Simple steps with food

Blue Stove


Eating with seasonal ingredients has brought some surprises. The menu is more diverse but has required an investment in time and effort. When time is at a premium, I crave an instant fix with a ready prepared meal and yet I know that this can be achieved with planning.

Seasonal food means being open to trying out new ingredients and to be willing to not have strawberries all year around. It brings with it an appreciation of the ingredient and a realisation that without preserving them you will not taste them again until next time around.

The most useful book I have on my shelf to help cooking from scratch is the More with less cookbook which includes recipes and suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources. The recipes are varied and you need to take an attitude about whether the ingredients are going to work but the test recipes have been really well received in this household. This would be a great book for students on a budget too.

In order to increase the intake of vegetables and decrease meat intake I have made the following adaptations to a cottage pie. Usually this is made with minced beef, gravy and onion under a topping of mashed potatoes. If you boil carrots with the potatoes and then mash them, you get more vegetables and a little less starch. Gradually adding a percentage of mushrooms from 0 to 50% adds texture and taste. Even leftover cauliflower can be mashed with potatoes as a different topping.

Food with attitude requires a willingness to experiment and be creative with whatever presents itself and using leftovers in the next dish.Most fruit that is looking past its best from the shop gets transformed into a fruit salad. Wrinkly vegetables make a rather satisfying soup.

Creating convenience meals include casseroles bubbling on the wood burner, soups, and making use of technology. The cooker in my kitchen has the ability to programme a start and finish to its cooking cycle and that enables me to go out for the afternoon and come back to a meal ready to eat.

Living simply and eating seasonally is not about going back 100 years in the way we do things but combining those skills with energy efficient technology available today.

In a nutshell:

1. avoid additives and processed foods
2. reduce consumption of animal products and consider food miles
3. a vegan diet using locally produced organic produce is a a desirable sustainable model.
4. Use wholefoods, farmer markets and local box schemes in preference to supermarket purchases.
5. if you use imported goods, consider fair trade.
6. eat more raw foods, sprout beans, smoothies.
7. simmer on low heat instead of boiling, look at heat generated by woodburner as option.
8. recycle all leftovers, compost and bokashi leftovers.
9. eat seasonally
10. update your cooking skills and try something new.

The waste cycle - composting

Rose Arbour in Cottage Garden, Climbing Rosa, Shrub Rosa, Buddleia & Lavandula (Lavender)

As it is not raining presently, I thought I would go and check the contents of the compost heaps and see how its cooking.

It smelt a bit on the acid side so having come back in, I have shredded some correspondence and newspapers and added it. I also checked the worm population who seem to be multiplying and quite happy about 20 cm lower in the bin. The second bin is a bit dry so will be adding more wet stuff. ( I also occasionally ask the boys to pee in the compost heap....helps too).

What I put in the compost bins :

Fruit and vegetable peelings and leaves
tea leaves/ tea bags and coffee grounds
fallen leaves
grass clippings
soft prunings( hardwood gets shredded and added in layers, or saved as logs)
weeds (use only young weeds; those with seed, or about to set seed, are better disposed of in the garbage bin)
cow and horse manures
ash (from open fireplaces)
vacuum cleaner contents (synthetic carpet will not break down)
human hair ( from hairbrushes and haircutting)
A small amount of chicken manure and straw as that heats the heap up nicely in winter.
toilet rolls, inner tubes of rolls, cereal packets( shredded).


What I do not to put in the compost bins with alternatives :

It is important that the heap is not treated simply as a dump.
Meat, fish, chicken, dairy products & cooking oils - these may attract vermin such as mice and other pests. ( limited amount goes in bokashi bin)
Non-living things such as plastics, bottle tops, food wrappers, metals etc ( get separated and recycled)
Diseased plants
Fruit fly infested fruit
Pet droppings: these may contain diseases that can affect humans and other pets. There are things on the market that deal with this waste but I have not ventured there yet.


How do you compost?

