Category Archive

Well, in my case, lots of yummy things! Why don’t you drop over to Nourishing Days and see my list?

Shannon has done a great job putting together this great series. I’ve really been enjoying reading everyone’s entries, and now it’s my turn!

Kaitlyns Birthday Gifts by Elizabeth/Table4Five, on Flickr

I haven’t posted anything about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for many reasons. I have been reading a lot of commentary and listening to the voices of people much wiser and well spoken than I, watching news reports, listening to political rhetoric and environmentalist anger. But something’s been brewing in my head this whole time.

Wikipedia says peak oil is “the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.” Some experts believe we are already at the peak and others believe it is about twenty to twenty-five years off. Regardless of where we sit on the curve of oil viability, we are being told to conserve. Right now, the focus of conservation efforts seems to be gasoline usage. I guess since people see the gasoline going into their car and recognize it as a petroleum product, it’s a fair place to start.

But what about the supermarket? Can we learn to see oil there? If I am eating an apple in June in the northern hemisphere, how far did my food travel to reach me? Did it go by boat? Plane? Truck? All three? I’m guilty of eating bananas in Tennessee, kiwi in Oregon and pineapple in California, and all out of season. Coconuts for my beloved coconut oil are not local. Neither is my coffee, my cocoa powder or my sea salt.

I am guilty of picking up a ten pound (plastic) bag of organic potatoes rather than weighing out ten pounds in my own canvas bag. As Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish reminds us, plastic is a petroleum product. (Her thought-provoking take on the oil spill can be read here.) Looking through my home, I see petroleum everywhere, but nowhere in more abundance than my kitchen. Even though I’ve gotten rid of the plastic food storage containers, I still have appliances and tools of plastic, coatings on the shelves in my pantry, ceiling lighting fixtures, the paint on the wall. It’s everywhere.

It’s also in my food. According to the FDA, if…The names include a prefix FD&C, D&C, or External D&C; a color; and a number. An example is “FD&C Yellow No. 5.” Certified colors also may be identified in cosmetic ingredient declarations by color and number alone, without a prefix (such as “Yellow 5″) then your ingredient is made from petroleum. Made from petroleum. As in, “pass the unleaded.”

Vitamin capsules are made from petroleum, and the vitamins they contain use petroleum as a solvent to extract their active ingredients. If “enriched” appears on the label of a food item you are eating, the vitamins and minerals enriching your food were produced using petroleum as a solvent. Rubbing alcohol and vinegar, two of my “safe” cleaning products are made from petroleum, as is my daughter’s lipstick. Some of my most beloved products—raw milk, cod liver oil capsules and sea salt—come in plastic containers.

It would not be possible for me to reduce my usage of petroleum to zero. The extremist in me will just have to acknowledge that and deal. But I’m seeing the oil now. When I put something plastic in the recycle bin, I see the oil. When I put the DVD in the player, I see the oil. When I vacuum my carpet, I see the oil. And every time I see the oil, I know that my insatiable lust for more—more convenience, more speed, more stuff—is what caused the oil spill that now threatens far more than “just a piece of ocean.”

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

One of my biggest problems with eating seasonally and locally is storage space. Take strawberries, for example. They seem to be in season here and available at my Farmers Market for about 3 weeks. Three weeks is such a short window for a berry lover, and the other 49 weeks of the year are so long!

I suppose I could take my wonderful berries and turn them into jam, can them and stack them in the cupboard, but I hate adding a bunch of sugar to already perfectly sweet berries and then processing all the vitamin C out of them in a canner.

I could dehydrate them, but they do seem to lose a little something in the translation. Still, drying is a great method for not adding sugar and keeping the fruit shelf-stable for a few extra weeks.

But by far my favorite thing to do with strawberries is to make food cubes. I used to make portable baby food for my little ones by pureeing leftovers and freezing them in ice cube trays. No more babies in the house, but my ice cube trays still see leftovers!

When we’ve eaten our fill of the week’s berries and there are just a few too-soft ones left, I’ll run them through the juicer and make ice cubes from the juice. Now they are frozen and ready to blend into a smoothie at my convenience.

