Plastic

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I got this site of my other group but thought is interesting enough to send it along. One more reason not to use anything plastic. In addition to the health problems that plastic can give you, there is a huge problem with garbage and damage to ecosystems.

 

http://tinyurl.com/2xsjjo

 

Barbara

[Guest guest]

Absolutely horrendous. :-(Cyndi

 

In a message dated 8/16/2007 7:59:53 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, barbara3 writes:

 

Hi All,

 

I got this site of my other group but thought is interesting enough to send it along. One more reason not to use anything plastic. In addition to the health problems that plastic can give you, there is a huge problem with garbage and damage to ecosystems.

 

http://tinyurl.com/2xsjjo

 

Barbara

 

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[Guest guest]

We are trying to drastically reduce our use of plastic, especially

non-recyclable bags. It is still a comedy of errors when I shop at

the regular grocery stores and bring my own bags. It causes such

confusion and consternation that you would think I was handing them

live snakes rather than canvas bags. :>) I'm sure we will get the

bagging routine down eventually and I won't feel so freaky! They

still manage to sneak in a couple of plastic bags when I'm paying.

It's just a few years ago that small paper bags were available at

every grocery for produce and you could carry your groceries home in

a box...now it's " weird. "

If it's a choice between buying a product in plastic or glass; I'll

take glass. Houston doesn't have curbside glass recycling, but my

son & daughter-in-law take it to the center and I compost their

kitchen scraps for them since they live in an apartment. Sweet!

And, I am abandonning the cases of bottled water that I used to take

to work. I'll just refill a cold cup. As far as trash bags,I read

about some tall kitchen can bags from Norway that are made from

cornstarch. Does anyone use those? We recycle as much as we can, but

we do need something for the massive amt of kitty litter that we

produce each week. It's too much to bury in the yard, even though

it's pine litter.

 

 

 

 

RealSimple , " Barbara " <barbara3 wrote:

>

> Hi All,

>

> I got this site of my other group but thought is interesting enough

to send it along. One more reason not to use anything plastic. In

addition to the health problems that plastic can give you, there is a

huge problem with garbage and damage to ecosystems.

>

> http://tinyurl.com/2xsjjo

>

> Barbara

>

[Guest guest]

I've heard of those garbage bags, but I have no idea where they might be available. It's hard to get away from plastic, isn't it? Someone posted a list one time of every day household stuff that contains petrochemicals, and it's pretty much everything, ugh.

 

We have no curbside recycling here either, which in CA should be a sin! But we take our recyclables down to a center. Only one of my neighbors does it too, isn't that sad?

 

I've gotten so used to using my own grocery bags, I don't even think much about it any more. At Costco they just reuse old boxes, and I have two nice insulated bags I got at Whole Foods for cold items. At the regular grocery store, I just shove my supply of bags at the bagger and that's it, lolol. Maybe it's just more common here in CA.

 

If you find a solution to the kitty litter let me know, lol. I use some natural pine stuff from Costco, but it's still more waste. ;-(Cyndi

 

In a message dated 8/27/2007 10:13:19 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, tebow2smith writes:

We are trying to drastically reduce our use of plastic, especially non-recyclable bags. It is still a comedy of errors when I shop at the regular grocery stores and bring my own bags. It causes such confusion and consternation that you would think I was handing them live snakes rather than canvas bags. :>) I'm sure we will get the bagging routine down eventually and I won't feel so freaky! They still manage to sneak in a couple of plastic bags when I'm paying. It's just a few years ago that small paper bags were available at every grocery for produce and you could carry your groceries home in a box...now it's "weird."If it's a choice between buying a product in plastic or glass; I'll take glass. Houston doesn't have curbside glass recycling, but my son & daughter-in-law take it to the center and I compost their kitchen scraps for them since they live in an apartment. Sweet!And, I am abandonning the cases of bottled water that I used to take to work. I'll just refill a cold cup. As far as trash bags,I read about some tall kitchen can bags from Norway that are made from cornstarch. Does anyone use those? We recycle as much as we can, but we do need something for the massive amt of kitty litter that we produce each week. It's too much to bury in the yard, even though it's pine litter. RealSimple , "Barbara" <barbara3 wrote:>> Hi All,> > I got this site of my other group but thought is interesting enough to send it along. One more reason not to use anything plastic. In addition to the health problems that plastic can give you, there is a huge problem with garbage and damage to ecosystems. > > http://tinyurl.com/2xsjjo > > Barbara>

 

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[Guest guest]

Chris wrote

............. As far as trash bags,I read

about some tall kitchen can bags from Norway that are made from

cornstarch. Does anyone use those?

***************

Welcome to the list Chris. I'm Denise but everyone calls me Sluggy. ;-)

WAHM to 3 kids & 4 fur kids in PA. I don't chime in much but I'm here

reading when I get a chance.

If you live close enough, you are welcomed to come on over for tea and all

the tomatoes and zucchini you can carry home!

