The Green Life

Fast Fact: Cranberries

Of 327,700 tons of cranberries harvested in the United States in 2007, only 5 percent were sold fresh.

Green Your Gift Wrap

Nix the trees. Consider easing out of the gift wrap habit by switching to paper and fabrics made of recycled or rapidly renewable plant fibers. Go to nearseanaturals.com for ribbons made of discarded scraps of silk, cotton, and rayon at women's cooperatives.

Make it useful. Flower pots, jewelry boxes, and other containers can serve as both gift and packaging. Be sure to choose something your recipients will use: Giving up wrapping paper loses its virtue if you saddle friends with tacky baskets certain to hit the trash once you leave.

The Short List

Get out of the mall and back to the party with these fun green gifts for friends and family.

FOR FOODIES Large commercial beekeepers often exterminate bee colonies at season's end and rely on chemicals and antibiotics to cultivate and harvest honey. Treat fine-food lovers to the sweet life with organic, artisanal honey, which Slow Food USA says helps preserve diverse flavors, bee colonies, and old-fashioned beekeeping practices. Savannah Bee Company raw honeycomb | $18 | savannahbee.com

FOR GADGET HEADS Small electronics account for 15 percent of a typical U.S. household's electricity bill, and Americans use as many as 1.5 billion power adapters. To help reduce fossil-fuel needs without cramping someone's gizmo style, give a solar-powered charger that can juice up mobile devices with renewable, off-the-grid energy. Solio Magnesium Edition | $170 | solio.com

Get Out, Kids

This fall brought two books about connecting kids with nature. Rick Van Noy's A Natural Sense of Wonder (University of Georgia Press) chronicles his children's surprising encounters with the natural world in a Virginia suburb. "Vigorous outdoor play," he asks, "where have you gone?" The Van Noys bring it back--and with tips from author Jennifer Ward, you can too. Her book I Love Dirt! (Random House) offers 52 ways for parents and kids to discover the near outdoors. Here's a sampling of ideas from the two authors to help your family experience nature's best--whatever winter throws at you.

Grapevine: Elephant Seal Surveyors

Scientists mapping the ocean around the Antarctic enlisted deep-diving elephant seals last winter to gather data on water pressure, salinity, and temperature. The animals carried glued-on surveying equipment and delivered 30 times more data than had been collected without their help, filling what the researchers called a "blind spot" in sampling coverage. The video above shows how and why a separate group of scientists with the Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, California tagged elephant seals for the Tagging of Pacific Predators project.

Tips from a Green Chef

Get an old-fashioned gobbler.
Consider ordering a heritage-breed turkey, one of the hardy, genetically diverse species bred before factory farms became the norm in the 1960s. When cooking a turkey raised free-range, as many heritage breeds are, Karen Jurgensen suggests braising the legs (which are muscular and a little tough as a result of the bird's active life) to make them more tender and roasting the breast in the oven. For more information on heritage breeds, visit heritageturkeyfoundation.org.

Let nothing go to waste.
After the main event, Jurgensen suggests using turkey bones for a stock or soup, mashed potatoes for pancakes or shepherd's pie, and vegetables for a frittata (pictured above).

Trendsetter: Chef Karen Jurgensen

Chef Karen Jurgensen learned the tools of her trade--creative, seasonal cooking--in rural Washington (where her grandmother taught her how to forage) and in Seattle's forward-thinking restaurants and catering kitchens in the 1980s. She now advocates for local food in restaurants and teaches chefs, culinary students, and average folks how to craft seasonal menus. You can get a taste of her cuisine by trying this seasonal dish, or  the recipes in the recently released Chefs on the Farm (Mountaineers Books).

Q: How did you get into cooking with local ingredients?
A: In restaurants, you don’t follow recipes all that often—you find inspiration in what’s available. It’s much more flexible, which is what you need to run a seasonal kitchen.

Turkey Day? Move Over, Butterball

The autumnal meal now has as many interpretations as there are kicks in the Rockettes' Thanksgiving Day routine. Omnivores can choose from organic, free-range, or locally farmed birds, which respectively promise fewer hormones, more humane treatment, and less transit-related fuel consumption. Vegetarians and others cutting back on animal products can opt for soy-based faux gobblers.

Taste Test: Cranberry Sauce

Sierra shanghaied nine hungry staffers to test cranberry sauces, as a small but increasing number of growers opt to cultivate these wetland-native berries the organic way--without synthetic pesticides. For a deliciously tart, sweetly organic, or 1950s-style jellied sauce, try one of these winners.

HOMEMADE
Nothing became clearer in this test than the supremacy of homemade sauce. Tasters described the samples as "gorgeous," "fresh," and "delicious" with "dynamic undertones." Homemade sauces made with the same basic ingredients (water, sugar, and frozen cranberries) snagged the top two spots in every category, from flavor to texture and appearance.
BEST BET: Fresh or frozen berries and your favorite recipe.