Rethinking Winter Eating…Again

As I type, I am enjoying a mug of spicy, coconut chicken soup.  Hold it, you may be thinking, did she just write coconut?  Yes, dear reader, I did.  Not only does this soup have coconut, but it also contains lemon and ginger!  The chicken part is stock made from a local chicken I picked up last weekend.  The coconut and lemon are organic, and the chili flakes are organic and fair trade.  But still, the majority of the ingredients in this soup are not local.

I wrote earlier about how I decided to relax some of my rules, at least in the winter, to allow for more diversity in my cooking.  Sticking to almost exclusively local ingredients for three winters in a row now is starting to make this lifestyle very tedious even for someone like me who can eat variations leek & potato soup seemingly forever.  I was really starting to get tired of my limited recipes and decided that I needed to give myself a little breathing room if I was going to keep going.

Nevertheless, I struggled over each item purchased for this soup, and any others that don’t fit my criteria of small-scale, local and organic (such as the capers for my lamb roast last weekend – what exactly are capers anyway, and can I make them myself this year?).  The ginger, I bow my head in shame, is conventional.  I could not justify driving an hour to the nearest place that sells organic ginger simply for this one ingredient.  I will be sure to stock up on organic ginger (which, along with lemons, is called for in many of the new recipes I’m trying) next time I am in the vicinity of that shop.  Even worse, the coconut came in a can, which is coated with plastic and now sitting in my recycle bin waiting for a fossil-fuel guzzling process to turn it into something useful again.  Next time I will try making it with a real coconut – I just need to find where I can buy one!  And I expect I’ll then be faced with the dilemma: unpackaged but conventional real coconut vs. canned yet organic coconut milk.  Both options, naturally, being imported and produced industrially on large-scale.

Yeesh, just writing this all down is getting me to rethink my choice to include such items in my diet at all.  The soup is mighty delicious, however, and I’m feeling more fortified by the minute (the recipe in question is this one from Nourishing Traditions, touted as a good winter soup for when you are feeling under the weather, as I am tonight).  Hold on a minute while I get a another cup…

…mmmm, that’s better.  Now where was I?  Oh, right, contemplating my food purchasing choices.

I have struggled with such choices ever since I started down this path 2.5 years ago and have come to the conclusion that there are no clear answers.  Sticking absolutely to a local, organic diet would deprive me of certain elements that my body really needs, such as sea salt.  I can survive, but is this really healthy? By this time last year I had to start taking vitamin supplements to keep my energy up.  That was a warning bell for me, and led me to rethink how I’d approach this winter.

One concern I have is that our soil is simply too depleted to provide us with everything we need at all times.  This is likely especially true of root vegetables (ie. winter fare), although most of mine came from an organic farm that goes to great lengths to develop outstanding soil fertility.  Indeed, since eating veggies from this place (Orchard Hill & Fairmeadow Farms), I have noticed a big improvement in my health and decreases in cravings for things like chocolate (which indicates a magnesium deficiency) and so on.  Still, sticking to a strictly local diet this time of year was not doing great things for my body.

The other issue is that of boredom.  A very important, yet often overlooked, aspect of food is the pleasure it gives.  I believe very strongly that aesthetic enjoyment builds health, be it through eyes stimulated by beauty, ears by music or our taste buds by delicious food.  Let’s face it, canned food just doesn’t quite stimulate the taste buds like their fresh counterparts.  They don’t have their nutrients either.  Indeed, canned food is devoid of much of the nutrition that can be found in the raw ingredients, a big argument in favour of fermenting over canning foods.

For this reason I didn’t do nearly as much canning this year, predominantly making items like stewed or canned fruit for deserts.  Instead I tried experimenting with more fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and sourdough.  These are staples in my diet this winter and I am finding myself much healthier than this time last year.  The raw milk and pastured, grass finished lamb and beef I’m getting I expect is contributing significantly to this as well.  Add to that a good supply of fresh kale, a few lemons, a little ginger and a can or two of coconut milk, and I think I am finding a better balance for making it through the cold months.

