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For family and friends who have it all, share the bounty of the Northwest

For family and friends who have it all, share the bounty of the Northwest

Yvonne and Josh are a creative duo who love to make things inspired by the Northwest seasonal harvests. Instead of purchasing items for friends and family, many who live outside of Oregon, they give batches of homemade goodies that show off the bounty of the seasons – and find a place in their hearts and stomachs! 

Josh and Yvonne treat family and friends with their holiday creations.

Josh and Yvonne treat family and friends with their holiday creations.

Shop local for food and supplies

For their marionberry jam, they plan ahead in the summer when the berry bounty is plentiful and either buy berries at their neighborhood Montavilla Farmers Market, or they pick berries at Sauvie Island Farms. (Both the market and farm offer winter hours too.) 

Josh brews beer and roasts his own coffee. He uses old air pop popcorn makers from thrift stores for roasting coffee and buys other coffee supplies from local store Mr. Green Beans.

Yvonne bakes cookies and candies, like hazelnut toffee, that she gifts in holiday tins. She purchases tins for toffee and canning jars for jam from local thrift stores and takes them back from friends when they are empty to reuse them year after year. They also purchase food preservation equipment for the jam from small businesses like Mirador Community Store.

While their loved ones get bountiful, consumable gifts, Yvonne and Josh get the satisfaction of working together to make delicious, low-waste creations.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to DIY, you can still get the most of Portland offerings by shopping local at one of the many artisan events. The Resourceful PDX event calendar lists holiday happenings.


Find gift ideas for other hard-to-buy-for people in your life in our resourceful holiday series. #holiday

6 tips to enjoy your holidays even more

The holiday season has arrived!

With a little planning, you can have more fun during the holidays, with less waste and less stress. 

1. Start with your values

Spend a little time coming up with a few words or draw a picture that represents your values (especially what you value during the holidays). Consider involving others in the family to help. Use your values as a guide to determining your holiday activities. Some of my values include relaxed time with family and keeping family traditions going from when I was a kid (like going to cut down a tree).

A new resource to simplify the holidays from The Center for a New American Dream includes an interactive calendar to help focus on what matters most during this time of year. There are tips and ideas about planning, budgeting, giving and receiving, reducing waste, meaningful moments and entertaining.

2. Make your to-do lists

Make a list of all the events or projects you want – or feel you need – to get done this holiday season. Consider making separate lists for each holiday. Start by listing each project/event and then list all the activities you need to do for each one. Don’t forget to include what you’ll need to do for preparation, the actual event/project and clean-up. For example, the activity “Christmas Dinner” could include activities like sending out invitations, choosing recipes, buying food, preparing food, decorating, cleaning up and putting away dishes and decorations.

3. Assign your time

Once you’ve created your list, assign the amount of time you think each activity will consume. Be realistic when assigning time to each activity and add some extra time. If you’re not sure, give it your best guess – it doesn’t have to be perfect. The important part is realizing that everything takes time to complete.

4. Revisit your values

After you have your list of activities and the amount of time each one should take, revisit your key values to make sure your activities align with them. Consider filtering out activities that don’t match up with your key values, or adding activities focused on downtime, relaxation and fun.

5. Create your calendar and revisit it regularly

Schedule your list of activities on your calendar. Scheduling your activities ensures you are creating space to get them done. As we all know, things will change and you might need to add, remove or change activities. By allowing for some buffer, you’ll have space to be flexible as things change.

6. Delegate

Consider which activities you can delegate. Have a teenager in your life (son, daughter, niece, nephew or neighbor) that loves to wrap? Let him or her take on some of the present wrapping. It gives others a chance to contribute and feel involved with the festivities and play to their strengths. It also allows us to share some gratitude with those that make these holidays worth enjoying.

 

Casey Hazlett Photo (2).jpg

Casey Hazlett of Sustainably Organized shares her tips on how to get ready for the holiday season.

