Getting produce without packaging is at least relatively painless. It annoys me that Trader Joe's sells all that produce in plastic. Yes, some of the plastic packaging they use is compostable, but the fact is that it is only compostable in commercial composting systems. If you put 'compostable' plastic in your home bin it will be there for years. So most of this packaging ends up in the landfill anyway. But, at most grocery stores you can bring your own bags for produce.
I grow some of my own fruits and vegetables and supplement this with the local Farmer's Market. No one blinks an eye if you bring your own bags to the FM. Once in a while I'll get a couple of items at the market down the street. Mostly items I can't live without, like onions, garlic and bananas. And you can't get bananas at the FM.
Another great thing about the Farmer's Market is I can bring back my egg carton for eggs. Not only are the eggs local, free range and not from poor chickens crammed into battery cages, but they taste awesome. Our egg consumption has risen considerably during this challenge. They are quick and easy to prepare and filling. I have one egg carton and I just bring it back over and over again. I have been reusing a lot of containers designed for one time use.
The thing is so many of these items are quite durable. I reuse take out containers, plastic bags, glass jars, whatever. These are handy storage items that can be used over and over again. It seems like such a waste just to throw out something so useful. And many of these items I can eventually recycle, but I can give them a longer life by reusing them first.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Milk
So the rule is that whatever food packaging I use must be reusable. Recyclable is not enough. Very few products come in reusable packaging these days.
I have been getting my staples in containers I bring myself.
But what about yogurt? I've never been a huge milk drinker. I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian so no meat, but I eat a lot of eggs and yogurt. Soymilk is now totally out of the question. I used to keep a lot of soy or almlond milk on hand for making smoothies or baking or in case someone came over that liked that stuff in their coffee. But there is way too much packaging. Those boxes are a recyclers nightmare- a layer of paper, a layer of foil and a layer of thin plastic sandwiched together. The soymilk may be shelf stable for ages but the packaging is considerable. So without soymilk or purchased yogurt I am turning back to milk. There is a dairy processor in Montebello ( East Los Angeles) that still bottles milk in returnable bottles. You pay a deposit for the bottle and bring it back to the store to get your deposit back. Luckily the milk is available at a local store, so I went and picked up two bottles of chocolate milk for drinking and a bottle of regular whole milk to make yogurt with. It was interesting, looking at this huge grocery store where I couldn't buy anything. I bought the milk and a couple of onions. There was virtually nothing else there I could get without packaging.
The chocolate milk is divine. I could drink the whole bottle in one sitting probably and I'm not a milk person at all.
I have an old yogurt maker that was my mom's from the 1970's. This is surprising since my mom is not exactly Martha Stewart. I learned to bake with her mostly using mixes and our household specialty, pumpkin pie, is just Libby's canned pumpkin and canned sweetened condensed milk.
But the yogurt maker still works thirty years later (good to see some things are built to last). I made a batch last night but haven't tried any yet. I added some homemade chocolate syrup to half the batch, so I'm looking forward to my dessert.
I have been getting my staples in containers I bring myself.
But what about yogurt? I've never been a huge milk drinker. I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian so no meat, but I eat a lot of eggs and yogurt. Soymilk is now totally out of the question. I used to keep a lot of soy or almlond milk on hand for making smoothies or baking or in case someone came over that liked that stuff in their coffee. But there is way too much packaging. Those boxes are a recyclers nightmare- a layer of paper, a layer of foil and a layer of thin plastic sandwiched together. The soymilk may be shelf stable for ages but the packaging is considerable. So without soymilk or purchased yogurt I am turning back to milk. There is a dairy processor in Montebello ( East Los Angeles) that still bottles milk in returnable bottles. You pay a deposit for the bottle and bring it back to the store to get your deposit back. Luckily the milk is available at a local store, so I went and picked up two bottles of chocolate milk for drinking and a bottle of regular whole milk to make yogurt with. It was interesting, looking at this huge grocery store where I couldn't buy anything. I bought the milk and a couple of onions. There was virtually nothing else there I could get without packaging.
The chocolate milk is divine. I could drink the whole bottle in one sitting probably and I'm not a milk person at all.
I have an old yogurt maker that was my mom's from the 1970's. This is surprising since my mom is not exactly Martha Stewart. I learned to bake with her mostly using mixes and our household specialty, pumpkin pie, is just Libby's canned pumpkin and canned sweetened condensed milk.
But the yogurt maker still works thirty years later (good to see some things are built to last). I made a batch last night but haven't tried any yet. I added some homemade chocolate syrup to half the batch, so I'm looking forward to my dessert.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The challenge
So I've decided to give up food packaging for a while. Those soymilk boxes and the gazillions of plastic bags and plastic containers have been bothering me for a while. I see foods that are supposed to be pure and healthy, but they are packaged in all of this plastic! I have had enough. This means that aside from the fruits and veggies I can grow myself, I am bringing my own bags, boxes and bottles to the store. Luckily there is a natural foods store nearby that sells bulk. The woman at the counter didn't think that I was wierd for bringing a ketchup bottle to fill with soy sauce. I always save jars so I just brought a bunch to the store. So now I have a pretty assortment of beans and grains and chocolate chips in various jars. It looks pretty cool.
Today I tried to find tortillas. They always come in thin plastic here. When I was fifteen I spent a summer in Mexico. We woud take our tortilla holder to the local tortilleria about every other day and get amazing fresh tortillas- with absolutely no packaging. So I went to my local tortilleria here in L.A., but the tortillas had already been placed in plastic. I bought some anyway. At least its a local, small business rather than a corporate tortilla. I went late in the day, when they were almost closing. I'm going to go back early in the morning next time to see if I can get some tortillas straight of the assembly line.
Today I tried to find tortillas. They always come in thin plastic here. When I was fifteen I spent a summer in Mexico. We woud take our tortilla holder to the local tortilleria about every other day and get amazing fresh tortillas- with absolutely no packaging. So I went to my local tortilleria here in L.A., but the tortillas had already been placed in plastic. I bought some anyway. At least its a local, small business rather than a corporate tortilla. I went late in the day, when they were almost closing. I'm going to go back early in the morning next time to see if I can get some tortillas straight of the assembly line.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
