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A picture (or in this case, a scan) is worth a thousand file folders...

This winter I finished a project I started in June of 2010 and posted what I thought was this innocuous little picture of what is left of my paper-based filling system–a tiny set of file drawers that fits next to my desk and is small enough to fit in a suitcase–on Facebook. It set off a lively discussion that continued right into the next morning at school drop-off and I realized that a blog post was in order. It’s a sad fact of life that expat life, no matter how amazing, is unpredictable. And moving your entire life to a new country is never easy. It’s even more difficult, however, when your filing system resembles the Library of Congress in size and complexity.

Last year I wrote about decluttering your child’s artwork and about the huge purge we did in anticipation of our international move, but now I want to focus specifically on how I moved my filing to a paperless system.

1. Choose your tool
2. Start with the present
3. Purge & scan
4. Maintenance Tips

Step 1: Choose your tool
The first step in this adventure is choosing your tools: an electronic filing system and a scanner. As an expat, my local bank, my mortgage lender, my retirement accounts, my insurance, and basically any filing-worthy paper-producing institution in my life are all located 7-10 time zones away. That means I need to be able to get to the details I need quickly and easily whether they’re on paper or stored electronically because I can’t just pop in to the local banking center and ask a question.

Because ease of access from multiple locations and search capability was important to me, and because I didn’t mind paying $5US a month for the convenience of basically unlimited uploads while I was converting my files (you can upload 40MB per month free of charge), I opted for Evernote. Evernote saves documents to your account in the cloud, and also has a mobile app, so I can access my files from any computer world-wide. In the absence of a computer, I can pull details up from anywhere there is a mobile signal. The latest version even includes a Kindle Fire app.

It is certainly not the only option. If you have any sort of storage out there in the cloud, and have access to a scanner, you can create your own virtual filing system. You could probably do it fairly easily in Gmail and then take advantage of Google’s savvy search engine for locating your documents. Other Evernote competitors include Memonic, Microsoft’s One Note and UberNote. I have not personally used any of these, but they all offer fairly detailed FAQs and demos if you have a particular reason that you don’t want to use Evernote.

I have used a combination of my camera (for odd-sized documents) and the inexpensive scanner built into my printer (an HP OfficeJet) to move my files to electronic format. Nothing fancy, just quick and easy-to-use.

Step 2: Start with the present
When I started this project, I had a five-drawer filing cabinet that was stuffed full of files, as well as several file boxes and an additional couple of cardboard boxes filled with our taxes, school transcripts, and mementos. Instead of accumulating additional filing while I was dealing with the huge back-log, I started with present day. It not only allowed me to tackle the archive in chunks as time allowed, but gave me time to familiarize myself with the tool, to think about what tags and categories I wanted for my filing.

If you’re used to shoving opened mail into a pile and then filing it away once a week (or, let’s be honest here, once a month or once a quarter!), you’ll need to do a little retraining. I will admit that I don’t always open my mail daily, but when I do, I have a decision tree:

• Do I need to do something with this (pay a bill, fill out paperwork, etc.)? If yes, do it right now. Don’t leave it for later. It will get lost in the shuffle and create clutter.
• If I don’t need to do anything with it, do I need to keep it? If yes, do it right now (see the pattern here?!).
• If I don’t need to keep it, or if I’ve scanned it in to Evernote, it goes straight in the recycling with the envelope. Clutter averted!

Remembering to keep on top of the filing is an on-going process. My desk is not always clutter-free, but it’s getting better all the time.

Step 3: Purge & scan
Step three is scanning and purging that giant back-log. My parents were of the “keep it forever” variety when it came to financial statements. I’m pretty sure my Mom has every credit card statement she’s ever gotten in her filing cabinets somewhere. When they retired to Florida and sent me their old dining room set in 2000, they sent me the original receipts for the furniture from 1985!!!!

Since we seem to move every 2-3 years, that style of filing just wasn’t going to work for me. Now, not only have I scanned in that whole backlog, but I have carefully chosen what to keep and what to dump. Here’s a sample of items I used to keep that I no longer do:

• Monthly statements from the insurance company. Now I only keep the most recent copy of the policy and recycle the rest. And by “keep,” I mean scan, upload to Evernote, and recycle.
• Credit card statements, bank statements, investment statements–I have opted for online statements when possible and have verified that I can get access to old account details on the provider’s web site if they’re needed in the future.

