random thoughts on a simple kitchen

Glassware

Why do we have so much of it? There we are, always caring for glasses, looking for glasses, toting glasses around the house. Then there are the jars. The canning jars, the recycled jars, the spice jars, little, big, many sizes in between. All of their lids fill an old coffee can, which we comb through looking for the right fit, over and over in varying degrees of frenzy, depending on how late we are at the time. Why do we do all this? There is a much simpler solution & it’s called wide-mouthed canning jars.

They are glasses, they are storage containers, they are canning jars. They have lids of uniform size. They have a classic look that fits in any farm kitchen. And best of all, they are easy to clean…no bottle brush necessary.

Trash

Again, why do we have so much of it, number one? And what would happen if we made thoughtful decisions about incoming based upon a conscious awareness of outgoing? How would our purchases and collecting habits change if we didn’t have anonymous folks carting off our unwanteds each week?

Consider this for a moment, as I am these days: is it actually possible to walk the environmentalist talk if you allow someone else to deal with your garbage? It certainly isn’t possible to be completely independent that way.

If you were your own trashman, you would have 5 options for what normally hits the landfill, and they are: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Consume & Burn. In reality, this would mean all of your daily life would function a little differently.

Vegetable scraps would go to the chickens (consume) or into the compost (reuse). Meat would go to the dogs (consume) and bones to the firepit (burn). Wood brush would hit the firepit while leafy yard waste would hit the compost pile. When shopping, you would always bring your own bags because you wouldn’t want to have to dispose of the plastic ones. You’d choose paper whenever possible because it would burn. You might buy cookies based on which box had the more disposable packaging. You might bring small paper bags to fill at the bulk bin.

You’d likely check the bottoms of all detergent bottles, dishsoap bottles, shampoo bottles for recyclability before bringing them home. You’d realize a trip to the recycling center would be necessary as much as once a week if you consume lots of things in bottles & cans or just once a month if those aren’t in your usual diet.

This would definitely be more work, but once the routine was down, it would be akin to giving up the microwave for the stove. It throws other people for a loop though your own family doesn’t notice it anymore. It falls under the category of a “simple kitchen” because it’s the type of change that would encourage (and often require) more simple living.

The benefits? No money out of pocket to the garbage collectors, complete self-sufficiency with your family’s waste, and the end of any and all opportunities for your family to be environmentally obtuse.

Greens

It’s that time. Dig out your seeds. Peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage…they’re all ready to be planted sometime between now & April. Our only conundrum is whether to plant them here or on the land. One thing’s for sure, I can’t plant them in containers & cart them there or I’ll be carting dead plants. My garden survives only because I receive generous help from Mother Nature herself.

The Never-ending Stream of Artwork

One of my projects today is to put all of Sassy’s loose artwork into a 3-hole binder. The back of each sheet will be my notepaper. I’m tired of shuffling her art from place to place and I’m tired of looking for notepaper when I need it (or worse yet, notepaper I wrote something important on but now can’t find). When it’s full, it will be a slice of our life – hers on one side & mine on the other. Date it, file it, start over.

And speaking of the never-ending stream of artwork, we’ve recently begun buying inexpensive blank sketchbooks for Sassy to do her artwork. It keeps it contained & already bound, plus it eliminates the wasting of so much computer paper.