A good mixture of the above-mentioned materials ('what to put in a compost') is the start to a good compost. It is best not to add too much of the one thing. Balance is the key.
The smaller the pieces, the faster they break down. Chop up larger and tougher items before they go in the bin.
Occasionally add a thin (3-5cm) layer of soil to help things move along. The addition of manure will also help the compost break down more quickly. I add the compost from plant pots, seedlings that have not taken etc, as well as the contents of collected growbags.
The compost should be regularly turned over to help it to break down faster.

That is how the magical black stuff is created. I spread mine around the fruit trees and dig it in the soil later in the year and then.....

start all over again.

Separated waste statistics

Waste Disposal Depot, England, United Kingdom


The county I live in has produced a leaflet detailing the percentages of household waste that are recycled and what it actually does with it.

On the surface it looks encouraging and when you look closer at it, there are things that could be improved.
17% of the average bin contents are paper which are sent to the other side of the country to be made into newspapers and magazines. You can reduce paper waste by using the mail preference service as described in earlier posts, reading your newspaper online etc etc. Most of my post gets separated and recycled in one way or another.

5% of the average bin is card
This gets sent to a local paper mill and turned into envelopes and cardboard. If you start buying your goods secondhand or freecycling for them, you will not receive a giant packaging box to dispose of. Better still, stop buying.

8% of the average bin is glass

The glass gets collected and travels to the other side of Britain to make new glass bottles and jars, aggregate road construction, glass fibre and water filtration. Guess glass is preferable to plastic.

2% of the average bin is plastic
That surprised me, such a low figure. They are turned into pellets and then reformed into fleece jackets, park benches, compost bins and recycling boxes. Still this could be reduced by having milk delivered in glass bottles and by drinking more water instead of lemonade. If you buy goods in plastic bottles, look for the glass alternative.

28% of waste is kitchen waste

A whopper of a figure. That gets composted about 50 miles away in a giant composter and then resold to people as garden compost. This could be avoided by reducing kitchen waste ( portion control), buying what you need, using wormeries and bokashi to process the rest. That seems to be making a giant contribution to reducing waste in the county.

8% of bin contents is garden waste

garden waste is shredded and composted and then sold as a soil conditioner. OK, again, I could hire a shredder via the LETs scheme and do this myself, creating a giant compost heap and letting worms do the work without it having to leave the premises.

3% of waste is metal cans and tins

That gets transported to Wales where it is crushed and made into bricks that are turned into car parts and new cans. Comparing this with glass the amount of glass is definitely higher than the cans which again surprises me with the amount of cats and dogs around! However, I guess it means that people buy more items in jars than cans.

4% of household waste is textiles

Clothes and shoes are sent to Wiltshire and separated into usable and non usable items. Wearable items are then sent to developing countries ( fabric miles) to be reused. Cotton and silk make wiping cloths and woollen fabrics are shredded and used as filling material of furniture and car seats.
Now what would happen if we bought less clothes and bought them in charity shops......begging the question that your shirt travels all around the world and back again.

The three recommendations on the leaflet are :

• reduce junk mail
• do home composting
• try cloth nappies instead of disposable ones.

Now that I have read and digested the leaflet, it will go in the box, taken to the local depot, driven across the country and end up making another leaflet or magazine.

Its a startling statistic, that by changing my consumer habits I have reduced my waste bucket by 47%. ( 28% kitchen waste, 8% garden waste, 2% plastics, 5% cardboard and 4% in textiles).

The next step is to think before we buy anything and look at the packaging that is required and the miles it travels. If everyone in the county reduced their garden and kitchen waste then we would be reducing the overall waste in our county by 36%, which is just over one third, that is a mega impact).

So what are you waiting for ?

1. Reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.
2. Put the worms and bokashi ems to work
3. add compost to your garden and increase fertility, next years harvest etc.

Not only do you save 36% of waste produced but you will save buying compost in bags and soil enhancer which you could have produced yourself.

Waste reduction

One of the contradictions about reducing waste is that if you are going to declutter your home, you are actually going to compound the problem of dealing with waste as you will be adding to the pile going out.

