No Impact November

Daily Blog Nick & Janet Kimberly Rachel Jonathan Tiki - on vegetarian meals Neesh & Shaun Kate & Jason Jo Elizabeth Edwina Mara

 

Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog

Nick & Janet, Talitha (5yrs) & Charlie (2yrs)

Pre-challenge / Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7

Pre-challenge - inventory & planning

Our goals were to make sourdough bread for the week; not use the car; and reduce our fossil fuel related household energy use by a third. So I started by first looking at our utility bills (what we use) and secondly asking where we use the energy.

What & where:

Utility	Our average daily use	Australian average daily use	Our goal	Where we use it
Electricity	6Kwh	18Kwh	2Kwh	1. Lights; 2. Kitchen: fridge, freezer, kettle, appliances; 3. Office: computer, printer; 4.Entertainment: TV, Stereo, DVD; 5. Other: washing machine, vacuum
Gas	132Mj*	44Mj	44Mj	1. Cooking; 2. Air Heating; 3. Hot water: bath, shower
Car	19kms	44kms	Zero	1. kids to kinda; 2. kids to swimming

* average is across the year. Reason for large gas use was large bill due to heating this winter, as I was was recovering from back injury.

Next it was brainstorming strategies:

• Car use – relocalise activites, use bikes, bike trailer, bike kid seat, buses, trains, trams, walk
• Electricity – use less, use natural light, intentional use
  • up at dawn, bed at dusk. ie. no electricity after dark. (use candles and windup torch if necessary at night)
  • use laptop instead of desktop
  • no vac, minimise washing
• Gas – reduce hot water need
  • shared baths, showers
  • cook using solar oven, solar shower (to experiment with)

Then deciding ones we could realistically adopt for the week trial:

• All above except will keep fridge on and freezer on, and use washing machine as usual during week.

Actual preparation then involved:

• Prepare outside bath
• Consult for sourdough
• Plan trips
• Plan daylight meal, washing, cleaning up routines

 

Pre-challenge - test - Wednesday 10th November

Went to bed at dusk (8.15pm) just after putting the kids to bed. Grandparents were around so Janet and I could go for a ‘sunset stroll’. Nice. Something lost in the archives since our dating days. Set windup alarm clock for dawn awakening. Found alarm clock in hall during night which had been moved by Janet due to ticking. Have since found a clock with a more reasonable tick.

 

Pre-challenge - dinner - Thursday 11th November

Our big meal at Jo’s to mark the start of the challenge. Great turn up – Tim, Nancy & Max, Kate & Jason, Janet, Elizabeth, Edwina, Kya, Jo & Stephen, and kids Petra, Alex , Talitha & Charlie. Missed Shaun & Neesh who couldn’t make it. I took the kids there in the bike trailer. Janet joined Nancy & Max (the in-laws) who took the big car.

Amazing food contributed with amazing stories. I was very proud of our contribution, given I began thinking about it just some hours prior. Vegetable quiche with carrots and broad beans from our garden, eggs from our chooks. Powlett Hill Biodynamic Spelt flour from, Bullarto (near Ballarat). Olives from Sunshine, via Kemmy.

Lots of great conversations. Our family left before the utube movie shorts about other people who’d taken on the challenge in different places around the world. We of course needed to get to bed before dusk (8.15pm). Arrived home and set up candles. Made sure windup torch was on handle for in-laws midnight bathroom sojourns.

The week...

 

Day #1 Friday 12th November

Awoke at dawn and caught the brilliant eastern horizon – all coloured in deep pinks, blues and purples. Amazing that this canvas is before us on most mornings yet miss it. Reminded that this experiment for me is as much about living within the limits that God/Life/ Nature provides. Not creating things that are unnecessary. Being reminded of the simplicity that is present if we allow ourselves to see it and be a part of it.

Took Talitha to Swimming at Maribrynong Aquatic centre. This is one trip where the car is used. The bus trip took ½ and hour and so we arrived early. Splashing good fun. Bought hot chips afterwards. Used my regular expandable Tupperware bowl so no waste. Was conscious of the small (but significant) paper salt satchel.

Used computer for about 1 hr from 12.30pm. This limit is good as it is often on in the background of our regular days.

Took new bike (which I received back in June for my 40th birthday but haven’t had much opportunity to ride given my back injury) down to the Footscray market to get a big load of furit and veg for eating well this week. New front and back bike panniers are awesome for such a big load. (Locally manufactured from recycled materials - check out Ron Swan).

Used gas for cooking corn and pea cheesy patties for dinner (kids loved these) and for cooking up leek soup for tomorrow’s dinner. Janet used Bamix to mix soup which, after the kids went to bed, lead to a discussion on what are negotiables and non-negotiables for our family for this challenge. Good to work though in rather heated but honest way. No TV or junk food to escape to this time. Seems we’re back on the same page again. Used hot water for washing up dishes and for kids bath, which was shared by both Janet & I afterwards.

