GoingTrueGreen's Blog Postings - Going True Green

Still Harvesting God's Bounty

10/28/2020

harvest, farming, eggplant, tomatoes, growing food, organic food, sustainable living, backyard bounty, going green, going true green, carrots, blueberry jam, canning for the winter, growing food, saving money, energy and earth

Eggplant and Tomatoes

harvest, farming, eggplant, tomatoes, growing food, organic food, sustainable living, backyard bounty, going green, going true green, carrots, blueberry jam, canning for the winter, growing food, saving money, energy and earth

Carrots

As we approach the end of October, I am also approaching the end of my small garden's bounty of food. Despite a few cold nights last week, my garden has endured. Tomatoes abound and I still have eggplant growing. I did just pick the last of my carrots, but I am very happy with my organic harvest.

As I have said before in previous Going True Green blog posts, the actions I have taken with having a food garden are the same actions we can all do, obviously to various degrees based on what you have available. A yard, terrace, or window shelf, all suffice to those various degrees. So please consider growing some food for yourself, family, friends, and strangers next year.

Additionally, for the coming winter months, I have canned Grape jam and Blueberry jam; froze blueberries and homemade tomato sauces and dried various herbs.

The end product is an individual action that allows you and others to live a more sustainable life that saves, money, energy, health and earth.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Summer 2020, Soylent Green 2022

9/30/2020

soylent green, Charlton Heston, taylor young, Edward G. Robinson,

Scene from 1973 Soylent Green movie

Summers come and go, but this summer felt like the summertime enjoyment never arrived. Times are difficult, I know first hand how much with the loss of friends and family. We held on and pushed forward. These efforts also included continuing actions for living a more sustainable life.

Food supplies became an issue for many more people this year, especially for those of us who were sick in bed. Now while food is a major environmental issue, we the people must change the tide of reductionist. Our food supply is not an automatic conveyor belt to our dinning table. However, despite our ecological surroundings being resilient, we all still need to review our own efforts for obtaining food.

We cannot wait around for "technology" to solve all of our needs for food. There was a movie made about this very topic back in 1973. The title: Soylent Green and the story takes place in the year 2022!

The plot was straight forward... Overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion reduced society's leaders to providing an artificial nourishment to the teeming masses. Actual ingredients are not made known and soy is not an ingredient. A homicide detective stumbles onto the secret that is so unbelievable, no one would believe him.

Nevertheless, if you have a yard, terrace, or window shelf, please consider growing some food for yourself, family, friends, and strangers. This year, even now at the end of September, I still have watermelon and eggplant growing.

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This year in my small garden I grew:

Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Grapes - Bluebell Grapes for jam
Grapes - Red Grapes for eating
Red Peppers
String Beans
Tomatoes - Cherry/Plum/Beefsteak
Zucchini

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BlueBell Grapes

In my clay or cedar wood pots I grew:

Basil
Garlic
Mint
Onions
Oregano
Parsley
Shallots
Snow Peas
Thyme

In the long run, we all can grow some food, we can all make the difference, we are the solutions.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Fertilizers: To Use Or Not To Use?

2/27/2020

FTC Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate Ad link below and GTG will be compensated if a purchase is made after clicking the link. Thank you.

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Homemade Compost/Fertilizer

Fertilizers... To use or not to use? Yes, that is the question.

In William Shakespeare's time there wasn't any conventional fertilizers at a local Garden Nursery. In fact, there weren't any Garden Nursery stores. People back then, made fertilizer from composting. Today, too many people believe that they must apply conventional fertilizers for plant nutrition. After all, once applied, almost immediate satisfying results are seen.

The Truth of this matter is the fact that conventional fertilizers do provide a fast level of plant growth at the start. However, when placed head to head with natural high-performance plant care actions, such as using your own custom made compost, store bought fertilizers come in last for the long run. Here is why...

