2022 Year In Review

Highlights: The Most Batteries We Have Installed in a Year — Pandemic Recovery to Record Breaking Solar Installs for the 3rd Year in a Row  —  Community Service & Support — Education for Change — 1st Ever Sustainable Guide to the Sierra Foothills

Impact of 1 solar company (us!) + our amazing community by installing solar:

Using a handy tool created by the EPA we have converted KWh produced from 2004 – 2022 by almost all of our solar pv systems to show you some amazing facts about what adding solar power can do for our community.

Happy Holiday’s and Happy New Year and let’s continue our great work!

My resolution: Make sure all my homeowner friends know that solar policy could change April 2023 and they should really look into solar before the ROI shrinks. Solar can truly makes a difference for wallet and the planet!

Let’s dive a little deeper…

Since our last “Year in Review” in 2019, our respected and honored founder Ray Darby has officially passed the reigns to our now President and Owner, local born & raised Brian Gardner! Brian has taken over in spectacular fashion getting SEG through the some challenging times during COVID and helped SEG step into Best of Nevada County status in 2022 voted by you all in The Union newspaper! (Thank you!) —  Brian continues the legacy set down by Ray and you can read all about it in many publications and press in 2022 as well our company story video down below. 

Record Breaking Solar Installs in 2022:

Community Service & Support from 2019 to 2022:

• Designed over 30 Solar Systems for Habitat for Humanity
• Created an at home educational program and contest for children during COVID called Beautiful World, Beautiful Future where we had a literary, artist, solar design and family energy prize. 
• Volunteered with the Grass Valley Energy Action Plan & Nevada County Energy Action Plan
• Active members of Nevada County Business Networking International (BNI), Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce, Nevada City Chamber of Commerce and Nevada County Contractors Association
• Sponsored the Resolve2Run for the Chicago 4-H Club
• Created the 1st ever Sustainable Guide to the Sierra Foothills, honoring over 60 local and sustainable businesses, schools, educators, contractors, restaurants, farms, ranchers and more.
• Wrote the famous “How Sustainable Are We” where SEG brought light to our local issues and challenges on Food, Water, Shelter, Energy, and more.
• Joined and became active in the local 60/40 Group whose mission is “the more one gives, the more one receives.”
• Active in Grass Valley’s local chapter of the Soroptimist where they are “helping women and girls live their dreams.” 

Education for Change —

2022 was a record year for our Energy & Ecology Newsletter where we saw our subscribers skyrocket past 2.5k. Subscribe below in the footer of this page. The newsletter is a strong tool highlighting topics like Sustainable Energy, Sustainable Living, Sustainable Development, Regenerative Farming, Permaculture, Energy Efficiency, Energy Policy and more. We fulfilled our goal to provide our community with information from local experts to empower their journey towards a sustainable future.

Real Practical information was given by:

• Sol Learning Center in Nevada City who notably showed the efficacy of building community support tiny homes where students learn and real, sustainable homes are built. 
• Bear Yuba Land Trust in Grass Valley teaching us about building floating islands to help with riparian health
• Briar Patch in Grass Valley talking about their continued efforts to push a zero waste stream with their pilot compostable bags
• KOrganics in North San Juan teaching us how to create life in our soil using ferments
• +more, click our “Local News” page for more. 

SEG Solar + Our Community over 18 years =

Saved greenhouse gas emissions from about:

This is equivalent to CO₂ emissions from:

This is equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions avoided by:

This is equivalent to carbon sequestered by:

What an amazing 2022!  Let’s go even further in 2023! We can’t do it without your help. If you refer a friend or family member and they get solar we will send you a check for $500!   Fill out the referral form here >> 

Citizen Journalism with SEG

We’ll publish these articles in our newsletter which is sent to over 1,900 local subscribers and also share it with our large local network. The whole community will know about what you write!

Topics for Summer 2022

Sustainable Guide Suggestions

Read the 2022 Sustainable Energy Group’s called Sustainable Guide for our Sierra Foothills

Please enter who you think are Sustainable, Eco-conscious, Eco-friendly and Green in the categories below. 

Add your thoughts for more categories in the comment fields below.

Local = NW Sierra Nevada Foothills – Nevada County, Placer, El Dorado, + Parts of Butte, Yuba, Amador Counties. 

Inhabitants Film Review – Wild and Scenic Film Festival

Playing again April 24th, 2022 – www.earthday.eventive.org/schedule

“We have been doing this for millennia, no western concept of conservation is that old.”

– Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson of the Hopi Tribe and Hopi Farmer – A 200 Generation Farmer

Hold onto that statement for a moment….

This is why films like these call us to dig deeper into the notions that western culture has all the answers. That modern technology like computers and smart phones, modern techniques for farming, animal husbandry and modern fire prevention methods are the only paths forward.

This is why most of this review is not in my words but in the words of the people before us on this land. We are invited to listen and we are challenged to make sure all voices, especially the long time experienced ones, are at the table as we try and solve some big challenges of our times. 

The documentary is split into a few sections and a few different topics, with one being something we are all to familiar with, wildfire.  Here are some quotes from the movie, most if not all, from indigenous people and the indigenous perspective. 

“Humans have excluded fire from this natural system and have created unnatural conditions as a result.” …

“Fighting fire is not a fight you can win” …

“The more prescribed fire we get on the ground in our communities, the safer we are”

In this film the viewer will get an inspiring look into some very real subjects, ranging from Hopi corn grown in the desert sometimes with no rain for over 160 days.

Prescribed fire and how we may need to shift our thoughts from some current ways of thinking on wildfire prevention and forest management in California.  Buffalo grazing and how they regenerate the land and thrive in ways domesticated cows cannot, and so much more. 

“We know how to adapt and respond to a changing environment. It’s time to learn from each other… and incorporate the ways of the people who were on the land before you.”

This film for my friends and I hit deep into the core of our thinking, asking us to listen to our elders, listen to those with long time generational experience and most of all be humble. It calls us to remember “we” don’t have all the answers, “we” are not always right and in that, we grow together for the good of all… creatures, plants and planet.  

—

“On Sunday, April 24th, 2022 we will kick things off at 10am with a Coffee Talk with local author Shirley DicKard @ Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, CA. Join us for this discussion around her new book “Heart Wood: Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future.” 

We then have a number of film screenings slated for the rest of the day at the Grass Valley Center for the Arts. At noon we will screen the 2022 People’s Choice Award Winner “Inhabitants: An Indigenous Perspective” followed by a discussion panel about indigenous knowledge featuring Nisenan tribal spokesperson Shelly Covert, Washoe Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Darrel Cruz, and ethnohistorian Dr. Tanis C. Thorne.”

Find out more about the event at SYRCL’s website here>>

INHABITANTS – OFFICIAL TRAILER 2021 from Inhabit Films on Vimeo.

This article was co-written by guest-authors Jorie Emory and Kate Gazzo of  Bear Yuba Land Trust based in Grass Valley, CA.

A floating island to promote riparian health

It’s not everyday you build an island of native plants to float in a pond! On a Saturday in November, Bear Yuba Land Trust (BYLT) staff and volunteers planted and deployed a floating wetland island at our Higgins Pond Preserve located along Combie Road. The floating island, purchased from Floating Islands West in Mokelumne Hill, is made entirely out of recycled plastic and works by providing a medium for plants to grow around the pond. We installed the island to serve as habitat for waterfowl and fish and to improve water quality in the pond.

-image from floating islands international

The 80 plants we installed in the island take a few weeks of watering to establish until their roots grow into the water below the floating island. Once the plant roots reach the water, the roots provide underwater habitat for fish and amphibians, oxygenate the water, and block sunlight which reduces the water temperature and discourages the growth of algae. On the surface of the island, plants grow to varying heights and provide habitat for turtles, frogs, ducks, and herons. Islands are a refuge to some animals like ducks because there are no large predators.

“This was one of my favorite volunteer days so far, it was arts and crafting meets restoration. We “played in the mud” to create our soil mixture of coco coir and worm castings, cut holes out of jute cloth for the top of the island, installed plants, and kayaked while pulling the island to the center of the pond to deploy it.” — Kate Gazzo, Stewardship Manager.

About Higgins Pond Preserve

Higgins Pond Preserve is located off of Combie Road in Grass Valley and is considered sensitive habitat in an area that is designated for high density development. The Preserve includes the Ragsdale Creek riparian corridor, a pond, and an open space buffer along the northern edge of a re-vegetated upland. There are two walking trails to the north and south of the pond but the pond is closed to the public for the purposes of wildlife habitat. Higgins Pond
was part of a 31-acre, 80-lot subdivision known as Cascade Crossing (Saddle Ridge Estates). The Preserve was acquired by BYLT in 2017 from the developer of Cascade Crossing.