Find gift ideas for other hard-to-buy-for people in your life in our resourceful holiday series. #holiday

Local, reused and fun gift ideas for kids who like to unwrap presents

Local, reused and fun gift ideas for kids who like to unwrap presents

Peggy and Rick from Southeast Portland have two sons, ages 8 and 12. Naturally, their sons enjoy the surprise of unwrapping holiday gifts (what kid doesn’t like the thrill of tearing off wrapping paper?), but they also want to avoid the excess stuff and the waste that often comes with the holidays. So they get creative in selecting new and reused gifts, and make the whole gift opening experience into a family game, too.

Peggy and Rick first buy something the kids need, like a new or used baseball mitt, and something else fun, like a used Lego set. The boys also like getting “experience” gifts, like a day at the batting cages or the movies.

Last year there was only one big gift for the whole family: a trip to Disneyland that the boys had been asking for all year. They gave the boys clues to find around the house that led them to the final note that they were going on their big trip. Even with smaller gifts of experiences or stuff, making a game of finding the gifts adds fun for the whole family that they all look forward to year after year.

Need local resources for shopping for kids?

Resourceful PDX partner, Chinook Book, has gift ideas based on the book’s categories and businesses. Using the coupons in the book this time of year can help you support local business and save money too.

Little Boxes, Portland’s answer to Black Friday (and Small Business Saturday), has loads of toy and games shops listed for specials throughout the holiday season. Here are just a few participating businesses:

Child's Play Toys – 2305 NW Kearney St.

Cloud Cap Games – 1226 SE Lexington St.

Finnegan's Toys & Gifts – 820 SW Washington St.

Kids at Heart Toys – 3445 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

SpielWerk Toys – 3808 N Williams Ave. #121

Thinker Toys – 7784 SW Capitol Hwy.

Find lots of gift ideas for treating the kids to a special event or activity at pdxkidscalendar.com.

And if you’re wondering where to get those used Lego sets, check out Bricks and Minifigs in Beaverton, where you can buy, sell or trade Lego products.

Find gift ideas for other hard-to-buy-for people in your life in our resourceful holiday series. #holiday

Sustainable resources abound in Chinook Book's 15th Anniversary edition

Sustainable resources abound in Chinook Book's 15th Anniversary edition

Carrie Treadwell, from Be Resourceful partner Chinook Book, shares highlights from the latest edition of the local coupon resource.

Chinook Book highlights local, sustainable businesses with a belief that businesses that give back also thrive in the community. The Chinook Book team spends time thinking about businesses and their industries and the approach and criteria with which they appear in the book.

Significant updates and improvements are part of our annual print and mobile editions to help celebrate our proud 15-year history in Portland. You'll find more coupons than ever before, exciting new merchants and enhanced app navigation.

The newly updated map (page 390 in the print edition) highlights resources that are part of the Be Resourceful program:

  • Places to borrow, share and swap like the tool libraries and kitchen shares and the swap and play spaces.
  • Places to go for used art supplies, building materials and clothing.
  • And much more!

You’ll also find a plethora of information and resources for local food, including Portland’s farmers markets, as well as many local businesses that are in line with resourceful living. Look for coupons and tips for bike shops, consignment and thrift stores, hardware stores, and even car sharing opportunities.”

Tap into savings by using both the print book and mobile app, available at local retailers and through school and nonprofit fundraisers. 

Look for Green Spots at Sunday Parkways in North Portland on June 22

Look for Green Spots at Sunday Parkways in North Portland on June 22

Sunday Parkways takes place this weekend in North Portland, with Green Spots popping up along the route to show sustainable community features that nurture healthy, connected neighborhoods.

The list of Green Spots include:

  • June Key Delta Community Center (N Ainsworth Ave and Albina Ave)
  • Harper’s Playground at Arbor Lodge Park (N Delaware Ave and Bryant St)
  • North Portland Tool Library at the Historic Kenton Firehouse (Green Spot is at N Delaware Ave and Schofi­eld St; Tool Library is one block east at N Brandon Ave)
  • New Columbia at McCoy Park (N Trenton Ave and Fiske Ave)
  • Transportation Safety (N Willamette Blvd and Rosa Parks Way)

Be Resourceful is partnering with Green Spot at the North Portland Tool Library at the Historic Kenton Firehouse near Kenton Park. At the Green Spot, Sunday Parkways attendees can learn how to borrow tools from the tool library, get help repairing broken items at Repair Cafés, and share favorite community resources on the Be Resourceful map.

