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About Susan Sunflower

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So far Susan Sunflower has created 10 blog entries.

EXCESSES FROM THE GIFTING SEASON, AND LIFE IN GENERAL: HOW TO RECYCLE

The gifting season is upon us, leading to gift boxes for the garage, stuffed closets and shelves needing sorting, and old items these new gifts displace ... but stuff is hard to recycle AND the Transylvania Landfill is filling up. greenzonenc.com can help! Primarily a textile recycler (used as final destination by St. Phil's Shoppe), it currently has a list of resources for those hard-to items: greenzonenc.com/latest-news/blog/. Here's some of the suggestions: Battaries & Old Electronics: Try Walmart, AutoZone. Other options listed. Medical Equipment: NC HELP (Health Equipment Loan Program) Diapers-new single use: Diapers Bank NC Used mattresses are up to 80% recyclable! 1-800-Got-Junk Other items include foam and stryafoam! PLEASE KEEP THIS REFERENCE! THE LOCAL LANDFILL IS OVERFLOWING AND THE EARTH NEEDS THIS HELP! THANKS!

By |2021-12-12T10:51:53-05:00December 12th, 2021|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste|
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SEED libraries (especially Natives), another great way to share, to support our ecology

Seed Library - another great way of sharing and saving our environment What is this? You may have seen some of these little free library boxes around that people use to share books. The idea behind these seed libraries is similar in that people can share seeds. We hope this works well so we share seed, ESPECIALLY NATIVES! Have you spotted one in T Cty yet? Who wants to build one for your neighborhood? Expect to see them soon, at the Canteen, St. Paul's Episcopal, at the RR Native Plant Garden in Brevard ... and/or .....? How do I use it? As with the lil' book libraries, put and take. And this is the beginning of the native plant seed season ... Small envelopes needed - ordinary postal ones would do Small trays to hold them on an up slant (so seeds don't fall out). Those take-out food ones might do. On each envelope (print small): name (scientific is GOOD, common works), special planting notes (shade/sun) There is [...]

By |2021-04-18T11:10:45-04:00April 18th, 2021|Categories: Connecting with nature, Help a Neighbor, Moving to Conservers, Moving to Zero-waste, Sharing Club|
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Water Scarcity in SW US? More reason to change our diet and eat LOCAL.

Water scarcity footprint reveals impacts of individual dietary choices in US Date: April 15, 2021 - Source: University of Michigan - summarised from SCIENCE DAILY A lot of attention has been paid in recent years to the carbon footprint of the foods we eat, with much of the focus on the outsize contribution of meat production and especially beef. Much less is known about the implications of individual U.S. dietary choices on other environmental concerns, such as water scarcity. In a study scheduled for online publication April 15 in the journal Nature Food, researchers from the University of Michigan and Tulane University present a water scarcity footprint that measures the water-use impacts of U.S. diets, taking into account regional variations in water scarcity. Meat consumption is the top contributor to the water scarcity footprint of the average U.S. diet, accounting for 31% of the impacts, according to the study. And within the meat category, beef's contribution is about six times higher than chicken's. Other foods that require lots [...]

By |2021-04-18T10:32:37-04:00April 18th, 2021|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste|
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No more ‘cup to go’ please!

Time to remember to ALWAYS carry your own cup. It's more than just coffee, too, it's all those throw-away drinks, covered food trays. And don't forget the sippers! (Though so far, I've not found one that truly works, so maybe we DON'T need straws?) Here's the story  ...   Is your recycled item TRULY recycled? To sustain a thriving café culture, we must ditch the disposable cup.  Date: March 1, 2021 Source: University of South Australia Summary: Takeaway coffees - they're a convenient start for millions of people each day, but while the caffeine perks us up, the disposable cups drag us down, with nearly 300 billion ending up in landfill each year. While most coffee drinkers are happy to make a switch to sustainable practices, new research shows that an absence of infrastructure and a general 'throwaway' culture is severely delaying sustainable change. FULL STORY Takeaway coffees -- they're a convenient start for millions of people each day, but while the caffeine perks us up, the disposable [...]

By |2021-03-02T11:56:07-05:00March 2nd, 2021|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste|
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Spring reads – as usual, it’s all about SOIL!

  A wonderful resource for home gardeners and farmers of all size:, just in time for spring garden dreams: The Hidden Half of Nature, The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery, Anne Bikle In The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery and Bikle start a garden in their poor soil back yard. That led directly to the need for organic compost, via giving us the history to understand microbial life in a decent soil, why their initial soil had it’s particular components, and other wonderful revelations. The next part of their journey was to review and change their diet, to support their immune systems and, in this case, prevent cancer. This includes how human bodies work and, very timely, how infection gets to humans from other animals. They talk about domestic animals and the development of targeted vaccination… covid and wild animal access to humans, for example. The next chapters move back to food, a study comparing an animal based diet (meat & cheese) and [...]

By |2021-02-15T09:13:02-05:00February 3rd, 2021|Categories: Composting, Connecting with nature, Eating Consciously, Growing food|
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TRASH: Economic Asset, right here in T County!

