Bags, bags, everywhere!

I realised this morning that, as I'm still figuring out the schematics of this blog, I haven't been able to make the postings that exciting.  Hmm...  Bear with me, here, as I am certain that things will work themselves out over time.  I hope! :)

***

I used to go walking in the woods, and remember coming across interesting things that reminded me that I was not the first person to come this way - a stray beer can or wrapper of some sort - and even old trash piles that someone had started when s/he lived nearby long ago.  I even remember coming across an old Radio Flyer wagon, which was not too worse for wear, and which, after much laughter from my friend Nate Brown, I successfully lugged over hill and dale to my car and took it home.

In fact, in Archaeology, we love old trash piles - it tells us so much about historical people - probably more than they would have liked, although we can't rightly ask them now, can we?

This was sort of the prompting for this week's project - I wanted to limit the waste coming out of our house and going into the landfill.  I remember learning that there are no longer any active landfills in the Chicagoland area - that all of our waste - and what a lot there is - is hauled up to Wisconsin.  What a big mess!

And, frankly, I don't really want people to know that much about me.  We shred important documents, so this is a sort of garbage shredding, I suppose.

Yesterday, Olivia and I got out the Whole Foods bags (which are very useful for sorting recyclables) and started sorting.  We ended up with quite a few:

We have three types of "paper" bags - newsprint, slick/junk mail, and office paper.  There is one bag for metal & glass, but the majority is plastics!  Olivia especially enjoyed finding the little recycle triangle and determining the number nested within.  She would then find the appropriately-labeled bag, and drop the item in.

The fullest bag so far (and by far) is the "?" bag, which has all of those plastics not labeled with a recycling number.  One of them even has a little note which encourages recycling, but no number - hmm...

We've also begun our "compost" bucket, which, in reality, is full of anything that is biodegradable.  In a true compost pile, there would be no meat products, but we've got some bits in there now.  I've also chucked in tissues and paper things that can't be truly recycled - like tea bag packages - the plastic on those can't be composted, but most of the paper can:

Don't look to closely, or you'll see the kale that I bought but neglected to remember to cook until it was too yellow to eat.  Sorry, kale.

So far, our non-biodegradable waste (recycling & the waste bin, which includes everything we can't stick anywhere else) has much more volume than our biodegradable waste.  Which, in a way, is good, as we are wasting less food than we could be.  However, it also brings into focus how much packaging we use.  In thinking back to those rubbish piles I encountered in the woods, I rarely recall seeing plastic yogurt cups or wrappers from 100-calorie packs of cookies.  There were maybe a few broken glass bottles of some sort of tonic and some broken dishes, but not much else.  Of course, this didn't encompass an entire life's rubbish, but my weekly throw-out is much MUCH more than it would have been one hundred or even fifty years ago!

How does this relate to food?  Well, I think I'll talk about that a bit more tomorrow.  I hear little feet.

This Week's Challenge - RECYCLE IT

I'd like to say with perfect certainty that I create less waste than the average American.  According to some analysts, we produce over 4 pounds of garbage per person per day!  But while I do sort out my garbage when it's convenient (rinsing cans & flattening cereal boxes is easy), it's really a haphazard sort of recycling.  Anything that looks like it can be recycled gets chucked in the recycle bin, and hauled to our local Whole Foods Market, which offers recycling dumpsters. 

Where it goes after that, God only knows, because I know that there are things in there that can't be truly recycled.  In fact, I must also admit that I don't always rinse my cans.  So I feel a bit guilty about the poor souls who are employed to sort through the recycling mess, presuming that it even is sorted through!  In this way, I absolve myself of some of the guilt for using so much packaging in the first place.

Which brings us to this week's challenge.  The City of Chicago offers a recycling center - of the true kind, where you have to sort the colors of your glass and toss them in huge train car-sized receptacles - which we used to frequent when we lived in the City.  It's a bit out-of-the way of our usual habits, but I think we will be taking a trip there this week to see exactly what can be recycled - and what can't.

