Ethical Economics Tools

We are in the process of purchasing bicycles for myself and Asher and a trailer for the kids to ride in so that we can bike as a family. As I was researching ethical brands of bikes, I stumbled upon two very useful websites. One is the ethiscore website, which has a variety of consumer reports on different categories of goods (soft drinks, bikes, cell phones, sportswear, margarine, etc. etc.) and the corporate critic website which lists the ethiscore of top businesses.

So using the bikes as an example, on the ethiscore website, you select the report on bikes and it lists various brands of bikes, along with an "ethiscore" - a score out of 15. They work out the ethiscore by giving each brand a score of 15 and subtracting one point for every infraction. The criteria are varied between environmental, social and animal welfare causes. You can actually specify which issues are more important to you and the program will adjust the ethiscore accordingly to reflect your personal convictions. For example, if you feel very strongly about the environment, but are not as concerned with animal testing, you can select those issues and the ethiscore will reflect your preferences and list brands with environmental misdemeanors lower on the list than those with animal welfare issues.

I found the ethiscore very helpful for illuminating the ethics behind various companies and in the end it was much easier to look on the ethiscore page than contact every company individually. The ethiscore gives you a breakdown of each brand's score, so you can see what elements have affected their ratings. The criteria range from operating in a tax haven, to manufacturing in oppressive regimes, to animal cruelty, to environmental responsibility reporting.

So many corporations operate under the radar of common public opinion. We hear every now and again of the big problems with companies like Nike and Dow, but unless it is splashed all over the news headlines, we don't think any further about their competitors, who are likely engaged in the same shady practices but have escaped the limelight. The ethiscore gives us a chance to see which brands are endeavoring to be better and gives us an opportunity to encourage better corporate responsibility by diverting our spending dollars away from questionable companies and toward those who are less damaging to the earth and its people in their practices.

The downside with the ethiscore is that it is a paid service - you buy a one year subscription. I understand why they do this - they have researchers working constantly to keep the database up to date, but sadly the reality is that most consumers don't care enough to pay. It would be so much better if the information was available for free to all. There are a number of free reports, so that is helpful. But the majority are in the subscribers only section.

The other downside for me in Canada is that the ethiscore is administered in the UK and so lists mainly British companies. They are constantly updating the system and including more companies, but as yet it is not as comprehensive. However, many of the major corporations operate in the UK, US and Canada, so there is some correlation.

The other useful website I came across was Corporate Critic. It is connected with the ethiscore and lists many, many corporations and their ethiscore. It also has a number of reports for each score highlighting which elements of their business were criticized. Again, this is a paid service, BUT, the ethiscore of each company is available free of charge (you just have to pay to read the reports). So, if you don't want to pay for either the ethiscore or the Corporate Critic, you can just find out the corporation behind the product you are considering purchasing and look up their ethiscore. I found that the Corporate Critic was a little easier to use than the ethiscore from Canada becasue many of the corporations are the same. For example, it really helped in the decision regarding a bike trailer as I found the corporate names behind some of the different brand alternatives and I was able to look them up on the Corporate Critic A-Z site and see how each compared. There were no details but just being able to compare the ethiscore gave me a good idea of which companies to avoid and which were better choices.

Birthday Extravaganza!

Asher turned three today! He has had quite the week of celebration as he managed to extend his birthday over four days! He had his party on board the Kettle Valley Railway's Easter train on Saturday, it was Easter on Sunday so we spent the afternoon with family and he opened gifts and cards there. Then Mr Joyful was off work on Monday so we spent the day together and had a TON of fun and finally the 25th was his official birthday! I tried hard to be as intentional as possible about the gifts and treats and in the end we did not so bad.

We had originally planned a little birthday party for Asher at our place, but then we found out that a couple of his friends would be away over spring break, so they'd miss it. When I asked Asher what he wanted to do for his birthday he said that he wanted to go on a "real" train. We had already established that he would have a train birthday cake, but now he clarified that he wanted to go on a real train, on the train tracks, not on the cake! So I scrambled to try to find a train somewhere nearby. As it turned out, the Kettle Valley Railway was having their Easter train on the Saturday before Asher's birthday so that would be perfect. We invited a couple of his little buddies and their parents and that was that.

