More and more moms are making their baby food when making the transition in to solid foods. Now there is a great storage solution for this transition. The Wean Green Glass cubes come in 4 great colors: Raspberry, Blueberry, Peas, and Carrots. How cute!

I personally do not have any babies, that I know of (just kidding), so I think I will be using the cubes for lunch items. I have slowly replaced my plastic containers with glass. I have found it difficult to find small glass lidded containers, and well, I no longer have that problem thanks to Wean Green!

I am waiting for my shipment to arrive, which will be here any day, so we are taking pre-orders. I am sure this will be a very popular item, so don’t delay!!

Melissa, the founder of Wean Green, shares recipes of the week on the Wean Green Blog. This is the most current:

Pumpkin & Carrot Orange Mush

(6+ Months)
1 pumpkin
10 carrots

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut the pumpkin lengthwise. Scoop out all the seeds and guts.

3. Cut off the ends of the carrots and cut them in half.

4. Put the pumpkin in your baking pan so that the skin is facing up. Add the carrots and 1/4 cup water.

5. Bake for 45 minutes.

6. Scoop out the pumpkin from the skin.

7. Puree pumpkin and carrots together in a food processor or blender adding breast milk or water as needed.

Pour into Wean Cubes
Remember to check the temperature before serving.
Store the leftovers in the fridge for 3 days or the freezer for 6 months.

I found this clip from the Rachel Maddow show very enlightening. I had no idea about this previous spill in 1979. Maybe because I was only 8 years old at the time. The one thing that I can remember from my Humanities college class was my weird teacher who wore the funkiest suits to class. He would have the entire class repeat over and over the name Thucydides (c. 455 – 400 BC, Greek historian of the Peloponnesian war). His famous quote was that “History repeats itself.” Unfortunately, this oil spill has repeated itself!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More video underwater in the Gulf with Philippe Cousteau Jr., grandson of famous explorer Jacques Cousteau, and he described what he saw as “one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen underwater.”

Chairman Ed Markey requested live footage of the spill be made available to the public. Originally BP did not want the live feed up while doing the “Top Kill” attempt. BP has reversed their decision to cut the public video feed during Operation Top Kill. The oil company provides no reason for the decision to cut the feed in the first place. This is a day I hope our prayers are answered. I truly hope this works!

Live Feed on Huffington Post

I sliced the zucchini about ½” thick.

Mixed up some fresh-diced garlic, olive oil, Celtic Sea Salt (the best!!), a little pepper and some beautiful Herbs of Provence that were a gift from my friend while traveling in Europe.

My Granny taught me, yes I’m from the south, to always mix with your hands because it makes everything taste better because it’s mixed with love. Mixing with your hands also helps to coat all the sides evenly.

I placed the Zucchini in rows on a grill rack. I usually break this baby out when I am grilling fish but it also works great when grilling veggies.

Grill for about 5 minutes each side on a piping hot grill and voila! You could easily sprinkle some feta to finish or leave just as is. It was so very tasty and we enjoyed every bite. A very plain recipe but it was so much more knowing that we grew it ourselves. Real satisfaction that I cannot explain until you do it yourself!!

The space is approximately 20′ x 25′. The first step made with our garden was to deal with the soil. As the saying goes: “Feed the Soil and the Plants Will Take Care of Themselves.” It is probably a great idea to test the soil in a new area to determine how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium you have in your soil and what the pH is. We were familiar with some of the other gardeners and talked with them to get an idea of the soil quality. So no soil testing for us, we jumped right in!

We ended up renting a rototill to turn the soil over. Once this was accomplished we added worm poo (castings). I have been worm composting for about a year now. The great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors and outdoors allowing year round composting. We had prime castings ready to be mixed into the soil after the tiling process. Nothing better than digging through worm poo!

After the soil was amended we had a split of seeds and seedlings. Seedlings are much easier to start with but we all wanted to see if we could start seeds in the soil and get something to grow. The depth you plant your seeds depends on their size. They only need enough soil to cover them and supply moisture for germination. Seeds buried too deep may not be able to struggle through the soil to the surface. As a rule of thumb, seeds should be covered up to twice their diameter at their largest point. After you’ve set the seeds at the correct depth, firm the soil by tamping it with your hands or the end of your garden rake. This will improve contact between the seeds and the moist soil. For the seedlings we just dug a hole and placed the plant in the hole and filled in around it and firmly pressed down with fingers to pack it in.

We get our seeds from Abundant Life Seed Company. Their goal is to offer true-to-type open pollinated varieties grown using only certified organic or biodynamic farming methods. Abundant Life has pledged that they will not knowingly buy or sell genetically-engineered seeds or plants. Growing GMO free products were a must for us.