I do this with all kinds of food from berries (in the juicer if they have seeds, otherwise in the blender) to shredded zucchini!

I have a teensy bit more room in the freezer than in the fridge, and storing cubes in a plastic bag allows them to “squish” a bit so they fit into spaces where nothing else will. I do not like storing food in plastic, but this is my one exception. There is just no more room for jars in my fridge and freezer!

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.

Shockingly close results of a recent Wii "Everybody Votes Channel" survey

When water bottles were first popularized, Grandmother said, “Why do adults want to go around sucking on a bottle like a baby? Ridiculous!” We laughed about that, because Grandmother was hopelessly behind the times. The water tastes better, and we were paying for it, so it must be cleaner and healthier than what comes out of our city tap. Besides, we were all trying to lose weight and staying hydrated was an important part of that plan. How were we to stay hydrated without a plastic water bottle? A filthy germ-ridden water fountain? I think not!

Of course, that was decades before the studies showing that bottled water was just water from our city tap, that it was full of bacteria even more dangerous than a drinking fountain, that the plastic in the bottle leeched BPA into the water which switched our endocrine systems to “permanent weight gain” mode and before we knew where all those used water bottles went.

Come on, people. If you really can’t go the duration of a trip away from home without something to drink, carry a reusable bottle. Find a water fountain if you’re really, truly in dire need. But let’s ditch the plastic bottles. They just aren’t doing anyone any good and they are doing a whole lot of people a whole lot of harm.

If you haven’t yet, please go watch Anne Leonard’s The Story of Bottled Water. It is a real eye-opener.

As they sang in Guys and Dolls:

Follow the fold and stray no more
Stray no more, stray no more.
Put down the bottle and we’ll say no more
Follow, follow, the fold.
Before you take another swallow!

This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

sad pumpkins by massdistraction, on Flickr

One of the reasons I started this series is because I am change resistant. I am dragged kicking and screaming into changes unless they fit neatly into my own personal plan and schedule. My emotions are a two-year-old tyrant screaming “I don’t wanna!” at the top of their lungs. I don’t wanna have kids. I don’t wanna homeschool. I don’t wanna stop having kids. I don’t wanna move to the south. I don’t wanna get laid off. I don’t wanna work at home. I don’t wanna be self-employed. I don’t wanna graduate my daughter from high school. I don’t wanna be 50. Regardless of my “don’t wannas” all these changes came and went and I lived through them. I’m even better off for most of them happening.

I worked in a very overcrowded Human Resources department in 1989. My “desk” was half a work table which I shared with three computers and a printer. The files I had to access on a constant basis were three offices down the hall. After we moved into our new facility, I had, all to myself, one of only 12 window cubicles in the entire building with enough room for all my necessary documents. Still, I was so adamant about NOT wanting to move that my boss put me on the moving team just to shut me up! Looking back, I can’t imagine why I fought that change so hard.

All my kicking and screaming hasn’t managed to stop change from happening to me. It keeps on coming, giving me yet another chance to handle myself differently. I keep blowing it, but I think I’m getting closer.

the chickens like to walk among spring daffodils by sierravalleygirl, on Flickr

As a control freak, I didn’t always chase change. A little change goes a long way in my life, and many changes were just too big to consider seriously. Lately, though, I find I lean into change rather than run from it. By choosing to change I can take it at my own pace rather than have change thrust upon me.

Being an all-or-nothing kinda gal, I used to read books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and become frustrated. Here was a blueprint to the life I consider ideal and I was so very far from it. Worse, I knew it was not an attainable goal for my family any time in the near future for many reasons. For a while I stopped reading books like that because they were just too upsetting to me.

Then it hit me. Perhaps if I were less of an all-or-nothing gal, I could incorporate smaller changes here and there and get me a little closer, step-by-step, to my ideal. A self-sustaining farm is absolutely out of the question. Even a backyard full of raised beds is not possible right now. But a container garden on my patio is possible. Swearing off plastic isn’t going to happen, but lessening our exposure to it can. More importantly, doing research about plastic exposure and learning which plastics to avoid, when and why is absolutely doable.