I had already ordered some Thomas bubbles, conductors hats and wooden train whistles for the goody bags, but when I realized that there would only be Asher and two other kids, I went to Ten Thousand Villages and bought them each a shaker and a hand drum (and bells for Asher). This was inspired by the kids, who have been bringing musical instruments to church to play during the worship time. I also picked up some fair-trade chocolate (little individually wrapped squares) and a bag of mixed dried fruit (also fair trade). I wrapped the fruit up in little wax-paper packages of four pieces and we took these as snacks on the train and to replace the candy the kids would get at the easter egg hunt (Which Asher and his buddy couldn't have because of their allergies). I put all the goodies in brown paper sandwich bags and then took a photo of Asher in his Thomas jacket holding his trains and I attached a photo to each bag. It was a nice and simple decoration.

For the cakes, I got little cupcake piks, which were very cheap and although they are made of plastic (which we're trying to avoid) they are reusable, so thats good. I also got reusable cupcake liners.
The day was absolutely amazing. The kids all had an awesome time and were mesmerized by the train. There was a live banjo player on-board, so we all had a good sing-along. The kids all fell asleep on the way home and when we got back to our place we had a picnic of home-made food - potato salad with our Urban Harvest organic potatoes, home-made hot cross buns, coloured boiled eggs, salad (the first of the year from Little Creek garden's unheated greenhouses!) with hand-mixed balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing, fresh homemade bread and homemade hummus and local organic apples. Of course, the cupcakes and butter icing were also homemade, but the food colouring was far from organic... we're still working out our salvation with fear and trembling!

Movies Galore!

For my media-addicted friends... here are some short online movies relating to sustainability, economic and social justice and some websites that relate... enjoy!

The Meatrix - a set of three online movies (a parody of the Matrix trilogy) about the commercial meat industry... amusing in delivery but poignant in content. The website has tons of good links to further information (click on "international" and then "Canada" for a great list of Canadian resources)and if you really want to pursue it further, read The Omnivore's Dilema.

The Story of Stuff is a wonderful little educational movie about where the majority of our mass produced items come from and the logical implications that we may not have taken the time to consider. Annie Leonard is a little patronizing in her presentation style, but the information is easily understood and presented in a compelling manner.... get your older kids to watch it!

The Eat Well Guide is a great resource for local sustainable food choices - just type in your postcode and it lists local companies who provide sustainable food choices in your area (if you expand the search area to within 100km (roughly an hour's drive) of your postcode you'll be surprised how many options you have for local sustainable food. You will probably find that a lot of the businesses within 100kms of your postcode will either sell at farmers markets closer to you, or may have a delivery system in place for your location... so check them out.

Spuds in honor of St Paddy's!

OK, so really this has nothing to do with St Patrick's day, but Irish people do eat a lot of potatoes, and I was just trying to find a title more enticing than "Potatoes"!

As a family we are trying hard to eat as much local produce as possible, both for the environmental implications (less gas guzzled in transportation), but also the socio-economic (so we can be sure that the farmers were paid a decent wage for their work). Its all well and good in principal, but in practice it leaves us with not much more than tubers in February and March. So Potatoes have been a staple at our house for the last couple of months. They are always available from local farms (via the Urban Harvest organic delivery that we get every week), so we have been getting them pretty regularly. I have fallen into somewhat of a routine over the winter season with some standard staple recipes. I rely on potatoes as a hearty accompaniment to pie or stew. So when I somehow overlooked my potatoes on last week's Urban Harvest order, I decided to grab a few from the store. Big mistake! I really hadn't noticed how spoiled we had been with the organic, local produce, but going back to Superstore produce after months of Urban Harvest was a shock to the system - and the taste buds! There were no organic potatoes to choose from , so I just grabbed what they had. I chose individual potatoes, rather than a large 10lb bag so I wouldn't be stuck with the remnants after Urban Harvest rescued me next week. I think this particular batch of potatoes was especially bad - they tasted awful - really almost unpalatable - I know, I have become a potato snob!! But they were really that bad - no matter how I cooked them they just tasted like dirt.

