Going Green on the Job: Easier than you think
by Sheila Helmberger
"You just need to think about it a little bit," said Adrienne Cahoon, owner of the Whiteley Creek Bed and Breakfast in Brainerd. Cahoon spends a lot of time looking for different and healthier ways for almost every aspect of running her business.
And she's not alone. Jane Jewett owns Willow Sedge Farm near Grand Rapids and Jason Edens is the director of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance in Pine River, a non-profit organization helping to provide solar power to residents of all income levels. All three look for ways in their chosen careers to make things around them just a little bit better for themselves and others.
Cahoon was a teacher before getting into the bed and breakfast business 11 years ago. "I decided to do the bed and breakfast to concentrate more on the things I truly love to do which are gardening, decorating and cooking." She said she has always been conscientious of the things she puts in her body. "My focus has always been food without preservatives and those with the peak nutrition." She said she was inspired by the Barbara Kingsolver book "Animal Vegetable Miracle." In it the author challenged herself to only use products grown in her own garden or county for a year. Cahoon thought the idea was a good one.
At Whiteley Creek, Cahoon serves foods made from organic ingredients or those grown locally. She gets maple syrup for her guests from Garrison and chickens for roasting and breast meat from a farm in Motley. She picks raspberries at a farm south of Brainerd and strawberries from a farm east of Brainerd. "I have my own hens for eggs and my own bees," she said, "We have 35 acres here and we planted buckwheat to feed our bees."
Cahoon buys her meat in bulk from local farmers and packages it in smaller quantities.
Breakfast one recent morning consisted of Buckwheat Oat Bran Pancakes. "They are so light and good," she said, "They are sweetened with orange juice and we drizzled chokecherry syrup over them from Brambleberry Farms out of Pequot Lakes."
Cahoon also makes healthy choices when it comes to cleaning products for her inn. "I clean so much I don't want to be exposed to the fumes or the absorption into my skin from products. That's so important to me and that my guests aren't exposed to that either. All of the products I use are eco friendly or biodegradable." Recently she started using Eco Soft toilet tissues and towels made from 100% recycled paper. She has stopped offering bottled water to her guests. "I used to have bottled water for my guests in a refrigerator on my porch, but I noticed we were generating so many plastic bottles. Even though we recycled I started saving glass juice bottles (quart size) and filling them with filtered water. I put glass beverage glasses out for guests and now I just throw those in the dish washer."
Cahoon goes green anywhere she can. Rather than using store provided plastic bags when shopping, brings her own fabric bags to carry her groceries home in.
She has developed another resourceful way to recycle newspapers by making seed pots out of them for starting seedlings in the spring. The paper breaks down in the dirt once they're planted. It's another good way to put those old newspapers to use.
Once a year she travels to the state fairgrounds for the Living Green Expo. She said she always comes away from the event with some new information or things to try. She shares many of her good ideas and information on the bed and breakfast's web site.
Jane Grimsbo Jewett is not a certified organic famer. While she doesn't feed her animals all organic feed she raises them healthy, rarely uses antibiotics on them and is a firm practice of good animal husbandry, which helps them stay in the best of health. Organic feed costs more and is harder to come by than regular feed. Jewett said she'd have to raise the cost to her customers in order to cover it. She provides the best living conditions for all of her animals, though and helps other farmers by buying her feed from local farmers at the Farmer's Co-op.
Jewett started farming at Willow Sedge Farms in 1995. "I was just finishing my graduate work in plant breeding and had been involved in studies in agriculture on the U of M campus," she said when she and her husband, Joe, had a chance to come back up north. From the very beginning she made a conscious decision to pursue a sustainable way of farming.
She raises Black Angus beef cattle, pigs, commercial hogs, laying hens and goats. The
beef cattle and hogs are marketed for meat. She offers pork at the local farmers market. The goats are milked for her own family's use and for making cheese for her family, too.
Jewett said probably the biggest way she keeps her animals healthy is by offering them plenty of space. They're not as confined, with plenty of room to run," she said, "So they're not building up populations of parasites and bacteria. I don't swear off antibiotics entirely for a sick or injured animal. Organic farmers are instructed to do the same things. You are supposed to treat them and not let them suffer but then not market that animal."
Most people find comfort in purchasing meat locally, especially these days, from a farm whose processes and beliefs they are familiar with. Willow Sedge Farms is located near Palisade. For more information log on to the Willow Sedge Farm website.
