Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 16 - Jiffy and other Sundry Thoughts

Apparently, hemp seeds are very good for you.

I'm kind of out of steam right now on talking about avoiding plastic.  I went to Wegman's yesterday to do an exploratory run.  Wegman's is not on my usual route, but it turns out there is one I wasn't aware of just about a 10 minute drive from the math tutor's.  Well, I will never be one of the cool kids.  Wegman's to me is too huge, too overwhelming and when you go in with the idea of avoiding plastic, it is no better than Harris Teeter.  Well, it's actually worse because it is bigger and has simply miles and miles of plastic.  It does have a selection of organic bulk stuff, but none of it was what I really wanted.  I am not groovy enough.  I mean they had a big bin of hemp seed.  No one else was at the bulk bins when I was there (in the middle of a Friday afternoon - even though the place was hopping) and I looked around at all the eye-grabbing trendy, plastic encased, convenience food that abounded everywhere and standing by my lonely self in the bulk bin aisle, thought:  how often does someone come in and buy organic hempseed here?    But I supposed I should appreciate the fact that they do carry such stuff!  That is good.  A step in the right direction.  I was just too assaulted by the hugeness of the place to properly appreciate things.

But the most ironic thing is that my little plastic card failed me!  I went through all the aisles of Wegman's carefully trying to find a couple of items that were plastic free and when I got up to the cashier my credit card was rejected.  I had forgotten that we were in the process of switching accounts because someone hacked into our old one and keep trying to steal money from us..  A month ago I got a new credit card which I never activated.  I blithely kept using the same old one I'd been using for 5 years and then yesterday I got a rude awakening.   Now I have to figure out how to activate my new piece of plastic.

The plastic that moves the economy

Even though I am on Day 15, I still have trouble remembering to bring my bags with me, so I have on occasion gotten paper bags at the store, instead.  This is actually helpful because sometimes I need paper bags for use at home. Also, I just found out this interesting tidbit.

Sometimes you need paper bags!

All the above is an aside.  The thing I wanted to post about is Jiffy!  Ten posts back I noted that the Jiffy company makes its little boxes of corn muffin mix exactly the same way as it has always done.  Well, just yesterday I stumbled on this report by NPR about how that is true!  Jiffy hasn't changed since 1930 when it opened!  What a neat little company.  I feel very good about buying this product now.  At least once a week we have muffins with soup or muffins for breakfast.  I am not one to get attached to brand names, but I am pleased with this one!

Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 15 - Sack Cloth!

From Monasteryicons.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  We will be celebrating it by eating pizza!  Yeah, we are going to the children's Stations of the Cross tonight at my parish.  They feed the kids pizza and then a nice lady with a guitar (it is all very guitar-mass in feel) sings the Stations of the Cross to the kids.

I only took my own kids once, but we have this little 17 month old living here so we are going to check it out with him in tow.

I think I'll do the corned beef thing on Saturday instead.

Now, on to other things!

I've discovered that a couple companies that are aimed at the speciality food market do package their food in nice cloth bags, I think to hearken back to the old days, perhaps?  Since these are specialty items they are costly.  For instance I compared the Carolina Plantation Rice costs to that of a 2 lb bag of rice from Target (wrapped in plastic) and there is no comparison in price.  Target's was something like $1.69, while the other was $9.82.  Of course, if you want to buy local or at least USA, the Carolina Rice is grown here in South Carolina.  I have no idea where the Target brand comes from.  I am willing to bet the quality of the rice from Carolina Plantation is probably much better, more flavor and nutrition than the other.  But still the price difference is something a buyer can't get around!

Anyone up for some stone ground grits?

Two other companies that also bag their rice (and grits) in cloth are Food For the Southern Soul and Matiz.

Directly from Spain!

It makes me wonder why something wrapped in plastic - that is made from fossil fuels and takes so much processing to produce is cheaper than something made from a renewable resource that people are producing all the time anyway (clothes are everywhere!).  Also, plastic is much more costly to deal with after use than cloth, which biodegrades and is easily reused anyway.  What gives?  Is it simply the scale of production? (mass production of plastic vs. particular production of this particular type of cloth for this little specialty niche?)  The fact that the plastic is lighter for shipping?

