...In our ongoing fight against plastic. We managed to get through our weekly trip to the grocery store without getting a single new plastic bag. For produce, we either didn't put the item in a bag - seriously, why does one lemon or one tomato need to be in a bag anyway? - or used a recycled bag we brought from home. Of course we used our canvas bags for the trip home. By swift action, we managed to avoid both the extra, unnecessary bag around the already well wrapped fish and the one that the pharmacy puts around the bottled prescription. Yay us. Unfortunately, we did end up with yet another small plastic tub (which is unrecyclable in this neck of the woods - we have to send them home to my parents for that) when we bought feta. Too bad we can't bring our own container to the cheese counter and ask them to use it instead. A nice homey, hippy co-op would probably do it, but not Wegman's, I'd wager.
We already get our eggs from the (semi) local co-op/natural food stores, because I can't stand to buy the ones in styrofoam that probably come from chicken concentration camps; now, we might start buying our milk there too. Last week when I dropped in to get eggs, I noticed that the store had milk from one of the other Rochester suburbs. Since we already had enough milk for the week I didn't buy any, but next time I probably will.
All of this maneuvering to get rid of plastic and find good food (and reading Michael Pollan's books and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I have just started) is making me want to become a small scale farmer - not one who sells stuff, just one who can support their own eating habits. Chickens for example. I have never wanted chickens, and always laughed (or rolled my eyes) at my mom when she would bring up her desire for chickens, but now I want my own chickens so I can have my own eggs. And I want a huge garden, with all sorts of vegetables, and an orchard with apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and bananas. OK, maybe not bananas :)
At the moment, all of that is a complete dream, since we are locked into the depths of winter, in a rental house. We are supposed to get several inches of snow in the next couple of days. So much for the garden. I wonder how the cats would like chickens though...
3 comments:
This the the time of year when you're *supposed* to fantasize about a huge garden, even if you can't have one at all. It's good for your mental health. I keep trying to grow things, but the soil is so bad in my yard that I've already killed 6 rhubarb plants in two years. I had thought that rhubarb was indestructible, but apparently not. I've ordered in seeds to grow greens on the decrepit patio this year, since they need so little space. Something will probably come along and eat them anyway, but planting the seeds will make me feel good, at least!
It sounds like you could use some good compost, or worm castings! And maybe a fence to keep the critters out...
Or switch to container gardening. We managed to grow quite a bit on our deck in Texas that way...
And yes, it is the time of year when you are supposed to sit and drool over seed catalogs, but is it normal to want chickens, pigs and goats too?
Anyway, at this point I just hope the daffodils I planted in the fall come up when spring actually arrives in this frozen, tundra-like place...
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