There’s a lot of stuff that I think got lost in my labyrinthine filing system before that I make sure I hang on to (electronically) now:

• Receipts and warranties for large purchases
• Test results and other medical records
• Donation receipts and other tax-deductible expenses

This step is absolutely the most daunting and it’s very easy to accidentally sabotage yourself by biting off more than you can chew. I recommend breaking it down into the smallest, most manageable pieces possible so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t pull out a whole drawer and try to tackle it in an afternoon. Pull out a single folder (or if your folders resemble MegaFolders with lots of smaller parcels of documents contained within them, choose a single manageable stack from a single folder and start there). Evaluate each piece based on the decision tree in Step 2. Scan in what needs to be scanned and immediately recycle the rest.

If you know there are whole folders in there that you don’t need, purge those first. It will give you a feeling of success and accomplishment that you’ll very much need when you get to the folders of endless odd-sized receipts and carbon-paper pages that you need to keep, but which won’t auto-load in your scanner’s paper tray and therefore have to be positioned by hand.

I left the entire filing mess in my unfinished basement while I was working on this project and carried a single folder up to my office at a time. By the time we moved to Finland, I had it down to two boxes of filing, which I then stowed in our guest bedroom (no huge unfinished basements in flats in downtown Helsinki!) and again, pulled out one folder at a time.

Step 4: Maintenance Tips

Continue reading »]]> In December last year, the first gorgeous, glossy seed magazine arrived in my mailbox. After fleeing to a private spot to drool review it in detail, I started thinking about how we choose where to buy our seeds. If the early bird truly does get the worm, Seeds of Change, sender of that first beautiful catalog, would have gotten my money this year, just as they have the past several years. But this year, I’m choosing my seeds from other sources and perhaps explaining my reasoning will help you make your decisions too.

Greenwashing at its Worst
A few years ago, Seeds of Change switched from paper seed packets to recyclable #1 plastic packets. Their claim was that this was better for the environment because the seed packets took less energy to produce and were recyclable. This, to me, smacks of greenwashing. First, because using virgin plastic may take less energy, but the more likely reason to make the switch would be because it’s cheaper for Seeds of Change, not because it’s better for the environment.

Think about it. Do you know any gardeners who are advanced enough to be starting things from seed who don’t compost? Doubtful. And it takes a lot less energy (i.e. no energy at all) to put a paper seed packet in the compost than it does to use fossil fuel to transport #1 plastic to the recycling center and more fossil fuel to then recycle the plastic.

Ridiculous Shipping Practices
While I can appreciate the huge growth Seeds of Change has seen and how difficult it must be to keep seed in stock with unprecedented demand, I will never understand how a company that says it’s committed to the environment (their site even says they’re working on being carbon neutral!) can justify breaking up my order into so many multiple shipments that I literally received over twenty gigantic envelopes, some with a single seed packet in each.

When questioned, they claimed they were trying to get me the seed as quickly as possible, but in some cases I received multiple individually-packed seed packets on the same day.

Timing is Everything
Again, I can understand how business can boom in unexpected ways, but with seed orders, timing is everything. Sending packets of tomato/peppers seeds in May is not particularly helpful, nor is sending orders of fava beans a full year after they were ordered!

But enough ranting…
I did not intend this post to be a rant against Seeds of Change, but merely an example of some things besides the quality of the seed to consider when choosing a seed company. Truth be told, I have had excellent luck with germination from Seeds of Change, and have likewise felt that their selection and the quality of the varieties they carry are excellent. If they would change some of their packaging and shipping practices, I would be delighted to order from them once again.

Consider the source
Now that I’ve talked about everything but seed quality, let’s dive in. I prefer organic seed, although every packet of seeds I buy is not organic. I believe organic farming practices are more sustainable, and I also prefer that my family’s food supply come from the healthiest, most sustainable sources possible. If you buy seed one year (organic or not) and it comes to you looking funky, doesn’t germinate well, or doesn’t produce strong seedlings, you can safely move on to a different company the following year. But knowing a little bit about the environmental practices of your seed supplier–something that may not be obvious from using the seed you ordered from them–is also a good thing. If your seed is coming from a company owned by Monsanto, you’re supporting not only the seed, but everything else Monsanto does. That may not be what you’re after!

