February 18, 2011 by admin.

I was amazed the other day watching a commercial claim that, ‘cloth dishcloths only push messes around, one needs a paper towel to truly clean up a mess.’  Are you kidding me?  This might be true if the dish cloth were dry, or soaked, but if it was wet with hot soapy water and wrung out, the paper towel wouldn’t stand up.  Your dishcloth can be rinsed or thrown in the washing machine hundreds of times, while the paper towels are a one use type of an item.   For the goopy messes one would not like to use their dishcloths on, there are always rags.  The remenant of the old t-shirts, old dish cloths, old sweats.  The place where cotton goes to die.  These rags have been used so much, that should you get something on them that is not washable, they can happily go to the landfill where they are fully biodegradable in a relatively short period.

One might claim that paper napkins are necessary.  I would say that they are only necessary if you have a lot of people over for a meal.  For everyday use, a beautiful, cotton napkin is better. Not only is it eco friendly, but much gentler on your skin when you’re using them, and they don’t rip and stick to you if you happen to be having some very sticky wings or ribs.   A certain amount of style and class is also attached to using cloth napkins over paper towels or paper napkins at your table. 

Another commercial claims that your hand towel is very dirty, and one must have disposable towels in the bathroom for drying hands.  Again, haven’t they heard of a washing machine?  The world certainly does not need any more disposable items.  The use of all these paper products is not sustainable in the long term.  The production of all these paper products require a great many natural resources and purchasing them on a regular basis, definitely adds up the dollars for a family over a year! 

Then there are the wipes, which don’t only use paper but also use chemicals and encase their products in plastic.  We really need more chemicals and plastics in our homes and environment?!?    Some governments are beginning ad campaigns to discourage the overuse of antibacterial product.  The great marketing machines are once again preying on our fears.  They have us convinced that to keep our home and children safe we need to kill every bacteria in the world.  Not true.  We live symbiotically with many thousands of bacteria.  Many are necessary for our survival. 

 The CDC has published an article from Stuart B. Levy of
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA beginning with:

“The recent entry of products containing antibacterial agents into healthy households has escalated from a few dozen products in the mid-1990s to more than 700 today. Antibacterial products were developed and have been successfully used to prevent transmission of disease-causing microorganisms among patients, particularly in hospitals. They are now being added to products used in healthy households, even though an added health benefit has not been demonstrated. Scientists are concerned that the antibacterial agents will select bacteria resistant to them and cross-resistant to antibiotics. Moreover, if they alter a person’s microflora, they may negatively affect the normal maturation of the T helper cell response of the immune system to commensal flora antigens; this change could lead to a greater chance of allergies in children. As with antibiotics, prudent use of these products is urged. Their designated purpose is to protect vulnerable patients.” 

To summarize the above, too much use of antibacterial products is NOT a good thing.  That is all before considering the environmental and financial costs of the products themselves.

So many paper products like paper towels can be replaced with long lasting alternatives.  While it may be difficult to eliminate all of the products you use on a daily basis, minimizing the use and transitioning to more eco friendly alternatives is definitely a great place to start.  Even a little bit of change makes a big difference for our world, our children’s world.  

     vs.      Which do you Choose?

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February 18, 2011 by admin.

Watching the news the other night, we hear that China is now stockpiling food, corn at the moment.  There was already a shortfall due to the pressures for plant based bio fuel and the absolutely crazy weather of the last couple of years.  All these factors come together to increase food prices.  Price based supply and demand; rule one of a capitalistic society.  Corn is an ingredient to so many other things, processed foods, dog food, and fast food.  These prices will all be increasing by about %10 to reflect the increased corn costs.

We’ve been seeing a distinct and sharp upward trend in our food prices over the last few years.  The environment has been playing a major roll in it all.  Frosts and snow in the south, floods, well, everywhere, except where there is drought and fire.  Crops on a world scale are being damaged and destroyed by ecosystems that are reacting in record setting extremes. 

Lovely fun news (insert heavy sarcasm here).  Some of us are so fatigued by listening to disaster after disaster, that we have a level of unidentified anxiety about, well everything.  We are tuning out the news or simply shell shocked as we hear of another flood, earth quake, drought, fire, volcano, hurricane, tornado…  The unbelievable thing is that the government is trying to normalize the entire thing.  A 6.8 earthquake in Chile February 11^th was hardly a whisper in the news world.  I remember when a 5.0 quake was talked about for a week or longer.  I actually had a great laugh when we were informed by one news source, that the 5.0 earthquakes in Ontario and Quebec in June 2010, was a fairly normal occurrence.  Really???  The last one on record, I believe, was in 1935.  This does not in my opinion, constitute normal.

The bad news and disasters are, however, becoming normal occurrences.  The question is, how to deal with the stress and anxiety of unstable environments and food sources?  At what point do food prices outstrip the family food budgets.  For some, that time has already come.  But, we are not helpless.  Many have lost touch with our food production and preparation.  Time to resolve some of these situations. 

