There's a lot of great information in this post and I encourage you to read through it ... however, if you don't have the time right now, you might find the following quick links helpful:
Last week we considered ways to eat locally even in the winter months when there isn't a lot of fresh produce available. Some people reported back that they are busy preserving food. Others decided to talk to their CSA farmers to see if winter crops might be an option. And still others decided to plant some cool-temperature veggies and grow their own local food. It was a fun week with people sharing resources, recipes and encouragement.
The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing an article about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments. Here's what they had to say:
Argentum Vulgaris had a hard time with this challenge, mainly because getting to an area which has local produce is difficult and expensive without a car. Not one to be deterred, however, he manages to eat some local items. Can you guess what they are? Check out this POST for the answer.
How do Scott & Michelle, who live in Rochester, NY, maintain a Locavore lifestyle ... especially when their area has a short growing season? Scott says that they make choices ... they have a plan ... and (perhaps most important) they execute the plan. Read about that HERE.
Green Steve took a look at eating local from all sides ... he considered food miles, the economy of developing countries, growing your own food, what "local" actually means, etc. He did a LOT of research and offered readers plenty to think about. His post also generated some good discussions. Take a look at Is The Local Diet All It’s Cracked Up To Be? and see if you agree with his conclusions.
Clare offered us two wonderful posts this week. The first one, Food in Season – Preserving, gives us an example of how one family eats locally all year long. We're not talking about supplementing their diet ... we're talking about meeting all their nutrient needs by growing and/or buying local foods in season and using them throughout the year. Inspiring! The second post, Eating Locally, All Year, talks about Clare's own experiences finding local produce on a tiny island which, until recently, didn't import items out of season.
CelloMom was all set to grow winter vegetables in her back yard and then ... she remembered a row of carrots she once planted ... and that changed her plans. In How to eat locally in winter? you'll find out what she's going to do. I think it's totally workable ... what do you think?
Rewinn took the challenge. In Happy Labor Day: Get Ready For Local food for the Winter! he talks about how and what he'll be preserving this year. He also offers a couple of tips on getting local, seasonal produce for less money ... and a tip for making better use of one's freezer (think chilling your drink with Berries or Swiss Chard). Yeah, you know you want to read it!
Alicia joined the challenge and shared this: " When we lived in California it was really easy to buy and eat locally grown food most all year round. Moving back to Tennessee made it more of a challenge.We have a garden and I also go to the local Farmers Markets in the area. I freeze, can and dehydrate lots of things during the Summer months so that we can still enjoy eating local homegrown chemical free food during the Winter months. I put up peppers, squash, okra and lots of herbs. I freeze large amounts of tomatoes for making tomato sauce. chili, soups and stews. I dry lots of herbs to use as seasoning and I love making herb vinegars.I also love canning and freezing wonderful Summer fruit for use in pies, jellies and jams. Apples will be ready for picking here at the local orchards soon. I will freeze lots of them for making apple pies, apple butter and one of our grandsons favorites applesauce. There are lots of farmers that now grow Fall gardens of cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower as well as wonderful Fall peas. These are all so easy to freeze. I love making relish with the cabbage and my husband and son like pickled cauliflower I have made an abundance of Pesto to have for this Winter and dried a whole lot of mint so that we can have tasty mint tea. These are things that we do so that we still can enjoy the abundant Summer harvest in the Winter. It really cuts the food cost and saves us from having to buy a lot of fruits and veggies in the Winter that have had to be shipped from so far away. It is really so worth the effort that you have to put out now for the reward later. You will be so glad you did when all you have to do is go open your freezer or go to your pantry and pull out jars of wonderful goodies that you have canned. I know this has been a long comment but I am really passionate about this!" In Tomato Time And Do You Watch What You Say? you'll find out a bit about Alicia's current efforts.
Mrs. Green spent a lot of time thinking about this challenge ... and then got a little depressed about it. Did she give up? Nope ... she took a look at what she can do. Check out Could you eat local, seasonal food? to learn all about it.
Cat wrote Local Food where she talks about what she considers local, the availability of items in the Nordics and a few options she might consider, including a food circle (doesn't that sound intriguing).
Ann included our CTWW banner in this POST where she talks about litter.
