end-of-semester musings

Well, that's it -- another semester gone by. This semester has been one of the best that I've had during my time at Grinnell, and especially at EcoHouse. Together, house residents have accomplished so much this semester; from hosting a canning workshop and a local foods meal at Harvest Fest, to having some of our favorite professors over for dinner, to helping out with the Local Foods CoOp Thanksgiving meal, to a week of living bravely and intentionally, this house has done a lot to help promote sustainable living, both to others and to ourselves.

One of my favorite aspects of this semester was the group's willingness and enthusiasm for focusing on locally grown foods. Looking back, buying and cooking with almost exclusively local foods for a majority of the semester was a huge success and taught us a lot about where our food comes from, making connections with local farmers, and finally, how much better food tastes when you know who grew and harvested it! (We definitely noticed a difference when our CSA share timed out...there was a long period of grieving. WHY, WINTER, WHY MUST YOU BE SO UNFRIENDLY TO FRESH TOMATOES?!) Though planning and budgeting our food, as well as keeping track of our food sources (which were different for eggs, produce, and bulk grains) was at times difficult or stressful and at times caused disagreements or tensions within the group, we seem to have figured out a pretty good system that everyone seems to like. We'll keep working on this new communal/local foods experiment next semester, and hopefully we'll just continue to get better at it.

One of the best things about this communal foods system is that it's let us start cooking and eating together several times a week. While not everyone chooses to contribute to the communal food budget, those who do have formed a mini co-op within the house, alternating cooking on a nightly basis. We usually decide at our meeting, at the beginning of each week, who wants to volunteer to cook each  night, and how many people will plan on eating at the house that night. This system has worked pretty well for us, and it has been so nice to get to eat with housemates and friends almost nightly. I think I can speak for many other EcoHouse residents when I say that these meals (as well as our weekly house-meeting dinners) have been one of the leading forces in bringing us together as a community. Let the communal meals continue next semester (read: let the delicious food and wonderful house bonding continue next semester!).

While all these things (local food projects, Harvest Fest, Be Brave Week, etc.) have been successful, the number one reason why this semester has been my favorite one at Grinnell so far is the beautiful people that I have had the amazing opportunity to live with. From Vincent and Madeline's heated conversations about current events or environmental issues to David's math jokes to late-night kitchen conversations with Hannah, I can honestly say that it's the people who make this house the truly magical place that it is. Every time I walk into EcoHouse and smell some of Jacob's fresh-baked bread, see Eleanor reading in the living room, catch Leah playing her ukulele, or see Ivy's smiling face, there's no question about it -- I am here. I am surrounded by people who care about me. I am home.



-Adriana

Professor Dinner!

On Saturday, December 7th, we had our second Professor Dinner at EcoHouse. There were professors from a wide array of disciplines at the event in addition to music prof. Eric McIntyre’s young children (unfortunately religious studies prof. Tim Dobe was unable to bring his two “robust” sons)!

We enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti & meatballs, homemade bread, salad, and dessert. Following the dinner, several EcoHousers participated in an impromptu jam session to the delight of all involved. One got the feeling that some of the profs were transported back to their own college days free from the pressures of the scholar and teacher’s life.

We value making connections with Grinnell faculty outside of the classroom and similar academic settings. These sorts of connections foster not only long-lasting ties between individual students and professors, but also help build a strong Grinnell community prepared to respond to the current and impending challenges engendered by ecological degradation.

-Vincent

EcoHouse celebrates Halloween!

Happy belated Halloween from EcoHouse! (brownie points if you can spot Madeline)

No phone, no internet, no problem: Be Brave Week

While perusing Luther College's sustainability house blog a few weeks back, I came across a post called "A Week of Living Bravely" that caught my attention. Residents of the house had each chosen one thing they wanted to do to live more intentionally for the week. After talking about the idea, members of EcoHouse decided we wanted to try this experiment out for ourselves. So we did.

From Sunday, November 3rd to Sunday, November 10th, residents of EcoHouse embarked on our own "Be Brave Week," supporting each other throughout the week as we tried to minimize our impact on the environment, be more aware of ourselves and those around us, or just generally live more intentionally.

For residents of EcoHouse, Be Brave Week projects included taking one-minute showers, paying more attention to the news and politics, making more of an effort to connect with people on a daily basis, turning off cell phones, eating more intentionally (i.e. not eating dessert every day, just because it's there), and staying off the internet when inside the house.

The final idea on this list -- staying off the internet inside the house -- was my personal project. It definitely took some getting used to, and required some major lifestyle adjustments. I could no longer do most of my homework at home, since it required being online, so I'd have to get my work done earlier in the day. Likewise, I couldn't just wake up and do my online reading for class while curled up in bed, so I had to get up a little earlier, walk across campus, and do my reading in the library. In the end, the lifestyle adjustments (doing homework earlier on, waking up earlier, etc.) were totally worth it. I realized how much I had depended on my computer before and suddenly felt very free. I was no longer staring at a screen (bad for my eyes and my mental state) right before going to sleep and right when I woke up. Finally, I spent much less time on social media and really realized how much better my life is without it (and how much more free time I have!).

On Sunday the 10th, one week after we started our project, we met to share our experiences with one another. Every single person, to some extent, had faced some challenges throughout the project, but ultimately, everyone expressed that they appreciated taking time to reflect on (and reconsider) how they live their lives from day to day.

The week not only made us more aware of how our actions affect ourselves, others, and the environment, but brought us closer together as a community. I was asked several times throughout the week how my Be Brave Week project was going, which always started an interesting dialogue. We encouraged each other every day, and some people even decided to pick up on other people's projects. By the end of the week, I think it's safe to say we had all learned to live a bit more intentionally, in one small way or another.


-Adriana

You can predict the color of an egg by looking at a chicken's ear.

