ColumnSometimes it is worth ditching the guidebook.

Barcelona, the land of tapas and Tempranillo.

I was there for a few days exploring the food scene, pretending I knew how to speak some odd combination of Spanish and Catalan while on an ongoing mission to eat pimientos padrón.

“That place looks perfect. Let’s come back here.”

We were on a small street just off of popular pedestrian route Passeig del Born. There was a corner bar, filled with locals, simple interior and a few stragglers outside smoking a cigarette with a glass of beer in hand. What about that place screamed, ‘get your next round of tapas’? I have no idea, but there was something about it that made it pop from all of the others.

And so we returned, ordered a round of patates bravas, pimientos padrón, a Spanish tortilla and a few glasses of vino tinto. It was the best meal of the entire trip. Simple. Delicious. Relaxed. Unpretentious.

I looked around the bar. There were mostly locals, of all ages. The decor was modern but relaxed, the drink selection written above the bar on a black chalkboard in all caps. This wasn’t a trendy spot. It was just a good spot. The kind of place you go for good food and good conversation.

There is a sense of pleasure derived from finding a good food spot all on my own. Following intuition until it takes you somewhere you never would have expected or would have planned. The serendipity of searching for food.

In the information age, there are a multitude of ways of finding a place to eat, and even if you skimped on buying a guidebook, there’s always Google. While this keeps us on our toes, and with a laundry list of culinary hotspots we should visit while we are in a new place, does it detract from the magic of finding something spontaneously? We’re so glued to our smartphones, reading reviews of what other people thought of a place that we have a preconceived notion before we ever even walk in and order.

There is something to be said for doing your research beforehand. If you love craft roast coffee then it can be hard to blindly wander the streets of a new place in search of a cafe. And if you want to taste local artisan beers, you might want to track down an address or two before heading out. But there is something to be said for not knowing, not having a plan and simply following your intuition, wandering until something strikes your fancy, trying something without knowing what it is, or asking a local where to go. You know, all those things we used to do.

I have a long list of places in Barcelona that were the result of lots of reading and Googling. But my two absolute favorite spots in the city? Two places that I randomly happened across. Maybe because I found them myself, maybe because they were the kind of places that I like to frequent – simple settings with good ingredients – but also maybe because they were both a reminder of the essence of travel: exploration. And when it comes to food, we could all explore a little more.

***

My two favorite spots? Really I should let you find them on your own, but if you are in Barcelona don’t miss Bormuth for simple, cheap and fantastic tapas and Granja Petitbo for coffee and baked goods.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Images: Anna Brones

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Improve your car-free commute or daily dog-walking experience with mobile apps that help you find the best streets for strolling.

The free Web- and Android-friendly Walkonomics app ostensibly scores streets in eight categories — including how pretty, how steep, how dangerous, and even whether a sidewalk exists — based on open data from governments and ratings by app users.

Essentially, though, Walkonomics’s mobile, crowd-sourced cartography recognizes walking as a means and an end.

The streets between our Point As and Bs make up small stories written as we go, where wearing high heels or holding hands with a toddler, not just distance, can inform the journey. Tourists might look for the easily navigable streets; for joggers, streets with crosswalks; for everyone, streets with restaurants, parks, or stores.

Studying and facilitating walking is Walkonomics founder Adam Davies’s vocation. He blogs about walking’s effect on the environment, society and individuals, and vice versa. He tweets walking stats and stories almost daily.

To Davies, simply walking could solve so much. Purchasing has its power, but getting out the door is among the greenest things we can do.

“Things like rising fuel prices and the growing obesity crisis and Generation Y, my own age group, who long to live in urban areas and not have to own a car because it’s better for the environment … All of these different things feed into getting more people walking,” Davies said. “There’s no downside to making cities and streets more walkable.”

Swelling interest from the streets up could make walkability a high priority for local governments and businesses.

“Places like Los Angeles and Houston, some of those big, sprawling cities — as normal people abandon cars or hire cars like Zipcar, cities like that are going to have to change to attract people to live,” Davies said.

So far, Walkonomics covers every street in San Francisco, New York City, and all of England. Davies used “open data sets” — with info on streets’ cleanliness, for instance — released by governments in the past three years as well as app-users’ ratings. The latter could grow Walkonomics’s coverage exponentially.