Here are our rules:

1.  Any waste that is intended to be tossed out must first go through a rigorous sorting process:

• Can it be reused?  (Glass jars are great to re-use for projects & painting & even as glasses.  We will not be reusing plastic containers, though.*)  If so, wash it out (if necessary), and put it away.
  
• If not, can it be recycled?  (Check list on 'fridge for those plastics - like #5 - that can't be recycled by local services.)  If so, chuck it in the recycling bin.
  
• If not, can it be composted?  (This includes paper like tissues that can't be recycled.  This does not include animal products, except egg shells.)  If so, chuck it in the compost bucket.**
• If not, then it has to be pitched.  So, pitch it in the wastebin. 

2.  We will be measuring at the end of the week (which is admittedly short, as we have a wedding out-of-state to attend on Friday) each waste bin and sharing the results.

3.  This also applies to larger objects - for instance, we have an infant car seat that we no longer need but don't want to sell - anyone need it?  Or know anyone who does?  We can't toss it, and we'd much rather give it to someone who will use it.

4.  We have one more - and maybe the most difficult - part of this challenge - that is to reduce the amount of packaging that enters our house in the first place.  While at the grocery, we will have to check to see what sort of packaging the food is coming in.  Although plastic is a miracle of science, it is derived from oil, which is becoming more of a limited resource (to which our petrol bill can attest), and it is not as stable as glass, and can leach exciting and unexpected things into the food it is containing.  If there are alternatives, such as bulk, we will try to take them!

Wish us luck!!

Applesauce!

So I've made my first batch of applesauce - and I've canned it - in jars...  Hmm... that's a silly juxtaposition.

This is my first shot at this sort of thing, as I'm usually more of an instant-gratification chef - with tasty things like pies.  And crisps.  And more pies.

They are lovely and cooling on my windowsill.  And yes, there are only two.  Like I said, this is my first attempt.  I spilled about half a jar into the sink while I was filling it last night - man, applesauce can get hot - and then of course there was the fact that our dear organic apples were full of worms.  :(  We had to dump more than half of them into the wastebin...

Which leads me to my burning question - how much of an apple can you eat, if it's been invaded by little worms?

***

Here's our recipe for applesauce:

A bunch of apples, cored & sliced, but not peeled (I like the peel)
A big, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid
A stove

1. Turn on your stove to medium, put the pot on the burner, and add your apples
2. Once the pot is hot, and all the apples are in, turn the burner down to low
3. Simmer.  A LOT.  Stir occasionally.  We cooked ours all day long - maybe 3 hours total, but with lots of resting in between, as we had to go out to do errands.
   
4. Meanwhile, wash & rinse your jars & lids.  Our tap water is ridiculously hot, so we forwent (is that the past tense of "forgo"?) boiling the jars, although I probably should have, in order to kill all the bacteria.  Although I imagine we'll consume these jars pretty quickly.
5. Once your applesauce is nice and mushy, add it to your hot jars.  The jars have to be hot so they don't crack when you add the hot mixture.
6. Fill the jars to the top, leaving a bit of head room.  Smash the applesauce a bit throughout the jar with a spatula or spoon to get the air bubbles out.
7. Stick your lids on, and then screw the ring on.  I think at this point you are supposed to put them in a canner - although I don't know what that is.  I simply left them on the stove (since they were too hot of the counter) until they cooled enough to make a vacuum.  Then I cooled them overnight.

So we shall see how well they keep.  Any canning pointers?

Up next:  Apple pies!

Mission: Accomplished

So we've spent this week abstaining from eating fast food - no quick trips anywhere, except once or twice to the grocery to pick up little bits.  It was actually a lot easier that I had anticipated, since we were doing it as a family.  I realised that much of my logic for eating out was that Nathan was doing it, too, so why couldn't I?  Not so mature, but that's where I was, nonetheless.

