Going Zero in Connecticut

It's true. Zero-Waste has completely transformed the way I look at and purchase food. Gone are the days when I could just pick up a bag of Celery from the local grocery store. I now have to make sure what I purchase is bagless, and hopefully tagless, sticker-less or rubber-band-less: which is VERY difficult, if not sometimes impossible to get during the Connecticut winters. I can't wait for summer, when farmer's markets are plentiful and happy to give me my celery naked!  I would like to just share with you a few food tips that I have found has helped me on my Zero-waste grocery shopping. Ready to dive right in?   HUMMUS: In a jar? Did you know you could make hummus? But even more important, did you know you could make, and freeze hummus? YES! I am not really excited about cooking every single day, and I don't have a lot of time, as I am sure you don't either. What I do is I bring my cloth bag with me to my local Whole Foods and fill it up with Gar...

Hi Friends! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday this year! I wanted to write about what I have been trying to do/discover this Christmas season to make my life a little more zero-waste. I'm grateful for the friends who have chatted with me and helped me on my journey. Together we can all be a little less wasteful, and a little more loving to our earth.  LET'S TALK ABOUT WRAPPING GIFTS! This year I had decided to try to use my Christmas gift wrap so that I can transition next year into more zero-waste options. One of my friends had been reading my blog, and contacted me about what she decided to do for gift wrapping. I'm so grateful she paved the way for me (and all of us!) to part from paper gift-wrapping traditions. She decided to go to her local fabric store right after Christmas, and pick out all the Christmas fabric deals. She brought them home, and made her own Christmas gift wrap bags, and then wrote about it! The gift receiver can use them for their own g...

My freezer was slowly accumulating bits of compostable material that I could not give to pigs or to my chickens. But it was still organic material that did not need to go into the garbage. The end result for the compost scraps in the garbage would be the landfill, and my ultimate goal in zero waste is to prevent things from the house going to landfill. The freezer was getting full of my scraps, and I needed to get serious about composting if I am going to be a true zero waster. Just a quick heads up, I am NOT an expert when it comes to composting. In fact, it is the one thing that I am still trying to research and figure out. But I knew it was better to start composting and figure it out along the way than to read forever until I know an exact scientific balance. At this point all I know is that if the composter gets too smelly or wet, add more browns (leaves, wood shavings, paper scraps, etc). If it is not composting at all or is dry, add more greens (food scraps, grass clippings, e...

The very first thing I ever researched when I first attempted a zero-waste lifestyle was how to make beeswax wrap. I saw a cool facebook commercial about how you can use them over and over, just wash them with mild soap and water, and when they are done just cut them up into your compost. WOW! Who needs saran wrap then? But then I looked online to buy myself a few squares of these pieces of zero-waste gold.... "HOW MUCH does it cost again for three measly sheets of beeswax wrap? $19?? That's nuts, I'll just have to figure out how to make it myself!"  --famous last words. Today is the day that I finally get to write about how I made my own beeswax wrap! I took a lot of pictures of the process, so maybe I can help someone out there in the internet world. And maybe after you read about it, you can decide to get dirty like me, or skip all the mess and purchase some instead. It's so great that we have choices today! At first I had no idea what exactl...

Hello Everybody! The zero-waste journey has indeed been a process that has slowly, slowly seen great strides and progress. During this journey I have spent a lot of time reading blogs and listening to vloggers talk about the changes they've made in their lives, and I wanted to go through some new habits I've formed from all their knowledge, to keep things out of my trash and reusing/recycling things that are still good for other purposes than the landfill. Some of the things I've learned from them has been immensely helpful, and even saves me a few $$$. Let's jump right in! EGG SHELLS Did you know that Egg Shells are an excellent source of calcium? WHAT?? It's true! I wash the shells off and keep all my egg shells in an open container to dry out. If I were to consume them like an alternative to calcium supplements, I would boil the shells for a few minutes, but since I don't eat them I skip this step. Next I put them in a casserole dish the oven o...