A very green dinner: homemade garlic mustard pesto on rice pasta, homemade coconut yogurt topped with dried cranberries and nuts (delivered in a jar this afternoon by Fresh City Farms).
Thursday, May 30, 2019
#5. Go greener
A very green dinner: homemade garlic mustard pesto on rice pasta, homemade coconut yogurt topped with dried cranberries and nuts (delivered in a jar this afternoon by Fresh City Farms).
Sunday, May 26, 2019
#5. Go Greener
Yesterday, we got rained out, so we went to garage sales today instead. I may as well post about them here, as it was a pretty good haul.
For a grand total of $24:
For a grand total of $24:
- A sealed Earth Master ecological lab kit (boasting 60 fun and exciting experiments!)
- A small wooden painted and sealed (male) cardinal lapel pin
- 3 abalone shells
- A jar of gemstones, including pyrite, citrine, quartz, amethyst, fossils, tiger's eye, and many others yet-to-be-determined
- Brand new pair of low top Vans, lime green
- Brand new pair of low top Converse, light blue
- A novel
- A graphic novel (which I then read today)
Progress #35. Learn more about birdwatching
I've been reading a lot about birds. I also find myself more readily noticing and identifying them - today, I saw some starlings and a mourning dove. The latter I recognized first by its very long tail.
These books are all acquired from Bunz. (I'll make a Go Greener post about this app someday if I'm feeling up to it.) I am learning a lot, including some probably useless trivia such as:
These books are all acquired from Bunz. (I'll make a Go Greener post about this app someday if I'm feeling up to it.) I am learning a lot, including some probably useless trivia such as:
- Owl and toucan eggs are round.
- Birds do not urinate.
- Bird songs have dialects.
- Hummingbirds use spiderwebs to hold their nests together.
Saturday, May 25, 2019
#5. Go greener
Today's eco tip: Foraging for garlic mustard.
This is a very plentiful and easily identifiable invasive species. You probably have it in your backyard right now.
It makes a delicious pesto. I can confirm.
This is garlic mustard in my backyard. This is what it looks like in its second year, when it is less bitter and easier to identify due to its tall height and small white flowers.
It is more bitter and flowerless in its first year, it is shorter, the leaves are more heart-shaped and less spiky. It can be foraged for use in either year, however. As it is invasive, it doesn't need to be foraged "responsibly". Go at it!
Here is the unmistakable way to identify: Pluck and crush a leaf. Smell it: Definite garlic scent.
After the rain this evening, I plucked out a small bouquet and made some raw vegan pesto. This had very minimal ingredients: Garlic mustard leaves, a few fresh basil leaves, walnuts, vegetable oil, cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, garlic cloves, some red pepper seasoning I love.
It should be used within the week, if refrigerated. If frozen, it lasts indefinitely. I've chosen the latter to try over rice later on this week.
As an addendum to the last post: May make some dandelion muffins tomorrow.
This is a very plentiful and easily identifiable invasive species. You probably have it in your backyard right now.
It makes a delicious pesto. I can confirm.
This is garlic mustard in my backyard. This is what it looks like in its second year, when it is less bitter and easier to identify due to its tall height and small white flowers.
It is more bitter and flowerless in its first year, it is shorter, the leaves are more heart-shaped and less spiky. It can be foraged for use in either year, however. As it is invasive, it doesn't need to be foraged "responsibly". Go at it!
Here is the unmistakable way to identify: Pluck and crush a leaf. Smell it: Definite garlic scent.
After the rain this evening, I plucked out a small bouquet and made some raw vegan pesto. This had very minimal ingredients: Garlic mustard leaves, a few fresh basil leaves, walnuts, vegetable oil, cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, garlic cloves, some red pepper seasoning I love.
It should be used within the week, if refrigerated. If frozen, it lasts indefinitely. I've chosen the latter to try over rice later on this week.
As an addendum to the last post: May make some dandelion muffins tomorrow.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
#5. Go greener
Today's tip: Garage sales.