The advantages of ordering local
Here in Boulder County, we’re extremely lucky to have quite a few local seed providers. Buying from local providers not only keeps your dollars in the local economy, and supports small business, but also allows you to reap the benefits from producers who have grown plants in your specific climate.

That’s why this year I bought many of my seeds from Botanical Interests, who, by the way, sent all my seed in one appropriately-sized and compostable package within 10 days of my order. And why I will continue to buy the amazing and unusual varieties of seeds offered by my friends at Abbondanza. Beauty Beyond Belief is also another wonderful Colorado vendor who also has a nice selection of native wildflower and grass mixes.

When local isn’t an option…
Some of the medicinal & tea herbs that I like to grow are not carried by the local vendors, and I do like to expand my selection of heirloom tomatoes and peppers from time to time, so I do sometimes from non-local vendors. The Cook’s Garden, Horizon Herbs, and Irish Eye Garden Seed are ones myself or members of my family have had good luck with. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so lack of mention here should not be taken as a negative endorsement.

Seed Buying is Personal Choice
In the end, seed-buying is a personal choice. If you’re running behind and pick up a few packets of seed from the local big-box store, it’s not the end of the world (although browsing seeds is a great thing to do during dark January days). If you have a favorite local nursery who carries a brand I haven’t mentioned here, but can give share their own knowledge of the quality and suitability of the seed, go for it! Regardless, I hope this post gave you some food for thought as you make seed purchases this season.

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This is a great example of container gardening, taken from Permaculture 4 Renters.

I’ve already talked about growing herbs indoors to beat the winter blues, but I know a lot of gardens in urban landscapes are looking to maximize growing space using containers (no, not that kind of pot!) to garden outside too. Whether you’re planting a few herbs in a sunny windowsill inside or growing a large container garden in your yard, a few tips will help make things easier.

First, selecting your vegetables is key. Not only do you need the right types of vegetables, but the right varieties. Some tomatoes, such as Yellow Pear, Super Sweet 100, or Roma, will grow great in pots. Others need more soil and more room than most pots afford. So look for the words “compact,” “dwarf,” or something about containers when choosing your vegetable varieties. But don’t limit yourself to small vegetables and the odd tomato. You can successfully grow anything from potatoes to watermelons to zucchini in a pot if you have enough space to let them ramble. A friend asked me specifically about growing potatoes in containers, and although I haven’t tried this, I did a little asking around and have heard that the potato condo is the way to go! I may try one of these myself in my garden this year, but I don’t see why you couldn’t put a bottom on the condo, fill it with a little extra dirt, and then follow the same design as the in-ground version!

I tend to grow a lot of heirlooms in my pots, just like I do in my raised beds, so if you’re a beginner or someone who prefers hybrids for disease resistance and ease of care, check out this article on good hybrid varieties for containers. Most of the varieties I specifically mention in this post will be heirlooms.

Second, appropriate spacing is important. When your planting up your pots in May with tiny little seedlings, it’s tempting to throw a second tomato in the pot, or plant a pretty ring of flowers around a larger veggie plant. Resist the urge! This past year, I planted a ring of herbs & hot peppers around the outside of a half barrel with one single Yellow Pear tomato in it and had to transplant the poor light-starved peppers & herbs when the Yellow Pear reached five feet tall and three feet wide (and that width is after staking and pruning!). You have to consider spacing below-ground too. Healthy roots are key to healthy, prolific veggies, so make sure you’re using large enough containers for the vegetables you have selected. Garlic, onions, most annual flowers, herbs, and lettuces can survive in smaller, shallower pots, but to do a zucchini, pepper, tomato, or potato, you’re going to need a large, deep pot. Take a look at Arizona Cooperative Extension’s article on container gardening for a list of veggies and the size pot they require.

The more you water, the more you need to fertilize because watering can flush nutrients out. I recommend a seaweed or fish-based fertilizer but beware if you have pets (or pests, actually) because some fish fertilizers attract them, and they will dig up your seedlings to get at them. Best to experiment with a little fertilizer in a pot filled with dirt for a day or two–if your dog leaves it alone, you’re set. If not, look for a different product, because you’ll need to fertilize about once a month during the growing season.