“You can add a totally new street onto the system and start rating it yourself,” Davies said. “We’re still building the community. Once the crowd sourcing is working, it will be self-policing.”

Think eBay seller ratings, where mass feedback shapes appeal. With one out of five stars — do want to go down that road?

Davies expects Walkonomics for the iPhone to be available for download in a couple weeks. –Mackenzie Mount

This article appears courtesy of Sierra Magazine

Mackenzie Mount is an editorial intern at Sierra. She’s cleaned toilets at Yellowstone National Park and studied sustainable cooking at The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas.

Top image: jessleecuizon

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We live in an increasingly toxic world, and labels don’t always tell the truth. Staying healthy requires a little bit of homework. These apps can help.

Despite safety standards and regulations, harmful ingredients linger in almost everything we touch. Over a lifetime, exposure to these harmful substances can put us at risk for serious illnesses and diseases. Even worse, toys and foods marketed to children are some of the worst chemical culprits, and too much exposure too early in life can significantly stunt physical and mental development. A 2011 study from the University of California, San Francisco revealed that 100 percent of expectant mothers are exposed to multiple chemicals; these toxic chemicals can effect our health before we even enter the world.

To protect ourselves and our families from dangerous substances like BPA (Bisphenol A), phthalates, formaldehyde, and chemical pesticides and fertilizers, we need to be educated about what to look for, the risks posed, and healthier alternatives. Unfortunately, we very rarely see these ingredients (or the companies who use them) discussed in the mainstream media.

Self-education is a necessity, but who has time to pore over ingredient lists or toxicology analyses? Here are a handful of mobile apps that you can download instantly and use to keep these health-threatening substances out of your home and life.

1. App: Dirty Dozen (Free)
Toxins Identified: Pesticides in produce

Created by the Environmental Working Group, the “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” app will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce.

2. App: findNano (Free)
Toxins Identified: Nanoparticles

Use findNano to discover consumer products that manufacturers claim to use or are enabled by nanotechnology in everything from sporting goods to food products, electronics and kids’ toys. And if you find a nano-product not on the list – no problem. Using the “submit new product” function, users can take or select a photo of the product and submit it for possible inclusion in future updates.

3. App: Cosmetifique ($0.99)
Toxins Identified: Chemicals in cosmetics

Cosmetifique shows you the quality of the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) of your cosmetic products. When you look for ingredients, the app displays results in different colors (green for good, yellow for acceptable, orange for not good and red for awful) that enable you to verify the risks associated with each ingredient.

4. App: Peaceful Nursery Guide ($0.99)
Toxins Identified: Chemicals in kids’ products

The Peaceful Nursery app features a quick and easy shopping checklist of all the right items to buy for the nursery, along with tips about what to avoid, and an explanation of what chemicals are often found in each product.

5. App: GoodGuide (Free)
Toxins Identified: Chemicals in food, personal care, and household products

The GoodGuide mobile app makes it fast and easy to find safe, healthy, green, and ethical products, instantly delivering the information you need, when you need it most — in a store and on the go. Use the handy barcode scanner feature to retrieve product ratings and information on your phone while shopping.

Top image: shawnzlea

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Mobile devices are our constant companions, especially when traveling far from home. But smartphones and tablets can do more than entertain us on long flights. Here are five must-download apps to help you save money, time and energy while on the road.

Traveling is stressful, which is funny, because we’re often trying to get away from the everyday obligations that stress us out! Whether it’s a solo business trip or a spontaneous road trip, traveling requires the seamless coordination of many variables. Between flight times, packing lists, hotel reservations, rental cars and that nagging need to check our email, it’s no wonder we often dread travel rather than looking forward to it.

This doesn’t have to be the case, though. Assembling a low-stress, efficient trip can be as easy as picking up your smartphone. We’re surrounded by gadgets that are supposed to make our lives easier, but sometimes they need a little help. Here are five free or low-cost mobile apps that will help you plan and execute your next adventure with just the touch of a button.

Airbnb – a peer-to-peer marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world — online or from a mobile phone.  Available for both iPhones and Androids, this app puts unique properties in 33,000+ cities and 192+ countries at your fingertips. From guest bedrooms to entire homes, use this app to browse Airbnb’s curated collections showcasing exceptional Airbnb properties, communicate with prospective hosts and guests from your Airbnb inbox, access your itinerary and host details, and get one-click directions to your destination. Free.