 

Day #2 Saturday 13th November

Up at dawn. Not quite the romantic sunrise I expected. Overcast. Much like the week to come so I’m told. Had hope it would be a week of ‘solar experiments’ with sun dial clock, solar camp shower, solar cooker, solar fruit dryer trials all planned. Alas maybe we should have planned a water wheel instead. Pretty much pouring down with rain all day.
Off to Mooroolbark today to St. Margaret’s church fete. It’s the annual funraiser for my parents church, supporting a church in Wittiporrff. This is where Janet gets most of the Fowlers bottles from that she distributes here in the city. It too raises funds for that for that church. So our family doned our rain gear and hopped on the train. 1 ½ hours later at the fete. I bought a loaf of bread on the way (sourdough experiments yet to come this week), and made sandwiches with veg from home. Good that I’d thought this through because most food at the fete was wrapped in plastic. Grad wrap or bags. Only options for plastic free were hot dogs and Devonshire teas. (see alternatives here)

On the train journey home, I tried charging my mobile phone. Though wanting to avoid technology where possible this week, I have been using the mobile phone, and had acquired earlier in the year a hand-winding ‘mobile phone and portable device charger’ – like a windup torch. It works but does take an age to charge. Lots of winding. Also I discovered that you can’t let the charge go too low on the phone or it won’t start charging.

Back home, Janet and kids were after something to warm up the insides. We usually have Oxfam Fairtrade drinking chocolate, but we were out. What to do? A trip across the road to our corner store saw a block of Cadbury fair-trade chocolate melted into milk and everyone was happy. Of course used gas for this process and for heating soup for dinner too. Also have been using kettle to heat water for warm drinks.

Bed early, about 7.30 this time. So with some chatting, sleep about 9pm. Still an early night.

 

Day #3 Sunday 14th November

Up at dawn again for some early morning crunchy damper.

Spend a good 2 hours on the computer, more than hoped but necessary for this blog. Off to Food Coop joint celebration. The group started off as 1 about 9 years ago – now there's about 5 in the area. Took bike with Talitha in bikeseat. She's really too big for it but we make it work. Dominique was there and shared her sourdough secrets, courtesy of friend at TEAR (see below). Will get to it tomorrow.

Came home to Janet's amazing dahl with our carrots and cauliflower. With the goal of utilizing daylight hours, we spontaneously decided to rearrange the chicken pen housing. All good, although the girls had no idea of where to bed down. We then ended the evening with Talitha's light show - a trapeze performance with some carefully positioned LED lights. Janet & I had though to do a movie on the laptop but sleep overtook us.

...............

Sourdough baking

There's heaps of things you can do with it, but here's the basic bread recipe:

1. Mix together 500ml warm water and 1/2 tablespoon of salt in a large bowl or container. Pour in 1/4 cup of the sourdough starter (remember to leave at least 1 tbsp of starter in the jar and replenish it with extra flour and water to fill up your jar again!) Add 2 cups of flour to the container (I often use wholemeal flour at this stage, but you can use white if you'd prefer) and stir. It should be the consistency of a thickish porridge. Add a bit more flour or water if you think it's too runny or too thick to stir. Cover the bowl or put a lid on your container and leave for 5 hours or overnight.
2. In the morning it should have risen quite a bit and be bubbly on top - although in winter you don't get the same effect as in summer! Stir in 1-2 additional cups of flour. I use white flour at this stage and add it gradually as I don't always need 2 cups. You want that the dough to stay quite wet (this should give you nice holes in your bread that sourdoughs are famous for). Scrape the dough out onto the bench and knead it all together for a couple of minutes. It will stick to your hands quite a bit, so rather than adding heaps of flour to the dough, coat your hands with it. Whack the dough into an oiled bread or cake tin and cover with a plastic bag. Leave it to rise for 4-6 hours.
3. Heat your oven up to 200C and then gently place the bread in the middle of the oven and bake for 40 mins to an hour (depending on how hot your oven is). If you slam your bread down before it's been baked you'll potentially knock out the air that has caused it to rise and you'll be terribly sad. :( Don't put the bread in the oven before it has reached 200C as it needs to be really hot - you'll see it rise quite a bit in the first 10 minutes.
4. If you can keep your family and friends away from it, try to leave your bread to rest on a cooling rack for another half an hour or so as the steam inside it will finish off the baking.

Then cut into it and liberally apply good butter. mmmmm

If you start the first step in the evening before you go to bed, then it should be ready for lunch the next day (assuming you get up before 8am!)

Now, if you want to do a fruit loaf, I usually take about 3/4 of a cup of dried fruit, add some cinnamon, orange zest, couple of tbsp of sugar and then a little bit of warm water or orange juice. I leave this mix in a bowl overnight while the first step above is happening and you'll find that by the morning the fruit will have plumped up and absorbed most of the liquid. Yum! Add this mix to the dough in step two before you add the extra flour.

Some general points about the sourdough 'culture' or 'starter' (a living organism that requires a bit of loving!):

• it's just a mixture of white flour and water that reacts with natural bacteria in the air to create a natural yeast. cool, hey?!
• it's best to use filtered or boiled (and then cooled) water
• really hot water, baking powder, SR flour, yeast, dishwashing detergent etc can kill the culture
• keep your culture healthy by trying to remember to either use it once a week or just give it a good stir once a week and add a bit more flour and water. (pour some culture down the sink if your jar is getting too full)
• try to keep it at a porridgy type consistency
• keep it in the fridge, not out on the bench for too long (especially not in summer)
• if it starts to smell really bad or develop a purple layer on top, just pour some of it down the drain (keep a couple of tablespoons in the jar) and then add more flour and water and hopefully it will recover!
• if you go away for a couple of weeks, consider leaving it with a trusty friend to sourdough-sit!!
• if the jar starts to get a bit gross, just pour the starter into a new jar and continue on.
  

