The Joy of Re-Use

We've lived in the home we own for just over a year now, and I have to say, owning a home is both more amazing and more annoying than I originally thought.

It's amazing because I get to truly settle in a place, plant bulbs for the spring, make a home for some hops (which take a few years to fruit well), maybe even grow some fruit trees.

But it's annoying in the way that everything takes longer than you think it will to shnazz up, finish, decorate, etc. We've lived here a year and three bedrooms still have no curtains in them. Two have only single pieces of furniture. It takes a lot of work to go from dwelling a single bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom, 4 story house. That's a huge furniture-to-space ratio change.

But one of the simplest designing joys is finding, suddenly!, that you will be able to re-use or re-purpose something that you found or that you already had. This week I found out my family was coming for Thanksgiving.  I suddenly knew I really, really wanted to hang up curtains and wall hangings in the rooms I have left abandoned before they arrived in three weeks.

Ugh. With my unemployment I worried about this cost. But then, as I was wondering the house, I found a bag of curtains a friend had thrust at us when we moved, hoping we could use them.  JOY! All but one room is handled. I can even do the basement and attic windows, which will just make everything look so finished from the outside.

Today, as I was saging the house, I had some time to really think about each piece of furniture as I passed it. Couch from a friend, chair I bought and have had to recover twice, coffee table Mark made. All have their own personalities and histories. I was grateful, in a new way, for each one.  I love each and every one.

Rent-A-Center and things like that may make furniture "easy" for people on smaller incomes, but relying on re-use, re-purpose, re-gifted furnishing lends a home-y personality to each room. Each corner feels like the result of hard work and careful thought, and the same way a meal can taste like love, my living room cozies like love.

New Concepts of Waste

The Irish have a long history of hunger that has gifted them with a certain know-how. A certain wisdom about food and clothing and other necessities. A certain thankfulness for every meal. And for those things, I am certainly grateful. However, with these gifts, it seems another thing developed.

A simple composter! Not our picture. 

Those of you who have grown up Irish or near Irish people may be familiar with what I have dubbed "Irish food guilt". This is basically the idea that wasting any drop of any food stuff you encounter is a sin akin to baby kicking (The Crunchy Marriage does not endorse the kicking of babies).  It manifests in comments such as "Finish your cabbage, Seamus! There are starving children in Somalia!"

But we know it comes from a place of discomfort, of knowing that people in our family tree died for lack of that 1/4 of a mashed potato serving you can't stuff in. And it also seems to arrive from a place of insecurity that their will be enough tomorrow. But there has to be a way to honor this fear by investing in future prosperity. 

I would like to introduce a new perspective of our unedibles- a word I believe I made up and define as everything from onion skins to that last scrap of sauerkraut you can't bear to touch. A way to honor the potato famine and the depression without force feeding ourselves. A way to save the planet, keep our next harvest great, and ensure our families (and the earth's) health. 

In our home, our garbage rarely needs to be taken out. It doesn't fill often, and it doesn't smell. Why you ask? Well, allow me to tell you! Food-and all the organic waste associated with it- never touch our garbage can. We handle scraps, peels, left overs, and others in several ways.  From simple to complicated. 

• Lunch. Thankfully, Mark loves left overs for lunch. I am not so big of a fan. Nothing tastes quite right the second day. 
• Dog food.   I know, I know, "human food is bad for dogs...." To be honest, if you look though the list of common dog allergens, it is easy to avoid those items when giving your dog a little human food topping on top of his or her kibble. My grandmother and my aunts have always done this for their dogs without ever a problem. Zoe's coat has never looked better since we began topping it with a little oil or grease from cooking. And we noticed her shedding decrease and her nail growth increase when we started making sure she was getting a little bit of real food every day. For a while, we made her food, but this became cumbersome and we worried when she developed hot spots that we were not giving her something she needed, switching back to kibble made us sad that she was eating what seemed like such a fake food product. The providing of scraps seems like an affordable middle ground that gets real food in Zoe, while providing nutrition she needs. 
• Chicken feed.  Admittedly, one needs to own chickens in order for this to work, but I'll tell you what- those little geeks LOVE scraps. And they especially love farm share left overs I didn't manage to get to (or swiss chard, which I willingly tun over to them fresh). I have never seen them so happy as when they were attacking a mushy old summer squash. And the more nutrients they eat, the more make it into my eggs. Also, their poop fertilizes my lawn so well! . 
• Broth. We save and freeze all of our food scraps that could potentially be used in broth. We keep a half gallon jar in our freezer and fill it with brocolli stems, onion bottoms, leek tops, and potato skins. Every now and then, we'll roast a chicken (yes, we eat meat now, a post on that coming) and toss the bones in with the frozen veggie scraps to make a delightful, seasonal broth. Then, bones come out and veggies go into the compost. Goodbye $4 broth pints. Hello nutritious, fresh tasting soups!
• Compost. An obvious answer to food waste, compost has been used forever as a way to provide nutrients for the soil. We have been amazed watching our open compost fill and deflate during the winter. Well turned, it does not attract bugs or rodents, and we have become very aware of how quickly food will biodegrade if allowed access to oxygen, how much one family can have in scraps, and how great for a garden compost really is. Vermiculture (allowing worms to eat your scraps in buckets, essentially) is an easy alternative for people with no outdoor space to compost

Weird Hippie Project Number 17

So, I wanted to take a moment to give you the information on one of my tiny compulsions, in doing some crunchy home making.

I have a firm belief that a home that smells like home is really home. So dinner cooking, filling a home with aroma and warmth, that home is really a home. However, no one stays in my kitchen cooking all day, and I absolutely love being welcomed home, or into a room even, with ludicrously delicious scent.

Because of this dilemma, I have taken up dipping my own candles out of local beeswax and recycled candle pieces, but there is a quicker, greener way!

Velveeta and canned salsa=not crunchie!

Behold a picture found on google images of a crock pot a lot like ours!
Ours is the same size, with a price mark from the local Am Vets. These can ALWAYS be found at your local thrift store, normally for 99 cents or less. They are absolutely invaluable to a scent sensitive addict like myself.

Here is my daily routine.
1) Wake up.
2) Grog.
3) Brew tea.
4) Toss the extra tea, with leaves, in mini-crock, topless (that naughty crock).
5) Enjoy yummy scents for hours.

Sometimes if I am having a blue day, can't cook, or I'm throwing a party, I toss in a cinnamon stick with a few cloves, potentially a cardamom pod if I'm feeling saucy. Aromatherapy oils work too, but its not the same. The actual spices can be savored over and over just by adding more water.

Sometimes if I buy a tea I don't wind up enjoying, like a Celestial Seasonings buy that was on sale locally after the holidays, I just designate it for scent-pot. And nothing is wasted. In Buffalo when electricity is generated by Niagara Falls, I feels much better about this than using petroleum based, artificial scents, chock-full of carcinogens and allergens. Adding a level of absolute green insanity, I almost always use a half used cup of tea or water or cooking liquid, making it a project using only electricity, and not much of it.

Go ahead and try!