PackingPro – The best way to avoid forgetting your underwear or a warm sweater is to make a list. PackingPro is an app for the iPhone and iPad that offers  recommended packing lists for all sorts of trips. Just select the list that’s right for your destination, and tick off items (including extra items for babies, kids, pets, sports/activities, cooking, etc.) as they go into your luggage. You can also save lists from previous itineraries and schedule reminders, like watering the plants before you leave. $2.99.

TripIt – Losing the hotel address or forgetting a vehicle reservation number is a traveler’s nightmare. Instead of trying to keep track of five different confirmation numbers, addresses or contact numbers, TripIt can help you organize all pertinent information into one master itinerary. Available for nearly any mobile device, this app makes it easy to organize maps and directions, travel notes, photos, recommendations, and share details with relatives or coworkers. Free.

Wi-Fi Finder – Unless you’re traveling with your own mobile hotspot, or really like spending money on coffee, available Wi-Fi networks can be hard to come by. Wi-Fi Finder puts close to 500,000 free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots in over 144 countries right at your fingertips. Available for iPhone and Androids, this app delivers Wi-Fi hotspot details and makes it easy to call the location, get directions to it or add it to your favorites. Free.

Spotcycle – Looking for an alternative to rental cars and taxi cabs? Major cities around the world are launching bike-sharing programs, temporary rental services that make it possible to reduce your carbon footprint while getting a unique view of your destination. Available for just about any mobile device, Spotcycle makes it easy to search for and sort bike stations near you that have bikes available for rent. It also displays bikes paths and lanes in select cities. Free.

Image: Katerha

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Email is old news, and it’s getting less efficient by the day.

Chances are, you’re still using email for all kinds of communication throughout each day – personal letters, quick messages, business communications, group memos and sending files. But there’s also a good chance that email is far from the best way to accomplish that communication. It’s impersonal and inefficient, and you’re taking a chance of getting lost in the shuffle of coupons, inane chain letters and invitations to enlarge certain anatomical parts. Here are 15 alternatives for online use and off, for both business and personal purposes.

Letters

Sending a personal note to a friend or family member? If your message is longer than a few sentences, do it the old-fashioned way.  Now that letter writing has nearly died off altogether, receiving a hand-written letter in the mail is like getting a gift. It’s nice to be able to hold something in your hand, but there’s more to it than that. Something about the blank pages of actual stationery encourages us to be more poetic with our language, to meander a little in our correspondence, share more of ourselves than we would when staring at a blinking cursor on a computer screen.

Texting

For those moments when your message just can’t wait, nothing beats texting. It’s quick, it’s short and you can be pretty confident that your recipient will see it fairly quickly. It used to be that texting was reserved for people you know well – like friends and family – but its use in the business world has grown a lot in recent years. While texting can be great for messages like the time and place to meet a client, keep it brief and save serious or sensitive topics for phone calls or face-to-face meetings.

Chat

Don’t rely on email when you just need some quick back-and-forth communication. These days, most of us don’t compulsively check our email like we used to, especially when our inboxes are packed with junk and messages that are pretty low on our priority lists. Gchat, Skype and Facebook Messages are just a few options that are superior to email when you need to ask a quick question but aren’t on familiar enough terms to text.

Facebook Messages

Considering that pretty much everybody is on Facebook, it’s not surprising to hear that the social network’s messaging system is quickly replacing email altogether for many people, especially teens and twenty-somethings. Facebook Messages essentially combine email, text and chat into one place by offering real-time threaded conversations that can be sent and accessed across a range of devices, including phones. Even people who aren’t on Facebook can communicate through Facebook Messages by sending email to your own personal Facebook email address, which has recently been foisted upon you whether you like it or not.

Postcards

Who says you can only send postcards when traveling? If you’ve just got a short message that you don’t mind being seen by various mail carriers and processors across the country, jot it down on a postcard. Stationery stores are packed with pretty postcards and note cards, and hunting down just the right one for your recipient is half the fun.

Postagram

No need to go through the trouble of finding a place to print out your photos while you’re on vacation, or even hunt for the perfect postcards so you can send them to loved ones back home. An app called Postagram turns any of your Instagram photos into a postcard and sends them to the addresses of your choice for just 99 cents. It’s even more personal than choosing a pre-made image, putting your own unique spin on the sights you’re seeing.

