Category Archives: How To

Container Gardens From Malawi

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Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrHere’s a clever idea from the industrious women of Gideon village in Malawi, who grow heaps of healthy greens right beside their front doors.

Grace Banda, a 28-year-old mother of four, keeps a line of burlap sack gardens planted with cabbage in front of her house. It saves her from trekking to her garden when she needs something green for cooking, and it could save you a trip to the grocery store.

To make your own container gardens using Banda’s method, you’ll need a large burlap sack, gravel, a tin can with both ends cut out, potting soil and goat berries. If you’re plum out of goat manure, compost works fine, too.

Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrStep 1: Put the can in the bottom of the sack and fill it with gravel. Pour equal parts soil and compost around it, up to the top of the can.

Step 2: Slide the can up to the surface of the dirt, refill it with rocks and fill the area around the can with the soil and compost mix.

Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management Pr

Step 3: Repeat step 2 until the sack is full.

Step 4: Cut staggered openings about 6 inches long along the sides, and plant seeds in the holes.

Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrThe cylinder of gravel inside the sack helps distribute and drain the water, ensuring that none of the plantings get too wet or too dry.

If you try your hand at sack gardening yourself, please send us a photo. Thanks!

Photos by Russell Powell

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How To Make Sustainable Food Choices

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Check out these easy ways you can begin to make more sustainable food choices:

1. Make a list before going shopping so you don’t buy excess.  Why buy what you won’t use?

2. If you do buy more than you need, share with a friend. Check out this blog post on how one day I bought too many carrots and shared it with Brooke.

3. Buy foods that are seasonal. This also helps out on your wallet and food budget.

4. Buy local. When you purchase local food it not only helps your local community, but it also uses less resources to travel to your location.

5. Know when the foods you are buying are being harvested. If you do this, you can better plan for what you will buy and save money!

6. Cook more at home. By cooking at home you can control what goes into your foods and know exactly what ingredients are being used.

7. Grow a garden. Try growing organic tomatoes, herbs or even a fun vegetable in your backyard.

8. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. Even if you’re shopping locally and knowing what you’re buying, it’s always a good idea to use reusable bags that also help protect the Earth.

9. Skip the drive-through take out restaurants where the food is heavily processed.

10.  Try new things. See a new type of fruit or vegetable at the farmers market or local grocery store? Buy it, try it and you might find something new you enjoy!

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Weekly Article Roundup: Sharing the Spirit of Giving!

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There is nothing better for a nonprofit than to see its donors and supporters working hard to engage their family and friends in the spirit of giving. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen some great online fundraisers of some wonderful people working towards bringing everyone together for the greater good. Check out just a couple of the ones we’ve seen so far:


Worldbuilders 2011 Fundraiser: 
Long-term Heifer supporter and author Patrick Rothfuss has created this holiday fundraising campaign. He offers his readers a couple of different options on how they can join in on the spirit of giving to Heifer. Option 1 allows for a lottery win. All you have to do is check out his Team Heifer page and donate. Once someone donates the funds will be matched by 50% and someone will be entered to win a drawing full of swag. You can also pick Option 2, which gives you the option of buying ‘stuff’ but all of the proceeds go to the Worldbuilders Team Heifer fundraiser. Last but not least, Option 3 is a fun auction of different signed art or maybe a guest appearance in a comic book. 


Travel Bloggers Give Back
We are always grateful for bloggers who choose to write about the wonderful work those in our organization do. The co-founders of Green Global Travel blog have created a fun way to raise money for Heifer by donating 25¢  to everyone who signs up for their email newsletters.


Giving Back with Southern Weddings:
Southern Weddings, an online and hard-copy wedding publication, has joined the holiday spirit of giving by working towards raising enough money for a “Joy to the World” gift that includes: two sheep, four goats, a heifer and two llamas. To work towards their goal, they are asking their lovely and dedicated readers to support their fund and also donating a portion of their advertising rates to their fund. 


Real World Hero 2011
A couple of years ago, some gamers got together to create a group to help make the world a better place. They now have a fundraiser called Real World Hero. The premise behind the group is even though we can all play and have powers online, that doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference in the real world as heroes, too. Check out what the Real World Heroes are doing to make a change in the real world. 


Have you seen a great fundraiser to benefit Heifer online? Share with us in the comments.

