Mt Torrens Olive Oil

I get our olive oil supply from our local monthly markets. The stall is womanned by Mrs Mt Torrens, she's on the stall every month and her local small owner business olive oil is GOOD. Really fruity and a bit grassy. Its nice. I tried the other guys at the other olive oil stall and it was dissapointing, cheaper by about three bucks for a 2 litre bottle, but no where near as good. So i get oil from her every month. A few months ago we got chatting and i asked her if she wanted me to return the glass flagons she sells the oil in, or to just put them in the recycling. She said returning them was great for her as she was really peeved with the glass recyclers here in South Australia for clear glass. She said THEY NOW SEND CLEAR GLASS TO HONOLULU for recycling! Now this sounded very odd to me, 'Its a new development' she said, but 'People want to see the oil, hence the clear glass' she said and you cant use plastic as oil pulls the plasticides out of the plastic. But HONOLULU sounds atrocious. Apparently flint glass like this, clear and pure is very difficult to generate from recycled glass as its very sensitive to any glass contaminant. In Australia, a lot of our recycling goes into one curbside bin; a commingling recycling strategy resulting in much broken glass, hence making the glass good for 'commingled' glass product: coloured glass. Apparently we no longer recycle clear glass here, as we just dont have the population or means to support such recycling of pure clear glass. So we get it made, import it and then we send it back! Madness. Now I have to rethink my olive oil strategy. i think i may have to ask her if she can bring a barrel of the stuff and i can refill on site.

redefining rubbish

I have taken to radicalising 'the rubbish'*, Im no longer content to define it as that. Its way too a benign term for something so pugnacious dont you think?
I now refer to it as Landfill, "no its not recyclable, its landfill". It kinda lends a longer term and moral perspective to that casual toss, without sounding too prescriptive or judgemental. It just IS. Landfill that is. Makes ya think.

*the trash

intentional leftovers

we're a leftover lovin' family here at Chez Pan, its the main reason i bought the Pyrex, so we had a loving home and a display space to store and observe the delights that are leftovers! If we cook, we do extra... extra pasta, extra rice, extra noodle, extra dough, always with manana in mind. its evolved over the years mainly as the vegetaian B2 hates sandwiches and school lunch times (and home lunch times for that matter) began to cause stress. either she would toss the sandwich, bring it home but leave it in the bottom of the school bag or just plain refuse to take it. thats when i started to really take it on board; if i wanted her to eat during the day then she needed an alternative. I must say im a bit over sandwiches for lunch too. So we started making more of the nights dinner so she could take it for lunch and the habit spread. Now we fight over the stuff. yesterday it was the leftover dough to make englsih muffins to go with the eggs and tomatoes for breakfast and this morning we tucked into yesterdays plain rice as rice pudding for breakfast. Leftover pasta can bring the house down on a weekend. B1 made rice for lunch yesterday so last night before i went to bed i added milk so the brown rice could soak in a bit more liquid overnight and this morning added an egg, cinnamon and some maple syrup and zapped it in the microwave for a few minutes. Warm rice pudding for breakfast. YUM.

Whats your favourite leftover??

Happy Anniversary 17.02.07

We've been married two years today. It was, i have to say, the best wedding I've ever been too! LOL. Warm weather, friends and family, great food, great fizz, great music and great lighting; our garden looked like magic. It was a really wonderful night. By all accounts it was a 'responsible' wedding; electronic invites, loca vore catering, no waste, no flowers, homemade clothing or at least reusable, charitable donations for a well in Africa, wedding rings from recycled jewellery (and teeth- eek! weird)but the best part was the love and the fun on the night. Yesterday when we were preparing dinner and talking about the time that had passed, Simon said "its been a fun couple of years" and i had to agree, its been bloody wonderful. It was interesting though as my first reaction was to balk and says to the ever present guilt monkey on my back "hey, you're not supposed to think life is fun like that, you're a mum, you're a professional, you're your mothers daughter, fun doesnt enter into it". But i have learnt in the last few years that IT BLOODY WELL DOES! and here's cheers to a lifetime more of it.
Thanks for always reminding me Si that life may be full of necessary things but there is always room for fun. So yesterday i made a gift for my lovely man, a declaration of love filled with symbols from our past together. It was so enjoyable to spend part of the day being creative; getting out of my head and into my heart and fishing around the house for bits and pieces to use. I hope he loves it. Happy Anniversary Moo.

cutting the crap

I was telling Kale for Sale last week that i had begun fishing through the rubbish bins at work. Yikes. Ive become a bin lady. Seeing the stuff that gets tossed; food scraps, tuna tins, pot o soup bowls and tetra milk cartons is getting my knickers quite twisted but it wasnt until Thurdsay that i started really fishing around in there. Enough was enough. My duds had seriously twisted and then caught fire! It reminded me of when i was a kid, travelling in a car on the Sydney Harbour Bridge with my best friend and her parents and they stopped to pick up a discarded Coke can. Stopping on the bridge is no mean feat but this was a full on recycling mum who rode around on a bike with a roof slate and chalk tied to the handlebars of her bike for her shopping list! I was pretty embarrassed then but I think Ive been affected.