Put this way, I no longer feel guilty about my soup.  Now to have one last serving before bottling the rest for lunches next week…

Odds and Ends

A day at home at last.  This weekend was quite busy with the dinner party, and then I had to be in London all day Monday and Tuesday.  I had grand plans for doing a ton of dissertation work today but before I could get to it I had to spend time with my poor neglected dogs (training and exercising, a total of about 3.5 hours), making bread (6 loaves), and finish a pot of chicken soup stock that I started on Monday.  Oh, and bringing in wood and catching up on emails and phone calls.  And so on.

All of a sudden it is 7:45pm and I’m ready for bed.  I still have to prepare lunch and organize my class for tomorrow.  So much for getting any dissertation work done!  Darn it.  This seems to be the case far too often these days.  I was supposed to just spend two days a week away from home, and then work the rest of the time.  But lately I have been managing about one day home out of every 4-5, and that day ends up being a catch-up day.  This must stop.  It doesn’t help that I have to travel so much to get treatment on my back.  This weekend I am heading back to Niagara for more osteopathic adjustments.  These are fantastic and I look forward to it, but the travel is disruptive.  This weekend I have to grade 160 exams as well, so likely I won’t be getting much writing done for that reason alone.  Hmm…. Time to get things back into balance!

If I didn’t have to go in to work tomorrow, I’d be perfectly set now to roll out of bed in the morning and start working.  I love doing this and (shockingly for such a non-morning person) work very well when I first wake up.  I think it’s the meditative state I am in when so groggy.  Starting next Thursday I have 12 days off in a row and I can’t wait!  My goal is to finish my transcriptions and get all the mechanical aspects of my data analysis in order, i.e. loaded into the analysis software and fully linked and coded.  If I can get that done, I will feel a lot better about where I’m at, and where I am going!

I just received notification that my proposal to the Canadian Association of Food Studies (CAFS) conference was accepted, so I will be presenting two separate papers within 5 days of each other at the end of May (the other one being at a Political Science conference).  Four months off but it feels like tomorrow.  Which is good as I need pressure and deadlines to really get working.  I organized these papers to each be the foundation of one of the chapters of my dissertation, so instead of being extra work I am hoping they will move me forward.

My latest batch of yogurt didn’t work out.  I have no idea why.  I thought I had things figured out, but no such luck.  What ended up in my jars was essentially milk with floating globs of a yogurt-like substance with a flavour too mild to be yogurt.  Drat.  Three liters of milk turned into dog food and I have to make yogurt again.  I won’t have time until next week either.  Fortunately my roommate left me some of hers (she has gone on vacation) so I can at least have breakfast tomorrow.

Right now I am making bread.  It is rising and almost ready to be baked.  I ran out of white flour and my book said I can substitute other types, including whole wheat and rye.  I had both so made one batch with only whole wheat, and two with about a quarter rye flour, the rest whole wheat.  It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.  Hopefully it won’t be more dog food!  Grain is not good for them so it will likely go to the pigs at a neighbouring farm (where we now have to deposit our compost because our bins are totally full) or to the squirrels.  Fingers crossed it will turn out!  I won’t have time to make bread again for at least another week.

I received some very good news this week: I have been offered a job for next year.  It is yet another 8 month teaching contract, but it is for a primary instructor position (to date I have only been a teaching assistant), running my own courses.  I’m very excited, although as I haven’t signed a contract yet I know it is still possible for things not to work out.  But hopefully it will as it is an excellent opportunity.  This job also settles my thoughts about leaving the area. Apparently I am meant to stay here for one more year at least.  Funny how that continues to happen, despite all my grand ideas about moving to the Kingston area.  The Universe clearly has other plans for me and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot I can do about it!

While I will be staying in Southwestern Ontario, I am not sure if I’ll be staying in this house or not as other factors are involved.  For one, my roommate is not sure what she is doing and that needs to be settled first and foremost.  I really like living here and would be happy to stay another year, although the commute may be up to 3 days a week next year and I’m not sure I’m up  for that.

Furthermore, I would really, really like to have a garden again, and perhaps even raise a few chickens.  To have a garden here would require building a raised bed in the sunniest spot possible (which still might not be sunny enough) and that’s a fair bit of work and yet more investment into a home I don’t own.  As for the chickens, I would have to get approval from my roommate and my landlord, and also make sure it is not in violation of any by-laws (I don’t believe it is).  Then I’d had to fence in the property, which I am planning on doing for the dogs anyway, but again, more time, energy and investment into this house.

I had a discussion with myself on this topic today, first swinging in favour of doing all of the above, and then convincing myself that if I do put energy into anything like this, it should be into finishing my furniture projects that I can bring with me.  The garden and chickens should wait another year (or two, or…) until I get this pesky dissertation done and I am living somewhere I will be staying for a long(er) time.  I have never been good at being pragmatic to the detriment of my passions – and am not sure if now is the time to start (if ever).  I have already talked myself out of getting sheep this year, much as I am desperate for them.  But it really doesn’t do good things for the soul to year after year put off all our dreams.  Perhaps a few chickens and a lettuce patch is a good compromise.  Fortunately I do have a couple of months to figure this all out.

Raj Patel Talk Today in Toronto

Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, is giving a talk today (Monday, Feb. 01 2010) in Toronto to promote his new book The Value of Nothing: Why Everything Costs So Much More Than We Think. The talk is at 7 p.m. at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library (2nd floor, 789 Yonge St., north of Bloor St.).  Admission is free.

I have seen Raj talk a couple of times, and even had the privilege of talking with him in person.  He’s a terrific speaker and offers a brilliant synthesis of global food issues.  I have not yet read his new book – it was just released this month and I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet.  But I anticipate that what he will have to say will be fascinating and important.  If you can make it, I recommend that you do!

The Secret Ingredient? Great Friends!

Last night I hosted my first dinner party since  moving to the country.  It was an hour drive – each way – for my guests to come here and I am so very grateful that they were willing to brave the elements and share the evening with me.  Despite a comic series of near catastrophes, what a fun evening I had!

The idea of hosting the party came to me when I noted that among the brown paper packages of lamb in my freezer was one marked “roast.”  A whole roast?  How will I ever eat so much meat all on my own?  Roasts are meant for sharing and that is what I wanted to do with this lamb.  This was a celebration roast, a celebration of local food and of winter and of finding meat that came from an animal so well cared for before it went to slaughter that I felt I could eat it without too much inner torture (there is always some, a feeling that continues to grow and disturb me, but I’ll save that for another discussion…).

I initially thought to suggest holding this party in London at one of my friends’ homes so that just one person would do the driving – me – rather than everyone else coming here.  But I really wanted to share this lovely home I currently live in, especially the gorgeous view, beach proximity and welcoming woodstove.  It really is a perfect space for winter celebration.

Anyone who has read this journal even somewhat regularly will have gathered that I am not the most accomplished cook, and also that I lack confidence in my culinary skills.  For years the thought of cooking for others terrified me, and I am still left uneasy by the prospect. However, the point of this evening was not to show off my cooking skills but rather to have friends come together and talk and have fun.  Food is the glue that binds us, that brings us together.  My ideal is to cook together, and then share in what we created.  As such I proposed a pot-luck (and also to make sure that there would be at least something edible at the table).

The first minor catastrophe happened around noon.  I had taken the roast out of the freezer 36 hours before to make sure it was well defrosted, putting it in the fridge once ready.  At noon I took it out to weight it and take a closer look at it. The recipes I had been reading called from between 15-30 minutes (resulting in rare to well done) per pound.  The roast weighed 5lbs, requiring less than two hours to cook for medium rare.  Perfect, I thought, I’ll put it in the oven at 4:45pm and we’ll be eating by seven.

