Green It Yourself

Fall is in full swing and one of the greatest holidays during the school year is around the corner: HALLOWEEN!! Lucky for you, Green Observer is here to help you rock October 31^st, while keeping it green! An excellent way to save money and the earth is to re-use old costumes. If you don’t want to be a costume-repeat offender, swap costumes with friends, hit up the Salvation Army, or thrift through second-hand shops for inspiration! Here are a few costume ideas that you can construct with items lying around your apartment:

· Old Sheet: Poke 3 holes to become a ghost, cut the sheet in strips to transform into a mummy, or wrap and tie the sheet up with golden rope to walk like an Egyptian or ancient Roman

· Cardboard Robot: All you need is a couple of different sized boxes! Get crazy and decorate it with buttons, glitter, stickers, antennas, etc., or keep it simple by using certain boxes… nothing classier than a Natty Light robot!

· Cowboy/Cowgirl: We go to school in Central Illinois… so plaid shirts, jeans/jean skirts, and boots are pretty easy to come by

· Masks are sweaty, smelly, and uncomfortable, so ditch the rubber thing and make use of make-up you already have lying around the house.

We hope you have an amazing Halloween! Have fun, be safe, and don’t forget to recycle any aluminum, glass, or cardboard party favors!

Reused Toasted Goodness

What really gets me excited for the fall season and Halloween is when I can finally whip out the tools and carve my pumpkin. I delight in the concentration needed to carve straight lines, squishing my hands through the goopy guts, and eating homemade roasted pumpkin seeds. High in fiber and protein, full of anti-oxidants and, most importantly, tasty, the pumpkin seed is a bi-product of pumpkin carving that usually goes unnoticed. But not anymore! Follow this recipe to create delicious roasted pumpkin seeds in a variety of flavors, for virtually free!

1) Begin by separating the seeds from the pumpkin flesh and strings. Wash them well and let them drain in a strainer for 30 minutes, then spread the seeds out evenly on a baking pan.

2) Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F.

3) Now comes the fun part… deciding what seasoning you want! Once your seeds are evenly spread out, lightly baste the seeds with melted butter, margarine or vegetable oil, along with one of the following combinations of spices:

Natural: 1 teaspoon sea salt or other salt, 4 tablespoons melted butter

Spicy: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon thyme, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper

Halloweeny: 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon ground allspice

None of the above combinations sound tasty to you? Have no fear! Experiment with your own combination of spices to find what you think will get your mouth watering.

4) Heat the seeds in the preheated oven for 10 to 20 minutes until golden brown, making sure to keep an eye on them. Check every few minutes and stir about every 5 minutes to make sure the seeds to not get overly toasted.

5) Carefully remove the seeds when they’ve reached a deliciously golden brown color. Serve either hot or cold depending on your preference.

And that’s it! A few simple steps and you are ready to be brimming with delicious pumpkin seed goodness.

Enjoy!!

Cait Gallagher

Sustainable Student Farm: Updates Fall 2011

Hello All!

The Sustainable Student Farm has once again slid past the autumnal equinox. The balance of dark and light has now turned in favor of the dark, which will bring us shorter days and the more resilient participants in the great dance of fresh food production. The fields are just about clear of any indication of summer. The last tomatoes and peppers wait on the vines to be picked before they are lost to the crystallization of the first frost. The fields are alive with their hardier cousins: head lettuce, radish, mustard greens, kale, and spinach. The high tunnels (our passive solar heated greenhouses) are being planted and germinating with the bounty of what will be our late fall and early winter production. These tunnels will be brimming with salad greens that can be enjoyed at our campus dining hall units on campus such as Ikenberry through the fall semester. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this our high tunnels will be covered and protecting our crops. If not, there will be at least one more weekend of volunteer workdays to get the job done. Regardless, if you are interested in coming out to help harvest greens or just to see what we are all about. Visit our website: (thefarm.illinois.edu). Hope to see you out there!

Farmer Zack

September 19th, 2011

Get excited for our October issue! We're expanding our publication to a 16-page magazine, and our first issue will cover everything from the wind turbine to toasting your own pumpkin seeds!

Here is what you can look forward to reading the second week of October:

• Updates on upcoming events on campus
• The final fall of the wind turbine and what the campus is doing moving forward
• A recap on iCAP, the University of Illinois Climate Action Plan
• Prairie burning for the environment in the fall and spring
• Updates & how you can get involved with Students for Environmental Concerns (SECs)
• From Coal to Clean Energy, the tour and what environmental action groups are doing to get Illinois coal-free
• "GIY – Green-it-yourself" articles on how to green your routine & halloween
• Other great ways to get involved with protecting your community, like updates from the Student Sustainable Farm and Red Bison
• How to make a snack out of your jack-o-lantern this year with three scrumptious recipes for pumpkin seeds
• A review on the Sundance Film Festival selection, Climate Refugees by director Michael Nash, and where you can see a free screening October 19th hosted by the Green Observer and Students for Environmental Concerns
• Opinion pieces, an environmental crossword and a comic!

Hope you enjoy the issue! Remember, it is SO easy to get involved in protecting our community and our shared home, Mother Earth.

Read green, live green!