Season's Greetings from Brunswick, Maine!
From all of us here at F.W. Horch and at Energyworks, our renewable energy partner, thank you for another great year working together, practically saving the planet. Take heart in the knowledge that small actions lead to big changes. This is the darkest time of year, but we've turned the corner: from now on just a few more minutes of sunlight each day will change our winter wonderland to a midsummer dream.
May you find time to bring more sunshine into your life and the lives of those around you.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2008,
Fred Horch, Founder
Sustainable Living Talk, Jan 10
Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, January 10th. Our own Brett Thompson will show you how to compost with worms all winter long. Worm composting is the easiest, quickest, and most effective way to turn kitchen scraps into nutritious plant food. More landscape, less landfill!
Free informational handouts will be provided. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.
The talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick at 7:00 pm on the second Thursday of the month.
If you'd like a short preview of worms at work, take a peek at this feature story from New England Cable News. For a segment of the "Start Small, Save Big" series, Amy Sinclair visited our home, where we keep several worm bins. (Two minute video segment should start after a short commercial.) Visit http://preview.tinyurl.com/yv7hu7
News from Energyworks
Jen Hatch of Energyworks South writes,
Happy New Year’s to Everyone from Energyworks LLC!If you are in the restaurant business, please join us on January 29th ~ 11 am ~ Vignola Restaurant, 10 Dana Street Portland, Maine.
We will be presenting a seminar entitled:
The Environmental and Economic Value of Solar Hot Water for the Restaurant Business.
Points of Interest Being Presented:
How does a Solar Hot Water System work?
How will it benefit you as the restaurant owner?
What rebates and tax incentives are available for those installing a solar hot water system?
What is the overall process of the installation?
For more information please contact Jen via email at: jen@energyworksllc.com, or call 221-6342.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Other news from Energyworks:
Are you interested in wood boilers? Our Liberty office does installations of clean burning, high efficiency wood boilers. Please contact Pat or Lee at 589-4171 for more information.
Please contact us regarding the new rebates for the 2008 year. Although it has not yet been confirmed from the PUC we suspect the solar hot water rebates will prove to be even more favorable for home owners and commercial businesses for this upcoming New Year. We would love to talk to you about how a system could start working for you, to start saving you money.
As always, please call us with any comments/questions. 221-6342.
Be Well, Jen
Product News and Sustainable Living Tips
Next month's talk is on worm composting, which is hands down the best way to deal with kitchen scraps in the winter. One or two worm bins can transform your peels, cores, paper, and yucky leftovers into beautiful fertilizer. Each bin handles about three pounds of food waste per week.
Of all the systems we've tried, the Can-O-Worms is the best. It keeps the worms moist but not too wet, allows you to drain off worm tea (a wonderful liquid fertilizer), and makes it easy to harvest the finished worm castings without harming your worm colony.
For those on a tighter budget, we've also designed our own Wiggle Room worm bin. A raised platform inside a plastic tub with a bottom cork for draining out worm tea, it provides a great home for your worms, with just a little more work involved when it comes time to harvest the castings. We also sell packages of red wiggler worms in case you already have a worm bin or want to make your own.
Come in the store to pick up our free "vermiculture" handout and check out our selection of worm composting books. We sell the classic Worms Eat My Garbage among others.
On another topic, energy saving, we have two great made-in-Maine product lines that should be in every home. The first are fragrant Maine Balsam draft stoppers. What old home in Maine doesn't have a draft below at least one window or door? Keep out the cold air and keep yourself comfortable with these at the ready.
The second are folding wooden drying racks made by Dave Holmes. Try hanging your laundry instead of using your dryer and take a note of your electric bill! (If you can't kick the electric clothes drying habit, at least toss in a couple dryerballs to reduce drying time.) In our household we discovered that our clothes dryer was a major component of our electric bill. Since switching to air drying, we've been able to keep our electricity consumption below 10 kilowatt hours a day.
Along with the best drying racks made in Maine, Dave Holmes is now also supplying us with the best wooden laundry hamper made in Maine. Drop by the store to take a look at the clever double hamper he has designed for us. Beautiful, functional, durable and sustainable, being made from wood and cotton.
What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
Wednesday, Dec 19 -- Amy Sinclair of New England Cable News visited my home for a segment of "Start Small, Save Big." I believe the feature has already aired on TV, but if you're interested, you can view it online here (a short commercial will play first): http://preview.tinyurl.com/yv7hu7
Another bit of old, but very encouraging news, is that Al Gore won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. His Nobel Lecture on December 10 included this memorable passage: "We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly."
I do hope to get back to more news in next month's newsletter, but we are still hard at work on our new web site and trying to keep up with the holiday shopping rush! Send me your news and sustainable living tips and I'll include them in January's edition. Have a Happy New Year!
