From the category archives:

Eco

Science, sustainability and the environment

Bees, kids and the power of tiny beings

October 7, 2010

Because I’m a writer, I tend to look for opportunities that can only be described as “experiences I can share with my daughter, but also write about.” Part education, part entertainment, part social and journalistic experiment. That sort of thing.  Searching for the queen So it was with the “Vanishing of the Bees” movie trailer during [...]

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Food (and propaganda) at the state fair

September 17, 2010

I realize that state-fair food is a category unto itself, a passionately defended paean to Americana and summertime. And to criticize it could cause a distracting uproar. Some might even offer me their fried-fave-on-a-stick with instructions to make it disappear right up my behind.      So I’ll just say that we did not partake of the many fried delicacies [...]

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My kind of carnival: Healthy kids. No fried dough.

July 21, 2010

A new Spoonfed post is coming very soon. (So much for stockpiling posts before vacation.) In the meantime, I’m participating in a new monthly blog carnival sponsored by Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit that is all about protecting kids from chemicals where they live, play and learn (food included). This month’s theme, “Splendor in the Grass,” explores [...]

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Clean food and dirty kids

June 30, 2010

There came a moment during strawberry-picking last week when the 6-year-olds decided they’d had enough. While the grown-ups continued busily picking a flat apiece, my daughter and her friend snuck off to the shade for a drink and a snack. Then the girls plopped themselves in the dirt and set to work, drawing roads and concocting [...]

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Pesticide, organic and other dirty words

May 20, 2010

“Organic” was an early word in my now 6-year-old’s vocabulary. (She pronounced it “ga-nan-ic.” Tell me that’s not adorable.) It’s also one of the first words she learned to spell, which is why we have progressively more readable versions written on random bits of paper and newsprint. So when we go grocery shopping, Tess takes pride in pointing [...]

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The art of local food: kindergartners, Kahlo and kale

April 15, 2010

It’s April. Not exactly high time for local foods in western New York. But there we were with my daughter’s kindergarten class at the public market, counting dollars (five each) and loading up on produce for an art project later that afternoon. I’d stumbled across a contest called Be Aware of New York Agriculture, which asks kids [...]

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Blue no more. I’m blogging it.

March 15, 2010

A year ago I e-mailed friends with the idea for this blog. I was already bouncing around names, and I wanted input. But none of the names clicked. Then life got busy and paying work took priority. Still, the blog was always there, nagging at me, tempting me, taking shape in my head if not [...]

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