Anyway, this evening I was madly reading through the last few chapters of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (because it is due back at the library tomorrow) when I came across the following blurb on the humble potato:
"Because they grow underground, conventional potatoes are among the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables... conventionally grown potatoes are so contaminated, the Environmental Working Group warns parents not to feed them to infants and toddlers unless they're thoroughly peeled and boiled. This makes a strong case for buying organic potatoes from trustworthy growers who know the history of the land where their produce is raised." (p273). Yikes! Oh well, at least now I know. I guess it is common sense really that if it grows surrounded by the soil it will absorb more of the chemicals in said soil, but I just hadn't really spent that much time contemplating potatoes before!

I was delighted (and a tad relieved) to see my Urban Harvest bin brimming with potatoes this evening. Now I just have to figure out how to get back from Ashy's birthday train ride on Saturday in time to get to the Farmer's Market for local meat. The Kelowna Farmer's and Crafter's market is only on twice a month at the moment (through the winter), so we only have two opportunities to buy local, pasture-raised beef per month and I missed the last one, so I'd really like to make it there this week so we can have some red meat for a change. Although I did just get a fabulous vegetarian cookbook for my birthday, so that will carry us through if we don't make it back to town in time. Or I could take a little field trip out to the farm and buy direct... ahh, local produce!

Oh, and on a similarly positive note, our Urban Harvest bin was also brimming with three bags of salad greens!! It looks like we are trunign a corner and spring is just waiting to pounce! The salad greens come from Little Creek gardens on the Westside of Kelowna (who make FABULOUS dressings too btw!) and apparently they were able to produce greens this early with the help of some greenhouses (unheated) - its amazing how exciting the changing of the seasons becomes when you choose to eat in season... I have never been so excited about greens... nor so grateful for them - I stand in wonder and appreciation!

Economic Justice

I went to our care group Bible study last night and it was a very interesting and challenging evening. The topic of the sermon was "In God We Trust" and it was based on Matthew 6:19-34. The conversation eventually came around to a discussion of James 5:1-6 - some very challenging verses on the issue of economic and social justice.

"Look here, you rich people, weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and your silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh in hell. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers who you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every whim. Now your hearts are nice and fat, ready for the slaughter. You have condemned and killed good people who had no power to defend themselves against you." James 5:1-6 (NLT)

The question in the study guide was:
James 5:1-6 is a sobering text when we consider our wealth as compared to the standard on the global scale [a member of our group pointed out that if you have a personal computer in your home, that automatically puts you within the top 1% of the world's population!] What responsibility do we have for economic justice on the global scale? What changes can we in our spending and earning that would benefit the world's poor?

The question is a very practical question and we discussed how difficult it is to live these verses out in a real way. Personally, I feel that God is calling us as Christians to a higher standard. We know somewhere in the back of our minds that some companies are not entirely ethical in the way that they go about their businesses, but we don't really know enough about it to make it change our shopping habits. I think the verse directly before the passage we read is very telling in this issue: "REMEMBER, IT IS A SIN TO KNOW WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO AND THEN NOT DO IT" We may not be sure about where the products we buy come from, but that isn't really an excuse... especially in today's information-superhighway age - we have a lot of information at our fingertips, it just takes a little time to access it, but as the verse says, if we know that we really should do better but we just don't bother to put the effort in, its a sin. Anyway, I have been trying to collect some informaiton on better alternatives and here is a list of websites that may be helpful:

MEDA - Mennonite Economical Development Association. The website explains who they are and what they do and you can either make a donation online (similar to the World Vision gift catalogue, where you buy school supplies for $30 etc.), or you can "invest' by loaning a sum of money for a specific project.
www.meda.org

The eBay company that does something similar (that Frank was telling us about) is MicroPlace and this is their website:
www.microplace.com


Here is a website with a list of the "Most Wanted" corporate human rights violators - it has a list of companies who are known to be gross violators of human rights around the world, what they are accused of doing and which organizations are battling them:
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/corporateHRviolators.html

So the companies listed on the previous website are some that we could consider avoiding. The folowing website is a directory list of ethical companies... so we may be able to find substitutes for the bad ones of this site! And it's Canadian!
http://www.ethicaldirectory.ca/index.php

Some stores that I personally know of that are trying to do better:

Cotton Ginny – they have a social responsibility code of conduct and a large line of Organic cotton clothing
MEC – (Mountain Equipment Co-op) - they have organic clothing, a social and environmental responsibility code of conduct and they recycle old plastic-based clothing into new fleece clothing etc.