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How To: Stress Less This Holiday Season

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The holidays are here! It’s time to start making your list and check them twice! I know you’ve all be nice. As the next two weeks of festive fun are around, remember these simple things and you’re holidays will seem much less stressful:

The Thought That Counts
Worried about what to give that hard to buy for person? Don’t. Remember, it’s the thought of the gift that matters the most. So if you can’t decide between a tie or a sweater, remember you care enough about that person to add them to your list. They will appreciate it.

Pack Up and Travel Smarter
The holiday season is when most of us pack up and travel to see our friends and family. This year, take a look back at our How To Travel Greener post on how you can stress less and live greener this holiday season.

Become Part of Something Bigger
Check out the guest post from Jennifer Wheary, a Newsday contributor, who has written a post about how you can become something bigger this holiday season and help reduce your holiday stress.

Take Care of Yourself
With parties, traffic and the daily mishaps it’s easy to start to feel overwhelmed during the holiday seasons.  Make sure you take care of yourself by eating right (only one piece of pie!), continue to drink water and rest when you start to feel too tired.

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How to Take Care of the Earth This Holiday Season

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As we all prepare for the holiday festivities with our families and friends, it’s also an important time to continue to care for the Earth.

Recycle the Old, When you Receive the New
- Asking for new electronics this year? Don’t toss the old ones out in the trash pile. If they can’t be donated, then remember to recycle old TVs, computers and other electronics you won’t be using. Check here to read our How To blog post on recycling electronics. 

- Don’t forget about the batteries. As holiday festivities begin, don’t forget to recycle your old batteries from your kids’ toys and games and any remotes you use for electronics. Want to help take care of the Earth more than just recycling batteries? Use the rechargeable kind.

- Buying a gift for someone who already has one like it? Make the deal that they must donate the old gift before receiving the new gift.

Waste Not, Want Not


- In the How To End Hunger This Thanksgiving blog, we mentioned to only take what you can eat and eat what you take. Keep that same mentality during holiday parties. If you’re throwing a party and you have extra food, eat it for leftovers or take it to your office to share with your co-workers.

- If you are throwing a party for the holidays, be mindful of the foods you buy. If you buy extra goods and do not use them, consider donating them to your local food bank.

Go Digital


- If you’re shopping for gifts this year (other than Heifer gifts, of course) consider doing all of your shopping online. Besides avoiding big crowds, you can also help reduce fuel emissions from driving around all over your city.

- Many families send out annual holiday cards. this year, send an email instead. Cut down on the amount of paper used and thrown away by going digital instead. Receiving holiday cards? If you don’t plan on keeping them, make sure you recycle them.

Remember to Unplug 


- Remember while you’re traveling to visit friends and family to unplug the household items that don’t need electricity while you’re away.

- If you’ve decorated with lights on your house, use a timer on all of your external lighting decorations.

What are some things you will be doing this holiday season to take care of the Earth?



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How to End Hunger This Thanksgiving

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“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.”

- Mother Theresa



1. Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen


Whether you have Thanksgiving lunch or dinner with your family, why not add a new tradition of volunteering at a soup kitchen this holiday? Call your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and ask to volunteer this weekend. 

2. Buy One, Donate One

While doing your Thanksgiving grocery shopping, add some extra to your cart. For every canned item you buy, buy one more and then donate to your local food bank. 

3. Only Take What You Can Eat

It’s tempting on Thanksgiving day to fill a plate full with all the goodness of turkey, mashed potatoes and desserts. This Thursday, try to only take what you will eat. 

4. Invite Over Those in Need

Know someone who will be spending the holidays alone or a family who can’t afford to have their own Thanksgiving? Invite them over to your holiday celebration dinner. No better way to be thankful than sharing what you have with others. 

5. Share Heifer’s Mission 

It’s simple. Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. How do we do this? We help families lift themselves out of poverty with sustainable methods such as livestock and agriculture.  Gather your entire family around the computer this Thanksgiving and watch our quick 60-second video about Heifer. 

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10 Ways to Travel Greener

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As the holiday season sneaks up on us again this year, it’s time to start planning our travel to see our friends, families and loved ones. As we all try to incorporate being green in our daily lives, let’s also try to incorporate being green in our travel plans.

Going to and from

1. Consider nonstop flights

When flying, choose a nonstop flight from your origin to your destination. Though sometimes they can be a little more costly, it reduces the energy per passenger since you’re not using a lot of fuel for multiple take offs.