While i was on leave i had been thinking about the problem of lack of recycling at work and how to manage it, but being part time coupled with the local politics ( admin vs academic staff) i felt there was not alot i could do that would be effective. Trying to organise and managing a recycling system would not go down too well with the already maligned administrative staff who seem to take matters of the kitchen as their crucible. One slip up by me; forgetting to take it home if I had organised it would be a akin to murder in the first degree and i dont think there woud be many willing to cover. 'Forgetful' (imperfect) academic staff aren't forgiven easly. Oouch. So i had comitted to just doing it quietly; sort through it at the end of the days when im at work and just take it home as my own business. Until I read Mels post on normative behaviours, which pretty much just spelled out the doubts Id had about my 'system' (or lack thereof). Quietly taking home other peoples waste wont change how people view tossing their rubbish in the bin but if they know Im taking responsibility for their s/crap and taking it home to recycle or compost maybe they'll start taking responsibility for it themselves or will they just get pissed off with me for sticking my nose in 'their' business?

So in the process of writing this post Ive become at least clear that i need to have a discussion and that the relatively informal atmosphere of morning tea is just the place to start. I just cant believe that a 'Group of 8' university, which advertises itself as a leader, innovative and responsble, doesnt have more than a paper recycling system in place. Somethings gotta give. If a then middle aged millionaire could ride around with a slate tied to her bike and take the time to stop and pick up a can someone has discarded on a busy freeway, surely we can all take responsibility for our lunchtime tuna tin, or at least let me?

the cup and the cafe

i have a draft post list of around 20. Somedays im just not in the mood to post what i had planned and so i do something different. So my list keeps growing. This morning i had contemplated a make your own verjus post, a Long Lunch post and a coffee cup post.It's obvious what won.

Now its not really all that exciting, but it was a bit of an ah-ha moment for me ; a lesson in being conscious. It goes like this.
When it comes to coffee, im not really a drink coffee when i go out kind of girl. Too much coffee and Im like Elvis on a bad day. I have one cup every morning; a French Press of fair trade East Timorese double roast (the most loca organic coffee i can find), usually in bed and most days brought to me by the love of my life. Cant get that at the cafe! But somedays, when im heading off to work, im rushed and dont get to enjoy that cup of milky drug as much as Id like and so the cafe around the corner from my office gets my business for a weak latte.

So here's the story. First day back after leave, I've detoured, bought the latte and found myself sporting a core flute cardboard coffee cup with the plastic hat. Hmm. Ive posted about these damn plastic coffee toppers and disposable coffee cups before and Kale for Sale had a post only last week on plastic toppers which i probably read nodding, but thinking ohh, not me. Yikes. How did i end up with this small enviro bomb in my hand? Pot, kettle and all that...

It was just something that happenned on the spur of the moment. By the time the coffee was in front of me, it had 'the hat'. Too late to say no, it would have been thrown away anyway if id taken it off there...so the next morning i went, in ordered coffee, preempted the hat topper and said hold the hat and asked if it would be ok if i brought my own cup in from now on? Not being the most assertive person, i figured best to ask first and be rejected than be there with cup in hand and face sure torture if my request was denied and cop another cardboard cup "No problem Kel, as long as it fits under the machine thats fine"

So yay! I now belong to the holier than thou cup bringing brigade. Here's a challenge to you..wanna join? Wanna be a cup bringer too? If you have a regular coffee place it makes it easier to ask as you already have a relationship with the person behind the counter. If you go to a cafe chain, where shifts and numbers make relationship virtually impossible, find a small owner operated cafe and start one!
Then again, if you're one of those assertive, 'i do yoga in the customs area of international airports coz waiting just bores me' kinda people, or very very organised (or running late but dont care, coz you're from Paris )kinda person and get to sit and enjoy the coffee in situ in porcelain, then ignore this suggestion.

Moral of the story, be organised. Im looking at all these environmental issues and thinking most (all?) of them are due to 'convienience'. If we had to be organised; take bags, cups, hankerchiefs, towels, the bus, be responsbible for our own stuff...

Let me know if you do.