Ten Thousand Villages - phenomenal for so many things - they have fair trade sugar, tea, cocoa, chocolate as well as paper, gifts, home furnishings, toys, music, books etc. etc. I did my entire Christmas shopping in the little store in Kelowna and I found some amazing (very appreciated) gifts. The fair trade coffee, tea and cocoa/sugar are obviously more expensive than the regular stuff in Superstore... but remember that at the end of the day, somebody is paying for the cheap product... maybe not us, but someone somewhere... actually having to buy the more expensive fair trade items means that we naturally eat less bad stuff (caffeine, sugar etc.!) - so it's sort of like a diet!! Also, they have a website and you can order things and have them shipped anywhere in Canada.

Thrift Stores - I know, I know - but sometimes its worth thinking about if we really need brand new all the time - for example, Mr Joyful now buys jeans for work from the thrift store because they just get wrecked at work anyway, so why buy brand new at three times the price? So even though most of you work in classy professions, maybe consider thrift stores for when you need painting clothes or just stuff for working out in your basement...??
A couple of others:
* Sage Creek Canada www.sagecreekcanada.com (organic and fair trade cotton clothing)
* No Sweat Apparel www.nosweatapparel.com (An American company, but click on Store Locations, and then Canada to find Canadian retailers)
* www.lululemon.com
* Coco International Artwear www.coco.ca

(More) Shopping Woes

After my disappointment trying to find organic flowers/gifts, I have had another similarly frustrating morning today with clothing.

It is my birthday in a couple of days and I'm going out for dinner tonight with a couple of close girlfriends. I have a nasty habit of buying new clothes for a special event, but this time I was somewhat justified because I no longer fit into the majority of my clothes since loosing weight after Caleb was born. So I thought it would be OK to get a new shirt to wear tonight. Easier said than done. I have made a commitment to buy only organic clothing that is manufactured in a just way if at all possible. I have been trying very hard over the last few months to stick to this, and apart from a pair of nylons, I have not bought any clothing for myself that is not organic and from a trusted source. Now, it is that last part that is the tricky bit. Superstore actually has a very small line of organic clothing now, but when I contacted them to ask how they were able to offer organic clothing at such low prices, they responded that they don't break the law in the countries they manufacture these items. Hmmm... interesting response. So I took from that that they do not break the law, but do not really care how people are treated in the manufacturing of their clothing. That was dissapointing but predictable. I am glad that those acres of cotton fields are now pesticide free, but I am sorry that the change hasn't extended to looking after the workers who manufacture the goods.

So sadly, the nice, cheap, Superstore clothes are off-limits for me. So I have been shopping either online (which I don't love because of the shipping and the fact that I can't try things on), or at Cotton Ginny. Cotton Ginny now has quite a substantial selection of organic cotton clothing and they have a position on fair trade. I wouldn't say they were necessarily "fair trade", but they do try to respect the earth and its people in their business decisions. The only problem is that most of their clothes are for middle aged women. They have some nice basic pieces (t-shirts and jeans), but since I am also trying to not buy into the consumeristic culture of "I need that shirt in every colour", that doesn't help me much. They are lacking in the more stylish clothes and anything fancier than a casual outfit. So not really what I wanted for going out to dinner.

Even though I knew in the back of my mind that it would be futile, I decided to take a little walk around the mall to see if any of the other stores carried a line of organic clothing. It was seriously disappointing. Out of all those stores, there didn't appear to be any that had organic clothes. I may have missed some - but none were advertising organic clothing, and these days it seems everyone is hopping on the green bandwagon and if a store does carry organic products, they're only too eager to shout it from the rooftops.

In the end, I went back to Cotton Ginny and got a little pink shirt. It was nicer than a regular t-shirt and will look good with a few different pants/skirts I own, so it will get a lot of use through the spring/summer.