I know there are many who eschew plastic in all forms at all times. But, in an extensive life cycle analysis, my dairy farmer discovered that using a food-safe plastic (no BPA) for milk deliveries was less expensive for them, and better for the environment overall than glass containers. (Knowing these people, their expense considerations probably took a backseat to the environmental evidence.) That took me completely by surprise. You mean there is a time and place for plastic? That flies in the face of this all-or-nothing gal’s sensibilities.

(Look for life cycle analysis to be the next big thing. People talk about “food miles” but that doesn’t take into account the processing methods of the food, only its odometer reading. Some people speak of “cradle to grave” analysis as if our trash magically disappears once it leaves our curb. Life cycle analysis is “cradle to cradle”: that is, it studies the impact of every step of the process along the way, from the gathering of raw materials to the recycling or disposal of it after use. The Story of Stuff is an excellent explanation of life cycle analysis.)

I was raised in a family of climate change deniers. Rolling eyes, little giggles and heavy sighs were the standard response to news items or friends positing theories on climate change. I still don’t know exactly where I stand on the issue—there seems to be an awful lot of conflicting evidence, much of which will require bigger brains than mine to sort out. But it doesn’t matter. How I feel about it one way or the other will not make one bit of difference to the planet. How I act most certainly will. And even if climate change turns out to be a hoax/misunderstanding/misreading of the evidence, making carefully considered choices won’t hurt anyone (or leave me with a seared conscience.)

Reading No Impact Man did not make me want to run out and find alternatives to toilet paper. But it did make me reconsider my choice of grocery sacks. When the evidence started pointing toward the unsustainable future of plastic bags, I got ahead of the communities banning them and made the change on my timetable. Of course if I were really rethinking, I would have seen through the “convenience” veil years ago and never bought into the paper-or-plastic conundrum.

My weekly browse of Urban Velo does not inspire me to sell the family van, but it has encouraged me to look for and consider alternative transportation. And, let’s face it, a single or couple will have options that a family of 8 will not.

But I have an advantage over that single or couple. I’m raising a small horde of free-thinking, information-seeking, book-loving citizens who (hopefully) won’t scoff at any opportunity to improve their communities or the planet they borrow from their grandchildren.

Now, I don’t bring up these lovely, shiny examples to toot my own horn. I’m still waaaa-hay-hay-hay behind the curve on an awful lot of issues. I still drive-thru too often, crave soda and have paper towels in the kitchen. And I still bristle at the demise of the incandescent light bulb in favor of its mercury-containing mandated replacement. But I’m learning, challenging the status quo and chasing the change. Fearlessly. Okay, not without fear, just with less. Maybe.

Classroom with Three Figures by cliff1066™, on Flickr

The idea of working in one’s own best interest is tied to the previous Monday Morning Rethinks.

• If you’re clinging to a buzz phrase that doesn’t mean anything to you, you are parroting a lifestyle that might not suit you best.
• If you are stuck to an old habit that really doesn’t meet your needs, you are allowing your comfort zone to dictate your circumstances.
• If you are stuck in a brand loyalty loop, you’re not actively making choices based on your current needs.
• If you allow experts to tell you how to live your life, you are abdicating your decision-making process to someone who might or might not know better than you.

I love the internet. How on earth did people live before the days of sitting down and Googling a question? How best to remove blood stains from a shirt, what to serve with meatloaf, the safety of DMSO for topical application, the number of stars on a 1922 United States flag…all these are easily answered by a quick search. Of course, what someone else likes with their meatloaf may not be to my family’s tastes, and just because Jane Doe up the road uses (and sells) DMSO with no side effects doesn’t make it safe. And just because my doctor says I need to have a flu shot and take a statin drug doesn’t mean I’m in line at the pharmacy.

But, you came for my story.

