From Substitutions to Solutions
Simple and low-tech solutions for fast action, Our left-over porridge muffin recipe, and good stuff to read, make, do and listen to.
We come across lots of articles and factoids about climate change, biodiversity, pollution, waste, threatened species and the environment in general, each week. Sometimes a story will stick in our minds for a few days while we talk about it and try to imagine how things happened, and why. We think about the systems that created the issues, and our role in participating in them, or not. We find out about the technology that’s being invented to reduce the issues. We like to wonder what the simplest solutions might be, and whether opting out entirely might be possible. Are we (as a society) making it harder than we need to?
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” – Bill Mollison
One such story came a few weeks ago, in the form of seagrass beds in the Mediterranean, accumulating lots of chemicals that can prevent photosynthesis. The result of poor waste disposal methods, and lots of people slapping on sunscreen for spending endless hours recreating in the sun, could potentially have a devastating effect on local sea grasses - an important part of ecosystems that help prevent erosion, store carbon and provide habitat for sea creatures. The solution put forward is to analyse the chemicals, ban the bad ones and substitute down the track with different sunscreens. A solid solution that doesn’t require habitual change, but it’ll take some time.
Simpler (and faster) solutions might be to avoid sunbathing, stay out of the sun in peak UV periods, and wear a hat and long sleeves if you must be in the sun for long periods of time. You can still use sunscreen, of course, but perhaps not in the quantities that are going to destroy local ecosystems. You may not be tanned, but you and the sea grasses both get to live long healthy lives.
It’s harder to demonstrate, make desirable, or make money out of avoiding something, so those solutions are usually relegated to the bottom of the list, but it doesn’t always need to be this way.
A recent video by The Story of Stuff presented a business who has devised cleaning products that are dehydrated into capsule form, to avoid the need for heavy, water—filled plastic bottled versions. The dehydrated capsules can be popped into a bottle of water (at home) and used, saving fossil fuels in the transport of heavy cleaning products and saving many plastic bottles. These are both good things.
However, when seeking solutions that will transition us to living in ways that cause minimal harm, and provide social equity and resilience, we can’t help but think that we can’t substitute our way out of the various waste (or fossil-fuel dependency) problems.
In watching this video, we thought up a whole bunch of other actions that can be taken to avoid the waste from conventional cleaning products - here are a few:
Clean less often. The unwritten societal expectations or standards of hygiene for household cleaning (including surfaces, clothes, towels and ourselves) are very high, and perhaps, sometimes, unnecessarily so. And over-sanitisation may have adverse health effects.
Make your own. Cleaning sprays can be made with apple cider vinegar that uses cores from old apples. Soap substitutes can be made using a variety of commonly-occurring garden and urban weeds and planted plants, or fat and lye (from wood ash) if you're adventurous. Or maybe you have someone local who makes things who you can trade, barter or swap with. Get creative!
Divest from corporate models of consumption. By avoiding buying the latest “zero waste product” (especially those owned by companies that support endless economic growth) we can transition to alternative ways of structuring society - ways that do not promote competition (I.e. break from systems where businesses compete for market share to build wealth for the few, using finite resources that should be shared by the many or kept underground!), but promote cooperation and local sharing of skills and resources that do not harm other parts of nature.
Normalise not buying products that society expects us to buy. Rave to your friends about the various ways you saved money, time (and the planet) by not buying into the latest product.
Not every problem needs a corporate solution. Many can be solved by everyday people, who can simply step back, review the problem, look at what low-harm alternatives exist (online search engines are great for this, but so are old self-sufficiency/permie-type books that you can get at the library or op shop, or ask your local elders what they or their grandparents used to do!), or look to local makers, and implement your own climate solutions without the corporate branding, and without feeding another billionaire's bank account.
Leftover Porridge Muffins
It’s deep porridge muffin time here, folks! These muffins make a delicious snack during the autumn-winter porridge season, when the apple, spice and honey are overflowing in our Tasmanian kitchen. Adding the leftover porridge makes them a little heartier than a regular muffin. We like to eat them fresh from the oven and still warm, but they make a more dense, nourishing snack the next day. This recipe makes 12 muffins.
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 cups plain flour (or gluten free plain flour)
4tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup rapadura/coconut sugar (or raw sugar if you like, but you might like to use less honey)
100g butter
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup milk
1 egg (2 if you’re going gluten free)
1 cup leftover porridge
1 tsp cinnamon
2 small apples or 1 large apple, grated (the apples that small children like to leave in the fruit bowl, with single bite marks in them, are perfect!).
Extra rapadura and rolled oats for sprinkling
Let’s do this:
Preheat the oven to 220°C
Sieve the first three dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the sugar.
In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the honey. Remove from the heat and beat in the milk and egg.
Tip the porridge, liquid, fruit, and any extras, into the bowl with the flour and sugar. Fold together gently.
Place spoonfuls of the mixture into buttered and floured muffin pans or reusable or compostable patty pans.
Sprinkle over the top with the extra sugar and oats, and pop in the oven for 12 -15 mins, or until the muffins are golden brown and spring back when pressed gently in the centre.
Remove the tray from the oven and let stand for 2-3 minutes before lifting the muffins from their pans.
Variations
If you like, you could try adding any of the following ingredients when folding in the fruit and porridge:
1 small handful of sultanas
1 small handful of sunflower seeds
1 small handful of cranberries
Or you could omit the apple, cinnamon and honey, and add:
1-2 well-ripened mashed bananas
3/4 cup Dark chocolate chips or small chunks of chocolate
This recipe is from our book ‘A Family Guide to Waste-free Living’. Published by Plum/Pan Macmillan in 2019. We sell signed copies, here.
What else is happening…
Baking: Our paid supporters received a mid-week love letter, on loneliness in climate action, villages and a beautiful love-filled cake for the mum in your life (or maybe you). This gently spiced Apple and Yoghurt cake is a favourite at this time of year.
Reading: Relatable thoughts on divesting from social media. We’ve been thinking about this lots, lately. It’s part of our move to Substack and towards reader supported content.
Reading: A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens by Melissa Caughey. We reckon this is actually a great guide for anyone looking to keep chooks! Simple and informative, with lots of great ideas and advice, and pictures too! Maisie (11yo) picked it up at the library and has been working on her chiccken language skills and planning a chook herb garden all week.
Rallying: Look, to be perfectly honest, we’re avoiding the news cycle a bit, but doing and saying what we can, when it matters. If we can muster the kids in this bucketing rain in the next hour, we’ll head here. It’s important all our voices are heard in the lead up to the election and that serious climate action is central.
Listening: We’ve loved Tricia Walker’s work for years. Lots of good stuff here.
Wishing you a beautiful, nourishing weekend. If you celebrate Mother’s Day, we wish you an extra gorgeous day and hope you’re celebrated too.
Much love,
Lauren & Oberon. xx
From Substitutions to Solutions
Thank you for these thoughts. I too spend time thinking about what might be simple solutions instead of convoluted market-based opportunities to "solve" waste (I recently watched something about making beer from excess/waste donuts and can't get it out of my head). If only there was somewhere to share this kind of thinking in meaningful ways - just throwing ideas out there because none of them need any kind of market structures, they just need thinking about and doing (or not doing). It is a bit like drawing back the curtain or breaking the fourth wall...paradigm shifting. Anyway, thanks again for the continued supportive and useful messages!