Marion Street Cheese Market Earns 3-Star Green Rating

Excerpt from the Earth Day Edition of the Marion Street Cheese Market "Cheese Mail - WineMail - Beer Mail" Newsletter, April 21, 2011.

"Marion Street Cheese Market is very excited to be able to officially announce that we are now a 3-Star Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association. We are the first restaurant in Oak Park to be certified as a Green Restaurant and one of only three restaurants in Chicagoland to earn 3 stars.  The only others are Uncommon Ground and Frontera Grill.   We are in very good company.

Since we opened our doors in 2004, Marion Street Cheese Market has been strongly focused on sustainability and local food issues.  We have always been an American artisan-centric cheese shop that has had a mission of supporting small, local  independent cheesemakers, family farmers and food artisans.

When Mary Jo Schuler and I opened the expanded MSCM with a bistro and wine bar in July 2008, we had a primary mission of being a green and sustainably run business  throughout our operation.  That is not always an easy thing in the restaurant world.  But we were committed to it and have relentlessly worked toward that goal ever since.  From the original design of the our new location to the choice of purveyours that we use to purchase food, our focus has always been on local, sustainable and seasonal.

So it feels really great to be able to say that while we have been "green" from the very beginning, we can now actually say that we have been independently audited and accredited as officially "Green" by the Green Restaurant Association.   To learn more about the GRA and to see which other Chicago restaurants have been accredited as "Green", please visit their website at: www.dinegreen.com"

According to the Dine Green web site Certified Green Restaurants^® must fulfill the following criteria in order to be certified as a green restaurant:

• Accumulate a total of 100 Points (175 points for 3 stars)
• Meet Minimum Points in each Category
• Have a full-scale recycling program
• Be Free of Polystyrene Foam (aka Styrofoam)
• Yearly Education

Restaurants are evaluated in each of the following categories:

• Water Efficiency
• Waste Reduction & Recycling
• Sustainable Food
• Energy
• Disposables
• Chemical & Pollution Reduction

Points are earned in each category by meeting very specific criteria, for example, in the water efficiency category 3 points are awarded for having an Energy Star - rated dishwasher.  Restaurants are also expected to improve annually in order to retain their star ratings.

Congratulations to Marion Street Cheese Market!

Leaders' Training for "Just Eating: Practicing our Faith at the Table"

Leaders' Training - "Just Eating: Practicing our Faith at the Table" Saturday, May 14; 9:30 am – 12:30 pm, lunch included.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 611 Randolph St, Oak Park

Just Eating: Practicing Our Faith at the Table is a 7-session curriculum for congregational discussion groups exploring the links between the way we eat and the way we live.  Scripture, prayer, and stories from our local and global community are woven together to explore four key aspects of our relationship with food:

• The health of our bodies
• The challenge of hunger
• The health of the earth that provides our food
• The ways we use food to extend hospitality and enrich relationships.

Representatives from all congregations are welcome.  Each attendee receives "Just Eating" materials, including a Leaders’ Guide, Readings for Action and Reflection, and an adaptation for Middle School students. The Just Eating Curriculum is a collaboration of Advocate Health Care, Church World Service, and Presbyterian Hunger Program.  To register, email Jessica.TheCenter@gmail.com /call 847-384-3528

Movie Inspires Decision to Raise Chickens

See also http://oakpark.patch.com/articles/oak-parkers-flock-to-chickens article on raising chickens in Oak Park. (4/14/2011. The morning after watching the movie Food, Inc. I decided it was time to raise chickens.  I knew nothing about it – spent a great deal of time on list serves, reading, asking people questions – and jumped in with three 3-day old chickens from The Feed Store in Summit.

My coop is built completely out of materials that were salvaged from the alleys and saved from the landfills. (with the exception of the roofing material).   I even installed a stained glass window on one of the walls so the chickens can have a soothing view at night.

The experience has exceeded my expectations – which basically were to collect cage free, hormone free eggs.  We get 1 egg from each chicken every 25 hours.   Chickens make fascinating, friendly, and happy pets.  If you whistle, the “girls” come more quickly than a dog and will follow you around the yard.  Their scratching is a great turner of the compost and the manure adds valuable nitrogen to the compost pile.

Submitted by Deb Jensen, Berwyn, IL

Getting Our Gardens Ready for Spring!

As I’m writing this, the birds are chirping, the snowdrops are up, and it’s going to be 60 today. The gardening bug is biting! (The bug bites me all year round, but that may be just me.) Let’s start thinking of how to get our gardens ready for spring.

As hard as it is, it’s best to wait until our gardens are good and dry before working and walking in them. Especially in our clay soils, walking in wet gardens just compresses the soil and makes it harder to work with later. To see if the soil is dry enough, take a handful of soil from a few inches deep and squeeze it in your hand. If it doesn’t crumble but stays in a ball, the soil is probably still too wet.

When the soil is dry enough to go into your gardens, trim down the stalks of last year’s flowers and grasses that were left standing over winter. For big ornamental grasses, electric hedge clippers work great.

Divide overcrowded perennials when new growth starts to show. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt them! Wait until early fall to divide peonies, poppies, and irises.

Pull out last year’s containers and give them a good scrubbing with warm water and a stiff brush. Some people disinfect their pots with bleach solutions, but I don’t think that’s really necessary.

Start some seeds this year! Pick out a few packets of seeds at the store, save some to-go containers or yogurt cups to start them in, buy a cheap shop light or two, and you’re set. Check out the Start your own Seeds class at the Oak Park Conservatory on Saturday March 26.

Now is the best time to start a compost pile. (Actually, I say that any time of year.) Buy a bin, make one, or just find a spot in your yard you can pile up garden scraps. Adding organic material like compost to your soil is the absolute best thing you can do for your garden.

Think twice about bringing out ol’ Bessie the rototiller this spring. Tillers are great for mixing organic material into a new garden spot, but established gardens really don’t benefit from annual tilling. Lightly mixing in compost when you have it will let the soil form its own structure (and won’t slice up all the worms and other critters).

Lastly, sharpen up your shears and loppers, and prune your deciduous trees and shrubs. Cut off any broken limbs, any that cross over or rub against another branch, or any that are growing in weird angles compared to the rest of the branches. Cut branches back to a lower bigger branch or to the ground, rather than leaving artificial looking stubs.

You're off to a good start!

by Charlie Ruedebuesch, Cheney Mansion

Top 10 Reasons to Raise Chickens

Why raise chickens? - by Jennifer Murtoff

Well, being a chicken fancier, I’d say the answer is obvious. But if you need some convincing—better yet, if your spouse/significant other/parents need some convincing!—here’s my list of answers to that question.

1. Eggs.
2. Education.
3. Health.
4. Self-Sufficiency.
5. Animal Welfare.
6. Composting.
7. Poop.
8. Personality.
9. Simplicity.
10. Fun.

For great descriptions of each reason and links to related links go to Home to Roost.