Yesterday's post about 80% reduction makes it all sound overwhelming and yet we still have the opportunity to reduce the waste we have in our homes, while in the future at some point, it will be an obligation with penalties for those who do not.

Some points on how we reduce waste :
1. Stop adding stuff in the house ( it has to leave somewhere). Monitor what you are actually bringing in the house. Today, I have managed to bring back a book.......its relevant and I will recycle it, but nevertheless I am adding to stuff by the things I bring in.
2.Before disposing of anything in the dustbin, think about what can be reused or recycled.
If you spend some time analysing what is in your bin, it will give you a clue how you can source alternatives and the usual stuff you accumulate.
3. Look at the packaging you bring in, and the plastic bags you accumulate ;shop using cotton bags, paper bags and boxes, as well as baskets. Supermarkets will be bringing in a charge for bags in the future ( already happening in other countries). I reuse my plastic bags as inner rubbish bags in small bins but we need biodegradable bags if anything. Newspaper can be used as binliners as it is compostable. Shopping locally can be done in baskets.
4. Milk bottles are a difficult thing to deal with and we have had difficulty changing to a milk delivery in glass bottles ( easy when you live in town, not so easy in the countryside). I still get milk but in the largest bottle possible, then go and recycle it in the recycling centre).
5. If you need to buy something in packaging, go for the type that can be recycled, glass, tin, plastic, aluminium etc. On the base of the item it should give you an indication as to whether it is recycleable. Avoid anything that is plastic wrapped.
6. We compost all our green matter, grass clippings, chicken bedding, and a variety of other things in the 4 compost bins we have. Recently I added some worms to it to make it go down faster and yes, with a little help of the worms the compost is looking richer and quickly decomposes.
7. The chickens deal with leftover bread, grains, pasta, some overgrown cabbages and lettuces and in return get some extra nutrients for their egg production. They seem happy enough. The litter I use is straw and that gets added to the compost heaps on a regular basis.
8. Eggshells, get dried and then used against slugs and snails in the garden.
9. Cooked food and kitchen scraps are put in the two bokashi bins we have and I have dedicated one of the compost bins to be the bokashi bin with a view that it will be incorporated in the earth when we add it to the raised beds.
10. Some of the leftover veggies are given to the dog. She is always willing to eat anything that is leftover.
11. Catlitter is made out of recycled woodpellets and is compostable over time. I have a fourth compost heap that is for any weeds and other items I am not sure about.....it just stays out for the elements a lot longer.
12. Despite all this we still need to do more. Paper, tins, plastic, etc it all gets sorted at home so it does not end up in the landfill.
13. We give away, regift, create other things with what we have, freecycle, swap and generally look at dealing with our stuff in sensible ways.
14. We cut down trees for logs, smaller branches for kindling, the rest gets shredded as mulch for the flowerbeds.
15. Old wood gets recycled in creative ways ( wood pallets make good compost bins) and any useless wood gets taken to the recycling centre or simply burnt in the woodstove).
16. Old plastic buckets make good containers to grow things in : small yoghurt pots with holes can serve as small pots to grow plants in. Or you can make a bell with birdfood inside too.


It could go on.....if you have any unusual recycling ideas....leave a comment and share your knowledge.

There is still too much stuff. Whenever I want to put anything different in the bin, I check what parts can be recycled. It takes time and effort and yet in the future I can envisage a time when we will have to pay for the amount of rubbish that we create.

If you want purpose made containers and other recycling stuff you can check out www.homerecycling.co.uk

The green fingered photographer

As we were both mentioned on Wigglywigglers website due our efforts on bokashi, I thought I would introduce you to the green fingered photographer. Mark's pictures are fabulous and I would urge you to go and have some strawberries today. ( a strawberry is a moment where you pause, take in the feeling and absorb, releasing endorphins). Basically, looking at them could raise your happiness thermometer.

Do go and visit.......

