Change the World Wednesday – 4th Jun

This year is really rattling along; June already!

Two CTWWs ago we talked about junk mail. I found this comparison a couple of days ago, it tells a story.

In the interests of conservation and saving paper, why can’t the government pass the same laws for your street or post office mailbox?

Last week’s CTWW, it turns out my milkweed isn’t, but I will keep looking. The story doesn’t end there.

We have a saying here in Brazil. “O Brasileiro não desiste, nunca!” The Brazilian doesn’t give up, ever!

Very applicable, especially with the FIFA World Cup only eight days from kick off.

While I am not Brazilian, I have embraced many Brazilian ideas. My friends say that I am quase (nearly) Brazilian.

So, I’ll keep looking for milkweed.

I just love butterflies, especially the regal looking Monarchs.

Some butterflies I encountered in Bolivia

I saw many more, and I have just realised that most of my travel photos are locked in my old hard drive. I couldn’t find the butterfly that I was looking for.

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On with this week’s CTWW.

Yes, here in Brazil we are at the end of autumn and the weather is definitely cooler than our 40ºC+ days of summer.

This week, plant something edible. Plant in a garden, raised bed, a container, etc. If you don’t have space outside, consider herbs or lettuce in a small pot placed in a kitchen window. Try placing some seed potatoes in the ground (dig a small hole and drop them in) … then sit back and watch them grow. If you’re moving into autumn, consider planting a fruit tree or perhaps a nut tree. The idea this week is to plant food.

 

OR …

If growing food just isn’t going to work for you, please offer other ideas for enjoying local, organic produce.

I am always planting something edible. Not specifically this week, but for me it is an ongoing process.

Usually the plants that find their way into my paint tins are self grown from scraps in the compost heap.

Orange seedlings sharing the tin with a tomato plant

Like the orange seedling above. I just noticed a second seedling has sprouted on the left, this week I will transplant it (my CTWW for the week) into its own tin.

My passion fruit vines have stalled for the winter, but they are well established and in the summer will spread all over, hopeful with a bumper crop of passion fruit.

It appears too late for my tomatoes to come to anything

But plenty more seedlings will sprout between now and then.

The parsley I planted last year, is now well established. I have two pots outside the kitchen door and it features in many dishes.

Curley Parsley

The parsley are the only seeds that I have bought.

Sadly, the attempts to grow pineapples from cut crowns has faltered. They got to the size of golf balls and ripened then rotted.

The goiabeiras (guava trees) have fruit, one for the second time; but they too have gone to sleep for the autumn. I have great hopes for them in the spring and summer months. The same for my acerola (West Indian Cherry), it hasn’t begun to flower yet, but I feel it will in the coming season. Acerola are great mixed with orange juice, but you do need sugar, they are mouth-puckering sour. While they are the size and shape of a cherry, they are not at all cherry-like in taste, but have an incredibly high Vitamin C content.

This week I will turn over the compost heap, who knows what treasures I will find sprouting within?

That about does my garden update.

Change the World Wednesday – 17th Jul

Zero waste this week….

So why did I have three bags of rubbish to put out tonight instead of my usual one or sometimes two?

Another of life’s paradoxes.

It was all packaging, so I didn’t actually waste anything. No food went out (I didn’t burn any toast this week), nothing reusable went out.

How many of you would have tossed this orange?

I made juice from three of them that had snuck up on me in my fruit stand, it was delicious. Just cut the mouldy bits off, perhaps a little more generously because the soft pulp extends further into the fruit than the affected outside signs

So much food is thrown away because of blemishes or a little mould, when they could be used.

I didn’t even throw the broken wine glass out, it has been put to the side. I didn’t break it, I discovered that the base was broken in two when I unpacked it. Unfortunately it was past the date when I could have taken it back to the store. So eventually, I will glue the base and use it for…. something; I haven’t decided yet.

It’s too small for a fish bowl. Besides some clown would put wine in it, then I’d have weekly trips to AA with a fish.

Probably end up as a candle holder.

Some rocks, compost and moss, perhaps. A mini terrarium with a fern…

Update:

My turning to the new fangled lights is timely. Brazil is banning the sale and manufacture of incandescent light bulbs from next year.

Small suggested, in a comment, that my Bread’n’Butter Pudding sounded great. (Last week)

Mine aren’t as burnt… but you get the idea.

Recipe:

Old bread crusts or rolls saved in the freezer.

Pyrex dish, butter bread (NO margarine, it’s yucky) and line dish. Throw in some sultanas. Slop on some dollops of any jam (jelly for our US cousins). Make scrambled egg mix with less milk than eggs and with some brown sugar and a dash of vanilla essence, pour over bread until soaked and covered. Sprinkle with some cinnamon or nutmeg. Bake at a low heat until solid. Serve, eat, enjoy. It’s about as simple as a dessert can be. This recipe originated in England during WW II when there was food rationing and nothing, but nothing  could be wasted.

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Okay, on with this week’s CTWW.

This week review your activities and come up with at least one more way to live green. Similar to our energy challenge, this will be easy for “newbies” who have plenty of options to choose from and tough for seasoned “greenies” who will have to dig deep. Let’s see how green we can be!!

Oh, pooh!

Recycle, upcycle, repurpose… They’re all on the cards around here.

Lixo at lunch

Here’s an example. My cat Lixo (means rubbish in Portuguese) is a green cat.

I love my Lixo, but I don’t pamper him. He’s a cat after all. Here he is at lunch -terrible photo.

You’ll notice that there isn’t a special cat bowl, nothing that has been especially bought  for him.

He’s a happy cat.

Now let’s take a closer look at Kitty Korner.

Kitty Korner is a cut down milk box carton, lined with two polystyrene slabs cut to fit. His dish is a polystyrene tray, and his milk dish is an old margarine container. Lixo is quite happy with his Kitty Korner and asks for nothing more. He’s only interested in the food.

Now while I try to avoid buying stuff in polystyrene, sometimes it’s unavoidable, because of supermarket or hygiene rules. But when I am lumbered with the stuff, it gets reused, upcycled, repurposed. Oh, and when it gets dirty, I wash it and use it again and again, until it breaks, then it goes out in the trash. For example, that marg container, I have been using for three years, it rotates with a cream cheese container of about the same age.

So, my suggestion for something green and new. Is don’t buy your pets purpose specific things, where possible, reuse, recycle, upcycle or repurpose.

Perhaps with a dog, you may have to use something a tad more sturdy than polystyrene as most dogs would just chew it to pieces all over the backyard. Perhaps an old enamel dish…

How green is your pet?

Make you Fink on Friday

This is absurd

I fail to see it…

At a time when the prices of food are rising beyond the means of ordinary folk Spain holds the Tomatina festival in Buñol where 120,000kgs of tomatoes are wasted by 40,000 people.

While here in Brazil the shortage of tomatoes has risen more than six times their normal price.

This is apparently fun.

This is also apparently fun

Not only this…

In Italy, the Ivrea Orange Festival is a similar absurdity.

“In the small northern Italian town of Ivrea, the Battle of the Oranges Festival is held every year during a three-day carnival leading up to Lent. Nearly 3,000 people gather in the piazzas of this village of just under 25,000 people. Orange-throwing is said to represent the battle against an oppressive emperor in the 12th century.” – World’s Weirdest Festivals
Even the Americans do it.

“The Empire Asparagus Festival in Empire, Mich., is dedicated entirely to this perennial vegetable. Michigan is one of the top asparagus producers in the U.S.” – World’s Weirdest Festivals

I fail to see the funny side of this when we have a world full of hungry people.

Maybe, I am just a boring old fart.