The environmental impact of single serve coffee

Single-serve coffee (pods & k-cups) has a hefty environmental impact.

K-cups, -- the ultimate in convenience. A single serving of tea or coffee in under a minute with no waiting for the kettle to boil or the coffee to drip through -- how perfect is that? When I was first introduced to this single-serving coffee system I was totally seduced by the variety and convenience but I could never brew my k-cup of English Breakfast Tea without thinking about the waste.

The environmental impact of the pods stares you in the face each time you toss a spent k-cup in the garbage. Even before I dug up the data on this coffee craze I knew the picture wouldn’t be pretty.

How to give your diet an eco makeover this Earth Day

Six ways to give your diet an eco makeover this Earth Day

 

The new “eating well”; being deliberate about what food you buy, where your buy it, and then ensuring that you eat it all.

I consider Earth Day a celebration, a launch party for a new way of doing things. The annual event challenges Canadians to make changes to our day-to-day lives in ways that benefit the planet and if we want to take up that challenge, April 22 is the kickoff day.  

One of this year’s challenges is to give our kitchen tables an eco-makeover by making more sustainable food choices and wasting less. It’s a very green thing to do since where we buy our food, what we buy and what we do with our leftovers has such a big impact on the environment. Regional food security comes into play as well since we’re so dependent on food from faraway places.

So where to begin? Earth Day Canada presents six suggestions for what we can all start doing today to make a meaningful impact through our daily meals.

Why teaching kids to cook is so important

Over the March Break my husband and I met a woman who told us that when her kids were growing up each was responsible for preparing one evening meal a week for the whole family. They learned to cook by cooking and were completely capable in the kitchen even at the age of 12. She said it taught them an important kind of independence and a sense of responsibility.

As someone who happens to believe that cooking wholesome food from scratch is one of the most important things that you can do for your family, it’s probably no surprise that I’m particular about what I feed my kids. But it occurred to me that I’m putting a lot of effort into teaching my kids about good food, but I’m not teaching them how to prepare it.

Learning to cook is a life skill, and as parents our job is to teach kids to become independent. You can’t very well go out into the world if you don’t know how to feed yourself. Teaching our kids how to feed themselves well should be our goal. We want our kids to succeed in life, why should we lower our standards when it comes to food?

Six super-easy homemade cleaners that smell great and work



Like most people I love that “clean” smell of a freshly scrubbed house. It’s like having your nose confirm that the place is sparkling, no matter that it’s usually synthetic fragrances (found in standard cleaners) that linger in your home.

Fragrances contain phthalates, which are a batch of chemicals known to be hormone disruptors and suspected of causing a whole host of health concerns, including asthma, reproductive issues and thyroid problems. As always, children are most at risk. If an ingredient list includes the words “fragrance” or “perfume”  know the scent is toxic. Even unscented products often contain these ingredients.

Should you upgrade your appliances? An energy metre can help you decide

For years now I have wondered if it’s time to update our appliances. They were in the house when we bought it ten years ago and work well, but after reading about efficiency gains in many appliances over the years, I was curious about whether or not it would be worth our while (and our carbon footprint) to buy new.

The energy savings stats sounded good but there was always the nagging question: is it really more eco-friendly to toss our current fridge, stove and chest freezer and replace them with new, when they’re working perfectly well?

Food waste - how not to throw money in the garbage



Storing food in clear containers helps you keep track of leftovers in your fridge 

I have an obsession with leftovers. I hate to see good food go to waste so over the years have honed my skill at using them up in all sorts of creative ways. That’s why a recent article about food waste caught my eye.  Titled “Don’t toss your cookies”, the article suggests that food waste is one of the greatest challenges facing our food system today; more worrisome than spiralling food costs and extreme weather.

Why? It’s estimated that 40% of all food goes uneaten.

Avoiding pesticides and maintaining your sanity in the produce section of the grocery store

The dirty dozen and clean fifteen help you reduce your exposure to pesticides on produce.

When you’re in the produce section at the grocery store do you look at the organic-labeled fruit and vegetables and wonder if you should be buying it? Here is a bit of information that will help you decide.