During the construction of Cascade Crossing, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as part of their permitting requirements, required that the pond and wetlands be protected as open space. When BYLT acquired the Preserve, we drafted a management plan which includes maintaining the habitat values of the pond and creek. Among other birds, the wetland and pond provide habitat for mallards, Canada geese, black phoebe, and belted kingfisher. Beaver, foothill-yellow legged frog and western pond turtles have been observed in the area. Warm water fish are
abundant in the pond.

For the past several years the pond has suffered from eutrophication and heavy green algae on the pond surface. Riparian plants were installed around the pond edge to improve habitat and water quality, however, the plants were repeatedly mowed by landscapers. Over the past year, BYLT has considered multiple pond restoration options, including raking, suctioning the bottom, adding harmless blue dye to prevent sunlight from penetrating and growing algae, and fencing off portions of the preserve to protect plants. When we heard about other preserve managers
using floating islands to address similar issues, we decided to try one out at Higgins pond.

Notes on the installation:

About BYLT
Bear Yuba Land Trust is dedicated to protecting and defending the natural and working lands of the Bear and Yuba River watersheds and empowering healthy, resilient communities through nature access and education.

Bear Yuba Land Trust cares for land in ways that ensure the sustainability and resilience of our core conservation values, including actively managing lands to encourage and sustain ecological health and diversity and engaging our community in programming that sustains natural resources such as wildlife habitat and water.

On BYLT Preserves, our Stewardship staff strives to create sustainable, resilient landscapes which are managed for forest health and wildlife habitat, protect our rivers and streams, sequester carbon, and protect and enhance pollinator populations by planting native pollinator gardens. Learn more and join us as a volunteer or member at www.bylt.org.

Solar and Fungi? A message for 2022…

Have you heard of the saying “No Fungi, No Food?”

Why does a solar and backup power company publish an entire newsletter about fungi and mushrooms?

This article was written by guest-author Shane Hanofee is a Botany Technician and Chapter President of Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society based in Grass Valley, CA. 

Part 2 – More Sierra Nevada Fungi Finds

What’s Poppin in the Sierras – Fall 2021

Warning: Mushrooms can be toxic when consumed! This is not a guide to edible mushrooms although some mushrooms are edible.

Shaggy Mane

The shaggy mane. Perhaps the most charismatic of the ink caps. Coprinus comatus. But like much beauty, it’s charm is fleeting as it will deliquesce into a gooey-black spore-filled liquid in only a few days. I once tried to make ink from the drippings. I had a real hard time getting the consistency right but I suppose it could work if you don’t mind your ink smelling like putridity. I did try adding peppermint oil to mask the smell but it really just ended up smelling like a candy cane dipped in raw sewage.

Phaeocollybia olivacea

Phaeocollybia olivacea with its eye-catching display of stark colorsand interesting textures. The long rooting stipe with reddish colors at the base, deep olive-green cap, brownish gills producing brownish spores. Don’t let the tanoak leaves fool you, it is instead associated with the intermixed conifers whose litter can be seen beneath the broadleaves. That rooting stipe breaks somewhat easily, as I discovered the hard way, and the coloration at the base can be instructive so dig it out carefully. But a break is at least an opportunity to see that the stipe is pithy inside. A lookalike has a hollow stipe.

Leucopaxillus Gentianeus

Leucopaxillus gentianeus. With its size and white colors everywhere except for the well-done pancake cap, it should be easy to recognize. But in case you have any doubt, take a little nibble. It will be strongly bitter and unpleasant!

Pleurotus Pulmonarius

Ah, the pearl of the forest. Pleurotus pulmonarius here fruiting from alder wood that had fallen across a small creek. I had to be informed this was pulmonarius and was pointed to the warmer colors than the bluish-grays of P. ostreatus. But I suspect more work needs to be done with the complex and things could move around so for now, I’m just rolling with the expert input I recieved.

Pleurotus Dryinus

Sometimes you pull a mushroom out from the base of a rotting tree and it just keeps coming and coming. Like this here Pleurotus dryinus and it’s intensely long stipe. Same genus as the one above but this one has a veil when young. Some small remnants on the stipe are evident of that.

Panellus mitis

This behemoth has teeth! This is a Sarcodon sp, I think S. rimosus due to the blackish KOH reaction that I got from the cap and its mealy odor. In any case, the scaly cap and toothed underside are distinctive to the genus.

