Going Green

The concept of going green has been seeping into my psyche for quite some time now. Long before the price of gas stirred up thoughts of alternate transportation, I have met with more ideas of being organic than this city girl could ever have imagined. I think it was the Strawberry Festival at Cedar Circle Farm last summer that first charmed me. Or, it could have been attributed to being on vacation with the granola-eating Dangla's from Wellesley, who always cause me to fall into my eco-conscious recycling persona. On that trip, Vermont herself opened my eyes to a more local way of life, one where people live off the land around them, and consider foods from New York imported.

I realize now that Anna Maria Island was part of the change in me as well. She is a 7.5 mile long island on Florida's Gulf coast where Old Florida is still in tact. With a 3-story building limit, mom & pop beach hotels and 3 fishing piers, every time I visit I feel more authentically Florida. 

One of my dream vacations is to stay in a rustic farmhouse on the 1100-acre organic agricultural estate in central Tuscany named Spannocchia. This self-sustaining property has hiking paths, gardens, farm animals, and eight centuries of rural history. The photography on their website has caused me to dream of eating pizza topped with fresh herbs (I picked) in the courtyard with dozens of guests at long rustic tables and drinking wines made on the estate. These aspirations to be more authentic has led me to appreciate those in our country that assert to blend tradition with innovation, nature with progress.

My summer trip to Maine will take me to experience Primo in Rockland. Again traveling with the Bostonians, we will bike, hike and eat our way along the coast, all the while getting back to nature. The Misses Dangler who is, might I say, more in line with my snobby side has discovered this restaurant and made us reservations. Co-owners Melissa Kelly and Price Kushner have created a world class restaurant inside a Victorian house in coastal Maine using organic, sustainable ingredients from their own 4-acre garden. Now this is what I call Organic Chic!

After drooling over the mouth-watering photography on the Primo site with the gang at the office, our new hire and Kentucky gal Jessica shared a link to No. 9 Park in Boston. Another chez elegant, yet environmentally-friendly, fine dining establishment Jess splurged on for her birthday. On their site, they've dedicated an entire page to the butter of a cow named Hopi, who lives on an organic farm in Orwell, Vermont. For you tourism folks out there, this is a phenomenon that is here to stay. Get your minds thinking of Eco-Tourism, because this is not a fad!

Don't dismay, my city friends, I am still the Yankees-loving, sassy-mouthed, Starbuck's drinking, 5th Avenue shopping, 21st century girl you all know and love. But I am suddenly aware of a new desire to live more authentically, eat more seasonally and consume more sustainably. And, for some strange reason, to know the name of the cow that made my butter. It makes me feel more… connected.

Dan and the girls heading for the strawberry fields

Hannah D and my niece Katie are totally into all this

Taryn, her fake Prada bag and cell phone not so much

The men admiring the endive

Elliot in his Bling Bling T-shirt

Hopi, is that you?