A Green Fire

Today for lunch, I went to a grocery store to get a hot lunch.  I like that option b/c usually there are several vegetable choices and there is a small line, and I like to take my food to the park afterwards.

This was my first time at this particular grocery store and after she put my food in a Styrofoam container, she then wrapped it in plastic!?! I had never seen that done before and I was quite surprised.  My tea was in a Styrofoam cup and came with a plastic straw. Sheesh.  I felt like a walking garbage pail kid, spreading filth where ever I stepped.

Well, I get to the park and open it up and inside the plastic sleeve with my plastic fork and knife are my tiny salt and pepper packets.  I checked just because I was curious.  The pepper packet said ingredients, ground pepper.  The salt however contained, Sodium chloride, sodium silicoalum? (last letter or letters torn off because I opened it before I read the back) , dextrose, potassium iodide, and sodium bicarbonate.  Whoa.

Just what is all that?  Well the first ingredient is, well, salt.  The second is a mystery, the third is a form of sugar, the fourth is added to table salt in small quantities to make it “iodized”.  Lastly we have sodium bicarbonate, more commonly known as baking soda.

That’s a lot of stuff for a tiny packet that is boldly labeled SALT and instead is much more.  I did not sprinkle it on my black eyed peas.  I went with the ground pepper instead.  I’m not sure why this salt packet has so many ingredients.  My salt at home is labeled, salt.

I am unhappy with how much plastic and Styrofoam I encountered with this lunch as well.  This has inspired me to reinforce my goal of bringing my lunch as much as possible.

Crunchy Chicken is having an Extreme Eco-Challenge for the month of may.  This are several choices, and basically she is asking you to do without some damaging item for the month.

I read through the options and knew most of them were items I could not commit too.  However, number six in her list, no excessive water usage, is one I do already.  It didn’t seem like a challenge if I’m doing this every day anyway.

I drink tap water, not bottled.  At work, I have an plastic bottle but I wash it at home and I refill it from the water fountain at work, or my tap at home.  I know a Klean Kanteen is a better choice, but that’s a new purchase, that would have to be shipped to me and I already have the bottles.

At home, I was all my clothes in cold water, and only full loads.  I hand wash my dishes and rinse them in cold water.  I have a low flush toilet already.  I turn off the water when I brush my teeth.   I take short showers.  I don’t water my yard.  Either it gets rain, or it dies.  Frankly, if the grass dies, that’s less to mow.

I wash my car rarely.

Now that I have a little bitty garden, I will think about how to water it.  Probably, I will use my gray water from rinsing my dishes.  I usually have a little coffee left over that I can pour on the plants too.

So overall, I try to pay attention to my water usage and make sure I’m not being wasteful.

I finally got around to planting something in my raised bed.

Sunday I got dirt and plants from my local big box store.  I got two kinds of tomato, two cucumber plants (same variety), a flat leaf parsley, and a yellow bell pepper.   I also got dill and rosemary seeds, and lettuce seeds.  The lettuce I planted in a hanging basket.  I hope when it comes up, I will eventually be able to just go out on my porch, snip enough for a nightly salad and enjoy.

My mom looked at my raised bed and my plants and immediately recommended a covering of chicken wire to keep the rabbits out.  So, that may be my next project.  She also said I need to look at some poison to kill cutworms or I will lose my tomatoes.  Sigh.  I’m going to research a more natural method of pest control first.  This is my first attempt at gardening for myself, and I really hope to have it be as natural as possible all along the way.

I found a resource that showed how to use cardboard toilet paper tubes as a vessel for seed starting instead of peat pots.  I did that for my dill and rosemary seeds.  I have seeds left, and luckily I know I will have more tubes available.  I’m so happy I am recycling one more thing and not just tossing it into the landfill.