Environmental Working Group, a research organization based in the U.S. has released its annual Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, a list of produce ranked according to the amount of pesticide residue they contain by the time they reach your table. The guide is a helpful way to limit your pesticide exposure and manage your grocery budget while still eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

The Guide is comprised of two lists, the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. The Dirty Dozen are the 12 fruits and vegetables that have tested the highest for pesticide residue. To rank produce EWG takes into account how the food is usually prepared, ex. bananas are peeled and apples are washed but not peeled. Produce on this list is what you want to buy organic if possible, or you can limit your consumption.

The corresponding Clean 15 are the fruits and vegetables that have low or no pesticide residue so you don’t have to stress about finding it organically grown, and you don’t have to spend extra grocery dollars on the organic version. Since organic produce is more expensive it’s good to know when you should fork out the extra money.

Topping the Dirty Dozen list again this year are apples, followed by celery, sweet bell peppers, peaches, strawberries, nectarines (imported), grapes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries (domestic) and potatoes. EWG has also given green beans, kale and collards an honorable mention of sorts because of a specific insecticide that commonly contaminates these green veggies. It’s a known neurotoxin so is of special concern.

But the good news is that the Clean 15 includes a great variety of choices: onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, cabbage, sweet peas, asparagus, mangos, eggplant, kiwi, cantaloupe (domestic), sweet potatoes, grapefruit, watermelon and mushrooms.

A few highlights from this year’s report: at least one pesticide was found on 68 percent of the samples analyzed. 98 percent of the apple samples tested positive for pesticides and 96 percent of celery samples tested positive for pesticides, followed by potatoes at 91 percent.  As a category, grapes have more types of pesticides than any other produce (64 different types!|)

No single sample from the Clean Fifteen had more than 5 types of pesticides detected (this is a good thing) and more than 90 percent of cabbage, asparagus, sweet peas, eggplant and sweet potato samples had no more than one pesticide detected. (No samples of sweet corn and onions had more than one pesticide.)

The idea of ingesting chemicals when you`re just trying to have a healthy diet can be stressful. Just keep in mind that eating conventionally grown produce is still healthier than avoiding it for fear of pesticides and loading up on the Clean Fifteen give you the best of both worlds. Vist www.ewg.org/foodnews for the full report.

Have you ever considered the number of miles that your food travels from farm to table? The Canadian organization, Local Food Plus, does the calculations all the time and has figured out that families who spend just $10 worth of their weekly grocery budget on locally grown food can have a significant impact the environment and can help create jobs in the local food economy.

For simplicity sake the organization’s calculations are based on food being trucked either from Florida or California. So if a family in Halifax shifts $10 of their food budget to local food, the annual impact would be equivalent to taking a car off the road for two weeks. This particular calculation is based on food shipped from Florida, but we all know that lots of fresh produce is shipped from much farther away so the impact of making the change could be even bigger.

In terms of economic impact, 5,000 families shifting $10 per week to local products would divert $2.6 million from imported food into the pockets of local farmers.  And it would help to make our region less dependent on imported food, something that we should all be concerned about.

Shifting just $10 a week to local food is a synch this time of year. The markets are overflowing with fresh produce and even big grocery chains have some local (or regional) produce available. Much of the food being harvested this time of year has a long shelf life so it’s easy to stock up. Cabbage, winter squash, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and apples are abundant so you can buy more than a week’s worth if you don’t often get the chance to go to a weekend farmer’s market.

Here’s a challenge for you, instead of shifting just $10 of your weekly food budget to local food, for the next few weeks you could try to buy only local vegetables. Imported carrots, corn, cucumber, greens, tomatoes, potatoes and such will be available all winter but the better tasting local versions won’t, so why not take advantage while you can (and support our local farmers while you’re at it.)

There is no shortage of markets to visit to search out local produce. Or you can search online for local producers. ACORN Organic and Buy Local NB both have searchable directories of local producers. (http://www.acornorganic.ca/, http://www.buylocalnb.ca/).  

Here’s one more reason to buy local food: freshly picked local fruit and vegetables taste better. Period. 