 

Day #4 Monday 14th November

Up for the most spectacular damper - this time Janet's creation. Just fitted the pot into the fire tin and managed to get it out again without serious injury. Complete with raisins.Yum!

 

Rode bike to Permaculture Playgroup as usual with kids in bike seat and trailer.

 

Day #5 Tuesday 15th November

Up early to do my first stint of ‘Guellia planting’. We have a vacant block nearby which deserves to have some wild pumpkins growing on it, so I strategically dug in some chook maure and scarttered seeds which , if we get a decent bit of rain and sun over the next weeks, should come along.

After some errands returned home to find the person who helps us with cleaning the house, trying to unclog the vaccume clearer. Almost had a crisis. But able to negotiate with her to use the dust buster and broom instead. Phew!

Spent some time on computer with preparation for workshop on Christmas this evening. Then road bike to Green Collective store in Yarraville to pick up some sample Christmas gifts, and then onto my appointment in Balwyn. Actually I took the train into the city, but it is impossible to get a train from the city with a bike in peak hour – extra impossible with a bike trailer too (as I had this night). So cycled the lovely yet seemingly endless journey from the city to Balywn. Tired yet energized for my workshop.

Day #6 Wednesday 16th November

Today is sourdough bread day. At last, have starter and now have time. The plan was to make 3 loaves over the course of the challenge week. One with regular white bakers flour, a second with a mix of spelt four and a third with non- wheat alternatives. Idea being to start with what is likely to work and then develop it up to one's that the whole family can eat. (Not sure of the soundess of this logic but will go with it...). Let's start with one. So I'm doing a basic white today.

Over the past week I have been planning to make a bike rack from a reclaimed wooden futon bed base, and have become frustrated that I can’t implement the building as I’d be using the powerdrill and that really doesn’t help our reduction of energy. So today I borrowed a handdrill. Always a way forward if only you can imagine it.

 

We received our recent electricity bill in the mail. It goes up to the 6th Nov, and says we used 7.9 kwh of electricity each day for this 3 month period. With this in mind, thought I’d revise what we’re using this week.

	Electricity (Kwh)	Gas (meter reading change)	Gas (coversion from cubic meters to mejajoules - x39)
Pre trial
Average on last bill	7.9		115.7
Average over last 12 months	5.6		131.9
Day before trial week(11.11)	7	1.6	62.4
Trial week
Day 1 (12.11)	6	1.6	62.4
Day 2 (13.11)	5	1.1	42.9
Day 3 (14.11)	6	1.7	66.3
Day 4 (15.11)	6	1.5	58.5
Day 5 (16.11)	6	1.6	62.4
Day 6 (17.11)	3	1.5	58.5

 

As you can see, it doesn’t seem that we’ve saved too much – not nearly the 3rd we were looking for. Maybe that our fridge, freezer, kettle, washing machine – that are still in use make up the majority of our energy used.

Not sure how this compared to the global average which motivated the initial challenge. World Factbook via wikipedia says on average Australian's use 1,244 watts per person per day. The global average is 364. Seems our household use about 6 kilo-watt hours. Not entirely sure how these figure compare together.

I've just noticed the 3 Kwh used yesterday. Half of what we have previously used. At first I couldn't understand it, but just realised that yesterday has been the only day I haven't had the desktop computer on at some stage. Wow. No more webiste work, no more blogging for me. ....

 

I had the oven on tonight for bread baking, so did peach crumble for dessert using Janet's bottled peaches from last season. Utilising oven while it's on.

Bread out of oven tonight. Not bad.

 

Day #7 Thursday 17th November

Last day of challenge. Woke up to alarm clock. Caught dawn today. Went for morning walk and fired up outside bath. Only when Janet was rushing around saying she was late for work at 7.45 did I realise that my own bedside clock said 8.45 and I had in fact set it an hour earlier than the actual time. This meant that Janet was not late for work - we had a lesuirly breakfast - but also that I had got up at 4.45am rather than 5.45 am.

Big day of meetings regarding promotion and press release for our new print guide. Nothing too radical in terms of reducing out footprint. My parents who were child minding managed to get by okay without turning on the lights.

Energy readings. Well this explains a lot. Below is the energy use for our household appliances. Most are from some readings that I took some time ago with an energy meter (and temporarilty lost just before the challenge week) and others (*) are estimates from this website. They are listed in order of highest to lowest.

Appliance	Watts	Used this week
Electric Kettle	2,000.0 *	Yes
Hairdryer	1,615.3
Bar heater	1,084.5
Toaster	1,015.8
Fridge	500.0 *	Yes
Freezer	500.0 *	Yes
Washing machine	500.0 *	Yes
Vaccume	128.6
Desktop Computer	102.6 - 139.9	Yes
TV	58.7
Barmix	54.4
Laptop Computer	35.0
Stereo (Nick's)	30.4
DVD	24.6
Computer Monitor	23.3	Yes
Computer Scanner	14.8
VCR	11.1
Computer Printer	9.5	Yes
Desk Light	9.3
Mobile Phone Charger	0.5

 

So the real energy 'users' were those things that we left on and continued to use! (fridge, freezer, kettle, washing machine, computer). The next time we challenge ourselves regarding energy it will be these things we try to address.

