In the kitchen, the proper 4th direction!

I had green living as the 4th direction in a previous title, but it's too wide a field. Now that I'm a stay-at-home mum, a lot of my work centres around the kitchen. There was room to make considerable progress in terms of green living, so here is what we've been up to:

What comes in:

• I've breastfed both our children for 2 years, so we have not used much formula nor growing-up milk, saving on processing, packaging and food miles. Breastmilk is the ultimate local food! However, I have produced it thanks to an enormous consumption of chocolate crepes and Volvic, so that might outweigh the above. But there are so many other benefits to breastfeeding that I might have to post just about it.
• I now mostly buy organic fruit and veg, either from the supermarket or our fabulous organic grocery, Unicorn, in Chorlton, which seeks to stock local produce, and organic milk, butter, cheese, eggs, beef and chicken, from the supermarket. If only Unicorn wasn't vegan!
• I buy frozen broccoli, peas and French beans by the kilo, so they all come packaged in a large plastic bag that's not recyclable as far as I can tell, but not as bad as foam trays and cling film. We do re-use though - see below.
• I get our herbs and spices from Unicorn in biodegradable bags, so no glass jars with lids nor card boxes with plastic pouches that get thrown out.
• We almost eat a chicken every week, so that's up to 45 chickens a year, which sounds a lot, even for a family of 4. I have been thinking about keeping some hens, and the idea of having to kill and pluck 45 of them over the course of only a year sounds terrible. Another example of how, if you know what's involved in getting food on the table, you're more likely to consider it as a precious commodity. (The opposite of out of sight, out of mind, I guess.) I do get 3 meals out of one chicken though, e.g. Sunday roast, jambalaya and stock for soup. I am so chuffed about making chicken stock with the carcasse (in the pressure cooker) that it's more like a hobby!
• We eat local honey, produced by a beekeeper who lives down the road from us, which is handy so I can return the empty jars to him.
• Still buying a sliced loaf of bread on a weekly basis from the supermarket: I really must get my act together on the bread-making front, so I can use organic flour and avoid the plastic bag and the food miles. I have a bread maker after all, although I guess it's not great as it uses electricity for kneading and I don't know how energy-efficient it is for baking. Does it help that it's smaller than our oven? To be fair, it doesn't help that when I do bake some bread, it often goes stale because some people are a bit lazy on the bread slicing front. Hint/nag. But I do love French toast for breakfast so it doesn't go to waste. I have not tried making bread crumbs. Note, stale bread is not good for birds! It swells in their stomach.
• I've considerably reduced my consumption of Volvic bottled water. I only drink it upstairs! Downstairs, as a family, we now drink filtered water, and I dilute all fruit juices (not from concentrate), approximate 1 to 10 ratio - I find they're too sweet otherwise. I have started using Suma's fab apple concentrate (one of Donnachadh McCarthy's suggestions), which I get from Unicorn; it's packaged in a glass bottle. Accessorily, could anybody tell me what the difference is between squash and high juice?
• Recycled kitchen towel and tissues (closing the loop).

How it comes in:

• I get our supermarket shopping delivered at home. Is it worse in terms of emissions? Anna Shepard says it gets 25 cars off the road. I've given up on delivery with bags at last, which has made a big difference.
• We re-use the plastic carrier bags we have left, or use them as bin liners or recycle them if they are ripped.
• I drive to Unicorn :( but I walk to the greengrocer's and the butcher's (not organic - just can't win).
• I bought a Turtle pink net bag from Unicorn

and also some washable net bags (a bit like these Onya bags) to avoid using plastic bags (or even paper bags) for fruit and veg when I go to the local greengrocer's or Unicorn.


• We've got a large number of canvas bags and 2 large trolley bags (from Lakeland). I also have a shopping trolley, which I'm proud to say I got in 1997. Very avant-garde in an old lady way!
• The Hamster bags on the pushchair are definitely worth mentioning: much safer than balancing bags on the handles.