Op Shopping

I dont know if its due to current circumstances or being reinspired by fellow bloggers' finds, but Ive been out trawling the second hand shops 3 days in a row, sometimes with the whole clan and sometimes alone. We've been bringing in the loot i have to say; never worn patent red flats for B1 ( shes got size 10 feet and is hard to buy for) and vintage Nina Ricci sunnies; B1s find of the century (she is a VERY pleased bunny) mint condition Custo tank top for my SIL (damn! she got to that rack before me!) baby tupperware (sad and suburban but great for travel) and more. Its been cheap, philanthropic and public service therapy and good practice of the 3 R's (she says hopefully, nothing like ignoring a problem to make it go a way). I was flicking through some really great scarves in one shop today wondering if i would wear some of the funky retro silk ones but feeling unadventurous i came home emptyhanded. Reading Vegan Yum Yum this afternoon, and her cross post on Etsy featured buyers, I found inspiration for using some of these great scarves! Reusable silk sacks for bulk purchases. weightless, washable, strong, durable and tieable and puts an end to my plastic bag reusing , washing, and waiting for them to bust! So, im going to keep my eyes peeled for silk scarves on our travel, and when we return im gonna run myself up some recycled silk scarf bulkfood sacks.

weekend loca

we had a busy weekend. A trip to a local school Strawberry Fair , the local monthly market , lots of friends visiting, swimming at my mums and gardening gardening gardening. I love visiting local fairs and markets. Besides the wonderful sense of community they provide, its a great chance to buy local produce and financially support the local economy. The Strawberry Fair, surprisingly named as i didnt actually see many strawberry goods, provided some bargain shopping
and i scored a great stash of second hand tops for the boy for ten dollars and sampled my lovely Spanish friend Anas' mega paella.

The monthly stirling market always makes for a nice hour or two,

as we can wander there on foot, and it provided some pantry fodder; local olive oil, brined kalamata olives, dried local organic fruits, some (more) pottery bowls (im so addicted to these that the potter and i are now on a first name basis ), and a tres sweet woollen fairy to take as a Christmas gift for my tres sweet SIL in California. It also provided the opportunity for some random fellow blogger run-ins. It was wonderful to see a new kitchen garden stall selling punnets of a wide variety of heirloom vegetables as it called to my past dreams.
a friend and i had a late teenage entrpreneurial flop with a gardening business, with the outrageously pompous name of Hortensis . We planted up and maintained kitchen gardens with heirloom crops for paying customers. I just like to think we were ahead of our time.

Im still processing the visits from friends. One couple are a mixed culture marriage; she's newly arrived from China and he is Greek Australian. They have problems and she wasnt afraid to show it. It was very confronting and it threw me to witness such hostility, disrespect and raw anger. I know she will want to talk to me about what is going on in her relationship and i will have to think carefully about the best way to respond. Its such a full on situation involving internet dreams on both sides. Old friends of Simons brought wine and cheese on Satuday night. I love them dearly; they are inspiring, loving , funny, clever and a dedicated 'still in love after 25 years' couple. I found however i am still dealing with my 'married to your deceased friends husband' and 'living in her house' issues. I have moments of self consciousness and flashes of 'is this weird for you' and im thrown back into insecurities. I thought i had dealt with most of these feelings but obviously i still need to do some more reflection and acceptance. Its a strange gig being married to a widow sometimes. Its gotten much easier but we had some very interesting moments earlier on; Its been quite a journey for us both. My favourite was when simon kindly offered to show me the funeral video to help me with my issues. Big night that one! He still cant quite believe he offerred.

The Growing Challenge - post #7

Time for a Growing Challenge post, hosted by Melinda at One Green Generation.
Climbing beans and peas, tomatoes and other verticaly challenged productive plants need support, sometimes lots of it and at heights that can seem a little daunting to the home gardener. Enter the wonderful, magical plant of bamboo.

Bamboo solves a multitude of problems in our house and garden and when it came to planting out my beans and peas last week and constructing the supporting frames they will need to grow well, bamboo helped me out.

We have several stands of non invasive bamboo in our garden and every year my husband harvests canes from them in various lengths and stores them and we have a few deposit sites around the garden so they are ready when we need them for something.

Bamboo is incredibly hardy, very fast growing and strong yet flexible; an incredibly eco-friendly material. various sources report that after atomic bombs were dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki, bamboo was only minimally damaged. Now im not suggesting that you need atomic proof materials in your vege garden, but you get my point. its hardy, and makes a perfect living investment for the home gardener. We have food, shelter, wind breaks, privacy, trellis and support material, tomato stakes, banner poles, cubby and tent poles, easy to make and hang japanese style wall hooks, you name it, all at hand and ready to harvest whenever we need it.

