Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition – Page 43

Clearing the air

Shortly before Christmas, we noticed that our furnace was behaving oddly: cycling on and off frequently and failing to heat the apartment to the desired temperature.*

Our trouble shooting started and ended with the furnace filter.**

This picture would be more enlightening if I had the filthy filter side-by-side with a clean filter, but suffice it to say that the filter above is very, very dirty.

Although our landlord provides a basic, cheap furnace filter, we’ve been buying nicer (read: more expensive), allergen-filtering models. These filters have a lifespan of UP TO three months, which we had been interpreting as “replace every three months or so.” Turns out that furnace filters really do have a shorter lifespan when you’re running the heat (or A/C) more, which makes perfect sense: more [gunky] air through the filter means it gets clogged more quickly.

We swapped our gunky filter for one of the basic filters, and noticed an immediate improvement. The airflow from the vents was once again strong enough to move the blades on our ceiling fan and move some hanging glass globes in our front room.

It was not until the next day that Matthew admitted that some of the black gunk on the filter came from burning candles. We have (had?) a bit of a candle habit in the cooler months — often burning three or more larger candles (some with multiple wicks) for an hour or more in the evenings.

These are all lovely candles that we make every year with Matthew’s aunt (part of a cookies and candles holiday tradition), and as candles go, they seemed pretty harmless: unscented, cotton wicks, many made of 50% [recycled] beeswax (the other 50% being standard petroleum-based paraffin wax).

But when Matthew made the comment about the filter, my mind quickly made the logical leap to the fact that our lungs act as filters. If that furnace filter was black with candle soot, what was our candle habit doing to our lungs?

After a bit of research, I’ve concluded that there is probably no such thing as a “healthy” candle.*** Petroleum-based candles emit a variety of nasty, toxic chemicals when burned. Beeswax candles avoid many of the toxins in petroleum, but are not particularly clean burning (despite what those who market them want you to believe). Most sources seemed to agree that adequate ventilation (i.e., an open window) was important to having decent air quality while burning any type of candle.

Sadly, this means the end of candle-lit dinners and evenings for us, at least in the winter, when we’re not going to be opening windows. Sure, we may still light a candle every now and then, but nothing like before.

This decision was harder for and on Matthew than for me. It’s not easy — we like our candles and they’re hard to give up, but, as Matthew pointed out, smokers like their cigarettes, too. The fact that this seems to be a pretty clear-cut health issue makes it hard to ignore.

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* 68° F during the day (when Matthew’s home; often lower when I’m home alone working) and 64° F at night, in case you were wondering. I know these are NOT particularly frugal/green winter thermostat settings, but it’s a compromise and a concession to having a baby/toddler (who can’t re-cover himself at night if he kicks off the blankets) and a husband who gets very grumpy when chilly.

** This was an easy fix, but I have to say, one of the joys of renting was not being particularly worried either way. If our furnace needs to be repaired or replaced, it’s on our landlord’s dime, not ours.

*** I’m not really satisfied with what I could find. Some sources say the amount of toxins emitted are negligible, some claim beeswax is great, others laud soy wax. We may revisit this issue and reconsider our candle-use policy in the future. For now, we plan to mainly save candle-burning for outdoors.

Frugal foodie

Is “frugal foodie” an oxymoron? Is it possible to eat high-quality, ethically and sustainably grown food on a limited budget?

This is a tough one, and one that I’m struggling with now, as we look for ways to trim our monthly expenses.

According to various sources, U.S. households spend a smaller portion of household income on food than households in any other country. It is possible to eat very cheaply here. It is even possible to eat a relatively healthy diet without spending all that much money.

We consciously made the decision, as our income allowed over the years, to shift a higher proportion of our spending to food. I’m well aware that the items I put in my shopping cart are not always the cheapest. I’m prioritizing things that are important to me: fresh produce, local products, organic products, fair-trade or ethically grown and produced products, eggs and dairy that are local and/or free range. But that often comes with added cost.

And now I’m rethinking that cost. I want to buy the product that has the lowest environmental impact and is [theoretically] the healthiest choice, but it’s not [financially] sustainable with our current income.

It’s become a bit of a balancing act — there are some things on which I try not to compromise: only organic (or local, if I talk to the farmer) when it comes to produce’s “Dirty Dozen” and organic (or at least non-GMO) soy, wheat, and corn products. I highly prefer my dairy to be organic, but I’ve compromised on a couple of cheese purchases lately — the “good” stuff is SO expensive. I’ve been avoiding replenishing our butter supply — since chemicals/toxins often concentrate in fat, butter is one of our priority organic purchases, but at more than double the cost of conventional . . . oof!