Store bought fertilizers have three ingredients: Nitrogen is number one, phosphorus and potash. Potash is the ingredient many of us are not familiar with compared to nitrogen and phosphorus. Potash is an alkaline potassium compound, from potassium carbonate or hydroxide.

Therefore, store bought fertilizers are mostly electrolytes that increase the electrical conductivity of the soil. This will produce fast plant growth and BURNOUT your soil's microbial community. Thus, in the long run, chemical fertilizers can destroy all the microbial life in the soil and decrease the growth process for healthy plants.

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Free God Made Fertilizer From The Sky

To put this electrical conductivity into an everyday prospective, Lightning storms naturally fertilizes all living plants. The electrical conductivity of a Lightning bolt causes the nitrogen molecules in the air to cling to the oxygen molecules. This bond forms nitrogen oxides. The nitrogen oxides will either fall from the sky, or be collected by the rain drops. That plus all the decaying matter in the soil and microbial life, adds up to dozens of different minerals and trace minerals for the optimal growth of a plant or crop. Have you ever noticed how much better plants and crops look after a thunderstorm? Store bought fertilizer only provides 3 components as previously stated and starts to burnout the additional elements of the living microbial community that help make up all the other necessary factors for long term plant growth.

So in several cases, especially for a Homeowner with room in a yard to compost, buying fertilizer is just buying another Bill Of Goods! Peruse my previous GoingTrueGreen blog posts on composting. The category is on the right of this page. Before you know it, we can all be on our way toward a more sustainable life that saves us money and Earth.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Check out this Compost Bin for your Backyard at Home Depot...
Easy buy On-Line and home delivery!

My Own Great Tasting Blueberries In January

1/28/2020

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Fresh Organic Blueberries

I grew them, I harvested them, and I didn't eat all of them.

Besides sharing my organically grown blueberries with family and friends, I also froze some immediately after picking them. The objective: To have fresh frozen organic home grown blueberries in January!

I am writing this GTG blog post just after cooking up some blueberry pancakes all made with healthy ingredients. It is the end of January and a cold wind is gusting outside, but this pancake breakfast started back in early August of last year.

First, I placed the fresh picked blueberries into a glass pyrex bowl with a rubber cover.

Second, I placed the covered pyrex glass bowl filled with blueberries into a ziplock freezer storage bag.

I made sure as much air as possible was expelled from the plastic bag before closing. I labeled the plastic bag with pertinent information, such as date frozen and date to use by.

I did all this for better tasting blueberries come the middle of winter. I never place blueberries or any food item directly into a plastic bag. As I have stated in many previous GTG blog posts, only three items do not put carcinogens or contaminants into our food and drink:

Glass, Porcelain, and Wax Paper

If I was to use another container, I would use cast-iron cookware or steel / tin. All other containers, such as aluminum, viscose, plastic bottles, bags, and wrap, will leach bad tastes, contaminants or carcinogens over time into our food and drink. Especially when there are changes in temperatures, such as being placed into a freezer or leaving a water bottle in a car on a hot summer day.

So if you have grown or just purchased fresh organic blueberries in the summer, try freezing some for a cold winter morning early the following year!

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Victory Gardens Are Needed Again

10/2/2019

Victory Garden, Victory Gardens, World War One, World War Two, World War II, fresh food, food, organic food, growing food, compost, composting, Home Front, Going Green, Sustainable Living, Sustainability, Going True Green

I am sadden how the stories of our past, let them be His-Story or Her-Story, are forgotten or completely changed for a false narrative. I know just a few people reading this Going True Green Blog Post will know what a Victory Garden was so many years ago. Nevertheless, Victory Gardens are needed again.

Victory Gardens were planted by individuals on the Home Front as a patriot sign to make a difference as World War I and World War II were being fought. The premise was simple and the difference made was tremendous. These Victory Gardens were planted in yards, window pots, apartment rooftops and empty plots of land around the neighborhoods. They helped in the battle against food shortages as two world changing wars raged on for years. The food that was produced, was used and shared with those in need.

