our one small change

We always try to be conscious about the decisions we make as a family, as consumers, and as caretakers of the earth. I'd like to think that we make wise choices, and that our efforts are of some benefit. But I know that there will always be ways to do more good!

I think our focus for the month is going to be on packaging. This is something I often obsess about, and since food is pretty much the only thing we regularly purchase, our focus will be on food packaging. Now, we do not buy much packaged food as it is, and we recycle everything that we can, but our small town has somewhat limited recycling facilities, and it greatly distresses me every time I have to throw something away! This is something that we have been working on for a while now, but I feel myself getting more and more determined in my efforts!

We buy much of our food from the bulk bins at our local health food stores. (Always organic of course!) For several years now I have been very good about bringing glass jars for any liquids that we purchase... maple syrup, vanilla, and honey now that we use that too. But I do not always bring reusable bags for our grains, beans, etc.. I had always wanted to make cloth bags to hold these staples, but I was concerned that certain items, flours in particular, would somehow come through the fabric. Then a while I go I saw these great handmade bulk food bags and was assured that they would contain flours just fine. After all, all grains and flours used to be stored in fabric sacks. So I am going to finally make these. I'm sure mine will not be quite as fancy, no labels, I instead imagine myself holding a little scrap of paper with all the plu's written down, or just trying to remember them all in my head, I know most of them anyway, though that's probably not such a good idea...

One other thing that we have been trying to do lately is to remember to bring our own snacks when we go to town. It is about a 35 minute drive into town and when we go to run our errands, grocery shopping, library, etc... the girls will surely need something to eat before we head back home. We don't eat out at restaurants, (seriously, never, less than 10 times in more than 10 years), but we sometimes get a container of hummus and a loaf of bread from the bakery, or maybe a box of crackers, and even that just seems wasteful, as far as packaging goes, and money too. So now we try to always plan ahead and make something of our own to bring. Even if it is just our own hummus and bread. We always bring our own water bottles too.

So now I have a fun sewing project to look forward to also. And of course the bags will be made of fabrics from my stash, a good way to use up some of what I already have.

Thanks to Suzy for starting this great project, and for the extra motivation!