My aversion to root vegetables is well documented. So when we got rutabagas, carrots, and celeriac in our last CSA, in addition to all the potatoes, onions, leeks, beets, and garlic we’ve collected this fall, I was a little put off. To the point where it took us two weeks to use them. Luckily, the whole point of root vegetables is that they last a long time.

But I finally broke down and found a couple recipes that would use up a lot of the veggies we had on hand: Roasted Fall Veggies (over at Eat. Drink. Better.) and Potato and Leek Soup (from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian). The best part of these is that we could do part of the cooking ahead of time—very important, since root vegetables take so long to cook.

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For the soup we sautéed the potatoes and leeks and then cooked them in veggie stock for 20 minutes. Then we froze the soup until we wanted it, at which point we thawed it out, pureed it with our immersion blender, and added 1/2 cup sour cream and some green onions. It turned out to be the most delicious soup I’ve ever tasted. Seriously. I’m not a fan of soup, but this was rich and thick. We’ve still got enough for at least one more meal in the freezer and I’m really looking forward to having it again.

For the Roasted Fall Vegetables we chopped up a variety of root veggies: rutagabas, beets, celeriac, potatoes, and carrots. We boiled them, then stored them in the refrigerator for a couple days. Then we coated them with an olive oil and spices mixture and baked them for 20 minutes. While the result wasn’t super delicious, it was a pretty good side dish, and a great way to use up a lot of root veggies in one fell swoop.

We also pulled out a couple of the beets and used them for lunch in an Orange, Beet, and Lemon Zest Salad (also over at Eat. Drink. Better.). I discovered that I actually really enjoy beets, as long as they’re cold.

The beauty of these recipes is that none of them took more than half an hour at a time, so any part could be done after work. I think part of my root vegetable hatred over the years may have been that I never wanted to take the time at night to cook them. By cooking things ahead of time, I can work around that issue.

The warmth this weekend seemed like a last gasp, so we decided to do a fall cleaning while we could still open the windows. This was a perfect opportunity to put our new microfiber cloths to the test.

I know I’m a little late to this party. When I decided to stop using paper towels for everything but the most disgusting cat puke, I first tried to use old cut-up t-shirts. But they didn’t quite work: they were the wrong size or shape, they rolled on the edges, and they weren’t very absorbent. I finally broke down and decided to buy a bag of rags, but found microfiber cloths instead.

The beauty of microfiber cloths is that the fibers are 100 times smaller than a human hair. Together they create a static charge that attracts dirt. In fact, you don’t even need to use cleaning fluids to, say, wash a window—water by itself is fine. And they absorb so well (seven times their weight) that they leave a lot fewer streaks.

Windows might be the obvious use, but they’re for so much more! Auto enthusiasts are big proponents of washing their cars with microfiber cloths to prevent scratches. And, of course, there’s general dusting, countertop washing, and bathroom cleanup. But the thing that really blew our minds was that the ones we got are large enough to use on our Swiffer, and they pick up cat hair tumbleweeds just as well (or better). Then they can just be tossed into the washing machine. But remember not to use fabric softener—it’ll reduce their efficacy.

Jason liked the Swiffer cloths so much he wanted to do a Billy Mays-esque commercial.

When I was researching them, I wondered for a moment if microfiber was actually good for the environment. It’s polyester, made from petroleum. But unless I opt for organic, cotton has its own issues. So organic cotton has an edge on microfiber in terms of the environment, but microfiber beats cotton in performance. In the end, I decided it didn’t matter much which I chose, as long as I moved from the throw-away to the reusable.

Talking with Chelsea made me miss Boston Organics, so when my summer CSA ended last week, we signed up again. We’re still getting a winter CSA from Stone Soup Farm every two weeks, but it’s mostly root vegetables, and the box we’re getting from Boston Organics is 2/3 fruit. Yum! I may even keep Boston Organics all year ’round, because even in the height of summer Stone Soup offered almost no fruit. I just love having it around all the time for snacks.

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You can tell that we’re not very dogmatic. A friend of mine has said that the point of a CSA is to eat only in-season foods, and not buy anything supplemental from the supermarket. But I just figure that, like with everything else, we’re somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. The more local/organic food we get, the less factory-farmed/processed food we rely on. And as we get better at cooking and preserving, the farther we’ll move along that spectrum. There’s no need to kick ourselves for what we’re not doing, as long as we’re constantly trying to improve.