I am in my 20th year of homeschooling my children. When we first started, I was pretty clueless. I knew we had to find my oldest son a way out of the public school system that was destroying his calm and turning off his brain at age 10. Private schools were out of the question for us financially. We read, talked with homeschooling friends, prayed (a lot), then decided to give it a try.

In the 1990s, homeschooling was nearing the end of its pioneering movement. There were precious few resources just for us and a vocal anti-homeschooling lobby. Some experts said the goal of homeschooling was to get your children Harvard-ready. Some said it was to keep up with their public schooled peers so when you fail, they can blend back into the school system easily. Others shook their fingers at homeschoolers and blamed us for the collapse of the public school system.

The experts and trailblazers I read mostly fell into the first two categories. And my first student wanted the comfort of class hours, bells and homework. It wasn’t long before that routine started destroying my calm, though, and we found our way out. Through an eclectic course of study which included unit studies, a weekly trip to the public library and lots of field trips, our homeschool finally began to take shape.

Even now, with two children already graduated and one coming up in June, I still suffer from expert awe. I’ll read about this family’s rigorous course of study, how that one sent three children overseas to study in high school, how the other has graduated two politicians and a doctor…and wonder if I’m doing this all wrong.

Encouraging my children to challenge themselves is a big part of our homeschool. Churning out Harvard-ready students isn’t…necessarily. But it’s been a learning experience to get to the point of trust with my children and myself that I could let go of that expectation.

Now that the homeschooling movement is in its “homesteading” phase, there are how-to books, ready-made curriculum, websites, podcasts, checklists and resources enough to boggle the mind. Going to a homeschool fair is an exercise in sensory overload. The new experts praise homeschooling’s results as the first and second generation of American homeschoolers move into adulthood. As more successful homeschooling families graduate their children into the world, more experts pop up with their stories and how-tos.

The real food movement is a great thing, but each expert seems to have his or her own take on it. For some, never eating out again is the goal, for others finding healthy, local alternatives is a side business. For some, any food item purchased in a box, can or from the freezer section seems to be verboten while others blog about coupons and savings they find on the healthiest processed food available. Some eschew grocery stores altogether. One friend told me if I wasn’t making my own bread I was shortchanging my family. Another told me eating bread at all was a no-no.

But what I have to rely on is what works for my family. If my rules and regulations about a real food diet are so strict or unworkable that I’m sent running, screaming for relief to the drive-thru, then something is out of whack. Yes, it takes time. I have to look at each decision carefully and weigh its costs in time, money, energy and tolerance. Just like with homeschooling, there’s always more to learn and try and do. There are always going to be more experts to listen to, more podcasts, more web pages, more classes and documentaries and recipes and checklists and instructions. I need to keep my own goals and tolerances in mind when looking at all the possibilities.

MY PRIDE & JOY by lcalder, on Flickr

Tide. You know, the big, orange box with the target on it. My mom swore by the stuff. I don’t remember her ever buying any other laundry detergent. Ever. Oh man, that smell is burned into my senses. It smells like…home.

It took the birth of a child with severe eczema before I even considered any other detergent. I shopped around and tried a bunch of different brands. I liked some of the brands at the health food store, and I could occasionally even find Ecos at Costco at a pretty good price. But when Rose’s eczema was flaring up, that would make the clothes burn her skin. I love most Method products, but the laundry soap irritated even the skin of those of us who didn’t even have eczema! I tried making my own but was met with wildly varying success.

It was with a great deal of fear and trembling I tried Soap Nuts. I loved the idea that Soap Nuts were free of synthetic chemicals. And when I visited the site, I got even more excited that this one soap could replace other cleaners in my house. Not even Simple Green‘s carpet cleaner is as safe as Soap Nuts. But it seemed so expensive! I finally saved up and bit the bullet and guess what? Soap Nuts did a great job in my carpet steam cleaner. It did a fantastic job in the laundry and hasn’t stung anyone yet. It even did a pretty darned good job as a shampoo (and I have waist-length, thick hair that doesn’t generally do well with “no poo.”) But I’ll keep an eye on them and if they add a single fragrance, “eth” or “lauryl,” I’m outta there.

