Adventures with an organic veg box!

So my first Abel&Cole organic box arrived today. It arrived just as I was leaving for work but i didn't have time to do anything with it. Even though I had looked at what was on the list I was still excited to see what had come.

I feel really good about this new lifestyle change. I hope I can keep up with all the cooking that it demands. I love the fact we are no longer buying eggs or milk from the supermarket, and hopefully the bread will be nice and will freeze well so we can buy bread from them too. I am considering giving up eggs and milk entirely, especially after reading this article which admittedly is about slaughterhouses, but the poor cows and chickens do all end up somewhere, not to mention the majority of the male offspring. I originally became vegetarian because of video footage showing (not quite as bad as) this sort of thing. I just don't want to be responsible for that sort of treatment to animals. Anyway, that is totally another post!

So, I got home and we have carrots, leaks leeks (that was a total typo, there are no leaks, that I know of, although apparently in glasgow many people's pipes are busting with all this freezing weather), potatoes, onions (although I kind of think maybe they came from somewhere else as they are not on the receipt, but they certainly weren't there when I left the house this morning!), fennel, ramiro pepper, cherry tomatoes, oranges, kiwis and bananas. I am a bit slow on the uptake and was really surprised to see the mud still on my vegies!! lol!

I am going to make leek and fennel risotto. What does fennel even taste like anyway? I have no idea whether I will even like this food, but how do you know if you don't try? I can always tell them I don't like it and then they won't send it.

Then as i was sat pondering what to do with the vegies there was a sharp knock at the door and there stood our local greengrocer, the one we used to get our veg from, but now we have a veg box...

Seems Mr Brown Eyes has bought up pretty much their entire shop! They sell lots of on-the-way-out-of-date food from health food shops, organic shizzle for dead cheap, most of our kitchen looks like a Holland & Barrett stock room at the best of times. I have no idea where this new stuff will go, it won't fit in the kitchen. I wonder what it even is!

Anyway, often to find out whether I like fennel!

A time for reflection

A new year seems to be a good time to reflect upon what it is I already do, and where I would ultimately like to go, or maybe what the next steps are.

My ethical journey all began about 13 years ago I guess, when I turned vegetarian. Well, I suppose it probably began before that as I first turned vegetarian when I was 11, some 19 years ago now. It didn't last long. I used to sneak things made of meat as though it mattered whether anyone else knew, not whether I knew. My mum at that time said she wasn't prepared to cook two different meals. At that point I don't think I even really knew why I thought it was wrong to eat meat. I went back to eating it properly and kind of pushed the idea to the back of my mind until I was 17 when I decided I could no longer carry on doing what I thought was wrong. I then knew why I didn't want to eat animals any more and from that point on I haven't. From there I went to university and I don't know as ethics figured much in my life.

Then there are other things that I have always just done I suppose, energy saving light bulbs, recycling glass and drinks cans and washing at 40 degrees. I guess the rest of the journey started about 2 and a half-ish years ago, when I started to think I was into ethical living but didn't know much about it. I then bought flights to Amsterdam for a friend's birthday at new year, rather ashamedly I admit I didn't even think there was an alternative. Then that Christmas I received the Rough Guide to Ethical Living, which was the starting point for many of the subsequent changes in my life. Including the guilt I felt for taking that flight to get to Amsterdam, which is where I was when I read that book.

So, what do I do?

House and Garden

• electricity from 100% renewable supplier Good energy


• Insulation in roof was increased this year


• Energy saving light bulbs used throughout and in lamps


• Heating used sparingly (we only use it in the evening, and daytime at weekends, never in the morning, and only once there is a real need, this year we didn't have it on at all until the last week in November for 1 day, and then not until December)


• We only flush the toilet when necessary


• No hosepipe used


• Garden in semi-wild state to encourage wildlife (OK this has come about more through inactivity than plan, but I do prefer it, it just needs a little more planning to introduce wild flowers and such)

The bad or the to-do

• we only have single glazing so that leads to some heat loss, Mr Brown-eyes wants uPVC, but I don't, but I would like some sort of secondary glazing, and some better curtains


• I used dulux paint last time I decorated, and I have half the paint for the next time, so I will do then too, but after that I want to use an eco-paint company


• Sort out the garden to keep it tidy, but increase wildlife, particularly bees


• would like a new boiler and heating system with thermostatic control

Cleaning and Laundry

• We wash at 30 degrees and never use the tumble dryer


• we use soap nuts to wash in, no softener


• we use ecover toilet cleaner, parsley kitchen cleaner and some sort of natural bathroom cleaner


• we use all recycled paper products - toilet roll, kitchen roll etc

The bad and the to-do

• I have a fair few less environmentally friendly cleaners, although to be fair, that Mr Muscle oven cleaner has been under the sink (well this sink and the last) for the past 8.5 years, I don't use much of it!


• I plan to buy no more bad cleaning products, but I don't really know what to do with the ones I already have... Just use them up I suppose and not replace them. Throwing them away would cause harmful chemicals to leech into landfill, is this better or worse than very slowly putting them into the water supply? I just want them gone from under my sink, but I find myself looking at them and not using them. I could give them away to someone who uses those sorts of products, thereby ever-so slightly reducing the number of them that they would buy, hmmm....


• I would like to get into making my own home cleaners. I do use vinegar occasionally (I actually don't clean very often!) but have not used bicarb or borax for cleaning ever!


• Get some heat retaining curtains


• Only use environmentally friendly paint after I have used the paint I already have and for the jobs already planned for with that paint


• reduce paper products - I have seen some cloth alternatives to kitchen roll


• switch to sustainable cleaning cloths and brushes - no plastic, biodegradable


• There is still a bottle of fairy and a bottle of anti-bac soap - no more fairy, no more anti-bac, no more liquid soap (sure Mr Brown-eyes will agree with this)

Travel

• We own one small energy-efficient car which I only use on longer journeys


• I walk to work and get the bus for short journeys


• I get the train where possible and almost always for journeys where I am a sole traveller. I do this even when it costs more and is more inconvenient


• I limit flying

The bad and the to-do

• would like to travel by train more, I just wish the train companies did not make this so hard, for instance to do the 42 mile journey I wanted to do tomorrow would cost us about £9 for the round trip between the 2 of us, door to door. To get the train would cost us £31 EACH, plus the bus tickets to the train station, plus it takes longer, and we could only leave here at 12.39 or later and we wanted to get there in the morning. It doesn't make the train a very viable choice a lot of the time. I don't know the way around this. In the example I have just given we are simply not travelling, but this isn't always an option


• I would like to say I will never fly again, but that is probably unfeasable. I would definitely like to say as well that I will never fly again in Europe. We aren't too bad with this... in 9 years I have taken 5 short haul return flights and a single long haul flight. Some of those were before I started trying to restrict flying. I want to take my holidays by train from now on. I started this year with the train to China (yes, train all the way to China, then the ferry to Japan. We went all the way to Japan without stepping on a plane, unfortunately this is where the single long haul flight came in for the return journey)

Food and drink

• I am vegetarian


• I am committed to reducing dairy


• I try to buy local and reduce supermarket shopping, shopping mainly with ocado


• I try to cook food from basic first ingredients


• I buy some things organic


• bananas, tea, coffee and sugar are all fair trade


• I partially switched to fair trade only chocolate and supported some traffikfree events which have resulted in more major brands being traffic free

The bad and the to do

• Start using an organic box scheme


• ALL dairy to be organic, or non-dairy, if that makes any sense!


• Less supermarket shopping


• Eating out in small businesses only


• ALL chocolate to be fair trade


• I want to grow some of my own veg

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

• We recycle all doorstep stuff which includes certain plastics, paper and card, glass and metals


• We save our tetrapaks to take to the nearest tetrapak recycler when we go


• I take our vegetable waste to work to put in the compost bin


• I compost brown card and paper, except some of the paper bags which I keep to take to the supermarket to put veg in


• We have reusable bags, and should we accept any bags we keep them and reuse


• I buy recycled, upcycled and second hand goods


• I save all wrapping paper and packaging to reuse


• We have some dynamo powered electrical products


• I would like my own compost bin, and water butt

The bad and the to-do

• The biggest thing for me is that I buy too much. I like to look nice and have a passion for clothes and shoes. I do need to reduce this though if I am to stop hidden waste from production and transportation. This is biggie for me.