We will be trying it again this week to see how it works.  It really is simply a matter of planning - making sure that there will be enough left over from dinner for Nathan to take to work the next day, making sure that there are enough raw materials for breakfast (fast or slow, depending on how late we sleep), and enough snacks for the girls and I throughout the day (as we usually graze our way through to dinner).

We've also been able to consult on some of the other weekly challenges we want to try.  I thought I'd share them here, to see if anyone had any other ideas, or if you've tried any of these yourself:

1. Waste Not Week - we will be measuring our waste, both organic and inorganic, for one week.  We will see how much trash we produce, and how much we can recycle or compost or the like.  Any ideas about how we can compost without earth?
2. It's Electric (boogey woogie woogie) Week - We will be seeing how little electricity we can use.  We will try to have lights out at dusk, so that we can naturally fall asleep, and plan our days around this.  Also, we will try to limit our computer/television use during the day.
   
3. Water Water Everywhere Week - We will practice the art of washing dishes as frugally as possible (we don't have a dishwasher anyway), by not letting the water run (which is my usual method).  We may also dabble a bit into the method of washing popular in Japan, in which a little water is used to scrub and rinse, and after which one tub of hot water is used by the family to soak.

(photo courtesy of Cedric Sam on Flickr)

I had a few more ideas, but I can't remember them now.  Basically, the goal is to gradually make the life we want to be living by adopting new lifestyles one at a time.  We shall see how it goes!

The Story of Stuff

While we are NOT eating out, I thought I'd take a minute to share with you one of my favorite videos, which explains some of the philosophies we've adopted in making life choices for our family.  It's called "The Story of Stuff" and it's created and narrated by Annie Leonard.  While some may find the underlying political motives of the film a bit unnerving, there are still many salient and valid points regarding consumer culture.  I hope you enjoy it!

My FAVORITE PART is the ending, where she offers solutions!  Hooray!  I'm so tired of doomsday predictions - I want to know what I can DO to help!

This Week's Challenge - NOT EATING OUT

Budgeting $100 a week for food is tough.  Especially when, like our family, you can't imagine your week going by without at least one trip to Starbucks.  Or Panera.  Or a quick drive through Dunkin' Donuts.  Or just one milkshake at Steak'n'Shake.  Or (and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it) McDonalds.

Part of me thought that it would be an easy transition - $100/week, cold turkey.  No worries.  It actually worked for the first week I tried it.  I even had $5 left over.  Wow!

But then, the next week came, and the pantry supplies had dwindled and there were a lot of errands on my to-do list...  Not that I'm making excuses.  I'm simply sharing those hurdles which I am going to have to overcome, one by one.

SO - our challenge for this week is [drumroll...]:

NOT EATING OUT (out out out)!!!

We've made a pact as a family to not do it - to eat only food that we've prepared at home - no quick trips anywhere - coffee with cream from home.  Breakfast at home.  Lunch at home.  Snacks at home.  Dinners at home.

I'll be posting recipes to let you know how this goes!

So far, we've made a big pot of beans and a big pot of rice, which we've eaten whenever we get hungry.  We've a bag of frozen chicken in the freezer, and assorted greens in the fridge...  We'll see what creative things we come up with!

Lists and Galoshes

Yesterday, it rained.  All over the place.  The entire world (as far as I could see) was wet.

Nathan had taken the car to work in the morning, so we had stayed home and played and piddled around.  I hung up laundry.  Olivia played nest.  Elsie crawled, bit apples, and slept.  My friend Corinne came over to hang out (and do dishes - hooray!).  It was getting late, and dinner time was approaching.  So I looked in the pantry.  And then the refrigerator.

Nothing was ready to eat.  Hmph.

Not only that, but we were out of onions.

(This may not seem a huge dilemma to you non onion-loving friends out there - wherever you may be - but it is a big problem for those of us who love them.  Especially if the menu is, by necessity, beans and rice.)

So we had to go to the store.  In the rain.

