Birth of a Biodynamic Winery

Thousands of wild Coho and Chinook salmon once swam with steelhead trout in the waters of Sonoma County’s Dry Creek. For a time, the common use of pesticides had all but wiped out the salmon. Today, Dry Creek is a protected stream. Nearby farmers now understand the dangers of applying chemicals to their vineyards and their crops — dangers not only to the fish in the creek but also to the people who will drink the wine and eat the produce grown on their land.

Truett Hurst Winery in the springtime.

At Truett Hurst Winery, a new addition to the fine wineries of Sonoma County, we not only have decided to forgo pesticides and herbicides, we also have begun to farm biodynamically. Simply put, biodynamics is a form of farming that strives to be self-sustained, self-contained, and harmonious with nature.

We have embarked on a three-year program to adhere to the rigid standards set by Demeter, an international certifying body, whose standards are said to exceed those of the National Organic Program. We are confident that the winery we are creating will be sustainable both in farming practices and economically, and will produce world-class wines.

Salmon once again spawn in Dry Creek.

I invite you to come along with me as I walk through the property and point out the progress we’re making on this biodynamic farming adventure. We’ll start on the banks of Dry Creek, which runs through the heart of the valley. Despite its name, Dry Creek is never dry; Warm Springs Dam feeds it throughout the dry months. The creek forms the western boundary of our property, and Dry Creek Road borders us on the east. Truett Hurst Winery is located on the land between the two.

Dry Creek is my favorite place at the winery. In the five years I have been on the property, I have seen a steady increase in the number of fish running in the stream.  During the rainy season, I can walk down to the creek and observe salmon migrating, and even spawning, in the shallow pools on our stretch of the creek. We are working in conjunction with the Department of Fish and Game and with Trouts Unlimited to create an observation area and a release point for wild salmon. Viewing the salmon is one of the many rewards of our project.

A truck crosses a pasture carrying barrels of wine.

Walking from the creek toward the vineyards, we first have to go through the sheep pasture. We are in the process of building our sheep fencing, as sheep will become a vital part of the ecosystem. They will roam throughout the vineyards, serving as our lawn mowers and our fertilizers. We will also incorporate chicken coops to provide nitrogen-rich fertilizer and weed abatement. We’ll especially appreciate their help with scratching crab grass, a huge nuisance in Dry Creek Valley. The middle five acres are dedicated to open sheep pasture.

More than 15,000 newly planted vines spread across 18 acres on the property. It looks a bit like a milk carton vineyard at the moment. In the springtime, we will be grafting more than 10 acres to Zinfandel and 7 acres to Petite Sirah.

Grafting new vines onto old.

The creation of elaborate compost piles is also underway, and we’ll build them up over the coming years. We are, in essence, farming the soils, creating powerfully alive soils that will allow for true “wines of place.” In biodynamic farming, everything we need to farm the property is created on the property. By doing this, the grapes are truly representative of the land we farm. This terrior will become the hallmark of our wines.

We are also working with a sharecropper, who will be planting three acres of biodynamic gardens to bring to market. He is planning out areas of fruits, vegetables, and a small orchard that will allow us to farm diverse crops on our land. Some of our produce will be sold to organic restaurants, and some will be given to local food banks.

Lunar cycles are important in biodynamic farming.

One fascinating aspect of biodynamics is the practice of farming by lunar cycles.  Summer and winter solstices are very important in the preparation of our organic compounds. I call it “Farmer’s Almanac farming,” and it simply is a very hands-on, practical way to farm.

Winemaker, Ginny Lambrix, carefully tends each vine.

Everything we do is clean, pure and, wherever possible, done by hand. It is a very pure way to farm and truly become one with your land.

Ginny Lambrix, our amazingly talented winemaker and head of viticulture, walks the vineyards often to see how the rootstock is doing and how the soils are progressing, as well as to get a personal feel for our vineyards. I kid her that she has probably named each one of the 15,000 vines.

Bottles of Truett Hurst wine, ready for labeling.

A little over a year ago, a team of three wine-industry pioneers took ownership of this land:
•    Paul Dolan, one of the most respected names in the wine business and godfather of biodynamic farming practices where wineries are concerned. He led the efforts of organic pioneer Fetzer Winery for almost three decades.
•    Heath Dolan, scion of Paul and 5th generation grape grower. He is the developer of one of the most famous biodynamic vineyards in the world, Dark Horse Vineyards in Hopland.
•    Phil Hurst, founder of Winery Exchange and one of the former winemakers at Fetzer in their early years. Winery Exchange is one of the largest private label wine companies in the world.

The patio adjacent to our tasting room.

One of the most refreshing things about what we are doing is the fact that the owners say we must become financially sustainable, as well as a sustainable farm. Financial sustainability is key to this venture; otherwise wineries that still farm with conventional methods (herbicide, pesticide, machine farming) will have no incentive to convert. At the end of the day, profitability is a key part of sustainability.

The owners’ collective vision was to create a beautiful destination and a biodynamic winery in the heart of Dry Creek Valley. They wanted to show how world-class wines can be created from strict biodynamic practices. The truer we are to our core farming values, the better Truett Hurst Wines will taste.

There is something truly special about this place, and in the coming months and years, I will share with you what is happening as we move ahead with our biodynamic farm. If you find your way to Sonoma County, come see for yourself. We love showing the place off. And you might just see a migrating salmon or two while enjoying a glass of our wines.

Jim Morris

Contributing Writer

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Children Raising Children: Documenting Africa’s AIDS Crisis

“Any human being who could look at these photos and not be moved would have to be lacking a heart,” I said, clicking through pictures of AIDS-orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa. “They are so beautiful. ”

“Yes,” said Karen Ande, the photographer. “That got to me, too.” Karen was at her home in San Francisco, California, when I called her for this interview. “From the first moment I saw the kids, I was taken. The children are all beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.”

Blessing and Felix, orphans of the AIDS crisis. Photo: Karen Ande

Ande is a documentarian of the struggles of AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. She supports various grassroots organizations working there, raising funds partially through the sale of her photographs.

You may wonder why Blue Planet Green Living has chosen to profile Ande’s photographic work. You may also wonder what it has to do with green living. The answer, for Joe and me, is that sustaining the planet doesn’t just mean making a healthy world in which to live. It also means providing for the health and well-being of the organisms — plants, animals, and, especially, people — who inhabit it.

BPGL: How did you get started photographing orphans in Africa?