Then I unwrapped it.  Uh oh – what on earth was this thing?  It didn’t look like a roast to me.  For one it was full of ribs, had part of a leg and part of a spine.  Ick.  This didn’t look like any roast I’d ever seen before!  I called the people I bought it from and asked for clarification.  The response was “you defrosted the shoulder roast? Oh dear.  The leg is considered the roast of choice.”

Great.  Five hours before people were showing up and I was without an entrée.  There was no defrosting the leg roasts (which I found sitting next to where I had grabbed the shoulder roast from).  Darn it. (this was not the word I used at the time)

Deciding that I had to make due, and also knowing there would be plenty of good food coming in case this roast was a disaster, I got on the internet and did some research.  After reading a few options, I selected this recipe.  It was extremely simple, but required four hours for cooking.  Oh dear.  It was already 1pm and I still needed to run to the store to pick up a few things necessary for this recipe (specifically, the rosemary and capers), as well as a few other items for the party (such as wine, which I was beginning to suspect would be much needed).  Now this wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t a 30 minute drive each way to the store.  There’s no just ‘popping out’ to the corner store around here.

Off I dashed, and home I arrived by 3:30.  That would mean dinner at 7:30-7:45.  Ok, not terrible.  There will be plenty of appetizers to tide people over.

The roast was in the oven by 3:45, at which point I realized that people would be arriving in just over an hour and I was in track pants and the house was a disaster.  I cleaned, I vacuumed, I rushed around and tidied myself up.  I put out several bottles of wine, figuring that if all else failed, at least people could drink wine and eat chips and that would keep them in a good mood!

Now, where was that wine opener?

People arrived shortly after 5pm.  Fortunately these are very good friends who know me well enough to expect that I won’t be organized, and will likely need help.  Quite frankly, hosting a dinner party on your own is a tremendous amount of work.  It’s been about a year since the last time I did this and I was quickly remembering why.  Without a partner, there is no one to send to the store while you make soup, there is no one who can vaccuum while you chop veggies, there is no one to walk the dogs while you set the table.  My grandmother always sets the table the night before a dinner party, but I was in Waterloo on Friday for a meeting and got home after a 12 hour day and went straight to bed.  My Thursday was similarly exhausting.

To  make things a little more challenging, one set of guests had to cancel at the last minute due to an attack of the stomach flu.  That meant one less dish.  I decided I needed to make something else, a winter veggie soup.  Did I mention it was 6pm?  So much for eating by 7!  Throwing Miss Manners out the window, I put my poor guests to work.  They rolled up their sleeves, washed dishes from my first round of cooking, chopped veggies, and worked at assembling the stereo.  To keep them happy, I offered drinks.  Drat, where did that wine opener go?

The stereo refused to work.  In storage for the last 8 months, it obviously decided that sitting silent was its new favourite thing.  Try as we all might, there was no getting it to play a CD. (Great, another repair expense!).  As for the wine bottle opener, we had no luck finding that either.  Then I vaguely recalled my roommate having the same problem this summer and asking friends to bring one along.  Too late for that.

Crap, crap, crap.  This is why I don’t entertain!  I went up to my bedroom, certain I had seen a wine bottle opener somewhere at some point.  Remember how I mentioned that my bedroom is getting out of control with disorder?  You should see it now.  I rooted around, pulled stuff out of deep storage, looked in my toolbox, and scratched my head.

About to resign myself to a complete disaster of an evening, I noticed the bottle opener sitting on a little side table.  What on earth it was doing there I’ll never know, but at least we had a way to get at the booze.