Today, a Victory Garden would be a major part of the multitude of solutions we can do as an individual. Having a Victory Garden will allow us to eat healthier with fresh organic food and be a positive contributing factor for our changing world. For more facts and information see my Going True Green Blog posts under the Category called: Composting.

If we truly want to be part of the solutions, we all need to have or take part in a Victory Garden. This Fall is the perfect time to start planning your very own Victory Garden for next Spring!

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Grass Catcher

6/25/2019

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Optional Grass Catcher

Many Followers of GoingTrueGreen.com know that I use a reel mower. My GoingTrueGreen blog post on July 22, 2013 called, Mowing Down the Lawn, goes into details. So I have been cutting my lawn without noise, oil, gasoline, oil filters, spark plugs or electrical wires, to save money, energy and Earth. I cut twice a week so I get exercise and only have small grass clippings that compost into the ground. This way I don't have to rake up the grass clippings. I even made a video on the subject called, Less Lawn and More Garden. The Link is under the GTG Video Link above. Take a look, the video isn't long and has some laughs with serious facts.

However, this year's springtime delivered many cool and wet days in my neck of the woods. I could not cut my lawn twice a week. The longer cut blades of grass were turning brown and sitting on top of the newly cut lawn looking ugly. So after all these years I ordered the optional Grass Catcher that hooks onto the front of my mower.

I will still cut my lawn twice a week, but now if I can't cut the lawn because we had rain all week long, I could then use the Grass Catcher.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Homemade!

5/28/2019

compost, topsoil, fertilizer, growing food, going green, sustainable living, goingtruegreen, saving money,

Homemade Compost!

I have been cooking my own compost all winter and I opened one of my two bins this weekend to find about 400 pounds of enriched topsoil, aka fertilizer.

Immediately I placed some around my grape vines, fig tree, blueberry bushes, flowers and food garden. End results, I am saving MONEY big time. What I created in my compost bin was equivalent to about 12 topsoil bags from the store weighing 40 pounds each. Additionally, since my soil is enriched with nutrients, I didn't have to buy any fertilizer either.

Composting can be done on a kitchen counter, apartment building roof tops, back yards or balcony. We need to stop buying a "bill of goods" when we can make enriched topsoil for free. Here is the RECIPE:

First make your own compost bin or buy one of many designs and sizes. I recommend a bin with a lid that locks to keep out animals. Next, place the following ingredients into your compost bin, but never more than two (2) inches high of the same element.

Scraps and remains of fruits
Scraps and remains of vegetables
Add trimmed plant life, but NO diseased plants or flowering weeds
Add grass clippings like the way you use salt and pepper, but grass is not necessary
Add leaves every now and then, but avoid twigs from tree branches
Coffee grinds and paper coffee filters are great to add into the mix each day

Never compost Meat, Dairy, Fish, Bones, Cheese, Oil, Fats, Diseased Plants, Coal, Cat Litter, Plastics, Ash and Paper with Ink or print.

In about 10 weeks the finished product will be nutrient rich top soil that will nourish plants and keep weeds from growing. So look into cooking your own batch this year.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

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Benefits To Growing Our Own Food

7/16/2018

blueberries, blueberry jam, preserves, Composting, compost, gardens, top soil, fertilizer, going green, sustainable living, sustainability

Fresh Picked Blueberries

I believe I can safely say that everyone who is reading my Going True Green Blog at this time is blessed to have shelter, an apartment or house of some type. That fact offers all of us a powerful gift where we can grow some food for ourselves!

Perhaps we have a window ledge inside our apartment windows or access to the building’s flat roof that has been approved as a “green roof” by an architectural and engineer firm. Is there a balcony or some space for clay pots? (Try to avoid plastic pots because only glass, porcelain and wax paper do not leach carcinogens into our food or drink) Maybe we are fortunate to have a small back yard, plot of land or blessed to have a half acre or more of property.

