Eat Politically

I've been thinking a lot lately about my power as a consumer. In the lack of any useful government legislation, the most power I feel I have is my middle class salary and my purchasing power. What if even 20% of the market pulled out of corporate economy as much as we have? I'm not sure the system could stand it. I think it would have to change. Granted.. I'm not an economist - if anyone is and wants to comment I'd love to hear from you. I started out making food choices to limit my plastic consumption. The fringe benefit has been that we are eating a lot more whole and healthy food. And, lately, now that the infrastructure is built and habits formed and bulk food purchased, we're also saving money on our food bill. That means I have more money to eat politically (and go on more trips, we can talk about carbon foot print and planes another time, pick your battles I say). Here are some things that we've changed:

-buy local and sustainable eggs and meat
-organic, waste free milk (yaaaa! Limestone Creamery)
-buy in bulk from local distributors where possible
-make it as much as we can ourselves at home

Some of these choices cost more in the short-term. Overall, and in the long run we actually save money. And in the loooooonnnng run (my grand kids long) it is going to cost much, much less.

One small change at a time, making new habits slowly.

(there's my dirty fridge.. remember I promised we'd "keep it real" 😏😂

Low Waste Wine

6 weeks ago I gave Wine Crafting (John Counter and Sir Joh A) 135$. Today I took 30 of my own bottles and fourty minutes later took them out full of a lovely red wine. Service was excellent. 

Summary...

-$4 a bottle, all in

-low carbon transportation, shipping, etc.

-waste created... 30 corks (easily reused or composted), 30 foil wrappers, 30 paper lables. 

I'm hooked. 

Thinking about making my own dry erase lables that can live on the bottles long term. 

Grocery Shopping

On the request of a friend... here's what our shopping list looks like these days.

It came from the question... what do you do about Bulk Barn? Things are more expensive. Yes... they are. I find I'm willing to pay about 10% more for less packaging (counter intuitive I know, but you work with what you've got). I will try things out at Bulk Barn.. some things are crazy way more expensive (like the time I paid $25 for 20 cookies), lots of things are OK. The kids know that we try things out and if they are super expensive they better enjoy them 'cause we won't be getting them again.

Anyway, that's the short answer. Here's the long one if you're still interested.

	Where?	Packaging
Local Grocer.. we love Quatrochis. He’ll reuse any bags, boxes or baskets we take back. About one trip a week.
Fruits and Veg Buy “naked” as much as possible.	Lots of times they just go in the cart loose.	I have sewn some veggie bags from curtain fabric.
Frozen Fruits and Veg (smoothies)	This year I was able to "pick your own" strawberries that I have frozen. I bought a bunch of local blueberries in season and the same. I keep my eyes out for "naked" fruit on sale, chop and freeze.	Recycled plastic bags. I have a few great big ziploc bags from old purchases of frozen fruit. Recycled milk bags work great here too.
Milk	We buy Reids Dairy locally.	We're left with 3 small bags and one big one each week. The small ones I use as freezer bags and the big one is our once a week garbage bag.
Yogurt	Definitely switched to make my own. Kids aren’t loving the new stuff yet, that’s OK, more for me.	I reuse mason jars. Twice a year or so when we’ve been away on vacation and I need a new “starter” I have to buy a plastic container.
Soft Cheeses	Making them myself (for lasagna etc). Super easy… heat, add vinegar, strain	None except the plastic bag the milk comes in. I’ve bought cheese cloth.
Flour, Oats, Rice	Quatrochis will order me 20 lb bags. One last for 4-5 months. I keep them in a big Rubbermaid bin in a storage closet (could also go under a bed) .	Bags are usually paper or cloth. The plastic ones get reused as garbage bags. I have big dollar store jars in the kitchen that I refill for everyday access.
Warehouse Store – We use Cash and Carry (if you are in Kington)… we call it Costo Pobre. 😊 About one trip a month.
Cheese	I get a giant block and cut it up each week.	Comes in one large plastic wrapping. Keeps good in the fridge for over a month wrapped up in itself with an elastic band to keep it close. I leave it at the back of the fridge.
Sausage Hotdogs	Just too easy and quick	Plastic wrapping.
Frozen Juice		Aluminum tops and bottoms, cardboard sides. We separate and soak to get the plastic off the cardboard sides. Aluminum and cardboard goes into recycling.
Nuts	Buy biggest jar I can.	These are sooo expensive at bulk barn, so I buy in plastic jars. I get the biggest one I can, they get washed and reused to store beans and chips/snacks from Bulk Barn.
No Frills. I find I’m only going once a month or so.. try to stock up on the few things I still get there.
Cereal	No Frills…	One of the things still coming in throw away packaging. I’m off cereal.. hooked on the smoothies and have a great recipe for homemade granola, the kids aren’t convinced. Decided not to fight this one.
Pasta	No frills	We like the gluten free stuff here.
Pasta Sauce	No frills	In cans. I did make my own in glass jars but the stove was on most of the day to make 6 jars of pasta sauce. Not convinced it’s a better environmental option. Cans are very recyclable.
Local Farm
Eggs	Local - I get six dozen at a time, they last fine a month or so in the fridge.	Reuse the boxes till they fall apart
Meat	Local - I order a couple of months worth at a time and freeze.	Comes wrapped in plastic.. I’m working on them to change their packaging practices. I do think there is a place for this sometimes though… food safety is a thing.
Bulk Bar will let you bring your own containers now as long as they are clean. You stop off and have them weighted. I have started writing the weights on them with paint markers so I don’t have to do it every time. Technically they’re supposed to weigh them every time but if you’re honest looking they don’t seem to mind.. and it saves everyone time. Here’s a list of things I’ve found reasonably priced that we keep stocked…. and all packaging free.
Snacks, chips, etc  (some of the cookies are really expensive but the chips seem to be OK and we’ve found some choc covered pretzels that are reasonable)
Dried fruit: raisins, apricots, etc.
Seeds (sunflower, pumpkin and sesame) , great for making seed butter for no peanut schools (vitamix!!) and I put it in homemade granola crunch for lunches.
Baking powder, baking soda (for cleaning too!), salt, sugar, etc.
Beans
Drink Mix (the bigger stores have iced tea mix… great in a pinch.. and some koolaidy stuff as well
Honey
Peanuts (these seem exempt from the exorbitant prices on other nuts. I get the most expensive ones and it’s still reasonable. These mostly get made into peanut butter (vitamix!!)
Soap -they carry naked soap. I get naked soap for showers and laundry soap for making detergent (see below)
Canadian Tire
Washing Soda and Borax… both come in cardboard boxes and mixed with shredded coconut soap make a great laundry detergent.
Lush
Best we’ve found for naked bar shampoo. We’ve all switched and liked it.

