Growing Up Waste-free
Growing Up Waste-free
What our kids think of their waste-free life + Earth Overshoot Day, Foraged-for Apple & rosehip jelly and weekend recommendations.
One of the most common questions we’ve been asked through the years is “What do your kids think of living waste-free?” They’ve been fully committed to living this way from the beginning, but we haven’t sat down to ask them to reflect on it for a while. So we thought we’d do just that! We asked each of them the same questions and it was super interesting to hear their responses. Like us, they find this way of life just normal, but as each is at a different age and stage, and their memories of the last 6 or so years are different, their responses also differ. Anyway, we enjoyed it and we hope you do, too. Paid subscribers will receive the full transcript later in a mid-week catch-up letter.
Thanks again to all those who have chosen to pay for a subscription. Now that we’re not selling ‘things’ so much, your support helps us to set aside time to create more videos, artwork, eCourses and newsletters to share, and hone what we do (mostly in spare or borrowed time) to make it even better. We’re really excited to have one-on-one chats with some of our founding members in coming weeks, and looking forward to rolling out our bigger and better 52 Climate solutions series, beginning tomorrow. You can sign up for a paid subscription at any time and see the full archive. You can also give a subscription to someone if you think they’d like it.
Earth Overshoot Day
It was Australia’s earth overshoot day on Wednesday. As one of the worlds top consumers of resources per capita, and four months earlier then the year’s average for all countries, this is not something to be proud of. From the Earth Overshoot website:
“Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year”.
As a family we’ve calculated our own earth overshoot day, taking into account our ecological footprint. It’ll be December next year. Where once we required 3.4 earths to sustain a family like ours, now it takes 0.5! And the thing is, we reckon there’s more we could be doing. Lots of wiggle room. If you’re feeling motivated to check out your own ecological footprint and find your personal overshoot day, pop over here.
Apple & Rosehip Jelly
There’s still good fruit foraging around our part of the world, with roadside apples and rosehips close to their peak. We’ll often make the apples into an apple and blackberry crumble if there’s still some around. Or we’ll prepare the rosehips to save for tea through the year. But another of our favourite things to make with apples and rosehips is this beautiful jelly.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1kg apples, or thereabouts
2 cups of rosehips
Sugar - we used organic raw sugar, but rapadura, juice or honey or a mix of sweeteners would be fine.
Water
Let’s do this:
Chop the apples up roughly , core, stems and all.
Pop them in a large pot with the rosehips and cover with water.
Bring to the boil and then simmer until the fruit is soft.
Place a colander over bowl and place some muslin or old stocking over the colander. Strain the fruit - leave it overnight if necessary. Try not to squeeze the fruit as the jelly will be clearer if it drains naturally.
Measure the amount of juice and add half the amount of sugar along with it to a pot. For example, for 4 cups of juice, add 2 cups of sugar. Most recipes will suggest you need to have an equal amount of sugar, but we find it just too sweet - this will also depend on what sweetener you choose. There is enough pectin in the fruit to set the jelly anyway.
Simmer the juice and sugar until it becomes jelly. Scoop off any foam that forms on the surface.
Place some clean jars in a pot of water on the stove and boil for ten minutes to sterilise.
Place a saucer in the freezer.
Test the consistency of the jelly every now and then by dropping some onto the saucer. When the liquid thickens and holds it's shape a little when you run a finger through it, it is ready.
Ladle or pour the jelly into the jars and pop the lids on to seal. When cool, store the jars in the cupboard and use as needed.
This recipe can be found in our book, ‘A Family Guide to Waste-free Living’.
This weekend:
Watching: One of our favourite youtube channels, Appleturnover, sharing their move away from the car towards eBikes. Something to ponder in these times.
Listening: Degrowth is an important concept that’s long informed what we do and the way in which we live. This week, Sarah Wilson interviewed Degrowth economics specialist, Jason Hickel. This should be a great listen.
Reading: Dipping back into Jason Hickel’s book ‘Less is More’, we expect. It’s a great and important read.
Doing: Earth hour is tonight (Saturday). Time to turn the lights off! Pop over here for all the details.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our first 52 Climate Solutions weekly challenge tomorrow. If you enjoyed reading and feel like sharing with a friend, we’d love that!
Have a gorgeous weekend.
With love,
Lauren & Oberon. xx