About Small Footprint Family

My name is Dawn and welcome to Small Footprint Family!

As a new parent and longtime environmentalist, this blog is about my family’s adventures in learning to reduce our environmental impact, take good care of ourselves, and enjoy the simple pleasures in life so we can ensure an abundant, healthy future for all children.

As a work-at-home mom, this blog is provides me with a (much-needed) creative outlet for my passions, and a small income from ads and affiliations with great, eco-friendly companies that I think make a difference in the world.

About the Author
While my main occupation is currently Mommy to a beautiful, 3-year-old girl, and primary caregiver for my mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s, this was not always so. In my former, work-a-day life, I was a Master Gardener, Master Composter, horticulture teacher, and extension agent, as well as a certified arborist and Permaculture designer. I started one of the first greenroof companies in the nation, and have spent most of the last 15 years designing and running workforce training programs for “green-collar” environmental jobs in low-impact development and sustainable, urban agriculture. These days, I write and occasionally consult with businesses and individuals who want to live in a more eco-friendly manner. You will see my passion for and experience in these subjects appear in many of my articles.

Now that I am focusing most of my energy into caring for my family, my environmental passions have shifted from the public to the private sector. Like many modern, “green” American families, my family aspires to live in an eco-friendly home powered by renewable energy. We use cloth diapers, keep our money in a credit union, buy a lot less and reuse a lot more. We can’t imagine life without an organic garden and compost pile, and we choose nutritional and alternative therapies over pharmaceutical drugs whenever possible.

Because my daughter has severe food intolerances, I have Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFIDS), and my mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s, we have come to truly understand why Hippocrates said that food is the first medicine. By learning to carefully and therapeutically nourish my family, I have found a new way to focus my passion for healthy, sustainable food, and you will see what I am learning reflected often in my postings.

Inspired by Permaculture, the raw food movement, Paleolithic-style eating, and Dr. Weston A. Price, I think the choices we make about what we consume are some of the most powerful means through which we can live our values. I believe the idea of “better living through chemistry” is a myth—particularly when applied to food and health.

Food should come from farms, not from factories.

We are on a first name basis with the market farmers who grow our food, we belong to a CSA, and we also grow as much of our own as we can. We value whole, organic, local food, pasture-raised animal products, and traditional fats. You’ll find that the majority of my recipes are in-season, and simple and quick to prepare—which is how we like to eat. All recipes are grain and soy free, and the majority of them are raw, Paleo/primal, and/or GAPS/SCD-legal.

I sincerely hope you enjoy what you read, and maybe even take something away that enhances your own life.