The evening was our wrap-up celebration meal, held at Mara's home in Altona. We left an hour to get there by public transport and although it all seemed managable given Mara's house is in the same street as the Altona station, it took nearly 2 hours. Part of the problem was, after walking to Middle Footscray station, training to Footscray, we found we needed to take a Werribee train but actually go to Laverton as trains are express through Altona at this time of night, then take another train back to Altona. Then a bit of a walk and we were there.

Well worth it all though. Once again amazing food. Cordial from edible weeds. Cookies, Dahl. Great stories about plastic dilemas. Kids ate almost a whole tree of locats.

 

Here's that table again with how we went.

	Electricity (Kwh)	Gas (meter reading change)	Gas (coversion from cubic meters to mejajoules - x39)
Pre trial
Average on last bill	7.9		115.7
Average over last 12 months	5.6		131.9
Day before trial week(11.11)	7	1.6	62.4
Trial week
Day 1 (12.11)	6	1.6	62.4
Day 2 (13.11)	5	1.1	42.9
Day 3 (14.11)	6	1.7	66.3
Day 4 (15.11)	6	1.5	58.5
Day 5 (16.11)	6	1.6	62.4
Day 6 (17.11)	3	1.5	58.5
Day 7 (18.11)	5	1.5	58.5
Average over week	5.3	1.5	58.5

 

So in summary, doesn't appear that we saved all that much in terms of energy. Our usual consumption in regards to electricity is relatively low. There's a Greenpeace website that says average household electricity use in Australasia is 5,945 kWh per year, which is 16.3 kWh per day. We were just under a third of this for the challenge week, and are usually about 43% of this.

We did however learn a lot. Especially where we use the most power, and what we could do without.

From here, my plan is to:

• use the laptop, not desktop, where possible
• limit my computer use to daytime and specific times during the day
• continue our 'solar' experiments for the rest of this month

...back

 

Overview / Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s

 

Rachel

See my goals.

Thursday

The start of the no impact challenge - I rode to and from Kingsville for the first time ever, 30km in total! Riding back was better and seemed faster, probably because the temperature and cooled by then. I loved reliving memories of when I lived in North Melbourne and the scent of the shops wafting around me as I rode through Footscray.

I left a candle for myself down stairs but neglected to leave out matches - managed to walk upstairs in the dark and for once was grateful for my housemate leaving his entertainment system on all the time as the standby light helped!

Cooled myself down with a wet face washer and grabbed out tomorrow's clothes while I still had candle light - my walk in wardrobe doesn't get enough natural light in the morning for me to see anything. I'm noticing that candlelight can be strong enough that it blinds you when you're near it, but its dim enough to make writing difficult if you're only 50cm away. Nick's onto something by going to bed at dusk!

Used my first wee wipe - an unexpected benefit is that I can leave it mellow without my housemate realising and being grossed out ;)

Friday

Unexpected benefits from having 4minute showers: you end up ready for work earlier than usual, and the mirror doesn't fog up as much (which is just as well, given the fan is linked to the light which I'm not turning on this week).

I'd been invited to a friend's for dinner tonight and decided to ride - a 7.5km round trip. Unfortunately I got caught in the storm but I just hunkered down at the nearest tram stop and waited for it to lighten up - it was really interesting to see the 'waves' of water sprinkling over the road. I'd have never made the time to look at that otherwise.

My friend has a small, but very productive vegie patch so I was graced with a large bunch of silver beet, beetroot leaves and spinach, along with rosemary and cumquats. Am feeling very rich in the food department :)

Not a great day for rubbish - a few pieces of mail from charities asking me for money (I should get myself off their list) and a blister pack left over from antibiotics I had to take last week. I have hopes that the local kindergarten might be able to use this in their craft activities and at least the paper could be recycled in my worm farm or the compost.

My candle wick seems to have sunk into the wax and won't light. Another dark night!

Saturday

More rain! I got realistic and canned my plans to ride to the farmer's market, opting for the bus instead. Ended up meeting a woman going the same way as me and learnt about the politics of nanny agency work and that a new Big W has opened up at Box Hill. I like that people still talk on public transport, I don't like how bad the connections are between buses and trams at Kew Junction *sigh*

My housemate and I drive out east to visit a mutual friend - given my transport challenge this isn't an awesome option, but it's a fair way out and my housemate would have driven anyway. We enjoy a lavash morning tea with muffins, cake, cream and tea followed by a stroll around the garden. I'm amazed my friend only began to garden 5 years ago and the garden is just stunning. She gifts us a bunch of her roses before we go and our kitchen is so much brighter for it :)

Joined my father to help out 'Second Bite' at Prahran market - we do the rounds of the market just as it is closing up so market holders can donate any of their unsold stock that would otherwise go to waste. We collate all the collected food and put it in a delivery van to be taken to agencies working with the poor and homeless. I'm amazed they also collect deli, meat and cut flowers as well as fruit and vege. It's fun to sort all the donations into boxes and chat to the Rotarians that have been rostered on.

