Making the Switch to Natural Peanut Butter

You might have been brainwashed by commercials as a child to believe that your mother only loved you if she bought you Jif...or Skippy if she could sneak it in a sandwich without your knowing.  I was raised on Jif and I still think it's delicious.  I read the label once and switched to Jif 50%.  Even though it had less fat it was still chalk full of sugar and fat. 

We got hooked on natural peanut butter when we were visiting family for 10 days.  It was all they had.  It only takes about 4 days to develop the taste buds for natural peanut butter.  It has a more satisifying texture and you can't eat lots and lots more of it b/c it lacks extra oil that don't reside in normal peanuts. 

Things to watch for as you try to switch.
Unsalted:  this will be a hard first try and perhaps too much of a leap if your coming off of a national brand.
No-stir:  this is code for--has an added type of oil to keep it from separating--caution!  It will probably be palm oil and as tropical and exotic as it sounds, it's not a great oil for your body so try to avoid it.
Weird brand names:  you will just have to get used to this.  Look at the back, chances are, the natural peanut butter is made/distributed by Smuckers!  They have their name all over the back of supermarket peanut butters.  This is not bad, we prefer Laura Sartor's brand which is a Smucker affiliate.
Additional compulsions:  to make the switch, you might want to mix things in to the peanut butter like honey, sugar, salt, chocolate, ground beef, etc.  While these aren't all bad, try hard to take it plain until you get used to it.
Organic: Shop around for this type of natural peanut butter for a good price if this is of value to you.
Self Serve: This is a good way to experiment with different types if you can find one of these machines at a grocery store.  Try a tiny bit of each one before you buy any. 

Take it to the next level:  Try out other nut butters like almond and cashew.  They are great compliments to apples, toast, sandwiches etc.

What's your favorite kind of peanut butter?

On Death & Dying: Composting Series 2: Anger

Welcome back to the composting series!  This week we'll be working through the Anger phase.  Anger during these early stages of composting can crop up in a variety of different ways.  I'll share my points of angst and you can feel free to comment below on your particular points of pain.

If you're following along, you should have surveyed your land and chosen your ideal place for your compost heap.  Now it's time to get serious about this and by serious, I mean you are going to need to go to Home Depot or similar home shop.

Anger Type 1: You will research bins and find that ready made bins cost $75-$200, this is upsetting and inappropriate! So, to build a basic compost bin, you'll need some 2x4s, screws, washers and medium mesh wire "fencing" (total cost $30ish).  Chickenwire's holes are too big so choose a type that has smallish squares or rectangles.  This would also be a good time to pick up a small pitch fork. 
You're basically going to build a frame out of the 2x4's and attach the mesh inside the frame on the 4 sides using screws and washers.  Reference the diagram above for a hilarious depiction of what your bin could look like!

Anger Type 2:  This could occur at various stages during the building of your bin.  You will forget something and have to make multiple trips to the store.  Just come to terms with it now.  You might also realize that your bin is too huge, too tiny or trapezoid shaped.  These will all pose problems for you in the future, so consult appropriate measuring devices to get it right.  You could also incur a host of injuries during this phase so take appropriate safety measures as I can't be held responsible for anything that happens to you or your doting husbands/boyfriends as they try to "help."

Let's assume that you got your bin built.  YAY!  Good job.  If you're not stingy, you could have just bought a nice plastic bin but where's the fun in that?!  Plus, the storemade bin will deprive you of most of the fun interactions you could have with your pile in the future.

Anger Type 3:  Feeling overwhelmed that you now have a giant wooden form but nothing to put in it.  Never fear, stick to these do's and don'ts and you should be well on your way to filling your bin.
DO: Compost anything that grows in the ground, on a tree or similar.  This includes things that might have been 'processed' but not added to during processing (coffee grounds, raw nuts, seeds, egg shells, etc).
DON'T: Compost any meats, oils/fats/bones, human or animal wastes.  You'll find info that says you can compost these things at high enough temperatures but let's just start off safe and avoid them.

Your task this week is to go forth and build your bin.  If you're Type A, Concrete/Sequential or MBTI J's, feel free to google "how to build a compost bin" for step by step instructions.
Blog in soon to learn about Bargaining and what you might Bargain for regarding your compost.

