Ride CART Free TODAY Only (It's Earth Day, Fools)

Quick note from your friends at the Cleveland Area Rapid Transit:

CART is encouraging Norman to ride the bus on Wednesday, April 22 to celebrate Earth Day. All routes, including the Sooner Express to Oklahoma City, will be free all day, so find the closest bus stop to you to be more environmetnally friendly!

If I didn't have to drive 28 miles to NE OKC, and if it wouldn't take a public transportation option three hours to get there, I'd consider it! I jest. If you're in town and can use public transportation, why the heck not?

You can't beat free.

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Norman Recycles 7 Million Pounds In First Year Of Program

It's been a year since the city of Norman implemented curbside recycling, and according to a report issued on Wednesday, half of us are participating.

The average household participation rate over a 12-month period from March 2008 to 2009 was 47 percent. June was the top month with 51 percent, and January had the lowest participation. Makes sense: January is cold, and people hate cold.

OK, I hate cold.

Waste Management/Recycle America (WMRA) collected 7 million pounds from Normanites in one year. That's 3,500 tons or about 300 tons per month. Not only is that 7 million pounds from which new goods can be made, but recycling also reduced the amount of waste disposed at the Norman landfill by more than 1,000 tons.

As for what WMRA is collecting, city officials said two-thirds of it is paper and the other third is comprised of containers made of plastic, aluminum, tin and glass.

Newspaper by itself comprised more than half of Norman's recyclables by weight. That's a lot of Transcripts, OU Dailys and Oklahomans.

Curbside items are collected weekly by WMRA and include newspapers, magazines, advertising inserts, junk mail, phone books, aluminum cans, clear-brown-green glass, milk jugs, beverage containers, detergent containers (stamped #1 & #2 on the bottom), clean food cans and lids.

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Norman Farm Market Opens Saturday

Oklahoma's oldest farmer's market opens Saturday for yet another season of delicious homegrown goodies.

The Norman Farm Market is open from 8 a.m. until noon every Saturday and Wednesday from April 4 until Oct. 31. Among the items to be featured during the first few weeks of the market are:

• asparagus


• hothouse tomatoes


• greens


• lettuce


• radishes


• spinach


• herb


• vegetable


• flower bedding plants

Things like honey, herbs, cut flowers, trees, shrubs, perennial and annual plants and hanging baskets will be available all season.

For those of you who suffer from seasonal allergies, buying honey cultivated as close to home as possible can help build immunity against local allergens. Locally grown honey is a miracle drug, and it knocks out a sweet tooth to boot!

For more information, visit the market's Web page by clicking here.

YouTube user "envirohist" posted this video last October from a day at the market. Look at those bell peppers. Yum.

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Customer Appreciation Day At 'Native Roots Market'

For a town of 105,550, does it surprise you that Norman has three sustainable health food stores?

Would it surprise you more to know that each one has something a bit unique to offer the Norman community? It's true, but perhaps that's a subject for another time. What I wanted to do tonight is profile Native Roots Market, a cool, hip-looking market on Main Street in Norman.

Love Main Street in Norman. Steadily, it's becoming one of the coolest parts of town. Perhaps I should walk to The Diner in the morning for breakfast. Perhaps I should have bought some groceries at Native Roots, and I wouldn't be so hungry right now!

When I visited there last week, I talked with a guy who worked at the store, and he was super eager to tell the Native Roots story. I particularly appreciated this aspect of it: They exist at least in part to promote Oklahoma-raised and produced products.

In fact, this Saturday, Native Roots will be hosting a "customer appreciation" day. Part of that event will be to explain to patrons just how much money they have helped to keep in the Sooner State.

Unfortunately, I am not a big fruit person. Native Roots had fresh blackberries and grapes, and that just isn't my bag. I'm a veggies guy, and I would have liked to have seen more in the way of fresh vegetables. Native Roots did have its fair share of organic beef and poultry, too.

Again, that's not my thing, really. I like chemicals and hate salmonella.

Nevertheless, I really appreciate the go-Oklahoma concept behind this store. Furthermore, they had a pretty fair selection of gluten-free product and a really impressive collection of spices. For example, $2 would buy you some ready-to-go homemade taco seasoning.

They had homemade soap and cloths made from hemp and all sorts of vitamins and herbs, fare that both Dodson's and The Earth have. While Dodson's is uber-corporate looking and The Earth is very much kind of a hippie shack, Native Roots' building comes straight out of coolville.

Totally reminded me of something out of Dallas, particularly appealing to young adults living in the Norman area.

Now, I was going to suggest a coffee/tea bar to get folks to hang out a bit, but I think they had one. It was 137 degrees last week, and I seem to recall having no urge for a hot drink. This leaves my only suggestion for these folks to work on getting more fresh veggies there, salad material that is, and to update their blog.

No worries there. I'll dedicate a post to stuff they could write about, a public service from this blogger to our local, Oklahoma-friendly grocer.

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