So in about an hour i had 'woven' a very strong, wind resistant and flexible matrix trellising structure for my peas and some teepee style supports for the climbing beans and bush peas.


Its an endless resource. Not sure how you spin it tho'. Grin.

the end of something

this morning we used up the last of the 'little bottles', the last little bottle of conditioner, the type they leave for you in hotels and depending on the price of the room, determines thereafter the state of your hair.

These little bottles have a historic place in my life, a history i am happy to see the last of. My ex husband was a collector; not of antiques or art, but sachets of sugar from cafes and small bottles of hotel issue hair product. When we lived together he travelled a lot and upon his return from a trip to wherever, he would invariably empty his bag and his jacket pockets and deposit a couple of these bottles in a bathroom draw and toss a sachet or two of sugar in a kitchen cabinet. In and of itself, this habit is not a bad one. what did infuriate me was that he never, ever used them, he just brought them home and 'put them'. i, as a matter of principle, refused to 'manage' them, i figured they were his problem and let the collection grow; damned if i was going to take responsibility for something else.

so when the marriage gasped its final breath and he moved out, he took all his personal stuff, his toys, the modern electrical equipment (of course) and left behind the dogs, the cats, the kids and not surprisingly, thousands of these bottles and sachets. The sachets were kind of fun at the time to consolidate; i ripped, tipped and poured until i had a mountain weight of almost a kilo of sugar. it was theraputic and i vented my rage at being left to deal with so much of his unwanted past, on these little paper bags. But if you have ever tried to extract shampoo and conditioner from these guest portions then you know they take their own sweet time to drain and are more rage building than venting. So i have been sending the kids off to school camps with these and we have been using them at home, intermittently dipping in to the bags under the sink to use them up. 5 years later the last of these little bottles has now been used and its little soapy carcass tossed into the recycling. it's funny how it's the small, somewhat insignificant things in life which can sometimes be embedded with great meaning and be symbols of our past and our futures, our hopes and our dreams, our srengths and our weaknesses. i feel quietly relieved.

Purging the Poo

Its over. Our time as a 2 car family is cactus, kaput, gawn. We made the decision last night to get rid of one our cars;the Peugot, affectionatley known around here as 'the Poo' and finally pare ouselves down to just 1 gas guzzling energy sucker which we will convert to liquid gas. We did the numbers and reckon that even if we spend $1000 a year on taxis' or hire cars we can save about 4 thousand annually with all associated costs. Its pretty easy for us to have one car really, even with 3 kids. Our logic...

1# we could just get a little better organised with our time
2# B1 already busses it to school
3# B2 bussess home from school
4# we live within walking distance from the centre of town
5# there is a bus stop at the end of our street
6# I only need to catch 1 bus to work (when Im not on maternity leave) and the bus drops me nearly right outside the door
7# if we need to pack the car with gear for a family of 5 for holiday travel we just hire a bigger car or borrow one from my mum (thanks mum, havent asked her yet to be a part of our downsizing equation)
8# Simon is a stay home dad so no need to shuffle work/kids and car

So, when ya look at it, its hard to justify having had 2 in the first place!

Now comes the big dilemma... when we decided to sell the car we all went 'great 4 grand saved, lets go to Indonesia for a family holiday!'. Ummm, hello!
Is it all just swings and roundabouts? Can we ever justify another OS trip when using our carbon footprint/consumption of resources as a measure against which to evaluate and live our lives? We sponsor 3 girls in India and Thailand, 1 monk in Tibet, sank a well in Africa when we married, make loans via Kiva, monthly fund medicins sans frontiers and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and Greenpeace, are life members of Trees for Life, never eat red meat, restrict our fresh fish intake, purchase only biodynamic hormone,antibiotic free chook n eggs, run the house on PV solar, harvest thousands of litres of rainwater, grow some of our own food, compost, recycle, buy second hand for almost everything (we love eBay), shop seasonally, buy locally, line dry ( can you believe its ILLEGAL to dry using outside clothes line in some US states parts of the US?!- clotheslines are an Aussie institution) support SLOW... yaddah yaddah yaddah.. its a bit like being kosher- hehe eco-kosher... We tithe within an inch of our lives, say 'no' to almost everything, hell we even recycled our old wedding bands - from our past relationships, had the jeweller melt them down and add some extras for our new ones (i even part paid the jeweller with some gold teeth i happened to have lying around which i aquired from my ex-mother in law -that does sound very odd I agree!!) Does all this bloody holier than thou living attone for contributing to jet fuel burn? CAN WE GO TO INDONESIA FOR A HOLIDAY?!!! Im on Kermies side- its not easy being green.