What’s an IUD? This oblique little acronym stands for intrauterine device. (I’ll wait for the guys to frantically close the window as if they just clicked a NSFW link.)

This is a little more personal than I expected to get, but I think birth control is an important environmental topic that everyone’s just a little bit uncomfortable talking about. And I hope I’m somewhat more mature than I was in high school, when I was terrified people would see the tampon hidden in my bag.

My doctor actually recommended an IUD to me. I was on the pill, and she told me that she’d had two patients around my age with blood clots in the past year, so she wanted to make sure that everyone was on the lowest dose of hormones possible. I’d wondered about other options for a while, ever since I’d read about hormones being found in drinking water. The estrogen and progestin in the pill are endocrine disruptors, like the BPA in water bottles that we’ve heard so much about lately. Municipal water facilities aren’t able to filter them out, so they make their way into our environment. The effects aren’t entirely understood, but over time they could interfere with reproduction and children’s development. The less I’m contributing to that, the better. Here’s what I learned.

There are two types of IUDs to choose from: ParaGard and Mirena.

ParaGard has absolutely no hormones and only has to be replaced every ten years. It’s basically a little plastic T that’s inserted into your cervix, with copper wire wrapped around it and a string hanging from it. Apparently copper kills sperm, or at least makes them weak enough to prevent them from joining with eggs.

Mirena is shaped the same, but it gives off a targeted, low-dose hormone and is replaced every five years. I chose this one because I felt like the hormone gave me added protection, I liked the idea of a lighter period, and I wasn’t comfortable going ten years between replacements.

The benefits of Mirena include:

• Fewer Hormones – The pill I was on (lo-ogestrel) contained both estrogen and progestin; Mirena only has progestin. And since the hormone is localized, less is needed, so there’s less chance of blood clots, and less is flushed into our water supply.
• No “Feminine Products” – No tampons, pads, pantiliners, nothing. I’m told this isn’t true for everyone, but your period does get lighter, and in some cases (like mine) it goes away entirely. That creates a lot less trash (not to mention hassle). 
• Less Expensive – My mail-order birth control’s copay was $10 every 3 months. The only part of Mirena not covered by my insurance was the copay for the two office visits, which totaled $30. Tampons also used to cost me $21 every six months (through Amazon Subscribe and Save). That adds up to a savings of $380 over five years!
• More Effective than the Pill – Mirena is one of the most effective birth control options out there, right up there with sterilization. (Seriously.) The effectiveness of other birth control methods is subject to human error, but because you don’t have to remember to do anything with this, the perfect results are the typical results.

The drawbacks of Mirena include:

• Uncomfortable Insertion – The actual insertion caused some really bad cramps that lasted for a couple of hours. Since then I’ve sometimes felt bloated around my “period,” but not crampy.
• Occasional Spotting – I only had some breakthrough bleeding in the first week, but I’m told it can happen periodically.
• No Reassuring Period – I’m not terribly paranoid, but I do have a friend who used a pregnancy test when she didn’t feel well, just to be sure.
• More Dangerous STDs – If you become infected with an STD like chlamydia, it can travel up the string into the cervix, potentially making you infertile.
• Higher Chance of Ectopic Pregnancy – If, by chance, you do become pregnant, there’s a higher than average possibility of that pregnancy being ectopic (the fertilized egg growing outside the uterus).

Another potential drawback: my friend had to go to Planned Parenthood to get her IUD; her gynecologist refused to insert it because she hadn’t yet had children. My doctor told me that a decade ago that was the prevailing wisdom, but now most gynecologists would offer the option to all their patients.

Of course, what type of birth control you use is a very personal choice. What’s great for me may not be for you. But if you’re interested, it’s worth talking to your doctor. Three months in, I think this is the best choice for me, and I wish I’d done it sooner. Who knows, maybe when I replace this one in five years I’ll become a complete hippy and switch to copper.

Did you know that Staples is offering $3 for every ink cartridge recycled through them? To get it, you have to sign up for a free Staples Rewards card, and a Rewards check is sent to you every three months. To be clear, this tip is in no way subsidized by Staples; I was just very happy that my cash back will more than pay for the box of envelopes I bought there today.