Long story short again (yaa! you're still with me :)... shopping is a bit more complicated and takes a bit more time. I also find I buy way fewer "just because it is on sale" or "hey that looks good" which is good for everyone. I stock up so most places I only have to go to once a month. Some weeks I just drop by the local grocer.. spend $30 on fresh fruit and milk and we're good to go. Other weeks I've got a bill for $100 in flour and $300 in meat. So, things are more unpredictable as well. I haven't done the math to see if I am spending more or saving. I suspect it is about the same. However, we are all eating better. With the plastic we got rid of most of the preservatives, sugar and salt as well.

Hope that gives you some ideas! It's our new normal and it's not really more work anymore now that we are in a routine.

New Normal

I feel like the last month or so we've settle into our new normal. It look almost a full year, and there is still work to do, but our recycling bins are showing it. Just a celebratory moment. What would change if this was every families waste for two weeks?

Busy weekend... and food prep.

This weekend I was supervising some students in a virtual reality workshop #hackforheritage so it was a busy one! It's Sunday night and I know if I do just one hour of concentrated food prep the week will be easier (and more delicious). So here I go. 

-instant pot is cooking 7 hard boiled eggs

-yogurt on the stove

-once the eggs are done, wash, spin and pack lettuce

-earlier today I made crunchy granola in the oven. I tried to find the origional recipe to link and couldn't so I've taken a pic of my recipe card at the bottom. ** "flavor" is whatever you want. We have to do our with no nuts for school so this week we used coconut flakes, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, white cocolate flakes and smarties. All easily available in bulk...with no packaging. I use a silicon baking mat instead of parchment paper. 

And... there you go,... 

Weekend food prep

Weekend is over... and all that is left to do is fold the laundry. ... but that is a netflix job. 

Another weekend job is food prep. Depending on the weekend, our needs and energy, I try to prep a few things for the week ahead. 

Here are this week's jars for the fridge and pantry. 

-yogurt

-washed and chopped lettuce**

-mason jar muffin mixes

Other weekend prep jobs might include

-bread or muffins

- granola

-hard boiled eggs

-beans

Helps us stay in food during the busy weekdays. 

**(I can wash, spin and pack two head of lettuce in about 20 min and they last a week and a half at least in the fridge. It makes for a quick weekday salad and replaces the plastic boxes of washed greens I was buying.)

Fixing s%$t

Zero waste is not throwing stuff out. Today I unpacked the christmas lights... not a single strand worked. A bunch of youtubing later and some trial and error and now three broken strands became 2 working ones.

This is the tutorial that most helped me. 

https://youtu.be/X5pHACdLIa0

Do it! Fix s$#t. It's so satisfying. 

P.S. if you've got a stand of broken LED lights around you want to get rid of I'll take 'em. 😜