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A Year of Changing Consumption - Environmental Impact

4/21/2018

To celebrate Earth Day! Let's commit to changing our habits for the better.
There has been a lot of discussion of late on how we as consumers can change our habits to improve the environmental impact. From replacing plastic bags with paper or cloth to the straws in restaurants question. I've decided to take every opportunity to change my habits and anything of interest I'll post to this blog.

Big in the media lately, the message is clear - Stop using plastic! That means plastic water bottles, plastic bags, plastic straws and so much more.

It is everywhere and now apparently there are small particles in water bottles.
Restaurants in PEI are changing their straw policy - they would rather you not use one but if you do, it will be a paper one.
Plastic Bag Reduction Act - proposed as a private member's bill, we can only hope that the Liberal MLA is supported by both his collegues and other Parties.

Some small changes so far:
1) No more aluminum foil - I use parchment paper to cover pans if needed when cooking and put left overs in class containers that they can be reheated in.
2) Replacing dishes with more durable, long lasting ones made from copper/steel lined, steel bowls, etc.
3) Glass water bottles for traveling, rather than plastic water bottles - our well water is of good quality and tested yearly.
4) A French press for coffee rather than a coffee maker or K-cup machine.
5) Added a mattress topper to our mattress rather than replacing the mattress.

Working on trying to examine each area of our life and make small changes to eliminate waste, reduce energy use, and conserve water.

Want to Recycle things you don't use anymore:

Electronics - computers, displays, mice, printers, audio, home systems etc.
Batteries - Sobeys/Superstore have drop off boxes or call2Recycle
Mattresses/Household Furniture - Bibles for Missions, Habitat Restore, Salvation Army, Gifts from the Heart Inc., all accept used furniture. Contact WWDC - Waste Watch Disposal Centre 1-888-280-8111 since mattresses can be recycled for re-manufacturing.

Vegan Recipe Version of one of our Favourites - Donairs

8/23/2017

Recipe Donair
Faux Meat
2 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup chopped onion or (2tsp onion powder)
16 cloves of garlic or 4 tsp garlic powder
1 cup water
1/2 tsp of thyme and 1/2 tsp of chili
1/2 tsp of smoky paprika (or not)
Pepper/Salt to taste

1. Put it all in the food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Spread 1/2 inch thick ( I used a square silicon pan)
3. Bake at 350c for 1 hour or until firm and not wet.

Donair Sauce
My version is a little different.

1 cup vegan mayonnaise of your choice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 bulbs (not cloves) of garlic

1. Puree and store in fridge.

My husband and I have eaten vegan off and on for years now. After colon cancer surgery however I believe we will be more vegan on than off. The other night my husband is craving a donair, like really, really craving it and meat isn't being digested the way it should be anymore. I'm feeling for him, since I know that he really likes them. So I started a hunt for a vegan donair recipe. If you don't know what a donair is? and that would mean you haven't been to the Atlantic region of Canada and/or never meant a 'donair fantactic' then read this article to get yourself up to date. Most of the recipes used TVP (textured vegetable protein) and I like to do my recipes as easy and as whole food as possible. I decided to use cooked brown rice (not white there is a difference in texture and colour).

Here is the recipe I used (modified to use real onions and garlic but if you want use 4tsp garlic powder and 2 tsp onion powder instead of the fresh stuff).

To make the donairs, just use a wrap or pita (I make my own gluten free wraps in my gluten-free cookbook) and then add lettuce, tomatoes and purple onion with the sliced up faux donair meat and pour the sauce over and of course you spread the sauce on the wrap or pita first too. You could also add in chopped up dill pickles.

The Big C word - Cancer

8/10/2017

My husband and I have been eating very healthy meals for years now. So you can imagine our surprise when out of the blue (although the doctor said it can take 8-9years to slowly develop) we are told he has colon cancer. The surprise journey started May 22nd and we thought it would end June 22nd the day of surgery, but oh what an adventure. I hope to have a few more blogs on our journey to share the experience with you to hopefully save you some mistakes along the way or at least ease your thoughts a little. It has been very educational so far!

Prince Edward Island Tourism Word Search Puzzles

2/21/2017

I had fun recently working on a word search puzzle, something I loved as a kid. Since colouring books are being made for adults now, I thought word search puzzles for adults would be cool. The theme I'm considering Prince Edward Island Tourism wood search puzzles. I have two done below for your enjoyment....flypei.com and PEI beaches. Enjoy!

Healthy 2017 - Eating, de-cluttering and more.

12/26/2016

It is that time of year again where you look back at your 2016 and decided what you do and don't want to do again in 2017. Often this involved focusing on healthy eating, less spending or spending wiser, getting rid of the junk in your life physically and mentally, and just general looking to make your life better.

I started early - yep the juicer is out again! For those locally you can't beat Mount Edward Grocery or Brookfield Farms for inexpensive beets, carrots etc for your juicing. While I don't do the juice fast, I find adding a breakfast juice of one apple, 1 large beet and two carrots a great start to the day. Beets are sooo good for your health - vitamins, trace minerals and your liver will love you. Don't worry if you see a little red in your urine or stool that is perfectly normal. More on Beets and on juicing.

So I am now starting my day with a apple/beet/carrot juice and a raw cereal breakfast (Mine has walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and dates with coconut milk over the top.) Here is a breakfast one for you though.