But at least there are products out there not packaged in plastic.  I plan to write the companies and tell them how much I appreciate that they have not hopped on the plastic bandwagon!  Maybe there is a way to encourage this type of packaging so that maybe one day it will become more common.

As an aside, at the same time that I was discovering these items packaged in cloth,  I started listening to Sidney Poitiers Spiritual Autobiography, The Measure of a Man.  I'm just at the very beginning where he is recounting his childhood on an island in the Bahamas.  His family were tomato farmers but they were very poor.  But he says it wasn't the crushing poverty of other places.  He roamed the island, eating fruit from the trees, there was the sea to fish from, salt ponds to get salt to preserve the fish, pigs and goats - so he never went hungry and he had an island paradise in which to play.  The economy was half cash, half barter.   There was no electricity and no running water, but everyone was like that, so no one felt poor because of it.  And clothes were made from sackcloth!  I envision them getting big sacks of rice and flour, using them up and then turning them into clothing.  I wonder, how much clothing do you really need in the Bahamas anyway?  Poitier remembers his childhood as a time of great simplicity and peace and family togetherness away from all the distractions that money would bring.

Speaking of flour sacks - I wonder if these are the authentic thing?  Somebody is still producing things from this material, it seems!

**********

Something more affordable than the specialty rice that also avoids plastic is Near East cous cous in little cardboard boxes.  No plastic there (except maybe in the flavor packets? Probably.)  I have not tried their rice, so I don't know how that is packaged, but the cous cous is so easy to prepare and is delicious!

My teens kept lobbying me to buy Pepperidge Farm Cookies in those little paper sacks.  I checked them out.  Here's what I found.

Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 14 - Students

Plastic is everywhere, not just packaging our food, but everywhere.  How is a student supposed to cope?

This college student lays out her clever and resourceful ways she avoids plastic while living in a dorm.  I had never heard about how to avoid the binding on textbooks before!

You can actually find these cute recycled paper notebooks at Target!  If you want the motherlode of these recycled school supplies (which seem to be plastic free, though I am having a hard time finding that stated explicitly) go to Bookbinders.

I had never given a thought to all the plastic pens I buy and then throw out when they stop working. Life Without Plastic has some plastic free alternatives.    Writing with a fountain pen seems hard but classy!  I wonder if we didn't think of pens as disposable, we wouldn't be so careless with losing them all the time?  Maybe we'd take how we write more seriously?  This reminded me of a Tex talk I saw.

What if life without plastic leads us to slowing down, being more creative, appreciating beauty more?  It is a way of withdrawing from the rat race a little bit!


(Below is completely, off the topic of being plastic free, but I felt like noting these anyway!)

Speaking of students, I just thought I'd brag about my own two here at home.  Sean loves his English class this semester at the community college.  It is hybrid class so he has to submit homework online each Tuesday night.  He had to write a reader response to a review of a biography of Dostoevsky.  The guy writing the review is one of those avant-garde writers who is hard to penetrate at times.  Anyway, the teacher wrote back to the whole class to read S's review because it was a model of how to approach the subject matter.  S was so pleased.  The thing about S is, even with his struggles, he is one smart, talented guy!  I always thought he'd be great at reviewing music, movie, books.  He's got such a way with words and he is so insightful.

S got invited by his brother to come up to Boston to play flute in a live performance of W's opera Mogo.  S is all excited!  Now he's got to learn a very complicated piece quickly.  He's on the job!  S also got to see his favorite jazz flutist at the Kennedy Center recently, which was very cool.

B is going to go to New York with her friend who goes to a local high school.  We wouldn't have said yes, except the friends' parents are going to be chaperoning as well.  This was B's Christmas present.  This is happening in a couple weeks.  She's getting excited.  B also helped with a fundraiser this past weekend, to raise money to support a theater camp started by kids she works with at the local community theater.  It is a summer camp for low income kids.  The two girls who started this were 15 and 16 at the time.  Now they are 18 and 19 and about to go off to college.

