Here we are at the end of February. Has our single-use plastic consumption declined? Yeah, but...
We've only been at this for two months, but we're concluding that a life without single-use plastic is pretty darned near impossible in the U.S. without massively adjusting what we eat. Is it possible to eat 100% locally sourced foods? Probably. Are we going to try hard enough to do that? Jury's still out on that. No coffee, no chocolate, no lemons, no pears, no sugar, no lots of stuff. Maybe we can dedicate a week or two to trying this later this spring, to see how it goes...
We've made some changes that we like:
* We're much better about remembering to bring bags with us to shop at the Farmers' Market and the food co-op, and going without bags if we forget them, knowing our backpacks can handle loose radicchio, kohlrabi, and other seasonal veggies until we get them home.
* We're much better about re-using plastic bags that we might not have re-used previously, because by trying to forego plastic bags, we're realizing what a luxury a good plastic bag is.
* We're re-using glass jars to store bulk foods, and enjoying the ease of use, the visual appeal, and (hopefully) the reduction in off-gassing from plastic containers into food for long-term storage. We now use plastic mainly for storing leftovers.
* We're eating more locally-grown, seasonal foods--easy to do as spring ramps up, probably harder to do once we hit fall.
* We're eating more vegan meals. Locally, there's no way to get lactose-free milk in glass bottles, and there's no way to get dairy-free milk substitutes that aren't in plasticized containers. Going milk-free has also been abetted by a video that social media thrust at me, showing an adult cow clearly upset as a calf is being carted off in a trailer. Who knows what the cow and calf are thinking, but they're clearly thinking. As you can't get milk from cows without cows birthing calves, I'm trying to go without for now. Eggs then follow, logically. I've been a vegetarian since 1986, so it's beyond time that I try going this extra step.
We've found some recipes worth remembering: this apple cinnamon cake (the recipe calls it "bread"--yeah, right), subbing 1/2 c. applesauce for the eggs, and 1/4 c. vegan butter substitute for the 1/2 c. butter (since applesauce is also a butter substitute). And chickpeas with broccolini (saute a good amount of sliced garlic, 2 crushed small bright red hot peppers from the stash your sister-in-law brought you from Mexico, smoked paprika, and fennel seeds in EVOO, add 1 can drained chickpeas, stir for a bit, then add a bunch of broccolini and saute until wilted. So so good. Save the chickpea water--a.k.a. aquafaba--to make coconut macaroons; these are less cloyingly sweet than the non-vegan variety.
As for making homemade vanilla extract, the most inefficient adventure imaginable to reduce single-use plastics... What was I thinking? The local bulk-foods store, Part & Parcel, was out of vanilla beans, with no anticipated back-in-stock date, so I ordered beans online. Of course they came vacuum-wrapped in huge sheets of plastic, as must all bulk vanilla beans in the U.S. Doh. But I have 24 beans soaking in a good 4 cups of vodka; shake shakety shake shake. The extract should be ready for use in about 6 months.