At Matthew’s urging, we went ahead and bought several pounds of organic, fair trade chocolate from a company that helps West African cocoa farmers, but we’re also buying some more affordable (and less Earth- and people-friendly) chocolate, so, yeah, compromises.

Strategies

Eat at home / cook your own food: your money goes MUCH further this way.
Shop around. I’m the last person in the world to drive all over town just to get one item here or there, but I tend to know the best places to buy particular items. Unless it’s urgent, I try to wait until I will be at or near that store again.
Shop bulk bins for beans, grains, flour, etc.
If you have storage, you can special order a entire bag of flour, sugar, grain, etc. (usually 10-50 pounds, depending on the item) from most grocers with bulk sections for a discount.
Stock up when it’s on sale — having a deep freeze can help with this one.
Grow your own — while there is noticeable start-up cost (seeds, mulch, soil amendments) to growing our own produce, having our own supply of many fruits and vegetables enables us to eat well without completely breaking the bank. The cost of purchasing large quantities of some of the higher dollar produce we grow (e.g., raspberries and heirloom tomatoes, to name a couple) would be staggering.
If you can’t grow your own, consider purchasing a CSA share.

What do you think — is it possible to be a “frugal foodie?” What are your tips and tricks for saving money and still eating well? And on what foods do you or don’t you compromise?

Of flame throwers and door zones

Digging out
Last Friday, with our street still sloppy, the UPS truck finally made it down our street (two days late) to deliver my new snow boots. With temperatures in the 40s and 50s, our ten inches of snow is almost entirely gone. Guess I’ll have to try out the boots later.

On Sunday, we were returning from brunch at my FIL’s when I witnessed not one, but two, rather insane snow-removal methods in my ‘hood. Method 1 involved using a garden hose to spray water on the snow-covered parts of the sidewalk. I was still trying to wrap my head around that one, when, less than a block later, it got better. Method 2 involved a propane tank (like you would use for a gas grill) powering what appeared to be some kind of jury-rigged flame thrower. The inventor of said device was directing the flame at some ice near the edge of the road.

The kicker is that it was 55º F at that point, so a good old-fashioned shovel, not to mention just leaving it there to melt, would have been more effective and less-wasteful of resources. We were in a bit of a time crunch to get Sir home for his nap, or else I would definitely have photo evidence of Method 2.

Open with care (and don’t EVER ride in the door zone)
Saturday afternoon we took Sir to the zoo. I snagged a street parking spot and proceeded to almost take out a kid (couldn’t have been more than fourteen) on a bicycle. Since the very dangerous practice of door zone cycling is relatively common, I do try to check before I open the car door, but this particular time, I didn’t. Fortunately, the kid swerved out of the way — very fortunately not into the path of an overtaking vehicle. I don’t know if I would have even been aware of the near disaster if not for his startled, “Oh, shit!” as he swerved and rode on his way. Yikes!

I wanted to give him a CyclingSavvy card, but I didn’t react quite quickly enough to run after him. There was, however, a suspiciously similar-looking bike locked up outside the zoo entrance, so I tucked one of the cards into the helmet.

Aldi by bike
The clear roads mean that biking is a go once again. The amount and longevity of snow and ice so far this winter is making me rethink not needing snow tires.

Yesterday, I road my bike to my nearest Aldi grocery store. For various reasons (I’ll save my thoughts on Aldi for another post), I had never visited this Aldi location, despite living just over a mile away for a year-and-a-half.

The trip was mostly an excuse and motivation to step away from the computer and get outside for a bit, spurred by their weekly advertisement mentioning that they now carry [some] organic produce. I bought some citrus fruit (the main item on my list) and a couple of other items, which ended up filling the milk-crate on my bike.

Working girl
For the past week, I’ve been rather busy with paid work, which means spending a lot of time with Microsoft Office products, completing tasks that require a good deal of focus and attention to detail. This is something I do well, but it leaves my more creative side (including the ability to write here) locked-up and whimpering in the corner, hard-pressed to produce, even if I did want to spend more time in front of the computer.

Polar vortex

Saturday afternoon, temperatures soared into the low 40s. There was still some slush and ice on our street, but most roads were completely clear, so I headed out for what may have been my last bike ride for a decent while here.

While we didn’t technically need any groceries, we liked the idea of having more eggs and milk on hand. My first stop was Schnucks (a Missouri grocery chain), which probably would have been a bit crazy on a Saturday afternoon anyway. Combine that with a forecast of ten inches of snow and sub-zero temps, and you have crazy-town!

Had I driven the car, I would have wasted lots of time and gas circling the packed parking lot waiting for a space. As it was, I biked right up to my customary cart-return bike lock-up spot. Talk about prime parking!