No matter what the situation we have, we should be growing food for ourselves and perhaps some to share! The reasons and benefits to do so are numerous and the “How To” is much easier than we think.

Benefits and Reasons:
Save Money
No Pesticides
No Growth Hormones
No Chemicals or Fertilizers
No Genetically Modified Food
Cooking and Eating Healthier
Make Money Selling Surplus Crops
Self Satisfaction when Sharing with Others
Enjoying the Amazing Taste of Fresh Picked Food
Enjoying Time Together to Can or make Preserves
Abounding Compliments when Sharing with Others
Peace Within Ourselves when Giving to others at Church’s Food Kitchen
Less Trips to the Food Store, just Harvest Our Own Freshly Grown Food
Having Homemade Gifts for others at Christmas, such as Blueberry Preserves or Grape Jam

How To:
The first step to growing our own food is to start making our own Top Soil and Fertilizer, AKA - Composting.

Composting, compost, gardens, top soil, fertilizer, going green, sustainable living, sustainability

Compost Strainer in Sink

Placing an open curved stainless steel strainer in the corner of your sink starts us off. When preparing a meal, deposit all fruit and veggie scraps into the strainer, but NO meat or dairy. Never compost Meat, Fish, Bones, Cheese, Oil, Fats, Diseased Plants, Coal, Cat Litter, Plastics and Paper with Ink or print.

When the strainer is full, place contents into the compost bin. Let it be a small one for under the sink in apartments or a larger bin for outside. Compost bins come in all sizes and designs. Building one is also feasible, just make sure there is enough air flow to assist in decomposition. If there are animals about the outdoor area, make sure the compost bin locks tight to keep out all woodland neighbors.

Composting, compost, gardens, top soil, fertilizer, going green, sustainable living, sustainability

Outdoor Compost Bin

Never have any one element in the compost bin build up to more than 2 inches high. A good blend of food scraps, leaves, small twigs, dried out weeds, is the best way to go. Grass clippings should be used like salt. Just sprinkle on a little ever now and then, but grass is not necessary. Egg shells and coffee grinds are great and about 10 weeks later the finished product will be nutrient rich top soil that will nourish plants and keep weeds from growing.

Currently GTG is looking into finding a company to Sponsor an OnLine Class/Workshop at GoingTrueGreen.com about methods and benefits to composting. This OnLine Class/Workshop will operate like our FIRST money and earth saving Inter-Active On-Line Workshop on WATER. For more Info please visit our webpage at:
GTG's WATER Workshop and view our Trailer below.

The end results would be amazing if everyone, who could, started to grow some food. Even businesses and corporations that have big lawns, which cost them money, could be making money by having the land yield a crop such as organic corn. For most parts of America there are two crops of corn per year based on the weather. Every time I see a half acre or more of land that is not used for sports but has grass, grass and more grass, I see a waste compared to what God's Green Earth can yield for us in food. If everyone did what they could, we would have no need for Genetically Modified Food to feed the masses, because the masses will be feeding themselves. Thus we could delete hunger in our country, in our world.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Video Trailer Above is for Going True Green's OnLine WATER Workshop. For More Info CLICK HERE
Our GTG OnLine WATER Workshop is sponsored by BBV Publishing - Telling the Untold Stories

Fruit of the Vine

6/27/2018

wine, grapes, going green, going true green, grape vines, grape jam, eating grapes, amish, peaceful valley, pergola, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, LED, LEDs, red grapes, patio, Peaceful Valley Furniture

Grapes abound on my Pergola made by the Amish

Five years ago, within my budget of little time and money, I began working on building a patio with a grape vine overhead. My entire backyard project is ten years in the making and I am still working toward completion.

Nevertheless, this year I should enjoy the fruits of my labor on the patio section and I believe my Grandfather would be proud. I planted two grape vines 5 years ago, one is Swen Red grapes for eating and the other, Bluebell for making jam.