My final tip is not to forget aesthetics. Container gardens are likely to be closer to your outdoor living space than any other plants, so make them beautiful. While I have a rather depraved obsession with love of tomatoes, they really look nicer with a few flowers, flowering herbs, or contrasting vegetation around them. Try edible flowers such as Lemon Gem Marigolds, violas, calendula, or nasturtiums, multi-colored leafy greens like tatsoi, mustard greens, or red-leafed lettuce, or even beans with unusual colored blooms to add a little splash of beauty to your productive (vegetable) pot garden.

Continue reading »]]> Today is my darling husband’s birthday, so this morning the kids & I baked him a cake. I chose my Grandma’s Fresh Apple Cake recipe in part because I had ingredients on hand and in part because it was one I could adapt so that it used mainly local ingredients. Oh yeah, and also because it’s moist and delicious and one of Matt’s favorites

I’ll give you both the original recipe and the modified so that you can make it how you like, but also so that you can see how easy it is to modify your favorite recipes so that they use local ingredients. Happy Birthday, Love!

Mabel’s Fresh Apple Cake

4 apples, chopped
1 cup sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1/2 c cooking oil
1 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease an flour a 9×9 pan.
3. Mix dry ingredients.
4. Add apples, oil, and egg.
5. Beat to mix.
6. Add nuts or raisins as desired.
7. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

Julie’s Local Apple Cake

6 c sliced, peeled apples
1 c local honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 c olive oil (I think you could easily use local butter here, but I did not)
1 1/2 c fine-milled whole wheat flour
1/2 t soda
1/2 t salt

Follow directions as above. Cooking time will likely increase 5-10 minutes, especially if you’re baking at altitude.

We are lucky enough to have local apples through the winter here in Colorado, although I used some from my frozen stash that I wild-picked here in Lyons this fall (which is why I haven’t specified the varieties because, honestly, I have no idea what they are!!). We also have an abundance of local honey, which I think tastes better than cane sugar anyway. With the switch to whole-wheat flour, I did up the (local) egg quantity just to help the cake rise as much as it normally would with white flour. And I upped the flour quantity a bit to accommodate the honey and the fact that I think I use more apples in mine than Grandma did.

In much of our cooking, switching to local is only possible to a certain extent. We’re never going to have Colorado-grown nutmeg or cinnamon, for example, and local butter is often hard to come by unless I make it myself. And until I get better at getting the water & whey out of my home-made butter, it’s not the greatest for baking. But each ingredient we swap for a local one is grocery dollars funneled into the local economy, fossil fuels conserved, and a step closer to sustainability…

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My five-year-old explaining why snow does not mean that climate change doesn't exist

The recent spate of snow has brought out the crazies. And I’m not talking about Shaun White. I’m talking about those who, through reductionist thinking, have convinced themselves that this particularly cold winter disproves climate change. But honestly, I’m not even going to get into that debate, because frankly, as I recently posted on a friend’s FB feed, I’m a bit bored of the argument. The truth is that many climate change deniers that I know are informed and intelligent people. And they’re still never going to believe that climate change exists. It might be a little too much WSJ. I know for some people, it has a lot to do with a vehement hatred of Al Gore, who is the poster child for climate change. In the end, the whole debate is irrelevant.

The reason it’s irrelevant is not because I don’t care if Florida, New York City, and other major metro areas are flooded by water in our life time. Or that I don’t love the gorgeous (and quickly receding) ice in Glacier National Park and other areas of the world. It’s simply irrelevant because the same polluters that many of us believe are contributing to climate change are causing enough other indisputably bad shit to happen that we can kill two dirty birds with one stone. Regardless of whether we can convince the denier that climate change exists (I doubt we can), we can still clean up the polluters that, in addition to producing CO2, are producing toxins that poison our air and water.

Coal-powered plants pollute our air and water (*due to the restrictions of my new full-time work schedule, I will not give you my 2 cents on “clean” coal today). Conventional agriculture (which now leads in greenhouse gas emissions here in the US) produces food that is more likely to be contaminated by e coli and other food-born pathogens, produces immense water pollution, robs family farmers of their livelihood, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Gas-powered automobiles also pollute the air, while at the same time strengthening a dependence on foreign oil that is alarming to both sides of the aisle. The beauty industry, an unregulated power-house of chemical production, not only pollutes, but spends millions on marketing to get us to smear toxins directly on our skin (don’t believe me? Check out Skin Deep).