Bokashi trial - month 1

Its been a month since buying my bokashi bin from Wiggly Wigglers. If you are visiting following the link on their website, welcome, look around, say hello and leave a comment, join in. I have added a directory of the labels I use on the left of the blog to help you look at bokashi posts if that is what you are interested in only.

Above is a picture of the bokashi juice collected in the little beaker. I had honestly thought it would produce more to collect. I have been draining it every week. The liquid is not foul smelling but smells like pickle which is probably exactly as it should be. I have been adding it to a large watering can and watering the tomatoe plants with it. It will act as a feed to them.

Bin number 2 is now as full as it is going to be. I use the bins in rotation. Bin 1 collects waste from 1 to 15th of the month. Bin 2 starts same process at 15th to last day of the month. Bokashi collection and rotation days are on the calendar.
Bin 1, has reduced its contents by 50% over the rest period of 15 days since 15th may 2007. the smell is the same, pickle. I was honestly expecting a nasty smell but....nothing like that, its pleasing if you like pickles and chutney.
I have chosen to add the bokashi bin contents to the compost heap which hopefully will continue the process. I will only be adding it to one of my compost bins, the other 2 will be using just what is available and to one I will soon be adding a new batch of worms to see if is works faster the more worms you have.

Why would I want to air my rubbish on the net? If I can manage to deal with waste at home, recycle it in a non offensive way, then anyone can do it. Since composting I have reduced my purchase of compost and potting compost at the garden centre which in turn has reduced the plastic used to wrap it, the petrol to get it and the muscle power used to carry the bags. ( My DH is very happy about that).

I will at the moment not use the bokashi straight in the ground. Not that it is not a good way, but it is not a good way for our family. I have a dog with nasty habits, prone to eating either what is in the bin, what chickens leave lying about and if I dig this in the ground I have visions of bokashi waste all over my garden. I know, wish I could control the lovely lab...... She would eat anything standing up.

I hesitated initially about the cost of the bins, but then does anyone happily spend money on waste collection? I am glad to have taken the plunge, put my money down. In a way it is strangely rewarding to find a use for the waste and to keep the resources on our land even if the dog loves foraging.

Bokashi start

May has started and to keep things simple, I decided to wait until now to start the bokashi approach to recycling. Starting a new routine takes on average 30 days to become a habit. As there are 2 bins and they need 15 days each in rotation I felt that starting on the 1st or second seemed a good way to keep the routine simple without a diary system.
Above is the pack received from wigglywigglers which has 2 bins, a bag of bokashi and instructions to get started. I still needed DH to read the instructions while I started the practical stuff. Bokashi works in a closed environment in which EMS go to work to pickle the waste. Step one was to find the waste and then sprinkle a handful of the bokashi on it, squash it down. ( May I suggest that the pack includes a third sieve so that it is easy to squash things down).

This is the bottom layer in my bokashi bin and we shall see how it pickles. Every 3 to 4 days, the liquid will be collected and added to the watering can used in watering round the garden. That is scheduled in on Wednesdays and Sundays for ease of memory. The proof is in the pudding. Hopefully you will see how we get on.

Recycling so far happens in a variety of ways as discussed in a previous post. This is the new kid on the block and as many local authorities will be switching to fortnightly waste collections, a bokashi system may be a valuable addition.

More thoughts on Bokashi

I am still thinking about it.........

What is it? Where does it come from?

Apparently with bokashi you can discard meat, fish, dairy and even bones right in your kitchen without the requirements of turning it like you do outdoor compost and without creating unpleasant smells. Developed in Japan, a bokashi bin quickly and odourlessly converts your organic waste into a high-grade soil conditioner through the use of effective microbes or bokashi — a Japanese word meaning "fermented organic matter."

Similar to the process used to make wine, this system relies on fermentation to decompose the matter rather than putrefaction, so no offensive odor is produced. In about 10 days you can bury the nutrient-rich matter in the garden or add it to your compost pile to help improve physical, chemical and biological environments in the dirt. Sprinkle a handful of bokashi onto the waste every time you add to the bucket. One bag of bokashi is good for one bucket full of compost.