ANDE: At first, I was interested in photographing the animals. My husband I had traveled a couple of times to Africa. We volunteered for some Earthwatch projects in which we were field assistants to different scientists working in game parks. We went twice and tried to do it a third time, but the trip didn’t work out with Earthwatch. So we arranged our own trip.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of the impact of AIDS in Africa. I knew as much as anybody in the West in 2002 — which wasn’t much at all. Then, on one of the journeys we took during that trip, I met Jill Simpson, a Kenyan of British descent, who grew up there. Jill was a nurse who flew into the bush with doctors. She asked if I’d like to ride along to an orphanage. In the car with her, I said, “I’ll do some shots if you can use them for publicity.”

The orphanage got started after a social worker, a friend of Jill’s, found two boys wandering alone on the street. They were 8 and 10 years old, looking for their mom. The social worker took the boys home. Later, she found their mother in the morgue, about to be shoved into a common grave. The story about two abandoned children really bothered me and caught my attention. I got to meet those boys at the orphanage.

We visited the orphanage for an hour and a half, and I took shots of about 20 kids. I was so incredibly taken with the children. As we were leaving, someone said the orphanage had run out of rice. So I gave them money for rice and went back home, thinking that was the end of my involvement.

Children at play in Kibera. Photo: Karen Ande

When I got home, I started printing pictures of the kids in the darkroom. Printing pictures is a magical thing. The pictures that emerged just completely grabbed me. I thought, I can do a couple of things. I can take the pictures I have and do nothing, or I can make a difference in the world. It was one of the points in life where I had to make a choice of which road I would take.

BPGL: What did you do next?

ANDE: Right after I came home, it was very clear to me that I wanted to go back. So I called the Firelight Foundation, in Santa Cruz. Their main interest is helping AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa; they are child-focused.

The AIDS issue has had a huge impact. I have heard there are from 15 to 18 million children living in appalling circumstances. In Africa, AIDS is in the heterosexual population and has affected a whole generation of parents. In the U.S., the emphasis is on treating adults and pregnant women. Very little work has been done with children. But Firelight has focused on children’s issues. I went back to Africa, and Firelight connected me with projects there.

BPGL: Tell about the projects you’re connected to in Africa.

Rwandan mother and child. Photo: Karen Ande

ANDE: I work as a physical therapist in the States and fund my Africa work through that, but I often get help from agencies on the ground. Once Firelight funded me in Rwanda. And one agency has led to another. I’ve visited some very diverse kinds of communities and projects. With Firelight, I went to Kibera, the biggest slum in South Africa. They do volunteer testing for HIV, and they sponsor home healthcare workers there.

I had been in a photography class and met a teacher, who asked me to take pictures for her while I was in Kibera. I was absorbed and loved photographing the children. It was profoundly interesting, a visual feast. I felt more alive, more present, more that I had a sense that there was an impact to be made in a good way, that the pictures of these children could make a difference to their lives and the lives of kids in general over there.

I also went to the rural communities and focused on grassroots organizations in country. What that means, usually, is that someone in the community is impassioned on the issue and has an idea how to help. They know their communities, which are often very small. For example, one woman lived in a tiny town that had no pharmacy. So she decided to create one. With the profits, she intended to send orphans to school. There are no school fees, but you have to have uniforms. Poor children can’t afford $25 for clothes, and sometimes they have to pay tuition too.

The woman who started the pharmacy had an idea, but didn’t know what to do to implement it. She connected with another nonprofit that taught her how to get the idea funded. So far, she has sent about 18 or 20 children to school. Her idea worked because it involved people in a community who know what their community needs.

BPGL: I understand there’s a lot of corruption in some places, and that the aid we send from the US or elsewhere doesn’t always benefit those it’s intended to. Can you trust the community groups you work with?

ANDE: If I fall in love with a project started by a community organizer and come back home to fund-raise, I know what the project is doing. I also know that the person I’m working with knows it intimately and can direct money to the maximum benefit with very little waste. In some cases, people start projects on almost nothing.

With the community projects I’m connected to, there’s no waste, no government bureaucracy, no shady dealings. They provide a way for people [outside of Africa] to connect with people over there. You can give $25 to send kids to school and know it will actually happen.

We met one family, a 13 year-old girl named Esther, her dying mother, and three other children. Someone had given us a donation of $35, so we spent money on chickens for Esther to raise and sell. Several weeks later, the mother died. Nuns looked in and tried to figure out what to do with the children. All four were placed in Saidia (the word means “Help” in Swahili), a very small orphanage in Gilgil, Kenya, that holds about 35 children. That money bought protein when the mom died and helped keep the kids together as a family.

But I haven’t just gotten involved with orphanages. In Africa, people try to keep children in their own communities. They may live with an aunt or an uncle or grandparents. It’s a very tentative situation, as the relatives are often poor themselves. Some of the aid goes to help support the community so that children can stay with relatives.

BPGL: Do you work with non-profit organizations besides Firelight?

A child-headed family in Kibera. Photo: Karen Ande

ANDE: Yes, another I particularly like is GRACE, which stands for Grass Roots Alliance for Community Education. In one case, the director of the local GRACE group approached an elderly woman about taking in six kids. The woman was overwhelmed. “How about if I give you a cow?” he asked her. The granny said yes and took in all six children. Families are being made across genetic lines.

A whole generation of parents is dying, and there are so many children. Many people have at least one child they’ve taken in. Grandparents have special responsibilities. For example, Paulina had 12 children. All 12 died of AIDS, leaving her with 16 grandkids to raise alone, and she was 92.

BPGL: What is the future bringing to the next generation? Will they understand AIDS and protect themselves?

ANDE: It’s hard to say. It depends. You can educate people about the disease, but poverty is as much a problem as anything else. People here in the United States have free and private access to HIV testing. In rural Africa, they might walk miles to get a doctor. If you have HIV and no symptoms, you don’t know you’re sick, and you can be spreading it. Once you have symptoms, the likelihood of getting help has improved. Anti-retroviral drugs are more common than they used to be. But with poverty, people don’t always have choices.

For example, a woman I met worked in a dicey hotel in a small town; it was really bad there. She was employed by the owner, and she had to sleep at the hotel. In the middle of the night, a man came into her room. He was a village elder who was ill [with AIDS]. He said, “You will have sex with me. If not, I’ll tell your boss, and he’ll fire you.” She had the immediate and very real pressure of getting food for her children, so she felt she had no choice. It was a poverty decision.

I think that things will probably get better. I’m hoping there will be a medical solution to make it easier to deal with the disease or get treated. But there are still so many issues surrounding poverty. With even a small donation to a local organization, we can make a substantial difference in individual people’s lives. If enough of us care, we can make a huge difference in many lives.

BPGL: Is part of the answer adoption to families in other countries?

ANDE: There are not nearly as many adoptions as there are children who need homes. People in Sub-Saharan Africa have mixed feelings about adopting older kids out of their communities. Family structure is very important. They try to keep families together. One result is that there are many children taking care of children.