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Guilty of Animal Testing

I've been against animal testing ever since 6th grade when the horrifying stories of rubbing mascara into bunnies' eyes came out.  Regardless, I used my dog today to test a natural beauty product!  What is wrong with me!?  I didn't even give it a second thought.  Before you report me to PITA or similar, my friend and I have been talking about experimenting with various natural beauty techniques.  The one in question involves using baking soda in lieu of shampoo. 

My dog gets really smelly.  She has comparatively simple beauty needs.  Her hair is mainly one length and she doesn't have any chemical residues from styling products.  She also, consequently, doesn't mind if she is having a bad hair day. 

In my defense, I did research baking soda applications for dog bathing on several message boards and it was getting rave reviews from other owners of stinky/itchy afflicted mutts.  So I tricked her into the tub and wetted her fur.  I sprinkled a generous amount of baking soda on her and rubbed it all around.  I gave her a vigorous rinsing and viola!  It worked, sort of.  The greatest benefit is that she hasn't itched or scratched even once since the bath.  Normally, no matter how much rinsing we do, she will itch a little more than usual for the first few days after a bath. 
I have been inadvertantly torturing my dog with shampoo for 6 years. 

Does she smell "good" now?  Probably not to the general public. Does she smell better than she did when we started? Definitely.  What is missing is the familiar green apple scent of her store bought pet shampoo for "problem skin" (only $9/bottle).  This new lack of artificial scent got me wondering why pet shampoos are scented?  Honestly, if you think dogs should smell like fruits or foods, you probably shouldn't be a dog owner.  I've never met a wolf in the woods who smelled like vanilla beans or cherries jubilee or chocolate kisses (no smart remarks about how often I've encountered a wolf).  Dogs smell funny, it's their nature.  So give up perfumed and expensive, boutique dog shampoos and opt for about 8 cents of baking soda instead.  Your dog will smell better and you'll feel comfortable using baking soda on your hair too! 

Stay tuned for the human hair experiments.....(I hear it works better on mullets)

Neighborhood Trash Service: Stage 1 of Communal Living?

I'm stingy.  About as stingy as they come.  When our weekly trash service company began increasing my rate by $10 a month for 4 consecutive months, I got fed up.   I called around and was thrilled to discover that another company (Waste Management) was nearly 1/2 the cost and provided WAY better service.  This event was coupled with an ordinance in my town called "pay per trash" or something similar.  It basically rewards you for recycling more and throwing away less.  My new trash company offers 3 different sizes of trash cans and 3 different sizes of recycle cans (with lids AND wheels).  My old company offered none of these options and we just got a crummy tub to put our recyclabes in, had to sort it and most of it would blow away every week.

Since the new ordinance passed, I decided to opt for the giant 96 gallon recycle can and the medium sized trash can (about half the size of the recycle one).  I was nervous to use a smaller trash can but with all that room in the recycle one, I figured we were up to the challenge. 

I am very satisfied with my new trash company and we are generating surprisingly small amounts of trash.  Most of our things are recyclable and that combined with composting means that we only throw away meat scraps, oils, non-recyclable plastic stuff, styrofoam and odds and ends like light bulbs.  We haven't taken our trash can out to the curb for 4 weeks now and it is only half full!  Our recycling cup runneth over.  I think I'll switch to the even cheaper 25 gallon trash can!

Your task this month is to find a lower rate and better service for your trash/recycling needs.  If you want to take it a step further: once you find the lowest rate/best service, talk to your neighbors about switching with you.  This has multiple benefits:

1.  Fewer noisy/smelly trucks going down your street each week making it safer for the kiddos running around
2.  Better for the environment: pooling your trash needs to one company will help the company be more efficient in their travels
3.  You might be able to talk the company down even further on rates if you explain that your entire street has switched to them!

On Death & Dying: Composting Series 1: Denial

I decided that I wanted to start composting in our backyard last May.  I researched different containers: ready made vs. build your own, I tried to learn what you could compost and what you couldn't: I refuse to compost nail and hair clippings. I stressed out over how big, how moist and how smelly my pile might be and stayed up night worrying that I wouldn't do it right and would be saddled with a giant pile of stinky mush.  Neighbors would complain, wildlife would be drawn to it to forage, babies and children would cry at the sight of it and so forth.

