Sustainable September Day 5

Yesterday was all about reducing your waste and choosing reusable packaging. 

My favourite jar is the round one with the silver lid. It used to be a coconut oil jar. 

And I thought it was interesting when I went back today to look at the pureed fruit “baby food”. It’s actually much cheaper (even for the same brand) to buy reusable glass containers. This was the case at the local UK Co-Op (equivalent to Australias IGA).  

I had the apple and pear “pudding” which is literally puréed apple and pear. And you actually get less “pudding” or puréed fruit in a squishy single use wrapper than you do in the glass jar. It actually costs more for “convenience” here. 

Anyways, I thought you might enjoy that little follow up. Sometimes is pays to be more eco friendly! :) 

It has been an amazing few days for me! Day Two of my new job had me back in the office for some unusual office work. I am pleased to say I was complimented on my work in the office yesterday as I was labelling skeletons ready to go to a local museum.

How cool is that? Thankfully in my studies I have handled human remains before so I wasn't as intimidated as I could have been. It was an amazing experience to hold the remains of a human who died thousands of years ago! It just blows my mind to think of what they were doing and how they lived back then.

This Sustainable September we are focusing on the savings you get when you choose a more environmenally friendly outlook. Todays idea is something I really put into practice at my house in Wales.

Day 5 - Put your food scraps to work.

This has been my favourite thing so far! When I moved into my house in Wales, I Started grabbing my vegetable scraps to use again.

I cook a lot with carrots, cabbage, celery, spring onions and leek (which seems particularly appropriate for when i was living in Wales). 

Oh and avocados. I LOVE avocados and I have been buying them on discount (before they get into landfill) from the big Tesco shops because the avocados there are usually ripe immediately.

The cool thing is that some veggie scraps can be used to grow more of the same. I have been so impressed with the way that my little garden is growing that I have actually photographed almost the entire journey.

I even started harvesting my spring onions and leek because they are so quick to grow.

Here is how I started it all... on my kitchen window sill with a little plastic container, a couple of pieces of paper towel and about 2cm of water in the bottom. 

It doesn’t look too pretty but I managed to get most of this stuff to grow. Except the avacado seeds. I don’t yet have the patience for them. 

This as how I started my garden using the tubs from mushroom containers, dirt from the garden and food scraps. I only had a tiny shovel too. Which was hilarious for this pint sized archaeologist! Lol. I started out with two tubs of food scraps. 


Then that grew to 5 tubs. 

Then I decided on the place to start my garden. But it was a hot day so it took me and hour and a half to turn the soil (only half of what I originally wanted to do) because the ground was like clay. 

I mixed in one bag of compost to half of the garden. 


I added in my food scraps then... lots of spring onions. 


Three rows a spring onions, one of leeks, and two rows of carrots. 


This photo I took the day that I left my house in Wales. It all looked so good. 

I even added in a celery that seems to love the cooler climate (I never had much luck with these in Australia). 


And my house mates dad gave me some Red Emperor beans to use and I threw one bean into some water to see if it would take... and it did. Completely surprising me! So the bean is growing too! Winning! 

The avocados however take longer. A LOT longer. I need more practice with this type of patience. Thankfully my boyfriend, G, is the King of Avocado growing here (well he is to me anyways).


The pots to the left and one to thee right are avacado plants at Gs Houss. 

I’ve learned a lot from him and his successes with Avacados. The key here is that the avocados need to be in a warm & sunny but also reasonable sheltered position.

What does this have to do with saving money? I had hoped that would be obvious now but maybe not. Every bit of veggie scrap that you can regrow that was destined for the bin (compost or otherwise), saves you in produce you do not have to buy. I would buy spring onions regularly perhaps once a week at about £1.50 per bunch. Not having to buy them saves me not only the £1.50 a week but also the money it would take to get them from the shop. All it cost to set up my little garden was about £2 for a 20Lt bags of compost. So I had made my money back after the second week of harvesting. the even better thing is, if you cut if off in the garden, it will regrow again! It's a never ending supply!

Kindness is possible too with this one. The sweet thing is, that G is planning to use his Avacado trees as a kindness. He's promised me an avacado tree when I finally move into a house of my own. My old house mate, Beth, has said shes going to share the bounty of my little garden too, which makes me happy. So this also has the potential to be lovely opportunities for kindness.

Goodluck with your own scraps.

I hope this finds you all well.

love Daena

Sustainable September 2017 - Day Fourteen

SEPTEMBER 14 (THURSDAY)

FOOD & STORAGE - STORING VEGGIES

Hello my Sustainable friends,

Welcome back to Sustainable September!

Today has been a long and busy day for me so I will keep this as short and sweet as I can. 

Yesterday was all about packaging, I even shared how hard it can be for a person with allergies and intolerances to get unpackaged items. However, today I found some gluten free Sweet Potato crisps at a bulk store (instead of buying a plastic wrapped packet of Sweet Potato crisps). I don't buy them very often because they are not that good for me. However seeing as I am currently on the Auto-Immune Protocol Paleo Food lifestyle where there are not many easy access foods, this is the best of a bad bunch.

Sustainable September Day Fourteen - Store food so they last longer.

I must admit that this one is new to me. Some of these tips and tricks may not apply to everyone, depending on what you purchase at the shops or farmers markets. I heard a whole heap of these from one of my favourite Podcasts... The Slow Home Podcast. Brooke McAlary has a wonderful podcast and blog that talks about slowing down and one of the things she discussed a few months ago (after the Australian Broadcast of War on Waste) was how to REDUCE waste. Here is a screenshot of my phone and the podcast athay I will be talking about today.