Dictation Apps

There’s a time and a place for writing email, and the driver’s seat is not among them. While multi-tasking and driving is probably never the greatest idea, you can fit in a few extra tasks using one of the many dictation apps available for smartphones. Dragon Dictation is one popular choice. You simply speak your message into your phone, and the app turns it into text that you can send via email or any other communication service you like. GoogleVoice, which offers basic call/text/voicemail services, has similar capabilities. You can even set it up to take a call from your cell number, transcribe your message and store it in your Gmail.

Video chat

Maybe it’s not correspondence in the conventional sense, but if your messages don’t contain specific instructions or anything that would need to be written down, video chat is a great alternative to email. It gives back all of those irreplaceable face-to-face signals that you’re missing in text, like tone of voice and body language.

Surprise Packages

The only thing that’s better than receiving a hand-written letter in the mail is finding a package on your doorstep, marked with the return address of somebody you love. And sometimes, “just because” gifts are better than birthday gifts, simply because they’re totally unexpected. Send something meaningful along with that letter. But don’t forget the letter.

Twitter Direct Messages

The fact that you’re limited to 140 characters per tweet is what makes Twitter work the way it does: you’re forced to condense your communications down to the absolute basics. The same goes for direct messages, or DMs, sent to other Twitter users. Twitter DMs can be another quick and efficient way to get across a small amount of info. The only limitation, aside from the fact that you can’t be sure your intended recipient is actually checking them, is that DMs can only be sent between users that follow each other.

Google+ Hangouts

Get up to 10 people together to talk business or just catch up using Google+ Hangouts. This group video chat service replaces Google’s 1:1 video chat, Google Talk, and was recently integrated right into Gmail. The catch? You’ve got to have a Google+ account. It’s a pretty nice feature that Facebook has yet to offer, and there’s no harm in signing up for Google+ just to use Hangouts.

Three.sentenc.es

Take the short-is-better spirit of Twitter and apply it to email by limiting yourself to just three sentences. A service called Three.sentenc.es cuts out all the unnecessary information and pleasantries that normally accompany an email, saving time for both sender and recipient. Like Twitter DMs, it forces you to keep your message short. While you could argue that this terse style of communication could lead to dumbed-down language and social blunders, three-sentence emails could certainly help you avoid an intimidating pile-up of unread messages in your inbox.

Yammer

For in-house business communications, email can be a pretty inelegant and inefficient solution. Enter services like Yammer and Chatter, which aim to bring conversations, content and business data into one place where everything is updated in real time. Essentially, they’re like a private Twitter or Facebook for companies. Accessible through the web, mobile phones or desktop applications, these services are essentially virtual offices that replace email altogether for many companies.

DropBox

If you need to send large attachments, email definitely isn’t the best way to go. First of all, it’s slow, and has a fairly small maximum file size. But more importantly, it’s not secure. DropBox is just one of many services that enables quick and easy file transfers from one device to another, and from one user to another.

GoogleDocs

Hopefully you’re not still emailing documents with multiple contributors and/or editors between a group of people, dealing with all of the headaches that come with multiple versions of the same document. This practice has gone the way of newsgroups and AOL chat rooms. Use GoogleDocs instead, where you can create, share and collaborate on documents, which are stored online for easy access from anywhere in the world.

Photos: MartinaK15, postagram, thomcochrane

The post 15 Ways That Are Better for Corresponding Than Email appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apps for adventuring.

Sounds contradictory, but sometimes technology can actually help you get closer to nature. Take, for instance, the following eight iPhone and Android mobile apps, which arm you with ways to find nearby green spaces and the information to identify anything from animal tracks to constellations to rare butterflies. Most of the apps are available offline as well, so you can venture as far off the beaten track as you please.

NatureFind

Discover nearby parks, zoos, botanical gardens, nature centers, wildlife refuges, and more with the location-based NatureFind app. The app also pulls from event listings so you can join organized hikes or participate in educational lectures.

Available for iPhone for free.

SciSpy

With the Science Channel’s SciSpy app, you can capture, tag, and share your wildlife sightings. Once your photo of, say, that funky looking beetle is uploaded, it is date-stamped, geo-mapped, classified, and offered up to a worldwide community to advance scientific research.

