The Paper Plate Debate

Our dishwasher broke.  This is bad news for my husband and children, who must now wash the dishes by hand.  (I'm exempt because I do the laundry.  This is how deals are done in the Rettmann household).  Every single person in this house does not like to wash dishes.  Before the dishwasher broke, it was not uncommon for us to run it twice a day.  This might be how we wore out the motherboard.  (Subject for another post:  If everything has a motherboard, causing everything to break twice as fast as they did in the pre-motherboard era of manufacturing, causing us to buy twice as many of these things, are they really more efficient?  But I digress).

Last night friends gathered at one of our planned-at-the-last-minute gatherings.  The hostess chose paper plates.  I would have, too, since the only way to serve the number of people at this party would be to break out the 50 year old gold-edged china.  Friends, I love you all, but that's not going to happen on your average May Saturday night.  Our hostess said she felt a little guilty, but not really.  One mother of a young family stated her household switches to paper all summer, choosing the uncoated, paper plate.  We talked through the pros and cons of both reusable and disposable dishes, insofar as we knew them.  Never satisfied with just looking at the surface of a question, I decided to spend my Sunday morning digging more deeply into the paper plate debate.

First let me say that one Sunday morning of research is not enough time to do this subject justice.  To do a full-blown analysis, here are the questions that would need to be answered, starting with paper plates:  1)  What is the cost per unit of production (a plate)?  2)  What are the inputs in terms of water, electricity, wood, and costs of harvesting and transporting the wood to the production plant?  3)  What are the outputs in terms of waste, toxic chemicals, and transportation costs to get the finished product to store?  For ceramic, repeat the process, substituting clay and paint for wood, and add in the costs to the user in terms or washing, comparing both hand washing versus the dishwasher.

So I cheated.  I used Google.  It's not like I'm getting paid to write this blog.  The general concensus of online discussion is that ceramic beats paper.  But I'm going to throw in one more variable that may tip the scales in favor of paper, and that is the billable rate.  What is your billable rate?  Do you know?  Have you ever thought about it?  Your billable rate is whatever you could reasonable charge to perform whatever it is you are skilled at doing in the open marketplace.

I'll use a good friend of mine as an example.  This friend has a masters degree and a fancy title.  He claims his billable rate is $250 per hour.  So if he washes dishes for 5 hours per week, theoretically, that "costs" his household $1,250 in lost opportunity.  Per week!  In other words, if my friend wasn't washing dishes, he could be doing something else much more financially productive.  In theory.

There is one other consideration for me.  When I buy paper products, I turn the package around to see who manufactured them.  It turns out that one company, Georgia-Pacific, has a near monopoly on the manufacture of paper plates and other disposable tableware.  So this can get tricky.  Why should I care who makes my plates?  Here's why.  The short version of the story is that Georgia-Pacific is part of a conglomerate owned by the Koch brothers who support 501(c)4 groups who I strongly disagree with politically.  It would spoil my appetite to know that even a few pennies of mine had gone to support those angry old men and their ilk.  It takes just a few seconds to check who made the plates, or toilet paper, or paper towels, or facial tissue.

Goodness, it's complicated being Green in the Real World!

Bottom line, use ceramic when you can.  Use paper when you have to.  Each family has to decide for itself what is the best use of time and resources.  If you can afford it, go for the biodegradable bamboo high end stuff.  If you can't, unwaxed paper is the best for the environment and also the cheapest.  If you are so inclined, check to see who made your product, and support the manufacturers who aren't sticking their noses into politics.  At some point they hopefully will figure out that, when 50% of the country disagrees with the other 50%, and you pick a side, you are pissing off half of your potential customer base.  But that's a story for another day.

Save money on food, buy from the farmer

Here in Horicon, we've had a bustling little farmer's market for the past few years.  Local growers love to come to Horicon because we chose to run on a day that doesn't compete with other local markets, we charge a very modest fee, we allow weekly rental space instead of forcing producers to lock in all summer, and we strive to support our market with entertainment and classes.

