Whether you live in the city or the country, the warm summer weather provides the perfect opportunity to get outside and explore your surroundings! In this first Blessed Earth Monthly Challenge, we invite you to spend as much time as possible close to home, in your community. Below you will find some suggestions from the BE team, along with a printable checklist of action items. We would love to hear from you, so please send us your success stories! Did you start a garden, or tune up your bicycle so you could ride it more often? Let us know! We would be proud to hear your reports or see some photos of what you do this month. You can email jessica@blessedearth.org with the subject line “Monthly Challenge” and we will share the stories and photos here on the Monthly Challenge page. Check back to see what others are doing! 1. Ride your bike more often! When the weather’s nice, get out and cycle instead of driving. 2. Eat at home. The average American family spends $350/month eating out. Save some money and cook in your own kitchen. Better yet, grill out!Cooking outside during warm summer months helps you avoid heating your house while cooking. 3. When you do eat out, patronize local restaurants, not chains— they will appreciate your business, and you will avoid the unhealthy foods and excessive disposable packaging of fast food places. Try to find restaurants that use locally sourced food providers. 4. Have a yard sale and get rid of anything you haven’t used in the past year. Thinning out your stuff is a good spiritual and environmental exercise. Plus, buying and selling at local yard sales avoids contributing to our over-materialized consumer culture. 5. Buy local, seasonal food! When you support local co- ops, farmers’ markets, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), you reduce the distance your food migrates and the amount of fuel and packaging it takes to feed your family while supporting your local economy. Enjoy fresh sweet corn in the summer, apples in the fall, and citrus in the winter. You can also find local sources for eggs, honey, and meat. Check out www.localharvest.org for suggestions. 6. Start a garden! Go extremely local and grow food in your own backyard. If you can’t plant your own garden, investigate a local community garden. Join a CSA (community-supported agriculture) and barter labor for part of your “share.” You can even get into canning your food. Canning is a great way to eat local all year-round. 7. Where does your food come from? Visit a local farm. Experience where your food comes from by looking for “You Pick” farms in your area. See www.pickyourown.org for a list in your area. 8. Give back! Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or food redistribution center. 9. Share! Get in the practice of inviting others to your table to share your food. Get to know your neighbors! Host a neighborhood party in your backyard. 10. Take advantage of the hot air to hang clothes on the line to dry. (Even once a week helps reduce the cost of running your dryer!) While you’re outside, take the time to enjoy the beauty of creation or have a chat with a neighbor. 11. Turn off the TV and get outside! Explore your backyard, your street, and the closest park. Encourage your children to do the same. 12. Instead of taking an expensive vacation, consider a “stay-cation”! Stay home, relax, and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation by sleeping outside. You don’t have to drive to Yellowstone to go camping! Pitch a tent in the backyard and discover the sights and sounds of the night. If you feel the need to get away, visit the lodge of the closest state park—just as relaxing as a “real” vacation at a fraction of the cost! 13. When looking for gifts, try small, local stores. You can find unique purchases that will help support the local economy. 14. Festivals! Summer is a great time for art and culture festivals. Check your local cultural events calendar to see what’s in your area. Be sure to support the artists by picking up a one-of-a-kind piece of art! 15. Keep your locale looking beautiful by picking up unsightly litter. Be sure to print this checklist of action items to keep track of what you’ve done this month! Then, send us your photos and stories, and we’ll share them below. Success Stories: Reverend Jonathan Brake of Centenary UMC in Winston-Salem writes, “We joined a community garden this year because our yard just doesn’t have enough sunlight to grow our own.” He shared these photos of his family’s plot:
Reverend Brake also sent this photo of his son, with the caption “Sam Brake found the Queen Bee at the Peachtree Farmer’s Market in Advance, NC. Meanwhile we found tomatoes, green beans, squash, peaches, and corn. Everything is grown within 50 miles!”
Nancy G. shared:
