Pursuing A Zero Waste Lifestyle (Guest Post From Budget Epicurean) — Tread Lightly, Retire Early

A great post for you to ponder and consider how you can make a difference:

The first year of this blog, I decided that I would write every single post that I published here myself in order to create a blog I felt was all my own. 2,071 more words

via Pursuing A Zero Waste Lifestyle (Guest Post From Budget Epicurean) — Tread Lightly, Retire Early

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Glyphosate

Glyphosate is the most widely used weed-killer in the world. It’s the active ingredient in Roundup, the flagship agricultural herbicide sold by Monsanto, and it’s used in more than 130 countries including Australia. Glyphosate is in our parks, gardens, golf-courses and playgrounds. And it’s in our food and water.
Veteran investigative journalist Carey Gillam has spent decades exploring the links between big business, biotech and agriculture in America. In her new book, Whitewash, she looks into the growing body of research about glyphosate’s health risks – and reveals the legal and marketing strategies Monsanto has employed to prevent and conceal damaging revelations about their product.
With Sally Warhaft, this tenacious Kansas-based journalist will talk corporate power, public health and reporting Roundup. For bookings at the Wheeler Centre click here.

When: Saturday 11 August 2018, 6.00pm-7.00pmat Strategem Studio at Ulumbarra Theatre

how to make your own almond milk

This is a must for those of us living with dairy intolerances

The Muffin Myth

When I first moved to Sweden I had a list of foodstuffs I needed to source out in order to ensure my happiness. Among other things, tofu, nutritional yeast, and soy milk were must haves. I’ve always been a soy milk girl when it comes to non-dairy milks, though I know that these days it isn’t particularly in vogue and people are slurping back almond milk like nobody’s business. I still treat myself to soy milk from time to time, but I don’t often buy it. My gripes with most store-bought nut milks are threefold. First, I find the protein : fat ratio is usually not what I’m looking for, second, there is usually a lot of added sugar, and third, most are loaded with all kinds of thickeners, stabilizers, and preservatives.

I’ve come around to almond milk lately, especially when it’s home made. Soak, blend, strain, and boom! You’ve milked those…

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Gratefulness continues…..

I’m still on my gratefulness kick, so each night I lie in bed and reflect on what I’m grateful for…..

The first is having this extra day of health to enjoy.

The second is always the love and support of my family and friends.

Then my list goes on, it is filled with simple things like being able to grow my own food, watering the garden (dog, child, partner…..it is summer here, and some nights are just too hot not to enjoy in a little water play), having my own home, being well enough to walk my child to and from school…..you get the idea.

What I’ve found, is this calms me, and focuses my attention on what is really important. I look at life with new eyes, and see the possibilities of it all.

I hope that you too can enjoy some moments of gratefulness and reflection. It’s an opportunity to slow down and reflect upon what really matters to you.

Working outside

We’ve just spent the day at my niece’s property, working hard in the fresh air that can only be an autumn day in country Victoria.

It was a day for all the family to help out and try and get her house ready for winter. My partner spent a good part of the day, knocking out a ceiling, patching up the roof, and moving large amounts of plasterboard around the house.

My son and I spent it outside – yes the entire day, without TV or music, just him and me working at tending the fire that had been built to burn some of the wood that had been piling up under the trees on her property. The dangerous stuff that if left for summer, would become a fire hazard.

Now as any parent or guardian of an active six year old would know, this task taxed my multi skilling ability – my one eye on the fire, one eye on where my son was, and one eye on the wood I was busy collecting to boot. 

But what I learnt, and this is another lesson my son has taught me, he respects me enough not to go near the fire, that he truly wanted to help me, and enjoyed the time that we two had together.

We sat and watched the flames together, quietly at times, and he would shush me if I spoke, he told me we both needed quiet thinking time. And so we sat together in a rare silence, that doesn’t exist at home, where the radio, or the cd player or the television is always playing. It was just the pair of us, enjoying each other’s company. And I wondered again, how lucky I was to have this magical little person in my life, who is as wise as the hills sometimes, and who loves a good laugh too when Mum tells funny stories of my parents…..

The children we have, are just passing through, for they grow too soon into adults. So I will enjoy these days with him, and spend the time marvelling again at how incredibly special he is to me.

Bottling

Call me crazy, but today was the first day ever that I bottled some of my home grown produce. Yes in all my years, I’ve never bottled anything – I grew up with my Mum pickling onions, and making her own goods. And then I grew up, moved out of home, and forgot about it completely.

But not today, my dear friend Janet, who makes her own wonderful chutneys and preserves gave us a great little book by Isabel Webb : 5-Minute Microwave Bottling. And boy has this opened up my eyes…..

So I made some plum jam, worked out very well. Now I’ve pickled some of our cucumbers – hardly putting a dent into the crop. And my next project will be Beetroot and Tomato Chutney. All with the microwave, some glass jars I’ve been putting away, and some time. Not a lot of time, because my child is on school holidays, which means it’s a constant fridge opening experience, and I have fifteen minute blocks before he decides he needs some more food or pens or paper or running outside chasing the dog or the dog and him chasing the cat….. And I managed to pickle the cucumbers inside of that block of time – not bad hey?

I think of all the time and effort my Mum put into putting up her preserves, and think of how amazed she would be now. She grew up through the depression, and then started her family at the end of World War Two, not exactly times of bounty. And so as I worked today I thought of how incredibly bountiful we first world inhabitants have it. We just rock up to a supermarket and buy fruit and vegetables grown from all around the world, twenty four seven, with no thought of where these come from. And then complain when the tomatoes don’t taste like they used to, or any of the other first world problems that come from living outside the seasons of nature.

So these cucumbers I’ve pickled, will be enjoyed when the last of the cucumber vines have been removed, and the chickens next door will have feasted on the last of the vines. And for a small time, we’ll have a part of the wonderful summer harvest of vegetables still available to my small family.

Opportunity Beckons

I was thinking this morning, while folding the clothes and putting them away – always a time for my self introspection – that I love life for the hope and opportunity I receive every morning.

Each and every morning – even if my son wakes me at 3am in the morning, or I get to sleep in til 6am – the day brings with it two gifts: Hope and Opportunity.

I can decide there and then what to make of the day, and sometimes I forget to treasure this gift and get out of bed like a cranky fire breathing dragon mother. Or I can remember, and think of all the great things I’ll be doing today. These might include, laughing out loud with my son until our sides hurt, snuggling with him and telling him some awesome adventure stories, picking my own freshly grown vegetables, tucking into freshly picked plums….. now you’re getting my picture.

Even folding the clothes, I can turn that around, and make it time to go through the clothes, making sure that there still relevant, and not too small or in need of mending. I can then start another bag of clothes to pass on to friends with younger boys who then in turn can pass their old clothes onto others.

So next time, I’m dragging my sorry butt out of bed, I will try and remember that I need to treasure these two gifts for the day, and make the best of it.

Now I’m off to make home made pizza dough….it’s pizza tonight, and I can’t wait to be having my helper making it with me, even though he eats all the tomato paste before it goes onto the pizza! Have an awesome day!