Food...and where it comes from

I think about food a lot. Cooking it, eating it, growing it. But I also think about where it comes from. Not just the store but the real source of what I'm eating. I'm always trying to find the best option which meets my financial and moral (and taste) needs. I ask myself questions such as: "Is it better to choose an organic product from overseas or a local non-organic product?" or "What about when the quality of the imported product is higher (like with Italian canned tomatoes) and the product is so much cheaper?". I have to weigh these concerns against a tight budget of both time and money. I think these are pretty common limiting factors for many of you. 


Over this past year my partner (Andy) and I have been discussing our food choices in fairly serious ways. We'd been slowly reducing the amount of pre-made food we purchased and our food bills had dropped significantly. We did this by replacing things such as tortillas, bread and pasta with home made versions and buy simply limiting the amount of 'junk' food we purchased. The majority of our shopping is now for the ingredients to make food instead of ready made food. We can also afford to purchase more organics and high quality products. When we see shelf-stable products on special we purchase multiples and stockpile. We also signed up for our local Community Supported Agriculture group Food Connect. Food Connect provides subscriptions of fruit and vegetables sourced from local, sustainable, chemical free or organic growers and gives a fair price to the farmer (approximately 40% of the sale price compared to 4-6% the large chains offer). The food is great and it has put us back in touch with the seasons and the effect weather can have on food production. 


We also spoke about meat. I'm a vegetarian and have been all my life. Andy has always eaten meat, and was raised in a meat-and-three-veg family. He has reduced his meat consumption since we've been together. I don't think this is due to any sort of guilt tripping from me (I hope!) but because of the tasty vego food we make together. Andy has also learnt more about nutrition and so understands appropriate portion sizes for meat better now. We like the idea of 'meat as a treat' - choosing great quality, free-range or organic meat and paying more for it but buying less. As the quality is higher, you need to use less and having it less often makes you appreciate it more. 


In the past I have been an active dumpster diver. I have collected food from bins all over Brisbane. When you start doing this it can really shock you. The quality of the food is amazing but the quantity is the really shocking thing. One of my regular haunts regularly had half a dozen wheelie bins full of fruit and veg on every visit. The photo below is a selection from one night's diving. There would have been 10 times that amount left after we were finished. It is estimated that we throw out over $6 billion of food a year from Australian households...I'd hate to think what the value for retail stores and restaurants would be.

I dumpster dive less since signing up for Food Connect. I'm not against diving any more, I still stand by the reasons I started doing it in the first place (namely, reducing the amount of food going to landfill) but we get enough food from our subscription. I also like that I'm supporting the farmers and hopefully making small steps to change. This is the reason I've always struggled to wholly support the freegan idea. I don't think we can see change unless we support those attempting to produce better products. Choosing to not spend at the large chain stores is one thing but neglecting the little guys trying to make a difference as well doesn't create change. 


Since reducing my dumpster diving nights (or possuming, as I like to call it - after overhearing some packing staff say "Here come the possums" one night), I've been looking into some ways others are working on the supermarket food waste problem. I was glad to see a post on one of my favourite blogs about this here. Tricia gave some great links to charities and groups working to redistribute the food before it gets sent to landfill. 


I guess this whole (rather long) post is about making the choices that are right for you. You can only work within your limits of time and money. Research your food and make active choices about what you buy. You'll feel better for it!  

Jessie's guest Green Cleaning post

I twisted Jessie's arm at the last SkillCycle day and convinced her to write something for the blog. So, with much excitement, introducing our first guest poster - Jessie!

There are lots of different motivations to get into green cleaning – for example, for healthier skin, safe grey water for our gardens, to help protect our waterways, to consume less, and to save money.

Some of us also have particular things that keep us from actually doing it – for me, it was uncertainty about whether I could get things ‘really’ clean (I was also wary of the smell of vinegar, until I realised it has no scent when it dries). Then the Queensland Floods happened in January. With water and sludge up to 2 metres up the walls, and the threat of mould enveloping the entire house, I had more cleaning to do than in the rest of my life so far, and didn’t want to inflict any more damage on the natural world than the disaster had already done.

