I am in Cafayat, Salta Argentina, the highest known area for wine production in the Northern Region of Argentina. Michel Torino has a line of wines called CUMA, a Malbec, Cabernet, and a Torrontes. The wines are exceptional specially the Torrontes, we will be featuring this line at Taranta as a part of our new all Organic, Biodynamic and Sustainable Farming wine list. The wine is certified organic, no pesticides, no herbicides, all the fertilization is natural.

We are featuring Fonseca “Terra Bella” Organic Port, to continue our greening process we started to select few organic and Bio products. Terra Bella is a new port made with organically grown grapes and fortified with organically grown brandy from Fonseca. It’s vibrantly fruity, the glowing purple liquid edged with peppery spice. It’s intense enough to be dessert in itself. Enjoy!

A video explaining how we recycle our cooking oil.

Mayor Menino awarded Chef Jose Duarte for his efforts on greening his restaurant and his leadership within the industry. Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Second Annual Green Business Awards was given to businesses located in the City of Boston that demonstrated extraordinary performance related to sustainable environmental, practices, such as water conservation, solid waste reduction, the promotion of alternative transit, energy conservation and on-site renewable energy production.

We are so happy to have completed a long sizing, testing and installation process of our Tankless water heaters. Back in January our 100 Gal AO Smith Tank water heater broke, no guarantee, and it was installed 3 1/2 years ago. The cost of replacing a similar tank was way over 10K. We then started research on what can we install that is Energy Efficient and Environmentally friendly. We found TAKAGI, a Japanese company, with commercial applications of the product. Takagi USA did a sizing based on our hot water demand and concluded that we needed 2 TM199, self combustion to supply enough hot water. We contacted a plumber certified by Takagi and he insisted that we only needed 1 TM-1 unit, and that was going to be sufficient, unit was installed and we did not get enough flow, plumber was negligent and I fired him. Then we got Takagi involved and a different plumber and they recommended 3 TK-3, we just installed them and we have plenty of hot water. During the time the TM1 was in place we saved about $150 monthly comparing to last year’s gas bill. We are also receiving a $300 rebate per unit from Keyspan. The cost of installing the equipment was less than replacing the AO Smith, and we will be saving at least 40% more gas than running a tank.  For more information visit www.takagi.com

Amount of glass, metal and plastic recycled from Sept 07 to March 21 08= 22,300 lbs.

Amount of Cardboard recycled from Sept 07 to March 08= 3,710 lbs

Amount of Food Waste (Compost) from Nov 2007 to March 21 08= 12,400 lbs

Amount of Non Recyclable, non compost material “Garbage” from Sep 07 to March 21 08= 390 lbs

Before implementing our composting and recycling all was going to a landfill, now we have reduced our garbage production to 1.01% and we are hoping to continue reduction by using biodegradable PLA cling wrap as soon as it comes to the market, right now we are using normal plastic wrap and it is what is filling most of our garbage as it is very difficult to recycle. We will make an entry at the end of the year to make an accurate yearly calculation on all the results. If you have any questions on how this was figured out, let me know. We use the EPA calculator, in addition to those numbers we also calculated and determined the following per year savings;

Volume composted = 127,400 lbs per year

Total Annual Energy Savings from Composting 10.19

Metric tons of CO2 equivalent saved = 44.1o

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 3,847

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 422.28

Recycling - Cardboard

Volume recycled per year = 3.12 Tons

Total Annual Energy Savings - Cardboard = 14,629.68 KWh

Metric tons of CO2 Equivalent saved = 11.40

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 1,291

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 141.71

Co-Mingled (Mainly Glass) Recycling

Volume recycled per year = 34,320 lbs per year

Total Annual Energy Savings - Glass = 13,573.56 KWh

Metric Tons CO2 Equivalent Saved = 10.60

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 1,198

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 131.50

The result of Composting and Recycling per year at Taranta has help the reduction of Carbon emissions. The total amount of Metric Tons CO2 Equivalent Saved is 66.10 only by composting and recycling. Amount of gasoline saved 6,336 gal, and 695 trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius.

Taranta will join Earth Hour 2008, we will turn essential lighting in our restaurant from 8 pm to 9 pm on Saturday March 29th. Many cities and businesses worldwide will be participating in an effort to curve global warming. www.earthhour.org

We are featuring 100% Arabica “Guglielmo” brand “Caffe da agricoltura biologica” certified by Bioagricert, we are happy to find an Italian Espresso coffee that is organic. We are looking for some whole roasted grains to continuing grinding or espresso bean, in the meantime will use Guglielmo. www.caffeguglielmo.it

Article in The New York Times about green restaurants quoting Taranta and our green efforts. February 13th 2008 Written by Florence Fabricant.