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Travel Menus
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Whether
you're traveling by plane, train, bus, car--or even bicycle--this
summer, don't forget to pack your Laptop Lunches for the trip!
- Choose
foods that will hold up well.
- Pack enough water for the trip. (Consider freezing some
so it stays cold longer.)
- If you're
traveling by car, bring an ice chest for restaurant leftovers.
Pack the leftovers in your Laptop Lunches. The containers hold
up better than disposables, are easier to eat from, and can
be reused.
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For air
travel, avoid foods with strong odors that might offend fellow
passengers.
- Don't forget your ice packs.
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Going
to camp this summer?
Try
some of the following menus.
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#1:
Snack Pack
- Grapes
- Veggies
& Dip--carrots, red bell peppers, green beans, and cucs
with dip
- Pretzels
(Try spelt pretzels for extra nutrition.)
- Lowfat
cheese, cubed.
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#2:
Cool Treat
- Organic
apples, peeled and cubed
- Nonfat
yogurt
- Low-fat
granola
- Lightly
steamed broccoli (not mushy!), cooled
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#3:
Legume Plus
- Freshly
ground peanut butter
- Whole-grain
crackers (without hydrogenated oil)
- Banana
- Carrot
sticks
- Steamed
soy beans (edamame)
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Gardening
with Children
Are
you and your children ready to hit the dirt this summer? Caprice Potter,
Life Lab Instructor at Gateway School in Santa Cruz, CA offers these
tips for getting started.
Tools
- Make sure you have the right tools for
the jobs you need to do.
- Purchase adult tools instead of
kids' plastic tools, which tend to cause frustration and may
break. (Make sure the size and weight are appropriate.)
- Demonstrate how to use each tool properly
and allow the children to practice under supervision.
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Safety
- Make it organic. Keep harmful pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
out of the garden.
- Elicit safety rules from your children. Write them up and post them
where they can be seen.
- Encourage all gardeners to say "red alert" if they see
something that appears unsafe. When they hear those words, they should
stop, look, listen,
and
then correct the problem.
- Wear appropriate protective clothing, hats, and sunscreen.
Here are some rules that children will likely
come up with on their own:
Keep the metal end of the tool down.
Don't leave tools on the ground.
Work in an area where you have plenty of space.
Share tools with others.
Don't touch unfamiliar tools and substances. Ask an adult first. In
fact, always ask an adult before eating anything as not everything in
a garden is edible. (Sweet peas, for example, have beautiful, fragrant
flowers, but their seeds are poisonous.)
Make it Fun and Educational
- Start out small. (Make sure you design a garden that will be manageable.)
- Allow the children to be in control of the process as much as possible.
- Watch the plants as they grow.
- Observe seasonal changes.
- Infuse fun facts of science.
- Explore the parts of the plant.
- Dissect flowers.
- Explore the physics of digging. Shovels are simple levers. One hand
is the fulcrum, the other is the effort hand, and the soil is the
load.
- Grow something that you can eat. (Allow children to follow the
process from breaking ground to the meal on the table.)
- Compost to teach children that the soil needs to be fed before
it will feed us.
- Teach the benefits of homegrown, organic foods.
- Children love to water plants. Observe the soil to see how far
down the water percolates. Dig wells around the plants to prevent
water from running off.
- Adults should do the bulk of the weeding, but allow the children
to pull some weeds so they learn how to do it.
- Monitor seasonal weeds and weed diversity.
- Explain the importance of weeding, that weeds compete for water,
nutrients, light, and space.
- Don't forget to plant edible flowers.
They're
beautiful, nutritious, and tasty in salads. Children love to stop and
eat the flowers!
What to Grow
Visit your local garden center to find out
what will grow in your area at this time of year.
Here are a few ideas for children's theme gardens from the Gateway School
Life Lab Program:
1. Salad in a box (in summer: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots)
(In fall: salad ingredients that do not produce fruits or seeds--roots,
stems, leaves, and some edible flowers like lettuce, celery, carrots,
radishes, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, edible flowers, beets,
and bok choy
2. Three sisters (corn, beans, pumpkins)
3. Popcorn garden (Buy organic popcorn at your natural food store and
plant it in your garden.)
4. Spaghetti garden (spaghetti squash, tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic)
5. Pesto garden (basil, parsley, garlic)
6. Salsa garden (tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, mild chili peppers
like Anaheim--or scrape out seeds and inner skin from jalapenos-- garlic,
cilantro)
7. Herb garden (basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, mint, thyme, sage, chives,
oregano)
Resources
- The
Growing Classroom: Garden-Based Science Activity Guide, an award winning
resource book containing step-by-step instructions for setting up a
garden-based science program and outdoor classroom activities. Topics
include working together in the garden, growing, nutrients, garden ecology,
climate, nutrition, gardening tips, and food choices. 496 pages. Available
online at www.lifelab.org.
