Featured Article: Design a Classic Produce Garden

This blustery winter weather means only one thing- we're delving even deeper into our garden planning! So, we loved today's featured article. We like growing our own food, so any edible garden guides are great. We found on from HGTV that is all about designing a classic produce garden. It's full of ideas for plants, necessities for this garden type, and generally some good ideas.

If you deal with the snow and wind by thinking of all the green things you will be planting in a few short months, today's featured article is definitely a must-read!

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Ways to Green Your Home in 2013

The new year brings new resolutions for everyone. Often time these resolutions revolve around fitness, breaking habits, and personal health. However, if you've decided you're going to make a bigger effort to help the earth's help, we've got a few ideas on where to start. These changes are all pretty small, but their impact can be very large. Check it out, you may just change your resolution!

1) Switch to eco-friendly light bulbs:
While this change seems small, it is a great way to start having an impact, both through less energy usage and through less light bulbs being thrown away!

2) Make new large purchases with the environent in mind:
Need a new dishwasher, car or laptop? Look into environmentally friendly solutions, like high efficiency washers, hybrid or electric cars, and laptops with recycling programs that are easily repairable. Taking these things into account will increase the longevity of your purchase as well as saving you some money on bills!

3) Make a commitment to recycling:
In some of the U.S. recycling is second nature, however if you guiltily toss your glass, cardboard or aluminum products into the trash this year is the year to change. Make a commitment to recycle all recyclable products and the impact you'll have is much larger than you think!

4) Start growing your own vegetables and fruits or buying locally:
As minor as it may seem, taking care to either grow your own produce or purchase locally grown can have a large impact. There's less fuel emission in transportation and it's a better decision for keeping your money in your community as well!

5) Start a compost heap: If you don't have a composting facility near you that will accept your waste, do it yourself! While we don't recommend this for businesses, with a large amount of organics (find a composter, like GreenRU to handle services for you), a home heap is usually not too hard to maintain. It will save the emission of methane gases to the ozone layer and it will keep your organics from filling up space in the landfill.

Are you trying anything new this year to be green? Tell us in the comments!

Our Top 12 Tomato Recipes

Summer is slowly creeping into fall, and with that we're getting the last of our tomato plants (hopefully grown with compost so you get the best tomatoes). However, there is no need to worry, there are plenty of great tomato recipes that also store well for the winter! Here are our top 12 tomato recipes, and a few of them you could easily save to get your tomato fix later on!

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This Chilled Tomato Soup with Cilantro-Yogurt Swirl looks delicious. You have to make it the day before you plan on serving it, as it needs to be chilled, but as long as you plan for it, this soup is a great healthy summer supper.

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Here is the staple I'm sure you expected to be first on the list. This Roasted Tomato Sauce would go great with pasta or any other dish that calls for tomato sauce.

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 This Tomato-Basil Crab Bisque combines a lot of seasonal favorites, and so it can be made with all fresh ingredients this time of year. This would be tasty for the cooler summer nights we've been having lately.

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Garlic-Basil Grilled Chicken with Caprese Salsa is a great dish for summer, using the great weather as an excuse to grill and the fresh produce to create a great dish.

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Imagine a BLT on Fresh Tomato Bread. Sounds delicious, right? Well now you can make homemade tomato bread whenever the craving strikes. This recipe calls for tomato sauce and tomatos, but you could easily use the tomato sauce recipe we have below if you want to make sure it's all fresh.

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This Avocado, Tomato and Mango Salsa is a fun twist on traditional salsa and is great for the summer. Make it for your next dinner party and it's sure to please, just plan to chill it for 30 minutes before serving.

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Broiled Mahi-Mahi with Parsleyed Tomatoes is sure to be a family favorite after you try it once. If your family includes seafood lovers, this dish is sure to please.

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Just looking at this Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart is enough to make your mouth water. with leaks and herbs in season as well, this is sure to be a great fresh produce recipe to add to your collection!

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This Tomato-Basil Pizza is sure to please any pizza lover and it'd be very easy to personalize with your own favorite toppings.

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 This Linguine in Fresh Tomato Sauce with Garlic-Basil Toast is sure to make everyone happy. Just looking at it is sure to make your stomach growl.

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No list of tomato recipes would be complete without at least one Bruschetta recipe. This Double Tomato Bruschetta is sure to please any tomato lover and will make a great hor d'oeuvres for your next gathering.

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This recipe does require an ice-cream maker, but it is well worth it. This Tomato-Watermelon Sorbet is surprisingly delicious, although we would recommend reading the reviews and altering the recipe slightly to include less tomato juice(approximately 1 cup rather than 3).

Do you have any favorite tomato recipes? Let us know by posting them in the comments section!