Tomorrow’s Summer Solstice! That means the longest day of the year is finally here. How fitting that this month’s green drinking challenge can be a month, week, or even a day in length (might I suggest starting tomorrow – what with all the extra time we’ll have to fill up, and all – wink, wink. )
It’s about drinking – clean green drinking. I’m not going to get all tee-toteler on you, we’re all adults here (I think.) So what you chose to imbibe is up to you, but at the Mangum pad we’re going to take a week (well, we’ll start with a week and go from there) to forego processed drinks and get as close to drinking from the source as possible.
Refreshing Clean & Green Drinking
- Water first. In fact tap water. We’re fortunate to live next to a spring, and our tap water is as clean and crisp as any bottled water you’d find… except for maybe Voss. (But now I’m just being pretentious.)
- Juices from Fruits. I can’t even fathom how much less sugar I would consume if I was squeezing my own oranges every time I wanted some OJ. So for the challenge, I’ll forgo picking up my gallon of pasteurized orange juice from Costco and take advantage of my juicer and blender. I’ve been a little addicted to OrganicAndHappy on Instgram; she has some amazing recipe ideas!
- Syonara Soda! Not that we drink a lot of pop around here; but carbonated beverages will be off limits (unless we borrow my mother’s SodaStream and make our own concoctions.)
We’re not going completely off the grid. I plan on keeping our milk delivery (glass bottles from a local farm). It’s still pasteurized, but at our house a four year old without milk just seems silly…and buying a cow to milk ourselves seems sillier (my husband is still protesting urban chickens, so I can’t imagine a cow in our backyard!)
Ideas for green drinking:
- Grinding your own coffee, and making sure it’s organic and free-trade
- Cutting back or foregoing alcoholic beverages unless they’re local mircrobrews or locally sourced
- Giving up individually packaged juice boxes and opting for refillable water bottles instead
These are just a few suggestions for greener summer sipping. What are you willing to try, or already doing to drink clean and green?
Image via Chang Qing