Available for iPhone for free.

Audubon Guides

Audubon’s array of more than a dozen Mobile Field Guide apps are a trusted source of information for wildlife enthusiasts. Whether your passion is North American Butterflies or Fishes of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, there’s probably an app for you. Or, splurge on the multi-pack.

Available for iPhone, Android, HP Touchpad, Amazon Apps, and Nook for various prices. Click here for a full list of apps.

MyNature Animal Track Guide

Identify mysterious paw prints with the MyNature Animal Track Guide app, which offers a searchable database with illustrations of both fore and hind feet and complete descriptions of track measurements, gait patterns, and animal life cycles.

Available for iPhone for $6.99 and Android for $4.99.

iBird Backyard Plus

The iBird Backyard Plus app is the ultimate birdwatcher’s tool, with 15 search attributes, 234 backyard bird species profiles, and two hours of audio bird songs and calls from Cornell University.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Leafsnap

Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution joined forces to produce the Leafsnap app, which uses innovative visual recognition software to identify tree species from photos of their leaves. The app is currently limited to trees found in New York City and Washington, D.C., but continental U.S. expansion is in the works.

Available for iPhone for free.

Google Sky Map

Google’s Sky Map app was developed partly to show off the sensors in first-generation Android phones, and partly because the Google developers are admitted astronomy geeks. Now open-sourced, the app provides a “window on the sky” augmented with nifty facts and information.

Available for Android for free.

Trailhead

If trails, hikes, and bike routes are your jam, the Trailhead app from The North Face is a must-download. Not only does it help you locate nearby trails, it can also track your route, distance, speed, and elevation in real-time and let you post the results to your social media channels. What is a challenging outdoor adventure if you can’t tweet about it?

Available for iPhone for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

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Apps for navigating the complicated world of conscious consumption.

When I vowed to become a more conscious consumer last New Year’s Eve, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Measuring the impact of your purchases can be a hefty task, between considering environmental impact, ethical manufacturing, animal cruelty, anti-trafficking practices, carbon footprints… it’s enough to make you reject shopping for good. But neither is the “Buy Less” philosophy a perfect one, and even the most ardent minimalists need to buy necessities like soap and toothpaste from time to time (we hope). These iPhone and Android apps can help you put your dollar where your values are.

GoodGuide

By scanning a product’s bar code, the popular GoodGuide app lets you instantly access health, environmental, and social performance ratings for over 120,000 food, personal care, and household products. The app also provides customized product recommendations and lets you create your own personal shopping lists.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Fair Trade Finder

Discover and share fair trade products with the Fair Trade Finder app from Fair Trade USA, which relies on crowd-sourcing to spotlight fairly traded items available in local shops.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Green Globe App

Travelers can locate sustainable hotels, resorts, attractions, cruise lines, tour operators, and other sustainable tourism projects that have received the Green Globe stamp of approval through the Green Globe App.

Available for iPhone for free.

Cruelty-Free

Find products that haven’t been tested on animals with the Cruelty-Free app, which pulls from a database of companies approved by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program.

Available for iPhone and Android for free. 

Free2Work

Created by anti-trafficking organization Not For Sale and supported by the International Labor Rights Forum, the Free2Work app lets you instantly see how different products and brands relate to trafficking and forced labor with rankings on a scale from A to F.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Closet Swap

“Don’t shop – swap!” proclaims the Closet Swap app, which facilitates clothing swaps by letting you snap pictures of items that have been sitting in your closet and share them with friends.

Available for iPhone for free.

Thrift Buddy

If your ethical shopping strategy includes thrifting, the Thrift Buddy app can help you locate thrift and vintage stores in your area from a database of more than 10,000 spots.

Available for iPhone for free.

The Good Shopping Guide

Drawing from the popular print Good Shopping Guides from the U.K.-based Ethical Company Organisation, the Good Shopping Guide app lets you compare more than 700 brands across seven categories: Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, Travel, Energy, Fashion, Home & Office, and Money. Summary tables display the good, bad, and ugly within each product category.

Available for iPhone for £2.99 (around $4.75).

ALSO CHECK OUT:

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer appeared first on EcoSalon.

Cut back on your CO2 impact with these apps.