Corinne had driven over, and the store was only four blocks away.  She suggested I take her car and go.  But I had two fussy children who needed to get out of the house.  So I strapped Elsie in her baby carrier and stuck Olivia in her waterproof stroller.  I donned my knee-high galoshes and coerced Corinne to leave the comfort of our dry house and strike out with us into the wide wet world.

The walk there was mildy wet - not too much precipitation from the sky.  Olivia fell asleep and Elsie chewed on her carrier.

My plan was to get onions.  And maybe some green beans for Nathan's lunch.

Herein lies the problem - never say "maybe" when writing the grocery list.  And... write a list.  I hadn't.  In my rush to play in the puddles, I had left without a list.  And there I was, in the beautiful produce section of Whole Foods, surrounded by seasonal and local fruits and veggies - some on sale.  It was a terrible sight to behold.  Terrible and wonderful...

So I got green beans.  And some fresh figs on sale.  And some goat cheese on sale.  And some grass-fed stew beef on sale.  And lord knows what else on sale.  I even remembered the onions.

In the end, I had two paper grocery bags filled with tasty items, and had spent over half of my $100 budget for the week.  Man, this is going to be tough!

When we left the store, it was pouring.  The stroller had no storage underneath, but a clear cover that kept Olivia dry.  We propped her up (still sleeping) and put two of the grocery bags behind her in the stroller (which was reclined).  She leaned back on them and rested - and went back to sleep.  Corinne carried the third bag (which was hers).  I had Elsie in the carrier, an umbrella in one hand, the stroller handle in my other hand, and galoshes.  It was brilliant!  But, as we walked home, it got pourier, and even my galoshes weren't enough to keep my spirits buoyant.  We arrived home, soaking wet - Corinne in flip-flops!  But the girls and the groceries were dry, and once we were in dry clothes, we went about warming the house up.

Soon, our little apartment was filled with the warm light of lamps and the scent of brown basmati rice cooking.  The sound of rain on tree leaves came in through the slightly-opened windows and the gentle rattle and hiss of the pressure cooker soon filled the house.  We gradually tidied up, and rested and played while dinner cooked.  It was really quite lovely.  We fed Olivia her favorite - cold cubes of tofu and brown rice with "sauce" - and put her in a warm bath.  Elsie had nursed and was resting on the bed, barricaded by pillows.  Nathan came home around 8 PM, just in time for dinner to be ready, and we three grown-ups sat and chatted and ate collards, beans, and rice, with some cheese and locally-made Frontera salsa.  Mmm...

Tomorrow, I'll write a list.  But, for now, the onions made all the difference.

My House is a Mess

All right, all you perfectionists out there:  get ready to cringe at what you are about to read.

You know my house, where I live?  Yeah, well, it's a mess.

And I don't mean any bit of "oh, we played in the front room and there are blocks on the floor."  Please.  That is a mess for amateurs.

My mess is serious.

There are socks on the kitchen counter, next to an opened jar of almond butter with - get this - oil and almond butter dripping down the side, like some slow-mo avalanche.  Cabbage is slowly transforming itself into kimchee in my wastebin.

I've got a bag of cloth diapers - albeit clean - sitting in the dining room.  They'll stay there until I decide to fold them up and put them away.  And if last week was any indication, they'll be there until Tuesday.  Our dirty diapers go out Wednesday.

In the bedroom - clean clothes on the dresser in baskets.  Dirty clothes on the floor.  Sort of a general rule, only there is also a basket of clean laundry on the floor, patiently waiting for me to hang it up.  We're trying to save $$ & energy (but mostly money, I must admit) by hanging our clothes to dry inside on drying racks.  Olivia's shoes, which were missing since Monday, recently reappeared this morning, peeking out from underneath some transient clothes.

I don't even want to talk about paperwork.  At least I can see the desktop.  How is it that the littlest members of this human community generate more paperwork than they weigh?

