Self-centered Humans

Pardon the language at the end, but I think this is a fantastic little comic!


See the original, here.

Local on a Budget

In response to my recent post about the cost of buying local food for one week, I'd like to share this link from the Co+op Stronger Together website. It talks about buying local food on a Budget. The tip about joining a CSA is a great one, I don't know why I ever decided against joining the closest co-op this past year, I seriously regret it!

Composting

I have been composting since the end of Spring. It feels so much better to keep my food waste out of the trash. I live in a house with 6 adults, half of whom are foodies- and who love to cook with whole ingredients. Now, all the food goes into our compost pail and then into our compost bin and not into landfills.

Composting is a tricky habit to learn. I know a lot of people complain about recycling- they're unsure of what can be recycled. I have been recycling for so long that it has become second nature for me. Composting shouldn't take too long to understand. If you're going to start composting at home, be sure you know what can and cannot be put into a compost heap. The dos and don'ts of composting are very simple.

Do put in produce scraps, organic matter, and lawn clippings. Do not, however include cooked food, not even vegetables. Always (and especially in a home compost pile) avoid adding meat, fish, dairy products and bones, pet waste or items cooked in oil to the compost pile. They can attract outdoor pests and harbor many types of bacteria and disease.

Moldy fruits and vegetables are fine to add. Watch the fats you add to the pile as fats are difficult for the good bacteria to digest. Breads and grains can also be added, but in moderation.

Anything you eat can be composted. This statement is true; however, that doesn't mean that every food is ideal for a compost pile. Citrus and alkaline are harmful in excess, and rinds are difficult to break down. As I mentioned before, breads and grains can be composted but are not as quick to decompose. This is also why meat and fats should not be added.

Do you research, read some text on the subject, and then just go at it! It's so much easier to begin than you might think!

The Total Cost

The total cost of my local purchases these past 9 days was $105.51

$5- 12 ears of local corn
$1- 2 local cucumbers
$4.50 - small loaf of local Zucchini bread
$3.50- local brownie (an unnecessary purchase)
$3.07- locally brewed mocha latte (another unnecessary purchase)
$37.00- Dinner for two at a local, vegetarian restaurant. Supplied a total of 4 meals.
$14.00- dinner at a local foods restaurant
$1- toffee, graham, pecan bar
$4.75- 1 local zucchini and 1 basket blackberries
$3.99- 1 Tub Seven Stars Farm Vanilla Yogurt
$3.49- 1 Dozen Nature's Yoke Large, vegetarian fed, free range eggs
$4.95-Spring Mill Bread Co. Honey Whole Wheat loaf
$1.38- 2 local Bagels
$2.99- 1 Salazon Chocolate Company dark chocolate bar
$5.71- 1 block chedder from Bowling Green Farm
$5.19- 1 package La Pasta ravioli
$3.99- 1/2 Gallon Trickling Spring Milks

That was for well over a weeks worth of food, plus I went out to dinner twice, and bought food out another time as well. Take those purchases out and it become $47.94! When I think about the amount of food I bought in excess of what I needed, and what I bought because I considered this past week a special occasion, it ends up being very affordable!

EAT LOCAL!

Day 9 Eat Local Challenge

To be honest, I'll be thankful when this is done and I don't have to take pictures of my food and upload it all to the blog. But it's been a great experience!

This morning, I drank some of Odwalla's Superfood drink; it's a favorite store-bought smoothie of mine, but expensive to buy the whole 1/2 gallon at over $8. It's all natural, and the plastic bottle is made of 100% plant material.

I woke up early to go to the local farmer's market with my grandfather this morning. We got a dozen ears of corn, a musk melon (cantaloupe- I just love calling it musk melon now that I know!), 4 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, and some zucchini bread.

Day 7 & 8 Buy Local Challenge

The challenge is extending to span two weekends, and thus 9 days total. Yesterday, the 7th day, I started off with a local peach on top of peach greek yogurt.
As a pick-me-up, I bought a mocha latte from Atwater's. Like the many others that I've pointed this week, here's yet another obvious local food oxymoron: coffee can not be local. The shop, however, is local; Atwater's makes their own breads and foods using local ingredients. In addition, the latte was counter culture coffee. Counter Culture Coffee ensures that the coffee beans used in creating your drink were sustainably sourced. I don't drink much coffee, so I don't have much to say about Counter Culture and Atwater's. Prior to today's experience, most of the coffee I drank was made at home, using Baltimore Coffee and Tea blends and beans. Baltimore Coffee and Tea is another local seller of coffee products and offers Fair Trade coffees.

For lunch I ate yogurt with blackberries again, with granola on top. And I had some cereal to snack on.
I left for the beach after work, so I snacked on the way down. I ate a walnut brownie that I bought from Atwater's earlier. When I got to the beach I ate some musk melon and some almonds.

Eating at the beach may be a bit more difficult than I expected, but I brought some food with me. I have local yogurt left- which I used to make a smoothie this morning-
- and local eggs- which were used to make the pancake I ate this morning.

For lunch, we ate at a local pizzeria, and for dinner, my aunt made spaghetti. I don't think much or any of that meal was local. But it was family made, and delicious!

I couldn't get any local milk at the store down here, so I just bought organic. Tomorrow morning I'm walking with my grandfather down to the local farmers market, so I'll get some good stuff.

Horizontal Mural as Traffic Calming

Today is 18th Hamilton Street Festival. More exciting news than that, the Hamilton horizontal mural being completed by some organizations and collectives in the area. Whitney Frazier, of the Hamilton Arts Collective, is helping to create the first horizontal mural for the area. Below is a sneak peak sidewalk sketch of the mural before it was begun.
Murals are a wonderful opportunity to bring communities together; to express creativity and brighten the neighborhood; and also, as can be seen with this project, a traffic calming technique! Traffic calming is what cities use to slow the traffic through neighborhoods and other areas. Ideally, traffic would never get so fast to begin with, if only roads were narrow and followed the contour of the Earth, if parked cars lined the street and if trees were added to the planting strips, but that's not the case. Instead, traffic engineers add speed bumps and speed cushions, bump outs, colored and textured pavers, raised intersections, curb extensions, chicanes, diverters, speed cameras, etc. This list seems to grow everyday, with new solutions created every day.
These solutions, however, only slightly alleviate the problem, and do not address the root of the concern. If our roads were designed for people and not for the car (i.e. wide and straight), we wouldn't need these traffic calming elements in the first place.

Regardless, solutions like this, the Hamilton horizontal mural, are the ones I enjoy seeing. Neighbors comes together to create a beautiful piece of art that the community can be proud of.

The mural is at the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and Harford Road in Baltimore, MD.