I love little books of wisdom, and so I was delighted to win the "I count" book of ways to stop climate chaos, and the Ecover guide for greener living.
Recent posts of mine have looked at domestic ecological and environmental issues, so these books are very timely, and some of the advice from them may well make its way onto the pages of this blog. Infact, here are some food related ones, seeing as we are entering the season of over indulgence:
FACT:
- £424 of food is thrown away by each person in the UK each year. That is enough to buy 530 loaves of bread! Imagine throwing that in your bin.
FACT:
- A study into food miles by Sustrans in 2002 added together the distance 26 items in a basket of shopping had travelled from its source to the store. It was 250,000 kilometres!
WHAT CAN YOU DO:
- Eating local produce can cut your food related greenhouse gas emissions by 90%
HOW:
- On the basis that seasonally available food is likely to be available from local producers, here is a list of seasonal items for December...
Jerusalem artichokes, Brussel sprouts, Cabbages, Carrots, Celeriac, Celery, Chicory, Endive, Greens, Kale, Leeks, Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Swede, Turnips, (looks as though December could be a windy month ;-)
It is also the time of year for game so pheasant, venison, grouse and goose are all options for meat eaters.
I also joined the Leicestershire composting club organised by the county council (it is a matter of some hilarity to my friends that I am so avid a composter!). Anyway, I received some cellulose composting sacks, and also a very useful book on composting from the council for joining. I was delighted that it contained myth busting advice on composting specific items, and also a detailed section on Bokashi systems.
I have also been picking up some craft pursuits again. I decided to use the Regia self patterning sock wool to make some mittens for little chap, as he said his hands got cold when he rode his bike. I'm quite pleased. The size is good. Unfortunately, due to my inexperience with knitting on 4 needles, I inadvertently turned my work inside out, so have a band of garter stitch just at the point of the thumb gusset. However, as that falls across the knuckles, I have decided to look upon it as a design feature! Thankfully it will be easy to reproduce this in the same place on the other mitten. I was pleased to find that mittens knit up very quickly, and am pleased to add another tick to my knitters check list.
I am also making some knitted bookmarks from small amounts of luxury/interesting yarns, some of which I got as samples. I'm planning to add nice beads to each end of them, unfortunately I haven't got any that are a good colour for this bookmark yet.
I mentioned some time ago that I had felted the shrug I made from the ironstone wool my SP10 partner sent me. Well, I finally got around to sewing it up to make a project bag. I'm pleased with it. It has an internal flap as well to stop the items falling out, and as it is felted, this also makes a great place to keep needles, safety pins etc. I'm waiting for the perfect embellishment for the front, which might then double as a fastener, but the bag is already in use, holding the yarn and needles for the other of little chap's mittens!
I seem to be an all or nothing person, hence another long and rambling post after a period of silence!
5 comments:
Hello! I just wanted to say all of your posts are brilliant, in any format they come. Long ones are better for a really good look at what you have been upto and what is impostant to you, short ones for a brief glimpse of the same.
Damn! A Typo! Sorry about that.
mmm...your package may be coming just in time for some of those crafty pursuits of yours...
Any hints about rats in compost bins from any of your composting books? They're turning the compost nicely but I'd rather not have them there...
Happy to hold a composting clinic on this blog! First off, are you sure the problem is rats rather than mice?
Rats are most commonly attracted to meat and fish scraps and other cooked food waste. So if it is rats, definitely avoid putting these in your compost bin.
Other ways to tackle the problem are:
(i) to make sure there are no gaps at the bottom of your compost bin for mice to get in easily. Rats might dig, however, so they must be deterred in other ways.
(ii) get a "Green Joanna" compost bin which is sealed and has a base plate so rats can't get in. These are much more expensive than the standard "Dalek" compost bins.
(iii) Use a tumbler system which is sealed and elevated... but these are large and heavy and produce quite coarse compost, however they are good for dealing with pernicious weeds.
(iv) If you are trying to compost cooked food waste including meat and fish, either use a Green cone system (which is part buried in the ground to deter rats), or a Bokashi system which uses fermentation to render the waste unattractive to rats.
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