This was the turning point for the evening and from here on in, things went well.  Wine started flowing, as did music from an old boom-box in the kitchen.  Soup was soon bubbling away and by 6:45 everyone was in the living room nibbling on yummy appetizers and drinking and talking.  And laughing, and laughing.  Dinner wasn’t ready until 8:15 (sorry guys!) but I think it turned out quite well.  The lamb recipe surpassed all expectations, and the veggie dishes were very tasty too.  One friend brought a white bean dish that I am absolutely going to have to get the recipe for.  Yum yum!  Desert was fantastic artisan chocolates which went perfectly with a bottle of Taylor Fladgate I splurged on while in town.

While I was pleased with how the food turned out (that lamb recipe – a complete gamble – was seriously awesome), what really made the evening so wonderful for me was how much fun it was.  Everyone pitched in to help get the meal on the table and conversation flowed as easily as the wine.  What I had hoped for had come to be: a gathering of friend, centered around cooking and sharing good food and great conversation.

Maybe I’ll try doing this more often after all.

The Ongoing Struggle Against Stuff

I just walked into my bedroom and was greeted by a vision of clutter.  How did this happen?  Why do I still have so much stuff?  Do I really need it all?  Certainly part of the problem is that my room is messy – I’ve had another busy week (I’ve resigned myself to this being the norm for a least a few more weeks).  But it’s messy because I have enough stuff that it is a trick to put things away.  Shelves quickly look messy – because they have too much stuff!

Time to do some more unstuffing.

Another issue is that once I get rid of things, a vacuum is left.  Space is created that can easily be filled with more stuff if I allow it.  I need to be strong and not fall prey to temptation!  This is much harder now that I actually have a little income left in my bank account after all my bills are paid.  I am carefully squirreling most of this away as my contracts end in April and I won’t have work again until August.  Still, it’s tempting to buy a few things after so many months of just squeaking by.

I have indeed succumbed to these urges a few times over the last two weeks.  It was hard not to, considering the bargains I came across.  Specifically I bought myself two lovely stock pots – which I’ll use for years – one a 12L pot and the other a 15L pot.  I paid $85 for both, a large sum for me to let go of these days, but a tremendous deal.  Regular price for each pot on its own cost a fair bit more than what I paid for both.  I had been saving to buy a good stock pot, and to get two for less than I expected to pay for one was more than I could pass up.  But still, I could have just bought one, and saved even more.  In fact, that’s what I did, but a few days later I went back and bought the other.  I do cook a lot, and having pots of different sizes is very useful.  The biggest pot is one that I will likely rarely use, but when I need a pot of that size (typically during canning season), it will be very handy.  I used my roommate’s pot of that size this fall, which made it clear that such a big pot is a fantastic tool to have on-hand.  So I have two new pots and, despite agonizing over the ethical (and budgetary) impact, I don’t regret it.

Now, you’d think that would have scratched my need-to-buy itch.  But no, I further gave in to the urge on another occasion.  I recently discovered a new second-hand clothing store – Talize, a new Canadian chain - which not only has terrific prices, but also has really nice clothes.  Very well organized by item, size and then colour, this shop is full of great second-hand finds.  I bought two sweaters ($6 each), several blankets for the dogs ($2 -$3 each, including a full size wool blanket in perfect condition) and a beautiful piece of jewelry ($0.99).  I am sick to death of just about every item of clothing I own, and I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of revamping my wardrobe at these prices.  Most second-hand clothing stores I have been to either have nothing but poor quality items for cheap, or have nice clothes but at much higher prices.  I’m not sure how this one offers the best of both (nice clothes, cheap prices) but I’m going to enjoy for as long as it lasts!  Shopping here fits both my budget and my life-ethic.

This week I hit the jackpot at this store.  I found a beautiful, full-length genuine sheerling coat in lovely dark taupe with cream colour trim.  A coat like this would cost easily $1000 new, if not more, and I got it for $18.  And given the current cold snap, I couldn’t have found this coat a day sooner.  It is far warmer than anything else I own, and I’ve even been wearing it around the house as I’m rationing wood until get more until Monday (figures we’d run out of wood on the coldest week of the year, the same week our wood supplier went on vacation!).