I do not have any experience of bokashi at the moment but that is about to change, What appeals is the waste that finds its way each day from the table, that cannot be recycled in any other way. I am curious....but beware, dealing with waste is an expensive matter.


How to use bokashi:

1. Place an initial layer of Bokashi at the bottom of the bucket.
2. Collect your daily food waste and chop it into small pieces.
3. Place waste in the bucket and coat it with a layer of Bokashi. For less than a 3" layer of food waste, sprinkle two fistfuls of Bokashi to cover the entire surface. Mix this layer thoroughly and compact the waste by pushing it down. Sprinkle a coat of Bokashi to cover the surface and place the plastic barrier directly on the compost mixture, completely covering it. Stir each new layer only and try not to mix it with previous layers of food waste.
4. Periodically, drain the liquid that has accumulated at the bottom bucket.
5. Once the bucket is filled to capacity, continue to drain any liquid and let the contents ferment for 7-10 days at room temperature.
6. Fermented compost will not completely degrade but will retain much if it original physical properties and will have a pickled appearance. Complete breakdown of material will occur once it is transferred into the soil.

Transfering the Compost:
1. Transfer directly into your garden - dig a trench at least 18" - 24" deep. Mix the fermented material with soil as you add it to the trench. Be sure to cover the compost completely with soil.
2. Transfer material directly to a planter/container - fill 1/3 of container with potting soil. Then add fermented material and mix lightly with soil. Fill remaining 1/3 of the container with potting soil and cover with a dark plastic bag to maintain anaerobic conditions. Wait two weeks before planting.

Notes: Only fresh waste may be added. Rotten foods disrupt the fermentation process.

Materials that can be included: Vegetable, fruits, grains, dairy, meat, bones, coffee grounds without filter paper.

Materials that cannot be added: Plastics, paper, tea bags, cigarette butts, tin cans, aluminum.




What does bokashi look like? One website explains it here


The question remains how to dispose of the mixture every 2 weeks. Do you just add it to your compost heap to speed up and add to it or do you simply dig holes on a regular basis all over your land and create a small bokashi landfill site? You’ll have to wait and see....we are about to find out. Pictures will follow and I will tell all.
At least it has got to be worth a try ....or experiment to deal with the remaining waste issue.

Worms and podcasts

I am a great fan of podcasts, actually I love technology but the fact that they are free to listen to, do not use paper all add to the enjoyment. ( Yes they do require electricity or battery power to listen to them).

Here is my selection of podcasts which you might enjoy :

Wiggly Wigglers : A weekly podcast hosted on the wiggly sofa by Heather, Farmer Phil, Richards and guests discussing anything from cats ( don’t go there),wildlife, farming, recycling, bokashi....the list is endless. Some novel concepts and always with a sense of humour....... Monty provides interesting factual information about worms too.

Downshift-me.com : Matthew and AJ’s move from the UK to Nova Scotia. They have been in Nova Scotia for 11 months now and are currently looking forward to spring.



Talking of worms....and waste....

The food waste management system we have in place works quite well and despite our best efforts we still have a variety of waste clutter to deal with. So here are some pointers of how we deal with waste so far :

• Stop buying
• Create menus and target shopping lists
• Look at the packaging on items you buy and try and find alternatives
• Find the right portions for your family....reduce waste
• Compost, recycle paper, cans, glass and reduce plastic
• Feed some leftovers to chickens ( no meats though).

The one I am stuck on is the waste of prepared foods. One of the options is to feed the dog but then she is not really in need of extra food ( labradors eat anything standing anyhow). Heather’s site wigglywigglers has a bokashi alternative that I am keen to explore. It sounds good but is a bit pricey for me at the moment. I can see it would solve the problem of meat and fish waste which for the moment is going in my bin, but the dog still sounds cheaper at the moment. Its on my wishlist. I need to explore bokashi a little further before committing myself here.
Podchef talks about making bokashi here