BOSTON — Most shoppers, even label lovers, agree that clothing doesn't give you a great return on your investment, only your sense of style.

To stay stylish in this rugged economy, people are turning more to secondhand clothing.

Sam Hollister is a realtor by trade, but her passion is finding great shopping deals. She found a consignment shop in her neighborhood a few years ago and boasts that 60 percent of her clothing is used. She says she turns over her collection by bartering.

Hollister said, "If I sell a 300-dollar dress I am probably only getting less than 100 dollars for it, but I use that credit to buy another dress so it is kind of like operating at zero, which is great."

The Closet on Newbury Street has been in business for 34 years. Kevin Kish started the business in his living room and explains how the process works today.

Kish said, "It is good to have an appointment. Once someone does that, we ask them to bring in their 15 best pieces. We price it for them and mail checks every month."

The question everyone wants to know is how much can they make.

Kish said, "The contract says we set the price, but we do listen to our consigners. We don't want them walking away or being upset with the clothing that we sell."

Generally, an article of clothing sells for half or a third of the original price. If the item doesn't sell in 30 days the price drops by 25 percent and 50 percent after 60 days.

Each consignment shop offers different deals. The Closet gives you half the sale price, while Second Time Around writes a check to the consigner for 40 percent of the profit.

Another option for the cost conscious shopper is to rent a dress for a Friday night party. A company out of Harvard Business School called Rent the Runway came up with the idea.

Rent the Runway allows women to rent designer dresses and accessories starting at $40 for dresses and $10 for accessories. Letitia Tandean is a BU Student and an RTR Rep.

Tandean said, "I know a lot of college students and I know we can't get a new dress every week. It is a way to expand your wardrobe without really expanding it."

Tandean doesn't get paid in dollars but credit toward a free rental.

Tandean said, "If we get girls to sign up we get dress credits and if we get a girl to rent a dress we get more credits."

RTR lets you rent the dresses for 4 or 8 days. You don't have to dryclean it once you are done — just pop it in a mailbox.

If you don't want to share the profit with a consignment shop, you can also try your luck with eBay. However, it is very important to post photos that really show off the clothing and provide a quality description. The better the photos you post, the greater the profit. You should share your eBay links on Facebook and Twitter to publicize what you are selling.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The sky is spitting snow in Brattleboro, Vermont. But people are staying warm indoors at the weekly winter farmer’s market, where local growers are selling food they've grown specially for sale in the coldest months of the year.

Anthony Girard of Higley Hill Farm is hawking an emerald-green salad mix. “Spinach, claytonia, beet greens and endive in it. We have two different types of mustard greens,” Girard said.

Fresh spinach sold by Dwight Miller Orchards at the Brattleboro, Vermont Winter Farmer's Market.  (Photo by Nancy Eve Cohen)

Girard has flipped the traditional growing season upside down by planting in September inside a greenhouse. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that things stay alive as they are,” Girard said.
 
Farmer Emily Amana is at a nearby booth. “It’s year-round income for farmers, which is a pretty rare thing," Amana said.
 
Amana is selling pastured pork, grass-fed lamb and a colorful array of winter squash.
 
“I’m changing what I’m planting in the spring knowing that I’m going to have more of a marketing opportunity in the winter, a little more of storage winter crops,” Amana said.
 
The farmers say they’re responding to customer demand. About 800 people come here every week, including Cathy Wilkens, who wants local food.
 
“Got to have fresh spinach! Not trucked in from California,” Wilkens said.
 
John Levin just bought some potatoes and carrots. He likes knowing exactly where his food comes from. “I know all these people. A lot of them I’m buying food from past couple of years. It’s nice to have a personal connection,” Levin said.
 
Sherry Maher operates this market. She says four years ago it ran only until December.
 
“This year the decision is every week. People want it and they’re coming. So we’re here every week through March 26th,” Maher said.

Desmond Peeples from Dwight Miler Orchards bags spinach at the Brattleboro, VT Winter Farmer's market (Nancy Cohen/Environmnetal Hub)

In New Hampshire, the number of winter markets more than doubled since last year. There are 13 now. Vermont has 20 and New York has about 40. In Maine, the number has practically quadrupled. 