- Gardens for Growing People, www.svn.net/growpepl
- The National Gardening Association (www.garden.org,
www.nationalgardenmonth.org,
and www.kidsgardening.com)
- The Gardeners Table: A Guide to Natural Vegetable Growing and Cooking
by Richard Merrill & Joe Ortiz
- How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and
Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can
Imagine by John Jeavons
- Rodale's Organic Gardening Magazine (www.organicgardening.com)
Caprice
Potter, the life lab science teacher at Gateway School, started the Gateway
life lab program 16 years ago with a single garden box. It now spans 1/4
acre!
Caprice's earliest gardening memory? "My mom asked me to go into
the garden to pick the male zucchini flowers for the flower pancakes she
was making. I remember her showing me how to tell the females from the
males and how the females had little fruits or zucchinis growing at the
base of the flower. She showed me the pollen inside the male flowers too.
She said the insects helped us by carrying the pollen from the male flower
to the female flower. Otherwise, we wouldn't have zucchini, pumpkins or
most fruits."
Laptop Lunches
Benefit Schools
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It's
not uncommon to find Tammy and Amy visiting local schools. Last
month Obentec participated in the Scotts Valley Ice Cream Social,
an annual community event that raises tens of thousands of dollars
for local schools.
Obentec
also conducts educational workshops at schools in the Santa Cruz,
CA area and provides information about the benefits of packing
nutritious, waste-free lunches to students and teachers across
the US.
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If
you'd like us to provide information to someone at your school, or if
you have a school event you'd like us to know about, please contact
us: 831 - 457 - 0301 / info@obentec.com.
Laptop
Lunches in the Los Angeles Times
June
6, 2004
Judi
Dash
Gear &
Gadgets
Boxed up neatly for departure
Eating on the go
— for you or your loved ones — gets easier with these new
products.
Movable
feast
The Laptop Lunch
System: This new lunchbox should appeal to travelers who want or need
to take their meals with them, whether a picnic lunch or dinner. Inspired
by the Japanese bento lunchbox, the kit is composed of an insulated
carrying case — designed to fit on an airplane tray — holding
a hinged plastic outer container with five brightly colored plastic
inner containers (two with lids), a plastic drink bottle, a fork and
spoon. To comply with airline carry-on rules, there's no knife. The
carrying case has an outside zippered pocket and inside mesh pouch,
as well as a built-in handle and a detachable shoulder strap. It also
comes with a "Users' Guide" that has healthful eating tips
and recipes.
Laptop Lunch
System (item 310030) is $33.99 from Obentec, (877) 623-6832; http://www.laptoplunches.com.
What Works...Success
Stories
- "Thank
you for such a wonderful product. My son loves to take his Laptop
Lunch to school. I will be purchasing several more in another year
or two as my youngest gets bigger and my nieces and nephews get older
also. Thank you so much!!!"
--Mollie
Burch, Moore, OK
-
"I am enjoying my Laptop Lunch system SO much - it was a little
adjustment getting used to 'no lids'... but now I wouldn't have
it any other way. You've got a GREAT product -- I wish you every
continued success! "
--Wendy
Mendes, Visalia, CA
Do
you have a success story or Laptop
Lunch photo to share? Email it to us at newsletter@obentec.com.
Featured Web Site:
http://media.socialchange.net.au/recycling/
Would you like to
expand (or start) a recycling program at work or school or some other
place where you see too much trash headed for the landfill? If so, then
visit http://media.socialchange.net.au/recycling/
for downloadable recycle bin signs. They've got just about any category
of waste you might be looking for--paper, glass, aluminum--and much
more, including plaster and bricks. They offer both tiff and eps files,
and they're set up to print on stickers for either the front or top
of your bins. Check it out--and don't forget to get the kids involved
in making recycle containers from salvaged materials.
August Highlights
Summer camp lunch
ideas, smart food choices, and eco-travel resources!
© July 2004, by Obentec,
Inc.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Feel free to reprint
or forward this newsletter with the following acknowledgment and contact
information clearly visible: "Thank you to Obentec, Inc. for permission
to use this copyrighted material. For more information, contact Obentec,
Inc. by email at info@obentec.com
or by phone at 831-457-0301, or visit their Web site at http://www.obentec.com.
Reprint permission granted with this full notice included."
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