I had an illuminating conversation with a friend recently -- as, being someone on the autism spectrum -- I sometimes have trouble seeing the world outside of my own experiences.
We were talking about saving versus spending money. I have always existed someone in the former camp, so I have trouble imagining why those with very secure incomes ever have to live paycheque to paycheque (exclusively those with financial security, I mean - I very much understand our current capitalist trap of the ever-expanding gap between rich and poor, and a world of increasing lack of employment opportunities. I worry for my students' futures.)
The crux of my understanding in this conversation was about finding joy. I don't drink. I don't party. I don't go out to many concerts or plays. I cook more than order in. I am not interested in many possessions (my only vice being online clothing hauls, now and then). I am utilitarian with cars and shoes and makeup. I haven't had my hair cut in three years.
A fact: Many people absolutely find joy in all the listed things, above, that I do not.
I have somehow always found joy in conserving space and energy and money. Genuine joy! I experience joy in making something of nothing: I make arts and crafts of found materials. I forage and I plant. I roast my own coffee beans in a popcorn popper from my childhood. I love to cook without extravagance. All these things bring me the most joy -- but I don't know how to be any other way, so this is my life. It is not the life of everyone else.
I think, being products of a capitalist system, we are programmed to want and to accumulate THINGS. I am no different. This impulse, for me, is very much assuaged by garage sales -- the hunt, and the occasional find.
My husband is a collector, a picker, a flipper with a successful ebay business. Ergo, when I met him, he encouraged me back into the garage sales that brought me joy as a kid. This is our 5th year. We've done well for ourselves.
He maps them out and navigates. I drive. It is a Saturday routine, whenever we can, May to September or so.
As a small randomized example: This year's haul (two Saturdays now), has yielded the following for me: a $5 Bodom mini kettle, in box; a $1 vintage 1 gallon electric ice cream maker, new in box; $0.50 silicon ice cube maker, which I use for soap molds, new $2 yoga flash cards; $4 beads + findings + nylon cord + a book on how to make beads.
I only buy things I know I will use. Garage sales are an eco-friendly crafter's dream. Besides, you're not contributing to the production of new plastic, paper, and textile, as they already exist in the system, and secondhand doesn't yield a new replacement.
I will tell you about my favourite top 3 finds, and have asked my husband for input on his.
My top three!
1. Boxes of stained glass, instructionals, and all materials required to start my own projects. I think it was $20. "Garage sale prices" does not always mean next to free, but it does mean spending a fraction of what you would, at market cost. As someone whose lifelong goal is to learn new artistic skills, I often allow circumstance to guide this goal. To learn this one is on this current 43goals list.
2. This very large vintage accordion sewing box. In a condition this great, and this unique a decoration, this would easily be worth 100+ on Etsy or Ebay. I paid $20. It holds my seed beads, beading threads, fabric scraps, and needles. I love it to pieces.
3. Raw gemstones, for tumbling. Numbered bags of amethyst (14), sodalite (10), and green moss agate (16). $2. The friendly elderly lady selling them said "That's a steal," and I said "Don't I know it!"
My husband's top three!
1. This Pacman arcade marquee glass, from the 80s. $10. My dad helped to construct him a light box to contain it, as a birthday present.
2. This Geoffrey's the giraffee Toys 'R Us sign, picked straight out of the garage of a man who used to work there. There is nothing comparable on Ebay, but closest estimates are $600+ USD, without the name. Geoff's keeping it, though. It has his name on it. Literally. $80. At 4×4 feet, it barely fit in the Fiat.
3. This really neat working vintage Molson Canadian stereo. The man selling it won it in a radio contest. $15.
I had an illuminating conversation with a friend recently -- as, being someone on the autism spectrum -- I sometimes have trouble seeing the world outside of my own experiences.