How we process it:

• I have mastered several new recipes so I now cook from scratch most days. When I started cooking again in September 2011, I resorted to ready meals almost every day. What a mountain of waste that produced... But now, I am almost in the position of devising a 2-week meal plan, although I want to remain flexible so I can use leftovers. (My objective is 4 weeks.)
• A few cookery books:

The Busy Mum's Cookbook, which I got for Christmas, for standard recipes



River Cottage Family cookbook, which I got from the library and loved so much I bought a 2nd-hand copy. (I like it much better than the 1st River Cottage cookbook that we got ages ago and I never use.) I like the kick of Cayenne pepper in macaroni cheese, our Thursday evening staple.



Richard Fox - How to be an Everyday Kitchen Magician (library), a companion book to the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign that has really helped me develop my confidence with leftovers. Easy chicken biriyani recipe.



Catherine Phipps - The Pressure Cooker Cookbook (library), with a recipe for lemon curd!



Richard Ehrlich - 80 recipes for your Pressure Cooker (library)



Paul Peacock - Precycle! (library), with recipes for ketchup, baked beans, microwave marmalade and chocolate and hazelnut spread. I definitely want to try and make my own Nuttela. If I get it right, I might even be able to stop buying chocolate crepes (and make my own until I quit the habit altogether).



Also found a good curry recipe in India Knight's Thrift Book, taken from Vicky Bhogal's Cooking like Mummy.



A booklet about thrifty cooking published by The Independent in a series about the new good life. The author, Kate Colquhoun, has also published The Thrifty Cookbook, which I've not read.

I have also found a recipe for Balsamic vinegar in Christopher Hedley and Non Shaw's book.

• We have a gas cooker. DH tells me it takes longer to cook on our gas cooker than it does on our camping hob, which is powered by Calor gas - butane. It's interesting to think about the whole mains gas infrastructure involved in powering our cooker as opposed to just getting a bottle refill (as my mum does in the French Alps). But then this is a short-term issue anyway since we will run out of gas soon... I try and make better use of the heat: if I bake something in the oven, I try and use the other shelf for something else, or I bake something else immediately afterwards to save on preheating and losing heat twice. Common sense really, but it takes a bit of planning. And also, we do not have a radiator in the kitchen.
• Extensive use of the pressure cooker.
• I got 3 Stellar stainless steel saucepans for Christmas:



My mum was a bit worried about the wobbly handles on our old set so it was time for an upgrade. My new saucepans are considerably more efficient. Not non-stick, mind you, I don't trust these funny coatings anymore. But they are 3-ply with aluminium in the middle, which isn't great apparently. The smallest one is great for decoctions.

• I also got a back steamer for Mother's Day to steam veg over boiling rice or pasta. No perfume or lingerie for me this year! (Commercial perfume may be bad for us, so I don't might that too much. Lingerie on the other hand is a big sacrifice.)
• For storage, we own energy-efficient appliances (large fridge, 2 freezers) and have a big larder cupboard for tins and pulses, which is good for bulk buying. Extensive use of klippits. I now store my potatoes in a jute bag.
• I love my Maryse spatula from Unicorn, a French classic (rubber and beech handle) to scrape every last drop of risotto, sauce, soup, batter or cake mixture from the pan or bowl. My kids also ask me to scrape their yogurt pots. Hmmm. Is it a bad sign?




• Lemons are zested, then juiced to death, for lemon risotto, lemon curd, cleaning products, then deposited in the dishwasher to help degrease. (Incidentally, I tried using just borax and soda crystals in the dishwasher, but it didn't cut the mustard, so I have reverted to dishwasher powder. Watch this space as I will soon test the one from Unicorn, by Sodasan or Sonnett.) DH, approving of my lemon curd making, just got me a preserve labelling kit from Cath Kidston!


• A bit of sprouting.

