March 26, 2009 - Courier-Journal

Going green in the kitchen

A healthier planet can start at home

By Darla Carter dcarter@courier-journal.com

Perhaps the green movement has caught your attention and you'd like to get on board but don't know where to begin. One possibility: the kitchen.

"Probably around 40 percent of all the energy we use in our house comes from our kitchen ... so kitchens are pretty key," said Michael Abbate, author of the new book "Gardening Eden: How Creation Care Will Change Your Faith, Your Life, and Our World" (WaterBrook Press, $13.99). "If somebody wants to sort of adopt a greener lifestyle, the kitchen's a great place to start."

Some Kentuckiana residents already are setting an example.

Tim Darst and his wife, Angela Lincoln, who live in Louisville's Deer Park neighborhood, have replaced their old refrigerator with an Energy Star appliance that is more energy efficient. They also use a hand-cranked blender instead of an electric one, and garden to reduce the need to purchase food that's been shipped from long distances or been overly processed.

"We have an organic garden in our backyard, so we try to grow a lot of our own food," he said. "I like the berries because you don't have to plant them. I've got grapes, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries growing in my backyard," and recently, "I put out broccoli, kale, cabbage, and then I put out spinach."

"We also try to buy a lot at the farmers market on Bardstown Road," said Darst, a local accountant who's also the director of Kentucky Interfaith Power & Light, a group that promotes conservation, efficiency and alternative energy.

Mary Baron sees many environmentally savvy people come into her family's business, Amazing Green Planet, an eco-friendly gift shop on Herr Lane that she operates with her husband, Randy, and son Dustin.

But she also encounters people who are hankering for knowledge.

"They want to be green. A lot of them don't know how to, and when they're going to go green, especially when somebody is just learning ... they don't want it to be hard," Baron said. "It needs to be something they can do that really isn't disruptive to their lifestyle."

Make it convenient

At home, Baron uses a special pail to collect kitchen scraps that she later uses for composting, a method of turning organic waste into a source of nutrients for her flower garden.

"Before I opened the store, I'd been just really lusting after these countertop compost pails," Baron said. "It's a great convenience item because they have charcoal filters in them so if you don't get out there (to the main compost pile) for a couple of days with your leftover carrot scrapings or whatever, you don't get the fruit-fly thing."

In a further effort to be green, Baron uses microfiber cloths to clean in the kitchen and other parts of the house with water. That way, "there's no residue" from a cleaner, she said.

She introduces customers to those products as well as other items, such as reusable wraps for food; mesh produce bags; and clothlike shopping bags made from recycled water bottles. The store also carries a large Tumbleweed compost bin for those who want to go green.

"Once you get started in it, you see, well, it really isn't hard to recycle or start a compost pile or use a Tumbleweed composter and then upgrade your own yard because of it," Baron said.

Little steps add up

Darst said it's worth it for residents to take whatever steps they can, even if the steps seem small.

"The cumulative effect - if everybody made little steps - it can make a big difference," he said.

And the measures don't have to be complicated, said Laurel Kohl, an education specialist for the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Eastern Connecticut State University.

"Change is as simple as changing a light bulb," said Kohl, who advocates switching to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs.

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