We were talking about saving versus spending money. I have always existed someone in the former camp, so I have trouble imagining why those with very secure incomes ever have to live paycheque to paycheque (exclusively those with financial security, I mean - I very much understand our current capitalist trap of the ever-expanding gap between rich and poor, and a world of increasing lack of employment opportunities. I worry for my students' futures.)
The crux of my understanding in this conversation was about finding joy. I don't drink. I don't party. I don't go out to many concerts or plays. I cook more than order in. I am not interested in many possessions (my only vice being online clothing hauls, now and then). I am utilitarian with cars and shoes and makeup. I haven't had my hair cut in three years.
A fact: Many people absolutely find joy in all the listed things, above, that I do not.
I have somehow always found joy in conserving space and energy and money. Genuine joy! I experience joy in making something of nothing: I make arts and crafts of found materials. I forage and I plant. I roast my own coffee beans in a popcorn popper from my childhood. I love to cook without extravagance. All these things bring me the most joy -- but I don't know how to be any other way, so this is my life. It is not the life of everyone else.
I think, being products of a capitalist system, we are programmed to want and to accumulate THINGS. I am no different. This impulse, for me, is very much assuaged by garage sales -- the hunt, and the occasional find.
My husband is a collector, a picker, a flipper with a successful ebay business. Ergo, when I met him, he encouraged me back into the garage sales that brought me joy as a kid. This is our 5th year. We've done well for ourselves.
He maps them out and navigates. I drive. It is a Saturday routine, whenever we can, May to September or so.
As a small randomized example: This year's haul (two Saturdays now), has yielded the following for me: a $5 Bodom mini kettle, in box; a $1 vintage 1 gallon electric ice cream maker, new in box; $0.50 silicon ice cube maker, which I use for soap molds, new $2 yoga flash cards; $4 beads + findings + nylon cord + a book on how to make beads.
I only buy things I know I will use. Garage sales are an eco-friendly crafter's dream. Besides, you're not contributing to the production of new plastic, paper, and textile, as they already exist in the system, and secondhand doesn't yield a new replacement.
I will tell you about my favourite top 3 finds, and have asked my husband for input on his.
My top three!
1. Boxes of stained glass, instructionals, and all materials required to start my own projects. I think it was $20. "Garage sale prices" does not always mean next to free, but it does mean spending a fraction of what you would, at market cost. As someone whose lifelong goal is to learn new artistic skills, I often allow circumstance to guide this goal. To learn this one is on this current 43goals list.
2. This very large vintage accordion sewing box. In a condition this great, and this unique a decoration, this would easily be worth 100+ on Etsy or Ebay. I paid $20. It holds my seed beads, beading threads, fabric scraps, and needles. I love it to pieces.
3. Raw gemstones, for tumbling. Numbered bags of amethyst (14), sodalite (10), and green moss agate (16). $2. The friendly elderly lady selling them said "That's a steal," and I said "Don't I know it!"
My husband's top three!
1. This Pacman arcade marquee glass, from the 80s. $10. My dad helped to construct him a light box to contain it, as a birthday present.
2. This Geoffrey's the giraffee Toys 'R Us sign, picked straight out of the garage of a man who used to work there. There is nothing comparable on Ebay, but closest estimates are $600+ USD, without the name. Geoff's keeping it, though. It has his name on it. Literally. $80. At 4×4 feet, it barely fit in the Fiat.
3. This really neat working vintage Molson Canadian stereo. The man selling it won it in a radio contest. $15.
Saturday, May 18, 2019
#5. Go greener
I'm going to start making some "eco-tips" posts, as frequently as possible.
Today's post is inspired by, and about, dandelions.
I have spent the past week researching dandelion "recipes", in preparation for early spring foraging.
For the past 30 or so hours, I have picked and made a lot of things of dandelions.
1. Dandelion salves, which are supposed to be good for muscle and joint aches and pains, along with dry skin. These were made by boiling dandelions in an olive-oil melt & pour soap base + coconut oil, straining the mixture with cheese cloth, boiling the liquid in a double boiler with Shea butter and sweet orange essential oil, and then spooning what rose into these tiny watchmaker containers. I have been rubbing it into my always achy "tennis elbow," and it seems to be doing some good.