I  had another brand commandeer my brain a while back. Before we knew how carbs were contributing to our health problems, we’d have a weekly meal of spaghetti. No meat, just two pounds of pasta and a jar of sauce. We searched for a long time to find just the right sauce, the right blend of sweet and tangy, smooth and chunky, something we all liked. We finally found it in Newman’s Sockarooni. Each week as I’d write out the menus, I’d add a meal of “Spaghetti and Sockarooni” which quickly became “Spaghetti and Newman’s” which devolved into “Spag and News.” “News” was our word for spaghetti sauce for years. It never occurred to me that someone looking at my menus wouldn’t know what “News” was!

I set about the task of creating my own spaghetti sauce one summer. I came fairly close to something we liked, and everyone enjoyed putting their two cents in. “Mom, more salt. LOTS more salt,” Rose would say. “It’s gotta have olives!” Christy would chip in. “You’re getting really close with this one,” Hubby would offer. I very rarely use spaghetti sauce any more, and that piece of greasy notebook paper where I was taking notes on my experiments has long been lost. But my oldest son calls the meal “Spag and News” still.

Now, a caveat. I have to work really hard to not force changes on others in my family. Sometimes the kids are open to trying new things, sometimes not. Blair will not give up wearing makeup, even though her lovely skin doesn’t need it. Christy isn’t fond of my homemade toothpaste. Hubby and John have very strong preferences when it comes to their personal care items. If they never come around, I’m okay with that. After all, it took me thirty five years to stem the Tide!

Interesting note on the above photo, by the way. My mom carried around a photo just like that in her wallet for years. No photos of her kids, but only of her “Pride and Joy.” I’ll bet most of you don’t have a clue what Pride was used for! I do, and the gritty white paste is as much a part of my childhood as “April Fresh.”

Probably the Only Time My New Bed Will Be Made But...Looks Good by BrentDPayne, on Flickr

I don’t make my bed. There, I’ve said it. I did for years. I like the way the bedroom looks when the bed is made and all the fancy little pillows are placed neatly on top of the comforter. But something changed: my husband started working at home. He suffers from insomnia and can be up, working, into the wee hours of the morning. If I’m not tucked in by 11PM, I’m generally asleep in the living room chair by 11:15. I get up early and he most often sleeps in a little later than I do. He has (God bless him) gotten into the habit of making the bed as he gets out of it every morning. Poof! That sure was an easy habit to break!

Not so easy to break was the habit of eating while I watched TV at night with hubby. It started innocently enough a dozen years ago. The kids would eat an early dinner when they were little to allow their tummies time to digest before their 8PM bedtime. I’d usually eat with them and hubby would eat later in the evening when he was home from work and decompressed from the day. But, by 10PM I’d be ravenous again. A small bowl of chips or a handful of M&Ms would tide me over. Even when I started eating better, I’d have a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with some créme fraiche and honey or a couple crackers with inexpensive caviar. Cold butter and cheese slices were closer to an addiction than a snack.

But now that the kids are mostly teens and dinnertime is a very regular 6PM, I don’t need that nighttime snack anymore. It took some serious decision-making to turn down that little night-bite, but my new habit of drinking a small glass of water kefir works fine for me now.

Getting up and making breakfast before the family was awake was easy when I had a baby waking me at dawn to nurse. I’d be awake and baby would usually drop back off to sleep. I could cook at my leisure and still have time for a cup of coffee before the crew hit the ground running. But now that I’m up later at night, it’s hard to wake up before my earliest riser and have some quiet time with a hot mug before the “what’s for breakfast” chorus begins. Waking early these days means I’m going without sleep, something my body does not like one bit. But, my early riser is a teen now, and is fully capable of making breakfast. Pancakes are her specialty, but she’s been branching out and trying other dishes as well. So, as she forms a habit to check the menus posted on the refrigerator and try her hand at creating the suggested meal, I am forming a lovely habit of getting enough sleep!

What habits are you challenging and changing these days?