Cookerati

Blog Action Day is today and I’m late in doing this.  It’s difficult to voice my opinion because Cookerati isn’t a political forum, or even really scientific. It’s about food,  kitchens , cooking techniques and sharing ideas about these things.  Not everyone believes in climate change.  I had a relative say – I don’t believe in global warming, but I do believe there’s pollution – In California.  I said, what about Columbus, Ohio?  You can see it as you drive into the city – Nope, not as bad as California.  What about the fact that every single waterway in Ohio is labeled as polluted by the EPA?  Well, he didn’t know about that.  They don’t necessarily believe that I’m not making stuff up and not reading about it from a reliable source.  My feeling though, is that if you think, really think about what is good for the environment, you’ll make good decisions about the every day choices you make, even the little ones.  I’m going to try and keep to the theme of Cookerati though and relate things that we do, because we care, and because we can.  Most of the suggestions just involve having a different mindset and isn’t a huge sacrifice, but helps. Okay, so if you don’t believe in climate change, but you do believe in pollution (and I happen to think they’re related), then let’s focus on going green because it’s a step in the right direction.

• Shopping
  • Buy what you need, think ahead so you’re not throwing away- When you don’t have money, it’s not an issue, but when you have extra it requires more thought.
  • Stack your errands – A relative insisted that the gas prices were rising as a way to keep people from running out to get a pack of cigarettes. I didn’t agree to the reasoning, but thought it was interesting because we do without rather than run out to the store for most things.  We usually do our shopping, fill up with gas, go to church, do recycling and stop at Starbucks all in one trip.  My husband doesn’t attend church, but he will sit in the parking lot and read, in order to save on gas.  We live a little out of town, so time wise it does save for us but also makes for a busy Sunday. 
  • Buy what’s in season, buy local.  Sometimes those things combat each other.  Aren’t there strawberries, oranges, apples in season somewhere, all of the time?  Well, yes, but maybe that’s why we need to put some real thought  into it. We need to set our own standards about what to buy when so that we get the best of fresh, local and in season.  I go to the farm markets in the summer to support my neighbors, and I grow my own, but there are some things I buy in the store for a treat.
  • My favorite – reusable bags!  They’re so cool, that you’re uncool without it.  Really, this is a no brainer, take your bags, load em up, empty them, reuse.  What’s not to like?
• Gardens –
  • Grow your own? Nice, but not necessary for everyone, we don’t want to put farmers and farm markets out of business. Not everyone loves to garden and not everyone who gardens wants to grow food.  It’s a great way to get your own veggies freshly on an as needed basis and also hopefully you get exactly what you enjoy eating best.  Support your local farmer though, or swap veggies with a friend in exchange for some weeding.
  • Pesticides – Not if we can avoid it.  I believe that what I use not only seeps into my ground water and my produce, but I also believe it affects the health of the people who work to create the pesticides and their groundwater and air.  I don’t want to be responsible for that.
  • Compost – I’m a big believer in that.  You probably think that because I have a big yard it’s okay for me, but not everyone else.  When we were growing up in Queens with a small yard, we had a composter.  My grandparents who shared the yard with us, also added to the compost and used it too.  I can’t see adding to a landfill when my composter will break down the kitchen waste into very usable fertilizer for my garden. 
• Kitchens –
  • Do away with disposable – I don’t buy napkins anymore.  I have cloth that I throw in with the kitchen towels and dish cloths.  These napkins look different from my rags, so they’re only used at the table and not for other things.  I thought this would be a difficulty, for me especially because I’m a napkin abuser, but it’s not.  I like that I’m not killing trees to wipe the corners of my mouth.  We also don’t put out paper towels unless the mothers are coming to visit.  It’s amazing how easily you reach for a paper towel instead of using a rag to wipe up a mess just because it’s there. If I don’t have paper towels out, I’ll get a rag.  Rags are so easy to come by.  Whenever my towels or sweatshirts get too ragged, I slice them up into rags.  I also figured out that the rags need to be convenient.  If they are too far away, the kids won’t search them out, so I have an upstairs rag container, and a downstairs one. I don’t use disposable plates except for big events, really big events.  I reuse my plasticware and plastic cups – not everyone understands that one, but I can store them away on a shelf, so why not.
  • Be a water steward – Single water bottles are on the way out.  Our drinking water is just awful tasting, but we don’t buy the single serving bottles if we can avoid it.  We buy a bigger container and refill our single serving bottles. At work, I just use a refillable cup and the water fountain.  Don’t let water run, while you do a bunch of stuff, or to let it get really cold.  Put a water container in the fridge and keep it cool that way.  My daughter is using the Pur filter at school.  It saves her and her room mate money and space in their fridge. If we use a big pot of water for canning, we’ll take that pot of water and pour it over the vegetables.  Not all water needs to go down the drain.  My husband likes to take the water from the dehumidifier outside also. We also have rain barrels coming off of the drain spouts. We only use the hose when it’s absolutely necessary.
• Food & Cooking –
  • Think about the packaging – I love convenience foods because my life is so busy but they’re not the healthiest, and they contain a lot of packaging that doesn’t recycle or break down well.  I want to start canning my own meat and meals.  This means buying in bulk and preparing foods en masse to store.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 
  • Use the same ingredients in more than one meal, rather than having it go bad.  I thought my son was going to rebel at all the chard I use.  I use what I have in lots of different ways, but I have it, so I’m going to use it. 
  • Think ahead – plan ahead and defrost your food in advance.  You won’t need to bother with the microwave for defrosting.  I’m terrible about this one, but I’m going to try to do better.
  • Go meatless.  Farm animals produce a lot of carbon, we can cut down by going meatless.  Sounds strange?  My daughter and I made dinner the other night and she looked around and mentioned that we didn’t have any meat.  She asked if it was intentional.  I said, not intentional as – I’m going to avoid meat today, but more that I decided that we had enough great stuff on our plate including non-meat proteins that I decided not to add any.  It was delicious, nutritious and filling. 
  • Buy fair trade, organic, dolphin safe, mercury free – whatever best helps everyone live a safe healthy life – including those involved in the production of it.

These are only some guidelines.  These are things I do or am trying to incorporate into my lifestyle. I did it before the word climate change was hip and popular.  I do these things because I believe that I am responsible for my actions and for doing the right thing.  If I do the right thing, will my neighbor, relative, friend live the same way? Not necessarily.  However, I did have a neighbor see my rain barrels and inquire about where  he could get a few of his own. There is the attitude that we can do what we want and the heck with everyone else.  That’s why the ditch that runs along the road, between my house and the next one has bottles and cans in it.  Somebody didn’t care enough to decide it was important not to do it.  I’m not giving up my coffee that can’t be grown in my yard yet, so I have my things I want too.  I don’t want the economy to collapse, but I want our economy to be based on best practices for the whole world. Everything we do has an impact, no matter how small, and they add up.  Let’s add them up in a positive way.

I covered a lot, but what about you, what’s one step further, one more thing that you think you should do?  Or do you think we don’t matter?