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Helpful list! RT @miss604: Warm Clothing Donation Sites in Vancouver http://ow.ly/3eY7h (pls spread the word)
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Posts from November 2010
Green Books Campaign: Vinifera, The World's Great Wine Grapes (boxed reference deck)
This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.
The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.
I was quite excited to be asked to participate in the Green Books campaign. After all, I love books AND the colour green :) And I was even more excited when I saw the list of books I could choose from. I'm a total card deck nerd - flash cards, reference cards, inspiration decks - if it comes in card form, I have it. And on the list of available green books was Vinifera, The World's Great Wine Grapes (boxed reference deck) from Ghigo Press. Oh, aside from being a card deck nerd, I'm also a wine geek. I used to have a fairly substantial collection of wine and I love learning about wine, particularly the different types of grapes.
The Vinifera deck consists of 45 different cards - covering both the more popular grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc) as well as more local and less well known varietals (at least to me) like Albarino from Spain or Nero d'Avola from Italy. The front of the card is a close-up of a cluster of grapes - the photography is good and rich, you definitely get a sense of the colour and texture of the grapes in each particular variety.
The back of the card contains a collection of information about the grape variety: usually starting with its parentage/origin story as well as its growing history - for example, I learned that one of my favourite white varietals, Viognier (a varietal from the Rhone region), has its origins in grapes originally imported from Dalmatia (a part of Croatia) in the 3rd century CE. My family is from Croatia - perhaps I have an affinity for this grape in my DNA?
There will then also be some interesting historical context about the varietal on the back. For example, I learned that the Mission grape is a popular varietal for use in sacramental wine. And I also discovered that the Refosco grape is a parent grape of Marzemino which happened to be a favourite wine of Mozart!
And finally each card makes a recommendation about what food pairings would go with each varietal. I love this information because some wines take big gamey roasts and stews and others really only can handle a nice slice of cheese. The pairings are nicely directional and modern - no old-fashioned red=beef/white=chicken nonsense.
I'm really enjoying these cards and I look forward to sitting around with my wine geek friends, grokking out over the parentage. history and lore of grape varietals. Oh, and of course appreciating Ghigo Press' commitment to environmental publishing choices. Their card decks are printed on at least 30% recycled and managed stock and use environmentally-friendly inks.
Now, some good news for you!
The super-nice folks at Ghigo Press also sent me a couple of their calendars that I'd like to give away to you. They sent a COFFEE wall calendar and a SPICE wall calendar - these calendars contain the same photography and content that are on their reference decks, plus they are also green - Ghigo Press' calendars are made with 100% recycled stock and printed with soy ink. If you'd like to be entered in the random draw to win one of these calendars, just leave a comment letting me know what your favourite type of coffee and/or favourite spice is (depending on which calendar you're keen on - and yes, if you leave a comment about both, you'll be entered in the draws for both). I'll close the comments on Wed, Nov 17 at noon Pacific time and do the draw before the end of the day on Friday, Nov 19.
Thanks again to the Green Books campaign and Ghigo Press! Make sure you check out the full list of publishers and bloggers over on Green Books site. And thanks to Indigo Books & Music (yay, Canada!) for supporting Eco-Libris' Green Books campaign and for their commitment to forest conservation.
Follow everyone on Twitter - today they are all talking green books today: Eco-Libris, Ghigo Press and Indigo!
Win $5,000 to Make Your Dream of a Better Organic World Come True
The good folks at Soyaworld, manufacturers of Canada's largest organic soy beverage brand So Nice, are holding a contest - asking you to submit your idea about how you would spend $5,000 towards a better organic world. I really do love it when an organization wants to encourage and support the creativity of their customers, especially when it comes to organic living.
Now, I'd be keen on this contest for the idea alone, but I've also been asked to be a judge. So I'm doubly keen. That, of course, means that neither I nor Rosemary can enter. But I hope you will! Here are the deets …
Contest Information
The So Nice “A Better Organic World” Contest runs from August 16 to December 31, 2010.Entrants are invited to answer in 300 words or less how they would spend $5,000 toward a better organic world. Throughout the Contest, members of the general public will be able to visit the Facebook Contest app and vote for their favourite sustainability ideas
http://www.facebook.com/SoNiceOrganic
Who is Eligible?
All legal residents of Canada and the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana in the United States of America are eligible to win, providing they are over the age of majority on August 16, 2010 in the province or state in which they live and providing that they are not employees of Soyaworld Inc., their advertising or promotional agencies, the independent judging organization, any independent judge or family members with whom these employees are domiciled.
http://www.sonice.ca/rules-regs
How to Win
On January 18, 2011, the 10 entries with the most votes, along with 10 entries selected by the Contest Sponsor (Soyaworld, manufacturer of So Nice) will be reviewed by the 6-person judging panel, who will award the Grand Prize of $5,000 to the selected entrant.
I've been reading through some of the entries that have been posted. There are a lot of great ideas and passionate people out there. I've made a few observations about what I think makes a good entry (remember, you only have 300 words):
- Upload a picture. It makes a big difference if the picture for your entry isn't the default So Nice graphic. If you're at a loss for a picture, browse Flickr's Creative Commons - lots of eye-catching images there to illustrate your idea.
- Be realistic. While $5,000 is a generous sum, it is a finite sum. You probably can't put a community garden on every street corner in your home town, though you may be able to put one in your neighbourhood. Or, create an education kit that you distribute that will tell everyone how to start a community garden.
- Be specific. The better entries are well thought out, sometimes even including some offline research. For example, back on the topic of community gardens, one entrant described where she would put the community garden in her neighbourhood, that she had canvassed the neighbourhood and had a team of volunteers, requested the permit from her city to start the community garden and now just needed to win. That kind of detail gives me a lot of confidence that this person would follow through and be successful.
- Be altruistic. While I appreciate that you would like to win $5,000 to redo your kitchen to cook better meals, I'm likely more inclined to be supportive of an entry that includes your community or your child's school or your co-op or even your bookclub. Of course, if you're going to redo your kitchen so that once a month you can hold a monthly neighbourhood potluck and heirloom seed exchange, well .. that's different :)
Now these are just a few of my observations about the strongest entires. My fellow judges (Lindsay, Élise, Valerie, Celine and Raul) and Soyaworld may have other ideas about qualities of stand-out entries.
But in any case: put your thinking cap on and enter your best idea for making a better organic world!
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