The Kenton Firehouse itself also has shared space available to rent for gatherings of many sizes, and also hosts community events. The space offers a variety of ways to extend the life of the things that you need, meet neighbors and learn about the sharing community.

North Portland Sunday Parkways is Sunday, June 22, 2014, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. The route takes you on a tour along the scenic Willamette Boulevard, and then you can glide towards Peninsula, Arbor Lodge, Kenton, Columbia Annex and McCoy parks to enjoy an array of activities, food, music, vendors and fun.

Be Resourceful with Sunday Parkways in East Portland on May 11

Be Resourceful with Sunday Parkways in East Portland on May 11

This weekend, the first of five Sunday Parkways will take place in East Portland, where walking, biking, rolling or dancing along the route is encouraged!

East Sunday Parkways is Sunday, May 11, 2014, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. The seven mile route takes you on a tour of East Portland where you can stop by Glenwood, Bloomington, and Ed Benedict parks for food, vendors, music and more.

Sunday Parkways promotes healthy, active living through a series of free events opening the city's largest public space – its streets – to walk, bike, roll and discover active transportation. This event fosters civic pride, stimulates economic development, and shows off the community, business, and government investments that all contribute to Portland's vitality, livability and diversity. 

Be Resourceful will have a booth at the event in Bloomington Park where you can learn more about resourceful living and share community resources. Where do you go to reuse, borrow, share, rent, and fix in your neighborhood? Are there places in East Portland you want others to know about?

Here are just a few of the many places in East Portland to Be Resourceful!

 Celebrate Mother’s Day and join the fun at this family-friendly event this weekend! 

Community Supported Agriculture connects you to fresh food direct from local farmers

Community Supported Agriculture connects you to fresh food direct from local farmers

What gives you the convenience of fresh food delivered to your neighborhood, the ability to try new produce varieties that are grown for our region, supports the local economy, helps protect farmland and allows you to get to know local farmers? A CSA!

What is a CSA?

Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a way to eat fresh, local food through building a relationship between a farmer and member of the community. In a CSA, households become “shareholders” or “subscribers” and provide the financial support for the season’s farming by purchasing a share of the harvest or becoming a member of the farm. Once harvesting begins, shareholders typically receive weekly shares of seasonal vegetables. Some farms also include fruit, eggs, dairy, meat and poultry. Others offer extras like flowers or honey.

How does it work?

There are many CSAs in our region. Each farm is unique and may have slightly different harvest seasons, share sizes and prices. Some farms are certified organic and some follow sustainable practices but are not certified.

Share prices vary by share size and the number of weeks in the farm’s season (often late May or June through October, though some farms specialize in year round or just winter shares). Farm websites detail what they plan to grow for a season. Most farms have systems for paying in installments rather than one lump sum and some take Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. 

Once you’ve found your farm and the season begins, each week you pick up your vegetables. Different farms have different delivery methods. Some ask you to come to the farm to pick up your share (a good way to introduce kids to where food comes from), others drop off vegetables in boxes or bags at different sites around Portland, and a few will deliver to your door. To help you get the most out of your vegetables, farmers also include newsletters and recipes.

How to participate

If you want to join over 7,000 Portland-area households that are participating in a CSA farm, here’s how to get started: 

Determine if joining a CSA is right for you and your family. Do you like cooking? Vegetables? Trying new foods? Do you feel like you want to eat more vegetables but aren’t sure how to get started? If you answered yes to any of these questions, a CSA share might be a good fit.

Find the farm that works for you. A new map details CSA farm drop-off points in Portland and makes it easy for hungry (and busy) shoppers to search for farmers who deliver fresh, locally grown food to specific neighborhoods. Join a farm by contacting the farm that interests you to learn about participation and everything that entails. Pick up and enjoy your season of local food!