• Find somewhere to recycle broken plastic bags, batteries (which are currently saved in a pot in the kitchen) and foil (which I have just started saving even though I don't know who will recycle it!)


• There are still too many plastic bags in my house. They should be used up and then eradicated completely. To be fair though many of the bags are years old though!


• Too many of the products we use have too much packaging, I should stop using these and write to the manufacturers to tell them why. Unseen packaging is however a concern for me


• switch all battery powered products to rechargable batteries

Health, Hygiene and Beauty

• Switched to the Mooncup ages ago and have never looked back; health, environment, waste, finances, it's a winner all round!


• started using cloth pads, my favourite sort being Luna Wolf, I also like that buying these generally supports small female run businesses


• switched all cleansers, soaps, moistursers, toners and deodorants to Lush


• All cosmetics are non-animal tested - Bnever, Urban Decay and Barry M
  
• switched to zero packaging shampoo, deodorant, and make up remover all from Lush


• switched to washable cloths and pads in place of cotton wool for make-up removal


• Some natural remedies for hayfever, insect bites, headaches etc


• I take showers not baths

The bad and the to-do

• My hair - is made from plastic and dyed with chemicals. I tried to use henna but it didn't do anything. I don't really know how to resolve this situation, but it is top of my priorities to find a solution for


• There are still a few disposable menstrual products, want to not use these at all


• Stop using shower gel as much, even though it is from Lush, to reduce packaging, see it as a treat only


• Nail varnish and nail varnish remover - I don't know of an ethical nail varnish remover, except chipping it off, which is what I do frequently resort to!


• Reduce cosmetics I suppose.... argh

I think this post got very long and complicated, far more so than I had ever envisaged. I suspect I have forgotten many things. My main targets beyond those set above are:

• To become more involved in activism


• to ensure that if and when a baby green-eyes comes along that we maintain what we have already started

This post is not attempting to be a pat-on-the-back congratulatory post, more of view of where I have come from, where I am going to, and what there is to do to get going in that direction.

(no tags because it will only let me have 200 characters which isn't enough for all the tags and i can't decide which to include, I shall just tag it challenge, because overall it is a challenge to improve)

Local or Organic?

As a vegetarian I eat a reasonable amount of vegetables. I buy most of these from the local greengrocer, who sources as much stock as possible from local farmers, but not all. I buy top-ups from asda. I also buy bits and bobs from waitrose. We do a big shop either by going to Tesco, or more frequently these days from ocado online (we are going up in the world!), and will always get some veg in that shop too.

I have some thoughts - don't we all? - about supermarkets. Most of them negative ones. I have some thoughts about supermarkets specific to fruit and veg too. A friend of mine's dad is a farmer and he was telling me about some of the things that supermarkets do to farmers. One such example was that they over-fruit and then insist the farmers buy back the rotting stock that didn't sell. Of course they buy it at ridiculously cheap prices to start with. Farmers are in lose-lose. Leo Hickman's ethical auditors said anyone trying to live more ethically should avoid supermarkets. He switched to an organic veg box scheme.

We have been considering an organic veg box scheme for a while, but weren't sure we wanted to take money away from the local greengrocer. However, they used to deliver to us, but were a bit useless at it, now they don't do it at all. We have to remember to go and get things from them, and they aren't just "over the road" like they used to be. I find I am increasingly buying things from supermarkets and this somewhat distresses me. The supermarket though is more convenient (for me, if not the planet). Leo Hickman's ethical auditors (in his book "My Life Stripped Bare") say that anyone trying to live more ethically should try to reduce their supermarket shopping. I have some friends who manage to not go to the supermarket, except waitrose. So I feel I should try.

Looking into box schemes I read a story about a farmer who was given a large rush order by a supermarket, and he paid people to pick and pack his lettuces, and just as they were ready for delivery he got a call from the supermarket saying they no longer wanted them, they had overestimated. Now picked the lettuces would go off (except this story has a happy ending - the box scheme people bought them all, and presumably they won't make him buy any rotting ones back again, so he won on that one).

Add to this that the supermarkets insist on certain cosmetic characteristics for their veg, they also charge a premium for organic foods thereby making them less available to lower income people. I haven't even touched on the packaging they use, or the even higher amounts of packaging they use on their loose fruit and veg...

