Stems and All

My journey to buy less, consume smart, use what's there.

20 March, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
1 Comment

Reusable coffee filter doubles as a sustainable souvenir

As a kid, I demanded my father bring me back something from every business trip he took. This resulted in far too many stuffed animals and other non-essentials (as well as elevated frustration levels of my very frugal and practical mother).

Fast forward to me, the adult. While I no longer expect souvenir’s from either of my parents after they return from a trip, I do have the frustrating tendency to want to purchase something for myself as a reminder of a vacation. I was determined to change this, starting with my very next vacation.

vacation in Kona, Hawaii

Long weekend vacation in Kona, Hawaii

Continue Reading →

13 March, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
1 Comment

How to cook the perfect soft boiled egg

I grew up eating a soft-boiled egg every morning before school. I stopped eating them for a while, and have recently re-discovered this tasty and super easy way to enjoy a chicken egg. They are delicious just cut in half with some salt and pepper. Or, lightly smashed onto toast with a dash of hot sauce. Or served on a bed of greens.

Here are the steps to cook a perfect soft boiled egg.

how to perfectly cook soft boiled eggs

How to cook perfect soft boiled eggs.

Continue Reading →

6 March, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

How one small improvement gives new life to a vest

I owned a perfectly lovely white ‘puffy vest’, that I often reached for, but was never happy wearing. The reason for my dissatisfaction with this article of clothing was simple: the vest had a horrible pocket system.

While it had two outer pockets, they were shallow and essentially useless for actually holding anything: keys, cell phone, cash, etc.

I decided I would upcycle and improve the situation, by simply adding a new pocket to the inside of the vest.

Small improvement brings new life to my vest.

Small improvement brings new life to my vest.

Continue Reading →

27 February, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

“Use it or lose it”: process to help de-clutter

We recently made the decision to declutter our home and our lives. While the decision was a quick one to make, the actual work is taking time and effort, with definite wins and misses along the way.

The ‘use it or lose it’ concept is one idea I consider a win. The idea is simple: we would either use an item frequently, or we ‘lose it’ and the item had to responsibly leave our home and our lives.

As I went from closet to closet and room to room, I categorized items into different piles: if I wasn’t ready to part with an item, but I haven’t been using it, then it went into a ‘use it or lost it’ pile. Some of the items in the pile were:

– Multi-colored taco shell holders (doesn’t every house need a set?)
– Juicer (expensive paperweight or useful machine?)
– 21 belts (how many belts does one human being actually need?)

Here’s how stuff in the ‘use it or lose it’ pile works…

21 belts to choose from

Which of these 21 belts does he actually use?

Continue Reading →

20 February, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

My quest to own a cow (or at least part of one)

I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of ‘buying a cow’, or at least part of one. Cow-sharing is something old made new again, and it has lots of upside.

– It puts the consumers of the meat more directly in touch with the people who raised the meat.
– It’s the idea that one cow can support many households with meat and nutrition.
– And it ultimately allows consumers to buy more directly from local farmers, putting people closer to the land.

I support all of this, yet it all seems a bit intimidating, especially given the modest size of our freezer (i.e., not much larger than a breadbox).

An experience at last weeks Farmers Market put me over the edge….

cow in pasture

Cow representative from ‘cow-sharing’ program

Continue Reading →

13 February, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

Buying ‘bulk’ to avoid packaging – Part II

Buying in bulk:

PART I
PART II

I knew it was the right thing to do, but I faced some challenges in shifting to bulk…

The idea of ‘bulk buying’ and bulk food stores don’t necessarily conjure up the most appealing shopping experiences. I pictured aisles of dusty bins filled with unrecognizable herbs, grains and other questionably edible items. Not super appealing.

Another challenge to overcome was how to change my shopping habits. I was used to going to a set of stores almost every weekend for the ‘weekly shopping’ trip, to buy a new supply of all the stuff I needed (or thought I needed). Needless to say, none of these stores carried stuff in bulk, which meant I would have to find another store and change my routine.

