Rubbish Free

I’ve been meaning to link to these people for a while. Matthew and Waveney are a couple living in Christchurch (NZ) who have committed to living rubbish free for a year. How cool is that?

I’m sure I could live rubbish free for a year too, but the greater challenge for me would be to get my children to live rubbish free too. Cue hysterical crying/laughing as I picture the fights over homemade crackers and corn chips. In the meantime I’ll just keep plugging away, reducing, reducing…although, as I tie myself in knots trying to avoid packaging, I’ve started wondering “Hang on, why does it have to be my problem?”. Why should I contort my grocery budget into increasingly eccentric shapes just so I can afford to buy the bread* which comes in paper? Why can’t the people that make the bread just stop putting their loaves into plastic bags which my local council will not recycle? Why shouldn’t they be the ones to deal with the legacy of their plastic bags? It’s not been too long since all bread came in paper (and milk in glass bottles that were actually *gasp* washed out and *bigger gasp* reused). Wouldn’t that be nice?

At least I’m not the only one thinking about this. Anne Else writes much better than I do on this and The Greens are way ahead of us both with their Waste Minimisation Bill currently before Parliament.

*(Bake bread? Yeah I did that, but my kids won’t eat it. I should start again and just put up with the moaning I guess)

Happy Thought

Michael Pollan agrees with me! Well, not with me so much as, well ok. It’s more that I agree with him. But it’s still a happy thought that I’m not the only one that thinks that gardening really is the answer.

This is the quote that really caught me:

But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

The whole article is here and really worth a read.

Updated

Just in case you’re interested, the “It’s not just because I have a sad little garden” page to your right has been updated (finally). There’s a pretty picture ;> …

Zucchini … jam?

I just spotted this on p. 85 of the April NZ Gardener. I am intrigued. I certainly still have plenty of zucchini…

 I’m just posting it here while I decide if it’s worth a go. I don’t know though. Zucchini and jam just don’t sit very well together in my mind. I do have a kilo of yellow zucchini sitting on my kitchen bench and that would look pretty as a jam. But on the other hand the yellow zucchini just can’t be beaten for its ability to be hidden in all sorts of dishes… Maybe someone else can have a go with this and let me know whether it really is edible!

Zucchini Jam

1 kg zucchini
1 kg of sugar
125g butter
juice and rind of 3 lemons

Peel and finely chop zucchini. Steam until tender enough to be put through a sieve of blender. Place the puree in a pot with the sugar, butter, finely grated lemon rind and lemon juice. Stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Boil for 30 minutes, until the jam has a thick, creamy texture (similar to lemon honey). Pour into clean, hot jars and seal.