Happy Earth Day! Truth be told, I never much cared about Earth Day. It usually meant there was some fair to go to where they had overpriced beer (which I happily bought), sold hippie crafts and was an excuse to roam around outside in the spring weather.
Now with our shift of lifestyle, it seems only natural to use Earth Day as a banner day. A New Year's for sustainable living. My resolution is to buy 75% of my groceries from a CSA or farmers' market.
What's yours?
But you're not here for resolutions and unicorns, are you? You're here for the showdown.
Let's start with this little story Troy sent me a few days back. The smackdown follows.
Our goal has been to get back to basics and simplify our consumption. It starts with food, but doesn’t end there. So what is worthwhile to get packaged, given that we have limited access to some products and limited time with which to prepare them from scratch? What really got me thinking about this is a not so obvious choice: tuna fish.
We live in Atlanta so our choice of local fish is pretty limited unless we want to pull something out of the Chattahoochee River ourselves. So almost all fish is brought in. Tuna fish has been a staple of my diet since I was a kid. I think it may have sustained me through my lean college days, lean on cash that is. Other than fermented grains, it may have provided the only real nutrition that I got over those four… OK, five… years.
OK back to tuna fish. As we moved down this path of fresher products I bought a bunch of those new, fancy airtight foil pouches of tuna. It said right there on the package that it tasted fresher than the old-fashioned cans. And who was I not believe those poor fisherman. After preparing my first tuna sandwich (on fresh, home-made whole-wheat bread with locally produced, organic microgreens), I was faced with a quandary... up to now, I had never pondered the possible predicament of the pouch proposition. So after finishing my well-made sandwich, off I went to do some research.
Well, it turns out these pouches have little to do with freshness. They have more to do with cost of production, cost of transport, cost of storage, and allocated shelf space. Research indicated people actually prefer the taste and texture of canned tuna! And then, to answer my question: the pouches are not currently recyclable because of their complicated composition. Whereas, cans are now 100% recyclable and usually made from recycled materials. Easy decision for me. But I had briefly been caught, hook-line-and-sinker [editor's note: *snerk*], by the marketers.
So my foray into the world of canned goods made me start thinking about what we should buy in cans, jars, cartons, boxes, bags, etc. To some extent, my obsession with recyclability plays into this as well. When we buy products we can choose those which are packaged responsibly and then take responsibility for doing the right thing with that packaging. Vote with your dollars and take action.
So here’s my list of “approved” packaged products.
*Bell ring*
In blue, we have Troy. Fellow sustainable living advocate. Father of two. Husband of one (no 'Big Love' here folks). Bread maker extraordinnaire. And recently has made a deal with a farm where he will basically be getting all his vegetables and meat through bartering services--how freakin' cool is that!?!?
In green, we have Jen. Awesomeness personified. Speaker of truth. Mother of four four-legged animals, weighing in at over 300 pounds (the animals, not Jen).
The fight: Is Everying in a Can Bad? (otherwise known as: I Like Your Cans)
*Bell ring*
Troy: So here's my list of "approved" packaged products.
Tuna fish - responsibly caught, of course.
Tomatoes - organic, whole peeled.
Tomato paste – tube or can? I choose tube because I almost never use a whole can.
Beans - as in legumes, like black and garbanzos, not green.
Jen: Hold on a minute here. I've been a canned bean girl for the majority of my years and recently made the switch to dried beans. First of all, I understand the prep is a little obnoxious because you have to plan ahead. They need to be soaked overnight before you can use them (or you can cook them in a crock pot with no pre-soaking!). But the texture and flavor is way better. Not to mention, if you buy bulk from somewhere that will let you bring in reusable containers, then this is the more environmentally friendly way. I veto canned beans.
*Jen rushes to her pantry to dispose of the 5 cans of black beans currently on the shelves.*
Pasta and noodles– we keep spaghetti on hand, and get other shapes as needed.
Noodles – did you know that a noodle has to have 40% egg content to be called a noodle?
Crackers – the square ones for my son and the round ones for my daughter.
If you use these products (pastas, noodles and crackers) all the time, sure. You don't want to spend all your days rolling and cutting dough. But for special occasions, I really recommending giving it a go. It's SOOOO much better than store-bought.