Yvonne and her little sister, Tina, in Kibera. Photo: Karen Ande

I saw huge numbers of child-headed families in Kibera. That is really difficult. It’s extremely hard for me to see this, and I’ve seen a lot at this point. Kids are very vulnerable. One girl, Yvonne, was orphaned at 12 and left with a six-month-old sister. They were living in a mud shack and had to pay rent. It was an impossible situation. We connected her with Kibera Hamlets, an organization that directly benefits child-headed families. There are a lot of groups working in the slum, and they have different approaches to the problems.

Another thing that kills people is stigma. Yvonne had had a two-parent family. Both had AIDS, but were reluctant to go to the clinic for testing. Your neighbors can see you walk in. If you walk out, they know you’re fine. If you stay there an hour to learn what you need to, you’re not. By the time they went to get tested and were put on anti-retroviral drugs, it was too late.

When I met Yvonne, she would attend school until it was time to collect the fees. Then she [and other kids who didn’t have the funds] would disappear for a while. When the pressure was off for collecting fees, they would come back.

BPGL: What about her little sister?

ANDE: She basically leaves her two-year-old sister, Tina, home alone. The little sister wanders from place to place looking for food. She is very shy and frightened. She has a haunted face. Yvonne is trying to go to school and sell sweets. She buys the sweets at low cost, then sells them on a blanket to passersby. She might make 100 shillings a week, which is about $1.50, to support both herself and Tina. Something about Yvonne touched me. I talked to church groups who agreed to send her tuition. She now is in high school. That costs $125 a year.

BPGL: How do you keep from bringing all of the children home?

Vannah is raising her young brothers. Photo: Karen Ande

ANDE: In a way, I do bring them all home. You have to figure out how to handle it. It’s like a half-full/half-empty glass. I choose to emphasize the full. Sometimes people really touch me. If there’s a group I feel compelled to raise money for and feel I can help, I do that.

Wake people up to the problem, and they will help. That keeps me going. I focus on what little I can do and do it well. Both Firelight and GRACE have stringent guidelines. I give through the U.S. groups to make sure there’s monitoring and oversight.

BPGL: What can people outside of Africa can do to help?

ANDE: What you asked is a complicated question. If you’re coming from the States, you don’t know the people on the ground. But you can connect with people on the ground from Firelight, the Steven Lewis Foundation, Partners in Health, GRACE, and a few others. If you donate to those groups, you know the money will directly benefit the communities that need help.

I have a Take Action page on my website, for donations to the Firelight Foundation, GRACE, and others. It really makes a difference in kids’ lives. For example, the head of GRACE USA is Natasha Martin. She decided she would put all the orphans in a certain community through school. She’s paying for 200 orphans in primary school through college.

You can also get educated — read a book or two. You won’t get excited till you find out more about it. I put books on the bookstore page of my website that I think are written in a way to connect with people. If you’re interested in adoption, you should read There’s No Me Without You, by Melissa Fay Greene.

Or, if you have the means to travel and see it firsthand, there are ways to do that. But the experience is beyond a level of adventure a lot of people want to go through. If you go there, you will be changed.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Editor’s Note:

Blue Planet Green Living has provided AndePhotos with complimentary advertising space on our website. Please consider supporting Karen Ande’s important work by visiting her online store at Zazzle.

Save the Planet (and Money) by Living Your Values

“It doesn’t matter if you think you’re an environmentalist,” says Susan Roothaan, executive director of A Nurtured World, “your footprint isn’t proportional to your opinions and views, but to your income level. I’ve seen some conservatives with lower carbon footprints than radical leftists. People’s actions don’t always follow their opinions.”

People at all income levels can make changes to save energy and reduce their footprint.

Roothaan’s nonprofit provides workshops for both high- and low-income families, to help them reduce expenses by reducing their carbon footprints. What follows is part two of a two-part interview with Roothan, where we continue the discussion about A Nurtured World.

BPGL: The Rays of Hope project (see Renewable Energy, a Tool for Social Equity), which is under the umbrella of your 501(c)3, focuses on families with limited incomes. Are you having as great an effect with upper-income families?

ROOTHAN: The people who need to drop their footprint the most are the upper-income people, so we started with a focus on them. And it’s working.

The family living in this home reduced their footprint by 2.1 tons each year.

I’m a chemical engineer and a measurement nut. I talk to 15 percent of our workshop participants afterward to find out what they’ve done, so I have detailed knowledge of their actions. Measuring not only tells us how our programs are doing, but it also makes an impact on the workshop participant. When they see that their actions cause measurable results, it motivates more action.

BPGL: What caused you to add workshops for people in lower income groups?

ROOTHAAN: We began to work with people in lower-income groups to help them save money. There are a couple of reasons that we became excited about working with them. One is how much of a difference we’re making in their lives. For example, our partners in Meals on Wheels tell us that some of these families are forced to choose between energy and food. Our program has made it easier for them to meet their expenses.

The hope in this country is that everyone can become upper income. What A Nurtured World provides is a way to increase fulfillment without increasing your footprint. As people improve their economic position in society, we teach them how to do it in a way that adds a lot of fulfillment but not a lot of carbon footprint.

BPGL: Give an example of how that works.

Repairing duct leaks reduces home energy bills.

ROOTHAAN: One thing we work on is helping people cut back how much money they spend. When people spend money, they usually think, I’m spending $10, not I had to work x amount of time to earn the money to pay for this. We teach people to shift how they look at money, to think of it as time. We ask them, “When you spend $10 at a fast food place, how long do you have to work to earn that?”

We show people that they don’t just have to work long enough to earn $10; they also have to pay tax on the money they earn. So, if they earn $10 an hour, they really work longer than an hour to pay for the item. When you spend, you need to ask, Is it worth the time I gave for that thing?

As Vicki Robin says in Your Money or Your Life, spending is not just giving away money, it’s giving away your life energy.

BPGL: That’s an important lesson that every kid should learn.

ROOTHAAN: I agree. One of my attendees suggested we take what we teach to adults and correlate it to the school system in Texas, so we’ve started a professional development program to train teachers on how to teach their students these concepts.

BPGL: How do you translate the workshop information to something meaningful for kids?

ROOTHAAN: We took a look at the Texas state standards, which are very prescriptive, and adapted our curriculum to middle school. We kept the heart of it, but shored it up to show the connections that make it relevant to the kids.

Check the energy rating on new appliances before you buy.

We adapt the money versus time issue to kids by asking, If you buy a CD for $14, how many times do you have to mow the lawn to pay for it? And we teach this in a way that meets an algebra standard. We look at what the kids are learning and figure out an activity to connect it to.

BPGL: How widespread is your teacher-training program?

ROOTHAAN: We’re working with 6th- through 8th-grade teachers of math, science, and English. Right now we’re only in Texas, but we’ll soon be doing programs in Oklahoma and Arizona.