Mum and Dad invite me to have dinner at their place so I end up snuggling on the couch with them and watching a bit of tv. It's nice to be surrounded by people though :)

Sunday

I treat myself to a lovely long sleep in, followed by a cooked breakfast made from ingredients given to me by my friend on Friday and eggs from the farmers market. I'd planned a neighbourhood picnic today so the morning is spent finishing the food I'd planned to bring (lemon barley water to drink, various dips with crackers and carrots) and sweeping out our double garage for people to take shelter in if the weather takes another turn for the worst.

The weather is over cast but stays dry as I make my way up to the park. I make friends with the two couples already in the park with their kids - they aren't there for the picnic but they join me for a chat and share some of my food. No one else comes for the picnic, even through I distributed 160 leaflets and had received some interest. This is a really tough neighbourhood to crack in regards to building a community - everyone seems so busy and I think a lot of them just aren't that interested in getting to know each other. It's disappointing.

Lemon Barley Water

• Makes about 5 cups (1.25L)
• 1/3 cup (65g) pearl barley
• Finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
• 1/3 cup caster sugar

• Place barley in a sieve. Rinse under running water until water runs clear then place in a saucepan with lemon rind and 6 cups of water.
• Bring to the boil over medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes then strain mixture into a heatproof bowl, discarding barley (it's good in soups, stews or risottos though)
• Add sugar to bowl. Stir to dissolve then stir in lemon juice. Pour into bottles and refrigerate until chilled.
• This recipe can easily be doubled. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
  

Monday

I'd bought myself some 'eco' toothbrushes made of bamboo last week. While their biodegradable goodness made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, their soft bristles were leaving my teeth fuzzy in a bad way! I've been trying the bi-carb soda instead of toothpaste trick this week and can confirm that it isn't entirely tasty, so today I tried a few drops of peppermint oil as well. Wow, that stuff packs a punch! Definitely only one drop next time - I could still taste it several cleans later!

Yoga tonight in the city so I was off cooking duty again given the Hari Krishnas are good enough to cook for me. Rode there and back - noticed it was still late as I left at 8pm. The last time I properly noticed what time the sun set was during the equinox and daylight savings switching over, so it was amazing to consider how much more light we're getting now.

Tuesday

Oh my gosh work has been busy! All the overtime I'm pulling is making a serious dent in the time I had mentally set aside to declutter. Instead I'm working on decluttering my time of unnecessary things. Not having lights on at night actually helps me do this - normally I'd be cooking, cleaning or working on one of my projects right up until bed time. Now that I can't see what I'm doing after the sun goes down, it helps me to just let go and allow things to happen when they happen.

I did manage to prepare the nasturtium syllabub for dinner tomorrow as it needs to chill overnight. My food processor's whisk attachment has broken so I went old school and whipped the cream by hand. Tiring, but easier than I expected! We all licked the bowl clean - can't wait to try the entire thing tomorrow!

We had our regular family dinner tonight, where my siblings gather back at my parents place to catch up. I'm really glad I've got such a close family - it's that ultimate community that really supports you through everything.

Wednesday

Another busy day but I just managed enough time to cook dinner for my housemates and food for the celebration night tomorrow. I couldn't convince them to eat outside in the glorious weather so I made time afterwards to watch the dregs of the sunset with a glass of Beechworth fortified wine. Despite the local mosquito population getting a good feed out of me I couldn't help wondering why don't I do this more often?

Recipes from the final celebartion meal:

Nasturtium Butter

This is a delicious hot butter which can be made in advance and frozed to be used as an instant sauce for fish and steaks or to be spread on french bread stick and warmed in the oven like garlic bread.

60g Nasturtium leaves, very finely chopped
125g butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine the nasturtium leaves with the butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, mixing well. Spoon onto foil or freezer plastic and roll into a log shape. Chill or freeze until required.

NASTURTIUM SYLLABUB

125ml cream
125ml yoghurt
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons freshly squeeze lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeeze lime juice
5 Nasturtium leaves, very finely chopped
5 Nasturtium flowers, very finely chopped

Whip cream to form soft peaks then fold in yoghurt, honey, maple syrup, lemon juice, lime juice, nasturtium flowers and leaves. Pour into individual serving glasses and chill overnight. Serve at room temperature with sweet wafer biscuits.

CREAM OF WOOD SORREL SOUP

2 tablespoons oil
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, finely diced
250g wood sorrel leaves
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
125ml milk
125ml cream (optional)
pinch tarragon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil and saute onion and potatoes gently until soft. Add wood sorrel leaves, stirring constantly to prevent catching, then gradually add stock.
Bring to the boil then cover and reduce to simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and puree through a sieve or in a blender. Return to the pot, bring back to the boil then gradually add milk, cream and seasonings but do not allow to boil again or it will curdle. Garnish with fresh wood sorrel leaves and serve at once.