I selected these two vines for their ability to flourish in my zone of weather patterns and to have organic grapes that have several medicinal values. The parts to my wooden Pergola kit were custom made to size by the Amish. The ordering and coordination was done through the Peaceful Valley Furniture store in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The customer service and workmanship was impeccable.

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Peaceful Valley's Pergola

So while my grape vines where growing along my new fence, the Pergola was delivered at the end of August and pouring the cement footings was paramount before the weather turned cold at night. I didn't have the time to complete the top of the Pergola until November and the sand for the patio stones sat all winter long in a pile.

I installed Bistro style lights across the Pergola's top and each light bulb you see in the image to the right uses only 1 watt of electricity. They are LED bulbs and they are operating off of Solar electric power. The entire set of lights consumes a total of 15 watts of electricity, but is providing a light level equivalent to 375 watts of old style Edison incandescent bulbs.

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First crop of Bluebell grapes

At the end of last year's growing season I had a small crop of grapes, however the night before harvest, the birds, squirrels and cats had a war. Despite my Owl facsimile, the next morning I found all the red eating grapes gone. Not one was left. The squirrels must have torn open my netting, the birds ate the grapes and cats ate some birds. The patio floor told the tale of a brutal scene. Smashed red grapes with squirrel and cat foot prints stained the stone, bird feathers were everywhere and a torn off bird's leg was left behind. For some reason, most of the Bluebell grapes survived and I was able to make a few jars of jam.

This year after the arrival of the patio table and benches, all made from 100% recycled plastic, many friends and family have expressed their enjoyment of the ambience created under the grape vines. Almost everyone has asked me why not grow grapes for making wine? My Grandfather made wine with his grapes and I remember all the work involved. So I am leaving the wine making to the professionals. The only thing left for me to do is buy a stronger netting before this year's harvest.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Fertilizer Out Of Thin Air

8/14/2017

Lightning, Thunder Storm, fertilizer, save money, sustainable living, going green, going true green, static electricity, you can't get money out of thin air, or can you?

Lightning from Space: NASA Image

Many of us have heard of sayings such as: “Money doesn’t grow on trees” and “You can’t just make money appear out of thin air.”

Well, let us try this… How would you like to know how you can save money by getting something for Free “Out Of Thin Air?” Too good to be true, right? This time the answer is TRUE!

Do you have flowers, plants, or crops? Do you spend money on buying fertilizer to help your garden grow? If yes, then you are wasting your money on a product that you really don’t need because you can get fertilizer for free out of thin air!

When a lightning storm occurs, that will naturally fertilize all living plants! The science behind this is as follows: Lightning causes the nitrogen molecules in the air to cling to the oxygen molecules. This bond forms nitrogen oxides. The nitrogen oxides will either fall from the sky or be collected by the rain drops. Fertilizer’s main ingredient is nitrogen. So stop buying a product that God provides to us for free.

Now to enhance this Free benefit from the sky, many farmers will run bare copper wiring around copper stakes to form a loop around the flower patch or tomato plants. The copper wire will attract static electricity and add more nitrogen to the soil. However, I found the following to be an easier step and a better solution.

First, nitrogen from lightning will not be enough for many plants to grow as strong or as big as you may like. However, that is seen by some people as one’s own opinion. NASA has data showing that more than 2,000 thunderstorms take place around the world at any given time. Combined, these storms produce at least 100 lightning flashes per second. Yet, in addition to nitrogen helping plant life, so does bacteria. That is the extra step I take to fertilizer my plants and food that I grow. COMPOSTING.

I make my own dirt, aka Top Soil, aka Fertilizer. To read more about how to fertilize for free and save even more money, go to my GoingTrueGreen.com Blog dated 4-7-2015 under the Topic called Composting. The title of the blog is: There Is Money In Composting

These are just two more Going True Green actions to living a more sustainable life that saves you money, energy, health, and our environment! Now that is Going True Green.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

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Read a Historical Novel that presents data based probabilities proving the truth.
Below, view the original Book Trailer