Reduce Your Baby’s Carbon Buttprint, Grow Your Own Starter Foods

by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, www.EcoStiletto.com

Once your baby graduates from rice cereal to real (albeit mushed up) foods, the cost of those itty bitty jars can really add up–both on your pocketbook, and the environment. Most items in the supermarket travel an average 1,000 miles to get there, eating up fuel and spewing out CO2 in the process. Considering your baby’s first foods like squash, carrots and potatoes are those easy to grow in a simple window box or back yard garden, planting an old-fashioned “victory garden” makes sense–and cents. Why buy organic beans at four dollars a bunch when that same amount will buy you enough seeds to grow beans for an entire season?

Once you’ve got your garden, composting is the single easiest thing you can do to reduce your landfill debt and help it flourish. It’s so easy: Simply put your veggie scraps (no meat or fat) in a bowl next to your sink and every few days dump them into a composter or converted trashcan outside. Every few months, turn the compost and retrieve the rich fertilizer that sifts to the bottom, then spread it on your garden. (If you have an automatic composter in your kitchen, you can just take the compost directly from your kitchen to the garden.)

Eureka!

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff is the founder and editor of eco-fashion, beauty and lifestyle website EcoStiletto.com , where you can win $100 in sustainable swag each week!