Sustainability for us means moving toward a healthier, more organic, lower carbon footprint lifestyle, but it also means financially sustainable. We currently live on a small fixed income--too much to get food stamps, but not enough to buy clothes, make car payments or fund any major projects. I do have a modest extra income in December each year in the form of royalties from my writing and that usually goes to catching up on medical bills and the like.
While we would love to jump with both feet into a completely organic, alternate energy, food independent lifestyle, it's just not realistic, so there are some trade offs.
We use white sugar. We would like to switch to honey for most things, but good local organic honey is too expensive to use for things like baking, pickling and fruit preservation. Inexpensive honeys are not bee friendly, often come from questionable plant pollen and are frequently diluted with high fructose corn syrup. A gradual shift to homegrown Stevia may be in our future, but that will take some getting used to, both for our tastes and for proper substitution in recipes. Our own beehives are several years in the future. Although Oklahoma isn't really in the south, we do drink sweet tea. We love the way it tastes with honey, but we must reserve that as a special treat.
We use cheap, store brand coffee. I lived in the Pacific Northwest (back in the late Seventies and early Eighties--my goat dairy days) and I was exposed to coffee houses with their own roasteries and that wonderful invention, the espresso machine. It would be great if we could always buy small label, fair trade, organic, locally roasted coffee. Ain't happening. We're lucky if we get through the month without running out of coffee as it is.
We use white all-purpose flour for our baking. I do use whole wheat and other grain flours as additives, but our bread is still basically white. Whole wheat flour is expensive, organic whole wheat flour is more so, and organic sprouted wheat flour is, well, out of reach right now. Plus, due to the lack of gluten in non-white flours, most recipes either call for the addition of large amounts of all-purpose white flours, or they require xanthan gum--a highly processed form of sugar--or a combination of baking soda and baking powder. I do, however, use a sourdough starter from ambient yeast floating around in our woodsy air for much of our baking.
We buy eggs. They are a great source of protein, they are a major ingredient in all kinds of cooking and the eggshells are a valuable resource in the garden. Eventually we plan to start raising our own poultry, but startup costs money for construction of predator-safe housing, heritage chicks to start a flock, feed for chicks, layers and meat birds--it takes at least three different feeds for a basic operation--and all of the various watering and feeding devices. Currently we buy eggs five dozen at a time for 60 to 70 cents a dozen. There are other benefits to raising ones own chickens, such as insect control, but our neighbor has free-range ducks, guineas and chickens and we get their services for free.
Our next major project, with construction planned to begin January first, will be a sleeping porch on the east side of our house. This will consist of a covered deck, with recycled sliding patio doors and recycled windows and a roof covered with a translucent material, probably fiberglass, so the porch will double as a growing space for herbs, other consumables and houseplants for oxygen exchange. Any other investments will have to wait another year.
We don't always compromise. We have our own well, but we conserve water, showering under low water pressure, capturing rain water for watering crops and watering efficiently with soaker hoses. Our laundry machines have high energy efficiency and low water usage. I use a water barrel to capture water from the garden hose that is too hot to go directly onto plants and I use a watering can for much of the watering.
For our gasoline-powered equipment, we only use 100% gasoline so as to avoid supporting the GMO ethanol industry. This one is a close call, but I'm not sure any of the ethanol production is energy efficient yet. We also use gas cans with evaporation prevention and use our gas-powered machines only when necessary.
We keep our trips to the store or into town to a minimum and plan our business to accomplish a number of tasks on one trip.
Our house is well insulated and has double windows to help keep heating and cooling costs down. We use heavy blackout curtains to keep heat in or direct sunlight out, but we let in light when appropriate to avoid using electric light. We use wood heat and cook outdoors with wood fire as much as possible--burning wood in our fire rings is no fun when the weather is in the high nineties.
These are just examples, not a comprehensive list. We constantly look for new ways to save money, natural resources and the environment and every day is a new adventure.
While we would love to jump with both feet into a completely organic, alternate energy, food independent lifestyle, it's just not realistic, so there are some trade offs.
We use white sugar. We would like to switch to honey for most things, but good local organic honey is too expensive to use for things like baking, pickling and fruit preservation. Inexpensive honeys are not bee friendly, often come from questionable plant pollen and are frequently diluted with high fructose corn syrup. A gradual shift to homegrown Stevia may be in our future, but that will take some getting used to, both for our tastes and for proper substitution in recipes. Our own beehives are several years in the future. Although Oklahoma isn't really in the south, we do drink sweet tea. We love the way it tastes with honey, but we must reserve that as a special treat.
We use cheap, store brand coffee. I lived in the Pacific Northwest (back in the late Seventies and early Eighties--my goat dairy days) and I was exposed to coffee houses with their own roasteries and that wonderful invention, the espresso machine. It would be great if we could always buy small label, fair trade, organic, locally roasted coffee. Ain't happening. We're lucky if we get through the month without running out of coffee as it is.
We use white all-purpose flour for our baking. I do use whole wheat and other grain flours as additives, but our bread is still basically white. Whole wheat flour is expensive, organic whole wheat flour is more so, and organic sprouted wheat flour is, well, out of reach right now. Plus, due to the lack of gluten in non-white flours, most recipes either call for the addition of large amounts of all-purpose white flours, or they require xanthan gum--a highly processed form of sugar--or a combination of baking soda and baking powder. I do, however, use a sourdough starter from ambient yeast floating around in our woodsy air for much of our baking.
We buy eggs. They are a great source of protein, they are a major ingredient in all kinds of cooking and the eggshells are a valuable resource in the garden. Eventually we plan to start raising our own poultry, but startup costs money for construction of predator-safe housing, heritage chicks to start a flock, feed for chicks, layers and meat birds--it takes at least three different feeds for a basic operation--and all of the various watering and feeding devices. Currently we buy eggs five dozen at a time for 60 to 70 cents a dozen. There are other benefits to raising ones own chickens, such as insect control, but our neighbor has free-range ducks, guineas and chickens and we get their services for free.
Our next major project, with construction planned to begin January first, will be a sleeping porch on the east side of our house. This will consist of a covered deck, with recycled sliding patio doors and recycled windows and a roof covered with a translucent material, probably fiberglass, so the porch will double as a growing space for herbs, other consumables and houseplants for oxygen exchange. Any other investments will have to wait another year.
We don't always compromise. We have our own well, but we conserve water, showering under low water pressure, capturing rain water for watering crops and watering efficiently with soaker hoses. Our laundry machines have high energy efficiency and low water usage. I use a water barrel to capture water from the garden hose that is too hot to go directly onto plants and I use a watering can for much of the watering.
For our gasoline-powered equipment, we only use 100% gasoline so as to avoid supporting the GMO ethanol industry. This one is a close call, but I'm not sure any of the ethanol production is energy efficient yet. We also use gas cans with evaporation prevention and use our gas-powered machines only when necessary.
We keep our trips to the store or into town to a minimum and plan our business to accomplish a number of tasks on one trip.
Our house is well insulated and has double windows to help keep heating and cooling costs down. We use heavy blackout curtains to keep heat in or direct sunlight out, but we let in light when appropriate to avoid using electric light. We use wood heat and cook outdoors with wood fire as much as possible--burning wood in our fire rings is no fun when the weather is in the high nineties.
These are just examples, not a comprehensive list. We constantly look for new ways to save money, natural resources and the environment and every day is a new adventure.
Mature trees provide shade to help keep our house cooler in hot weather.
Stephen
All photos are copyright 2017, Stephen P. Scott
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