From where I am sitting, I can see a partially-teethed teething biscuit, a clothespin, a baby monitor (which stopped working this morning - argh!), an empty bottle of oil of oregano tablets, a retractable pen, and a piece of popcorn which escaped after my husband made it - early last week.  All on the floor.  In grasping reach of my toddling 8 month-old.

So let's talk about getting everything right.  And let's be frank:  it doesn't happen.  Ever.  Sorry if you thought you were almost there.  There's always some sort of slip-up somewhere.

In many First Nations traditions, messing up is expected, even required.  A beadworker will purposely include a bead out of place - to show that she is merely a creation of the Creator, and not perfect.  That "mistake" is a token of her respect, an acknowledgment that she is a part of a whole - a larger community.

So this is what I'm working on right now, particularly with food, but also with raising a green family - adopting a posture of learning.  I'm tired of trying to fit into the city-slicker lifestyle of well-pressed, spotless, spray-on tight clothes.  I live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, and there always seems to be some sort of one-upmanship happening.  Even among friends.

It seems that, in the midst of a revolution, somebody looked up and asked, "do I look fat in this?"

I don't have time for this!  I've got children to raise!!  I've got ME to raise!!  I've got to learn about sustainable eating and spiritual awareness and social justice, for crying out loud!

Lord knows I don't even own a shirt without some sort of stain on it.  But it's not because I'm a slob - it's because it really doesn't matter.  I may be the frumpiest-looking mama on the block, and I can't recall when I last brushed my hair, but my kids are happy.  We're trying not to rush.  We're eating as best we know how, and we're growing.

I'm finished worrying about image and set on being authentic.  I'm in process.  Always.  I don't want to give a false pretense about how cool I want you to think I am.  Yesterday, I ate McDonald's.  But I'm trying, and that is what this life is all about!

Sorry about the rant, but I wanted to set the record straight.  Come on over, and expect a mess.  We'll talk about important issues, and we'll eat well.  You can even help me hang dry our laundry.

An Exercise in Sustainability

Sustainability is a hot word right now.  Rightly so, as it's a really cool concept:  make choices that consider not only your immediate circumstances but the long run as well.  It's like growing vegetables.  Or kids.  They're with you for at least a season (children even longer!), and so one must not only think about today's rain (or lack thereof) but also the weather tomorrow, and next week, and next month!  Holy cow, it's a lot of work.

In the Baha'i Writings, there are a few professions which are given special import.  Those working in the arts & sciences are praised, teachers and mothers are encouraged to give full appreciation of the work they provide, and farmers are recognised as providing a noble and vital service.

And yet only 1% of the population in the United States can profess to be a farmer!  Providing food for the rest of us!

This past weekend, we had the bounty of dropping in on an amazing family - Diana, Bryan & Rachel - owners of Nothing But Nature Farm in southwest Michigan.  I had researched online at Local Harvest [dot] org to find some localish places (one can only get so local in Chicagoland, where it takes a least an hour in any direction to find some dark sky at night) where we could go on our annual harvest trip that we take.  [Ever since before Olivia (our three year-old) was born, we would go out to Michigan and pick apples.  Once we had a baby, and became more aware of the import of knowing our food & thus our farmers, the trip became much more important.]

Sorry for all of the parentheses and brackets.  My grammar teacher would be appalled.

Where was I?  Oh, yes - Michigan.  I found this little farm online and the post invited any and all to come and check out their handiwork.  So we did.  Without calling.  We startled poor Diana & Bryan in the midst of putting up a greenhouse for their winter greens.  They told us that they had had a poor summer, with a drought in July and too much rain in August, and their poor little garden (which was at least an acre) had been sorely neglected.  What had grown was stunted and hidden amidst weeds.