After the planting, we stood around and looked at the garden and all hoped for the best. Of course a little watering needed to take place. Vegetable plants need 1 – 2 inches of water each week especially from mid June to mid August. Too little water will not let the plant roots grow deep and strong. They need to be able to do this to gather nutrients for good growth. Too much water will saturate the soil so it’s all about observation. Get to know your soil conditions. I think its best to water before 10am or after 5pm. We are here in sunny California and have plenty sunshine so if your watering more towards the evening time the plants have plenty of time to dry off before dark. This is important because if plants are too moist they can get fungus or disease.

We planted watermelon, squash, zucchini, beets, peppers, hot peppers lettuce, swiss chard, arugala, and 5 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Everything in the garden is growing and looking great. We were surprised that the arugala grew so fast and we are eating it now. It is soooo yummy. I’ve had it in salads and on sandwiches. A very rewarding feeling. We are so ready for everything else to start producing. We actually lucked out with the weather being a bit cooler because we ended up planting a large amount of different lettuce varieties and we planted a little too late. But hey it worked out. It’s all a big experiment!!

I encourage you to start a little garden in your back yard. It relieves stress and it’s pleasant knowing that you grew your very own food. When we get more veggies from the garden I will update you all and share some recipes. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, I have a friend who grows over 67 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Her name is Laura Taylor and she teaches tomato growing classes and cooking classes. She will be selling her lovely tomatoes this summer. Such a great person and an even more amazing gardener. Check her blog out for more information. TomatoMania is another amazing resource for everything tomoatoes.

Here’s to a happy garden!!

Here at All Green Things we will have store specials running throughout Earth Week and several events taking place. Please sign up for our newsletter if you would like to stay informed.

April 21st
Woodland Hills Green Drinks
LadyFace Alehouse & Brasserie
29281 Agoura Road
Agoura Hills, CA
6:00pm – 9:00pm

April 22nd
Valley Water Expo
Balboa Sports Center
17015 Burbank Blvd.
Encino, CA
7:00pm – 9:00pm

April 24th
Earth Week Celebration
All Green Things
5321 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Woodland Hills, CA
10:00am – 12:00pm
Free ECO- Bottle Giveaway

*All Green Things invites kids and parents to join ECOS and Earth Man Dan for a fun filled gathering. Please call if you have any questions: 818-346-7763

Other great events going on in the surrounding areas:

Los Angeles
April 17th
www.earthdayonthepromenade.org

Topanga
April 17th & 18th
www.topangaearthday.org

Santa Barbara
April 17th-18th
www.sbearthday.org

Ventura
April 17th
www.venturacharterschool.org

Camarillo
April 17th
www.earthdaycamarillo.com

Ojai
April 24th
www.ovic.org
Or call 805-649-6852

Thousand Oaks
April 24th
www.toaks.org/arbor

Northridge
April 24th
www.wcwpexpo.com

This bottle is chic and comes in 6 fantastic colors: Pearl White, Midnight Blue, Sky Blue, Spring Green, Orange and Red. I picked Spring Green because it’s my favorite color. Funny how that works! The price is only $22.00.

Features & Benefits
* BPA, phthalate, PVC, and polycarbonate free
* Silicone sleeve is free of plastics and 100% non-toxic
* All materials are FDA approved
* With glass there is no chemical leaching and no metallic taste
* Widemouth bottle makes it easy to add ice, citrus slices, tea bags, etc
* Bottle and sleeve can be put in the dishwasher together
* 22oz (650ml)

I am diggin’ this bottle. I would say if I were on a treadmill or a hike the screw cap may be an issue, otherwise I really like this bottle! The design and materials used in the beverage bottle were adapted from Lifefactory’s original glass baby bottle, so now the whole family can stay hydrated safely and stylishly. The Lifefactory adult bottle is poised to be a favorite among the fashion, green and active lifestyle sectors.

For Lifefactory’s ongoing green initiatives in promoting health in their community, they are being honored with the Francine Levien Activist Award by the Marin based organization, Zero Breast Cancer.  This honor is being given to Lifefactory for their continual work to change and improve the environment, especially in seeking to remove harmful chemicals that may contribute to the development of breast cancer. Lifefactory is also a proud member of the Bay Area Green Business Program, which recognizes companies that are environmentally responsible.

This project is the result of great people coming together to do a wonderful thing! The badge above is a link to purchase the album. Click on it and get yourself a great album! You’ll get 41 songs for just $9.99 or you can always buy them individually for $0.99.

The artists:

1% for the Planet exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet. All Green Things is a proud member of One Percent For the Planet. We strive to be good citizens within our industry, community, and the environment. That’s why when you shop with us; we give back a portion of all net profits towards causes in support of the arts, community, and environment. When people and businesses band together, 1% of hundreds of businesses’ profits amounts to a whole lot of good that can be done.

1% for the Planet promotional video – members mentioned from 1% for the Planet on Vimeo.