So let’s quite quibbling about semantics when it comes to climate change/global warming and focus instead on the big picture. We’re not living sustainably, we’re poisoning ourselves with pollution, we’re dependent as a nation on a resource that is in extremely limited supply in the long-term. This debate of climate change, in my opinion, has devolved to the point that it detracts (and distracts us) from this frightening big picture.

PS – Lest you think I’m a denier myself, I will provide my favorite link for concrete, visceral proof of climate change: the Extreme Ice Survey.

Continue reading »]]> This month, Life as Mom is hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. The idea is that each family spend the month of January trying to eat their way through the bounty in the pantry/freezer/cupboards to save a little money in the New Year.

I am a bulk food addict and I belong to an awesome organic bulk-food co-op. That’s a dangerous combination that explains why I currently have a life-time supply of such staples as quinoa, dried beans, and rice in my pantry. I also love tea. Matt & I have been on a tea-buying moratorium for over a year now and still have probably another year’s worth (and we drink lots of tea). So the idea of burning through some of this excess, while saving a little money, appeals.

Some of the challenge participants are trying not to go the grocery store at all, or have given themselves a budget of, say, $100 for the month. We’re going to do the best we can, but will likely still be buying some fresh produce here and there throughout the month. Here’s a little status update on Day 4 of the challenge, highlighting what we’ve burned through thus far:

Tea

We had talked for several months about our need to break the coffee addiction. On the few recent mornings when I’ve forgone my double-espresso, I’ve been groggy enough to illustrate just how addicted I am. Being mildly lactose-intolerant, this is a good decision for me because it cuts my main source of daily dairy out. So on January 2, we gave up coffee and started burning through that tea. We have way more than a month’s worth, even if we drink several cups throughout the day (quite a bit of it is decaffeinated, so it’s not like we’re totally replacing our caffeine intake!). I’d like to get in to making my own tea blends, so clearing the prefab tea out of our pantry supports that.

Spice Blends

In addition to bulk grains, fruits, veggies, and legumes, I have a serious affinity for tiny jars of spice. Peanut sauce, green curry, various Indian spice blends, chili pastes and powders clutter up my spice rack and fridge. So this week, we’ve eaten through quite a few of these spice blends by mixing them with frozen or cold-storage veggies that we already had on hand. We’ve had Indian food, using up three packets of spice mix, a good portion of rice, chick peas, and cauliflower from the pantry. We’ve also had green curry, using additional rice, green beans, peas, and both green curry & coconut milk from the pantry. We’ve got another can of coconut milk in there, so I’m guessing this will be on the menu again this month!

Rice Milk

As I mentioned, I’m mildly lactose-intolerant, so what better way to drop some dairy from my diet, while at the same time using up some of that bulk rice, than to make my own rice milk? I found the very simple recipe on Vegan Reader, and also learned a lot that I never wanted to know about Hain Celestial! I tried some of the rice milk in my smoothie this morning (also using up several cups of frozen berries from the freezer!) and it was great. I added some almonds for extra creaminess and will be putting rice milk on my granola and oatmeal (did I mention how many oats I have in the basement, sheesh!) this month.

Canned Fruits

We typically try to eat a local diet, and do a lot of food preservation. While I often “shop” for dinner in my freezer full of veggies, grab a can of marinara sauce from the pantry, or raid the cold storage for a potato, onion, or squash, somehow we’re not very good at using the canned fruit, other than applesauce, which is the kids’ favorite. I didn’t even can any fruit this year because I had so much left from last year. So I busted out some canned peaches and pears and guess what? The kids LOVE them. We spend a lot of money in the winter on citrus, bananas, and pineapple, and it will be nice to replace some of that with fruit that I paid for months ago!

Hummus

In addition to trying to eat local, we’re mostly vegetarian. The kids love meat, so I slip in chicken every once in a while, give them beef hot dogs, and make the occasional bacon. But probably 5 days out of seven, we don’t eat any meat. While this sort of explains the abundance of beans, I need to be better about cooking the beans in my good old lead-free crock pot. And again, the kids love hummus. It also helps me use up the many different kinds of nut butters that I have in the pantry.