Another large, scaly capped friend growing nearby is this one. That fluted shape and orange colors flutters the heart that chantrelles have just been found. But already I know from the cap scales that this is instead Turbinellus floccosus.

Here’s the Turbinellus dug out. Now we can see the folded fertile surface making up its false gills. Chantrelles also have this appearance but the two are not closely related. Convergent evolution strikes again!

 

 

The reason why I hate hikers who toss their orange peels on the trailsides. I’m going to go over to it thinking it may be this species, Aleuria aurantia. It likes disturbed areas like this logging road and it lacks a stipe which would indicate a different species. I do much enjoy its bright colors standing out amongst the subdued hues of the ground.

Mucronella fusiformis is a fungal icicle drooping down from downed logs. They occur kind of scattered and that narrowed point of attachment is what I’m looking for when trying to discern this species from others. The yellow species is also quite nice to find. Nothing quite hinders the progression of a mushroom hike like a well-rotted downed tree.

One of my favorite polypores for its White Stripes inspired coloration. Black, red, and white. The pore surface has a pinkish cast which deepens in color slightly when scratched. This is Rhodofomes cajanderi though the genus name has quotation marks in MotRC which are not explained in the comments. Perhaps this goes by a different name now or will do so in the future. Has any work been done on these that you, dear reader, are aware of? Drop knowledge on the comments.

We close with a common but never not welcomed sight which often occurs in large photogenic numbers. The large size, yellow cap with tattered veil remnants, white stipe, and dark gills can only point to Stropharia ambigua. This is an easy roadside ID, recognizable even at 70 mph.

How To Avoid Being Petrified As Effects From Pollution Rear Their Ugly Heads

A perspective from our Student Intern

Species inherit the earth, and as humans we are to have a relationship with the earth, a harmonious balance with our natural world. 

It’s a pleasant concept, but a fleeting fantasy. 

We continue to take from the earth and alter it to such a degree that our planet is becoming unrecognizable. Our relentless consumption and waste have been met with an equal and opposite reaction. Like medical staff attending to the ill, the earth is sick and requires environmentalism.

The environmental impacts of our actions are still afterthoughts. For example:

“Our company is wasteful, so let’s add jobs with ‘sustainability’ in the title.”

“Our phones use mineral resources that end up as hazardous waste, so let’s sell biodegradable phone cases.”

“Our coffee comes in plastic cups, so let’s use paper straws.”

“Our actions today will cause damage for decades down the line and we needed to stop burning fossil fuels yesterday, so let’s aim to be carbon neutral by 2045.”

Today, environmentalism is being incorporated, but not integrated, into our actions.

Considering adverse impacts to the environment after the fact awards companies and governments the social credit they need to feel guilt-free about what they are doing; society rewards these entities instead of making them accountable. Environmentalism needs to define what we are working on in order for beneficial change to happen. We need to act in the name of restoration not consumption.

In truth, we cannot right this wrong anytime soon. 

We look around and we see the concrete-built environment, hell-bent legal institutions, and pollution denier perspectives that have been around long before the contemporary age of environmentalism. Our predecessors are only partly to blame, they weren’t aware of how bad it would get. No matter the intention, the impact is a society and framework that was built for one thing, progress at any cost. The reason why we are at these environmental crossroads is because our systems promote degradation – not because of a few bad eggs drilling for oil. Andrew Carnegie’s unscrupulous consumption of iron is but a drop in the global bucket. 

Our cars emit toxic exhaust, our homes run on fracked and leaking natural gas, our food is produced with chemicals, and we work in buildings that used to be grasslands. Each of us are born into a world where we have no choice but to become architects of our own demise. One simply cannot avoid being part of the problem. 

I took a class called Life-Cycle Assessment at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. We estimated, tracked, and assessed the environmental impacts of product development until we were blue in the face, and even after 10-weeks of instruction, my professor walked into class drinking from a plastic Starbucks cup. The irony was not lost on us, but more importantly it showed that consumption is all around us and embedded within our daily routines. Our brains demand instant gratification, and our world is punishing us for that. 

Even when we try to do it right, like offering paper bags instead of plastic at the grocery store, we do damage. It takes 4-times the energy to create pulp and manufacture a paper bag than it does to make a single-use plastic bag and plastic bag production produces a lower concentration of toxic chemicals than paper bag production. 