None of my worst nightmares happened and what I actually discovered is that composting is nearly fool proof.  If you barely tend to it, you'll eventually get compost (like 2 years).  If you tend to it a lot, you'll get compost really quickly (3 months)!

The first of the Death & Dying series will be focused on Denial.  There are many ways to be in denial on the topic of composting.  You might lie to yourself and say, "this banana peel can just go in the landfill, it will eventually break down."  "I don't want to compost because it it gross/smelly/icky/weird/I live in the city/I don't have time/only crunchy granola people do it."  Let me help you get out of denial and take the first step in composting.

1.  No, that banana peel will take forever to break down in a landfill because you're going to throw it away in a plastic trash bag.  Nature won't be able to get to that banana peel to compost it for about 10 years!
2.  Composting is allowed in the city and surprisingly few of nature's creatures will be interested in it.  I am not crunchy but I love composting.  It's the real life version of playing those farm games on Facebook like Farmville or Oregon Trail.  Put down your laptop and go interact with some microbes!
3.  My first batch of compost was so nutrient rich that I accidentally grew some melons in it at the very end of the summer!

Your task this week is to just survey your "land" ie, your backyard and look for a suitable site for your compost pile.  Little effort needs to be put into this step, just choose a location that:

• is roughly 4 ft wide x 4 ft long.  You might dig a hole there or place a container on top depending on which method you choose.
• consider placing your pile behind a shed/fence/shrub etc.  Compost isn't ugly but it's not quite as asthetically pleasing as a flower garden.
• is easy to access from your back door.  You'll need to cart your kitchen scraps out 1-2 times a week so it is nice to have a location that is convenient.
• is relatively close to where you keep your garden tools.  I frequently need my pitchfork, garden gloves and a watering can to tend to my pile.

You're done!  Visit me next week to learn about the next stage: Anger, and what steps you can take to move on with composting.

Get your friends on the "bagwagon"

3B Bags sent me some samples!  3B is offering a free shipping deal through Dec. 5th. Their reusable produce bags would make great stocking stuffers not to mention a nice, gentle nudge in a green direction!
3B Bags Website




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Death of a Flower

I saw a pbs special on tulips and flower trading in Holland recently.  It was fascinating and the flowers and gardens were a sight to behold.  Nevertheless, since embarking my green journey, I've started seeing things through green tinted glasses. 

The first thing that tweeked the newly formed green section of my brain is that the world's largest flower auction, Aalsmeer Flower Auction, is housed in a warehouse.  Not any ordinary warehouse but one that covers the same square footage of 200 football fields!  What?!  I decided that you can probably see this structure from space and any building that can be seen from a spaceship is decidedly too big.

Who of us hasn't been lured by a $4.99 bouquet of perfect sunflowers or daisies at the supermarket?  I have and I have begged my husband to bring me home flowers for special occassions.  Not anymore.  My days of participating in the commercialized flower business are over.  I got to thinking about how much energy it takes to run an operation like the Aalsmeer Flower Auction.  Even if it's run with compact flourescent bulbs, electric trams and is insulated to beat the band, it is still a giant, truly manufactured environment to provide a commodity that has been given value by humans. 

I can't even wrap my head around how much energy is consumed in farming and harvesting the flowers, transporting them to the auction, sending them on plane rides around the world and putting them in semi trucks and trains to be shipped to smaller cities and then ultimately being delivered to somone's door.  I reckon that a poor tulip spends 90% of it's young life staring at the inside of a truck or cargo hold of a plane.  A sad existence for an exquisite thing.  It's about the equivalent of human trafficking for flora.

Let's go back to yearning for flowers in the winter and experiencing the specific joy of watching something we have planted grow up and make our yards pretty.  Cut your own flowers and enjoy them while they last and find new ways to adorn your kitchen table in the winter.  I found a perfect acorn on a walk the other day and seeing it's perfect little body on my kitchen counter makes me just as happy as a bouquet of grocery store flowers from Holland.