We’ve also started to develop a program for second-grade teachers. I’m interested in science and environment being real for people, so it’s not this environment OUT THERE, like a nature preserve, but right here, right now, where it makes a difference. When you’re little and see a picture of a bird, that picture isn’t part of you. It’s “out there”; it isn’t real to you.

In second grade, the kids learn through hands-on experience about the effort it takes to move things. So the teachers have the kids load up little trucks with something heavy, like gravel, and something light, like cotton balls. We let them push the little trucks to see which takes more effort to move. Then we take the students outside to look at real trucks and get them to think about which ones require more gas to move. We get them to see it firsthand so it becomes real to them.

BPGL: How are the school programs funded?

ROOTHAAN: We have support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has been our lifeblood in many ways. One of the first people at EPA who believed in us and saw what we could do was Joy Campbell.

Installing an attic fan can cut your home energy bills and your carbon footprint.

BPGL: It seems that what you’re doing is as much about clarifying one’s values as it is about environmentalism.

ROOTHAAN: An interesting question that we raise — primarily with middle and upper-income groups — is, “How much of what I spend goes to fulfillment versus waste? In over 1,000 people so far, we’re hearing that it’s roughly 50 percent before the workshop. This is a huge place where most environmental groups are not working.

By rethinking before we spend, and spending only for things that provide actual fulfillment, we also reduce our ecological footprint. Mathis Wakernagel and William Rees first put forth the concept of the ecological footprint in 1992. In 2003, experts calculated that the earth’s carrying capacity was about 1.8 global hectares (4.4 acres) per person. Meanwhile, the average American’s ecological footprint is about 9.6 global hectares (23.7 acres) per person for resource use and waste absorption.

BPGL: We’re very out of balance. Certainly, we all need to make changes in our lifestyles.

ROOTHAAN: The good news is that giving up a fair portion of our footprint isn’t much of a hardship for many people. If what we give up isn’t providing us with fulfillment, then giving it up is actually a freedom.

Installing the right amount of insulation is a wise investment that will lower your home energy use.

However, when you start looking at lower income groups, reducing your footprint can be a hardship, especially if it means giving up food. That’s why the Rays of Hope/One House project is so exciting. We help people lower their energy footprint so they have that extra money for food. Dropping your footprint when you can’t eat isn’t something you want to think about. Many people in lower income groups say, “Listen, I don’t want to give anything up.” Yet, for a lot of people in middle- and upper income groups, it’s freeing. If you can give up the clutter before you’re forced to, you’re ahead of the game.

BPGL: What would you say to our readers if they were in your workshop today?

ROOTHAN: I would ask each of your readers — and you — to commit to a specific change right now. So if you liked what you learned from this article, commit to and implement something to save money, drop your footprint, and improve your level of fulfillment. I encourage you all to email me with your commitment at susan.roothaan@nurturedworld.org. Make it your New Year’s resolution.

Part 1: Improve Quality of Life by Lowering Your Carbon Footprint
Part 2: Save the Planet (and Money) by Living Your Values (Top of Page)

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Related Posts:

Tailgating for a Common Green Purpose

Renewable Energy, a Tool for Social Equity

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Improve Quality of Life by Lowering Your Carbon Footprint

Of the three terms most associated with environmentalism at the consumer level — Rethink, Reuse, Recycle — the first one is probably the most overlooked. Yet, according to Susan Roothaan, founder and executive director of A Nurtured World, rethinking how we spend our money can have a huge impact on the environment. It can also increase our quality of life.

Roothaan demonstrates that reducing your carbon footprint includes simple steps, as easy as composting leftovers from a neighborhood crawfish barbecue.

It might be surprising to learn how easily the average person in an industrialized nation can make changes to reduce our carbon footprints. Want to learn how to reduce yours? Roothaan’s workshop teaches how to improve your quality of life and save money all while reducing your impact on the planet.

We talked with Roothaan from her home office in Austin, Texas, and later met her at the Bears/Packers tailgate I wrote about yesterday (see Tailgating for a Common Green Purpose). What follows is part one of a two-part series.

BPGL: Your environmental work combines ecology and economy. How did you get interested in the combination of the two?

ROOTHAAN: For 20 years, I worked to help businesses, industries, and the military reduce their waste output. They call it “pollution prevention.” You’re reducing something at its source versus cleaning up at the end. This is also being a good businessperson.

So I did a lot of thinking about how this would apply to the consumer sector. When I first started this nonprofit, consumer environmentalism was in its infancy. I realized that the model of environmentalism for the consumer is that it’s saving money. Most people think it’s just going and buying a more expensive product [to reduce energy use]. But if you’re really going to be green, it’s about being frugal — how to get more fulfillment out of fewer resources and less waste.

Then I started to think about what was the mission, or product, of an individual. One of the things we do — and this is what started A Nurtured World — we developed a workshop that caused people to fundamentally change their behavior. It caused them to look at what’s important to them, as well as how they’re spending their money.

BPGL: What do participants learn in your workshops?

ROOTHAAN: In the workshops, we teach that the top three consumer impacts on the environment are transportation, food consumption, and home energy use. If you’re going to change your behavior, it’s good to know what the big impacts are. And, according to the US Consumer Bureau Statistics, the top areas of spending are transportation, home, and eating. So, if you want to protect the environment, then be cheap.

Workshop participants checking in.

We partnered with the military and gave a series of three workshops at Fort Hood with the soldiers and their spouses. Most of the people were not environmentalists, but it was really great. We measured the results of our workshop, and the average participant is saving $1,500 per year.

On average, Americans produce about 20 tons of carbon per person per year. If you remember, a couple years ago, Sting did a concert to raise awareness and tried to get everyone to reduce their carbon footprints by a ton and a half a year. Our workshop participants each reduced their footprint by two tons per year.

BPGL: How do you get people to make such a big shift in behavior?

ROOTHAAN: A lot of the footprint reduction we see is the result of being more conscious about what you’re choosing to do and asking if it’s leading to what you really want in life. It’s all about cost vs. payoff. We look at what’s important to them. Mostly we hear them say family and religion, God, and faith. These are two areas that are really important to people.

We get them to look at how they spend their money. A lot of spending is not done consciously. We work with people to let go of things that don’t lead to fulfillment.

It’s moving to me to see the results some of these people make. I’ve heard comments like, “I’m saving $50 a month now, and I wasn’t’ saving anything before.” That kind of money makes a difference to soldiers. Another attendee remarked, “Things are much more harmonious [in my home].” She indicated that her family was finally paying off debt and had money now for family vacations.

We didn’t start with the intention to help people save money, but that really is very meaningful for people on a day-to-day basis.