Inside the store, my bike helmet doubled as a mini shopping basket. In addition to soy milk, I grabbed some citrus fruit. Unfortunately, my choice of transportation didn’t save me from the long check-out lines. It was interesting to see what other people “needed” to stock up on before the storm. An employee was going through the lines offering free cookies, in an attempt to appease the masses, I guess.

That crazy ordeal finished, I headed to my much-lower-key second stop, Local Harvest Grocery, for eggs, dairy milk, and steel cut oats. And our local foodie magazines! I started to get overheated and had to stop and ditch my coat on the ride home.

After Gabriel woke from his nap, we headed out to play in the last remains of snow in our north-facing front yard.

We would have had much more snow to work with on Sunday, but we feared conditions would not be conducive to much outside play time. Make snow-people while the sun shines, right?

Sunday morning dawned with falling snow and a little boy requesting “out.” At that point, we still had temperatures in the 20s, so we bundled up and headed out.

Matthew and I shoveled show and we did some front yard sledding before walking down the street to a slightly larger hill at the park. We’d already been outside for quite awhile at that point, and Gabriel didn’t last long.

We have a children’s lift-the-flap book about winter fun that ends with the child’s mother showing up with hot cocoa, and when we reach that page and open the flap, Gabriel excitedly proclaims, “Mama! Ha co-co!” He needed little coaxing to head inside for his own mug.

Hot chocolate with whipped cream — mmm, mmm good!

We spent the rest of the day hibernating as the wind picked up and temperatures dropped. I made a big batch of granola in the morning, and Matthew made an apple pie in the afternoon.

Almost all schools and many businesses are closed today, but Mrs. L was willing to take Gabriel, even though none of the other kids she watches were planning to venture out. While I wouldn’t have bothered to clear the car or risk driving on these streets, bundling up for the half-block walk to her house was no big deal.

I did end up carrying Gabriel most of the way, due to the high snow drifts (I didn’t think to walk in the tire tracks on the street until I was headed back home). Matthew bundled up and walked to the bus stop in pre-warmed mittens and boots, where he fortunately had a short wait. With this much snow on the streets, I’m not sure when we’ll be back on the bikes, but for now, I’m thankful for a warm apartment and being walkable to [some] places.

Moving right along

The three weeks since December 12, when I wrote my “Life Goes On” post literally flew by, am I right?

I was feeling rather bah-humbug-y going into the holidays, what with trying to coordinate holiday gatherings around a toddler’s nap and early bedtime and general ennui about gift-giving. Mid-month, I read “The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents.” The post really resonated with me, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

As Christmas drew near, I felt tremendous pressure to both give great gifts and even more so to come up my own list of what I wanted. This is difficult because the answer is either a) nothing or b) a really specific item that I’m researching and figuring out exactly what I want, at which point, if I decide that this is indeed an item I want to spend money on, I will buy it for myself.

Needless to say, we enjoyed some nice family gatherings, and I enjoyed seeing Gabriel’s general excitement, but I’m rather glad the festivities are behind us. I clearly would benefit from finding some way to address my feelings about gifts before next December.

Holidays aside, the past three weeks were far from dull in their own right, with action in the employment, speech therapy for Gabriel, and longtail realms.

Employment
Matthew and I both interviewed for the same position. What’s odd to me is not that this happened, but rather that it hasn’t happened before, given that we’re both in the same field, with very similar educational backgrounds and career interests and fairly similar work histories. Our general attitude for positions that we’ve both applied for in the past has been that, collectively, we double our chances if we both apply for a job opening, though I’m curious how employers view this. For example, would employers see both of our applications and just avoid them altogether, in the interest of preventing [in their minds] marital strife or perceived awkwardness? I certainly hope that would not be an issue, that our applications would be judged independently on our qualifications, but one never knows.

Speech Therapy
We’re still waiting to hear from the therapist, but, after a third evaluation, Sir finally qualified for speech and language therapy services with First Steps, a state-funded program for kids birth through three in Missouri with very affordable sliding-scale fees. Since he’s not all that far from three, we’ll also be starting the process to see if he will qualify to transition to the age three-and-up services, which are offered through the school district.

Longtail cargo bike
We’ve more or less decided on the Edgerunner. We’re still playing with specs and final details (gearing, accessories, etc.), but we’ve moved to the “contacting a local bike shop to get things moving” phase. We’ve done a lot of research, but making this large of a purchase without ever seeing, much less riding, the bicycle in question is more than a little nerve wracking. Finalizing the purchase, really making it happen, will be a bit of a leap of faith, but such is life, I suppose.

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