Today was an exciting day. my daughter returned home from camp. she was glowing; gorgeous, young, healthy, full of life and exuberance. it filled my heart to be with her again. we went out to eat to celebrate, and had to take food home rather than waste it. which, of course saved the food but generated the wrapper. then my partner gave the food to the dogs any way... (oh happy dogs).
later i had to go to the supermarket to fill our empty cupboards. my food procuring pattern had been thrown off by poor planning (ever my culprit) for my bread making didn't get done and my going to the farm to buy milk didn't get done. and i realized i had a long way to go before i could make the prefered household cheese: monster. so i broke down, i bought plastic wrapped cheese, which i hadnt for weeks, packaged milk, juice, nutella (also in plastic), bread (also in plastic, twice over!), i even (gasp) forgot my bags and most ashamedly, head down and fingers fidgeting, got a plastic bag. aaaaarrrrggggghhh.
my daughter who is working on being a conscious (let alone conscientious) consumer, said tonight, "you have to enjoy yourself too." so you see, i am roadblocked, derailed, despoiled, and depressed. time for me to sit on my plastic pile and pout again. tonight was my worst night in two weeks. i had cut down on my purchases at the supermarked so much so, i was actually only spending around twenty dollars when i went in there. today i spent seventy, and then i had to go back for more.
but it isnt all her fault, i cant blame her; i do love nutella too. and if i really had it together, i would have made the nutella (how hard could it be to make)? and i definitely should have made the bread (which i really usually do do) rather than have had to buy it. and the shopping was so expensive because my new hobby seems to be canning. saving the bounty of now for later, including the shrink wrapped cases.
so my not so new discovery, was that in order to cut down on purchasing, need to make food. need to make food. must make food, mmmust mmmake fffood. of course it doesnt help that it is 3:30 am. and i am waiting for my canned tomatoes to cool.
so far this past week i have made: mozzarella cheese (yum!), a supposed goat cheese like cheese that came out like little rubber balls (eh?), butter (yum), granola, cucumber salad (half gallon), canned bean salad, canned tomatoes. those are just the things that are out of the ordinary for me to do (read new adventures in cooking). dont ask me what else i do, i dont remember now.
ah, but the point, the point was that after all this industriousness, i have not yet, nor do i see in the near future, me being able to be a waste free product. i mean, what would life be like if i were to can, and bake and cook and butcher and tend the animals and the garden and my family. i wouldn't have time for this luxury of writing, now would i? would there be an I left? i suppose that might be a good thing. sometimes sleep is even a luxury. next week i have to buy my daughter back to school stuff. hmmmmm, i'm sure there will be no garbage generated with that sanguine experience. hmmm, no time for sarcasm, i am only compost waiting to happen. and that is supposed to be an uplifting thought.
despite my inablity to get there from here today, the glories of the summer days and the deep rich smell of compost are hypnotic. dirt lives and we thrive of her bounty. enjoy the photos of my not-quite-off-the grid farmlet.
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