What comes out (or not):

• We re-use frozen veg bags and cereal bags as sandwich bags. A good reason to get or make a specific bag holder or tidy. Donnachadh McCarthy suggests re-using magazine wrap for the same purpose, but is this kind of plastic food-safe?
• I keep glass jars and lids for preserves and aromatherapy products, like bath salts. I have a glass engraver I can use to embellish them, on top of my brand-new labelling kit - see above.
• We recycle paper, cartons and cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, cans and tins, food scraps (kerb collection), plastic carrier bags, batteries and water filter cartridges (supermarket), plastic bottle lids (Lush).
• We compost veg peelings, tea bags, etc. but not citrus peel. 
• We still manage to throw food away, e.g. slimy lettuce still in its plastic wrap... Grrrr.

Other ideas:

• I must grown my own herbs on the window sill.
• Growing some stuff in the garden of course, at least radishes!
• I need to start making my own granola again.
• Other supplier of meat, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, more local.
• Using apple cores and peelings to make my own cider (can't remember where I saw this recipe though).
• Investigate halogen ovens

Eco-friendly child's birthday party

We threw a big birthday party for our 4-year-old son in March. I did a bit of research to try and make it as green as possible. We started planning it a couple of months in advance. I hope you'll find some useful tips.

Theme:
I drew up a list: super-heroes, Mr Men, pirates, The Gruffalo. DS1 chose his favourite hero, Tree Fu Tom, which was perfect. I didn't insist too much on explaining the eco-friendly aspect as DS1 is a bit young.

Outfit:
DH chose some green satin fabric, drew a pattern and cut out a leaf shape, and I put it together with the sewing machine and some bias tape for the neckline. The wadding layer gave it a nice quilted effect. We got the sap stone and holopax from a CBeebies magazine. We used normal clothes for the rest of the outfit (light blue long-sleeved T-shirt, dark blue sleeveless top as a tunic, beige trousers, belt).

Venue:
We chose to hold the party at Red House Farm in Dunham Massey so it would have more of an outdoorsy feel.
In hindsight, as the entertainment consisted in a barrel train ride pulled by a tractor, an inflatable slide and a bouncy castle, all using energy, and everybody drove to the venue, it wasn't particularly green. Plus, the weather turned out to be freezing, just before the freak wave of snowfalls, so all the parents huddled by a patio heater... But we had a great time!

We also considered a proper outdoor party with woodland activities as proposed by Nature's Den in Worsley (bug hunt, den building, bow and arrows and open fire cooking). That'll be for next year!

Invitations:
I sent out an email or a card (requesting parents' email address) to save the date. I found invitation websites such as evite.com too much trouble, so I just followed up with an invitation via email, addressed to the child, with additional information for parents:

• DS's name, specifying 4th birthday
• theme (but no need to dress up)
• our phone number
• venue address and phone number and link to a map for directions
• Does you child have any dietary requirements (gluten/lactose/eggs/nuts)?
• RSVP deadline

Birthday presents and gift wrapping:
We had a long hard think about this one and came up with the following statement:

"We do not expect any presents for DS1. However, if you wish to bring a gift, please consider a green option, such a used wooden toy or book from your own home or a charity shop, wrapped in newspaper or a reusable gift bag, with a homemade birthday card."

I was delighted when most families took to this approach like a duck to water. We received several second-hand books and some yummy homemade rock cakes, a spare truck, a butterfly hatching kit (my favourite - loved the sound of wings flapping, even the chrysalids were beautiful, and we can always order more caterpillars to use it again),



a bug house



and lots of handmade cards. Most presents were wrapped in kraft paper decorated with drawings, in particular a beautiful collection of rainbow catterpillars.

This made us think about what we give other kids. In future, we'll consider live plants, farmers' market finds e.g. lemon curd or honey, organic food e.g. Green & Black chocolate, fair trade items e.g. notebook from Oxfam, second-hand books or wooden toys, homemade toys e.g. cloth dolly, a tree planted or an animal adopted through a wildlife conservation organisation, a theatre ticket, a pass to a museum or aquarium.