We had a few comments on previous challenges:
Kristina shared a healthy, homemade recipe for a product which can be used as a moisturizer, eye cream, makeup remover and, with a few added ingredients, a deodorant (read the comments for that info). Check out Coconut Oil Does Triple Beauty Duty for all the details. Thanks, Kristina!
Katie shared this about last week's challenge: "Last week's challenge sounds awesome! Sorry I missed it. I was getting ready for an international trip. However, I enjoyed reading your excerpts and links to the posts. My toxic-free started after a bad reaction to Aveeno (an "all-natural") shampoo. Looking forward to writing about eating local during the winter months! Great idea. I need to prep." She also wrote Wasteful Restaurant Water about our challenge to conserve water. Regarding a challenge to give up paper towels, she shares "I have to give an update on the challenge. Once the paper towel roll finished, my husband didn't go down to the basement to get another roll for several weeks. We were both working long hours and must have not cooked as much. I put out some wash cloth size towels close to the area where the paper towels were. After a few weeks, he did get a roll because he was doing a painting job. Either way, a few weeks was awesome. Then, I hid the paper towel roll in the cabinet above the microwave. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong! This only lasted for a few hours. I missed him searching for the paper towel roll, unless he found it accidentally. I did order some organic cloth napkins for us to use. We need to put them in rotation." Thanks, Katie!
Our Twitter friends had some great tips & ideas to share this week:
From @givetreegifts
- Expert tips on making and storing preserves: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9503231/Expert-tips-on-making-and-storing-preserves.html
- Food in Jars: Marisa McClellan offers year-round canning tips: http://o.canada.com/2012/08/22/food-in-jars-2/
- The joy of canning: http://galvestondailynews.com/story/336330
- Preserving summer in a jar...Jams and jellies will create warm memories for wintry days: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/food-restaurants/Preserving+summer/7018241/story.html
- Small-batch preserving perfect for those on a budget: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/aug/12/small-batch-preserving-perfect-for-those-on-a/
- Author offers tips for making jam...ideas for making preserves and butters that will stock your winter pantry: http://articles.mcall.com/2012-08-07/entertainment/mc-making-fruit-jams-mcclellan-20120807_1_peach-jam-blueberry-jam-butters
From @live_esp
- good one! Freezing fruits & veggies is a great way to stay local + freezing won't reduce nutritional value much!
From @cellomomoncars
- Peel & chop! fruits & veg are mushy when defrosted, so prep so that all you have to do is put it directly in the pan
From @nonmom
- There is nothing like a tomato from your own garden.
- My garden is too small for canning so in winter I go w/frozen veggies. But that fresh tomato I had tonight was divine!
From @themac533
- In Atlantic Canada a root cellar was tradit'ly used to store carrots, cabbage, turnip, potatoes and pickles (to eat local) all winter.
- Many still use them or have a cold room for the same purpose. Carrots packed in clean sand can last for months inside. Need cool/dark.
The #CTWW Gang are those folks who share our challenges on twitter using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I highly recommend following them ... they have a lot of great things to say. Let's meet them:
My Final Thoughts:
There are so many reasons to eat locally ... it's good for the environment, our health and the local economy. Foods produced by people in our community come with a certain accountability ... we can speak with farmers and learn about their farming practices, the safety of their harvest methods and the efficiency of getting their crops to market. Local foods encourage variety and biodiversity ... small producers, without the restraints of our current centralized production methods, are free to grow whatever they like ... and often try varieties of fruits and vegetables which aren't typically available in supermarkets. If we grow our own produce, we know exactly what went into the soil and don't have to wonder if what we're eating will hurt us. The same is true if we preserve food for use throughout the year. In reality, except for some time and effort on our part, there really isn't a down side to eating local. It may take awhile to get to a point where all of our nutritional needs can be met locally or to make preserving food a part of our lives ... but in the long run, it's definitely worth it.
Thanks, everyone! If you wrote an article, I have Stumbled, Tweeted, Facebooked and posted it on Google +. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share feature at the bottom of this post.
This Week's Challenge:
For this week's challenge, we're going to join Mrs. Green in (Inter)National Zero Waste Week. This year's theme is "One More Thing" and specifically targets recycling. From the Zero Waste Facebook page: "What 'one more thing' could you recycle in order to reduce your landfill waste at home?" So ... here's your challenge:
This week, consider your recycling habits and decide on one more thing which you can do to reduce landfill waste. Let us know what you're doing, and how, so that we can all learn and be inspired.
