the Waste-Not Blog

Oh, my goodness, can it be that time of year again? I'm afraid so, everybody! I've got almost a dozen flats of planted seeds, the very first pepper plants are poking up their shy cotyledons, and pretty soon I'll be planting my flat on onion seeds as well! (I usually end up planting some sets but my goal is to be able to rely on seeds entirely one of these years... given that it's March, this won't be the year either, but a girl can dream!) Seed shopping might be the most fun part of gardening. I know very few people who would put up a determined resistance to that assertion. I mean, sure, eating what you planted is fun too, but that fun is spread across the growing season and interspersed with a ton of hard work; but seed shopping? looking at dozens of pretty pictures, reading dozens of cute and interesting descriptions, drawing garden layout sheets with your favorite pens on your favorite graph paper? That wins. Hands down. Now if you've been blessed with ...

In "The Waste-Not Plan: level 1" I outlined concepts like the grocery snowball and other ways to spend less on food and necessities, in order to be able to build a higher level of financial independence and resilience. Important concepts included budgeting, taking advantage of economy of scale, and reducing debt, in addition to helpful tips about reducing impulse spending. Titled "Spend Less," level 1 is all about reducing how much money you need to spend each week and turning more of your income into disposable income. Level 1 consists almost exclusively of steps that anyone can take, right where they are, even if they live in an apartment without an inch of ground to call their own. Level 2: Depend Less. It's all about finding gaps in your self-reliance and closing them any way you can. While Level 1 works wherever you are, even a studio apartment in the Bronx, level 2 may require a move or at least a creative solution like using a community garden or lan...

How Things Are Here in America and the west, cash is king. Your consumption is expressed in terms of dollars, your budget is discussed in terms of dollars, your worth is measured in terms of dollars. If you spend less than a given amount for groceries each week, you're thrifty, good with money, possibly a skin-flint; if you spend more than a given amount, you may be careless, hoyty-toyty, or maybe discerning regarding the quality of the food you're willing to consume. The strength of your principles is measured by whether you put your money where your mouth is. Here in America and the west, the vast majority of the idle are poor. Those who have the least disposable income also have the most disposable time . They also eat the unhealthiest food (because corn and soy are the most heavily subsidized agricultural products on the market) and raise the most children , meaning more people going into distressed school systems, with habits of eating nutritionless food and expect...

In case you haven't noticed, I am very phytic acid aware. If I'm going to be feeding a whole grain or a legume to my family, you can bet it's going to be soaked for a minimum of eight hours before I start cooking or baking. This is because I want my family to receive the full benefit of the good food I'm cooking, and phytic acid is an antinutrient that latches onto minerals in your diet and carries them right out the back door. It doesn't matter how much magnesium you eat if it all ends up in the toilet, and that's exactly what happens when you consume whole seeds, grains or legumes that haven't been soaked. So when I look at the bags of pelleted grain or ground, dry "mash" that people feed to their animals, I have to wonder: why would I feed uncooked, unsoaked, unaltered grain to my animals when I wouldn't feed them to my family? Beyond my desire to take good care of my animals, I'm paying for their feed, and if they aren't absorbing...