But I confess that my favourite present to give at the moment is this wonderful book illustrated by Mark Hearld:

I usually wrap presents in blue kraft paper left-over from my pottery days, but I'm also interested in the Japanese method of wrapping gifts in fabric.

Food and drink:
I made our own chocolate cake. Instead of sugar, I used fructose and chopped dates. Red House Farm use local food. I requested some carrot sticks but they were forgotten.
I meant to collect leftovers and share with guests, and gather food scraps for the farm's hens, but it didn't happen, as I was too busy on the day.

Tableware:
I made sure that the venue used reusable plates and cups. But we had a paper table cloth and paper napkins. Parents' hot drinks were in paper cups too :(
I thought that writing the kids' names on their cups was a good idea (not mine!) but I didn't have time to do it on the day. That would probably work better for a smaller party.

Decor:
We didn't use any balloons, foil banners nor plastic trinkets.
I had planned on making a birthday banner but didn't have time. I guess I was put off by the need for one in English and one in French! I want to make some bunting too.
I hung a selection of our children's artwork on the walls: dead leaf collage, paper plates painted into ladybirds, butterflies, etc.
I don't think I'll go down the pinata route: I find all this stick wielding a bit hazardous! But I love the idea of making our own with papier maché, especially in the shape of a hateful figure rather than a poor donkey (how very PC of me, or unPC if encouraging kids to hit a war-mongering politician falls in this category).

Green games:
In future, I definitely want to organise a mud run!

Other ideas I have come across:

• Charge an Entry “Fee”: ask each of your guests to bring something recyclable like empty cans, plastic bottles or old newspapers, especially if it used to be litter! (Bit holier than thou IMO.)
• Outdoors: hide-and-seek, tag, Nature Scavenger Hunt, mud run. Indoors: Twister, musical statues, Blind Man’s Buff, Pass The Parcel (use old newspaper and recycle afterwards).
• Craft: make one of the first games an art activity letting kids draw their favourite animal (without its tail) on a piece of cardboard, drawing the animal's tail on a small strip of recycled paper, then randomly choose a drawing to be featured in a "pin the tail on the animal" game. Make birdie treats, grass heads, button clocks, recycled notebooks. Kids randomly pick packs of seeds and plant flowers, herbs or small vegetables in small pots they can take home. Kids decorate recycled cardboard airplanes that they can take home.

Party bags and thank-you cards:
I made our own paper bags with blue kraft paper. I used a model from Ethical Kidz. I attached a green paper tag cut in the shape of a leaf with a piece of cotton string.

No plastic toys: I included a packet of radish seeds (French breakfast of course ;) ) and a wooden Star stamp (from Ethical Kidz) so parents don't need to use star stickers for reward charts anymore.

No chemical sweets: I didn't have time to make anything so I included a Be Fruity fig bar (not so good from a packaging point of view).

Other ideas I have come across:

• A miniature potted plant, e.g. ivy, cactus, spider plant
• Grass heads
• Birdie treats
• Recycled rainbow crayons
• Ask guests to bring a gently used children’s book to exchange. Place all of the books in a box by the door and let kids pick out a ‘new’ book to take home as they’re leaving the party.
• Print mini colouring books on recycled paper based on your theme.
• Ethical traditional wooden toys such as animal-topped pencils, spinning tops, small jigsaw puzzle, skipping rope
• Fair-trade wooden or papier-mâché models for children to assemble and paint
• Homemade play dough
• Polished stones or geodes.
• Reusable drink containers

DS1 signed thank-you cards for his class mates. For the other children, I sent thank-you messages via email.

Conclusion: the main problem to make the party greener is a lack of time!

(Please note I have found most of these ideas whilst trawling the internet and, though I am not giving proper credit as I didn't make a note of the original websites, I don't claim them as my own.)