You’ve done the fancy dinners, the opulent hotels and waiters who sneer at you when you can’t pronounce a foreign food correctly. How about trying to green your date night? Here are some green date ideas...
Go stargazing: there are few things more romantic than cozying up under the stars. In Gauteng, both Maropeng and Aloe Ridge Hotel offer dinner and stargazing packages, though these can be a bit costly. Sutherland in the Western Cape is well known for its observatory and clear skies. If a guided stargazing evening is not your cup of tea you can always head for somewhere outside a city where there is less light pollution. If you want to impress your date with your knowledge of astronomy you can always use a mobile stargazing app to let him or her think you are Galileo.
Cook together: unless your are prone to Gordon Ramsay like fits of rage, cooking together is romantic and allows you to select green ingredients. Personally, these vegan chocolate truffles sound like winners.
Make your own Earth Hour: green campaigners around the world focused heavily on the environmental impact of turning all lights off for earth hour but many missed the most obvious practical implication – the possibility of a romantic candle-lit night for two. You score extra points if you can serenade your significant other with an acoustic guitar. Subtract points if you attempt acoustic Megadeath on date night.
Organic wine tasting: wine tasting is usually limited to estates, events or wine clubs but that doesn’t mean you can’t purchase a few bottles and have your own tasting at home. Laibach produce some decent organic wines that you can pair with chocolate, ice-cream or other delicious treats. A word of caution: there are two of you so perhaps you shouldn’t open all the bottles at once. Unless your date is impressed by table-dancing and shouting “woo-hoo” whenever any new songs plays.
Make your own gifts: the reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, gifts such as jewellery are often made from materials mined in less-than-savoury conditions. Secondly, they are expensive. Bake some treats, make a bird house, decorate a pot plant or if you are genetically predisposed to break anything you try build, find a farmers market and purchase something that you could pass off as something you made.