA’s Marine Aquaculture Program, aimed at demonstrating the technology needed to raise fish in the vast portions of the U.S. that are too deep for conventional anchored fish cages. There are many locations both in U.S. waters and around the world where oceanic currents and gyres offer useful frameworks for such mobile operations. Though futuristic compared to today’s near-shore fish farming practices, the concept avoids the user conflicts and compromised water quality of coastal waters.

The concentrated nature of aquaculture often leads to higher than normal levels of fish waste in the water. Fish waste is organic and composed of nutrients necessary in all components of aquatic food webs. In some instances such as nearshore, high-intensity operations, increased waste can adversely affect the environment by decreasing dissolved oxygen levels in the water column. Not only is the quality of the water affected but that of the food as well. Many hatcheries can be found near urban areas and sometimes get exposed to stormwater and industrial runoffs.

Off-shore aquaculture, as envisioned by Goudey and others, would resolve these problems, as this approach would 1) take the operation away from the foul waters of the coasts and 2) utilize strong ocean currents to flush away fish wastes. Should the cages enter a less than pristine area, it would simply move again. And if the currents aren't moving fast enough, the propellers would create the necessary turbulence.

denver urban homesteading: year round farmers market

I only recently became aware that Denver has a year round indoor farmers market. They sell only organic or other high-quality foods from local farmers and food producers. Some of the wares that you will find at the Denver Urban Homesteading Market are: goat cheese and milk, raw honey, dried apples, applesauce, jams, high-quality beef, granola, energy bars, lamb & goat meat, goat milk, sauerkraut, pickles, juices and ciders, organic chicken feed & additives, free-range heritage turkeys, chickens, natural botanical skin care products, farmed tilapia and trout, knife & tool sharpening, vegetables, all natural milk, all natural ice cream & gelato, goat soaps, wool for knitting, eggs, cheese, raw cow milk, pies with local fruit fillings, eggs, grass-fed buffalo meat, bread, glutin-free sweetbreads, organic spices, home made pasta and ravioli, organic pancake & biscuit mixes, organic baby food, dried soups, dips and mixes and biodynamic wine!!! Click on the link and get yourself down there!

lunch skin: reusable bags

What a great way to reduce waste by packing snacks and sandwiches in Lunch Skins.

gary slavinsky: wood fired ceramics

Gary Slavinsky

kids konserve: waste free lunch kit

Kids Konserve offers this fun waste-free lunch kits, each with stainless steel drink bottle, two stainless food containers, a food kozy (replacing plastic bags or saran) and a cloth napkin. The recycled cotton bag has name tag. Kids Konserve is out of Australia, lets do lunch mate. Every item is BPA, lead and Phthalate-free. Available here.

flip & tumble: reusable bags

Flip & Tumble was founded by Hetal Jariwala and Eva Bauer, designers who met while attending Stanford’s graduate Product Design program. Both were trying to make the switch to reusable bags, but were struggling to bring their bags with them when they shopped. “Often shopping trips were unexpected, or we simply just forgot. As we started talking to people, we learned we weren’t alone. Lots of people owned reusable bags, but those bags often weren’t getting used. It was just too easy to forget.”
“We wanted to develop the perfect one bag that you could keep with you all the time. The ideal bag had to be compact and work for grocery shopping, but we also wanted it to work for other places, such as a nice restaurant, or a day at the museum.”

With market research, they found that most bags were geared to just grocery shopping, and were cumbersome to compact. Using ripstop nylon was a no-brainer, it had the perfect combination of strength and compactability the stuffsack is made from a stretchable material so one can easily cram alarge bag back into a compact form.

Their final product, titled the 24-7 bag, sells online for $15 through their website. Over its lifetime, each 24-7 bag can easily spare the earth from over 1,000 disposable plastic bags.

Personally, I like the dual color tones of each bag!!

haute gingerbread ideas: moomin house

There is nothing more quintessentially holiday than gingerbread. Nothing more quintessentially Swedish/Finnish than Moomin, so this year I will give this Moomin lighthouse a go. For those of you unfamiliar with Moomin, they are hippo-like troll creatures from a series of books and a comic strip by Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson (born part of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland). originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. The family of trolls are white and roundish, a carefree and adventurous family who live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland. Moomin residences include a lighthouse and a theatre.

Gingerbread has an interesting history as well, originally brought to Europe by the Crusaders. There are written Swedish references showing nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in the year 1444. The first documented trade of ginger bread cookies is dated to 1500's where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 1700s. Originally, the term gingerbread referred to preserved ginger, then to a confection made with honey and spices.
To make your own Moomin Lighthouse follow the PDF tutorial on AOA!

