Earth Day
Happy Earth Day to you all. Today just a few green thoughts about my part…
I recycle, reuse and re-purpose and I try not to by things that are packaged in such a way that they can not be. Its a pain in the ass, but I do it. Its not always possible (for me) but when I am shopping for our family, I do think more and more about where the packaging is going to go when the product is gone.
I try to not use disposable dinner items (plates, cups, flatware, napkins), not always because we entertain frequently and that means 20 to 50 people for a party and hey, I don’t even own enough dishes to accommodate that crowd. When it’s under 15ish, I use the real stuff.
I personally dry alot of my clothes on the hangers or decorate the patio furniture with it. I don’t like crunchy towels though. Anyone have a solution to that? Geez, that’s really not that impressive. Okay, I have work to do.
I have hens and we no longer have to trek to the market for eggs. They are so fresh and delicious with huge yolks that look like they are on steroids - I assure you they are not. With them I feel one step closer to eating locally. I read a quote last year from Riana’s blog at These Days in French Life that changed the way I think about eating locally, it’s a quote from a book I would like to read this summer called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingslover. She (Barbara) says “If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally & organically raised meats & produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels of oil every week…” That’s millions, with an “M”. That astonished and inspired me.
I have a small garden, actually most was lost recently with 105 heat wave followed by hurricane strength winds. But I will plant again this weekend when the weather is back to normal (80’s). I shop the farmers market (some). I make my own bread and am in the process of building a wood fired oven - a huge one out on the patio. I cook from scratch. I can not throw out a chicken carcass. I need therapy.
Not everyone wants to do all that. They don’t want to garden or don’t like to cook or don’t have time. But some easy things anyone can do is to stop buying what you don’t need - and not wasting what you have bought (both genious and original don’t you think). I really try to freeze leftovers or re-invent them. Scraps go to chickens, cats and dogs or into chicken stock and soup bases. I dream of composting.
These are just some things and believe me I didn’t break my arms patting myself on the back (haha) - I still drive too much, but my daughter goes to school 20ish miles from my home and I think about home schooling her, but… augh, it is still a struggle for me. I also own too many cars. That are not fuel efficient. But they are paid for and the thought of turning in a gas guzzler for a car payment and some gas savings is not money well spent either and while GM might appreciate and encourage me to do that, I can’t imagine that getting rid of something that works perfectly well to replace it with something newer and slightly more efficient is a good environmental solution. I’ve done the math on this.
I am the kind of person who sets a huge and unrealistic goal for myself, then when I can’t meet it I end up in the fetal position in a dark closet for a week trying to figure out my personal failures and wondering what in the hell that smell is in the hamper and by the way, who’s gonna do that laundry? So perhaps it will be viewed by some as a cop-out when I say that I set a simple garden goal for myself (a new gardener) that I try to apply to other aspects of my life as well. In the garden I want to plant more each season than I did the season before (to simple?). This way I always learn and grow. And I don’t beat myself up for not doing more. Because I did more than last season. And I do more than anyone I personally know. Last year (my first garden) I had tomatoes, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, watermelon and strawberries. This year I want to add eggplants, lettuces, corn, tomatillos, artichokes, beans, peas, leeks, potatoes and onions as well. My beds will not accommodate that harvest though, so I will be selective and I will reclaim more garden area so I can have all those things next season. We also have fruit trees (like 15 or more). I would like to plant kiwi and grapes. In the future I would like to have a garden that keeps me out of the market place. I would like to make all of our pantry items and eliminate processed foods from our diets. I would like to eat local and raise most of the fruit, veggies and herbs that we consume. I want my daughters to learn that the market is where you go for ingredients, for staples, not dinner. I do not want to buy bread or tortillas anymore and today I mixed up a sour dough starter (again) in anticipation of my new oven and being liberated from the bread isle of the market.
Oh, and I put some candles and water in the closet, for my impending week long stay…