I love how much music is a part of the lives of my two youngest kids.

Here's a tiny desk concert featuring Elena Pinderhughes (I can see why S likes her so much).

Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 13 - Updates!

Update on The Big Wax Wheel of Cheese!
Remember that huge wheel of cheese imported from England I bought that cost so much but had never seen plastic (well at least it hadn't been individually wrapped in plastic, it is encased in lovely green wax!)  I was very worried about it.  I thought it would go uneaten and spoil and be a big waste and another bit of evidence that I am truly wacky!

But, dear reader, it has proved to be my most successful cheese impulse buy ever!  I have made with it so far:

1)  potato cheese soup
2)  mac and cheese
3)  cheese and crackers
4)  sprinkled bowls of chili with cheese
5)  grilled cheese sandwiches
6)  spinach and cheddar cheese souffle.

We are not quite half way through it.

The cheese is supremely delicious; it has a really creamy mild white cheddar taste.  It hasn't spoiled in the least.  When I cut off a chunk, I push the wax, all of which I've kept, back around the cheese, then I wrap it back up in parchment paper secured with two rubber bands and then back into the fridge it goes.  I don't let it just sit out on the counter for any amount of time at all.

I am looking around for more cheddar cheese recipes.

Update On Tea!
I found a tin of Twinings English Breakfast tea at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I still have not found a single user tea infuser (hey, that rhymes!).  But I did get out my old tea pot (I remember I got it years ago when I was going to do teatime with my kids a la Charlotte Mason.  I think that lasted a year.)   I have yet to make a pot of tea though.  I think I'll drink through my collection of tea in bags first.

Here's an article that echoes my experience (albeit in a very limited way; I am just starting out on this journey).  I do find myself thinking differently about food and how to cook for my family.

Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 12 - Paper Towels and Such

Showing off my no plastic souffle!  Spinach from CSA, cheese from the big wax wheel of cheddar.

I grew up in a large family (10 kids) that operated on a tight budget.  Even though my dad was a lawyer and then judge, he was a partner for a small firm in a small city and then he was a county judge.  County civil servants don't get paid all that much (though the benefits were good!)  My mom didn't work and she was ill much of the time (Type 1 diabetes she'd had since she was a teen).  So she had those pre-existing conditions that insurance companies don't like so much.  However, both my parents grew up poor during the Depression and then during the rationing of WWII, so they were quite used to being frugal and in fact, really didn't seem to give it much thought!  They just operated frugally automatically!

So I remember when growing up that my mom wouldn't let us use paper towels to dry our hands.  We had a dish towel for dishes/pots/pans and a hand towel for drying hands.  Paper towel was used for icky stuff or draining bacon on a plate.  In fact, when there was a spill, mom would say don't use up all the paper towels, get a dish towel!

A few weeks ago, before I began this Lenten journey of avoiding plastic, I bought a bunch of dish towels at the grocery store.  My supply was getting sparse and ragged and we had started washing dishes by hand.  But these new dish towels came in handy, because I started noticing that every single paper towel roll is wrapped in plastic.  Paper towels are a really wasteful idea if you think about it!  They are completely unnecessary in the long run.  However,  I know my family will object to having to use rags or towels to clean up some things, like cat vomit.  So I bought a roll of Seventh Generation recycled paper towel and I sternly warned everyone that it was just to use in case of something really icky.  In other cases they need to use the dish towels.  Then I put a couple of dish towels on the counter in front of the paper towel holder.  We also have two dish towels draped over the back of the kitchen barstool closest to the sink.  One is for hands and one is for dishes (I am my mother's child!).  And you know what?  We are into our 2nd week and we still have half a roll of paper towel left!!!!  I just used a square on the floor where someone had obviously dropped an ice cube and not picked it up. It had melted into a little pool of water.   I had just put a load of towels in the wash, so I am currently down to one dish towel and didn't want to use it on the floor.   That's my justification for using paper this time.