There are some fairly simple things we can do to contribute to our food supply.  One is to start a garden in your yard, a family member’s yard, or if you don’t have access to a yard, in a community garden in your area.  Even if you don’t think that you have a green thumb, some carrots and beans, corn and peas are fairly easy to grow from seeds (no need to buy starter plants), can be eaten fresh, frozen, or canned and taste unbelievable, and much better than store bought.  A small patch takes no more time to care for than a flower garden, but the returns are so much higher.  The whole family can get involved.  It is fun and rewarding.

Once you have some fresh food, rather than the packaged, processed stuff, preparing it can also be simpler than one might think.  You will end up with a much healthier and tastier meal.  You would also be helping the environment with reducing or eliminating the packaging of the food you grew yourself rather than purchase. 

I also really enjoy houseplants.  What I have been doing over the last couple of years is exchanging the regular inedible houseplants with edible herbs, plants and such.  I have found a great side benefit to doing so.  When anyone brushes up against an herb plant, the most delightful aroma is released, all natural, no purchase necessary.  I have ordered a lemon bush, orange tree, and coffee bush.  I will be ordering green tea plant seeds soon.  I will be starting my basil, thyme and oregano from seed. 

I still have zucchini, carrots, corn and beans in the freezer and potatoes in a basket from the garden from last year.  This year I hope to grow more and store more.  My asparagus will be in the second year so I might get a small crop, but next year, I will have a full crop and my asparagus patch will last for 40 years or more.  How cool is that and have you seen the price of asparagus?  I have also planted everbearing strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and northern kiwis.  Brought in apple, cherry, plum, apricot, seabuckthorn, and high-bush cranberry trees.  The trees will not be producing fruit for a few years, but after that, 40 years worth.

I was amazed when I found out how many different fruit would grow in my climate.  I live in the Interlake region of Manitoba.  I didn’t think that all the plants would survive the winters here, but they have lived well through a cold one last year with very little snow for insulation, so it looks like it will work great.  I will have organic food for nothing more than my time.  I am harvesting my own seeds as well.

I personally think that these things are fun and interesting.  I’m excited to see what I can bring home into my control.  Definitely helps with my anxiety, my health, and my food budget.

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February 17, 2011 by admin.

Looking at the downsides of Drip Coffee Makers and finding them to be many, I had finally had enough of them.  The machines that just quit, right in the middle of brewing a pot of coffee, while company, who has come over for a cup, sits waiting for the coffee that will never appear.  Or the coffee makers that do not make the coffee hot enough, so one brews a pot, pours a cup, and then proceeds to the microwave to warm it up.  The coffee just doesn’t get to the great taste one would expect.  It always tastes a little watery, cold, weak, or just not that great.  I haven’t even mentioned the broken and the cracked carafes yet. 

How does one make a glass coffee carafe husband proof?  For some reason the laws of expansion and contraction elude my lovely husband.  Best intentions…road to hell, and whatnot.  Helping out, doing the dishes, wanting to get it all done, puts a hot glass carafe in the considerably cooler water and sure enough, it cracks, surprising him of course.  Trying not to waste, and having finally found a coffee maker that at least does a passable job, we order a replacement carafe and it costs $60. 

This lasts a while, until one day, I am going to make a pot of coffee and behold, another crack running along the bottom of the carafe.  My husband blinking and looking at me with the, “I didn’t do it”.  Later admitting that he just tapped the side of the carafe on a ceramic bowl in the dish tray, and once again, very surprised that it cracked.

At this point I am no longer willing to spend another $60 to special order the carafe, but at this point they have universal carafes available.  We end up trying two of them.  One does not fit at all (I had actually been looking at another one and ended up grabbing the wrong carafe), one almost fits, but alas, the coffee is cold and watery.  ‘Almost’ is not good enough for coffee maker carafes. 

Now I start to consider all the coffee makers of days past.  I consider the interesting info about plastics leaching toxins when heated and it occurs to me that I am done with Drip Coffee Makers.  I do not need to be poisoning myself while having a bad cup of coffee.  I do not need to be spending ridiculous amounts of money replacing the machines and the carafes on fairly regular schedules.  I was looking for something that made a great cup of coffee, would not break down, and was husband proof. 

 Stainless steel appeared to be the answer.  I had already switched to a stainless steal stove top kettle after the last time my son fried the cord on my electric one.  Just need to clean it with vinegar every 6 months to a year, give it a wipe once in a while, and that’s it.  Love, love, love my stove top, stainless steel kettle!  So the question was, how do I find the same thing for coffee?  Happily, I found a stainless steel, 12 cup,  stove top percolator at my local hardware store. Both the jug and inner working are stainless steel, stronger and definitely less fragile than the aluminum ones.  It looks great.  It took brewing 3 pots to come up with a killer combination and timing to perfectly fit my taste.  Did not take any longer than a drip machine.  The entire setup cost me less than $45, made a fantastic pot of coffee and I will not have to replace the equipment again.  It is sturdy and husband proof.  It is the most Eco Friendly and pocket book friendly option I could find.  I do love the win, win, wins when I find them.  Newer is not always better, and this is definitely the case for the New Drip vs. the Old Percolator Style Coffee Makers.  The stove top Percolator wins hands down!

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