The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance is a nonprofit organization. As its director Jason Edens saw the importance of offering a sustainable source of heat for people on the state's energy assistance program. When the heating bills go up, the family's money available for food goes down. It seemed to be a cycle few could break out of.
The Solar Assistance Program empowers families across the state to provide eventually for their own heating needs. "What we're advocating is renewable heat into the program. "We can address fuel poverty with clean energy. We can end program dependency," he said.
Edens said their program started in 2000. When they approached the state initially with the idea they were met with skepticism. But the plan is working.
"We've definitely been swimming upstream," he said, but last year RREAL helped 25 families that were dependent on fuel assistance by installing solar heating systems in their homes. This year they will help 50, most located in central Minnesota.
Edens explained a sort of chain reaction where, by helping one family get off the program, another that needs the help may be able to utilize it. The state turns away a quarter of a million families who apply yearly - as many families that receive the help are turned away.
Funding for the systems, of course, is the biggest roadblock. Edens said they write a lot of grants and do receive some money from the state. "It's table scraps, but it's a good start," he said. They also install solar heating systems to other non-assistant customers for profit. "All that revenue is plowed back into the solar assistance program," he said, "If someone is in the market for a solar heating system, by hiring RREAL for the job, profit from the sale will help fund installation for a lower income family too.
There are four requirements for recipient of the program: They must be energy assistance eligible, the home must be weatherized properly, the site has to be good for solar energy, and recipients must own their own homes. "We want to empower families, not landlords," said Edens.
The solar heaters will provide only about a quarter of a home's heating needs and Edens said a system will pay for itself in about 10-12 years.
Cahoon, Jewett, and Edens work in drastically different worlds, yet all are doing their part to green up the their own lives and the lives of those around them. It's easier than many think.
Photo information:
Barn and newspaper pot photos, courtesy of Whiteley Creek Bed & Breakfast
Pig photo courtesy of Jane Jewett
Solar panel photo courtesy of Barry Babcock
IN WHAT WAYS, BIG OR SMALL, HAVE YOU GONE GREEN? CLICK ON "SUBMIT COMMENTS" AND SHARE YOUR STORY.
"You just need to think about it a little bit," said Adrienne Cahoon, owner of the Whiteley Creek Bed and Breakfast in Brainerd. Cahoon spends a lot of time looking for different and healthier ways for almost every aspect of running her business.And she's not alone. Jane Jewett owns Willow Sedge Farm near Grand Rapids and Jason Edens is the director of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance in Pine River, a non-profit organization helping to provide solar power to residents of all income levels. All three look for ways in their chosen careers to make things around them just a little bit better for themselves and others.
Cahoon was a teacher before getting into the bed and breakfast business 11 years ago. "I decided to do the bed and breakfast to concentrate more on the things I truly love to do which are gardening, decorating and cooking." She said she has always been conscientious of the things she puts in her body. "My focus has always been food without preservatives and those with the peak nutrition." She said she was inspired by the Barbara Kingsolver book "Animal Vegetable Miracle." In it the author challenged herself to only use products grown in her own garden or county for a year. Cahoon thought the idea was a good one.
At Whiteley Creek, Cahoon serves foods made from organic ingredients or those grown locally. She gets maple syrup for her guests from Garrison and chickens for roasting and breast meat from a farm in Motley. She picks raspberries at a farm south of Brainerd and strawberries from a farm east of Brainerd. "I have my own hens for eggs and my own bees," she said, "We have 35 acres here and we planted buckwheat to feed our bees."
Cahoon buys her meat in bulk from local farmers and packages it in smaller quantities.
Breakfast one recent morning consisted of Buckwheat Oat Bran Pancakes. "They are so light and good," she said, "They are sweetened with orange juice and we drizzled chokecherry syrup over them from Brambleberry Farms out of Pequot Lakes."
Cahoon also makes healthy choices when it comes to cleaning products for her inn. "I clean so much I don't want to be exposed to the fumes or the absorption into my skin from products. That's so important to me and that my guests aren't exposed to that either. All of the products I use are eco friendly or biodegradable." Recently she started using Eco Soft toilet tissues and towels made from 100% recycled paper. She has stopped offering bottled water to her guests. "I used to have bottled water for my guests in a refrigerator on my porch, but I noticed we were generating so many plastic bottles. Even though we recycled I started saving glass juice bottles (quart size) and filling them with filtered water. I put glass beverage glasses out for guests and now I just throw those in the dish washer."
