The Boston Local Food Festival will take place this Saturday, October 2, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Fort Point Channel. Unlike a lot of so-called environmental festivals, this is striving to be a “zero-waste festival.” It’s requiring vendors to serve foods in biodegradable dishware, providing bins for composting as well as recycling, and discouraging vendors from handing out disposable materials. Who knows how well it’ll live up to those goals, but I’m interested to see. Check it out.

On Saturday we tried out a Boston-based car-sharing service called RelayRides. It’s much like Zipcar, except that all the cars are owned by regular people. When they’re not using them, they rent them out.

The onboard computer

Jason and I are thinking of enrolling our car, since we rarely use it on weekends, but we wanted to try out the system from the other side first.

Like with Zipcar, a membership card locks and unlocks the door, but only during your scheduled time. An electronic device near the rearview mirror shows how long you have the car for and allows you to extend or shorten your reservation. It also houses the gas card. Gas is the owner’s responsibility (figured into the cost of the rental), but drivers are supposed to make sure they return it at least ¼ full.

When I signed up, I got a $25 credit on my account, to encourage me to use it. It’s such a new service that they’re also waiving any introductory fees, so it’s cost us nothing. If you’ve ever thought of using Zipcar, it’s worth trying out.

The whole thing’s remarkably easy, but there were a few hangups. The door unlocking mechanism was a little touchy; I had to hold the card against it longer than I thought necessary before it registered. And we did have a little bit of trouble finding the car. Unlike Zipcar, the only RelayRides sign around the car is in the bottom corner of the windshield, and the website showed a silver Honda Accord, when the car was blue. That wouldn’t have been so confusing, except a silver Honda Accord was actually parked nearby. Luckily, the owner of the car came out while I was calling the company and pointed out the correct car.

Despite that, though, the whole thing was so positive that it even convinced Jason that we should sign up, and he’s not always up for my cockamamie schemes. Once our car’s enrolled, I’ll let you know how it works from that side, too.

One year ago: Big Bellies.

I didn’t actually end up canning tomatoes this year, but it seems like everyone else in the world did. Maybe if I study them I’ll do it next year. Any advice?

• Pressure Canning Tomato Soup – Sense of Home. This is tomato soup, not straight tomatoes, so it needs to be pressure canned. I’m a little afraid of that.
• Canning Tomatoes (as easy as I could make it) – It’s Not Easy Being Green. She thinks she may not have cooked the tomatoes enough. How much is enough?
• Tomato Canning – The Zero Waste Home. She doesn’t talk about seeding the tomatoes here. Is it necessary?
• Cleaner for the Environment, Not for the Dishes – New York Times. I agree that it can be difficult to find a good phosphate-free detergent, but they do exist.
• Make it Easy for Homeowners to be Green – Building Green. I wish someone had given us operating instructions for our apartment—especially when it came to those horrible steam radiators.
• Will Solid State Lighting Lead to More Energy Use? – Gigaom. I think this is true with any sort of energy savings, but I don’t know what the solution is.
• Sexy Baby Carrots? – It’s Not Easy Being Green. Am I really juvenile that I love this commercial?
• Donate Your Shoes To Soles4Souls – The Good Human. A good tip.
• How to compute green – University Affairs. Thanks, John! But I’m not sure about the burning stuff onto CDs tip. Is that really more efficient than leaving it in your computer’s memory?
• Greening America’s Capitals – Boston and Hartford – Energy 2.0. Yay! I wonder what the effect of this will be?
• Smart Meters: A Sneak Peak at the Future – Repower Home. Thanks, Jason! Nstar got stimulus funds for a smart meter pilot program.
• Plug-In Vehicles Will Be Dirtier Than HEVs – Seeking Alpha. Thanks, Don! But while this might be true for the whole country on average, the Northeast gets less of its electricity from coal.
• How to stock a minimalist pantry – Stone Soup. A new blog discovery. I love pantry advice.

That’s all for now. As always, if you read anything interesting this week, send it my way.

I know my Kindle love is verging dangerously close to an obsession, but I do have a small addendum. Some people have complained because they feel like Kindles will prevent you from seeing what others are reading on the T and striking up a conversation. But I’ve actually found that more people have approached me because of the Kindle. Usually they’ll peek over my shoulder and ask how I like it, and we’ll get into a conversation about its pros and cons. On Monday someone even noticed I was reading War and Peace and we got into a conversation about it. I’m not normally the sort of person who wants to socialize first thing in the morning (or, really, ever) but I am awfully opinionated and I love sharing those opinions, so I’ve been having a good time with it.

I even got Guillermo del Toro to sign my Kindle cover last night!

One year ago: I Want Chickens, Too!

I think it’s time for another confessional. In the last six months I’ve gotten hooked on caffeine. And since I hate the taste of coffee, it’s taken the form of a Starbucks iced chai latte. It started because I was so tired and thirsty when I got to work on my bike, and now that I’m on the rollercoaster I can’t get off. I’m embarrassed, but I’ve been so busy at work these last few months that my brain really needs to be firing properly to face it.

Goodbye, chai

On top of the plastic cup that I waste every day, it’s an extra 240 empty calories that I really don’t need. So here’s a resolution—no more from here on out. Now that I’m more used to biking to work and now that the colder weather makes the iced chai less enticing, I think I might be able to stick to it.

I know it’s tiny in the grand scheme of things, but it’s an embarrassing lack of will power, and should be an easy, small change I can make. Let’s hope.

One year ago: Caulk.