Sustainable September 2015 - Day Twenty Eight.

Hey guys and girls,

Has this month flown by? or what? We are almost at the end now. How have you been going so far?

Today I spent a chunk of the day helping my sister and niece cleaning up, sorting, rearranging and de-junking their house. I am absolutely exhausted but it was well worth it.

Todays Sustainable September idea follows on from yesterdays.

September 28: Create your own indoor scrap bucket. 

Photo via google images from 123rf.com

When you do this you can buy, make or recycle another container to re-purpose it.

This helps with getting your kitchen and garden scraps to your compost bin. We currently have an old yoghurt bucket (1kg bucket) that we use. We have a couple of these bins that we have so we can wash one out and fill another or fill with gardening bits too.

Mum has a bucket bought that she has ready for when she moves into a granny flat. It is a little metal bin (that's been painted teal) and has a simpler lid to open than the yoghurt buckets. She finds the yoghurt lids too hard to open sometimes, that the metal bucket will solve.

I like short and simple ideas like the one above. They make it easier for you to do, and simpler for me too! :)

The phot from the blog My Daily Compost. Check it out

KINDNESS IDEA: Barter or share your extra produce. 

My sister today traded some of her home made tomato sauce for some fresh produce from a local gardener & their small home-farm. This is awesome way to get what you need and give someone else something that they might not have.

I have to say the fresh produce was delicious. I cooked up some Kale and some rainbow chard with some garlic butter and it was divine. I cooked that together with some local backyard eggs (from a friend) and some delicious BACON!!!!! I know... bacon! again! It is the weekend though so as a Weekend Vegetarian it is allowed! ;)

I hope this finds you all well and excited about healing our environment.
Much love,
Daena x

Sustainable September 2015 - Day Twenty

Hello my awesome blog followers,

So tomorrow is a Sunday (obviously) and the exciting thing is that this coincides with an event that happens every Sunday in my area, and other areas. Farmers Market Day! :) Guess what tomorrows Sustainable September idea is?! You guessed it!!

Photo take from Houston Farmers Market via Google.

September 20: Do your fresh food shopping at the farmers market. 

There are a lot of awesome reasons to go to the farmers market. One is if local farmers produce the food then they are able to provide you with local food, which means it has very little food miles. So lower carbon footprint that some supermarket foods that are shipped from Chile, China, Spain or Argentina (these are amazingly just some of the places Australia often gets food shipped from).

Not only that but Farmers Markets usually have seasonal fruit and vegetables. Eating seasonally means that you mostly wont be eating food from a random country that is not your own because there is no need to ship a food in because of a desire for year round access to it. You can also buy cheaply and in large quantities and preserve extras for the coming months. Which leads me to the Kindness idea....

Photo from Wikipedia - Food Preservation

KINDNESS IDEA: preserve some fruit or vegetables. This means you can then give them to a friend, family member, acquaintance or even a community group or stranger. You can also save some preserved goodies for months when they are not available in their actual season.

I hope this finds you well!
Love Daena x

Sustainable September Day Nine Kindness

Hello my beautiful friends,

How did you go today? Did you use your canvas bags? 

I went shopping today and used a lot of the reusable shopping bags I had with me. But I still ran out of my canvas ones and had to use a few plastic ones. But I've reduced the number of plastic bags used! :)  And that is the plan. I guess I will need to start making some more of my own bags now! :)

So tomorrows Sustainable September Kindness idea is....

Tuesday – 9 September – Buy organic and/or Fair Trade products – which is being kind to both the human race and the environment. One of my favourite products is Nerada Organic Chai Tea which is Fair Trade, and amazingly it is cheaper than the competitor who is neither organic nor Fair Trade! Go figure!

These were the prices today at the supermarket 8th September 2014

 Organic food is helping the environment and human and animal health. Here are a few examples from other people and pages.

 "There are some very good studies that show that on balance organic food has higher levels of nutrition," says Andre Leu, chair of the Organic Federation of Australia. "The data we have from Australia and around the world tends to be consistent. The number one reason people buy organic is for health reasons and concern about the use of pesticides."  Whilst "People believe that organic foods have higher levels of nutrition and leave less of an environmental footprint. It's better for the environment and organic food tastes better." American food philosopher and journalist Michael Pollan,[wrote in his] most recent book". (Read more from Body and Soul here)

"Organic foods promote healthier and more sustainable use of natural resources. Modern farming methods, including excessive use of chemicals, have led to a decline in soil fertility, and an increase in salinity and blue-green algae in waterways over many years. Organic farmers try to minimise damage to the environment by using physical weed control, and animal and green manure."Read more from Better Health Channel here)

Organic practices in food production keep our water clean. "Pesticides and chemicals don't belong in drinking water, lakes or oceans, but right now most of the water on earth is at risk. Surface water run off from non-organic farms and other non-organic food operations can deposit pesticides into lakes, rivers, and reservoirs." (Read more from About Money here)

Animals also benefit from Organic farming. "Animals are raised without antibiotics, hormones, or other drugs.  Even some types of seafood are better to eat than others; you can avoid fisheries that are being overfished or harvested using environmentally harmful methods." (Read more from Greening Princeton here)

Hope this makes sense, and this finds you all well!

Much Love,
Daena x