Hello Eco Warriors here there and everywhere. I just got off the phone with my Dad and our conversation provided me with the perfect topic for my first blog post. My Dad is a reporter for our local newspaper, The Aspen Times, and today's front page features his article about an environmental education program called Aspen T.R.E.E. Tonight, he was eager to tell me about his visit to the organization's home base, Cozy Point Ranch, where they recently finished constructing a greenhouse. Dad learned all sorts of interesting things about aquaponic agriculture, in which shelves of plants are placed over fishtanks and the plants filter the water while the fish fertilize the plants. He also got to see a chicken's ear, which he described as a strange sight indeed. Aspen T.R.E.E. will establish a CSA system in which community members can work in the green house in exchange for yummy produce. My Dad and I are very excited to learn to things by working in the greenhouse. Here is the link to my Dad's article: http://www.aspentimes.com/news/8726448-113/aspen-vardy-greenhouse-plants. I think you'll all agree that this sounds like every Eco Freak's dream!
(Photo credit: http://valleygirltalk.com/2012/08/10/whats-the-difference/)

-Hannah

Photos from Harvest Fest, cont.

Valerie Hammond, who showed us how to can. Thanks, Valerie!

Photos from Harvest Fest

Well, it's been two weeks since Harvest Fest -- I guess it's about time to post about it.

The festivities went on all day, from 1:00 until people left -- which was mostly after dinner, around 7 or so. The day included pumpkin carving (which resulted in some pretty creative jack-o-lanterns), canning, crafts, live music, and of course, FOOD! All in all, it was a great success! Cleanup afterwards even went smoothly; thanks to former EcoHouser Stephanie Porter's brilliant idea, a few big ol' tubs, and some soapy water, we created a big "wash-your-own-plate" dish line.

We all had a great time, and hope to make the event an EcoHouse tradition in years to come!

Pre-Harvest Fest:  a visit to the pumpkin farm!

Pumpkin-head

This one was particularly warty...we liked him, but didn't think he'd carve too well.

Hannah with pumpkins

All ready to go!

Ahhh...what a sight.

The night before: Leah chopping carrots to be canned

Carrot-person!

Covered in flour, as usual

Vincent chopped a TON of onions

Jacob, sharpening knives for pumpkin carving

preparing for Harvest Fest!

Here at EcoHouse, we've been busy getting ready for Harvest Fest! That means everything from budgeting, figuring out what we're going to cook for dinner and dessert, planning carpool trips to the pumpkin patch, and lots more. We've been especially enjoying working with Grinnell resident Valerie Hammond, who will be coming in to help us with food canning. Don't miss what promises to be a really interesting workshop in food preservation!

We've attached the final schedule for the day. Feel free to come for the whole day, or just stop by for parts that sound especially interesting to you! (Although we all know the most fun happens during those spontaneous, inbetween moments where people are scattered about inventing their own lawn games, breaking into impromptu three-part harmony, or baking cookies in the kitchen!) 

We're so excited for this event, and really hope to see lots of you there! All students, staff, and community members are all welcome. See you on Saturday!

Apples and Pears and Tomatoes, Oh My!

A few EcoHouse residents went out on Sunday to harvest a bunch of fruit (and even some tomatoes and onions!) from the orchard/garden of a Grinnell professor emeritus. Huge thanks to Elliott Uhlenhopp and his family, who were kind enough to let us harvest and keep these veggies. What a pleasant surprise to come home to buckets and buckets of fresh produce on Sunday night!

Madeline, who organized the whole excursion

Hannah picking apples

Ivy poses with the "fruits" of their labor

 Jacob approves

SO MANY BEAUTIFUL TOMATOES

my favorite corner of ecohouse

Harvest Festival planning underway...

Fall is in the air (okay, so it was 85 degrees on Friday...but we've had those few important cold days that signal that summer is definitely at its end!) and it's time to start celebrating! This year, EcoHouse will be hosting its first annual Harvest Festival, where we will welcome the arrival of fall through food, music, games, and other fun activities! We're especially excited to try some canning and composting workshops, where we can expand our ever-growing knowledge of sustainable practices by learning from members of the greater Grinnell community (Sustainability director Chris Bair has offered to help us start a new, bigger composting bin, and canner extraordinaire Valerie Hammond has volunteered to come help us learn how to can vegetables!).

The Harvest Festival will take place on October 12 at EcoHouse and will be open to all Grinnell students and community members! More info to come soon.

David, Leah, Jacob, and Adri relaxing in the living room

Family Weekend at EcoHouse

This weekend was family weekend here at Grinnell, and we decided to greet our parents with a home-made meal! Eleanor led our endeavor with her famous salmon patties, while the rest of us made yummy side dishes. (Special shout out to David for his delicious pesto pasta -- made out of fresh basil from his garden back home in Kentucky!) 

Best of all, the meal was made from mostly local foods, including the kale, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, rice, and pesto (well, local to David's garden), to name a few. We even had some yummy local beer from the Amana colonies just down the road!

Everyone's families seemed to enjoy it, and overall I'd say we considered the evening a great success. 

The food! (Well, some of it)

House meeting time. Everyone just looks so enthused to be talking about dirty dishes again! (Just kidding.) (Kind of.) (We also talk about other things, I swear!)

Jacob and his parents enjoying the blue couch (the comfiest couch in all the land)

An after-dinner jam session in the living room is always a good way to end the night.

First picture upload! Bulk, cooking, and garden

An assortment of bulk foods and garden harvests...and other yummy things! 

More bulk food!!! Oats and flour from Paul's Grains in Laurel, IA.

Hannah cooks dinner!

David examines a squash plant in the Eco House garden.

David posing with his beloved squash

A pepper plant from the garden. How lovely!

David oversees the garden