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Week 35: Go Vegetarian
Ok, here we go – into controversial territory! I’m going to tell you something that you probably won’t want to hear, but I urge you to hear me through to the end. Eating meat is bad for the planet. There, I said it. I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of research, and looking into sustainable animal farming for many years and I have yet to find an approach to eating meat that is better for our planet than just not eating meat. Here’s why: “Recently Harwatt and a team of scientists from Oregon State University, Bard College, and Loma Linda University calculated just what would happen if every American…
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Week 27: Learn to Can Food
Now that you’ve got your backyard garden planned, the next thing you’ll definitely want to take up is canning. Canning food is a great way of preserving fresh food to last year round (or even many years). Once you get the basics down, it’s fairly simple. It’s a great way to eat sustainably even when fresh food isn’t in season. The most popular way to can food is the hot water bath method. Basically, you put your cooked food into a jar (making sure it’s hot!) and the place the jar in a big pot of boiling water for a specified time. You’ll need to make sure the recipe for…
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Week 24: Backyard Chickens
My partner and I bought a house in 2013 and just happened to inherit some backyard chickens. It was such a wonderful experience. I had been wanting to get chickens for a year or two but didn’t quite know where to being. Being thrust into chicken ownership was honestly the easiest way to get started. The real truth? Chickens are easy pets. They are pretty self sufficient, require little attention, and give you fresh eggs every week. Once you get into the daily routine of feeding them and opening and closing the coop, the benefits definitely outweigh the chores. There are a lot of great reasons to keep chickens. The…
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Week 23: Grow Your Own Food
Gardening! How I love you! I’ve had a long love for gardening but am still learning so much every year. Starting a backyard or balcony garden is easier than you’d think and the rewards are well worth the small effort! Reward #1: Let’s start with the obvious – you’ll have your own produce come harvest. Not only that, but I think you’ll find that the taste of your produce will surpass even market food. Don’t ask me why – homegrown food always tastes better. Reward #2: No GMOs, no pesticides, no big corporations. Just clean, honest, good food that came straight from the dirt. Reward #3: Connect with your land. You’ll learn about your…
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Week 18: Compost!
Oh composting… how I wish I was better at this! I’m still learning this week’s topic, but practice makes perfect so I’ll give you some information on the research that I’ve done and some more information on what I have yet to try. As an aspiring gardener, I know how important soil nutrition is which is why I started my composting journey a few years ago. I purchased one of the fancy rotating compost bins but I was worried that I wouldn’t get the right ratio of greens, browns, and food scraps. I did a lot of research online but got overwhelmed with the scientific process behind composting. This was one of the…
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Week 14: Source Local, Sustainably Grown Food
What a perfect time to be writing about this topic. Right now, it’s September in Southern Ontario which means harvest season! I’ve been spamming my Instagram feed with pictures of colourful, ripe, local produce that I’ve been getting at the farmer’s market every week. I’ve talked a lot in previous emails about why it’s important to buy local and why it’s important to make your own meals. I’ve also talked about why eating local food can have a huge impact on the environment, on your health, and on your wallet. If you’ve been practicing since week 10, you’ll know that eating locally grown food takes an adjustment but is well worth the effort. Hopefully…
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Week 10: Eat Local
Sometimes when we think about being more green, it’s hard to make the mental connection to the food that we eat. However, it’s one of the most important connections that we can think about. The food industry contributes a huge amount of carbon emissions to the world, and by making a few important changes in the way we buy and eat food, we can drastically reduce our personal contribution to that carbon footprint. You may have heard of the idea of the “100 mile diet”. I think it’s pretty cool. The concept is to find all the food you need within a 100 mile radius (give or take). The effects…
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Week 6: Eat Dinner at Home
Now that you’ve got lunch under control, it’s time to talk about what’s for dinner. And more importantly, where you’re eating it. Here are some statistics to show the current norm in North America: A survey in 2010 showed that 23% of Canadians ate out once a week and 17.3 % ate out once every 1.5 to 2 weeks. 1 out of 15 Canadians ate out EVERY day!! According to one site, Americans spend more on dining out than groceries for first time ever, with Millennials leading the charge. In another survey, the eating-out national average in the US was 4.5 times per week. L.A. was at the high end at…
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Week 4: Make Your Lunch.
Yup – this week is a throwback to grade school. Remember when lunchtime rolled around and you opened up your lunch bag rather than drove to the local fast food restaurant? It seems like everyone I know goes out for lunch every day if they are at work (or school!) and it is such. a. waste. Financial impact: it drains your bank account. Here are two bloggers that broke down the cost of buying your lunch at a restaurant every day versus bringing a lunch from home: Buying Your Lunch Is A Terrible Idea. The End. No More Debates What Will Save You More Money At Work? Bringing Lunch or…
Become more resilient. Live more sustainably. Reduce your negative impact on the environment.