2. Dandelion soaps. Using the leftover clear liquid, which was evidently the olive oil soap base, I poured it into various sizes and shapes of molds. They cute.
3. Sweet dandelion fritters aka "dandelion doughnuts". I actually could not believe how delicious these were. It makes me wish I had spring sleepover guests so I could make a giant batch for everyone.
They are completely gluten-free and vegan, too. Wash the dandelion heads and set aside. Mix millet flour, baking soda, cane sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon with almond milk.
Set 1" of oil in a pot to boil.
Dip the dandelion heads in the batter and place in the oil. Flip once they start to brown.
Remove, sprinkle with cane sugar.
Once they were all complete, I drizzled them with maple syrup.
DAMN.
(These can also be made savoury, if you're feeling salty.)
4. Stir fry veggies for basmati rice with dandelion flowers incorporated.
5. Dandelion bud pickles. Small amount of onion and garlic in each jar. Brine: 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup water, salt. They are supposed to be reminiscent of capers, and used for similar dishes.
Today's post is inspired by, and about, dandelions.
I have spent the past week researching dandelion "recipes", in preparation for early spring foraging.
For the past 30 or so hours, I have picked and made a lot of things of dandelions.
1. Dandelion salves, which are supposed to be good for muscle and joint aches and pains, along with dry skin. These were made by boiling dandelions in an olive-oil melt & pour soap base + coconut oil, straining the mixture with cheese cloth, boiling the liquid in a double boiler with Shea butter and sweet orange essential oil, and then spooning what rose into these tiny watchmaker containers. I have been rubbing it into my always achy "tennis elbow," and it seems to be doing some good.
2. Dandelion soaps. Using the leftover clear liquid, which was evidently the olive oil soap base, I poured it into various sizes and shapes of molds. They cute.
3. Sweet dandelion fritters aka "dandelion doughnuts". I actually could not believe how delicious these were. It makes me wish I had spring sleepover guests so I could make a giant batch for everyone.
They are completely gluten-free and vegan, too. Wash the dandelion heads and set aside. Mix millet flour, baking soda, cane sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon with almond milk.
Set 1" of oil in a pot to boil.
Dip the dandelion heads in the batter and place in the oil. Flip once they start to brown.
Remove, sprinkle with cane sugar.
Once they were all complete, I drizzled them with maple syrup.
DAMN.
(These can also be made savoury, if you're feeling salty.)
4. Stir fry veggies for basmati rice with dandelion flowers incorporated.
5. Dandelion bud pickles. Small amount of onion and garlic in each jar. Brine: 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup water, salt. They are supposed to be reminiscent of capers, and used for similar dishes.
Monday, May 13, 2019
Progress #35. Learn more about birdwatching
I went to a Toronto Zoo birding event yesterday with my parents and picked up some good resources.
It also made me realize how much more I'm already learning: ie the bird that knocked on my studio window the entire spring a couple years ago was definitely a female goldfinch: distinct from the male due to its greenish colouring and lack of black cap, and distinct from a warbler-type due to the beak shape.
This year, already, I've seen, in our own yard: downy woodpeckers, male and female cardinals, robins, chickadees, and house sparrows. On the way to, or around, work, I've seen: a blue jay, crows, red wing blackbirds, a hawk.
I have some field guides at home I traded some enamel pins for on Bunz late last summer. I'm going to start studying them, now that we are in a "practical application" time of year.
This year, already, I've seen, in our own yard: downy woodpeckers, male and female cardinals, robins, chickadees, and house sparrows. On the way to, or around, work, I've seen: a blue jay, crows, red wing blackbirds, a hawk.
I have some field guides at home I traded some enamel pins for on Bunz late last summer. I'm going to start studying them, now that we are in a "practical application" time of year.
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