Quinoa

I wasn’t kidding when I said I bought a life-time supply of quinoa. Since we went local a few years ago, there have been some off years where no Colorado-grown quinoa was available. Colorado is the only place I know of outside of South America that grows the stuff, so when it turned up on our co-op list, I was desperate to have some. Other co-op members were less excited, so I ended up with 20 pounds out of a 25 pound bag. In case you’re wondering, that’s a lot of quinoa. Especially when you consider how it expands while cooking. I won’t need to buy it again for probably at least 2 years, but I am going to see how much I can use up this month starting with the curried quinoa and quinoa stew recipes I found online.

Are you participating in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge? What has been hardest for you? What creative recipes have you discovered?

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The Artz Family, November 2009

Last year, I would have liked to use protecting the environment as an excuse for not sending out the annual Christmas card, but the truth is I just ran out of both time and inclination. But that year off gave me quite a bit of time to think about Christmas cards, what they mean, and whether I could live without them in the name of less waste and less greenhouse gasses.

I couldn’t find a precise estimate of what the environmental impact of all these Christmas cards floating around actually is, but if you imagine the millions, even billions (one site in the UK estimates a billion cards sent in the UK alone!) of cards that are produced and then mailed around the globe, the impact cannot be small, even if you opt for recycled paper cards and avoid glitter & foil, which render the cards non-recyclable.

I love one UK company’s idea to produce edible Christmas cards, and Treehugger has some ideas for greening your cards, but I’m not going to do either this year.

Boy, do I sound like a Scrooge. A close friend actually threatened me with bodily harm if she didn’t receive a lovely card with pictures of my children this holiday season. And I don’t want to let anyone down, especially during this, my all-time favorite season of the year. But jeez, people, what do you do with these cards once you get them? Do you lovingly paste them into scrapbooks, or do you display them on the fridge for a few days/weeks and then trash them?

So, in an effort to reduce our holiday environmental impact, and along with other measures (reusing the children’s artwork for holiday wrapping paper, using cloth wrapping where we can, eating a mostly-local meal on Christmas day, and trying to avoid some of the rampant commercialism that goes with the Hallmark version of this holiday), we will not be sending Christmas cards this year.

It is not because we don’t love you. It is not because we’ve given up celebrating the holidays (in fact, believe it or not, I have quite a few holiday posts that I simply have not had time to write up until now). It is because I think this is one holiday tradition that we can give up without really missing out on anything. Let’s face it, 95% of the people on our Christmas list are friends on Facebook. So you’ve already seen this picture anyway, and better yet, get almost daily updates on what we’re up to all year long instead of just what we can cram into a one-page Christmas letter. Here’s an example of how social media can actually help the environment–by replacing the annual Christmas card.

I will understand if, after reading this, we get nixed from your Christmas card list. I hope you will provide an electronic copy, because I really do care about what you’ve been up to and want to see the pictures of your precious little ones. But I’m not going to relent on this one.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!
With warmth,
Me

Continue reading »]]> I don’t like ambiguity, especially when it comes to the health of my children. So I was alarmed when I couldn’t find a satisfactory answer to the question: “Do modern-day crock pot glazes contain lead that can leach into my food?”

While lead in ceramics has been an issue for as long as we’ve known about lead poisoning, the crock pot debate heated up several years ago when KUTV newsman Bill Gephardt reported that many commonly-used kitchen products contain lead. One of the items highlighted in the article is a Rival brand crock pot.

The standards, and what’s wrong with them

I went to the FDA’s web site first to see what the actual regulations are about lead in crock pot glazes. Searching for “lead” on this site is not something I would recommend to anyone who worries about this type of thing–did you know they have regulations on what the acceptable amount of lead in candy can be? Like there is any acceptable amount of lead in candy. Holy sh!t.

After quite a bit of poking around, I did finally find what I believe to be the FDA guidelines that would mandate lead levels in both ceramic slow cooker/crock pot inserts, as well as other ceramic plates, cups, and pitchers. It appears that leach levels of 1 mcg/mL are acceptable. The problem with this, of course, is that it doesn’t appear to test things like heat, the acidity of the food, and length of contact with the surface, all of which could reasonably be expected to affect how much lead ends up in our food.

Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension attempts to allay consumer fears with the following information on lead in ceramics, but even it admits that there could be lead in crock pots, “Enamel-coated iron and steel is colorful, stain and scratch resistant and does not pick up food odors. It does not contain lead, except in some glazes for slow-cooking pots (crock-pots). However, the amount of lead leached into food from these pots does not exceed FDA standards.”

