Community Engagement
June 20th, 2023
Hello again,
Although I will return to the plastic discussion, I would like to start tackling chemicals. Hang on to your hats Green Beans, the next few blogs are mind-blowing!
We tend to meander through our lives not thinking too much about chemicals, but they are literally everywhere, for example, in our:
- food
- furniture
- clothes
- cleaning supplies
- dishwasher detergent
- laundry soap
- dryer sheets
- shampoo/conditioner
- body lotions
- makeup
- shaving cream
And I’m barely scratching the surface, excuse the pun.
CHEMICALS ARE IN THE AIR WE BREATHE
Over the next few blogs, I’ll tackle the above list but first - let’s dive into the food issue. First, I would challenge anybody to tell me that they honestly aren’t aware of chemicals in our food. OK, getting that out of the way – what can we do?
We all know how daunting it can be when we pick up an item in the grocery store and try to figure out what the heck the ingredients are; let’s face it, we can’t pronounce them, let alone know what they are. We could pick up our trusty phones and google, and I will admit I have on occasion done just that but if I googled every single unrecognizable ingredient I found - grocery shopping would turn into a four-hour job. I happen to be retired so I could waste an afternoon in the grocery store but honestly, I would get tired and certainly bored. Plus, I rarely understand what the description is anyway. So, what’s the answer? STAY AWAY FROM PROCESSED FOODS. Let me add a caveat – as much as possible! And I know that isn’t easy, I struggle with it every time I am in the grocery store. I walk by the processed meats and salami is often whispering my name and sometimes I give in. The goal is not to change all the bad habits but maybe a few to start. And another suggestion is adding more good stuff to your diet – fruit and veggies. Also make sure you wash them because they are often covered in chemicals. I use a solution of water and baking soda to soak them and then rinse.
A good rule of thumb is to shop the perimeter of the grocery store as much as possible.
I would love to have a green thumb and I am working on it. This summer I am going to try again to grow all my herbs as I’ve had some success previously. I would love to grow my own tomatoes and lettuce. So, whether you have a deck, a balcony or a yard start small and if you are like me, you will get major satisfaction from having your own tomatoes on your dinner plate.
At the end of last year, I took all the herbs I was able to successfully grow, chopped them up, and put them all in ice cube trays. I then covered them with olive oil and into the freezer they went. Next time I made tomato sauce – voila, I had the herbs already to go. I also do that with leftover wine!
The reality is we have more allergies and diseases than ever before, and experts are telling us that the environement is responsible for more deaths than anything else.
Baby steps are required here; Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Our lives are made of … moments. Simple words and actions, taken together, weave a single day, and our days become our life. Every gesture is a seed, and the seed determines the harvest. As the well-known 13th c. Persian Sufi Mystic Rumi wrote, “Let the beauty we love be what we do.” - Wayne Muller, How, Then, Shall We Live?
Take care, and until next time….
Stay Green