Starting with clove oil to kill mould spores, and baking soda and vinegar to clean almost everything else, I realised greener methods could be extremely effective.  (And after the initial double-take on the cost of 10 ml of clove oil, I realised that with something so effective when using only a few drops per bucket, I could clean the entire house several times, for less than the cost of one spray-pack of ineffective whiteners. I still have ½ the bottle left).

Since then I’ve gleaned more information from friends, books and websites, and hope that this set of ‘Green Cleaning’ basics will be helpful for everyday (everyweek/month) cleaning and for dealing with some of the rarer tasks and accidents.  Ideas and links are really welcome!

Jessie

Feeling 'trapped'

Maybe it's just the time of year, and the lack of holidays, but I'm feeling a little stuck. Like I'm in a rut. Most of the time I can gaze at pretty photos of idyllic farm life on my favourite blogs, those who have 'escaped' to the country and are living my dream, and feel inspired. At the moment, all I can feel is jealousy and apathy. My overdue PhD is still going, I haven't many job prospects for next year and I feel like I'm treading water. 

The view from my office window

What do you do when you get this way? Take a holiday, do yoga, garden? How do we keep ourselves inspired and hopeful while still living consciously in the present? 

From bottom of the jeans pile to the top!

I bought a pair of jeans ages ago on a whim, they were cheap, and were a good enough fit. But I got them home and after one wear they were way too big in the waist and seemed to get longer every time I wore them. Hippy girls are sure to agree that jeans which are a good fit around the hips and bum are inevitably too big in the waist. A belt is usually enough, but not for these, they bulged out beneath a very cinched in belt.

Eventually, after months at the bottom of my jeans pile, I decided to tackle the length issue. Jonathan had a pair of jeans taken up ages ago (by a professional!), and rather than just folding and hemming, they had reattached the bottom cuff so they still look like jeans. So I dutifully copied, and it was super easy.

Just measure the length you want taken up. Cut off at 1cm longer than this length. Then get the cuff end you've just cut off and cut down to the cuff plus 1cm. Pin the cuff (right sides together, so that the cuff is upside down on the outside of the jeans) to the pant leg. With a zipper foot, sew as close to the cuff as possible. Then zigzag or overlock the seam so that the jeans won't fray. Then fold up so the end is facing up and inside the pant leg and iron, iron, iron. If you find the end keeps folding down, just topstich close to the fold. and it is as simple as that.



For the waist, I found this really great tutorial for taking it at the side seams. I was a bit less precise with my method. I didn't bother unpicking the belt loop as I knew it wouldn't quite interfere with the new seam. And I only unpicked about half what they suggested. I did the side seam the same as suggested, just with less precise measuring!

The waist band was a bit trickier to do as I unstitched very much, so I did it a bit differently. I just cut the waist band and cut out enough so that the two ends of the band only slightly overlapped. I unpicked the top few stitches so that it the upper band would sit nicely over the inside band. Then I just sewed over the top. Yes you can see the seam, but they are just jeans, and a belt would cover most of this. The front bit slipped down a bit when repositioning too, that is the darker denim beneath the waist band, but that is only about 0.5cm. No one is exactly going to be staring at the sides of your jeans either!



So a few pointers:

• Use a denim or heavy duty needle, and have a spare just in case one breaks
• Sharpen the needle, I think this makes a big difference and will prevent broken needles
  
• Overlock or zigzag loose ends as denim frays
• I just used black thread, but a mustard colour would probably match the rest of the jeans better
• You can always take in further, so start with a small amount, and try on before cutting
  
• Jeans are forgiving and don't need to be perfect, as can be seen in my case.
  

Took about half an hour for the length and an hour for the waist. Now they fit perfectly, and the cuffs won't get all wet when it rains and I can bend over with no fear!