A few things I’ve been thinking on recently…

I’ve just realised how long it’s been since I last wrote a post.  Life has been flying by as we try to fit a million things into the last few weeks before we have a tiny human earth-side  (he’s nearly cracked the 2kg mark!) who will need feeding every hour for the next 6 months…No doubt there will be even less blogging going on once he’s here!

I have had so many blog topics running around my head that it’s been hard to know where to start.  I’ve been doing so much thinking and learning over the last few weeks from people far smarter than myself!  I feel like I need to do a little mental download so I don’t forget all of these thoughts.

Do any of these topics sound interesting to you?  Let me know and I’ll write about that next.

Minimalism & Zerowaste

I’ve been thinking a lot about how minimalism and the zerowaste mindset can fit together.  I feel a little bit drowned by all the ‘stuff’ we already have in #thelittlegreycottage (even though I know it’s not that bad – our house is a tiny 90m2 at a push so we really can’t fit much in it).  I have been struggling to know how or what to move on whilst being conscious about the waste I’m producing by doing that!  Thankfully, Lindsay at Treading My Own Path has loads of resources available on her blog here about the topic and I’m thinking of going through her Hoarder to Minimalist book resources here but I’m not sure I should be totally jumping into that project just before I have a baby…is anyone interested in doing something like that together for peer support in the future?  I’ve been taking photos of our drawers as we slowly use up products and switch out to healthier and more environmentally conscious options.  Would you be interested in seeing our drawers and cupboards transition during our zerowaste journey?  You can gasp in horror at the amount of body care products I’ve hoarded over the last 15 years…

Hosting an eco-concious baby shower

I’ve been thinking about our little Baby-Q (our very low key BBQ version of a baby shower) and how we can run parties with as minimal waste as possible.  It’s been challenging and a little stressful to be honest!  Running events without thinking about the consequences to the environment is a whole lot easier let me tell you!  I’ve had to compromise here and there to meet budget and time/stress constraints, but I could fill you in on some choices we’ve made to help you plan your next event?

Setting up a low-waste nursery and eco maternity and baby choices

We’ve been finishing off our little nursery and have been able to make a few choices here and there to reduce waste and avoid crazy baby consumerism as much as possible.  We’ve also had a few mega ‘fails’ (like the amount of plastic packaging our pram just arrived in that we ordered pre-zerowaste journey), but we’re learning and growing!  I could do a quick little tour of the nursery and go over a few of the choices we’ve made to reduce our impact on the environment and a few thoughts on surviving pregnancy with minimal waste.

DIY zerowaste beauty and body-care products

I’ve been switching out a lot of my beauty and body care products recently and making my own and have noticed that my skin is just starting to change which is so exciting! It has been horrible all pregnancy! I still have lots of commercial products to use up first before everything switches over, but I’ve swapped to zerowaste/lowtoxin deodorant, makeup remover, body wash, hand wash, face powder, magnesium oil, tooth powder, dry shampoo, lip balm, face toner and face oil if you’re at all interested in learning about any of these?  Soon, I’ll have to find alternatives to foundation, mascara (my cousin is making me some of her zerowaste mascara!), shampoo/conditioner and I’m excited to use up my plastic razor heads so I can switch to a zerowaste razor!

Social media and raising a child in an online world 

This is something Tom and I have been thinking about a lot recently!  I probably have far too idealistic views on raising a child who loves books and the outdoors (hahaha I can hear all of you parents judging me and chuckling away don’t you worry…) but man some well educated people have really challenged me and got me thinking about the positive and negative impact technology has on our children and their development.  Tom’s a primary school teacher and one of his main areas of expertise is using technology in the school environment, so we’ve found this topic so interesting to talk about!  I’ve been listening to some fabulous podcasts on this topic and would totally recommend checking them out.  I particularly loved Raising Kids in a Digital World (they discuss the neuroscience behind techno-tantrums!) and Disconnect to Reconnect.  These podcasts plus a few others have really challenged me to make changes around my personal use of my iPhone, social media and the internet in general.  To try and start setting a good example for my son, I’ve decided to make a few drastic changes this week and I’m already noticing huge changes in my habits and wellbeing!  Would you like to hear about what changes I’ve made and try them out for yourself?

Food waste and why I don’t meal plan (shock horror!)

I’ve also been listening to heaps of podcasts – mostly from the amazing Laura Trotta who is an environmental engineer (yeah for women in science!!) – about food waste.  What a challenge!!  We’ve been really trying to reduce our reliance on our compost heap by reducing our food waste as much as possible.  Check out these horrific stats:

• Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted.
• Fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food.
• Global quantitative food losses and waste per year are roughly 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat and dairy plus 35% for fish.
• Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes).
• Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kg a year in Europe and North America, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-eastern Asia, each throw away only 6-11 kg a year.

Most zerowaste advocates promote strict meal planning as the main way to reduce food waste, but I actually find that the opposite is true for me!  Bit of a controversial topic in the eco world – but would you like to hear about why I don’t meal plan?