This link gives you 50 Different Ways to REDUCE your food waste. So I will pinch some of the things from this list that i have used in my own kitchen to save on waste. Have a look at the link above so that you can see other awesome ideas that apply to you. Then share them with me... i want to know what works. :)

Some of this stuff I have also learned through trial and error.

Did you know you can freeze a whole lot of stuff? For example, do you have a half used glass jar of Pesto? Instead of throwing out the left overs (or letting it sit in your fridge to go mouldy and rot before throwing it out), use an ice tray to separate single serves of pesto and freeze. It is usually in about tablespoon quantities. So you can throw it into some other things you make in the kitchen later.

Celery - For me, If I buy celery, I need to cut it up into smaller pieces for dips and snacks because if I leave it as a whole it tends to wilt without being touched. If it is cut then it gets eaten fast and there is a lot less waste. I cut them, then store them covered in water in a reusable container. Drain them before eating. Changing the water every second day.

I often use Celery in making Vegetable Stock, along with a lot of other veggies (you can also use celery tops and leaves for stock).

Carrots - In my house, if they are precut they get eaten faster. I cut them, then store them covered in water in a reusable container. Drain them before eating. Changing the water every second day.

If I have some whole carrots starting to get bendy I use them in my Green Smoothies. In the mornings I make a smoothy that contains a carrot, a handful of spinach leaves, half a cucumber, a cup of blanched kale, half an apple, the juice of half a lemon, either half an avacado or a teaspoon of olive oil, and then I add other bits like a handful of Berries, sometimes some limp celery, or over ripe banana or pears, or other fruit or veggies that are starting to look a little sad.

I often use Celery in making Vegetable Stock, along with a lot of other veggies (you can also use celery tops and leaves for stock).

Berries - For firm berries, you can rinse them in vinegar, dry them and store them in the fridge on a bed of papertowel in a plastic container. For more details about how to care for them check out this indepth tutorial about how to make your berries last longer here.

Any sad looking berries (not mouldy) can be thrown into a smoothie too.

Spinach/Lettuce/Kale leaves - I discovered that if I trim then wrap my lettuce, kale and spinach leaves into the damp clothes (damp teatowels) and then put it in a reusable container it lasts a lot longer than when I used to buy them in plastic bags.




This is my pink tea towel, my English spinach and a reusable plastic container I store in my fridge. 

Hard Cheese - Although I do not use Cheese (or any Dairy) personally, my family does. When we have bits of hard cheeses left over we chuck the extra bits in a container in the freezer. When you have a small container in the freezer full, put it in a blender and blend it all up together and you can use this extra cheese for making things like Cauliflower cheese or nachos. I learned this one from Jamie Oliver. We love putting parmesan rinds in soups. Cauliflower soup with parmesan is awesome - I remember this, even though I dont eat it anymore.

Bananas - Don’t compost your squishy, over-ripe bananas. Peel, slice and freeze on a tray, then transfer the rounds to a container. These are perfect for for banana bread, smoothies, protein pancakes, or my favourite is Banana Coconut Ice-cream (Daena Friendly & accidentally Vegan!). 

Veggies - Keep all your veggie offcuts, peels, skins and trimmings in a container in the freezer. When there’s a good amount, put it all in a big saucepan, cover with water, and cook for a few hours. It makes a delicious rich (free!) veggie stock that can then be frozen and used as needed.

Meat - Only keep out what you’re cooking in the next day or two. Separate the rest of the meat into meal-size portions. Alternatively you can take containers to the butcher and ask them to separate the meat into meal sized portions for you. You can then put it in the freezer with a lable if you need it. 

ACTIVITY - Start a Waste Free Cookbook. 
Basically it involves finding your favourite recipes to use up any of your usual food waste.

Do you often have too many bananas? do they get black and end up in the bin because you dont know what to do with them? Well how about finding a good banana bread recipe? Or peel the banana and put it in the freezer to use in smoothies, cakes or ice-creams. 

There is so much information here. You can take on whatever you want to do and give it a go. You don't have to do everything at once, I don't want to overwhelm you! 

I hope this finds you all well, 
love Daena xx

Sustainable September 2016 - Day Eleven

Hi again Kindness lovers, 

So today was all about OP-SHOPPING!!! Or thrift shopping! And today I got to see the super fancy and super expensive kind and then the not as expensive type. 

 

Now, to explain, I was wandering the hip and with it streets of Canberra today, as its my last full day here. I found some very expensive op shops, think expensive & designer second hand goods! 

Tomorrows idea is another simple switch: 

Buy/use a wooden or bamboo toothbrush. 

I bought some last year, some for me and some for the rest of the family. Whilst they are not to everyone's liking they are much better for the environment. 

I have only just recently thrown my first bamboo toothbrush in the compost and I just love it. 

If you are also looking for a way to get rid of your old plastic toothbrushes consider recycling them. 

Kindness idea: donate toiletries to a local homelessness shelter or emergency relief centre. 

Toiletries are needed by so many places not just the ones mentioned. Because toiletries are used by everyone they are often the first things to go and so lots of charities and community services are always needing more. 

Front Lines: micro-beads in toiletries. 

One thing you might like to know about when you are purchasing your toiletries is plastic micro-beads. 

These are in everything from shampoo to toothpaste. These are really bad for the environment. And get into our waterways and into all types of water creatures. Here is the video from the UK about the micro beads and how and why we need to prevent the use of them in all of our things. 

 

I hope this finds you all well. 

I leave Canberra tomorrow and I have really enjoyed my stay. 

Much love to you all, 

Love Daena 

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