BPGL: That’s interesting, to approach environmentalism through personal finances. It sounds like a very positive way to make behavioral change.

ROOTHAAN: In 2002, when I started this, we hadn’t had [Hurricane] Katrina or Al Gore’s movie. Now the consciousness is changing; people really care about the environment. But they were always pushed back by [environmental leaders] saying, “You’re bad and wrong.” There was not a lot of space for someone who had never done anything to start doing something about the environment. People may not know what to do, but the desire to do something is really strong.

Roothaan asks participants to consider their purpose, then make changes accordingly.

BPGL: So, your approach requires people to look at the way they spend money. Anything else?

ROOTHAAN: We’re hitting on three things: commitment to the environment, saving money, and having a life that’s more fulfilling. Different people are motivated by different things. If we’re teaching a higher-income person, money may not be their motivation. Their motivation might be that they want to leave a better place for their kids. Or they may decide that harming the environment is inconsistent with their faith.

BPGL: Recently, we ran an article about Rays of Hope (see Renewable Energy, a Tool for Social Equity), which is one of the projects under the umbrella of A Nurtured World. How does the Rays of Hope project tie in with your workshops?

ROOTHAAN: In Rays of Hope, we upgrade low-income homes. What we’ve done is to take ideas from the workshop and build them into the retrofit. We’re not doing just a physical retrofit, but also teaching the homeowners to make behavioral changes with information from our workshop.

My interest is in shifting behavior for all people in a way that gives them great lives. Months to years after the workshop, some of the participants have told me, “I’m spending more time with my family than I did before.” Because they’ve got their money under control, they now have more time for what matters to them.

In some cases, they realize that instead of spending their time working for the money to acquire things, then spending time maintaining those things, they’re now spending time “being” with their family. It could be that, through the workshop, they got clear on what’s most important to them: their family, not their stuff.

Part 1: Improve Quality of Life by Lowering Your Carbon Footprint (Top of Page)
Part 2: Save the Planet (and Money) by Living Your Values

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Related Posts:

Tailgating for a Common Green Purpose

Renewable Energy, a Tool for Social Equity

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Tailgating for A Common Green Purpose

Did you watch the Bears play the Packers yesterday from the warmth of your home? Maybe you were among the frozen fans braving 7-degree weather to root for your favorite team on the shores of Lake Michigan. Blue Planet Green Living was there, too, tailgating in the parking lot of the Adler Planetarium nearby.

So, go ahead, ask. What does the Bears/Packers game — and tailgating, for that matter — have to do with being green? It’s a fair question.

Our host yesterday was the Big Green Egg, the company that makes an ancient grilling system turned modern that we’ll tell more about another day. This was the kickoff filming for an upcoming television pilot featuring luminary chefs — like Dean Eliacostas from Carmichael’s Chicago Steakhouse — cooking Around the Grill in 80 Days on Big Green Egg grills. Despite the bitter weather, we kept warm and comfortable, in a beautiful motor coach provided for the video shoot by Liberty Coach.

Heading to the tailgate video shoot in frigid Chicago weather. Photo: Julia Wasson

The food was delicious — amazing, in fact — but the driver for our participation was the opportunity to meet with a few of the leaders in the green movement in the Chicago area. In coming weeks, we’ll share with you what we learned about how Chicago engineers, architects, and grassroots organizers are planning for, and implementing, progressive projects in sustainability. We think you’ll be inspired by what each of these people has to say.

Rob Rafson, environmental engineer and sustainability management consultant. Photo: Julia Wasson

We’ll introduce you to environmental engineer, Rob Rafson, of Full Circle Sustainability Management Solutions. Full Circle’s “mission is to make going green’ profitable, and show return on investment so that true sustainability is achievable.” And the company is doing just that.

Rob is responsible for the largest solar thermal rooftop installation in Chicago — at an overall cost savings. What’s more impressive, perhaps, is that the installation is part of a brownfield renovation. He’s cleaned up a formerly toxic paint manufacturing facility and created a healthy space that uses solar energy to heat the building. Joe and I recently interviewed Rafson and soon will share with you his thoughts on sustainable business practices.

Lisa and Ron Elkins, green architects, 2 Point Perspective. Photo: Julia Wasson

Green architects Lisa and Ron Elkins designed the Green Exchange, an all-green office building created by renovating a former men’s underwear factory in downtown Chicago. Their firm, 2 Point Perspective Inc., also won the competition to design a zero-energy home. We’ll be telling you more as they prepare to break ground. Like Rafson, the Elkins team is involved in multiple projects worth our attention, and we will help spread the word.

Susan Roothan, founder of A Nurtured World. Photo: Julia Wasson

We also had the privilege to meet face-to-face with Susan Roothaan, founder of A Nurtured World in Austin, Texas. Susan’s roots are in Hyde Park, where her parents still live, just two blocks from President-elect Obama’s home. On December 12, we introduced you to Rays of Hope and 1 House at a Time, projects operating under the umbrella of A Nurtured World, Roothaan’s nonprofit.

Sharon Klopner, Hyde Park grassroots activist and environmentalist. Photo: Julia Wasson

Something quite wonderful is now happening, as community organizers in Hyde Park — including Susan’s 84-year-old mother, Judy Roothaan, and neighbor Sharon Klopner — work to implement a Rays of Hope-type of project in their own neighborhood.

They will be sharing with Mr. Obama ideas about retrofitting the older homes, rather than razing them. They want funding to put solar panels on roofs, like Rays of Hope and Rafson have done. And they want to use eco-friendly materials to make these buildings energy efficient, like Rafson, the Elkins team, and Roothaan’s team are doing. Support from grants and tax incentives will be key to making this happen, and Rafson has extensive experience to share.

The interchange of ideas last night was electric. And what it showed us all was the incredible power of people working independently toward a common purpose, and how much more effective that can be when we share our knowledge and visions with each other.

Yes, even a tailgate can be an inspirational green experience. Please stay tuned to find out more about what we learned and, especially, to hear about the important work happening in Chicago. Then let us know what’s going on in your city, so we can spread the word and build the kind of synergy we were privileged to be a part of last night.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Let’s Talk Toilets

Toilets account for almost 30 percent of residential indoor water use in the United States. They’re also a major source of wasted water due to leaks and inefficiency. Unless a replacement has been installed, in a home built prior to 1993, each toilet likely uses 3 1/2 gallons — or more — for every flush.

Old-fashioned toilets use as much as 7 gallons per flush. Photo: Joe Hennager

Experts say that the minimum amount of clean water needed to meet the basic human needs of drinking, cooking and hygiene is 5 gallons per person per day. That’s far short of enough to ensure health and well-being; it’s barely enough to get by. But do we really need to flush nearly an entire day’s minimum requirement each time we go “number one”?