2. Public Transportation

Help reduce emissions and take public transportation when you can this holiday season. Not only will you help ease congestion, but you’ll also be able to relax instead of fighting traffic. If you have subways, rail cars or buses in your city or the area you’re traveling to, consider using them this holiday season.

When it comes to what you eat

3. Eat Locally

Not only can you save money by eating locally, many times you can also eat better. Ask around where you’re visiting to find local restaurants that use sustainable ingredients in their meals.

4. Pack Your Own Utensils

It may be tempting to use disposable silverware, but consider packing your own travel size utensils to help reduce plastic waste in our planet. Sometimes it’s the simple things that can make the biggest impacts in the long run.

Packing it all up

5. Pack Light

Packing light not also saves your body from lugging around heavy luggage, it uses less resources for the transportation of your goods.

6. Re-wear

Challenge yourself to pack lightly and smarter. Can you wear a pair of jeans two days in a row? Or do you have a light pair of cargo pants you can wear in multiple ways? Think how you can wear your clothes before packing.

Sleep smart

7. Use the ‘Do Not Disturb”

Save energy and water by re-using your towels and sheets of a hotel room.

8. Research green hotels

Check out www.EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com to find places to stay who believe in being green in their practices.

Other things to keep in mind

9. Pack reusable bottles

Whether you’re stopping for a water break or needing a drink to go, take a reusable bottle to fill up for hydration.

10. Use your electronics

If you’re flying, see if you can use your smartphone for your boarding pass. Instead of buying a map to get around, use your smartphone to also find your way around your travel destination.

As we all get ready to travel in the next few weeks, consider using these 10 ways on how you can travel greener.

Safe travels to all!

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How to Eat Local Year-Round

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It’s November. In my neck of the woods, November signals the end of farmers market season. Not long ago, this put a major damper on my local food diet until spring. But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I can shop for local vegetables, meats, dairy, baked goods and herbs through the dead of winter.

Here in Little Rock, the Arkansas Sustainability Network hosts the ASN Local Food Club, which has pick-up options on both Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Each week I get an email telling me the market is open for ordering. I head over the the online market and browse the week’s offerings. During the fall and winter, there are still quite a few options available for vegetables, especially those that can be grown in a greenhouse. Fruits range from fresh-picked apples to berries harvested and frozen at their spring or summer peak. The online market is my favorite way to buy local meats all year, since our traditional farmers markets don’t often have many vendors selling meats. I fill up my cart with what I want and then “check out.” You don’t actually pay at the time you place your order, in case a vendor isn’t able to complete the order after all (like if they get snowed in or something and can’t make the delivery). Pick up is a good time to say hi to my fellow locavores–I’m always bound to run into someone I know.

The great news? This isn’t something only done in Little Rock. LocallyGrown.net hosts online farmers markets just like the one I use all over the country.

If you live somewhere without a farm-to-consumer online market, or if you want to expand your purchasing options but still buy from small farmers, you should also check out LocalHarvest and Farmer’s Market Online.

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How To Use Your Old Pumpkins

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Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to think about what to do with those pumpkins. Whether you cut them for jack-o-lanters or just left them out for decorations, there are several environmentally friendly things you can do with each. 


Un-Cut Pumpkins

- Make toasted pumpkin seeds:

    • Cut open the pumpkin
    • Remove the seeds
    • Clean them
    • Lay them on a baking sheet and toss with a little salt
    • Put the seeds on the baking sheet in a preheated oven on 250 degrees for about 35 min.
    • Remove the seeds, let them cool and enjoy! 
- You can also keep some of the pumpkin seeds and plant them the following year for your own crop of pumpkins. 

- If you cut the pumpkin just for the seeds, you can also use the flesh of the pumpkin to make a variety of pumpkin dishes. You can refrigerate it for a couple of days and use it for baking or cooking, or freeze it and use it in a few months. 

- Create centerpieces for a Thanksgiving display.  

Cut Pumpkins: 

- Feed the pumpkins to wildlife. The pumpkin won’t hurt the wildlife, and they will consider it a tasty treat! (Do not feed a moldy pumpkin, only fresh.)

- Donate the pumpkins to local farmers who can use them to feed their livestock. 

- Compost the jack-o’-lantern by on a bed of leaves or other plant trimmings. You can add some other compost material on top, and it will compost over time. 