In addition to reducing paper towel consumption, I also announced to the family I was going to no longer buy paper napkins.  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought a dozen cloth napkins for $9.99.  We also had 4 cloth napkins leftover from a set we got about 15 years ago.  I put the napkins in the napkin holder.  The new rule is:  if your napkin is really icky put it into the bag hanging on the other barstool chair.  If it isn't icky, fold it up and keep it near your place at the kitchen table.  Then you can reused it again.  We have a big square kitchen table, so we can just moved the napkin in toward the center and still have room for books and other stuff.

These are exactly the ones I bought.

I am still going buy tissues.  I just can't see anyone in this family using handkerchiefs.  There are those annoying little plastic bits that help you pull the tissue out of the box.  But in the old days, we used to have tissue boxes that didn't have that feature.  Honestly, why is that plastic necessary?  It seems so stupid to use petroleum by products that will never biodegrade so we can more easily get a single tissue out of a box.

For toilet paper, I have found a couple of brands of recycled single rolls wrapped in recyclable paper.  I like that I can recycle that along with the cardboard toilet tubes.  But these individual rolls add up to be more costly.  It might be cheaper to buy a bulk package of many rolls, even though they all come in plastic.  At least you are getting more rolls for the plastic than if you bought a bunch of smaller packages.  It's just that that type of plastic doesn't get recycled like jugs and cartons do.  So it really does wind up in a landfill.  It's a conundrum.  I really resent that people are forced to choose between being frugal and being environmentally responsible.  We need to fix that!

Right now I am researching buying a big tablecloth for my dining room table.  This dining room furniture was one of the best things we bought when we were first married.  An old lady was being moved to a nursing home by her son (that part is sad!) and he was selling her furniture cheap.  We bought this table, china cabinet, chairs and credenza for very little and we've now had to for maybe 22 years!  It is a nice long oval walnut table, with the extensions in, it sits 12 people.  Ever since I've had it, I've been going to Giant Food and buying their long white plastic lined paper tablecloths whenever we use the table (usually for Christmas/New Year's/Passover/Easter).  Well, this year I am not going to buy a plastic tablecloth in plastic packaging.  So I've been on the lookout for a new tablecloth.  I was checking out Vermont Country Store (which seriously has some plastic alternative items - check it out!) but I think I want the kind that are stain resistant, if I can.  However, the stain resistant might contain microfibers that get washed into water supply.  I need to do more research before Passover and Easter are upon us.  I don't have much time!

Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Storing Food - Day 11

Some of these ideas I came up with on my own and some I gleaned from Plastic Free.

These are my best friends.

1)  I use canned pet food for my dog and three cats. That's a lot of cans to go through in a week.  I have two too many pets.  One cat was dumped on me not once but twice!   The other was due to youngest daughter pleading for her own pet and me being too softhearted to say no.  To cover the cans in the fridge I use aluminum foil that I reuse over and over again until it is falling apart.  I used to just throw it away then, however, even though my curbside collection won't take it, I've discovered that my county will.  So I am saving it up and taking it to the recycling center along with big cardboard boxes.

2)  For leftovers:  reuse plastic containers you already have.  I've got a couple of these hanging around.  I never was one to remember to save and reuse these though, simply because I felt like they never got clean enough and I'd lose the lids.  I toss them into the recycling but the more I learn the less I trust that they are actually getting recycled.  Actually, there is no recycling in plastic, just downcycling.

3) Put food into a bowl and cover with plate.  This has the added incentive of making you not forget about that leftover since you probably are going to miss that plate and bowl eventually!  Likewise if you use a pot with a lid or a casserole dish with a lid.

4) Use Ball canning jars for leftovers and for freezing.  You can find these at most grocery stores, Target, etc.   Just don't put hot food into a jar and then immediately put into the freezer.  Refrigerate first to completely cool and then freeze.  Never fill the glass jar to the top.  Leave an inch or more for expansion.  I have frozen homemade chicken broth successfully in these jars.