As one of the people who has worked to help develop this market, I try to buy something from every vendor on a regular basis.  You know what I've noticed?  I spend less on my groceries if I get a significant portion of our food from the farmer's market.  I thought it was just me, but here's an article that backs up that observation:

http://grist.org/news/farmers-markets-stand-to-benefit-the-poor-the-most/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update

There are several tricks to making this work, and maybe this is why the budget stretches a little more:

1)  Base your menu around what is in season.  Strawberries have a very narrow season here in Wisconsin.  So for those 2 or 3 weeks when strawberries are in, they will be on the menu several times.  By the end of strawberry season, my fam may be sick of strawberries.  But that's o.k., because only frozen strawberries are likely to be on the menu for the next 50 weeks.

2)  Know the storage life of your veggies, and only buy what you can use before it goes bad.  Radishes can keep in the fridge for a long time.  Lettuce, not so much.  If you buy two heads of gorgeous looking lettuce, you better have in mind how you and fam are going to eat all that.  On the flip side, if you know you only need five ears of corn this week, just buy five.

3)  Preserve what you don't eat.  This is something I've been turning to more often in the last year.  If I do accidentally overdo it by buying, oh, let's say, 20 pounds of apples one week (it seemed like a good idea at the time!), in years past, some of that would have gone to waste.  But I've since learned to do small batch canning, and we have a freezer.  This year, those extra, uneaten apples turned into three quarts of apple pie filling.  I can whip up an apple crumble in about 20 minutes as long as there are graham crackers in the house.  It works for small quantities too.  If I don't use up that fresh rosemary that cost $1.50 a bunch (a bargain, I assure you), it dries just fine and still tastes better than the stuff at the grocery store.

4)  Ask your farmers what they're bringing next week.  One of the great things about going to the same farmer's market week after week is that you get to know the producers.  At first it can be a little daunting.  But by mid-summer, you're old friends, and you feel perfectly comfortable saying "Hey Jerome, whatcha bringing next week?"  They are happy to tell you, because you are letting them know you are likely to be a repeat customer next week.  And now you have some information that helps you plan your menu.

As the snow flies (again!), we are already planning for spring and summer.  Later today I'll be working on the greenhouse watering schedule.  The farmer's market manager, the activities manager, and the volunteer coordinator have all been busy, and most of the slots for all the various activities have been filled.  Pretty soon I'll inventory the first aid bag.  It may look and feel like winter outside.  But we have summer on our minds.

An amazing example

Who knew about Bozeman?  I hope one day they say that about Horicon.

http://grist.org/food/big-skys-the-limit-how-to-make-local-food-lucrative-in-montana/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update

Wanna know why you should cook your own meals from scratch?

Tonight's post will be short, because this article is long.  But definitely interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

We're having home made pizza tonight.  The pepperoni and sausage are processed, yes, and have BHT (the subject of a future post, maybe), but make up about 5% of the meal.  It's the real world, baby.

Book Review #1

Book Review #1
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese published by Free Press, 2011.

Ms. Reese's book title exemplifies what this blog is all about.  We are busy people in a messy world receiving conflicting messages about a myriad of choices.  Somebody please cut through the incessant chatter and just tell us what the best choice is.  That's the theory.  But in the real world, as you, dear reader, already know, it's not that easy.

Make the Bread... is a well written book in an up-and-coming sub-genre of non-fiction that I'm going to call Recession lit.  Primary income earner gets let go of reasonably lucrative job some time in the last decade, (or decides said job just isn't worth the headaches), decides to undertake some form of homesteading to save money, and writes a book about his/her exploits.  I guess that's one way to survive the recession, and good luck to all of them.  It must work out well enough, based on my current book collection, which includes at least half a dozen of this type of book.

In Ms. Reese's case, she lost her job in 2008, she tells us on page 2.  Serendipitously, apples were falling from the apple tree in her yard that day.  She channeled her anxiety and fear about her future into making apple sauce from her own apples, and off she went on her three year adventure from job loss and apple sauce to publication.

What I like best about this book is Ms. Reese's writing voice.  It is authentic and approachable, and very modern.  It is the voice inside her own head, written down, unadulterated. It would drive an English lit teacher mad.  But to a tired woman looking for a little diversion without feeling too lazy (as in, me), it is a comforting book, pushing you to think a little, but gently.