Exciting as all of this is for someone with a deeply programmed desire to shop coupled with a horror of consumerism, I need to make sure I don’t fall into the trap of buying things because they are cheap and used.  To make sure I don’t do this, or at least avoid it as much as possible, I am working on a set of shopping rules for myself.  The few I have come up with are as follows:

- I must need it before I see it.  No impulse purchases (i.e. I was saving for a stock pot, and then waited until I found a great sale on stock pots)

- No random shopping trips.  I only go into stores if I am looking for something specific.

- If I have a similar item, I must be willing to replace it with the new item.  For example, I bought two new sweaters, so need to select two of my old sweaters and donate them to charity.

- I must be able to pay cash for it.  Credit cards are for emergency break-downs on the highway 200Km from home only.

- I can only purchase clothing items that are in excellent condition and fit perfectly, including when done up (i.e. no jackets that look great as long as I don’t do them up!)

- I can only buy something new if I can’t find it used.  Exceptions include underwear and footwear.

I have been trying hard to stick with this, and so far these rules have kept me from coming home with armfuls of new or new-to-me stuff.   And as I have developed a gag reaction to my space being cluttered, I will harness this reaction to further destuff every time I do bring in something new.  Now I must sign off to go and select two sweaters, a bracelet and a coat to add to my charity pile.

Drugs in Our Water

I just received the following in my inbox and thought it looked quite interesting.  I don’t know anything about the author, but the topic is certainly very important and I anticipate an interesting discussion.  I have a lot of cooking to do on Saturday and look forward to listening to this discussion while I do!

A FOOD CHAIN RADIO RELEASE FROM METROFARM.COM

We are a nation of drug users­.  We take them in the morning to wake up, at midday to stay awake, and at night to sleep. Our use leads us to ask:

“What happens to the drugs when we are finished with them?”

This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio hosts Alan Roberson from the American Water Works Association and George Mannina, Esq. with Nossaman Law, for a conversation about pharmaceuticals in the drinking water.

Topics include how pharmaceuticals get into our drinking water; what impact those drugs might have on our bodies; and what can be done to mitigate the impact.

To listen on your radio, computer or IPOD, click here.

Not Guilty!!!

On Thursday, January 21st, in a very carefully researched and reasoned judgement, raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt was acquited of all 19 charges against him.   Read this or any of the many ensuing articles at The Bovine for more details. 

WOOOO HOOOOO!

Dogs Naturally Magazine

I am not a big fan of Facebook and all the spam it produces, but I recently joined the Rabies Challenge’s facebook group because I was hoping to keep up with any new info this initiative was providing. I am glad I joined as they don’t post often, but when they do the info is quite good.

This week they posted about a new magazine called Dogs Naturally. You can access this magazine here, and download the entire first issue (free for a limited time). I have only glanced through the articles, but so far they look quite good. There’s an entry by Don Hamilton (DVM) who explains why yearly vaccines (or boosters in general) are not necessary.  Hamilton is the author of this excellent book on homeopathy for dogs and cats.  To have a vet publicly critique current vaccine protocols is a tremendously brave and important stand to take.  There’s also an article written by Jean Dodds (DVM) on autoimmune problems and hypothyroidism. I glanced at this and article and saw listed under symptoms of hypothyroidism the droopy eyelids and “tragic look” that Ross has developed and which I have been convinced are a symptom of his life force being out of balance. There it was in black and white at last.

There are articles on kidney disease, cancer and an introduction to homeopathy, as well as training and other dog-related issues. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of this magazine and hope it will be a valuable addition to the knowledge available to those wishing to raise their pets naturally.

Evening Musings

8pm and I just got home from work a few minutes ago.  That’s 11.5 hours – far too long to be away from home with the poor dogs cooped up inside.  They are so good, never making a mistake in the house and just sleeping all day until I get home.  I feel horribly guilty that I then only have energy to let them out, play soccer for 10 minutes and give them supper.  Then I’m fighting with the woodstove, carrying in wood, getting breakfast and lunch organized for the next day, finishing any prep I have to do for work, answering emails (or writing in this blog if I have energy to do so) and into bed.  First thing in the morning I’m up and at it all over again.