WOOD SORREL LEMONADE
125g wood sorrel leaves
500ml water
1 tablespoon honey

Boil the wood sorrel leaves for 3-4 minutes in the water. Sweeten with the honey - you may require more or less than the recommended amount - and chill for at least two hours. This lemonate can be diluted with ice dmineral water if liked.

And finally, here is the moroccan stew I cooked for the initial celebration dinner. Given this is a late summer dish I substituted most of the vegetables for those I had on hand at the time - cauliflower, silverbeet, carrots and broadbeans etc.

MOROCCAN VEGETABLES WITH COUSCOUS
Serves 4

• Prep: 15 min
• Cooking: 15-20 min
• 1 tbsn vegetable oil
• 1 large red onion, halved, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 400g butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, cut into 2 cm pieces
• 2 zucchini, cut into chunks
• 1 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 250ml (1 cup) vegetable stock
• ½ cinnamon stick
• 1 300g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
• 100g drained green olives
• ¼ cup chopped fresh continental parsley
• salt & ground black pepper, to taste
• 290g (1 ½ cups) couscous

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes or until it softens slightly. Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

2. Add the pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes, stock and cinnamon stick to the pan. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the chickpeas, olives and parsley, and cook, uncovered, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, place couscous (1/2 cup per person) in a bowl that holds heat well with 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Pour hot water or stock over the grains (1/2 cup per person). Cover and allow to stand for 2-3 minutes. Stir with a fork to separate the grains.

4. Divide couscous among serving bowls and top with vegetables.

Freezing tips

Prepare the recipe up to the end of step two then freeze. To eat, defrost and either reheat on the stove or in the microwave. Continue recipe from step three onwards.

...back

 

Kimberly

See Kimberly's goals.

This piece was printed in the Melbourne City Newspaper, Nov 2010, Vol1, Issue 09.

I’ve always considered myself to be a bit of a greenie.

I don’t own a car, I believe in climate change, and I recycle everything, even those little plastic bread clips. I thought my lifestyle was pretty sustainable until I took on the Ethical Consumer Guide’s Household Action Challenge. The community-based organisation aims to motivate individuals and households to reflect on their lifestyles and consumption habits. They run ‘shopping with a conscience’ tours and workshops, and hold an annual Household Challenge for No-Impact November.

For one week in November an individual or household can set itself a challenge with the aim of consuming less and living more sustainably.

After a short brainstorming session, I decided my challenge would centre on cooking and eating. Like most people, my partner and I are heavily reliant on supermarkets and takeaway places for nutrition. We’re also proud meat-eaters. So for one week, we would buy only Victorian produce from local markets. We would also make our own food, so no takeaway or processed foods. On top of all that, we would also have one vegetarian meal everyday.

To prepare for the week of ethical consumption, we planned out all our meals, mostly pasta, soups and stews. We headed to Prahran and Queen Victoria Markets armed with a shopping list of goodies. I didn’t anticipate that the biggest challenge was to figure out where the produce all came from. I suppose it’s a by-product of globalisation that we rarely think about the country, or even the specific region, that our apples and mushrooms come from. Who would have thought most pine nuts came from China and that the majority of the olive oil on the shelves are Spanish? These are the things consumers rarely consider. I quickly realised this when my “Is this from Victoria?” query was met with bemused stares and a harried attempt at naming a Victorian town. The fact that quite a few shopkeepers didn’t seem to know where their goods came from was more than a little disturbing.

After a weekend spent trawling through markets, we were left quite surprised by how much money we had spent and how little it was compared to if we ever bothered to add up how much we spend on takeaway meals every week.

With a pile of food in the refrigerator, the most challenging part of the week was preparing all our meals from scratch. I once found myself preparing three meals in one evening. It took four hours and left me wanting nothing more than the convenience of a pizza delivery. It might have been the sleep deprivation or the copious amounts of spinach I was eating, but I found myself becoming increasingly grumpy and anti-social towards the middle of the week. I didn’t realise how much I relied on artificial energy boosters until I started getting mood swings from a lack of chips, chocolate and energy drinks. My partner and I briefly considered growing guarana berries in our yard, but we forged on.

Ethical Consumer Guide’s founder Nick Ray pointed out the importance of doing the challenges in a communal environment. I appreciate that bit of advice a lot more now, looking back on that week.

After we completed our challenge week, my partner and I had dinner with some of the other participants who had yet to start their challenges. It was amazing how much we learned about all the new sustainable products available and where to get them.

In the end, my week taught me to be more open to a vegetarian lifestyle. It also made me more aware of unnecessary packaging and the importance of bringing your own bag. One couple at the dinner brought a month’s worth of their non-recyclable rubbish, the equivalent of two days of landfill waste that my partner and I produce.

The experience made me realise how important having the support of a community actually was.

Being around the wonderful people from the Ethical Consumer Guide and the frazzled shoppers at the market made me feel a lot more human. It’s a bit of a strange statement, but this sensation is often lost in a world of unquestioning consumerism and self-service checkouts.

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Jonathan

See my goals.

My attempts at solar cooking were rewarded Thursday as I cooked up a nice curry in my homemade solar oven which we all enjoyed sitting outside in the nice evening air (using no electricity in terms of lights as well).

