You don’t see these around every day! Very unusual but, yet, very festive! Solar powered grass will look great nestled in around your trees or along the walkway. Each set has three sprigs of grass which you can set to steady or blinking. Get thinking of all the places you can put these!
$19.99 at Amazon

Perfect to get you feeling all ‘merry and bright’. These solar powered LED Icicle lights will put out a good amount of light to brighten your path or doorstep.
$23.37 at Amazon

Rechargeable batteries are great, but you still have to use mains power to refill them. Well, not now – this solar-powered charger make rechargeables really eco-friendly by using sunlight instead. It works with both Ni-MH and Ni-Cd batteries.

The charger costs $31.99 from SmartHome.

Although we love nature, some yard-invading parts of it are less welcome. This sonic deterrent for gophers, moles and other burrowing creatures does no harm, but irritates them and encourages them to move home. It’s powered by a built-in solar panel.

The deterrent costs $17.95 from SmartHome.

Light and compact enough to fit in a pocket, this solar charger can connect to mobile devices and charge them in 2-3 hours. It comes with the necessary adapters and is available in black or white.

The charger costs $89.99 from GreenGadgets.

Camping need not necessarily mean leaving behind all the comforts of home. This 6-person tent includes a solar panel that provides battery power to run the tent’s built-in lighting. Here is a link to a previous post we made on another model of solar tents that was more comprehensive.

Available for $249.99 (Canadian) from Canadian Tire.

With an efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery and low-energy LED light, this gorgeous jar absorbs sunlight through the day and provides night-time illumination. It needs to charge in direct sunlight, due to the jar’s frosting.

The Sun Jar costs $45.99 from GreenGadgets.

in development at Veranda Solar

Most solar panels for homes are primarily marketed for larger, more affluent suburban home owner. Veranda Solar has a new idea that offers an affordable solution for people living in the city, small enough to use outside apartment and condo windows. It probably won’t generate enough power to run all the electricity but may offer significant help in lowering energy use. They are estimating they will sell these for $400-600 and that the end user will be able to install easily themselves. The caveat, of course, is you’ll need a sunny window and unless the panels can move to move to follow the sun – there will only a be a limited time it can collect direct sun rays. Still, they may be able to work out these issues so it can offer solar power to renters and other city dwellers.

from Coolest Gadgets

$19.95 at nexusgadgets

What a cool idea, a solar led light and water bottle all in one. On your next hiking trip take this along to use as a water bottle through the day to drink from and to store up power with its built-in solar panel which will power a LED lantern for nighttime use. It has not only has your standard white LED light mode but also a blinking red light “help” mode.

Have you gone Local yet? Is not having a garden or any local farmer’s market near you open for the winter is stopping you. One solution is to preserve food that you pick from your garden or from the farmer’s market in the summer to enjoy year round. It will be worth the hassle to not only enjoy healthy eating year round but also knowing that you are doing everything possible to help the environment by reducing your purchase of produce shipped in from thousands of miles away.

Freezing, freeze drying and canning may be the first method you think of and may offer a greater range of options but typically are more time consuming, energy intensive and expensive. Food drying is perhaps the easiest and affordable preservation method and if you make your own solar-powered food dryer it can be even cheaper. For some people electric dryers aren’t as satisfying as drying food with free solar energy, especially ones you make yourself.

This link to a Mother Earth News article that explains you can make your own Solar Food Dryer.

THE SOLAR FOOD DRYER by Eben Fodor $14.95
For more complete instructions and information on making a solar food dryer, you can purchase the book from Mother Earth News.

If you don’t have the time or energy for big do it yourself projects and using electricity off the grid isn’t a problem then you might consider checking out food dehydrators such as the excalibur at canning pantry.com they offer an affordable smaller unit, the excalibur dehydrator 2400 for $109.95
and the excalibur dehydrator 2900 for 209.95, better for families with 9 trays and a total of 15 square feet of drying area.

Canning Pantry also offer a comprehensive book about food drying, recipes and more that might be useful. Preserve It Naturally – 3rd Edition $24.95