So, I have had to weigh up buying locally from a very small business to buying organic from a larger business, but one which does support smaller local farmers, reduces packaging, and has zero air miles.

It will be a big change, harder to plan meals in advance, having to eat seasonally, but a step that feels like the next logical step. We can cancel if we find it isn't working, but I feel like it is really my duty to make it work. I think we will go with Abel & Cole. They also sell milk, bread, ecover washing products, toilet roll, tofu, beer, wine etc etc etc. There is almost no need to ever go in a supermarket again.

I have veg for this week, so I think I will start it next week. I am really looking forward to it.

Factory Farmed Organic chickens?

This would seem to follow naturally on from yesterday's "Chicken or Egg" post. And it does. Mr Brown Eyes and I were talking about whether one needs to own their own chickens in order for them to live in good conditions, or whether we can just pay someone else to do that for us, such as in the case of buying organic eggs.

We used to buy all our eggs free-range until I found out that free-range eggs are fairly routinely de-beaked, because of the unnaturally (if a chicken is at all natural) large flock sizes they live in. Since then we buy free range from a local farmer who does not debeak, or organic if we are elsewhere.

Mr Brown Eyes was saying that industry standard may even move towards organic, that actually there is nothing inherently wrong with large companies and even maybe monsanto (or someone equivalent in size and stature) could farm organic eggs. The thing is that I do not trust large capitalist organisations. They wait for us not to be watching, and then they cut a corner. When that has gone unnoticed they cut another one.

I also felt that I probably couldn't pay anyone to keep chickens as well as I would keep them if I had just 2 in my garden. I presumed an organic (the highest standard of animal welfare) chicken would not have as much space as they would if I just kept 2 in my garden. Or maybe some might, but certainly it would not be assured to be the case. I went using my friend "google" to try to find how much space they would have.

Before finding the answer I got distracted by the very thing that was my initial concerns - big companies not only being outside the law but actually writing the laws themselves (just wait til I get round to writing my GM post!).

I have just been reading an article in times online, admittedly dated in 2007 but nonetheless, stating that organic chickens are typically bred in windowless sheds, given vaccines and fed chemically treated food. Some even have their beaks "trimmed". Hmmm. Apparently this is allowed because of pressure from supermarkets which has resulted in the standards being changed to suit the big companies. I don't much like the fact I live in a country where rules are not made by politicians for people, but are made for profit for companies.

These chickens can be kept in conditions with 14 birds per square metre, they would definitely be better off as 2 in my garden. They are moved to more "organic" conditions as we know them only once they are economically viable.

The Soil Association seems to have the best welfare conditions, so i am going to beware anything organic that is not SA, which only accounts for 30% of organic eggs apparently.

I think I may actually adopt some ex-battery hens:
http://www.bhwt.org.uk/adopt_some_hens.php

I think there was more of a point to this post when I started writing, but I seem to have totally lost the thread!

My buy nothing new challenge

I had been debating having a "green" new year's resolution, but couldn't think of one that I thought was meaningful, or significantly challenging or worthwhile for this year at least.

I decided on something quite separate for an entirely different reason. I made two:
1) look after the house and garden more
2) live more frugally.

It is the second which is or interest to this particular post. So, I have already decided I am to live more frugally. As I say this is not for green purposes, but does come after the consideration and rejection of some similar green style resolutions:
-buy no more new clothes, only second hand
-buy less
-only buy basic clothing etc

I dismissed these for various reasons.

Then today I was reading about the compact whose aim is to buy nothing new. I don't want to permanently go down this route since lots of the new things i buy are fair trade which will directly impact on the lives of others if I stop buying them (don't worry I am not deluding myself by how much it will or won't help - but it certainly won't help people in poor communities if people in rich communities all stop buying their products and instead start living off the waste products of other rich people). Mr Green-Eyed also tells me that we have to consume more in order for the world to carry on turning pretty much. Which I accept, but I actually think that world economics is wrong and we should switch to a non-growth economy. Either way, I don't believe in excess consumption, but I don't think just switching to buying other people's waste is the answer either. The reason there are such good "waste" products in charity shops and on ebay is because people are consuming more new things, so a reduction in consumption in general would be more my speed.

