An Interview with Rupert Scofield (Part 4)

Check out Part 4 of our interview with Rupert Scofield, author of The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook

Farm fresh summers in the city.

My husband Gregory and I are obsessed with 3 things: beer, Lola (our havanese) and food.

Since Greg and I are from California we both grew up having access to the freshest fruits and veggies around. While my favorite grocery store, Fairway, here in NYC, has amazing produce, there is nothing like getting a head of lettuce straight from the field still slightly caked with dirt from the farm.

With that in mind, this summer we decided to try something new. We got involved with a small farm share for the summer months. We are currently enrolled with Corbin Hill Farms. They specialize in getting fresh produce to low-income areas. There are different sizes of farm boxes that you can chose from depending on the size of your family. The medium share runs about $12.00 and you can choose to donate a few extra dollars a week to the farm to help subsidize boxes for families who can't afford the full price. Greg and I opted to pay $15/week. The pick-up location is only one block away at a school in our neighborhood of Harlem.

Other advantages to using a local farm share are that it supports local growers and helps cut down on the use of fossil fuels. The less distance your fresh produce has to travel to get to you, the better it is for the environment.

Since our box comes every Tuesday Greg and I decided that from now on Tuesday would be known as "Iron Chef Tuesdays". We get the secret ingredients from the box, than we go get a protein and a special beer from Fairway to pair with our food from the share.

Yesterday was our first box. We got the following:

3 large potatoes

4 small apples

1 cucumber

1 bundle of Garlic Scapes (the top green portions of the garlic plant, harvested early in order to allow the garlic plant to focus more effort on growing the bulb)

2 small yellow squash

1 very large turnip

2 Candy Onions

1 bush of Kale

After much debate and discussion we decided that our first meal would be a sauté of organic Australian steak marinated in soy sauce with garlic scapes and elephant garlic. We also made baked mashed potatoes with butter, sour cream and finely chopped garlic scapes and sautéed yellow squash with a few heirloom tomatoes and finely chopped scapes.

We paired the entire dinner with a couple bottles of the deliciously hoppy and floral Race 5 IPA from Bear Republic Brewing Company in Healdsburg, CA.



Overall the meal came out great and I am excited to use the rest of my vegetables later this week.

I think I will be making some kale chips tonight when I get home!!



Happy Summer!

An Interview with Rupert Scofield (Part 3)

Here is Part 3 of our interview with Rupert Scofield. We'd love to hear your comments!

Want to get caught up? You can view Part 1 here.

An Interview with Rupert Scofield (Part 2)

Here is Part 2 of our interview with Rupert Scofield. We'd love to hear your comments!

Want to get caught up? You can view Part 1 here.

An Interview with Rupert Scofield (Part 1)

A little while ago, the team at What You Can Do was honored to have the opportunity to interview the President and CEO of FINCA, Mr. Rupert Scofield. Mr. Scofield has recently published the book, The Social Entrepreneur's Hanbook: How to Start, Build and Run a Business That Improves the World.

He sat down with What You Can Do creator, Jessica Arinella to talk about his experience with FINCA, to explain what microfinancing is exactly and to talk about his new book. This is Part 1 of our 5 part interview. Please check it out!

Alicia's Eyes on Wildlife - Florida Panther

Alicia's Eyes on The Big Cats.

Okay - let me start off by saying, I have witnessed the experiment in my psychology class about eye witness accuracy. My professor was talking, someone comes in to interrupt, then leaves. My professor continued lecturing as if nothing happened. A half hour later, he asked us what the person who interrupted us looked like. It was hard to remember. Was she wearing a white shirt or a white jacket? Was her hair brown or dark blonde? Glasses or no? Most people got it wrong.

Now, I know I have an excellent memory. My friends are always impressed and somehow stupefied with the things I can remember. It is kind of freakish, but I look at it as an asset. I'm quite proud. I got the eye witness test right. Nailed it!

However, and this is a big HOWEVER, I am not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw a Florida Panther at our hotel in May. I remember it clearly. Jess and I were standing on the balcony and we were looking at the ground towards the pool. This is a great site to people watch, but that morning we didn't see people, we saw a BIG CAT sauntering down the path and disappearing under the porch.

The first thing I did, after making sure that Jess saw what I saw and I wasn't hallucinating from the heat, was call the front desk. The woman who answered seemed to be familiar with said cat although she didn't offer specifics. When I said, "I know this sounds insane, but I just saw a cat the size of a labrador walking from the pool under building 3." Her reaction was more of a 'bummer' than 'this girl is bonkers.' I truly admire southern politeness, but this was a stretch - even for the south. I had the distinct impression that she knew what I was talking about and what I had seen.

So Jess and I started doing research. What we saw was large and tan with a black tipped tail. So far so good. No pointy, furry ears which would indicate a bobcat. Panthers' habitat can be wetlands or drylands. They are good swimmers and can go from wet to dry easily, but they prefer cover or woodlands. So, maybe it wasn't a panther? Also they are estimated to be very endangered. So what would they be doing at a resort in Florida? I know we all need vacations, but I started to think my love of Friday Night Lights and Coach Taylor's Panthers caused my mind to create visions. I started doubting myself.