Our machine wasn’t built to make paper bags, it was built for plastic bags. Our society put the wagon before the horse, and now we have a problem. A problem full of contradictions, constantly moving parts, influences, self-destructing systems, and the looming presence of catastrophe. Sure, some industries are adapting, and we are witnessing cultural paradigm shifts, but until our systems are re-built under a new value system, we will continue to redline this engine until it blows. 

That is why the whole truth of personal and collective environmental impacts needs to be integrated into education. In school students learn about climate change, but there is a veil around the truth. Perhaps the facts of the matter-are too bone chilling or demoralizing, but kidding ourselves is only perpetuating the severity of those facts. When we sugar coat the impacts of our actions and ignore reality, culpability is deferred to everyone but oneself, and the responsibility of solving the problem is everyone else’s to deal with.

Every day we are posed with environmental data that all but says “we are so far past repair, give up”. Unavoidable rise in temperature, the inevitable extinction of thousands of species from the face of the earth, human lives being lost to climate disasters…The I.P.C.C’s report is the best science we have to offer, and I can all but wish there was a clerical error that added zero’s where they shouldn’t be.

We calculate exactly what’s happening, down to the year that we will run out of topsoil, sea ice, and even bananas, the year Florida will be underwater, and the year dengue fever will run rampant throughout the United States. The worst part is that there is not a darn thing we can do to fully right the wrongs of the past and prevent those terrors.

Addressing effects of pollution is the world’s most consequential laundry list. Each task requires global change that even if implemented at this very moment, and a sustainability utopia was formed, would do nothing to save us from the effects of what’s already been done. It’s like we are floating through a nightmare. We try to yell but no sound comes out. We try to fight but our fists are moving in slow motion. We are trying to put a Band-Aid on a life-threatening wound. 

Studying the state of our planet and understanding how backwards we have set up the world – in which a small number of people benefit at the expense of everyone else – leaves an individual with an all-consuming hopelessness. It’s a wonder how students in my class don’t turn to stone.  

But we hold on. 

Because there is not a unit larger than the individual. Everything that’s been done to both negatively and positively impact our planet, has been done by an individual. Even organizations and longstanding establishments are just collections of individuals that have lent themselves to a cause. You can look at an environmental problem and deem it impossible to solve as an individual or you can view yourself as a resource. Your time, effort, knowledge, and expertise as a resource, that can be lent to groups, causes, and issues that you believe in. 

That is how everything has been done, ever.

Changing the world will take some time so for now, it starts with one person. It starts with one person thinking, “maybe we need to do something about this,” as self-realization is truly the cornerstone of progress. One person can teach their friends about environmental science and spread educational seeds far and wide. Sure, seeds will only grow with the right conditions, but at least some will bloom. 

  At least I told them, at least I tried.

We are in the era of pollution awareness! Evidently, some people in power today would place slowing the warming of our Earth lower on the list of priorities, but in the next decade or two, people who are being raised with this awareness of pollution will assume positions to do what should have been done. At that point the environment will no longer be an afterthought, it will be integrated into everything that is done. 

Right now, effects from pollution is science based, it is the disturbing data and the red lines on graphs. 

This data is fuel, building up in each of us. 

We as individuals are the match. 

Societal awareness will strike that match. 

So yes, effects from pollution is daunting, but I am excited for the next 20 years. We are learning more and more every day, becoming continuously impassioned, and things will change extensively as sustainability advocates enter decision making roles.

People smoked a lot more cigarettes before we learned they were unhealthy. 

People drove without a seatbelt before we learned it was dangerous.

People burned a lot more coal before we knew it was harmful.

Mistakes, accidents, lessons – call them what you will – all these things have caused suffering.

But now, Cigarette packs have warning labels. Road laws require seatbelts. And more solar panels are being put up than ever before.

We can be consumed by our mistakes, kicking ourselves for letting it get this far, resigning to the idea that it will only get worse, or we can keep pushing for progress in the face of this miserable and absurd state of our planet. A sustainable world won’t be built overnight, so for now I choose to find pride, joy, and purpose in what I can do. It won’t be perfect anytime soon, or ever for that matter. That is why we must make each step more important than the final goal. 

A single person putting solar panels on their house and growing their own food won’t save our planet, but change will come when that one person chooses to do so anyway, and the world follows suit. 

Let’s be the heroes who never gave up trying. 

Can We Make Change?