I had hoped that this semester would be less hectic since am not traveling to Waterloo once or twice a week for my research.  However I seem to be driving to London instead.  This week I’ll have made four trips to town out of five days, instead of my planned two.  The one day I didn’t go to London, I went to St. Thomas to run errands.  Yesterday I had to go to London for a massage therapy session (for my back) and a job interview, and tomorrow I go in for a seminar and to pick up insurance paperwork (yes, I am STILL dealing finalizing paperwork from November’s car accident).  Then down the highway to Niagara for more work on my back.  Next week I go to Waterloo on Friday for a meeting.  At least all these treatments are making a big difference and I’m feeling a heck of a lot better.  Still, driving 100’s of kilometers every week – for all these various reasons – is not only expensive and tiring, but it goes against everything I am trying to do in terms of living more gently ecologically.

The job interview was for some teaching work for next year.  Nothing is set, but there are some promising options and I’m looking forward to a bit more income if it works out.  If I do get this work (which I may need to pair up with other part-time work), I will likely end up driving even more next year.  One step at a time, but once I know what I’m doing come September, this is something that I am going to have to address.

In the meantime, I would really like to at least have a little garden again this summer, and ideally a few chickens.  Of course I desperately want sheep too.  Land around here is simply too expensive for someone in my income bracket to rent, so unless some unexpected opportunity comes up (and I’m always optimistic about such things) I don’t know that I’ll be able to make the sheep thing happen this year.  I had so hoped I’d be able to.  But at the least I’d like to grow some food and raise a few eggs.  Getting really good, ethical, fresh eggs is a constant battle, along with getting fresh milk, and I’d like to have a little more control over at least one of these staples.  Not that one can control whether chickens lay eggs or not (from what I’ve seen they can go on strike very easily), but if I had my own chickens I would at least be guaranteed first dibs on what they do produce.  Plus I easily go through 2 dozen eggs a week, and for the really good, fresh, truly free range eggs I get, I pay $5 a dozen.  I suspect that, over time, it will cost less than $10 a week to keep a few chickens, even with building a hut and buying the chickens and feed.

I don’t have a focus or point for tonight’s post.  I’m just putting my thoughts down in type to hopefully empty a few of them out of my head.  Not having much stability in my life forces me to constantly keep one eye on the future, even though I do my best to live one day at a time.  I only have three months of work left in my current contracts, and need to start planning for my next step.  I actually have some exciting prospects on the horizon, yet I need to really focus on what I am doing now.  I still have quite a few interviews to finish transcribing, data analysis to be done, a couple of conference papers to write, and of course a dissertation to finish.  This on top of working and caring for the dogs, while job hunting and figuring the logistics of life.

I am not going to solve any of this tonight, but at least writing about it here has helped clear my mind and should contribute to a better night sleep.  This weekend I plan to attend a seminar on sheep care, which of course is going to stimulate more ideas and potential plans.  But for now, it’s time to stoke up the wood fire and climb into bed.

More Thoughts on Packaging

Today I met a friend in Starbucks.  I know, I know, Starbucks isn’t exactly local and sustainable, but it is a convenient meeting place with a decent atmosphere in which to chat and catch up.  I arrived a few minutes early and decided to order a bagel and a cup of tea.  I asked for the bagel on a plate and the tea in a mug since I was going to eat both in the shop.  She promptly cut open a bagel, placed it on a piece of paper (huh?) and put it in the toaster oven.

There was some fuss for a few minutes, at which point the barista informed me that they didn’t have any mugs (they were all out “on the floor” – I did a quick count and noted exactly one mug) and the only plate was being washed in the dishwasher.  I told her I’d run out to my car and grab my own mug, and that I could wait for the plate.