The problem with even a little lead leaching into your food (because, let’s be clear, the FDA standard allows for some lead to leach), according to Mayo Clinic, is “Lead poisoning occurs when lead builds up in the body, often over a period of months or years. Even small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems.” This means that while one serving of food prepared or served using ceramics that leach lead might not hurt much, over time the cumulative affect could cause lead poisoning.

Talking to crock pot manufacturers, or going down the rabbit hole

One concerned mama who knew that I have been investigating this issue asked me if there is such a thing as a lead-free crock pot. At this point in my research, I didn’t have an answer for her. So I decided to contact the manufacturers of the top five brands (based on Amazon.com search results, which I realize is not a scientifically air-tight method) and see what they had to say. Full disclosure: I didn’t call all of these folks because I literally lost my voice halfway through the research due to a nasty cold. So some companies got only an email, and some got both an email and a call.

Hamilton Beach

Hamilton Beach‘s web site has this to say about lead in its slowcookers:

Hamilton Beach specifications applicable to all slow cookers and their components (including the earthenware crocks) prohibits the product from containing any measurable amounts of lead. Furthermore, the factories that manufacture the earthenware crocks for Hamilton Beach are certified ceramic production facilities whose ceramic ware is deemed to satisfy FDA heavy metal requirements. Hamilton Beach takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the earthenware crocks accompanying our slow cookers provide safe and satisfactory service to our consumers.

One blogger has already contacted Hamilton Beach, who told her definitively that their crock pot glaze did not contain lead. The response I received to my inquiry, which mostly matched to what was on their web site, was slightly less reassuring:

Our product specifications require that all components in contact with food comply with US Food & Drug Administration “food-safe” requirements. The FDA requires that parts of food preparation products in contact with food do not leach lead above certain specified limits. The FDA does not require that a product in contact with food be “lead-free”. Our slow cookers have been tested by an independent laboratory and found to meet the FDA’s food-safe requirements; however, the unit is not “lead-free”.

West Bend

I couldn’t find any information on West Bend’s web site, so I called them directly. Their customer service department said that their crocks contain no lead. To be sure, I asked a clarifying question, “Do you mean it has no lead, or that it meets FDA standards?” She replied that they do not use any lead at all in their glaze. I suggested that they put this information on their web site because consumers would want to know.

Crock Pot & Rival

Crock Pot & Rival are actually owned by the same company, Jarden Consumer Solutions. When I phoned them, the very pleasant customer service representative’s first response was, “There can’t be lead in them.” I let him know about the FDA standards, and then he wasn’t so sure. He actually gave me the name and email address of someone in management to contact, and I have contacted him. The response I got does not reassure me:

Jarden Consumer Solutions (JCS) continues to proactively test its products for lead and other toxic metals, with the results continuing to come back favorably. Lead is not an additive in the Crock Pot slow cooker ceramic glaze. JCS is diligent in its efforts to ensure that its products are compliant with applicable regulations regarding the presence of lead.

Cuisinart

By the time I got to emailing Cuisinart, I knew more about what to ask. I focused my question to them on what safety measures and testing they undertake to prevent lead in their glazes from leaching into foods. I have not, at the time of writing, heard back from Cuisinart.

Contacting the manufacturers did little to allay my fears. Although the maker of my own crock pot (West Bend) assured me it was lead-free, the fact that other customer service reps I spoke or emailed with seemed unaware of the difference between “lead-free” and “FDA-compliant,” I knew I was going to have to take matters into my own hands.

When all else failed, I tested them myself!

Although various blogs and web sites mention this issue, I couldn’t find a broad review of the safety of crock pots, test results for lead, or satisfactory information from the manufacturers themselves. So I decided to contact some friends, get a selection of crock pots, and take them to WeeCycle Environmental Consulting down in Boulder, and have them surface tested with their XRF gun.

I quickly learned that a surface test using an XRF gun would not be a perfect indicator of crock pot safety. Jennifer from The Smart Mama told me exactly what is wrong with testing surface lead as a way of predicting how lead might move into food:

The FDA standards for lead in ceramics is a leachable lead standard, and the XRF measures total lead. So, I could find high levels of lead BUT the lead may not be leachable, which means that it wouldn’t migrate into food.

Basically, when the glazes are properly formulated and fired at a high temperature, the lead is sealed. However, if they are not properly prepared and fired, lead may leach into food stored in or on the ceramic ware.