- If you have an area where there are a lot of ants, you can create a home for the ant colony. This is a good solution for pumpkins that have begun to mold on the inside slightly. 

So what will you do with your old pumpkins? 
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How to Choose Coffee with a Conscience

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The next time you buy coffee, make sure you are environmentally aware about where you coffee comes from. The words Fair Trade, Shade-Grown, and Organic are just a couple of buzzwords that are now being used to describe your cup-of-joe.

Haven’t heard of these words? Here is what they mean:

What’s shade-grown coffee?

  • “Shade-grown” generally describes coffee grown under a canopy of diverse species of shade trees, often on small farms using traditional techniques.
  • Shade-grown coffee, in contrast to sun-grown or “technified” coffee, provides food and shelter for songbirds, as well as other animals and plants.
  • Shade trees also provide natural mulch, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Up to 40 species of trees can be found on traditionally managed shade coffee plantations; these trees protect the coffee plants that grow beneath them from rain and sun, help maintain soil quality, reduce the need for weeding and aid in pest control. Organic matter from the shade trees reduces erosion, contributes nutrients to the soil, and prevents metal toxicities.
  • As rainforests disappear, shade coffee farms offer one of the last places for birds to feed and rest in many tropical regions. In addition to birds, shade coffee plantations provide habitat for orchids, insects, mammals (such as bats), reptiles, and amphibians.

What’s organic coffee?

  • Organic coffee growing strives for a balance with nature, using methods and materials which are of low impact to the environment.
  • Organic farming replenishes and maintains soil fertility, eliminates the use of toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and builds a biologically diverse agriculture. In a natural ecosystem, nature constantly works to correct imbalances. Organic farmers do the same by selecting the most environmentally friendly solutions to the pest and disease problems that affect their crops.
  • When a grower or processor is certified organic, a public or private organization verifies that it meets or exceeds standards defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

What is fair trade coffee?

  • Certified Fair Trade coffee has been traded and sold according to international fair trade criteria, which includes:
    • Farmers are guaranteed a minimum price for their coffee. If world price rises above this floor price, farmers will be paid a small premium above market price.
    • Coffee importers provide credit to farmers against future sales.
    • Importers and roasters agree to develop direct, long-term trade relationships with producer groups, cutting out middlemen (or “coyotes”) and bringing greater commercial stability to an extremely unstable market.
  • The fair trade movement is based on the idea that producers in developing countries are capable of achieving economic success provided they receive fair prices in international markets for what they produce.
Learn more about organic, shade-grown and/or Fair Trade coffee at

Watch about Heifer’s work with small-holder farmers here:

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How To Best Use Your Leaves This Fall

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Now that’s it’s fall, it’s time to start raking leaves and sacking them up … or should you?

Sure you can burn piles of leaves (if it’s legal in your state) or you can sack them up to haul them away, but why not put them to better use for your garden, lawn and environment? 
Compost Your Leaves
If you have a garden then consider composting your leaves this fall for a better summer garden next year. The “brown” leaves are a great source of high-carbon material for compost piles. If you already have a compost pile, it’s as easy as adding layers of leaves to your already composting pile (such as vegetable and fruit scraps, plants, weeds) and let it compost over winter. 
If you don’t currently have a compost pile, you can easy build one with some wooden stakes and mesh wire. Check out our How To blog about composting here. 
Mulch

After you’ve gathered your pile of leaves, you can shred them and use them as mulch in vegetable gardens, flower beds, under shrubs or for smaller plants. How do you shred leaves? Well, you can sack up your leaves, and have kids jumps on the pile until it shrinks, put them all in a garbage can and use a week wacker (please make sure to wear eye protection) or mow over them. 
Grow Potatoes

After you have gathered your leaves, you can pick a sunny spot in your garden or yard to prepare for a potato garden. This might be one of the best, easiest things to do with your leaves. Just pile them up about 3 feet high. By springtime, your pile should be a nice rich patch of compost. Pick out the potato seeds you prefer, plant and cover. In a couple of weeks, you should have a new potato garden. 
For more information, click here. 
Mow Over Your Leaves
If you don’t want to rake up your leaves then why not mow over them? Simple put your lawn mower on the highest setting, mow over the leaves to break them up, and let them break down over the winter. This will not only provide your soil with great nutrients, it will also result in fewer weeds next spring. Just do this once a week and you’ve helped your soil and the environment. 
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