Just sent to  the Transylvania County Commissioners. If you like this idea, please send them a letter of support. Even better, send them YOUR ideas of how to use trash as an economic asset! "In September, Kenn Webb, our Waste Management Director,  gave an excellent presentation on our landfill options in Transylvania County. In case there is no public hearing, I am sharing this with now. October 2020 - T County Commissioners - ECONOMIC USES OF TRASH The question is asked … shall Transylvania county handle our trash here at home, or send it ‘away’. Best response? Manage trash here, as the basic economic resource it is. You say maybe not? Look at the wretched example of the US when China declined to take more of our garbage … we had no plan, no structure, no goals to deal with neither result nor cause. We, here and now, have a chance to make a significant step forward in economics, environmental support and creativity!. IDEAS: POLICIES & PRACTICES: T [...]

By |2020-10-18T09:03:29-04:00October 18th, 2020|Categories: Moving to Zero-waste|
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Are there fewer pollinators and other insects this year in your yard?

Many of us in T County and across N. America, have noticed this. Habitat loss, we all said, and chemicals. Too true! From Science Daily.com, 2 September '20. Talk with your neighbors ... Food-web threats from common insecticides North Carolina State University: Researchers have argued for curbing the use of neonicotinoid insecticides. In light of emerging evidence showing how a commonly used class of insecticides can spread through the environment to pollinators, predators and other insects they are not intended to kill, researchers are warning about the potential for widespread environmental contamination. In an opinion in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from North Carolina State University and Pennsylvania State University argued for curbing the use of neonicotinoid insecticides by discontinuing the practice of applying them preventively on crop seeds, since the practice is in wide use in the United States and has been found in one study to benefit a small fraction of crop fields. They argue that reducing this and other common [...]

By |2020-09-10T14:31:58-04:00September 4th, 2020|Categories: Connecting with nature|
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PREP for the end August potting party for fall veg give-aways!

First - are you starting extra fall veggies for us to give away, in cooperation with Hunger Coalition, in Rosman and Brevard? Or do you know people who will give us starts? Ask soon! Here's a learning option, if you are undecided to take on the fall garden ... Online Seminar:Keep Your Vegetable Garden Growing into the Fall Saturday, August 15, 2020, 10 a.m. to noon by Master Gardener ℠ Volunteers of Buncombe County Presenter: Alan Wagner, Buncombe Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer Vegetable gardening does not have to end in September. You can plant a fall garden and extend your growing season with a second harvest into the fall/winter. Photography ulrich22/Shutterstock Click here for full details and to register on Eventbrite for this free program.

By |2020-08-09T15:16:03-04:00August 7th, 2020|Categories: Composting, Connecting with nature, Eating Consciously|
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The Essential Worker Conversation …

Defining Essential workers … Mutual Aid On the phone call, recently, talk began about supporting essential workers via support for mutual aid groups, an ancient community support technique. So, Susan Sunflower and Jackie talked, at Roosterhead, talked on 6 June. We loosely divided essential workers into groups . those with salaries or wages and sometimes benefits like healthcare/sick leave: emergency and medical workers, grocery staff, . those working on their own or with a few people, mom/pop, sole proprietors, gig workers, such as cleaners, domestic violence workers/volunteers, individual mechanics or small shops like the Jiffy Lube individually owned/worked franchise, landscapers, child care proprietors/staff, handymen, hair dressers and FARMERS! The more we talked, the long the list got. SUPPORTS needed now: farmers/farm stands need customers SUPPORTS needed in a crisis: . health coverage, true medicare/medicaid for all, including homeopathic (COBRA is basically a farce, expensive) . emergency funds: - for farmers - national disasters include killing frosts, mudslides, 100 - 500 year floods so crop/land insurance needed immediately to [...]

By |2020-06-22T11:56:57-04:00June 21st, 2020|Categories: Essential workers|
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MASKS available!

Thanks to our Gail, I found cloth masks in Brevard: The Sew Shop, across from Food Matters, has them with ear loops and pockets to put old but cleaned N95s, coffee filters or dust filter masks from your garden shed. $10. See photo. Gravy, on Main Street, has tie-ons that avoid ear abrasion but the masks have no pockets. $8.95, benefit to C. Platt Girls and Boys Club. https://www.facebook.com/groups/WeAreBrevardNC/permalink/2946669858749431/ takes you direct to local mask makers. Some of them list attributes of their masks. Some donate to local charities. Cotton cloth masks HELP keep your germs to yourself, others’ germs from you, along with social distancing. They are improved by adding filtering material: those clean old N95 pieces, list filters, coffee filters. They do NOT stop corona virus germs, although they do add significant protection with your social distancing helps. On-line, a 15 minute search yields LOTS of options, some with additional filtering protection built in, often part of sale benefits corona-related charities. I searched under “ masks [...]

By |2020-05-23T14:05:34-04:00May 23rd, 2020|Categories: Help a Neighbor, Moving to Zero-waste, Zero-waste tips|
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