I just find it amazing that so few stores are getting with the program and going green. I really do believe that it is just a matter of time before more and more consumers start demanding this type of product. So I guess I am trying to do my part by spending my clothing dollars at a store that carries organic, even if the style is not exactly my preference. I have to say that I have a hard time justifying buying something fashionable from a regular store, knowing the human and earthly abuses that occurred to give me that product. I think we really need to look at our priorities. I love nice clothes, I really do, but at what cost? I have an easier time paying the cost myself than justifying someone else having to pay it for me.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we have more decent options for sustainable, ethical goods.

If any of you know if some quality organic retailers, or lines within regular stores, leave a comment and share the love!

Central Green Update

Well, the Central Green forum was interesting. It was a nice chance to get to meet some of the other cohousing people. It was also interesting from a Metro perspective as the new development is going to be linked to downtown via a pedestrian overpass.



So the bottom line from my perspective is that it is still too early
to tell if this is going to be a good fit for the cohousing side of things. Part of me really loves the idea of being in Central Green, 1. because it is a great location, within walking distance of lots of things, 2. because it is a green and sustainable development so it too addresses some of our priority concerns, 3. I think it would be a great place to showcase the co-housing concept. There would obviously be set backs with sharing the space with non-cohousers, but the benefit of that would be that we would be seen less as a cult (as Alexis said!) and perhaps the concept would be mroe easily accessible and once people see it working in practice in a public place, they would be inspired to build more developments in this way... wouldn't it be awesome if there were 5 or 6 or 15 cohousing neighborhoods in Kelowna and if people started to see this as the new way of building communities? OK, big dreams, but you just never know!

One thing I found with my small group was that they were very open to
the idea of cohousing not only because of the sustainability and
affordable housing angles, but because of the community aspect. One of
the major concerns of the city and developers is that the downtown has
a lot of social problems and the idea of having a cohousing community
who are intentional about getting to know their neighbors and being
engaged with their surroundings appeals to a lot of people from a
safety and social transformation perspective. Of course, this is also a major plus for the Metro team. It seems that there may be space on the site for a Metro building, and it too could perhaps fit into the 20% category if there were apartments etc. Either way, it is exciting that this development is going in there because it is going to be close to Metro regardless.

One funny little unexpected consequence of this meeting is that I ended up on the front cover of our local free paper! I spoke to a reporter from the Kelowna Capital News at the forum. It was kinda funny how it worked out - during the small group time, I happened to be the only one with a pen and notepad at our group, so I was nominated as the record keeper. When it came time to feedback our small group material to the larger group, they chose me to do it because I had all the notes. So the reporter came to speak to me because I had mentioned a Living Machine in my presentation. She asked me a couple of questions about it and then asked what our table had suggested it. I told her it was me and she asked what area of expertise I had. I laughed and told her I was just a mom, so she asked how I knew about the Living Machine and I explained that I had read about them in a couple different books, Natural Capitalism being one of them. So she asked me how I had heard about the forum and I explained about the cohousing group. She called me a couple of days later to follow up with more questions and I thought maybe it would be a little paragraph stuffed in the middle of the paper somewhere, but then last night a friend called to say I was famous 'cause she'd just read all about me on the front page of the paper! Thankfully there was no picture and the reporter was very careful to quote me exactly.
So there you go... you just never know what might happen when you show up!

Kelowna CoHousing and the Central Green Project

Tonight we're going to a city counsel meeting about a proposed development in Kelowna. It is called Central Green and will be situated on the corner of Richter and Harvey, on the old KSS site. It is a sustainable development with a proposed 20% affordable housing and the developers are keen to talk to the recently formed Kelowna CoHousing group about making some of that 20% a cohousing development. It is very exciting also as the new site is just across the highway from the Downtown core that we're working with at Willow Park Metro.