Another bread recipe for busy people

This is a great bread recipe for busy people because you can let the dough sit in the fridge for a few days, punching it down every 12 hours or so. Try mixing it up at bedtime and baking it the next evening. Also, you can fiddle with the types of flour...try half whole white and half whole grain (or whole wheat)

Everyday bread:

1 t yeast

1 t sugar

1 1/3 c warm water

2 t oil

1 t salt

3 3/4 c flour (divided)

In a large bowl combine the sugar and water, stir, then sprinkle over the yeast (let bubble away for about 10 min). In a separate bowl combine the salt and 3 cups of the flour. When the yeast is ready add the flour to the yeast mixture along with the oil and mix.

Add more of the flour until you can't mix anymore and then turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead in the rest of the flour. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a plate or in a grocery bag and put it in the fridge until you have time to deal with it (8-12 hours).

When you’re ready to bake:

Remove dough fridge, punch it down and shape into a loaf (think Italian loaf shape). Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let rise for about 1-1 ½ hours. Bake at 500 for 9 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350 for another 25-30 minutes.

Are you throwing out good food?

Have you ever stopped to tally the amount of food that gets wasted in your household? I think it’s time to take notice. A study released last fall by the Value Chain Management Centre found that about 40 percent of all food produced in Canada goes to waste.

Although the waste occurs all along the farm-to-table route, more than half of the food waste occurs in the home. This is the food that goes bad in the fridge before eaten, the leftovers that sit in the fridge until they go bad and the uneaten food on your plate that gets scraped into the trash or compost. It’s estimated that half of all salad, a third of all bread, a quarter of all fruit and a fifth of all vegetables are thrown away uneaten.

You can build a stark picture of the economic waste at the household level. What may not be so clear is that there is also a significant environmental impact to all of this waste.

More food than is actually required is grown and shipped to be processed. (Think of the fertilizer, water and machinery required to grow food that goes in the trash.) There is the energy used to cook food that doesn’t get eaten, plus transportation and packaging. And finally, when food is put in a landfill rather than composted it produces methane, the most toxic of all greenhouse gasses.

About one-fifth of the food that gets thrown away in homes is food scraps like cores, peels and bones, but the rest is perfectly edible food. According to Statistics Canada, in 2007 more than six million tones of solid food went to waste between retail stores and homes. That’s about 600 pounds per family. (Another 2.8 billion litres of liquids went to waste, like milk, juice, pop, coffee, tea).

Meanwhile we’re all aware of the severe food shortages people in other parts of the world are enduring. Globally we actually produce enough food to feed the world, but food waste is a complicated problem.

While you can’t do much to reduce food waste that occurs between farms and retail stores, you can make an impact in your own home. With grocery chains announcing that prices will rise five to seven percent by the end of the year, you might have more incentive too. Here are some tips.

Don’t buy more than you need. 2- for-1 deals and bulk sizes of perishable foods are only a deal if it all gets eaten.

Don’t cook more than you need for a given meal, unless you plan to use the leftovers quickly. And when you do have leftovers use them up.

Watch your portion sizes so good food doesn’t get left on the plate.

Remember you can freeze fruit that’s about to spoil and use it for smoothies. Yogurt can be frozen then used for baking.

Compost uneaten food. Don’t put it in the trash.

Growing a garden this year?

Are you a wannabe urban farmer looking for inspiration and a little confidence? A visit to an online seed catalog is all it takes to have faith that this will be a green thumb year.

Check out Hope Seeds' site for a gorgeous variety of heirloom veggies that are naturalized to our New Brunswick climate. Previously based in New Brunswick, Hope Seeds is now putting down roots (so to speak) in Nova Scotia.

Here's hoping for a bumper crop of atomic red carrots and enough Costata romanesca zucchini to feed the neighbourhood.

It’s easy to grow your own garlic

One of the things that irk me to no end is that virtually all fresh garlic available at the grocery store is imported from China. I’m not opposed to importing foods like oranges and bananas, foods that can’t be grown in our climate. But garlic? Anyone with a patch of garden the size of a phone book can plant garlic. It thrives in our climate and is one of my pet examples of how we have become dependant on imported versions of produce that can so easily be grown locally.