Being a creature of habit, I knew I needed some help. I followed some ‘habit changing’ best practices and modified them to fit me:

1.) Build onto current habits: I was used to spending one morning a week going to a few chain retail and grocery stores to stock up on supplies and products. One morning, instead of heading to the chain grocery store, I first went to a local bulk store. I was able to find the majority of what was on my list in bulk, and I went to the chain grocery store afterwards for anything I couldn’t find. It turned out to be a great experience (while some of the bins contained stuff I didn’t recognize, everything was clean and definitely no dust), with the additional bonus of costing about half of what I spent on packaged groceries.

2.) Start small: While I was on a quest to overhaul many of my non-green habits and consumer behaviors, I realized that to be successful, I needed to start with a few small changes. Instead of cutting myself off completely from the grocery store I was used to, I went to both for a while, finding that I wanted to buy more and more in bulk, and less and less in packages.

3.) Keep at it: I kept at it, and after about 4 weeks, I found that I no longer needed to (or wanted to) shop at the chain grocery store. I was finding that I could get the majority of what we needed from the local bulk food store.

Building onto current habits, starting small, and keeping at it – simple, effective ways to take baby steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

13 February, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

Buying ‘bulk’ to avoid packaging – Part I

Buy bulk to avoid packaging:
PART I
PART II

On my quest to be a ‘greener consumer’, I made the decision to buy less products with packaging. I knew enough to know that packaging wasn’t a good thing when it comes to my carbon footprint, but didn’t realize just how bad it was.

After some digging, I learned that our trash (or MSW – municipal solid waste) is all those things that we buy, use, and then ultimately ‘throw away’. This is a big category, and includes everything from food scraps to furniture, and computers to car tires.

According to a 2010 study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the largest – by weight – category of consumer waste comes from “Containers and Packaging” – more than 30%, actually. That’s more than 75 million tons of packaging generated in one year, just to hold and contain the ‘stuff’ that we actually use and consume.

75 million tons…. That’s a lot of shrink wrap, packaging peanuts, and cardboard containers.

I decided it was time to ‘buy bulk’….

PART II

6 February, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

Valentine’s Day newsflash: “Green is the new Red”

I’m working to downsize our home and our lives, of possessions, things, ‘stuff’ and ultimately clutter. But just because we want to move away from owning tangible things, doesn’t necessarily mean we want to stop celebrating certain holidays that typically involve a gift exchange, like Valentine’s Day (which incidentally, is the second most celebrated holiday around the world, chasing just on the heels of New Years Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day).

So this year, when it’s time to celebrate our cuddly cherub friend Cupid with love, instead of gifting boxes of chocolate wrapped in cellophane and overly-perfect red long stemmed roses, we are giving the gift of ‘green’. After all, haven’t you heard, that ‘green is the new red’…?!?

green is the new red

This Valentine’s Day, Green is the new Red

Continue Reading →

30 January, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

Potato and leek soup: a true ‘stems and all’ recipe

Somewhere along the way, the dark green part of my friend, The Leek, got a bad reputation. This nutritious portion of the plant is rarely included in recipes. In fact, nearly all recipes – especially those for potato leek soup – instruct you to omit the darker green top portions.

No more. I challenge this notion that the darker parts of the leek plant make for an inferior soup.

In fact, here’s a recipe for an amazing, hearty, healthy soup that includes not only the darker green portion of the leeks, but also uses the carrot and celery pulp from a previous juicing project. This is a stems and all recipe that takes advantage of a vegetable part that is often overlooked.

potato leek soup ingredients

Potato leek soup recipe, using dark and light parts of leek.

Continue Reading →

23 January, 2013
by Jane Newcomb
0 comments

Doing less laundry: how a broken washing machine started our transition

Recently, our washing machine stopped working mid-cycle. From the living room, I heard what sounded like gravel grinding the bottom of the machine. This did not bode well. Sure enough, the washing machine was flashing an ‘error’ signal, and completely stopped working or even responding to anything I tried.

The next day, I called every appliance repair service company with a decent review. The earliest any of them could look at the machine was 6 days out.

6 days without a washing machine? Is that possible? And I already had a load of darks in the queue. Was I going to have to resort to visiting a laundry mat?

“We can make this work”, I said with confidence. At least I thought so…

washing machine findings Continue Reading →