OK, so here's the skinny on the two different angles we're approaching this from:
Willow Park Metro is our church. Willow Park church is a big church here in Kelowna and it now has four "campuses" in different areas of the city. We have one senior pastor who does the majority of the preaching and each campus has its own campus pastor. The preaching is pretty much the same at three out of the four campuses - the senior Pastor rotates between the different campuses for the different services and those that don't get him in person, get him on video, so everyone hears the same message. The renegade campus is ours - Willow Park Metro, and we like to call ourselves a "community" rather than a "campus"! We get our own sermon, although it is the same subject matter as the rest of the church gets, but adapted for our location. Metro is right downtown and we have a lot of people from the streets or who have addictions who are a part of our community so the needs and experiences of our campus are somewhat different than the others. Right now we are meeting in Habitat - an arts and social venue but we are quickly out-growing the space and the building is only available to us on Sundays. We would like a 24/7 presence downtown and to have a place to have meetings mid-week and perhaps even some accommodation for those who are transitioning back into society after going through recovery. If we could incorporate a coffee shop or some other sort of "third space" for people to mingle and for community to form in a healthy way, that would be great too! The setbacks have been the fact that no-one downtown seems to want to sell buildings right now because there are rumors of a new developer coming in soon and paying big bucks to buy up available properties and the other set back is a lack of available land on which to build.

On the other side of it, Mr Joyful and I are also involved in the Kelowna CoHousing initiative. Very recently a few people started talking about the idea of have a cohousing community in Kelowna where the community would be designed with the intention of people getting to know their neighbors and being a safe place for kids to live and play. A by-product of that is that most of the people involved are also very interested in sustainable design - we would like our cohousing community to be as green as possible. The set backs have been the cost of real estate in Kelowna and finding available land.

So we are hoping to be at the meeting tonight to represent the cohousing group (along with a couple others from the group), but also to see what is going on in case it is something that Metro wants to partner with because it seems that Central Green would help with some of the key set backs we have experienced for both Metro and Cohousing. The city is looking at building a combination of residential and commercial units with a big park incorporated. There is a strong drive towards making it pedestrian and child friendly and having lots of "third space"es - patios and coffee shops etc. that will encourage a sense of community. So the city is already planning in line with some of the core values of the church and the cohousing group. It is a very exciting prospect - and especially as it is right around the corner from where we are currently living. Willow Park has a similar vision for the area they are located in in Rutland. If we were to build our new Metro site within Central Green, it would be an ideal location for many reasons. And it sounds like it would be a good location for the cohousing community also.

Either way, the meeting tonight should be interesting and informative...we'll see what happens!

Chocolate is SO last season!

I have a new addition.... Carob Chips! Seriously... given the choice, I would rather eat carob chips than chocolate! OK, now those who know of my firm stance as a chocoholic may be fainting at the thought, but this is not really a good time to make the call because I am unable to eat real milk chocolate at the moment due to the kids allergies, so maybe my view is skewed. But I have to say that I am really loving the fruity, spicy goodness of carob yummies! And apparently Carob is infinitely superior to chocolate nutritionally. So its OK to eat a whole bag-full in a week. Maybe. OK, not really at all, but I can dream! That's all.

It started with a starter...

I have been trying to cook as many things from scratch as possible... mainly just as an experiment to see how much it is possible to make these things from home... what exactly are we paying for when we buy things pre-made etc. But also because I like to be able to control the ingredients, especially because of the boy's allergy to dairy protein, but also because I want them to have the best, purest ingredients if at all possible.

I have so far discovered that Mayonnaise is INSANELY easy to make and it is much better for you when you make your own if only for the fact that when you make it yourself you become aware of just how much oil is involved and it makes you want to eat less... that was my experience anyway! I think partly it is also due to the fact that the store-bought mayo is so highly processed and not made with fresh eggs that it doesn't really break down like real fresh may does. The fresh stuff sort of looks oily when you leave it out of the fridge (like, the residue on the knife etc.). Anyway, it was an educational experience. But I am not sure that it is worth making my own may this time of year because it does take a little bit of time and it only keeps for a couple days. This time of year with no salad greens or potato salads to use it on, we don't need very much of it, so it is maybe not worth the time right now. I think I will endeavor to make my own through the summer though and hopefully I can perfect my recipes.