Don’t feel that you have to buy imported garlic this time of year. Visit Acorn or Buy Local NB to search for local growers. Another option is Hope Seeds (based in NB but soon moving to NS). They usually offer seed stock for growing but this year are selling what they call “table” stock (for cooking). If you’re into garlic you’ll love this because they offer several varieties of garlic in a sampler.


If you’d like to try growing your own garlic, mid-October is the time to plant. Halifax Seed offers garlic seed stock from Ontario and Nova Scotia and provides a handy sheet with tips for growing and harvesting. The seed stock bulbs look like regular old garlic to me. You can also try planting grocery store garlic or garlic from a local producer (already naturalized to our climate). Choose the largest cloves for planting.


Growing garlic is as easy as planting tulips. To get started at home here are a few tips:

Choose a sunny, well-drained area. (I have friends who plant garlic in among their perennial flowers.) Plant the individual cloves two inches deep and about six inches apart, pointed end up. Cover with a layer of mulch or leaves once the ground freezes.

In early summer watch for coiled flower stalks (resemble silly straws) called scapes that must be snapped off. This directs energy into developing the bulb rather than a flower. The scapes make great pesto and can be added to any dish that calls for garlic. Weed your garlic patch well since garlic doesn’t like competition.

Sometime in early August you’ll notice the leaves turning brown from the bottom up. When the bottom three or four leaves are dead and the top five or six are still green you can lift the bulbs. If you're not sure, dig a bulb and check. According to one grower, a mature bulb is fully swelled, well sized and has some partially decomposed wrappers. Pull the bulbs out gently and tie in bunches to hang for a couple of weeks in a well ventilated area out of direct sun. After they’re well dried, trim the stalks and roots and brush off any loose soil (or you can braid them).

One of the keys to growing garlic that stores well through the winter is to stop watering it 2-3 weeks before harvest and to choose a dry day to pull the bulbs. Store it at room temperature.

Get out of the grocery store and create your own local food network.

I used to think that having a couple of major grocery chains nearby constituted choice. That was before I was tuned into the local food movement and before garlic imported from China irked me. I changed my tune around the time I learned that some major chains consider produce to be “local” if it can be trucked from its source within 24 hours. I didn’t agree so began putting developing my own “food network” - a list of growers and producers, shops and markets that offered easy access to food that is grown right here in the province.

Now is a great time to create your own local food network, to get out of the grocery store and into a community of growers, producers and sellers who will help to connect your table to the land and help us all become less dependent on food that is trucked in from faraway places.

The best place to start is to visit your local markets, the seasonal and year-round sellers of produce, meat and dairy. Most of these markets buy from their own network of local producers and can easily tell you what on their shelves was produced in province.

If you’re looking exclusively for organic producers visit ACORN a non-profit based in Sackville that promotes organic agriculture in Atlantic Canada. Their website includes an easy-to-search database of all certified producers and processors in Atlantic Canada. You can search by province and by product type or you can bring up a map of the province and click on the icons for information on the farmers and producers in different regions. You can buy directly from most of these producers and may of them also sell through local markets.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick manages a similar database called Buy Local NB . In their database you can layer your search to find, for example, restaurants between Saint John and Sussex that use local ingredients. Or you can search for a butcher, a baker or a grocer in your geographic area of choice. (My search for garlic netted five local sellers.) This site just launched last year so has lots of room to grow, but it’s a good starting point if you want to become more familiar with people and places that sell locally produced food.

The newest online source for information about local food is Smart Eat TV, an online community with a goal to connect people with the wonders of local food produced throughout the Maritimes. It’s part TV channel (will soon feature episodes about local food) part blog, part recipe-swapping forum.

Another source of locally produced food is Speerville Flour Mill. They produce a variety of flours using Maritime-grown grains and offer a great selection of other products from Maritime producers. I run a buying group through Speerville Mill so if you’re looking for a greater variety of their products than is available at the grocery store just let me know.

Lots of action in New Brunswick's local food scene!

A new food channel of sorts, Smart Eat TV is a site that's setting itself up to be (in its own words) "the social network where east means best – the best ingredients, kitchens and stories."

Don't we Maritimers say that some of the best parties (and online communities) end up in the kitchen? Looks like this'll be another. Check it out.

The best thing for the environment? Eat less meat.