News flash: global warming is very real, and it’s not disappearing anytime soon. While some might say that the only answer is worldwide systemic change, there are ways for individuals to make a small difference by taking steps to reduce their personal carbon footprints. This selection of iPhone and Android apps can help.

Green Outlet

Cut back on your household electricity use with Green Outlet, which helps you identify which appliances use up the most energy. Not only does cutting back on usage help save the planet, it also helps save money. The app also alerts you when you’ve exceeded the U.S. government’s recommended carbon usage and links to TerraPass.com where you can purchase carbon offsets.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Just Science

Draw your own conclusions on climate change with the Just Science app, which shows recorded changes in land temperature from the past several centuries on a user-friendly color-coded map. Drawing from Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study data, the app aims to show the effects of global warming, rather than just say them

Available for the iPhone for free.

greenMeter

The greenMeter application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to analyze the environmental impact of your driving practices. The app also provides tips on how to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and cost by moderating acceleration and choosing more efficient cruising speeds. Though reviewers dispute that the software “pays for itself within 1-2 tanks of gas,” the technology is so cool it warrants a test run.

Available for the iPhone for $5.99.

Clean Energy Fuel Finder

Do you fill your car with compressed or liquefied natural gas? The Clean Energy Fuel Finder app can help you find the closest service stations and even uses GPS to provide directions.

Available for the iPhone for free.

Light Bulb Finder

Easily switch from conventional to energy-saving light bulbs with the Light Bulb Finder, an app that helps you compare the costs, savings, and environmental impact of different bulbs.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

Google Maps

It’s not technically a “green app,” but Google Maps can help you find the most direct driving route, as well as cut back on all that fuel wasted on getting lost. Plus, the Android version includes biking directions to keep cyclists on the safest routes.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint appeared first on EcoSalon.

Apps for a happier stomach.

Mobile apps are handy for a lot of things: navigating a city, staying on a budget, finding home design inspiration, taking pornographic photos of food. But what about helping you live healthier? These seven healthy eating apps are up to the task. And don’t worry: at EcoSalon, we enjoy our food, so no dieting apps allowed.

Foodtree

With the tagline “Know More, Eat Better,” Foodtree aims to educate consumers about where their food comes from, as well as highlight restaurants and markets with responsible sourcing practices. The app also has a collaborative element: anyone can upload photos and tag them with location and sourcing information.

App available for the iPhone for free. 

Locavore

Find out what fruits and veggies are in season with the Locavore app, which then directs you to nearby farms and farmers’ markets where you can purchase locally-grown produce. On top of that, you can browse recipes incorporating said fruits and veggies for a true farm to table experience.

App available for iPhone and Android for free.

Love Food Hate Waste

Those leftovers have been sitting in your fridge for quite some time now. Give them a second life with the Love Food Hate Waste app. Just key your ingredients into the “Recipe Blender” and the app will generate meal suggestions from a database of more than 350 recipes.

App available for iPhone and Android for free.

Seafood Watch

A project of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Seafood Watch application helps you make sustainable seafood decisions at local restaurants and markets. The interface allows you to sort seafood by “best choice,” “good alternative,” or “avoid,” plus it highlights recommended “super green” seafood.

App available for iPhone for free.

Harvest

The Harvest App helps you choose the freshest, best-tasting fruits and veggies by providing tips and techniques for picking out high-quality produce. The app also indicates pesticide residue levels for each type of produce, which can be helpful when deciding between organic and conventional.

App available for iPhone for $1.99.

VegOut

If you’re a vegetarian, you probably know how difficult it is to eat out. Powered by HappyCow.net, VegOut provides an extensive searchable listing of vegan, vegetarian, and vegetarian-friendly restaurants – plus, it’s location-based.

App available for iPhone for $2.99.

iGrowIt

If our urban gardening series has inspired some planting action of your own this spring, this app can help you figure out exactly what you can plant at a given time. Not only that, but it also provides detailed planting instructions and recipes you can use once your seedlings have sprouted.

App available for iPhone for $0.99.

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From home renovations to inspiration, here are twenty apps for beautifying your shelter.

The Apple app library’s treasure trove of design and interior related offerings is endless. It’s rather like delving into Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders, except it will cost you $.99 on up. Before your device’s memory becomes a cluttered closet of no return, here are twenty apps to get you started on reorganizing. Just as there is a pantone color fit for every surface, there is also an app to help you find it.  