 

I haven't used them yet but I think you are talking about BioBags. You can

order them online here...

http://www.dirtworks.net/BioBag/Bio-Bag.html

 

Back to painting the inside of the pantry....

sluggy

[Guest guest]

Hi Cyndi,

I saw the bags on Amazon.com of all places & will get some & see how

well they hold up. I'm really inspired (and shamed by comparison...)

one of my husband's friends who live in N. Cal. He and his girlfriend

throw out one bag of trash a MONTH! Wow!

Houston does have a few very small, Saturday only, local, organic

farmer's markets that have sprung up in the past few years. They are

great & I want to put them in regular rotation as far as food

shopping. We have a big farmer's market, too, that has some organic

stalls. We have limited curbside recycling in some neighborhoods, but

even our progressive mayor says that if more people don't participate,

the city will reduce or eliminate the recycling program. Makes no

sense. I say make it mandatory and do some aggressive campaigning to

get people involved. I see very few people in our neighborhood who

put anything!

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the offer, Sluggy. Wish I could drop by. I LOVE

Pennsylvania and backpacked about 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail

through there many, many years ago (1970-something...) Beautiful

country, yummy food.

 

RealSimple , " Sluggy " <arcure wrote:

>

> Chris wrote

> ............ As far as trash bags,I read

> about some tall kitchen can bags from Norway that are made from

> cornstarch. Does anyone use those?

> ***************

> Welcome to the list Chris. I'm Denise but everyone calls me

Sluggy. ;-)

> WAHM to 3 kids & 4 fur kids in PA. I don't chime in much but I'm

here

> reading when I get a chance.

> If you live close enough, you are welcomed to come on over for tea

and all

> the tomatoes and zucchini you can carry home!

>

> I haven't used them yet but I think you are talking about BioBags.

You can

> order them online here...

> http://www.dirtworks.net/BioBag/Bio-Bag.html

>

> Back to painting the inside of the pantry....

> sluggy

>

[Guest guest]

So the bounty continues to pour in, Sluggy? Great news! Are you an expert at zucchini bread yet? LOL. I guess you are feeling better if you are painting? All healed? I'm so glad to hear it. :-):-)Cyndi

 

In a message dated 8/27/2007 7:56:46 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, arcure writes:

Welcome to the list Chris. I'm Denise but everyone calls me Sluggy. ;-) WAHM to 3 kids & 4 fur kids in PA. I don't chime in much but I'm here reading when I get a chance.If you live close enough, you are welcomed to come on over for tea and all the tomatoes and zucchini you can carry home!I haven't used them yet but I think you are talking about BioBags. You can order them online here...http://www.dirtworks.net/BioBag/Bio-Bag.htmlBack to painting the inside of the pantry....sluggy

 

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[Guest guest]

The problem is, there is no demand and no market for the recycled items. Noone wants to do anything with them. The few sources that do use them have more than enough supply. Here in Sacramento, it's almost an underground effort to get rid of recyclables-bins in back of grocery stores, receptacles out in empty lots, etc. :-(Cyndi

 

 

In a message dated 8/28/2007 5:02:20 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, tebow2smith writes:

Hi Cyndi,I saw the bags on Amazon.com of all places & will get some & see how well they hold up. I'm really inspired (and shamed by comparison...) one of my husband's friends who live in N. Cal. He and his girlfriend throw out one bag of trash a MONTH! Wow! Houston does have a few very small, Saturday only, local, organic farmer's markets that have sprung up in the past few years. They are great & I want to put them in regular rotation as far as food shopping. We have a big farmer's market, too, that has some organic stalls. We have limited curbside recycling in some neighborhoods, but even our progressive mayor says that if more people don't participate, the city will reduce or eliminate the recycling program. Makes no sense. I say make it mandatory and do some aggressive campaigning to get people involved. I see very few people in our neighborhood who put anything!

 

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[Guest guest]

So the bounty continues to pour in, Sluggy? Great news! Are you an expert at

zucchini bread yet? LOL. I guess you are feeling better if you are painting?

All healed? I'm so glad to hear it. :-)

 

:-)

Cyndi

*****************

The garden is still going strong. For something that was basically an

afterthought, this season's harvest is beyond anything I anticipated. I

picked the 32nd zuke yesterday....those are about done for the season,

thankfully!lolol

Dan made 8 loaves of zucchini bread so he's the master of that.lol I

grated up tons of it to freeze. I'll put it into my meatloaf and spaghetti

sauce this winter(gotta sneak those veggies into the kids when they aren't

looking, ya know!).

I canned 8 jars of plum tomatoes last weekend. I cheated and got those at a

local organic farm as I don't have enough tomatoes ripening at any one time

to make sauce in bulk.

We've gotten some bell peppers, tomatoes are just starting, green beans,

cayenne peppers and I picked the first eggplant last week. The stuff that

hasn't done well are the broccoli and cauliflower....the heads are tiny!lol

We also have a cabbage growing too......it was 'suppose' to be a cauliflower

plant. The cucumbers are just coming in(the seedlings were mislabeled so

they turned out to be the smaller pickling type). The yellow squash seeds

never germinated/sprouted for some reason. But the spring lettuce mix is

coming up again.....I left some of those in and they flowered and went to

seed and I've got a 2nd crop now. sweet!