For years health care practitioners have been telling us that if we ate less meat we’d all be a lot healthier. The average North American eats twice as much meat today as we did fifty years ago and it’s taking a toll on our collective health. Is it any surprise that our voracious appetite for meat is taking its toll on the environment too? The environmental impact of meat production (we’re talking mostly the large factory farms) is so extensive that the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the best thing you can do for the environment is to eat less meat.

To put it in perspective, the Canada Food Guide says a serving of meat (or fish or poultry) should be about 2.5 to 3 oz. and as little as 1 oz. for a child. A quick search of restaurant websites shows a lot of 8 oz. and 10 oz. steaks on menus, a serving that could feed a family of four.

What does that mean for the environment?

According to a UN study, the mass production of meat today accounts for 18% of green house gas emissions world wide. That’s more than the combined emissions from planes, trains and automobiles.

Deforestation to create pasture land and to grow crops to feed livestock is another issue. An acre of trees disappears every eight seconds (including rain forest) to create pasture and crop land. Since trees absorb carbon dioxide the impact on global warming is significant.

Factory farms, the source of most meat, pollute a lot. Manure run off can seep into waterways, a problem that is thought to be behind the deadly E. coli outbreak in Walkerton several years ago that killed six people.

If E. coli in our drinking water worries you consider this: 50% of antibiotics used in Canada are fed to livestock. Cramped quarters in factory farms means diseases are rampant so live stock is fed a steady diet of antibiotics to keep the animals from getting ill.

I could go on and on (ethical issues surrounding the treatment of animals on factory farms, pollution from meat processing plants) but suffice to say that cutting back even a bit on meat consumption could help the earth in many ways. (If Americans ate 10% less meat there would be enough grain left over to feed 60 million people. So in simplified terms there really is a solution to world hunger.)
If reducing the amount of meat you consume poses a challenge in your household here are a few tips to get you started:

Look for organic or naturally-raised meat. Livestock fed a natural, organic diet are happier, healthier and more nutritious. To find local producers check out these websites: www.acornorganic.org, http://kuinshoeve.ca, www.buylocalnb.ca.

Reduce the portion size when you do eat meat and load up on more whole grains and vegetables.

Try eating one less meat-based meal each week. Substitute meat alternatives like beans for the meat in some of your favourite recipes.

Be careful with plastics

I have a love-hate relationship with plastic. It has simplified our lives in many ways but we’d all be better off with less of it in our lives. Avoiding plastics altogether is practically impossible (and may be not necessary) though there are some kinds of plastics that you really should get out of your life.

Plastics are graded by type using a number system established by the plastics industry. The numbers that you see inside the recycling triangle represent what poly-this-or-that the particular plastic is made of (ex. polyethylene, polyvinyl, polypropylene). These numbers make it easier for recycling facilities to sort them.

Plastics with the numbers one, two and five are the plastics that you can recycle in the blue bins. Pop bottles are made of number one plastic, a grade that is one of the easiest to recycle. Health Canada is taking a closer look at this grade though since it hit the market without a full safety assessment. Number two plastic is a little heavier (milk jugs). My go-to book “Ecoholic” rates it as “Not a bad plastic, compared to the others.” Likewise number five plastic isn’t considered too bad. You’ll find this number on yogurt containers.

There are two plastics that you want to rid your life of. One is PVC, or vinyl (graded as number three). It is toxic when manufactured, off-gasses throughout its life, and is everywhere, from vinyl shower curtains to some brands of plastic wrap and some children’s toys. If ever there was an evil plastic this is it. PVC products often have softeners added to make them more pliable or clingy. This kind of plastic has that distinctive “new toy” smell caused by phthalates, which are potential hormone disruptors and thought to be carcinogenic. PVC has also been found to increase breast cancer risk.

The other plastic to avoid (for food and drink) is number seven. This is the plastic that contains the chemical bisphenol A, the hormone disruptor that the federal government has banned from baby bottles. Unfortunately it is also in the plastic that lines most packaged food cans.

