Change the World Wednesday – 12 Feb

Too hot for coffee

I’m here, just.

I’m late, and I have no idea what I am going to write.

It’s too hot, and too late for coffee to be of any help.

I am just back on the net, one hour.

Read the post I am Tired and Bitchy for a rundown on the last 17 hours.

Yes, it was a disaster.

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Click on the banner for the full post

On with this weeks CTWW.

Last week’s challenge on food wastage, is a real challenge for everybody, I know, for me it is a constant battle.

This week, consider that one, green-living practice which you haven’t quite gotten to and … just do it! Take that first step, and give it a try!

OR …

If you’ve accomplished it all, please tell us about your most difficult, green task and how you overcame the obstacles.

The only really green practices that I am shy off are those involving cars, I don’t have one.

Then there is the Farmers Market issues, without the freedom of transport I can’t do as I would wish in that respect. Oh, I would love to.

Brazil just doesn’t ‘do’ farmer’s markets – Image: Boston

We do have weekly feiras (street markets) in many areas, including one on a Friday less than a mile away uphill from home. But the produce is not direct from the farm, it comes from the same cooperative that supplies the supermarkets and fruit and vege shops. There’s nothing ‘straight from the organic farm’ about it; and in the last couple of years their prices have been all but the same as other places. So it’s all rather pointless.

So there is very little that remains that I don’t practice once way or another, or as well as I would like.

I certainly don’t consider that I have accomplished it all, so I can’t tell you how I have overcome the obstacles.

There is one thing I can do. There is a dairy farm down Estrada Cachamorra that sells fresh milk. It’s more expensive than ‘boxed white crap’ and the bus fare there and back almost doubles the price. But I believe that fresh, unpasteurised milk is healthier.

I’ll give it a try. I am hoping that they’ll deliver.

Change the World Wednesday – 12th Sept

These do NOT make coffee, they produce dirty water

A week ago, I started my CTWW with coffee and no teeth, today, I have neither, but the pondering continues.

I am waiting for the water to boil for my coffee, and before that, you’re not going to get a lot.

People in the First World need gadgets. They have machines to do everything. If everybody just spent 10 minutes more of everyday in the kitchen and made coffee the old fashioned way, straining water through ground coffee beans you wouldn’t have the millions of coffee makers that are around the world. Now you add up all those coffee makers, all that plastic, metal, elements and glass that would never have to be mined, manufactured, transported and eventually thrown away.

That equals a lot of raw materials never extracted, refined and processed. All that petroleum saved, all that electricity never produced and used.

Fresh ginger

My kitchen smells deliciously of ginger this morning. Yesterday I marinated my steak in soya sauce and coarsely grated ginger root and today the kitchen still smells  fresh and clean.

I have a clump of ginger rhizomes in the garden, every now and then I break off a hunk for the vege bowl.

I must break the clump up and spread it out so that it will grow again this season.

My compost tomatoes haven’t ripened yet, but a couple are showing that yellowish tinge, so it won’t be long now.

My passionfruit vines had their first flower during the week, so hopefully they will be more successful and I will have passionfruit for this season.

Change the World Wednesday for this week is a great one. Apt for today because I am off to the supermarket after class.

This week, pick a food item which you normally buy in a package (especially a plastic package) and find a better alternative. For example, rather than buy beans in a plastic bag, look for them in the bulk isle of the market and fill your own container. Rather than buy produce in plastic “clam shells”, see if you can find them loose, without packaging. If you typically shop at a supermarket (where almost everything is packaged in plastic) consider shopping at a farmer’s market, food co-op, wholesale market or organic food store for better options. The idea, here, is to find at least one “green” alternative to plastic packaging … and, while doing without might be an appropriate alternative, we’re more interested in finding the food in acceptable/no packaging for this challenge.

 

Or … If, in your area, you find it nearly impossible to buy food which isn’t packaged in plastic, please speak to your market’s owner/manager to see if they can offer any alternatives. Talk to neighbors and members of the community to search out options.

 

Or … If none of the above works out, please write letters to your government officials and/or start a petition asking for plastic free food packaging.

Farmer’s markets, etc are the answer, but I have explained that is not feasible for me, so I am stuck with the supermarket.

They have many products prepackaged in polystyrene with wrap. For example they have shredded cabbage, I prefer to buy a small cabbage and it takes about 30 seconds to shred enough to use, so I wouldn’t even entertain the idea.

I have managed to get the fresh produce guy to put fruit in a simple plastic bag for me rather than buy a tray with wrap. But it’s got to be in a bag for ‘security reasons.’

These trays are really so unnecessary

They have prepackaged meat as well, but I always go to the counter and get my meat in a simple plastic bag, or get my bacon cut fresh and not use their cryo-vacced stuff, besides it always looks pale and insipid. A hunk cut fresh from a side is much more appealing.

So that takes care of the second part of the challenge. I am always on the look out to at least reduce packaging if I can’t eliminate it.

Today I will check around and see what else I can reduce, and then I will do an update.

Update

I failed.

Apart from the fact that the supermarket didn’t have many of the things I wanted, which is becoming all too often these days, I saw some wonderful filled pies, they were open topped, sort of like little 4″ quiches. The soft pastry would have been destroyed if they had been packed in anything but a polystyrene tray and covered in plastic wrap. There were four different fillings, I just had to have one of each… I felt so guilty when the girl in the deli section wrapped them.

But I managed to assuage my guilt over morning coffee…

They were scrumptious!

I’m off to the other supermarket in a couple of days, I’ll try again then.