I got my mug and she poured my tea, then started helping other people.  After a few minutes, I went back and inquired about my bagel.  The plate, it seems, was still not ready.  Then I noticed the bagel nicely wrapped and waiting for me in a paper bag.  Um… didn’t I say “for here”?  It seems that bagels are to be wrapped even when served on a plate.  I told the barista, as politely as I could, that my point had been to avoid any kind of packaging, and since the bagel was already in the bag that she would clearly throw out even if I gave it back, the plate was no longer needed.  I took my bagel, complete with bag, and sat down with my tea.

I went to open the tea and the pressure from the steam sent hot water flying all over the table.  What a mess!  Several paper napkins later, everything was clean and I was finally enjoying my tea and bagel.

In a few minutes I was done the bagel.  What remained was the bag, several soggy napkins, and the paper it was toasted on.  Is all this waste necessary?  I know that paper is biodegradable and much of what they use contains recycled material, but it still requires cutting down trees to make, not to mention the tremendous amount of water and energy it takes to turn trees into paper (check out this website to learn more about how much water different products require, for example it takes 140 litres of water to produce 1 cup of coffee!)

I know I wrote about this just a couple of days ago, but I don’t understand the need for so much packaging, even if it is of the more environmentally friendly type (i.e. not plastic).  It is still tremendously wasteful.  Have you ever noticed just how much paper is left behind after a 10 minute feed at Tim Hortons or some other fast food restaurant?  I had specifically decided to buy something to snack on at Starbucks because I thought I’d be able to avoid packaging.  But even if I had brought my own plate and tea towel (which I won’t leave home with out again, if I can help it) and had been quick enough to nix the bag before she put it around my toast, there is still the matter of putting the bagel on some paper before cooking it.  I assume this is parchment paper, which is infused with teflon and therefore not even remotely biodegradable.  I guess next time I will have to eat my bagel cold.

The amount of paper waste the we produce is staggering.  I am currently trying to burn up all the waste paper in my house, and I literally have boxes of it.  It will take me weeks of sitting by the fire in the evening, feeding small handfuls at a time (I can’t exactly make a raging bonfire in the dining room), to get through it all.  I am disgusting, both with myself and with our blatant wastefulness.  Sure it’s better than the styrofoam that we used to use for fast food, but how about no packaging at all?

To make matters worse, being out and about all day, I also purchased my dinner at a little Indian restaurant.  I specifically said I didn’t need it wrapped, but wrapped it came.  And as the words “I don’t need a bag” were coming out of my mouth, the girl smiled and put the dripping roti into a bag.  While at the cash, I watched someone get their take-out in a styrofoam container, and before leaving, asking for a plastic bag to put it in.

We’re doomed.

I really don’t know what it’s going to take to turn things around.  I have noted over the last few weeks that quite a few really great environmentally focused initiatives have gone belly up due to the current economic downturn.  Clearly sustainable living and eating is seen as a luxury, not a necessity, and the first thing to go when times get tough.  It’s so discouraging, especially considering how much momentum was developing in the direction of change.  Now we’re climbing back under our rock.

On a positive note, I have observed a couple of people now carrying mason jars for their drinks, and others have remarked, in a positive fashion, on my collection of glass jars (in which I bring my lunch to work.)  Maybe the trend will grow.  I cannot change the world, but I can be the change I wish to see, and perhaps demonstrate to others alternative actions they can also take.  Sometimes it just takes observing a simple solution – such as carrying a tea towel or mason jar –  to alter a habit.  I never considered bringing lunch in a mason jar before meeting someone else who did this religiously.  Watching him pull a sandwhich out of a jar closed the door on zip-lock bags and tupperware for me. I was thrilled.

Today I failed myself  (and mother earth) by not having my plate and napkin, and not anticipating the actions of others.  I am getting better and quicker with these however.  Now when I go to the butcher I specify “no bags” before I even state my order, and in the future I guess will have to do the same at Starbucks.