Eco Modern Kitchen:

Winner of the 2011 Eco Design App Award, this app is focused on environmentalism, eco-friendly design, as well as sustainable and renewable materials. (Cost: $4.99)

Remodelista

View the latest Remodelista posts, browse by category, and shop. Includes a bookmarking feature for storing and managing favorite posts. The Wall Street Journal says, “For designing your home while away from home, the Remodelista app offers a wealth of resources to help take your vision on the go.” (Cost: Lite app version is free; go ad-free for $2.99)

Houzz

The Houzz app includes more than 325,000 original photographs from 55,000 architects, interior designers, photographers, contractors, and other remodeling pros. Fully sortable, perfect for organizing idea books. You can also use the app to find an interior designer locally (Cost: free)

House Plant 411

Perfect for the houseplant murderers among you, as well as those whose hands are blessed with green appendages. Take the House Plant 411 app with you while you shop to find the best plants for every dark and sun-infused corner of your home. (Cost: $3.99)

Dwell

Fresh, smart coverage of modern architecture and design in the palm of your hand. The Dwell App features videos, slideshows, editorial, as well as Facebook and Twitter integration. We predict Pinterest will be added soon enough. (Cost: free)

Fab.com

Fab is now the top rated shopping app for design inspiration and jaw-dropping sales on home décor and art. (Cost: free, plus earn credits while you shop)

Airbnb

Already touted as a compatibility tool, consider the Airbnb app a valuation one. Find out how much your space is worth and earn some cash by renting it out. Also book worldwide accommodations, including last minute lodging. (Cost: free)

Mood Board

Use the Moodboard app for creating inspiration boards. Each board is a blank canvas for organizing what inspires you. Add photos, text and color swatches, then redecorate accordingly. (Cost: $9.99)

Color Pulse

Benjamin Moore’s annual color forecast for 2012 is centered on the idea of Preservation, colors that encourage us “to move forward towards a kaleidoscopic vision for a sustainable future,”
 the company explains. (Cost: $24.99)

ColorChange

This app lets you to take any image and manipulate the colors within said image to help you to visualize what a room, landscape, person, or object would look like in a different color. (Cost: $2.99)

My Pantone

Pantone is the international language of color. Instead of trying to communicate a hue with obscure references only you understand, reference a Pantone color with the help of this handy app. It’s conceptually on target, though it has received some mixed reviews since its inception three years ago. Included are over 13,000 Pantone colors for creating custom palettes for renovation or inspiration. (Cost:: $9.99)

Doors!

Doors displays a slideshow of gorgeous, hand-crafted, envy inducing doors from all over the world. That’s all. (Cost: $2.99)

Fontify

There’s painting by numbers and sketching with fonts. Fontify the app lets you do the latter. (Cost: free)

Go Design

A sleek and common sense productivity app for professional interior designers seeking to access and organize projects on the go. (Cost: $9.99)

Dream Home

Integrate the latest interior design trends into your home, sourcing inspiration from hundreds of photos, colors, styles and room types. (Cost: $.99)

Mark on Call

Created by interior designer Mark Lewison, Mark On Call the app is the equivalent of designing your own personal product showroom with the help of an on-call interior designer. (Cost: $1.99)

DIY Home Color 

This app lets you change and match a color of home decoration. (Cost: $.99)

Handy Man DIY

A home improvement planner cum app designed to assist you in renovating your home. It provides all the mundane information you need to complete a gorgeous new project, figuring out the math on paint, flooring and measurements. (Cost: $1.99)

Renovation Budget Tracker

Renovation Budget Tracker purports that it will save you money on your next home renovation by allowing you to create categories and keep track of how much is spent. (Cost: $2.99)

Omni Focus

By far the most comprehensive task management system on the market today. Pricey, but well worth it for managing projects on any front (home, work, mental). Also allows location-aware task lists, and on-the-fly task entry with voice notes and image attachments. (Cost: $39.99)

Goop

Poor Gwyneth gets dealt a lot of crap, but her sense of style is anything but. The next time you go on the prowl for that perfect something for your abode, take goop with you. (Cost: $3.99. Shopping by Paltrow: worth every penny)

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