However, valiant souls that they are, they hardly batted an eye and strode out with us to show us what they had.  Proud parents to dear Rachel (who was four years old and at school at the time), they knew just what to do with Olivia, and soon we were feeding the grass-fed cows by hand.  Diana and I chatted non-stop about minerals and plants and I learned some cool things about this little farm:

• Insects see in the infrared spectrum of light.  Whenever something is amiss in the natural world, particularly in plants, it glows infrared.  And the insects are drawn to it.  So if anything is out of balance in a crop, insects will be all over it.  Therefore, the role of the farmer is to provide the earth & plants what they need to come back into balance.  How, you may ask?
  

• Minerals.  Instead of pesticides/herbicides/fungicides, Diana and Bryan use minerals in the soil.  Mainly locally-mined calcium, but also unrefined sea salt, which is rich in at least 90 trace minerals.  The minerals are absorbed into the plants and we get to eat them.  Yum - talk about salt of the earth!
  

• Remember the feudal system and the three-crop rotation?  For some reason, that part of European History stuck with me.  In the same way, clever farmers are able to pair mutually beneficial plants, each which fixes different nutrients from the soil, to not only aid in growth but to also assist with pest prevention.  Apparently, onions are great at keeping rabbits away.  Brilliant!

My favorite part of this entire trip was the treasure hunt as Diana and I, with my eight month-old daughter Elsie tied on my back, tromped through their garden.  Heirloom vegetables, which have a greater genetic diversity and have not been bred into genetic corners, were peeking through the weeds.  We saw green lima beans and  pink okra, white zucchini and tiny purple peppers, orange winter squash and white tomatoes.  It was beautiful!!

And it's been tasty, too.  My favorite have been these yellow tomatoes that look a bit like lemons.

We petted free-range turkeys and chased chickens, and even stayed to dinner, where we ate burgers made out of last season's cow. :)  In the evening, loath to leave, we finally parted, after a quick but brief escape attempt by our three year-old:

Imagine if each of us had our own kitchen gardens...  But I'll talk about that later.  Right now, my fingers are freezing in the evening breeze - our internet's down and I'm at the local café.  So I'll leave with the thought of petting a free-range turkey:

Julie & Julia... of course

Well, dear friends, I'm certain that I'm not the first to be inspired by the story of Julie Powell, as told in the recent movie Julie & Julia, who took on a rather monumental task (the entirety of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year) and chronicled her adventures with a lovely, albeit rather sour-mouthed, blog (the Julie/Julie Project). 

BUT, in my own defense, it was not merely the viewing of this movie that inspired me, but a visit to a wonderful little farm in southwest Michigan, the Nothing but Nature Farm, coupled with the rather lengthy list of dietary rules that I've formulated over the past three years for our family, and a recent revisiting of our slim budget.  I've determined to write a blog that focuses on feeding the family a healthy diet on a rather un-healthy budget.  It can be done!  And YOU can do it!

SO, dear readers, here is my mission:  to cook whole, healthy, tasty organic food, to eat said food, and to tell you about it.  Hooray!

Of course, there are rather a few caveats:

• First of all, I have $100 a week to spend on ORGANIC groceries for a family of four.  
• Secondly, we have not a few dietary restrictions - no gluten & no cane sugar being the biggest - but also no yeast, low-dairy (except butter, which is wonderful), no chocolate (except for daddy), etc.  So bread is out, which is tasty & cheap.
• Thirdly, I am going to try this seasonally - so we will be trying to limit our consumption to those things which are local and in season.  I think that bananas will have to be an exception, because everyone in my family loves them.  Except me.  Except in bread.  But that is another story.
  

We are starting with a pretty bare pantry as it is - we've been eating up what we have in an effort to save money - so the only thing that I've got are a huge cache of spices, some non-hydrogenated shortening and some quinoa flour, which is so strong-tasting that I've yet to find something I can hide it in...

So, I'm off to the grocery.  I'll be sharing some tricks for the "organic or non-organic?" question, as well as some other health tips that I've dug up along the way.  Good food should be accessible, not elitist.  This is  grass-roots food revolution, and everyone can be involved!