So awhile ago I posted an entry about the "greening" of my families lifestyle. I wanted to update because we are making a pretty significant push in 2015 to offset our food eating to be as local as possible and are buying into a bunch of CSA (community supported agriculture) shares in our area. This will be a great experiment, a test to see how feasible it is to really eat farm to table. I will let you know how it goes!
Here is what we are looking into:
A summer and winter vegetable share at Mountain View Farm in Easthampton. This we have been doing this year already, and have done in the past. Really a wonderful experience.
A year round mushroom share from Mycoterra Farm. You get about a pound of mushrooms per week.
A summer and fall fruit share from Small Ones Farm.
A years worth (115 lbs) of unprocessed grains from Pioneer Valley Heritage grains. This will require us to purchase a grinder and grind our own flour.
A meat share from Hettie Belle Farm. This share an immense amount of meat for us and may not be possible until we get a chest freezer for the garage. Still we plan on at least doing the summer share, which is only one pickup, just to try it out.
In addition to this we have already signed up for delivery of milk from Mapleline Farms in Hadley. They deliver right to your front steps in old fashioned glass milk bottles. You can also get local yogurt, heavy cream and buttermilk from them.
So it will be an interesting year coming up!
Showing posts with label Green bucket list. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green bucket list. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
My green bucket list
Okay, so I've been giving a lot of thought to the "greening" of my lifestyle over the last few years. As with any lifestyle change (at least the ones that stick) its been a slow process. I've started a mental list of things I would like to accomplish and the things I already have. I'm going to start documenting my journey here (in addition to the recipes and such) so let me begin where I do best, with a list!
Things I've already done:
1. Gone from using paper napkins to cloth. This was really a no brainer, I had lots of napkins I inherited from my grandmother, back when they USED these thing regularly! At first I wasn't sure what to do with the dirty ones, but a friend of mine came up with the DUH idea of putting a small stainless trash can in the kitchen to use as a hamper... So there we go. I love it, and it even has a removable hard plastic liner with a handle that made it ridiculously easy to bring down to the laundry.
2. Gotten rid of my old Teflon pans. I didn't realize how scary a substance this was, especially when you're an idiot like me and used metal forks and stuff to stir your food (hey I didn't know!) and scratched the hell out of them. So yeah, ten years of digesting Teflon, probably not good... But I am feeling good about the cusinart green gourmet ceramic pans I bought recently. And now I use only soft things to stir with! Also, the 50% off sale on amazon helped (going green is infuriatingly expensive, but that's a whole post).
3. Reduced my paper towel usage by 90% by buying cheap dish rags and using them for all but the most gross of messes... Sorry but anything poop or throw up related does NOT go into my washer! I also had a duh moment for this as I thought more about it. Instead of buying brand new rags, as these wear out I plan to start saving and cutting up old clothes that aren't donatable.
4. My family has made a huge commitment to eat organic, with no HFCS, food dyes, additives or other ingredients that I can't pronounce. This has been tough, but I've gotten to be a decent chef in the last couple of years, and have gotten into the habit of cooking A ALOT. It's a pain in the butt, and has increased my food budget by at least 30%, but I don't really feel like a have a choice these days. Soooooo much crap in food. Can't even really call half of it food. Going to be starting a garden (hopefully!) this spring, so here's hoping to offset the costs a bit. My attempts at gardening for the first time since I was 10 years old ought to make for some amusing stories for this blog project! Feel free to laugh at me, I do it all the time!
Okay that's enough for now, I've promised my son some outside time today (and I'm a horrible horrible mother if I ignore my sons desire to go play outside because I'm too busy blogging about how cool and green I am!)
Things I've already done:
1. Gone from using paper napkins to cloth. This was really a no brainer, I had lots of napkins I inherited from my grandmother, back when they USED these thing regularly! At first I wasn't sure what to do with the dirty ones, but a friend of mine came up with the DUH idea of putting a small stainless trash can in the kitchen to use as a hamper... So there we go. I love it, and it even has a removable hard plastic liner with a handle that made it ridiculously easy to bring down to the laundry.
2. Gotten rid of my old Teflon pans. I didn't realize how scary a substance this was, especially when you're an idiot like me and used metal forks and stuff to stir your food (hey I didn't know!) and scratched the hell out of them. So yeah, ten years of digesting Teflon, probably not good... But I am feeling good about the cusinart green gourmet ceramic pans I bought recently. And now I use only soft things to stir with! Also, the 50% off sale on amazon helped (going green is infuriatingly expensive, but that's a whole post).
3. Reduced my paper towel usage by 90% by buying cheap dish rags and using them for all but the most gross of messes... Sorry but anything poop or throw up related does NOT go into my washer! I also had a duh moment for this as I thought more about it. Instead of buying brand new rags, as these wear out I plan to start saving and cutting up old clothes that aren't donatable.
4. My family has made a huge commitment to eat organic, with no HFCS, food dyes, additives or other ingredients that I can't pronounce. This has been tough, but I've gotten to be a decent chef in the last couple of years, and have gotten into the habit of cooking A ALOT. It's a pain in the butt, and has increased my food budget by at least 30%, but I don't really feel like a have a choice these days. Soooooo much crap in food. Can't even really call half of it food. Going to be starting a garden (hopefully!) this spring, so here's hoping to offset the costs a bit. My attempts at gardening for the first time since I was 10 years old ought to make for some amusing stories for this blog project! Feel free to laugh at me, I do it all the time!
Okay that's enough for now, I've promised my son some outside time today (and I'm a horrible horrible mother if I ignore my sons desire to go play outside because I'm too busy blogging about how cool and green I am!)
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