A Tip for Cutting Down on Waste

I'm always looking for new ways to cut down on waste. Today, I was talking with a co-worker over lunch. We were discussing CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) programs and how often the box is just too much for one person to eat in a week. Unfortunately, my husband and I don't share the same eating habits. While he could live on steak, shrimp and ribs, I am mostly vegan (I have to say mostly because I do love cheese and the occasional omelet). Our CSA box comes each Tuesday with several heads of lettuce, cabbage, chard, turnips, radishes, etc. By the end of the week, I'm eating chard three meals a day and frankly it's not delightful. My friend suggested that at the end of the week, I throw EVERYTHING that I wasn't able to eat (veggies) into a pot and make a vegetable broth, then freeze it for future use. Genius! And why didn't I think of that?! Thankfully, with good friends and online resources you don't have to know-it-all. This saves me a few extra bucks on buying the broth and cuts down my waste-guilt tremendously.

Eat.Live.Breathe.Organic

Urban Homesteading

My latest read is Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume. I was turned onto it by a friend and co-worker, who wrote about the book on our firm's Regenerative Landscapes blog. http://www.regenerativelandscape.org/

The book had me at the dedication, which reads: "This book is dedicated to the children who follow after us. May they inherit a fertile and abundant world filled with people who honor the diversity of life teeming around us: from the tiniest microbe, to the wondrous chicken, to the beauty of human community."

Often these books are overwhelming, they start off demanding you to build your own chicken coop and to quit your job to become a farmer. I'm am all about taking baby steps when it comes to lifestyle changes. The first chapter in this book, "Start where you are" -- What a refreshing concept!

But, as Grace Paley says, "The only recognizable feature of hope is action." So ideas and concepts, hope and dreams are all good, but at some point we all have to get our hands dirty. "And so we find ourselves in our backyards...pulling carrots, tending bees and gathering grapes."

The book has a Bioregional Quiz, that helps you discover where you actually are. Among the questions is can you trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap? Describe the soil around your house. Were the stars out last night? The quiz helps the reader to start thinking, to start living more aware and curiously. Knowing our surroundings can make us better stewards of the places we call home. It's the concept of being the change we wish to see in the world. It starts with you (and me) and we can start small.

Here are a few themes from the book:

Simplify.
Use Less.
Share More.
Localize.
Diversify.
Do it Yourself.
Indigenate.
Emobdy.
Relate.
Forgive.
Listen and Observe.
Create and Renew.
and likely the most important, Begin.

Start where you are. Make mistakes. Begin again.

The book is filled with inspiring, practical, insightful knowledge and tools that we can use to change the way we live and more, to change the way we view our surroundings. I will be writing more as I work my way through the book and hope that you will join me on the journey to more sustainable living. If not for oursevles, for "the children who follow after us."

Eat.Live.Breath.Organic

I love Tuesdays!

Every Tuesday, I get to pick up my box of organic, fresh, local farm goodies at the CSA drop-off by my house. This week the box contents included: chard, garlic, scallion onions, young potatoes, basil, two varieties of lettuce, and radishes. Each delivery comes with a newsletter that includes a description of what is in the box and how it was harvested. It also has farm news and a list of recipes on the back that coordinate with items in the box. My two get-a-ways recently have been running and cooking. After a long day at work yesterday, I decided I would get home a bit early at start cooking. I used a new recipe from the newsletter: Chard and Potato Quiche. Next time I make it, I'll change a few things, like the size of my pie dish and I would add the Basil AFTER the dish was finished baking.

Chard and Potato Quiche
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of milk
6 - 8 small potatoes
a bunch of scallion onions, sliced thinly
2 cups of flour
4 eggs
1/2 tsp of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the crust first: Mix oil, milk and salt in a medium sized bowl, add two cups of flour and combine with a fork until well mixed. Put dough-like mixture into the pie dish and press into the dish to form a pie crust.

In a pan, put a small amount of oil, dice potatoes and heat in the pan until almost cooked through. Add diced scallion onions and shredded chard. Heat through. Pour vegetable mixture into the dish with the pie crust. Beat the four eggs with a tablespoon of milk and pour over vegetable mixture. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Remove and top with fresh basil.

Of course, after dinner, I had to let my son Jack eat the candy-stick that I had made for him over the weekend with chocolate candy (blue food coloring) and sprinkles. Organic and totally healthy, I know!!

Andiamo a mangiare!! (Let us eat) 



If you are interested (which I highly recommend) joining a CSA, Community Shared Agriculture, group please go to: http://www.localharvest.org and search for one in your area. We buy from Shooting Star Farm, and we pay approximately $24/week for our box, which feeds our family of three (I'm not including my 3 month old) all week, with a few supplements like meat (for my husband and son) and dairy products.

Eat Live Breathe Organic