Sitting down to dine at Blue Hill Restaurant, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, you'll have the chance to meet all the people who make your meal happen: the host, your waiter, perhaps the chef... and your local farmer. Actually, the guy who grows your food probably won't be able to make it in person, but with the way the Blue Hill staff talks about him, you'll feel like you've met him. It's this relationship that makes the dining experience at Blue Hill, where owners and staff believe that knowing where your food comes from is as important a flavor as any other in a good meal. Pulse talks with brothers Dan and David Barber, respectively Executive Chef and Owner of Blue Hill, to find out how they feel about local food, green markets, the restaurant business, and the responsibility of cooks and eaters to know more about the origins and story of their food, from farm to table.
Check out a great selection of videos about architecture, food, products and initiatives all geared toward living a greener lifestyle.
Pulse follows green builder Blake Holden as he turns a dilapidated Brooklyn brownstone into a vintage green home for the average New Yorker. While reclaimed wood and materials preserve the look and feel of a classic brownstone, energy-saving features like blue jean insulation and radiant floor heating minimize the homeâs carbon footprint. And natural building materials prevent toxic indoor air pollution, ensuring a safe, healthy living environment. The end result? The family home, recycled.
We soar to the rooftops in New York City for this episode of Pulse. Once barren and unused parts of the landscape, roofs are quickly becoming some of the hottest items in real estate. At Silvercup Studios, in Queens where Sex & the City was filmed, we learn the science behind the many reasons to green your roof: air purification, improved energy efficiency, lower temperatures, and storm water retention. At The Solaire in Battery Park City, we see firsthand how rooftop gardens not only have great environmental benefits, but are also a wonderful place to hang out.
Cutting edge designers experiment with eco materials in creating beautiful products for your home. A stunning hanging plant arrangement grown with the help of a solar panel, can clean your air while you sit on chairs made from recycled paper. See these and other examples of eco friendly furniture, lighting and accessories as Pulse takes you to the 2007 Haute Green exhibition in New York where you'll meet the curators and designers who use methods and materials to create pieces that are beautiful, functional and sustainable.
Inside Biodiesel - First episode of RiverWireds original video series. RiverWired's host, Vanessa, travels to Asheville, North Carolina to visit the folks at BlueRidget Biofuels.
Ever wonder what it would take to turn your car into a green machine? With biodiesel, it’s not as hard as you might think. RiverWired’s original webcast Pulse returns with “Inside Biodiesel, Part 2”; we’re back in North Carolina as biodiesel fans chat about global warming, biofuels facts, and why they made the switch, and fill up their tanks with biofuel.
What’s the scoop on poop? At the Bronx Zoo’s new Eco Restroom, each flush gives back to the earth thanks to super-efficient water conservation and recycling. Pulse takes a look at how the zoo’s new bathroom features composting toilets and other energy conserving devices, adorable signage telling kids what they can do at home to save water, gray water and rain water gardens, and much more.
Here’s the problem with all those cute, cuddly animals out there: sometimes they taste good. Not to worry, the livestock managers at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in the New York City suburbs may well have found a cure for the standard bout of carnivore’s remorse. At Stone Barns livestock are raised the way nature intended: free-range, without chemicals, and in harmony with surrounding ecosystems. In return, the animals fertilize crops and pastures, creating a diversified, productive and sustainable farm. Your entrée just became much more than just a piece of meat.
Want to globetrot without the guilt of an oversized carbon footprint? Well relax and trot away, because many hotels have started making it easy to stay green while you're out on the road for business or pleasure. Manhattan's 70 Park Avenue boutique hotel is one place that believes hospitality is more than pillow mints and room service. As part of the Kimpton Hotel Group's EarthCare program they make an extra effort to keep wasteful practices to a minimum by using eco cleaning products, recycled papers, âÂÂlow flow' water savers, donation programs, and an eco concierge who provides green information and services. Not to mention they'll set you up with a zero emission, man-powered pedicab so you can move around the city in style. Being green was never so luxurious.
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Compliments of the Farmer: Local Cuisine at Blue Hill Restaurant in Manhattan
Sitting down to dine at Blue Hill Restaurant, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, you'll have the chance to meet all the people who make your meal happen: the host, your waiter, perhaps the chef... and your local farmer. Actually, the guy who grows your food probably won't be able to make it in person, but with the way the Blue Hill staff talks about him, you'll feel like you've met him. It's this relationship that makes the dining experience at Blue Hill, where owners and staff believe that knowing where your food comes from is as important a flavor as any other in a good meal. Pulse talks with brothers Dan and David Barber, respectively Executive Chef and Owner of Blue Hill, to find out how they feel about local food, green markets, the restaurant business, and the responsibility of cooks and eaters to know more about the origins and story of their food, from farm to table.
All true greenophiles know, everything old is new again! This can apply to fashion, but for now we're talking about wood. Reclaiming, refinishing, and reusing discarded wood for new buildings, interiors, and commodities is a great way to save materials and take the strain off overloaded landfills. This Pulse video travels to North Carolina to visit the Whole Log Lumber mill, which purchases wood from demolition sites, fires, and trash heaps in order to revive and resell it. This place is the fountain of youth for worn out lumber, and the high quality of the semiprecious hardwoods that are routinely uncovered takes business away from rainforest-clearing loggers. It's enough to have sticklers for fine and rare wood muttering about the 'good old days.' But when we follow the wood back to Brooklyn, we find a restaurant under construction, using reclaimed wood from the Whole Log mill to finish a beautiful dining room. Easy, old timer. They're still making 'em like they used to.
The owner/manager of Stone Ridge Orchard in the Hudson River Valley in New York shows us how to pick the perfect apple.
When is a non-organic apple better than an organic one? When that non-organic apple is grown on a local farm that practices sustainable agriculture. In this video we head to Stone Ridge Orchard, located in the Hudson River Valley two hours north of New Your City, to see how they are using progressive ecological farming methods to produce apples that are good tasting, good for the land, and good for your health. We learn that sustainable farming can't always be pesticide free, but can use natural ecosystems and pests like aphids to reduce pesticide use and promote land stewardship. And we get an introduction to Stone Ridge's 'Know Your Roots' philosophy, which acknowledges that every farm is different, and that organic food is more than a label on your produce. Check out these apples' roots. You'll never look at a Granny Smith the same way again.
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