What does it mean to make change?
    Is change when you spontaneously dye your hair after a breakup?
    Or when you buy a new t-shirt because you spilled tomato soup on your last one?
    Or maybe change is when you have slept with earplugs in for the past week
    because the  local band of coyotes are getting louder by the night?

Ultimately, these are all examples of change, and they each have two things in common, an individual action was prompted by the world around them. During my internship with Sustainable Energy Group (SEG), I sought to understand why people make the change to go solar, and how people in the sustainable energy sector can inspire others to do the same.

                        To understand my approach, let’s get philosophical.

How is change made?
Change occurs when internal preferences line up with what is possible externally.

In the context of going solar:
the internal environment includes finances,
environmental ethos, housing situation,
and familiarity with solar. 

The external environment includes accessibility,
climate, culture, political pressures, and the economic
state of an area.

Where these two circles overlap lies the harmonious area for change – where individuals can see eye to eye with the world around them and choose to go solar.

I have had the unique pleasure of interacting with over 300 SEG solar customers to understand their intention behind switching to solar energy. From phone calls and visits, I have been able to glean their impressions of why they became solar system owner, these findings are included in below.

Top 5 Reasons for Going Solar (Ranked by popularity)

1. Energy independence to avoid increasing PG&E utility rates and power outages
2. Environmentally ethical to use renewable energy
3. Save money on electricity bills or eliminate them altogether
4. Financial incentives to go solar including state and federal rebates and tax credits
5. Return on investment by increasing home value

What else did I learn?

SEG solar systems are sufficient in providing customer energy needs: Site specific sizing allows for sufficient and even excess energy production to be sold back to the grid. Solar systems can be expanded in the event more energy is required after the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV), for example.

SEG customers are grateful for their battery backup: Being grid-tied without storage means you can still lose power during an outage. Having a battery backup makes a home truly independent and self-sustaining to avoid electricity outages.

Average customer rating: 4.9/5

In my eyes, those who have gone solar are heroes. They weren’t born wanting solar, but after a personal journey, they realized that they can and should go for it. The following videos showcase three customers who, when faced with difficult circumstances such as the state of our planet, frequent power outages, or utility company price gouging, sought out help from SEG for a cleaner and more affordable source of energy.

   

“It’s nice not to have to pay a company for something you can get for free”
– George and Barbara Dean, Grass Valley, CA – SEG Solar Customer

“We’ve generated 121,000 kilowatt hours of energy and saved 2 million pounds of CO2 from
being released into the air”
– Ken Nittler, Auburn, CA – SEG Solar Customer

–

Maybe they won’t to go solar because they are comfortable with the utilities they have, maybe they think they can’t finance the system, and maybe they don’t know it’s even an option for them.

To learn more about the social, political, and economic obstacles facing the mass rollout of solar and what can be done to surmount them, check out my article next week.

Thanks for reading,
Intern Kieran McKenna

This article was written by guest-author Lauren Scott, the Sustainability Coordinator at BriarPatch Food Co-op in Grass Valley.

I like the way you bag it

BriarPatch Food Co-op is on track to reduce our in-house plastic packaging 40 percent by 2025. Included in that effort is offering alternatives to plastic bags in our Produce Department. This year, we introduced compostable produce bags made from 100 percent vegetable starch – they are fully biodegradable and compostable! These bags are certified for both commercial and home composting systems and will degrade within 180 days, according to manufacturer Crown Poly.

Compostable bags are a plastic-free option for transporting your dry produce items like apples, citrus, garlic and fresh turmeric (have you tried our fresh turmeric?!). These bags are great for transporting produce home but not intended for storing produce. We recommend re-using your compostable bags as a liner in your kitchen food scrap bucket.

For produce with a lot of moisture like leafy greens, we don’t recommend using compostable bags. The bags begin to deteriorate when they get wet – which is why they are great for home composting! For wet and heavy produce, try our assortment of reusable bags available for purchase or bring bags from home to re-use. Or you can skip the bags altogether and let your produce “go naked” in the cart!

However you decide to transport your goods from the store, here are some great tips on how to keep your produce fresh once you get home. Proper storage can extend the life of fruits and vegetables by several days and food that lasts longer is less likely to be wasted. To download the National Cooperative Grocer’s ‘Produce Storage Guide’ and many other resources to help you reduce your food waste, check out BriarPatch’s Food Too Good to Waste resource guide.