However, I like a challenge, even one riddled with ethical nightmares such as this!

So, my January challenge is to buy nothing new. Nothing new for one month.

Things I am allowed to buy:
-used second hand items
-food and drinks
-food and drinks which come with free gifts so long as the food or drink item would have been bought regardless of the gift.

I will keep you updated :)

Chicken or Egg? Or Cat?

I have been vegetarian for over 13 years, getting towards half of my life. For the past year or so I have been considering taking this to the natural conclusion of veganism. Last year I gave up cows milk (although somehow it crept back in, I think it might go out again this year). I only eat organic dairy when I eat dairy.

My eggs come from a local farmer, who doesn't use organic feed but does meet all the welfare requirements for organic, so I am happy with that. I couldn't see the problem with eggs on a small scale... the hen lays the egg whatever, in fact I do believe, but this could be myth, that they lay more the happier they are, so there is motivation to keep the hen on your side! The eggs they ave laid are not fertilised and so were never going to be chicks. Obviously in large scale farming them some chicks are hatched in order to get new hens and the cocks are killed. There are also welfare issues in standard farming, and even in free-range farming colonies are often too big and hens are de-beaked. (If you don;t know about de-beaking you should google this).

I started thinking I would like my own chickens. They are funny anyway, I quite like to watch chickens. Plus if I kept them myself I could ensure good diet, good conditions and love. Plus I would get eggs and could eat them guilt-free.

Then yesterday I was reading about how tiring it is for hens to lay eggs, and how really if their egg is not fertilised they like to eat it themselves in order to regain some of the lost nutrients. So, even if i kept my own hens maybe i still shouldn't eat the eggs? Maybe I could collect a couple of the eggs and let them have the rest? Would that be a compromise?

Then what about the cat I want to get? Pet owning was discussed in a previous entry. I could hardly have a cat and chickens, that wouldn't be very fair on either of them.

I just watched a video of a man who keeps chickens because he doesn't want a pet like a cat or a dog that just eats food and gives nothing back. Maybe I should get a chicken or 2 instead? I would have to construct somewhere safe so the foxes don't get them though...

we had a white christmas, and a green christmas!

It snowed on christmas day, for maybe the first time in my entire life! We already had snow on the ground, then it snowed just past midnight, we were still up and saw it, and so we had the snow in the garden, and about a quarter of an inch of fresh snow. Apparently bookies paid out on bets of white christmas in nottingham.

So one colour was fixed, what about the other? Green?

Of course the ultimate green christmas would have been sitting in the dark without a christmas tree eating food foraged or gained freganistically meditating or something.

Obviously I didn't take things that far, but I made some green choices where I could.

• we ate vegetarian (as I always do, but some of the other 7 wouldn't normally)


• I home cooked a vegan loaf to reduce a) animal products and b) packaging and processing costs


• I bought all veg british and where possible locally grown


• I have already talked about the ethical dilemma I had with the christmas tree and how i resolved this (I bought a real tree in a pot which I intend to keep for next year and beyond)


• all my decorations are made of natural materials, no plastic whatsoever (although to be fair, at least part of this is aesthetics!)


• I didn't buy a single card or piece of wrapping paper - I made cards (although I did use new card, but hopefully people will like them and treasure them), and I used pre-used paper

I bought people ethical gifts where possible -

• my husband got a recycled bicycle tyre belt and


• some recycled computer keyboard cufflinks!


• My mum got a fair trade afghan blown glass wine glass

People also know I like these things too, and I received a ring made from a teaspoon handle, and some table mats and coasters made from recycled fireman's hose.

I also received Leo Hickman's book - A Life Stripped Bare, Anthony Gidden's Politics of Climate Change and Time Out's Great Train Journey's of the World. I did a train holiday this year and believe this is without a doubt the ultimate way forward.

To improve my green christmas for next year i need to:

• reduce produced items such as real eat roast


• buy fairtrade crackers (if I had known about these before I bought mine I would have bought them, but I already had some. Of course some people say that crackers are a terrible bane for the environmentalist, this is somehting I shall have to think about. I did put all the recyclables in the recycling though)


• more green presents for others


• less electric lighting and more candles


• cards made from recycled materials


• reuse this year's tree