More gingerbread house ideas here & here.

happy birthday: eva ziesel turns 103!

World-renowned Hungarian industrial designer Eva Zeisel turned 103 on Friday. Though she is best known for her decorative art ceramics, Zeisel has designed furniture and other housewares. Zeisel's work is in the collections of the MoMa, the MET & the V&A. She was awarded with the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York in 2005 at the age of 99. She continues to create new works and her repetoire of design is still fresh and very current today thanks to her signature organic shapes. New York magazine named Zeisel as one of nine living Design Revolutionaries back in '07 as well. You can pick up some of her tableware at Unica Home & Crate & Barrel or shop for vintage pieces too. Learn more about her and her work on the Eva Zeisel collectors forum and don't miss her TED talk below!

preserve products: everyday tableware line

For more than 13 years, Preserve Products has been a leader in recycling plastics to use in their hygene like toothbrushes and razors. After years spent making personal care products, Preserve surveyed its customers to find out where else they'd like to see their products, and expanded its offerings to include a line of kitchen products. Their Everyday Tableware line, which was recently launched in Target as part of its back-to-college promotion, was designed in partnership with Evo Design and addresses a unique challenge for the affordable tableware market: It's made from recycled plastic yet sturdy enough to withstand years of everyday use.

There are many rea sons that people do not reuse tableware such as aesthetic concerns or marks left by cutlery, the shape looks too manufactured or they simply are not durable enought. Preserve has given these 100% post industrial dishware certain colors, textures and shapes to address these concerns. Objects don't last forever though, when finished using Preserve's dishware, you can send them back to the company to be recyclabled.

the cake walk: a halloween carnival activity

In many Elementary Schools around the US, a cake walk coinciding with a school carnival is organized for the Halloween holiday. For any elementary schools that do not do this activity I have a word of advice, Start!
This celebration can also be done with the entire neighborhood or other community facility or group. The Cake Walk can be turned into a fundraiser for a worthy cause as well. It is very similar to musical chairs. Each cake comes from parents or group members who volunteer to bake or buy a cake and donate it to the game.

To organize one, put numbers on the floor or carpet with masking tape, forming a circle. Maybe 20 perhaps more if it is a big school. Participants purchase tickets and when they want to play, hand in their tickets, they each choose a number/position, and when all the spots are pretty much filled, you begin. Using a tape recorder or record player, put some fun dance music on, and encourage the walkers to move around the circle, in rhythm to the music. After several rounds of this, the Leader stops the music, and everyone claims the spot nearest his/her feet. The leader pulls a number out of a fishbowl (there is a number in the bowl for every number in the circle). That chosen number wins the cake for that round, choosing from all the cakes available, donated by participating families. The others are given some sort of small door prize, and a "thanks for playing!"...and may, of course, try again with another ticket. Repeat until all cakes have new homes.

Bakers or Buyers of cakes will need advance notification of the event and the need, so you'll be distributing flyers and/or making phone calls. You need a chairperson/Leader to be responsible for set-up, and ideally one or two enthusiastic Helpers to keep it running smoothly. Someone has to be available to Receive the cakes as they are brought in, store them safely, set up, clean up...etc..

For the love of German Chocolate cake, please bring this activity back people!!!

I was completely unaware as to the true history of the Cake Walk, that you can read about here. I guess the cake walk is as good as Jazz baby-it sure tastes like it.
photo source

green genius bio bags

Green Genius, is a brand new biodegradable trash bag about to hit store shelves. The 100% recyclable craft board box is 60% post consumer waste and printing with UV inks. Look for them soon and make the change!

haute ideas for children's lunches

Keeping kids interested is simple its just like fancy garnishing. Tikes are usually a trendy bunch, their interest will be kept if the food is styled in new and unusual ways. Its hard to stay consistently creative in this department unless you prepare ahead.