I'm about burnt out on zucchini.....I've tried it every way but the

zucchinni gratin recipe I have. I only put in 4 plants of zuke figuring

we'd only get about 10 zukes.....1 plant didn't make it so we had 3 plants

total. Next year, we put in 2 plants tops!LOL

 

The CSA has been ok but not overwhelming. They either didn't plant some of

the veggies they said they would or those just didn't do well. We have been

overwhelmed with green onions, swiss chard, strawberries and garlic however.

She keeps trying to give me zucchini in my bag but I keep giving it

back!lolol Next year, if this farm has a CSA, I'm going to get a list of

what they are going to plant so I can plan my little patch better.

 

Let me just say that if you have a brown thumb like I do, you CAN grow

veggies! Basically, I planted stuff and left it alone(except for a few days

of watering when they weather was very dry). I composted, laid down

newspaper and mulched to keep it weed-free and just let it be. I've got 3

small patches-a front flower bed I commandeered (12 ft. long x 4 ft. wide),

a side flower bed (6ft. x 4 ft) and a 20 ft. x 4ft. wide patch along my back

deck where the dogs can't get to it. We have a rabbit warren under our shed

so we did need to put a short mesh fence up to slow them down so there'd be

something for us to harvest.lol

 

I am feeling better, thanks. The IV antibiotics seem to have knocked out

the infection so I'm trying to use the leg as much as I can. Now that I

don't have to eat the hospital food & can eat REAL food, I'll be feeling

even better real soon.

Thanks for asking....

 

How are You feeling?

 

sluggy

[Guest guest]

Well, I am TOTALLY impressed with your gardening skills, lol. I've pretty much concluded that until I can grow veggies in the ground, it's not worth the effort. There are no farmers markets up there to visit? At least you know what to expect from the CSA next year, if you decide to do it again.

 

I've never canned anything. I'd love to try it one day, but I'm worried about botulism, lol. I have no reference point on how to do it, or if it's correct.

 

Sounds like you're keeping busy.....I'm doing ok. I go to the doctors tomorrow to find out the results of the MRI they did on my back. I quit the meds I was taking for the Neuropathy cold turkey, so I've been a bit miserable as I adjust to living with the pain. But my tests all continue to be good, and my bones are happily spitting out blood again, lol. Thanks for asking..

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 8/28/2007 8:26:35 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, arcure writes:

The garden is still going strong. For something that was basically an afterthought, this season's harvest is beyond anything I anticipated. I picked the 32nd zuke yesterday....those are about done for the season, thankfully!lolol Dan made 8 loaves of zucchini bread so he's the master of that.lol I grated up tons of it to freeze. I'll put it into my meatloaf and spaghetti sauce this winter(gotta sneak those veggies into the kids when they aren't looking, ya know!).I canned 8 jars of plum tomatoes last weekend. I cheated and got those at a local organic farm as I don't have enough tomatoes ripening at any one time to make sauce in bulk.We've gotten some bell peppers, tomatoes are just starting, green beans, cayenne peppers and I picked the first eggplant last week. The stuff that hasn't done well are the broccoli and cauliflower....the heads are tiny!lol We also have a cabbage growing too......it was 'suppose' to be a cauliflower plant. The cucumbers are just coming in(the seedlings were mislabeled so they turned out to be the smaller pickling type). The yellow squash seeds never germinated/sprouted for some reason. But the spring lettuce mix is coming up again.....I left some of those in and they flowered and went to seed and I've got a 2nd crop now. sweet!I'm about burnt out on zucchini.....I've tried it every way but the zucchinni gratin recipe I have. I only put in 4 plants of zuke figuring we'd only get about 10 zukes.....1 plant didn't make it so we had 3 plants total. Next year, we put in 2 plants tops!LOLThe CSA has been ok but not overwhelming. They either didn't plant some of the veggies they said they would or those just didn't do well. We have been overwhelmed with green onions, swiss chard, strawberries and garlic however. She keeps trying to give me zucchini in my bag but I keep giving it back!lolol Next year, if this farm has a CSA, I'm going to get a list of what they are going to plant so I can plan my little patch better.Let me just say that if you have a brown thumb like I do, you CAN grow veggies! Basically, I planted stuff and left it alone(except for a few days of watering when they weather was very dry). I composted, laid down newspaper and mulched to keep it weed-free and just let it be. I've got 3 small patches-a front flower bed I commandeered (12 ft. long x 4 ft. wide), a side flower bed (6ft. x 4 ft) and a 20 ft. x 4ft. wide patch along my back deck where the dogs can't get to it. We have a rabbit warren under our shed so we did need to put a short mesh fence up to slow them down so there'd be something for us to harvest.lolI am feeling better, thanks. The IV antibiotics seem to have knocked out the infection so I'm trying to use the leg as much as I can. Now that I don't have to eat the hospital food & can eat REAL food, I'll be feeling even better real soon.Thanks for asking....How are You feeling?sluggy

 

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