The Green Thing

I have been a bit snowed under with one thing and another.. have photos, but not today :-)
Today my daughter sent me an email forward, and this one is worth the sahring..how many can relate to this..

At the check-out, the young operator ridiculed an older woman and told her that she should bring her own grocery bags when she went shopping because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized to her and explained, "It's a bit awkward for my generation as we didn't have the "green thing" back in my day."
The clerk responded, "and that's exactly our problem today.  Your generation did not care enough to save our environment." She was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.  So they really were recycled - But oh no, we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go to the corner dairy.
But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day. Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind.  We dried clothes in the sun and the wind on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up precious energy -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.  Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Lake Taupo.
In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up a petrol engine just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Instead of buying a cup or a plastic bottle every time we needed a drink of water, we ran water from a tap into a cup or glass that we washed and put away for next time we were thirsty, we refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we either sharpened or replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people caught the tram or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.  And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Much Excitement

Last week, I had an email notification saying that a lady named Jenn had left a comment on my blog.  I felt quiet flattered and somewhat surprised at its content. She said I should be writing for them.. I had no idea who 'them' was. So I followed the link via her name and ended up in one of my favorite Pagan sites Pagan Pages, which I have a link to <-----  over there in "Places Worth A Visit"
I sent a wee note to Jenn, thanking her or the compliment to which she replied 'Well, you should be writing for us'
Funnily, way back in the day when the world was still in black and white and dinosaurs roamed the planet,  I wanted to write for a living, I wanted to be a jurno but as an insecure and impressionable 15 year old, I was embarrassed out of it, not able to take criticism well.
I wrote an article that was critic-ed by the, then Parliamentary Press Secretary  (my English teachers husband) and he ripped it to shreds, he finished by saying and I quote "your writing shows a complete lack of education) I stopped writing anything after that for years, I was gutted..
Now, I don't know about you, but when things like that are put to me, there is that pesky little past memory Monkey that climbs up on my shoulder and starts saying the words..  blah blah blah, all the "Yea but's' and the "everyone else is more .... " not to mention "What do you have to offer" really though if that monkey had climbed up on the other side it wouldn't be half as bad, as the hearing isn't so good over there! Things got a bit easier after I put on my big girl pants and smacked him about  a little with my 'Get A Grip' stick - sooooooooo now the contract is read and signed, I can tell you starting this month, I will be submitting a regular article to Pagan Pages - I get to name my column, however I will tell you what it is called after I have sent my first article to my editor, I think she should get the first look... nervous uh huh... excited much :-) 

Playing catch up

I'm playing catch up here.. with the kids on holidays this past week, my time seems to have been sucked into some sort of teenage vortex.. We went shopping on Saturday.. I really don't like shopping, but we went and bought a new camera..something I need for my online store.. and it was a red hot bargin, we got all the bells and whistle for half price.. makes sense to practice with it.. so I took some photos of some muffins Miss C and I made, they started out as Lemon Poppy seed, but morphed into something else totally due to the lack of plain yoghut - so they became Lemon, Berry, poppy seed Kefir muffins..the batter was sooooooooooo nice, they near didn't make it to the pan..

I rest my case on the batter tasting good.. I had to wrestle the bowl of her to wash it

I also took photos of lunch in the making.. there was a very good reason for this choice of meal but you will see later.. We made Minestrone soup. Frying some onions....

Peeling the vegetables is Miss C,

I chopped carrots, potatoes,  celery, leeks,  cabbage and  beans and then added beef stock and  a can of tomatoes and

this... the reason for the soup..

 another can closer to making something that's going on over at Just Like My Nan Made

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At Last - Cabbage

I started to write this post a few days ago, but life turned a little funky and the post never got finished.

People have been doing it for thousands of years.. and in all sorts of places.. My mother did it, and hers before her... so if this is the case why am I and why have I been spooked by the thought of it and commitment to it.. For the whole, I am worried about not having enough buckets to accommodate the family should I poison them all.. I am talking about lacto fermented vegetables - which fills me with the same trepidation as biological warfare. But fear is to be overcome and a big fat cabbage did I buy... 

I read a few recipes and I decided to wing it and follow the basics.. no wonder I am scared of  toxififing everyone *laughing* 

I also bought a huge jar, to put my cabbage in..see above...Every recipe I looked at said to use some sort of whey or something to give it a jump start, they only thing I had was a little Kefir whey.

I fished some out and put it aside in a glass

I thought about using the kitchen whizz to cut up the cabbage but decided on using a knife.. I cut up 3/4 of the cabbage the rest we ate for dinner :-)  

I added a couple of tablespoons of salt, and then with the pestle I bruised the cabbage until it was sort of glossy, I added about 2 tablespoons of the Kefir Whey, mixed it with my hands and then put it into my big new jar...then took it all out and put it in an old jar.. way smaller. I was amazed but I really shouldn't have been at how much that cabbage squished down.. The bowl ended up at 1/4 of the volume.
I wanted to weight it down but nothing fit in the mouth of the jar, so I cut a circle out of an ice cream container lid.

After I stacked it in the jar, I topped it up with water that had been sat out overnight.

 So there it is, my first jar of sauerkraut I hope - After 4 days, I put it in the fridge, I am not sure what it is meant to look or smell like, presently it smells a little like cabbage and a wee bit sour.. maybe tomorrow I will try it and see. If I make this again, I think I will do it without the water, the cabbage I used had plenty of liquid to cover it..