Determined to get a true and accurate test of the risk of lead leaching into food, I found an inexpensive used Rival crock pot and planned to take a sample from it and have WeeCycle send it to the lab for a leach test (for obvious reasons, I didn’t want to take a chip out of my fairly new crock pot!). I ended up with quite a selection of crock pots, covering four of the five major brands (I couldn’t find anyone with a Cuisinart crock pot for some reason!) in several colors, since each color could have a slightly different chemical make-up. I think the wonderful ladies at WeeCycle were a bit surprised when I schlepped them all down to their office this morning to do the XRF test.

WeeCycle's XRF tester, who asked to remain unnamed, testing the crock pots, inside and out!

The results absolutely caught me off guard. Not one of the crock pots we tested had any lead in it at all. We tested each crock pot twice and threw a couple of red herrings (a dish made in China and some tiles from Italy that the WeeCycle staff keep in the office because they know they have lead in them) just to make sure that the XRF was working correctly.

Obviously, I did not test every crock pot on the market, nor can testing half a dozen crock pots on a single day account for things like a bad (read “lead-laden”) batch of glaze or a new color that uses slightly different chemicals. Some of the manufacturers themselves certainly seem to be leaving the door open for using lead in the glaze if they need to. But we tested the following crocks this morning and, again, they showed ZERO lead:

• West Bend – black
• Rival – black
• Rival – dark green
• Rival – beige
• Rival – white
• Hamilton Beach – white
• Crock pot – black

Being a natural skeptic, I have to admit this was not what I was expecting to discover. I didn’t even get to smash the stylin’ $5 beige Rival crock pot I bought just for that purpose because there’s no point in doing a leach test on a crock that contains no lead to begin with. My frustration that the FDA has a standard (or many, actually) that I do not believe is actually safe, and that manufacturers do not arm their telephone representatives with accurate, detailed information to answer consumer questions about safety aside, I feel a fair level of comfort with the results of this test, and with continuing to use my crock pot to cook things that I might otherwise have bought in BPA-laden cans. Woot.

Continue reading »]]> Update: Some additional resources for more information added below!

With controversy still raging over Sigg’s recent admission that their original water bottles — often touted, even by this blog, as a safe/BPA-free choice — contain minimal amounts of Bisphenol-A, a Consumer Reports study released yesterday illustrates that the BPA problem is even worse than we thought.

What it found was that even BPA-free canned food (like that produced by Eden Foods with special BPA cans made by Ball) still contain trace amounts of this toxic chemical, which has been shown to increase risk of both cancer and reproductive abnormalities in animal studies (and, even as the American Chemistry Council continues to deny that BPA is dangerous–the chemical’s FDA approval being their main evidence – Nice!–another study released this summer linked BPA exposure to heart problems).

So apparently BPA, a primary ingredient in polycarbonate and epoxy linings like those in canned goods, is also used in other equipment that commonly comes in contact with processed foods. Another scary alternative, the LA Times posits, is that BPA –BPA can now be found in water supplies and in dust– is making its way into fish and vegetables as they grow due to environmental contamination.

Things you can do to limit BPA exposure

• Stop buying canned goods – OK folks, I know these are convenience items, but when this story originally broke in 2007, I bought a crock pot to make soups and beans–the main things we ate out of cans–and I’ve never looked back. It’s cheaper, tastes better, is healthier (both because the food is fresher/less processed and because it is lower sodium!), and carries less environmental impact than canned foods.
• Check your hard plastic food receptacles – We ended up using several different Internet resources to determine which sippy cups and food containers were safest. Our switch to glass food containers has been a good one–they’re more durable, don’t hold on to stains/smells, and are microwave safe. And there are BPA free sippy cups out there. Even Sigg, who admittedly misled consumers about the BPA content of their original bottles, has dropped BPA entirely from its line of rather expensive but durable bottles.
• Beware plastic toys, especially teethers – Many toys sold as teethers or targeting an age group that makes it likely the product will end up in a child’s mouth still contain BPA. There is good information on Squiddo about finding safe teethers, as well as sippies and bottles. Note that BPA is not the only concern here–phthalates and lead are also a concern.

Today, Change.org launched a petition urging Campbell’s to remove BPA from its cans.

Also, check out some information about BPA from Healthy Child, Healthy World and The Smart Mama.