In the beginning of modern toilets, the 7-gallon, flushing, porcelain lavatory was the throne of choice. That was followed by the low-flush, or low-flow, toilet. Unfortunately, it often took several low-flow flushes to get the bowl clean.

As it turned out, low-flush toilets used more water than the old faithful lavatory. Enter the new and improved low-flush toilet, which was better at water conservation, but didn’t always get the job done.

In recent years, the high-efficiency toilet (HET) has arrived on the bathroom scene. Consumers now have an option to use as little as 0.8 gallons using a dual-flush toilet. The best part is that they really work.

What Are High-Efficiency Toilets?

Low flush toilets provide savings over the 7-gallon models. Photo: Julia Wasson

Under federal law, toilets sold in the United States today must not exceed 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). High-efficiency toilets (HETs) go beyond the standard, using less than 1.3 gpf. You can identify an HET by the WaterSense label it carries. These labels can only be used on HETs that are certified by independent laboratory testing to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency. The WaterSense program is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Do High Efficiency Toilets Work?

Everyone is concerned about the performance of low-flow toilets. Do they clear the bowl and leave it clean? Do they stop up frequently? Unlike the first 1.6 gallon/flush toilets, WaterSense HETs combine high efficiency with high performance. Advances in toilet design permit WaterSense HETs to save water without loss of flushing power. In fact, many perform better than standard toilets in consumer testing.

How Much Water and Money Do HETs Save?

High efficiency toilets save you money by reducing your water and wastewater costs. Over the course of a lifetime, an average person flushes the toilet nearly 140,000 times. By installing a WaterSense HET, you can save 4,000 gallons per year. Young children can each conserve about a third of a million gallons during their lifetime.

If a family of four replaces one 3.5 gpf toilet made between 1980 and 1994 with a WaterSense toilet, they can save $2,000 over the life of the toilet. If the toilet being replaced was made before 1980, it uses 5 gallons per flush, so the savings will be much greater.

A high-efficiency toilet saves water and money. Photo: Caroma

With these savings, new high-efficiency toilets can pay for themselves in only a few years. Even better, many local utilities offer substantial rebates for replacing old toilets with HETs. Rebates for high-efficiency toilets are available in many US states and Canadian provinces.

What are Dual Flush Toilets?

Dual flush toilets use 0.8 gallons per flush for liquid waste and 1.6 gallons per flush for solids. They can save up to 40% (approx. 4,600 gallons) compared to today’s standard 1.6-gallon, single-flush toilets. On an average of 4/1 uses a day, dual-flush toilets have the lowest water consumption of all: 0.96 gallons per flush.

Beware of some products that reduce the amount of water flushed in an existing toilet. Existing bowls are not designed to perform with reduced amounts of water, so the likelihood of clogging your toilet while you are trying to flush paper and solid waste increases drastically.

Select a WaterSense-Labeled, High-Efficiency Toilet

Whether you’re remodeling a bathroom, beginning construction of a new house, or just want to replace an old, inefficient toilet, a WaterSense-labeled HET is your best bet. Look for the WaterSense label on any toilet you buy.

Look for the EPA WaterSense logo on high-efficiency toilets.

Note that some manufacturers offer high-efficiency and regular-style models with very similar names, so be sure to look for the WaterSense label. A list of WaterSense-labeled high-efficiency toilets and other plumbing products is provided by the EPA.

If every home in the United States replaced just one old toilet with a new HET, we would conserve almost one trillion (spelled with a T) gallons of water per year. That’s equal to more than two weeks of the water flowing over Niagara Falls.

Andrea Paulinelli

Contributing Writer

Blue Planet Green Living

The “Green-Clean Challenge” Begins

Some old friends called us while driving through Iowa. Could they stop and visit? “Sure,” we said. “Love to have you.” We hung up the phone, scanned the house, and looked at each other in a bit of panic. We had thirty minutes, tops, before they would be at our door.

“If you attack the bathroom,” Julia said. “I’ll handle the kitchen.”

Tools of chemical warfare under the sink. Photo: Julia Wasson

“No problem.” I collected all my weapons: broom, dustpan, brush, mop, bucket, and rags. I felt like a soldier going off to war. Next I gathered my ammunition — the bottles of spray cleaners and disinfectants that would make me an army of one against a very nasty tub and the “toilet from hell.”

This is easy, I thought. I’ll just let those little scrubbing bubbles do all the work. I sprayed down the tub and shower walls with one solution, squirted a thick blue liquid around inside the rim of the toilet bowl, sprayed another blue liquid onto the mirrors, and topped it all off with some foamy white stuff on the sink. While they were soaking away the dirt to make my job easier, I closed the bathroom door to sweep.

I almost didn’t get out alive. My eyes began to water, and my throat began to swell. My chest hurt. I began to feel faint. Was I having a heart attack?

Gasping for air, I yanked open the bathroom door and plopped down in the hallway. It only took a few minutes to recover, but the scare stayed with me.

After our guests had come and gone, I decided to do some research. What I found was that the chemicals in my cleaners had almost done me in. I had carelessly mixed an ammonia-based cleaner with another that contained bleach.

Granted, I shouldn’t have mixed them, but this army of one had not been trained in chemical warfare. According to the Washington Toxics Coalition, the most dangerous chemicals in the world are right under our sinks. They include corrosive drain cleaners, oven cleaners, and acidic toilet-bowl cleaners.

Does fighting germs require harsh chemicals? Photo: Julia Wasson

I read on. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in oven, carpet, and other cleaners containing Toluene, Nitrobenzene, Chloride, Methylene, and Ethylene glycol have been shown to cause asthma, cancer, skin rashes, permanent eye damage, and serious long-term organ damage. I decided it was time for a change.

So I began searching for cleaners that advertised themselves as “organic,” “green,” “natural,” or “eco-friendly.” I’ve been collecting homemade recipes, too. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be testing them all. You’ll get my honest opinions about the products I try. I’m calling it the “Green-Clean Challenge.” Let’s find out together how well the green cleaners really work. Can they do the job as effectively as their chemical-laden rivals? Can they clean our bowls and bathtubs without cleaning our clocks?

If you have suggestions for non-toxic cleaning products you trust, please let me know. Let’s open a dialog about how to clean our homes without harming the environment — or ourselves. Share your tips for a healthy home. If we try them and like them, we’ll publish them. Write to me at joe@blueplanetgreenliving.com.

Gotta run. It’s my turn to clean the kitchen.

Joe Hennager

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Don’t Give More, Give Better

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” — Will Rogers

During the nineteenth century, merchants began encouraging a greater focus on holiday gift-giving because, of course, it fostered gift buying. Two centuries later, we are confronted with holidays overwhelmed by consumerism. According to Grist magazine, “Nearly a quarter of all retail goods move out of stores and into homes between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and, we suspect, often into landfills by January).”