Sadly the weekend weather was not very helpful in repeating the solar oven adventures but I’m hoping to get some more chances this week still. The rain was welcome though and all pasta, rice and tea cooking was done with nice fresh rain water saving the use of tap water.

 

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Tiki - on vegetarian meals

I thought I'd add a few bits and pieces to the collection of vegetarian recipes / ideas that people were emailing, if you don't mind passing them on. I was vegetarian for something like 12 years, only stopped due to pregnancy and breastfeeding and expect to return to being largely vegetarian in a couple of years time when this phase of my life is over! First husband was completely vegetarian, second/current is carnivorous but I have been the main person who taught him to cook so there is some bias in the recipes we selected for him to learn :-)

So here's a shortlist/description of some of the quick / no-brain dishes that I make (if anyone wants more detailed recipes I can try and write some up, but I hardly ever follow recipes!). I also put a list of generic ingredients that I keep in my cupboard because they're handy to help make random things when you have a pile of this and that and need to come up with some way to use it. The one thing I didn't mention is that I used to cheat a little with things like protein balance across a meal - I often put most of the protein in the desserts rather than the mains. That's because whenever possible I *love* to eat dessert first. But I'm known to be a little eccentric...

Some quick/simple vegetarian options from our range:

• Red dragon it up - substitute cooked adzuki beans (red dragon beans) into any recipe you would have made with mince. Bolognaise, red lasagne sauce, shepherd's pie (now Red Dragon pie), even rissoles. TVP also substitutes for mince well. There is a dish called spaghetti pie that I used to love (but haven't made for ages!) which has a "crust" of spaghetti and cottage cheese (and egg as binder) pressed into the pie pan, with a bolognaise-ish filling.
• Steaming a few vegies (in microwave or steamer) and tossing them with olive oil and grated cheese, have on own or with pasta. I was rejected by a potential boyfriend when he discovered that I thought doing this with brussel sprouts was absolutely delicious - he refused to even consider sharing a kitchen with me. -shrug- Win some, lose some. (Though, that could have also been the weed salad I made him for dinner, fresh-picked from a couple of vacant lots. He seemed a bit perturbed... -grin-)
• Nachoes are an infinitely diversifiable dish - instead of making them with a pile of corn chips and sour cream, make a relatively thin layer of chips, then add chopped vegetables and refried beans and sauce and cheese, then another thin layer of chips followed by refried beans, sauce and cheese. There's quite a few inspirations to be had from Mexican food with their love of "frijoles" (beans). Quesadillas are a quick-instant-I'm-hungry-now thing, just fry a tortilla with grated cheese on top (there are more complex variants but that's the basic).
• Omelettes. Mine are usually "scrambles" rather than omelettes because I'm too impatient.
• Quiche. Takes practice to make, but a good vegie quiche far outstrips a lorraine. There's several vegetarian varieties available in the freezer sections of the bigger supermarkets too.
• Risotto, I can add any vegetables I have into a risotto and it usually comes out pretty well. Adding nuts or pumpkin seeds changes texture/flavour.
• Our standard curry: zucchini, sweet potato, broccoli, mushroom, cashews all stirfried together and then a jar of korma sauce and tin of coconut milk or cream added into it.
• Baked beans on toast! (Though we always made this by filling a pie dish with baked beans and adding a few cut-up bits of toast, so it was really toast on baked beans :-)
• Zucchini boats - a preferred dish by both my husbands (one vegetarian, one carnivore). Slice a zucchini in half lengthwise, scoop the middle out, mix it with chopped mushroom and grated cheese, fill the middle back in again, bake until a suitable edible texture. Watch out for the boiling hot juice that comes out of them when they're done :-)
• Red lentil risotto - cook the red lentils as if you were making risotto and they were the rice: fry then add stock - but be careful and quick, as they overcook much faster than rice!

Things I keep in my cupboard as useful generic ingredients:

• Iodised salt
• Massel's vegetarian stock (comes in several mock-meat flavours but I prefer "vegetable")
• Interesting oils known to be higher in omega oils (eg linseed, grapeseed, non-GMO canola) or that have a rich or savoury flavour (eg pumpkin seed or walnut)
• Egg-replacer powder - keeps for ages, way cheaper than the equivalent number of eggs, can make an ordinary vegetarian recipe into a vegan one without any major changes
• Coconut cream powder - I like it better than tins (but my husband won't cook with it so we always have tins too!)
• Tinned soup - mushroom, or celery - generic "white" soups that can form casserole or sauce bases
• Tinned chickpeas
• Dried dahl of one of the quick-cook types (I forget which ones they are - gram dahl? Toor dahl? There's some that cook up very quickly and others that are slow, and also some that fall apart completely and others (like urid dahl, the highest in protein) that never lose their hull shield integrity)
• Dried red lentils (they cook so quickly! Great for the times when you have fifteen minutes between getting home from work and having to have food on the table / in mouths.)
• Powdered milk, and also quinoa flour when I can get it. These are both for generic baking and for increasing protein content in baked goods. Quinoa flour in particular gives a lovely flavour and moister texture to cakes.

 

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Neesh & Shaun

The preparation for NIN was the most productive part of the challenge for our household.