Anyway, we have also been making pretty much all of our bread at home. We started with the bread machine, but I also go quite a bit of practice making it by hand too. Asher loves to help and it is somewhat cathartic to knead the dough. So, I like to use as natural ingredients as possible - as un-processed as possible. (I threw the ingredients for a loaf into the bread machine last night and I said to Mr Joyful that it is quicker to do that than walk to the end of the block and buy a loaf from the Macs store!) In the bread recipe I knew the origins of all my ingredients except for the yeast. Then I read in The Omnivores Dilemma that it was entirely possible to harvest yeast from the air, to nurture it and eventually to use it to make bread. I was fascinated by the concept but presumed the work involved would be too time-consuming and beyond my meager culinary skills, not to mention non-existent agricultural skills... I'm no farmer! So I didn't think much about it until a friend from Metro gave me a Amish bread starter. I was mesmerized with the concept of tending to this little bag of gooey goodness until it was ready to deliver a beautiful loaf. However, though I was able to bring the bread to fruition, I was unable to partake in the goodness because the starter had milk in it :( So I set about trying to find a recipe for starter that didn't include milk. I found plenty - the vast majority of which called for yeast. Then whilst reading about starters in my Joy of Cooking I came across a recipe for natural starter where the yeast spores are harvested from the air and flour! Seeing the process mapped out in black and white convinced me that it was a challenging but not-too-daunting task and I decided to try it.

Success! It works and it is amazing! After three days of carefully "feeding" a flour/water mix (you feed it more flour and water) it bubbles up with the activity of live yeast and is ready to leaven a loaf or two of bread. I was thoroughly fascinated to watch the goo transform before my eyes and even more thrilled to watch my bread dough rising with the leavening action of just the yeast that was naturally present in the air and flour! Amazing, truly amazing! The only down side of it is that the recipe in JOC calls for twice-daily feeding and daily bakings in order to maintain the starter and the actual rise-time for a natural yeast dough is quite long (we're talking 12-14 hours, compared with 2-3 for a regular loaf), so you need to be organized a while ahead of when you want your loaf. You can put the starter in the fridge and just feed it once a week, but this involves straining off some sort of gray watery stuff which just sounded a bit gross to me, so I was too scared to try it. So sadly, I think I have killed my starter through neglect. But I will start another one again soon (the last one lived for over a month!). I discovered that I actually only needed to feed it once a day to maintain it and next time I will try the fridge method too. There is something very wholesome and peaceful about taking days to make a loaf of bread - a simple reminder in this crazy-hectic world that some things are worth waiting for.

The Water Clock!

This is the most exciting gadget to enter our humble home in quite some time. Due to our convictions about consuming less, we have bought very few new things recently, and though our motives are pure, we still get a hankering for novelty. So we were kinda excited when we needed a new alarm clock (ours ceases to alarm us!). We have actually been doing OK without an alarm clock of the commercial variety thanks in great part to our dear children who consistently awaken us much sooner than we ever need to get up. However, the little darlings are actually being almost civil in sleeping until around 6:30am... OK, that only happened once so far... but we live in hope! As Cory needs to be up for work at around 5:30am, and since he has a new job that he does NOT want to be late for, we decided this was a good time to "splurge" on a new purchase. We wanted to stay within our mandate of buying environmentally and socially responsible items if at all possible, so I started to do my research to see if there is such a thing as an eco-alarm clock. Well, imagine my joy (no pun intended) when I discovered the "H2O Power" Multi-Function Alarm Clock! Yes, my friends, it runs on water! How SERIOUSLY cool is that??!! It actually comes with its own little AA shaped "battery" that you fill with water and slot into a regular-looking battery receptacle in the back of the clock. We were both a little skeptical as to its usefulness outside of a high-school science project, but it actually works!

And it just gets cooler... not only is it a regular clock with day, date, month and year displayed, but it also is an alarm, has a timer (for those 60 minute power-naps... yeah, right, like we've had one of those since college... as I said earlier, we live in hope!), and a thermometer. But get this: you don't press some button to switch between functions, you actually rotate the whole clock 90 degrees and it switches automatically! Who said loving the earth can't be fun?! Surely the water-clock proves that there's more to being eco-conscious than granola bars and hemp!