For many people, holiday shopping means dealing with the stress of crowds.

Not only do we overspend, we also deplete our time and energy negotiating traffic and crowds, wrapping countless presents, and fretting over questions such as, Did I get more for Betty than I did for Bill? All the stress and anxiety of shopping, combined with other struggles that holidays often bring, leave many of us secretly wishing it were January already.

Whether all this consumption makes for a better life is questionable. Compared to much of the world, most Americans have far beyond what is necessary to meet our basic needs. More stuff means a need for more storage, plus time to clean, maintain, repair, and organize it all, not to mention the stress that such heavy consumption puts on environmental resources and geopolitics.

How can we maintain open and generous hearts, giving gifts that show true appreciation for the receiver without running ourselves ragged and breaking the bank? Can we somehow reclaim the spirit of the holidays, simplifying gift-giving without turning into Ebenezer Scrooge?

A MENTAL REBOOT

Here are a few tips for getting started down the road to more meaningful holidays:

Recall holidays past. Our fondest recollections usually revolve around warm connections with friends and family. Look for ways to foster such experiences this year, rather than the picture-perfect, consumer-driven holidays pushed by Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Connect with your family to relive old memories and make new ones.

Celebrate your values. Don’t simply change your old holiday habits; replace them with new ones that are richer and more fulfilling. What is important to you about the holidays? How can you make space and time to celebrate those values? Create new holiday traditions or emphasize existing ones you find meaningful.

Explore your connection to stuff. Advertisers target our desire for happiness, youth, success, luxury, status, convenience, and beauty. Will the item you are purchasing actually deliver any of these things for the eventual owner? Opt only for gifts that are truly meaningful.

Avoid advertising. Recycle catalogs and newspaper fliers as soon as they arrive, turn off the television, and stay away from the sparkle of large shopping centers and department stores.

Let value be determined by the thoughtfulness behind a gift, not the price tag. Memorable gifts usually require more thought than money. Shop for presents with the interests of the receiver in mind. A gardener might enjoy a gift basket of seeds and bulbs for spring planting. Cooks will appreciate a collection of unusual spices with tasty recipes to match.

Avoid tit-for-tat gift giving. You don’t necessarily have to give a gift to someone just because he or she gave one to you. A sincere thank-you will often suffice.

Increase altruistic giving. Open-handed giving to causes we care about, without expecting anything in return, can transform our relationship to material wealth. In the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals, many advocacy groups encourage individuals to give 0.7% of their income toward charities that target extreme poverty. You can also give your time: “Buy Nothing Christmas,” a national initiative of the Canadian Mennonites that seeks to revive the original meaning of holiday giving, recommends donating one hour to charity for every $20 you spend.

Gifts are fine, but it's the time you spend together that makes memories to last a lifetime.

Don’t give things as substitutes for time or to assuage guilt. In the words of Lennon and McCartney, “Money can’t buy me love.” Even the most expensive or thoughtful gift is no substitute for your time and attention.

Explain your decision to friends and family. Be upfront, yet positive. Let your loved ones know that you won’t be taking the usual consumerism track this season, not because you are a cheapskate and don’t care about them, but because you want the holidays to be richer and more meaningful. Be prepared for surprised reactions, or worse.

Be courageous. It is more difficult to lead than to follow. Part of the pressure to consume is the idea that “Everybody else is doing it,” and swimming against such a powerful tide isn’t always easy. Some people in your life may feel threatened by your decision not to go along with the status quo. Avoid coming across as self-righteous, and instead offer alternative ways to show you value the person. Though you may meet resistance, many will secretly envy your new-found freedom, and you will probably find more family and friends following your lead next year.

GUILT-FREE GIFT IDEAS

Here are a few ideas for meaningful and conscientious gifts that won’t leave you in debt until spring:

• Donate to charity in the name of a loved one. Honor the recipient while also doing your part to create a better world. Many relief and development organizations, such as Heifer International and OxFam, offer ways to donate items needed in developing countries (farm animals, mosquito nets, etc.) through alternative gift catalogs.

• Give coupons. People love to receive free babysitting, household and lawn chores, car washes, a homemade dinner, and so on. Share a useful talent or skill, such as financial planning, resume consulting, or web design. Volunteer to take the recipient on an adventure — a camping, fishing, or canoeing trip.

Children can create their own gifts.

• Create something. Anyone can collect family photos, memorabilia, stories, anecdotes, aphorisms, or recipes for a simple album or scrapbook. You don’t need to get too crafty; it’s the content they will cherish. Digital versions also will be greatly appreciated, as would a “greatest hits” arrangement of old family video footage. For children and grandchildren, create a book describing games you played as a child, or write and illustrate a book with the child as a main character. Of course, traditional holiday baking is always popular.

• Hand down family heirlooms. Why wait until you die to pass along Grandma’s quilt or Dad’s old fishing pole? Let your heirs begin enjoying these precious items now. You’ll also have the benefit of decreasing the number of things needing storage around your own house.

Give an experience, such as a concert, play, or ball game.

• Go green. Look for recycled or recyclable content, and opt for items with minimal packaging.

• Look for gifts that create little clutter or waste. Gifts that won’t end up in a corner somewhere include tickets to plays, concerts, sporting events, amusement parks, or ski areas; gift certificates to a favorite local restaurant; movie and ice-rink passes; museum memberships; spa packages; frequent flier miles; and membership to a nonprofit organization the person cares about.

• Buy durable gifts. These items can be used over again, can be easily repaired, and won’t quickly wear out, become obsolete, or go out of style. Examples include well-made furniture, tools, and clothing in classic styles.

• Use alternative shopping resources. Seek out alternative gift fairs and fairly traded world markets, such as Ten Thousand Villages. Give fair-trade agricultural products, such as coffees and teas.

• Don’t overlook vintage. Antique and consignment shops are a great source of unique items.

Plant a tree together and watch it grow.

• Give a seedling that you can transplant together in the spring. Choose a fast-growing tree and watch it develop.

• Re-gift it. If you have an item you can’t use but that others may value, consider re-gifting — but only if you can avoid offending either the receiver or the previous gift-giver.

• Opt out of gift exchanges at work. Suggest that your workplace adopt a needy family in the community or contribute to a charitable organization instead.

This holiday season, we can choose not to step into a flurry of shopping and spending that leaves us physically, mentally, and financially drained. By purchasing fewer, but more thoughtful gifts, we save not only money but time, freeing ourselves to connect more deeply with loved ones and celebrate the meaning behind the cultural traditions we hold dear.

Keep the joy of the season by focusing on what's most important: the ones you love.