Make Sunday your prep day by filling small plastic reusable containers with yogurt for dipping or berries. Put them in the freezer and take one out each day-at lunchtime they will be nice and cool.
Fill enough containers on Sunday to pop into lunches each day.
Try trail mix or organic popcorn a super low calorie snack.
Vegetables should be bite size and have a dunking dip or dressing: hummus, salsa or yogurt.
Make fruit bite size & put on skewers.
Cut sandwiches smaller or use cookie cutter. my fave PB, banana & honey!
Tiny portions of spaghetti with sauce can be placed into cupcake papers and frozen in tupperware for a quick grab.
Don't forget fun items like quesidillas, hard boiled eggs, bagels, cubed watermelon, tube style yogurt or cold mini pancakes (delicious)
Pack crackers with cheese that you shape with cookie cutters: dinos, gnomes, etc..
You really cannot go wrong if you style food in the shape of animals or characters.
More ideas at Flickr Bentos, Kids Eats & Vegetarian Bento

Goodbyn
Bento

eat your vegetables

The idea that freezing peas will get your children to eat them is more intriguing than say flavor of pea poscicle!

best reuse.....ever! mushroom tunnel

I might be slightly bias in saying that this is the best abandoned architectural reuse I have ever seen, since I adore mushrooms...but I challenge anyone to find a better use of space. Dr. Noel Arrold is founder of Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms which houses itself in an abandoned railway tunnel originally built in 1886. Although the tunnel is still Australian state property, Dr. Arrold secured himself a five year lease and re-fashioned it into a lovely mycological growing facility. Dr. Arrold has actually been growing mushrooms in the Mittagong tunnel for more than twenty years--varieties such as Shimeji, Wood-ear, Shiitake, and Oyster thrive there. The tunnel is 650 metres long, 30 metres deep and remains at a constant 15 degrees Celsius, fluorescent lights illuminate the space for 12 hours.
more info here.

babycakes: healthier desserts

Baby Cakes, a cupcake shop in the East Village caters to the picky eater or allergen aware diet creating scrumptious cakes that are gluten-free, dairy free, egg and soy free. To top it off, they are sweetened with agave nectar. I need to get my hands on some ASAP.

here we grow movie: a restoration of food

I am so jazzed for the premiere of the Here We Grow Movie!
The film, was inspired by Craig King's desire to break the limitations of the retail food world and to help change the way people think about food and wellness. King, a natural food chef and entrepreneur, was the brains behind the documentary, which intends to explore the state of our food supply and help educate people to live healthier, more wholesome lives through socially responsible food choices. The film is intended to raise awareness nationwide through inspirational interviews and stories that will capture the passion and drive of a diverse group of individuals.

Here we grow is dedicated to active solutions to create wellness going forward. Profits from the film will go directly towards community projects to demonstrate the actions necessary to restore America's health. One of the upcoming projects is to install vegetable gardens at orphanage and to healthy school lunch programs. Click here to out where it is playing near you, to watch the trailer for the movie, or simply purchase the documentary at the check out stands of Whole Foods beginning in September. Bon appetit!

karen ryan: repurposing

Hi all, I am finally back from a much needed vacation, so be prepared from some amazing new posts. First off, we have Karen Ryan, who produces some terrific repurposed items that have been shown at Designersblock. Her process for 'Second Hand Plates' removes the original decorative pattern and cover it with new glaze, revealing emotionally raw words. Check out Karen's chairs too.

farmsreach: farm to table local

A Bay Area startup has launched a service to make it easier and cheaper for restaurants to buy food from small, local farms. With mobile apps for use in restaurants and on farms, FarmsReach wants to create an online food marketplace that would directly connect farms with restaurants. Yippee!
via Wired

reglazed plates: christopher jagmin

Christopher Jagmin improved plates.

rishi tea: organic iced teas

Rishi Teas has launched a new line of 8 new organic iced teas. This line also features eco-friendly packaging. Founder Joshua Kaiser explains, " In our continuing efforts to minimize our environmental footprint, we use paper maufactured with 100% renewable wind energy and 80% post consumer waste-- that is chlorine free and 100% recyclable. The packaging is also Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and printed with soy ink. Rishi Teas are fair trade, socially responsible and very delicious! My personal favorites are the caffeine free flavors, Tropical Crimson and Blueberry Red. (Tropical Crimson has just won Best Flavored Herbal Iced Tea– (Organic/Fair Trade)!!

Competing among 41 different companies in Las Vegas for the World Tea Championships, Rishi, who submitted nearly 300 teas, took home an unprecedented 28 awards, including a stunning victory of 11 First Place winners. The World
Tea Championship, organized by the World Tea Expo, is an independent competition judged by professional cuppers and
buyers to distinguish the highest quality and best tasting teas available in North America. For the second year in a row, Rishi Tea took home more than double the awards received by their closest competitors. These consecutive accomplishments have established Rishi Tea as a leader of the industry and provided a strong validation of their
passion for quality.