De-cluttering is harder for some than others, fortunately I've been a mininalist most of my life. I have found though that de-cluttering is more than material things it is also the clutter you let into your life. I have often referred to this as being pecked to death by ducks. It is all the little things adding up to clutter your mind. So your first step is to ask yourself if you need x? in your life? I now volunteer for a project rather than a two year term on a board. Or is there something in your life where you find is tiring....always moving x? to get to y?. Well start to streamline - what will make it easier and less of a stress? Well do that!

A philosophy I've always tried to follow is to have a place for everything and keep everything in it's place. This will also help you to declutter material things. If you notice that you have something that every year you look at and it is just sitting there then maybe you don't need that item anymore.

Wishing you great successs in making 2017 your best New Year yet.

Growing 2016 Sitti's Garden

5/14/2016

2016 is the year of many new gardening ventures. Using sheet composting I've planted five 50foot rows of strawberries, and have three 40ft rows ready to plant goji berries. Then 1/2 acre has been tilled and being made into 28 50ft rows with straw between them as permanent raised beds 30" wide and will have everything from eggplant, peppers, kale and so much more. Finally, in process are herb/flower beds to grow some interesting herbs for medicinal, culinary, and for dyes. This will be a busy year and a great learning year. I'm planning to sell at the Stratford Farmers Market on Saturdays from June 25th to September 9am to 2pm.

ECDA Gardening Presentation

5/6/2016

Today I'm presenting to the Early Childhood Development Association on gardening for daycare centres. I'll be showing the benefits for mental, physical and economic health of gardening plus offering a hands on 'how to make your own paper pots' from newspaper origami style. Should be fun!

Check out the presentation here.

Origami Pots

Potatoes in Tires the Experiment

5/3/2016

Remembering my early years and my poppy's garden - he grew potatoes in tires. I can remember him throwing the tires off and potatoes cascading out - my memory as a 5 year old. Now as I'm older, I am amazed as the ease in which he threw those tires. I wish I had the foresight to grill him on growing veggies while he was alive! No blogs to refer back to then. :-) I'll plant potatoes in the field like normal but I'm dedicating a space to test the growing of potatoes in tires this year.

Pictures shown below - started with a base covering soil with grass or in this case black fabric. This is I hope to prevent wireworms from coming out of the soil into the tires. The put down a tire (pick them up from gas stations or recycle centre for free!), then add soil to fill just over half of the tire. Place four seed potatoes (certified if you live in PEI), and then cover to the top with remaining soil. I then covered with buckwheat again to the hopes to deter wireworms. In another few weeks I'll plant a bean plant in the centre of the tire to deter potato beetles (usually I surround my potatoes with beans and this works very well.)

As the potatoes grow I'll add tire with dirt, when the potato plant goes higher I'll do the same again. I think I'll probably get 4 or 5 tires. I'll post again later.

Update July 4th, 2016 - I've topped up the potatoes with soil and in another week or so will add the second tire. I've also picked 4 potato tires to use straw instead of soil to top them up to see if they grow the same. There were zero potato beetles on the plants.

Strawberries, Row Cover and Sheet Composting - Sustainably Grown

5/3/2016

A huge gamble I hope plays off - I planted my ever bearing Albion strawberry transplants Monday, May 2nd almost a full two weeks before the last frost date. I'm hoping using a different method of growing will give me the success I'm hoping for, with the good news being I only planted 500 strawberry plants.

Sheet composting - It has been around a while and I've previously used a similar method commonly called lasagna gardening - it worked very well for us on absolutely horrible soil. This time I followed the guide by Oregon Department of Extensions - Here is the article. Pictures below some of the process - I started with marking out a 50foot by 30inch bed and then times it by 5 for a total of 250 square feet. The I put down either wet newspaper in a good layer or cardboard. Then followed with either small pieces of bark, goat compost, or leaves depending what I had at the time. Next layer was straw. Followed by a mixed compost and lastly by soil....dug from our small treed area.

Strawberry Transplants - I ordered them in December 2015 for Late April delivery and to be planted according to the Farmers Almanac on May 1/2 but since May 1st was our Orthodox Easter....they were all transplanted May 2nd. Great customer service from G. W Allen Nursery in Nova Scotia who kindly called to politely ask if I was crazy to have them come in about 2 weeks earlier than everyone else. I explained my logic - truly hoping I'm right. Build sheet composting beds (so the ground isn't frozen), and covering with Agribon 19 with hoops to increase the temperature and protect from frost. Also I put straw around the strawberry transplants to keep the weeds down and to add a mulch. Then on the outside of the row covers we put more straw to help hold the row covers down and to keep the weeds down within the aisles.

Row Cover - The row covers were made of electrical conduit 1/2 ten feet long cut in two $4 each, and 12 inches of rebar pre-cut $2.19 each. The rebar is put into the ground 6 inches with 6 inches on top to bend the 5 foot pvc tubing into. Then all this is covered with agribon-19 (I ran out and used Dollar Store frost cover and it looks fine at a 1/3 of the cost). Finally, the cover is fastened onto the pvc tubing with clothes pins (wide at the bottom) purchased for .15cents a piece.

Below shows the 5 rows of strawberries in row cover and the field to be made into beds.

Harvesting Parnips

4/22/2016

You have the choice to harvest in the late fall or in the spring when the ground thaws. Since we are harvesting a lot of other produce items in the fall, we chose to harvest our parsnips this spring. At left there is a picture of some of the harvest. Yum.

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