And then, if you'd like ...
Visit the (Inter)National Zero Waste Week blog page or the Facebook Page and share your efforts with everyone participating in this year's event (close to 1000 people from all over the world).
Visit the (Inter)National Zero Waste Week blog page or the Facebook Page and share your efforts with everyone participating in this year's event (close to 1000 people from all over the world).
Will you accept this challenge and do one more thing?
Until next time ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
Me - avoiding clamshells of any form. I don't use many at all but I looked at my rigid plastic recycling bin and that fills it up the fastest when I do. Since recycling plastic is downcycling, each little bit I don't buy in the first place helps AND usually keeps my diet a wee bit slimmer and my wallet a wee bit fatter :)
ReplyDeleteCTWW is up and running on
ReplyDeletehttp://ecocrap.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/change-the-world-wednesday-5th-sept/
Plus a hint on growing tomatoes.
AV
I'm in! I'll be finished with all academic responsibilites by the end of the day today, and then I can relax, blog, and pay attention to my waste and recycling. Expect a post on Sunday/Monday!
ReplyDeleteI've been recycling for a couple of years, and the mission now is to reduce and reuse. Sometimes I do well, other times I feel a bit overwhelmed. I often pick up things in the street, and try to use them in artworks, or create functional pieces in the home and garden.
ReplyDeleteIn this photograph: https://twitter.com/janetbotes/status/243989988994322432/photo/1, the wooden box was found discarded in a bin, and I made the edges of our broken wine glasses safe with paper, glue and pieces of see-through plastic. The empty wine bottle with the dried lavender is a symbol and reminder of a weekend away in the mountains.
Some more of my recycled art can be seen on my website gallery (http://www.janetbotes.co.za/gallery.html) under sculptures & installations and under craft works.
We started recycling about 3.5 years ago when decided as a family we needed to take on the challenge not only to choose organic whenever we could, but also to go green. I remember being so excited, so proud that we could fill up our little tub and have another on stand by. Estatic when the city handed out new, larger bins the same size as our trash bin! That feeling held strong until about a year later when it suddenly dawned on me that yes, recycling is a good thing but reducing our waste by the choices we made or reusing items where we could we be the better choice.
ReplyDeleteExcept for glass jars and melting down crayons to reuse, I have not been to good with reusing/repurposing items that would normally go in the recycling bin. I do get ideas on Pinterest for ideas to use later but as of now I just don't have the time. BUT I have cut back, to reduce waste by choosing to buy in bulk, make meals from scratch so less packaging there too, take my own containers to refill, use resuable bags instead of choosing paper bags, definitely do not use lunch bags or water bottles and donate certain items that others DO have the time to reuse. When I ran My Baby's Green store I was able to use boxes, newspapers, packaging supplies that were given to me from neighbors and our own shipments. I honestly only had to purchase a handful of material myself. Besides being green, it also saved money that I passed along to customers which I LOVED!
What we do as a family is a start and it works for us. Our challenge as a family is to take the next step which with all else going on it may be another year but hopefully less!! It could happen sooner if someone in my family would take the job as this warden's assistant :o)
Oops, forgot to add my link! http://www.changes4charlie.com/2012/09/take-challenge-to-change-our-recycling.html
ReplyDeleteThis challenge made me scratch my head, because I'm used to thinking of myself as minimizing waste. But there's always room for improvement, and perhaps a good place to look is at those home projects I've been avoiding ... such as The Paint Locker
ReplyDeleteWe like Tina also use packaging materials sent to us. That we are able to recycle in this area. We try to be really aware of our recycling habits but I see areas all of the time that we can improve on. One area is I buy large containers of organic spinach and spring mix from Sams and they come in these rather large plastic containers. I recycle them but wish I could find them in minimal packaging so I am going to be on the lookout for that this week because I buy a lot of these two products and over a years time that is a whole lot of heavy plastic to recycle. I so admire Mrs. Green and I think the Zero Waste Week is just awesome!
ReplyDeleteMine's up! Finally did a search on where to recycle batteries instead of throwing them away. Of course..the stores that take them are ones I'm at a lot I just never paid attention. oops. haha!
ReplyDeletehttp://outwardlypleasant.blogspot.com/2012/09/ctww-zero-waste.html