Eco-anxiety and environmental guilt

I’m easily overwhelmed with the weight of responsibility to protect people and the World and have been thinking about this topic a lot!  When our pram arrived with every single individual piece wrapped in soft plastic, I felt so guilty and was in a bit of a funk for a few days over it!  Which sounds totally crazy I know and almost ruined the joy of being grateful that we could afford such a lovely pram which will last us for all of our children and likely the next decade (how ridiculous!!).  Thankfully one of my favourite podcasts must have read my mind, because they’ve just uploaded two podcasts on this exact topic!  If you’re feeling overwhelmed or discouraged – check out these two podcasts from The Slow Home Podcast – How to go zero waste (slowly) with Erin Rhoads (Erin is amazing and I love her blog here) and How to tame the eco-anxiety and tit-for-tat gift giving (a must listen to in the lead up to Christmas too) .  I really want to join Ben and Brooke McAlary’s Live Life Simply online retreat however it starts just when I’ll be having a baby!  Hopefully they run another one in the future that I can jump on board with.  Let me know if you join them – I would love to hear how you find it!

I’m sorry that was a lot of rambling but it’s been boiling up in side! Do any of those topics interest you? What would you like to hear about?

A blog about chicken stock that turned into a blog about mindfulness

I’m honestly absolutely loving the challenge of reducing our household waste and being responsible and accountable for what we buy and how we use it. I thought I’d write a quick blog about how our thinking has changed in such a short space of time and a practical example which we hope you find encouraging!

We eat meat about once a week to once a fortnight these days for several reasons (the meat industry has a huge impact on our environment, animal welfare is important to us, meat is hard to find without packaging, a healthy diet shouldn’t rely on meat as a source of protein and we often don’t have money in the budget to afford it).

We had a beautiful friend over for lunch the other day and chose to use that meal as our meat meal for the week. We went to the local butcher with our glass container aiming to buy chicken. There was not a single piece of chicken in sight that wasn’t covered in plastic (yuck from a health and waste perspective).

We were short on time and had to make a purchase so we thought through our options as mindfully as possible. We decided to buy a whole chicken which is not something I usually would have done! Ordinarily, I would have bought a pack of 6 trimmed chicken thighs or beasts. We decided that buying the whole chicken was actually the option with the least packaging and allowed us to respect the whole bird (although it was cleaned out so we didn’t have any organs to use).  Several chickens would have been killed to make a tray of thighs and I probably would have cooked them all up and just used them for one meal. The whole bird option was also cheaper.  So I roasted up a whole chook for lunch which was easy and delicious with waste free herbs, lemon and garlic from the markets. We served it with a large salad and the whole meal was totally satisfying and nutritious. We ate some left over meat off the bone for lunch the next day and the doggies got some bits that had gone a bit dry the day after.

We then cut up the carcass and made our first chicken and vegie stock from scratch! I saved vegie scraps (herb roots/ends of vegies/skins) from a vegie meal I made and simmered the chicken carcass and vegie scraps down with water for several hours one night.

Chopped up chicken carcass

Add in vegie scraps

I then let the pot sit in the fridge, scooped off the fat in the morning, strained the stock through a sieve and froze it in our ice cube tray (I’d love to purchase a stainless steel one eventually but they are quite the investment).

Simmering away…

Into the freezer for future meals

I was so surprised at how concentrated, thick and delicious the stock was!

We then were able to compost all the left overs from simmering the stock into our Urban Composter. The Urban Composter can accept meat scraps which is amazing as it’s anaerobic system that uses microorganisms to ferment waste rather than having it rot down/eaten by worms. The instructions say not to put in meat bones, however I risked it as the chicken bones had been roasted and then boiled down for over three hours and were really squishy. The Urbancomposter lets off liquid we collect and use as liquid fertiliser in the garden and after a few weeks of fermenting, we transfer our Urbancomposter contents in to our large compost bin outside with all of our worm friends (which is completely sealed so we haven’t had any problems with scavenger animals yet). We only use our large compost bin twice a year when turning our beds, so the stuff in there has a long time to decompose.

We’ve also now saved the need to buy more fresh stock in a TetraPaks which are a recycling nightmare and our stock has no added sugar or salt, so it’s healthier on our bodies and the planet.

I hope this shows how easy it is to be a bit more mindful with our purchases so that we can tread as lightly on the Earth as possible and use our resources as respectfully as we can. Ideally, I would have purchased chicken not wrapped in plastic, but sometimes you have to make the best of what you’ve got and know that the little changes you’re making have life-long impacts.

By making a few mindful decisions, we were able to enjoy a yummy meal with a friend and value relationships. We were able to use the chicken in a multitude of ways to respect its life. We were able to make a nutritious stock and save the possibility of creating more waste another day. We were able to compost all of our scraps so nothing was left over at the end of the day. We strive for improvement not perfection.  Remember that ‘zero-waste’ is an ideology and a movement – not a set of rules aimed to weigh you down, overwhelm you or make you feel guilty. Tom and I have known about mindfulness for a long time and at times in my life I have ‘done’ mindfulness really well. Since embarking on this journey to consume less and be kinder on our bodies and home, I’ve found that mindfulness is more than just a buzzword or something you practice for 5 minutes a day. It’s a lifestyle and a way of thinking. It challenges every decision, slows you down and urges you to come back to your values first.

At its core, mindfulness is simply the opposite of mindlessness.
And don’t we all need a little more mindful chicken stock in our life.