For me this time of year brings with it a feeling of tranquility. I love the chill in the air and the darkness which always make me want to come in and spend time with my loved ones. The cold and the darkness although difficult at times, brings us together unlike the sunny summer months when we use every last bit of daylight to work. Our bodies need a rest but then there is the holiday rush...
The holidays shouldn't be about stress and if we can, we should try to give back to each other and the earth. This is the part that I stress about. How can we satisfy our love of giving and receiving gifts, eating, traveling and sending cards when trying so hard to tread lightly on the earth?
Some simple things we can do to green up our holidays are shopping locally, sending fewer cards or going digital, including locally raised ingredients in our holiday meals, making gifts from natural or found items, choosing gifts with less packaging, buying used items or upcycled items instead of new, giving a gift of an animal from Heifer International, giving gifts that disappear like food, or an experience such as a museum pass or tickets to a performance.
When we are all done with our festivities we can compost our trees or have them chipped (here on the farm the goats eat them like candy!), reuse or recycle our wrapping paper and boxes and finally we could all take some time to go through all of our clothing and other posessions and donate what we don't need or no longer use.
Whew, that's quite a list but looking at it makes me feel just a bit better. If we all do just a little to make the holidays more sustainable we'll be better off tomorrow and hopefully a little less stressed!
If you are thinking about giving a gift of farm fresh food or a night away, we have gift certificates available at our farm store and there are inn gift certificates available at the Inn at Valley Farms.
Happy holidays and thank you all for your continued support of the farm and inn!!
Caitlin