And then I went online and found this website. Right under this picture (which is very similar to the cat we saw) were these words - This "Palmer Ranch Panther" has been determined to be a panther by a professional wildlife photographer that photographs panthers. Last sighting of the Florida Panther was in 2010 but it was only 19 miles away from our hotel. I think that it's entirely possible that my panther friend could have walked up the beach and found a nice and cozy home under the resort's porch.

What do you think? Did Jess and I see a Panther or were our eyes playing tricks on us.

---

To help protect the big cats - watch this.

To Our 10,000 What You Can Do Fans

What is, "What You Can Do?" Is it a documentary? A how-to-get-involved tool? A public service announcement? A television show? A web series? What? Well... it's all of those things. On Facebook, we're a tool that gives like-minded people a place to share tips to help fight climate change or vote on his or her hot button issue. Our website, www.whatyoucando365.com, is our home. This is where we house all of our one-minute action videos. This is where you can look up simple, active ideas based on the issue of your choice. We've got close to 300 videos on there now - all with a wealth of information within a short amount of time. Our blog: whatyoucandoseries.blogspot.com is where you can find our extra feature videos and updates from the producers like me and Alicia as well as the series' creator, Jessica Arinella.

So why am I telling you this?

Good question.

We've recently reached 10,000 fans on Facebook. Yahoo! That milestone was really appreciated over here. 10,000 fans. That's more people than went to my high school (I think). Everyone likes a big number and 10,000, is a nice big number. Yet, for us, we want more than those awesome digits - we want what's behind them - you. As we grow, we want to make sure that you're on board with us. We want to make sure that everyone still knows what "What You Can Do" is at its heart.

So here it goes:

What You Can Do is a short form series that offers you one-minute ideas to help combat major world issues like climate change, domestic violence, poverty, animal cruelty and wildlife extinction. We also offer tips on how to support our troops, promote tolerance and help people battling hunger. We take ideas from some of the best nonprofits around and put them into a video for you. That, at it's very essence, is what we do.

Here's what we're not going to do - we're not going to judge you for some simple pleasures. We're not going to tell you that you can never take a long hot shower again. We aren't going to tell you that you can't ever buy those little snack packs that have more packaging but make it faster for you to pack your child's lunch. We aren't going to beat down your door if you drive to work instead of taking public transportation. The truth is, over here at "What You Can Do" we often talk about the things that we could improve on. Jessica has an addiction to paper towels, I love a long shower and Alicia loves to take a lengthy drive alone in her car. We are like you. Living our lives as best we can while hoping we can do something that makes a difference in the world.

So what if we all changed just a little bit? What if, for more days of the week, I kept my morning shower to a minimum? What if Jessica limited her paper towel use 80% of the time? What if Alicia went for a long walk instead of that drive every other time she felt the need? What if you...?

"What You Can Do" is built on the "what if" principle. What if you watched a video today and promised to do the activity that week? Would it alter the world immediately? No. Would it make a difference? Yes.

This is who we are. This is what we're about.

Now we'd love to hear from you. Watch a video. Get in touch with us. Join our mailing list. "What You Can Do" is growing but our growth isn't worth anything without you. And if you have any ideas or issues that you'd like to see covered, let us know. You never know, we might just add it to our series' roster!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope to talk with you soon,
Julie

From Our Friends At Traveling Greener

Whether you plan to escape to the nearest beach or jet off to an exotic locale this summer - check out Traveling Greener, one of our favorite blogs for green travel.

The blog features cool ideas for trekking the globe and being kind to the planet.

Check out recent Traveling Greener posts below and start dreaming about your next vacation:

Cool Global Holidays

French Lessons in Paris

How to Green Your Car Rental

Stunning Ocean Photos

Alicia's Eyes on Vacation

Whew. Its been a long time since I've written anything. Confession time, I was on vacation and it was awesome!

For the past 25 years, my family has been going to Long Boat Key, Florida. It's such a beautiful place with white sand beaches, great restaurants and shopping and wonderful people. This year we got to go for two weeks, and it was a huge treat.

The hotel where we stay is called the Long Boat Key Club and they have always been interested in sustainability and the environment. However, this time, I noticed that they received Florida's official "Green Lodging" certification which means they are recognized as one of the premier environmentally conscientious lodging facilities in the state. They are also the first resort and club in the Sarasota area to be awarded the "Green Business Partner" certification by Sarasota County. And their 291- slip, deep-water marina, is recognized by the State of Florida as a "Clean Marina", based on their commitment to implementing and maintaining environmentally friendly business practices. What a great place for the What You Can Do creator and producer to spend two weeks vacation. Not only is the place beautiful and peaceful, but you don't have to feel badly about negatively impacting the environment.

Over the next few blogs, I want to talk about the trip - about wildlife, the night sky, food and going green. Stay tuned for more.

And if you're going on a vacation this summer consider an ecofriendly one!

Alicia