It’s not always easy being green.
I fancy myself a lifelong environmentalist. One of my chores growing up was dealing with the recycling. I belonged to an ecology club all through junior high and high school. My sisters and I would sport the orange vests for Adopt-A-Highway on promises of trips to Dairy Queen afterward. My papa sent me back to the car to grab the canvas bags long before they were 0.99 cents at every checkout counter. I knew littering was ridiculous, ugly, and mean from the time I could walk.
I used to take my status as a lifer for granted. Recycle, bundle errands together so you drive less, take shorter showers. That about covers it right?
Wrong. These things are all good and easy to incorporate into my day but there’s so much more!
Yesterday, in an attempt to get more food-sourced vitamin C, I grabbed two kiwis at the store. It wasn’t until I was eating them that I saw one was from Italy and the other was from Chili! What’s the carbon footprint on a kiwi shipped from Italy to Virginia? How long had it been since they were picked? Please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe vitamin C starts to diminish as soon as a fruit is picked, negating any good intentions I originally had for that fruit.
Weeks ago I was staring down the choice between organic apples from Chili or local, conventional apples. I went with the local. Does the lower emissions cancel out the use of pesticides, on a strictly environmental standpoint? There are a few orchards around Cville that are “low-spray” but even in this land of apples and organics I haven’t found anyone who marries the two.
Believe you me, I still buy bananas, just not very often during the summer and fall when there are great and local fruit options.
My increasing fascination with all things food has led the environmentalist in me to change how I grocery shop and cook.
- I make big batches of beans and grains, both of which have been pre-soaked, and freeze a few jars from each batch to eat later. The soaking cuts down on cooking time (electricity) and the freezing keeps my freezer full (more energy efficient).
- I rarely pre-heat the oven. For many things pre-heating isn’t really necessary and it wastes energy. Squash, lasagna, and potatoes certainly don’t care if the oven’s hot before going in. I also avoid turning on the oven in the hot months. Oven and AC? Just don’t make sense, pizza goes on the grill during the summer!
- I make yogurt. I eat a lot of yogurt and the containers aren’t recyclable in my neighborhood.
- I make kombucha, which saves lots of glass bottles and the shipping of those bottles in refrigerated trucks.
- I [usually!] check at the store to see where food was shipped from and try to chose the closest option.
- I unplug all small appliances when not in use, including the kitchen radio. I would probably unplug the stove if the outlet wasn’t so damn hard to reach.
- I buy in bulk and avoid excess packaging on food.
- I wash the labels off of fun jars and re-use them.
Most of these things are pretty simple and don’t take any sacrifice of comfort or time, which are the kind of changes I can live with. Do you think “green” while at the grocery? What changes have you made to green up your kitchen?
Those Italian kiwis? Molto delizioso but I’ll be getting my C from the greens in my garden for now.
I would have chosen the local apple, too. Fortunately we have a local organic apple orchard nearby so I don’t have to fight that battle over apples. Not too much fruit is grown locally though so I try to buy US stuff when I can. So many choices to way with each and every purchase. I hope I make more right ones than wrong ones.
Johanna, that’s how I feel too, I hope I make mostly good choices. In the end I don’t know that it will slow global warming or dramatically reduce our waste but it makes me feel like I am doing what I can to make the world a nice place to live.
I always appreciate your comments!
Great post! I have a garden in my yard & also buy from a local farmer’s market buying club (it’s mostly organic). But the grocery store is harder, I look for local but it’s hard to find. I try to eat in season as much as possible and freeze lots of veggies in the summer to enjoy in the winter. Have you ever made hummus with lima beans? It’s amazing!
I am a big fan of limas and I can image that their creamy texture would be great in hummus, I’ll give it a try! Thanks!
This post makes me happy. I’ve been meaning to revisit my “zero waste” goals, assess & share what I’m doing. Thanks for this!
p.s. I made your tofu & nutritional yeast non-recipe this week. We LOVED it, & it was still great as leftovers. Thanks again.
🙂
That’s wonderful that you’re thinking of the environment throughout the day- not just recycling a can! We try to buy local if we can (farmers mkts) anything that’s closer from the store- but it is difficult at times.
I love this post! If we shared a kitchen we would get along just fine.
One thing that I do to think “Green” in the kitchen is to not shop too often from the grocery store when I can. My husband and I subscribe to a CSA – community support agriculture – and get a box of delicious, organic and local veggies every week! We also try to shop at the farmer’s market as well, though depending on your region, you can’t find everything and the season is limited.
“If we shared a kitchen we would get along just fine.”-Love it!
Here in Venezuela buying “local” or “organic” is simply imposible. With our political and economic situation right now we mainly import EVERTHING. Im talking about milk, fruits, veggies, meat… I’d love to be more conscious about buying food but is imposible : (
I’m so sorry to hear that! One of the amazing things about living in Peru was how local everything was and that the geography of the country supported a great range of products. I imagine that Venezuela could also support loads of diversity and grow amazing food, which makes it all the sadder that it’s not available. I am really interested in hearing more about this situation, any chance you would be interested in writing a little guest post about how the relationship between food and politics in Venezuela? This could be entirely from your perspective, it wouldn’t have to be research-based, more of an insight into how this effects your day to day in the kitchen and grocery store. No pressure but I think it would be very interesting if you are interested….
This is great, Faith. Lots of good tips. I’ve been recycling for what seems like forever too. Where the fruit comes from is an important thing to consider. Thanks for the nudge.
I just remembered something you said in the post and I have a question. Do you freeze in glass jars? I never thought of that. Do you have to do something in particular? I would be afraid they’d break when they freeze. Just curious.
I freeze all kinds of stuff in glass jars; soups, grains, beans, pumpkin puree, pesto, sauces…You just have to leave a good deal of headroom and make sure the food has cooled completely before going in the freezer. Also, I find that beans come out better if you put an inch or so of the cooking water in there too, otherwise sometimes they get a little dry. I leave 1/2-1 inch of space at the top for expansion.
In Michigan, we are lucky in the summer months with lots of local fruits and veggies but come winter, they are much harder to come by! This year I was extremely blessed to be gifted a lot of home grown/local fruits and veggies for free and I froze them. I froze tomoatoes, peaches, applesauce, rhubarb, green beans, carrots, strawberries and rutabegas. The only things I paid for were the strawberries and peaches (I got a 10lb bag for $1, because they were soft!).
Simple Pleasures Sunday | Gracefulfitness
[…] Green Kitchen factoid: […]