She states up front that you may not agree with all of her make it vs. buy it choices.  She was very predictive on that point.  Several chapters are devoted to her small animal herd and, as I mentioned in my introductory post, farm animals are verboten here.  Even so, they are entertaining to read.  It was also nice to get permission to buy instant mashed potatoes in stead of (or in addition to) actual potatoes because they are cheaper and easier to whip up.  My kids also prefer the taste.

On the other hand, I'm not going to make my own worcestershire sauce to save $1.50, or my own tortilla chips, or most of the other things Ms. Reese decided to make.  I will make my own "fried" chicken (actually baked) on occasion.  I prefer fresh ground mustard to prepared mustard in most cooked dishes.  These are some of the individual choices I disagree with Ms. Reese about.  That's o.k.  She says so.

So, is this book worth reading?  Overall I would say yes.  It is not going to be the ultimate determiner of how you will divvy up your time.  Her subject matter is also confined to the kitchen.  If you are looking for essays on making versus buying beauty products, furniture, clothing, or anything inedible, this is not the book for you.  If you want to while a few winter hours away, curled up in a blanket, contemplating your food choices with a friendly, non-judgmental, witty companion, you would likely enjoy this book.

If you are disciplined enough to return your library books on time, pick it up at your local library and save a few dollars.  Once I've written down the five recipes I would like to try (including my favorite, so far, rye bread recipe), I'll probably pass it on.

Introduction

This blog idea has been floating around my mind for quite awhile now.  Nothing makes me happier than to see one of my ideas manifest itself in the real world.  Or in this case, the virtual world.  Welcome, enjoy, contribute and share.

So what's the purpose of Green in the Real World?  Like many children of Baby Boomers, I recognized early in life that the way my parents and grandparents were running things, I and my kids were going to have to deal with some serious challenges.  My first political memory was the oil embargo in the late 70's.  When I heard about Earth Day in the 80's, I got very excited, and convinced my parents we needed to recycle.  I started shopping at second hand shops out of necessity way before it was cool or hip or eco-friendly.  In the 90's I studied global agricultural production, and decided our food production system is (pardon the phrase) unsustainable, not to mention sad and potentially dangerous.  And now, working in health care, I see the effects of poor health choices have on our collective well-being, physical, mental and economical.

And then I started reading up on proposed solutions to these challenges.  Look, in a pinch, I will do whatever needs to be done to keep myself, my family, and my community healthy and happy.  But installing a composting toilet in my house?  I'll probably try several other, less stinky options first.  My husband has given me an ultimatum:  I can either have farm animals or a marriage, but not both.  So there will be no backyard chickens at the Rettmann household for the foreseeable future.  And my kids whine if I try to sneak the thermostat even a few degrees lower.  

Thus, this blog.  I bet I'm not the only working parent out there trying to balance the demands of family, planetary survival, making a living, community enrichment, and maintaining some semblance of sanity.  I can't be the only one who has stood in the baking isle at the grocery store for 20 minutes, debating my sugar purchasing decision.  Sure the generic white sugar is on sale this week, but what chemicals did they use  to purify it?  Is it sugar cane or beet sugar?  Does it matter?  What about the workers who produced this sugar?  Do they make a living wage?  Or am I a defacto slave owner?  Why am I being so neurotic about sugar?  Should I even buy sugar in the first place?  What about Type 2 Diabetes?  You've been there, right?  And that's 20 minutes of life that's not coming back.

I will be the first person to say I don't have definitive answers.  Anybody who does is selling you something.  You may agree wholeheartedly with my take on the different topics I intend to post about.  Or you may think I'm one can short of a six pack.  That's fine, in either case.  Actually, I think if I irritate both the far right and the far left, I'm pretty close to the sweet spot on an issue.  The point is, we need to be talking.  We need to share our experiences, our fears, or solutions, our stumbles and mistakes, and our hopes for making life better.  Everybody knows we've got problems.  My question to you is, what are you doing about it?  I'll tell you my stories, and I hope you will tell me yours.  We may each learn something valuable.  

Plus, I just like to write.  Thanks for being my proof-readers.  Feel free to correct my grammar at will.  I may  choose to ignore your corrections because, hey, this is the Internet, not 9th grade English class.

So again, welcome.  I look forward to going Green in the Real World with you.

Jenni Rettmann