Friday 9 January 2015

Zero food waste

This journey of mine is taking it's own path. It started out as a voyage of self discovery and self healing, but now that is well underway, my motives have altered slightly. I now find myself being grateful for my surroundings and wanting to minimise my negative impact on my little world. I'm never going to refuse to fly I'm afraid and I will always want internet access and machines to help me with my daily tasks, but if I can just do a little bit here and there, surely that's better than doing nothing at all?
Since November, I have only used cloth bags or bags for life, thereby reducing the amount of plastic bags. When I buy fruit and veg, I try not to use extra packaging, although it's not easy in the supermarkets! (Watch a youtube clip of Rhod Gilbert ranting about trying to buy one baked potato - hysterical!). I did see a pattern on Rhonda's blog - Down to Earth (8 Jan 2009 post) - for net veg bags which you could take with you. If I ever get my sewing machine up and going, I might try that.
I am being more thorough about recycling all packaging too.
I've also tried to walk more instead of taking the car everywhere or at least group my errands to save mileage. I've been turning off lights and devices wherever I can, but frankly it's a battle with five other people in the house who don't seem to share my fanaticism!
Making my own cleaning products will cut down on packaging and the quantity of nasty chemicals I expose us to.
We are building up excellent compost with the huge quantity of fruit and veg we eat in this house all going to be mixed in with the chicken poop and hay. This will all be dug back into the garden when it's rotted down to black, crumbly compost.

The garden last year - pre arrival of the chickens

I have started to plan for the fruit and veg I want to try and grow in the garden too. I'll have to squeeze them in in pots and amongst the flower beds, but I've had some success with that before, so I will try again.

I have had some success with chillies and romano peppers grown in the conservatory if you can keep the white fly at bay!

Perhaps the biggest difference though is the reduction in our food waste. Now that we have changed our diet so significantly, I have separated the compostable food 'waste' (I don't consider it waste though as it's going to be composted) from any general food waste. Every week, the only thing I put out in our little food bin is citrus peelings. If anyone can thing of a better way of dealing with these, please let me know! I had wondered about drying them as pot pourri....?

I know they're all little steps and there is no doubt a lot more I could be doing, but you have to start somewhere! Maybe, you have some ideas I could adopt?

4 comments:

  1. Lots of ideas for your citrus peelings here:

    http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2013/06/10-homemade-cleaners-made-from-citrus.html

    I'll be honest I have never gotten round to doing this but perhaps I should!!

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  2. That's great thanks for the tips. If I'm successful I'll let you know!

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  3. Citrus peelings are fine to compost - I have been composting mine for years :)

    http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/ingredients/citrus-peels-compost.htm

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    1. That's great! I had always been told that they affect the bacteria, so hadn't actually done any research! After reading your comment, I've looked it up properly! Thank you so much for the advice. Great this blogging community, isn't it?!

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