Cahoon goes green anywhere she can. Rather than using store provided plastic bags when shopping, brings her own fabric bags to carry her groceries home in.
She has developed another resourceful way to recycle newspapers by making seed pots out of them for starting seedlings in the spring. The paper breaks down in the dirt once they're planted. It's another good way to put those old newspapers to use.
Once a year she travels to the state fairgrounds for the Living Green Expo. She said she always comes away from the event with some new information or things to try. She shares many of her good ideas and information on the bed and breakfast's web site.
Jane Grimsbo Jewett is not a certified organic famer. While she doesn't feed her animals all organic feed she raises them healthy, rarely uses antibiotics on them and is a firm practice of good animal husbandry, which helps them stay in the best of health. Organic feed costs more and is harder to come by than regular feed. Jewett said she'd have to raise the cost to her customers in order to cover it. She provides the best living conditions for all of her animals, though and helps other farmers by buying her feed from local farmers at the Farmer's Co-op.
Jewett started farming at Willow Sedge Farms in 1995. "I was just finishing my graduate work in plant breeding and had been involved in studies in agriculture on the U of M campus," she said when she and her husband, Joe, had a chance to come back up north. From the very beginning she made a conscious decision to pursue a sustainable way of farming.She raises Black Angus beef cattle, pigs, commercial hogs, laying hens and goats. The
beef cattle and hogs are marketed for meat. She offers pork at the local farmers market. The goats are milked for her own family's use and for making cheese for her family, too.
Jewett said probably the biggest way she keeps her animals healthy is by offering them plenty of space. They're not as confined, with plenty of room to run," she said, "So they're not building up populations of parasites and bacteria. I don't swear off antibiotics entirely for a sick or injured animal. Organic farmers are instructed to do the same things. You are supposed to treat them and not let them suffer but then not market that animal."
Most people find comfort in purchasing meat locally, especially these days, from a farm whose processes and beliefs they are familiar with. Willow Sedge Farms is located near Palisade. For more information log on to the Willow Sedge Farm website.
The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance is a nonprofit organization. As its director Jason Edens saw the importance of offering a sustainable source of heat for people on the state's energy assistance program. When the heating bills go up, the family's money available for food goes down. It seemed to be a cycle few could break out of.
The Solar Assistance Program empowers families across the state to provide eventually for their own heating needs. "What we're advocating is renewable heat into the program. "We can address fuel poverty with clean energy. We can end program dependency," he said.
Edens said their program started in 2000. When they approached the state initially with the idea they were met with skepticism. But the plan is working.
"We've definitely been swimming upstream," he said, but last year RREAL helped 25 families that were dependent on fuel assistance by installing solar heating systems in their homes. This year they will help 50, most located in central Minnesota.
Edens explained a sort of chain reaction where, by helping one family get off the program, another that needs the help may be able to utilize it. The state turns away a quarter of a million families who apply yearly - as many families that receive the help are turned away.
Funding for the systems, of course, is the biggest roadblock. Edens said they write a lot of grants and do receive some money from the state. "It's table scraps, but it's a good start," he said. They also install solar heating systems to other non-assistant customers for profit. "All that revenue is plowed back into the solar assistance program," he said, "If someone is in the market for a solar heating system, by hiring RREAL for the job, profit from the sale will help fund installation for a lower income family too.
There are four requirements for recipient of the program: They must be energy assistance eligible, the home must be weatherized properly, the site has to be good for solar energy, and recipients must own their own homes. "We want to empower families, not landlords," said Edens.
The solar heaters will provide only about a quarter of a home's heating needs and Edens said a system will pay for itself in about 10-12 years.
Cahoon, Jewett, and Edens work in drastically different worlds, yet all are doing their part to green up the their own lives and the lives of those around them. It's easier than many think.
Photo information:
Barn and newspaper pot photos, courtesy of Whiteley Creek Bed & Breakfast
Pig photo courtesy of Jane Jewett
Solar panel photo courtesy of Barry Babcock
IN WHAT WAYS, BIG OR SMALL, HAVE YOU GONE GREEN? CLICK ON "SUBMIT COMMENTS" AND SHARE YOUR STORY.
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