After a full week of ups and downs and multiple learning experiences I feel good about continuing and only getting better. Of course the first week consisted of times when I found myself at a restaurant or nibbling on Tim's food...or trying to justify a non-local/non-organic substance but I figure with the other things I HAVE accomplished this week, those are small potatoes!
Looking back on the week I can only set a goal to have more days of 100% local/organic eating. Limit the excuses (like going out to eat after Tim's golf tournament last night) and stay focused.
What do I truly want to learn from this ?
What knowledge do I want to gain in order to share with others?
How can my experience with the 100 mile diet help other people to take the challenge?
I have noticed that while I strive to consume in a way that is more healthy (for myself and local farmers) I am paying more attention to the other things I am doing and asking myself if what I am doing is truly the best way...
- Driving: How far do I have to go? Can I walk? Does my car have to idle or can I shut it off?
- Packaging: If I buy more smaller containers rather than one large one I prevent more waste. Which product has the least amount of packaging? Do I have to store this in plastic or a reusable container?
- Water: Taking quicker showers and using the water I cook with to fee my plants (when it is not full of yuck) and taking notice of the times when I run water for longer periods of time.
One good thing we do for the environment essentially leads to awareness of the other things we do in our daily lives...I look at it like if I am going to spend this much time and effort to make my eating habits better for myself, the local farmers/businesses, and the planet than why not make most of what I do the same kind of friendly? I guess I was taught that when you do something, don't do it halfway.
What I have learned the past week:
Canning 101 (peaches and tomatoes!)
How to make yogurt and fruit Popsicles
There are certain Farmer's Markets that rock over others! At the Iowa City Farmer's Market it was odd NOT to see an organic produce stand! I had soooooo much!
I can get my grains and other local goods (baking, popcorn, dairy) at a small village store in the Amanas.
Spending five hours in the kitchen with shoes on my feet limits the soreness by a smidgen.
There are many resources available to me if I just open my eyes a little wider!
A few I am using to seek out like-minded people:
http://www.jclfa.org/ the Local Food Alliance website
Mother Earth News- magazine based on living wisely.
Edible Iowa River Valley- just picked this up from the market.
This site!
Goals for the following week:
Find a place to store canned goods AND potatoes. Anyone?
Stay focused on what my goal is and limit "exceptions".
Make some rock star granola bars today!
Add to my collection of canned foods.
"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."
~Mohandas K. Gandhi
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sounds like you've had a great week! It takes time to get it all straight and please don't beat yourself up over slip-ups. I make them here and there, but I think it's ok. We're in a process. 100% is the goal, but we have to walk along the road to get there. I hope that makes sense. Taste buds and habits take time to change. Give yourself the opportunity to celebrate the successes you are making.
ReplyDeleteFor potaotes, consider a cold room. My husband is going to biuld a `cold space' in the basement. If you live in an apartment building, ask for a storage unit along an outside wall. That way you can build a cold space even if you are in an apartment. If you're in a house, find an uninsulated wall and build it there. All you have to do is build a frame and insulate it from the basement instead of from the outside. Don't build any framing up against the wall. We are going to build a space that is about 2 feet deep and 3 feet high, and run it along a wall in the basement. I still have to figure out how long I want it (it would look like a long dress-up box with a flip-up lid. Of couse, the lid will have to be insulated too. Another idea is to build an insulated wall around a shelf. That way you can stack your potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips and apples on the shelves. Then, add additional shelves along the same wall (outside the insulated space) and put all your canned goods there. If it's in the basement, it will be cool enough for the canned goods and it should be dark enough since the lights would usually be out.
All that aside, find out if your potato farmers are already doing the cold storage for you and make it available through the winter. Our farmers do that, so I only have to store the apples. The farmers ran out of carrots in late April and they ran out of potatoes in late June. So, I had to store carrots from late April until last week. I had to buy and store potatoes for only a month. However, if I buy apples to store for the winter, by the time I get to April and need room for carrots, there will be a lot of room available since the apples will have been eaten.
As for your other observations - I've had the same thought processes. I find that the more I do, the more and more I want to do. It almost seems like an addiction at times. I need to do MORE!!!
Please post your recipe for your granola bars! Pretty please!!