5)  If you've got the disposable income, you can buy a nice stainless steel container or two from Life Without Plastic.  These are an investment; they are pricey but I expect it to last for years and years.  These are great for freezing meat.  I just got one and this is what I am using to store my meat in when in the freezer.


6)  You can try out some of the beeswax wraps that are reusable and washable.  This seems like a pretty pricey alternative.  Apparently, you can make your own, if you are inclined that way and have the time!

The only downside is my tin is too big to store in the cupboards and I can't stand having a Christmas themed tin sitting on my counter all year long.  I'm trying to brainstorm for a solution!

7) For dry foods (trail mix, rice, etc) old tins that cookies and popcorn come in.  If they are rusty, you can line with an old clean pillow case or paper from a paper bag.  I've been keeping my bread in an old tin; the bread is either in a paper bag or a cloth bag.  This keeps the bread fresh for days.

8)  Wax paper baggies.  I got some at Whole Foods.  I pack a lunch for my daughter every Tuesday when she attends our homeschool co-op.  We reuse an old insulated plastic lunch bag that zips.  I think she's used it since she was 8 or so (she's now 15).  I bought it for when she attended a regular music summer camp where she needed to bring her lunch.  I use wax paper bags for things like raisins, carrot sticks, cookies.  She's not much of a sandwich person, so usually I put some cheese cubes in a small widemouth thermos.  I used to always put a paper napkin in but I just realized she's bringing the lunch bag back with her so I started putting an old cloth napkin in we had.  I can compost the wax paper bags and wash the napkin.  No waste!  One box of these is going to last me a while.

9)  The hardest thing for me is to store fresh greens, lettuces, spinach etc in the fridge without plastic.  Here is a list of how to store fresh veggies without plastic.

Plastic Free; How I Kicked the Plastic Habit - Book 8

Plastic found near the Arctic.  http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2014/09/11/oceans-plastic-problem

This book by Beth Terry is THE resource for learning how to live life avoiding plastic.  It is hard to do!  Beth Terry has been at it for years and she's done all the research and footwork so we don't have to!  She became convinced of the problem of plastic for our environment back in the early 2000s. Since then she's been galvanized to make this her life work - to raise awareness of the dangerous threat that plastic poses to life on this planet.

Made without plastic!

I am currently trying to live plastic free for the 40 Days of Lent.  I am hoping giving it up for 40 Days will help me form good habits that prove beneficial for myself and the environment.  This book is chock full of advice, ideas, suggestions and links.  I regret getting it on my Kindle because it is just the sort of book to use as a reference.  The Kindle just doesn't lend itself to easy access to particular information when one needs it.  I am going to have to buy this as a real book, in hardback or paperback.  Honestly though I was thinking of buying several copies and donating them to my library.  I'm that serious about this problem.

Plastic found in Gibraltar.

Terry writes well, in a conservational, sensible way.  She is not high and mighty about her crusade at all.  She warns the reader over and over again how it took her years of dedicated research to figure out all these solutions.  To switch to a more sustainable lifestyle in this day and age, means making conscientious choices.  The easiest thing is to refuse plastic shopping bags and bring your own.  The other easy thing to do is to get into the habit of bringing your own water bottle instead of buying bottled water.  There are all sorts of ways to avoid plastic in all areas of one's life, but it takes a willingness to change and problem solve.  

Giant plastic patch found in Atlantic Ocean.  The scale of our plastic pollution is almost beyond comprehension.  And it NEVER goes away.  It's here for our children and grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren, and it gets worse by exponential proportions every single day.

I learned a lot from this book.  I learned about organizations like 5 Gyres and Terracycle.  I learned about little entrepreneurial companies trying to do their part against the mammoth corporations who spew out plastic with so little regard to the consequences of their actions; companies like Chicobags and Ecobags, and more little esty businesses trying to cull out an income while helping rather than hurting us.  There's so much more in here.  That's why I really need the actual book.  So I can refer to it again and again.

Beth Terry's website is a great place to start right away in learning about the dangers of plastic and how it is reaching a global crisis level.  Even if you don't read her book, please visit her website so you can join the fight for the future of the planet (and human race).

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.