We can also contribute to a more just and sustainable world by adjusting our shopping habits in a few simple, but significant, ways. We might even find that more meaningful holidays give us new energy, propelling us through the rest of winter — exactly as they were meant to do all along.

Karen Nichols

Contributing Writer

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)

Organic Farming Yields the Finest Wines

Walk through the garden gate at C. Donatiello Winery, and aromas of raspberries, peaches, and fragrant flowers waft to your nose. Take your time. Stroll along, sipping from a glass of Maddie’s Vineyard Pinot Noir, made with organic grapes grown nearby. Savor the experience. You’ll soon understand why owner Chris Donatiello treats the land and the grapes in his vineyards with the care of a loving parent.

We interviewed Donatiello from his office near Healdsburg, California. We wanted to learn about the sustainable and organic farming practices that are integral to the production of C. Donatiello’s fine wines.

BPGL: How do you differentiate your winery from anything else in the Russian River Valley?

Entrance to C. Donatiello's Aroma Garden

DONATIELLO: There are two parts of who we are. Actually neither of them is about being “green” and “organic”; that’s something we do because it’s important to us, and we think it helps make better wine. From a wine profile perspective, we want the wines to show where they’re coming from.

The Russian River Valley is a special place with a lot of varied areas, different soils and vegetation; there’s no point in making a single vineyard if it doesn’t show the valley’s diversity. We look for balanced wines, food-friendly wines. From a wine-making and taste-profile perspective, that’s what’s important. The second part is that when people come here and picnic, we want them to feel our hospitality. We want them to stay as long as they want, to go to our garden and pick raspberries and peaches. Hospitality is a large part of what we do.

BPGL: What are you doing to be organic and natural?

DONATIELLO: It’s more what we’re not doing. We’re not putting Roundup on our fields. We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides that are not organic. We use a lot of organic oils to discourage insects. We’re not using rat poison. You may kill the rat, but then the cat that eats the rat dies, and then the vulture that eats the cat dies. It keeps going and going and going. It’s not healthy for the environment. As much as what we are doing, we pay attention to what we’re not doing. That’s a big component of our CCOF certified organic vineyards.

BPGL: So, are C. Donatiello wines considered “organic wines?”

DONATIELLO: There’s a difference between organically farmed grapes and organic wine. Organic wine requires organic grapes, but you can have organic grapes without making organic wine. It comes down to a winemaking decision. It’s more important from a global, environmental perspective to grow organic grapes. And from a taste perspective, it’s also important. If you don’t take care of the grape on the vine, in process, or in the barrel or the bottle, it will affect the taste of the wine.

Two offerings from C. Donatiello wines

None of our wines are technically “organic,” but we use organically grown grapes. Because there are sulfides used in the winery process, we can’t say the wine is organic. For example, Maddie’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is made with certified organic grapes. Even though we can’t advertise it as “organic wine,” using organically grown grapes to make it is important to us — and it improves the wine. Our Bradford Mountain Grist Vineyard Zinfandel and Syrah are also made from organically grown grapes.

BPGL: You mentioned that your vineyards are sustainably farmed. What does that mean in terms of how you tend the land and care for the grapes?

DONATIELLO: It means we’re tending the vineyards in a way that they aren’t going to run out of nutrients and harm the environment. Whatever we take out, we’re going to put back in. It’s not like in the past; when it got to the point that there weren’t enough nutrients, you moved to the next spot. We saw that before farmers started rotating crops. That’s not great for the environment, and not what we want to do. This land is here for a long time and it will continue to provide for us; we need to provide for it. We want to make sure the fertilizers we use and the cover crops we grow will improve the land. That’s not just for the grape vines, but for the land itself.

BPGL: What extra effort does it take to organically farm grapes?

DONATIELLO: The extra effort isn’t substantial. Some of the things we use to be certified organic — such as organic oils for pest control — cost a little more, but it shows. Whatever you do to the earth, it shows through. That’s especially true with the Pinot Noir grape; it makes such a light elegant wine. We choose our cover crops carefully and want to be as green as possible. We take about 8 to 10 tons off the land each year, and we plant about that much cover crop — New Zealand clover to peas, to yellow and white mustard. We plant between the vines, so that makes a home for the insects. We plant in October, and it grows through the winter. Then it decomposes and adds nutrients to the soil. It’s good for the earth.

Overlooking C. Donatiello Winery

BPGL: You mentioned earlier that you plant cover crops partly for the insects. Explain what you mean by that.

DONATIELLO: We plant certain crops to attract beneficial bugs, whether it’s the worms that are helping to aerate the ground or spiders. We love spiders! They spin their webs and catch the smaller insects that otherwise would be trying to feed off the grapevines. We’re in a pretty rural area, and we attract everything from field mice to spiders. We’ll be bringing in bees in another month or two. We don’t need bees for the grapes, as they’re self-pollinating; we want them for the garden. And we’ll sell the honey in the tasting room. We have the space and the facility to do it; it’s beneficial to us and to them, so why not do our part?

BPGL: Are most vineyards in your area using sustainable farming methods?

Rich, juicy grapes await harvesting at C. Donatiello

DONATIELLO: A lot of the vineyards are farmed sustainably. And, if they’re not fully sustainable, they’re working toward it. Vineyard owners tend to have a keen understanding of the need to take care of the environment and balance that with actually doing business. If you’re a vineyard owner and have a serious infestation, you might break down and use pesticides. That doesn’t mean you’re not looking after your grapes in every other way. But you need those grapes to pay the bills. I can’t blame someone who does use a pesticide to treat an infestation. All grape growers care about the environment. They want to see it maintained so generations to come can partake in their profession and not worry about what the generations before did.

BPGL: Is the drought affecting your wines?

DONATIELLO: Not really. The drought has become a problem for a lot of people, and we do need some rain. But we put very little water on the vines. We don’t dry farm, but we come pretty close. We want to stress the vines a little. We can always buy water if we need to. We have enough to grow good grapes. What we need it for is cleaning, sterilizing, and processing when we’re making the wine.

BPGL: I’ve been told that the best wines are produced when you stress the grapes. Is that consistent with your experience?

DONATIELLO: I think that’s especially true when you’re talking about some of the Italian or Bordeaux varietals. But the Pinot Noir is a very delicate grape. I say this all the time, “Pinot remembers everything you do to it, and holds a grudge.” It’s one of the reasons why some of our vineyards are organic, and the rest are sustainably farmed.

BPGL: You talk about wine like it has a human personality.

DONATIELLO: Each wine has its own character. We have expectations for our wines, just as I do for my daughter. I have an understanding of my wines, just as I do of my daughter. I watch them evolve from grape to wine to aged wine. They change and grow. There’s a parallel for sure.

Julia Wasson

Blue Planet Green Living (Home Page)