Brainstorming ideas for how we wanted to live more simply and with less impact was exciting (see our list for ideas). Unfortunately, the actual 'week' came at a difficult time for us so the only thing we really achieved was to slow down (still an achievement!) And one of the tangible outcomes was we began reading a book out aloud to each other. Sometimes it is hard for us to take extra little steps to living less impact because we already live a super low impact life.

We think the most intensive part of our life is where our organic fruit and vegies come from (we are part of Seddon Organic Collective and don't get to always choose local food because of the organic priority). At this time of year a lot of produce comes from Queensland...so we would like to look at ways to reduce this (it is the question of organic high-food-mile food versus non-organic low-food-mile food). The exciting thing is we now have a list of little changes we would like to make when I finish teaching very soon!

Another important part of NIN was to know that there were a number of other households doing their challenges - it's great to be part of a mindful community.

 

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Kate & Jason

No Landfill Challenge (To use no product which generates landfill waste)

See goals.

Preparation. What we choose to eat has the biggest impact on our volume of landfill. We're already pretty organised, buying only the food we need for the week ahead. I find seven main meals that I think don't use any plastic packaging, but it's a bit tough...

 

Thursday. An inauspicious beginning to the No Impact Challenge week - slicing the loaf of bread myself to freeze it, I cut my finger. I use a band-aid. Jason is happy though. He likes to eat a biscuit or muffin at work, and he's found “ginger-folk” that comes in home-compostable plastic.

Friday. The rustling of plastic catches my attention. Jason is eating a cracker from a cardboard box that has a plastic inner wrapper. He's “very upset” to realise his beloved crackers are off-bounds this week. We're both missing raisins, which come to us in what looks like paper, but lined with plastic.

Saturday. Jason cheats and shaves using a plastic disposable razor.

Sunday. Rather than use a pita bread as a base for the pizza, I cook my own base. I am very pleased by how easy it was, and only 15 minutes extra.

Monday. “No advertising material” stickers are backed with plastic. When I pass a house or flat advertised For Lease, I check for a sticker. If it's not there, I add one. Most people leave it up. The council's environmental officer once told me about the very high rate of usage of these stickers when given out. So I have no regrets about adding to landfill in this case.

Tuesday. I admit cheating by using miso to add flavour. It has plastic packaging. I forgot when I was meal-planning, but miso is integral to my veggie stew.

It's not landfill, but I get a bit annoyed by the junk mail that gets put in our letter box, despite a sign saying we don't want it. It's a waste of the earth's gifts (resources). This week we've had a multi-page, glossy real estate catalogue, a flyer seeking casuals and the ubiquitous cleaning offer. With the law on your side, I find it so easy just to make a phone call to explain the error and ask that it not happen again. Very satisfying too. (Political advertising is exempt.)

Wednesday. Visit the food co-op at Friends of the Earth shop in Smith Street, Collingwood. It's open to the public. I'm overwhelmed and delighted at the range of groceries available here... Includes spices, pasta, seaweed, tofu and miso! All items I was wondering how to get in the future, or whether I would learn to do without.

Thursday. We take tofu from the co-op to the No-impact November finale dinner.

Friday. I chomp without guilt into a fruit bun pulled from the freezer, which had been purchased last week. I'm now aware that I can re-use this plastic bag for freezing a fruit loaf that I slice myself.

What's changed? We've become much more aware of throwing things 'away' (more like 'out-of-our-sight'). In fact I can get a smaller bin, perhaps smaller even than the compost bin. Some habits have changed, like the slicing of bread. Other habits are in process of changing (we've spoken to our supplier about bulk buying oats for breakfast to avoid the plastic there). And as I look across our menus, I see now very few meals that require plastic. That's good.

Inspired, my next challenge has already started, which is to cook legumes rather than using recyclable cans. Later in the season I hope to have enough home-grown tomatoes to preserve them in jars.

***
Lentil Bolognese Recepie

This is a versatile sauce. You can spoon it over spaghetti, potatoes or rice, turn it into lasagne or shepherds pie, serve it with vegies on the site, or pile it on toast for a Sunday night supper. It’s even better the day after you’ve made it.

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 medium sized red capsicum (bell pepper), diced
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped (seeds removed, if you can’t stand the heat!)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2.5 cups (500g/1lb) cooked whole brown lentils
• 2 x 400 g (14 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup (8 fl oz) Stock
• a small handful of chopped parsley
• a few fresh oregano leaves, chopped
• a few basil leaves, chopped
• sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

1. Warm oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Gently fry the leek, celery, red capsicum, garlic and chilli, stirring, for a few minutes, until the vegetables start to soften. Add bay leaf, lentils, tomatoes and stock.
2. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring often to prevent it burning. If you want a thinner sauce, reduce the cooking time or add more stock or water.
3. Stir in the parsley, oregano and basil towards the end of cooking. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Source: page 91 of some cookbook – let me know if you find out which!

Kate’s notes: I used to use canned lentils – 2 tins. Mushrooms are a great addition. I find this a very forgiving recipe – it always turns out great. So it’s not necessary to get the quantities exactly right. Dried herbs are an adequate substitute for the fresh leaves. Will try next time substituting yeast flakes on top for parmesan cheese - I've just been leaving it off
Ray’s wife’s notes: (my source). Parmesan on top

 

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