The push for winter sales is also coming from the federal government. “Usually you think of Thanksgiving as a time to celebrate the harvest. I want it to be much later than that,” said Kathleen Merrigan, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
The agency is pushing the harvest ahead by funding the construction of special greenhouses, known as “hoop” houses, that rely on sunlight and insulation to keep crops warm.
 
“This allows farmers to extend their growing season particularly up in the northeast, people can grow year round in a hoop house. You can certainly keep crops in the soil for a very long time,” Merrigan explained.
 
The USDA has invested more than $3 million so far in the Northeast, building these greenhouses on nearly 400 farms, including some in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.  
 
In Hartford, the winter market also gives a boost to farmers who sell cheese, fresh eggs and meat.
 
“Hot, sweet, chorizo, smoked, smoked hot, smoked sweet. We do a Bratwurst,” said David Finn, of Eaglewood Farm. He's selling sausage and, as he puts it, anything that comes from a pig or a cow at three winter markets.

Fresh carrots grown in a greenhouse at Higley Hill Farm in Wilmington, Vermont. (Nancy Cohen/Environmental Hub)

“It keeps me alive. I’ve got to feed the animals year round. Try doing that with no income!” Finn said.
 
Besides keeping Finn’s farm going, winter markets also keep his farm workers employed. “In years past they all got laid off in the winter time. There was no work. Now they work year round,” Finn said.
 
But selling at a winter farmer’s market is not for everyone. Jon Cohen runs Deep Meadow Farm in Westminster Vermont. 

He is also Executive Director of the Vermont Farmer’s Market Association. He sells at markets through the end of December, but that’s it.
 
“We need to have down time. We need to stop,” Cohen said. “To turn around and have to do this again for a winters market... now things are freezing in the barn. We really got to keep on top of the product, make sure it’s kept well. So by the end of December, when its really getting cold it’s enough! But God bless those people who keep going!”
 
Farmers from long ago might have also found these winter markets a little over-the-top. But now, maybe the markets are just an example of Yankee ingenuity and the ability to adapt. 

It's difficult in early April in Boston not to notice the weather. Or the sun. Or the warmth. Or, by extension, all the attention that’s paid to nature, the environment and sustainability — especially as the 40th anniversary of Earth Day draws near.

Which got me to thinking, what’s the ecological footprint of a wine drinker?

With so much talk these days about reducing carbon footprints, I’ve started a list of the wine industry’s carbon-related risks and opportunities. Here are a few, along with some thoughts on what they may mean for you.

    * Consider the distance a bottle of wine travels from the winery to your doorstep. In many wineries, you’ll notice palettes of empty glass bottles wrapped in plastic and stamped with the Saint-Gobain label; those bottles will be filled with the next vintage. Saint-Gobain is a manufacturer of much of the flat glass used to make wine bottles around the world. But they’re based in France and, given the less favorable conversion rate of dollar to Euro right now, glass from Saint-Gobain is becoming prohibitively expensive. So wineries are investigating cheaper options, such as importing glass from China — which means the bottles will have to travel even farther to get to your door.

    * Cork recycling is a growing practice throughout the US. Yemm & Hart Green Materials in Marquand, MO, for example collects corks and recycles them into other products including wine cork tiles. An organization called Korks 4 Kids, a division of Recycle Corks USA based in York, PA, collects corks and donates the proceeds to children’s charities. For a different twist on reusing your corks, Chuck Draghi, of Erbaluce and formerly of No. 9 Park in Boston, suggested adding corks to an oven (that’s less than 500 degrees) to give a woodsy aroma to roast chicken.

    * Consider whether the vineyards were farmed organically. Were they processed at an organic facility? Investigate wine lists, and ask sommeliers and shop owners for their recommendations of organic wine. Many wine shops set aside a section for “green” wines, and more and more restaurants feature lists of biodynamic and sustainably-farmed wines.

    * According to an article in the Quarterly Review of Wines, Spring 2008, Bonny Doon winery will start printing the full list of their wines’ ingredients on labels. Starting with the 2007 whites and 2006 reds, QRW wrote, the Santa Cruz producer’s wines will sport new back-labels detailing growing stratagems (e.g. biodynamic), added preservatives (e.g. sulfur dioxide), yeast types (e.g. indigenous or organic) and fining agents (e.g. Bentonite).

As awareness of organic farming has grown, so has the quality of those grapes. As technology for organic processing methods has advanced, so has the taste of the wine. That’s good news for wine drinkers and, more and more, for the environment as well.