Mustard – yellow, Dijon, spicy brown.
Ketchup – there’s only one brand to buy and they now offer an organic version.
Mayonnaise – again, only one brand… some habits die hard
*Ahem* There really is nothing simpler than making home-made Mayonnaise. FYI, "groundnut oil" is peanut oil. And home-made mayonnaise is not made out of all the processed nastiness of jarred mayonnaise. Do you even know where mayonnaise come from? Well, you know that blister on the bottom of your foot that's about ready to pop, well...Michael! Stop it. Some people like mayonnaise.
Pickles – there’s only so much time.
Lazy!
Who said that?
Fine, buy one jar of pickles, but then how hard is it to cut up a cucumber, stick it in the old jar of pickle juice and wait a week? Naturally this is coming from a girl who single-handedly keeps the pickle industry alive. I'm not saying there aren't some changes I couldn't be making as well...
Jams and jellies – I’ll never be as good as someone else at this.
The verdict's out on this one. I have a scheduled session to learn how to make these. I'll let you know how it goes.
Fruit juices – at least until I have my own orchard
Cost-wise and with two kids. Totally agree. Though I do want to push the wonders of a juicer to everyone. And there is nothing in this world like fresh squeezed tangerine juice when they are in season. Oh my goodness, the awesome...
Spices – what is life without spice?
Chocolate and cocoa powder – good luck trying to make this yourself.
Honey – for many reasons, local is best
What, you don't do your own beekeeping? Weirdo.
Hard cheeses – again, that time thing.
Ice cream – I’ve heard that home-made is the way to go, but Ben & Jerry are good guys… well, at least they used to be. For a fabulous alternative try http://jenisicecreams.com/.
*Screeching halt*
OK, I've given you a lot of passes. Fine, I really haven't, but ice cream!?!?!?!
PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! There is nothing more delicious than home-made ice cream. Yes, you need special equipment (Kitchen Aid has a fabulous attachment or you can buy an ice cream maker), but if you eat ice cream...ever...you should make your own.
I think I may have convinced Troy of this when I brought him a gallon of home-made strawberry ice cream the other night. His kids didn't eat anything else I made for dinner (including pizza!!!), but the ice cream...gone. And everyone could feel good about it because it was cream, milk and strawberries from the farmers' market. The sugar was cane sugar. The ice cream will also be better in about a week or two when the strawberries are at the height of being in-season.
Do you know anyone who makes a chocolate mole ice cream that makes you dance around the house naked? It just so happens that I do!
I'm pretty sure the kids would LOVE to make their own ice cream flavors. And you're going to save money if you eat ice cream with any regularity.
Home-made ice cream. Do it.
Carry on Troy.
Perhaps some day, I will be good enough to be canning my own tomatoes in jars, pickling my own cucumbers, and jamming my own fruit (*snerk* he said jamming his own...oh nevermind). But until then, sometimes, I do try to think practically. I admit this list is certainly not exhaustive and I expect that it will evolve with time.
Some notable omissions of “approved” products are salad dressings (OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!!!! Troy! YOU sent me this article: what's in store-bought salad dressing, just google salad dressing recipes and make your own. Can't be beat and takes about a minute to make. Really.) oatmeal, breakfast cereals, cookies, cake batter (grrrrr...fine, some people really hate baking, but cookies and cake batter. Troy, I thought I knew you.). Some marginal items are orange juice (of course, I prefer fresh squeezed. But I think the kids need it more often than I can make it), yogurt (I, for a fact, know that Troy and his wife have a yogurt making kit at home...so we'll find out how their foray into home-made yogurt goes), soft cheeses, and chicken nuggets (I can't believe you just went the chicken nugget route. Granted, I don't have kids so do not know the pull chicken nuggets have over them. So carry on.).
I think the answer to the question at hand is…some cans are good and not everything has to be fresh off the vine.
But most things do.
I’d be interested in what other products people think should be “approved” and those that shouldn’t be, and why.
So would I. (I had to get the last line in there. It is my blog after all.)
Happy Earth Day!
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