Since plastics aren’t stamped with safe use guidelines here are a few tips:
• When a plastic is labeled microwave safe it doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful to your health. It only means that it shouldn’t melt when heated. To be safe don’t heat food in plastic containers, no matter what number is stamped on it. Chemical leaching is intensified when the plastic is heated.
• Avoid plastic wrap if possible. If you just can’t give it up, at least don’t use it in the microwave. Instead, use a lid or failing that a dish towel.
• Any plastics that you use for food should have the numbers one, two or five on them (inside the recycling symbol). These are the food-safe numbers. Items marked with these numbers are also recyclable. Don’t put food or drink in any containers marked with the number seven.
• Rid your house of soft plastic bath toys and vinyl shower curtains.

Eco-friendly outdoor entertaining

This is the summer paradox that drives me batty: a group of friends is enjoying themselves at a backyard barbeque, making the most of a beautiful summer evening, marveling at how food tastes better outdoors, taking in the fresh smell of the summer air. At the end of the evening they roll up everything -- plates, cups, cutlery, half-eaten food, napkins – into the plastic tablecloth and dump it all in the garbage. (We’re all in love with nature during the summer, but sometimes forget to be considerate.)

If you can set one eco-objective for yourself this summer make it this: no disposable plastic or Styrofoam plates! I know there is the convenience factor but keep in mind that there are alternatives when you’re feeding large crowds or eating outside, so you don’t have to haul your china out onto the deck (unless you want to).

Instead choose reusable plates and cups. Tin or even plastic plates are durable and easy enough to clean. We received a picnic basket as a wedding gift that is just the thing for people who like to entertain outside. It’s filled with reusable plates, cups and cutlery.

The other option is paper plates. Just ensure they’re certified compostable. I was so relieved to come across the bio*life brand at Shoppers Drug Mart. They don’t come in Disney designs or flashy colours but they are certified compostable, can be recycled and are sturdy enough to last through the meal.

Here are a few more tips for eco-friendly outdoor entertaining and summer eating on the go:

Plastic cutlery can’t be recycled. (This is the first of many reasons why I dislike disposable cutlery). Instead choose sturdy reusable plastic cutlery or use your regular kitchen stuff.

Paper napkins can go in the compost. Better yet, use cloth napkins.

Stay away from disposable tablecloths. Many of the paper tablecloths are backed with plastic so can’t be composted. Other tablecloths are made of such thin plastic that it’s practically impossible to reuse them. Instead opt for a fabric tablecloth, a reusable outdoor tablecloth (or even an old bed sheet if you really need something to cover the picnic table).

Planning a road trip? Prepare a makeshift picnic basket with plates, cups, cutlery and containers. That way you can avoid the drive-thru and pick up lunch and snacks at the grocery store or markets. This will make it easier to avoid buying individually packaged food so you’ll have less packaging to toss in the garbage. It’s less expensive since you’re buying in larger sizes plus you can choose food that’s better for you.

Don’t let carefree entertaining in summer be an excuse for overloading the trash bin. Instead consider it an opportunity to be more earth-friendly. With luck you’ll teach your guests a thing or two.

This post previously appeared in KV Style (www.kvstyle.com)

Keeping your kitchen green and clean

I have been fixated with the cleanliness of our kitchen these days so I’ll pick up where I left off with my previous post and offer a few more tips on how to keep your kitchen green and clean.

I was noticing the other day how grungy our kitchen sink can get. And really, if the sink seems dirty the whole kitchen doesn’t feel much better, no matter how tidy the counters are. I came across a study showing that the kitchen sink can be home to more germs than a toilet. Yikes! I suppose that’s why people feel they need to turn to harsh chemicals in the kitchen.

When it comes to a healthy sink, germs aren’t the only thing to consider. The kind of cleaners you use for dishes and drains have a lot to do with the overall health of your kitchen, and your family.

As usual there are eco-friendly ways to keep your kitchen sparkling:

Clean your drain on a regular basis. But stay away from harsh drain cleaners, they’re highly corrosive so just plain dangerous to have in the house. They’re also destructive to our waterways.

Instead try this: pour ½ cup of baking soda down your drain. Chase it with a cup of white vinegar and let it bubble away for a few minutes. Chase this with a kettleful of boiling water.

When it comes to dishwashing liquids this is how I see it: since there are dish detergents readily available that safer for you and the environment when compared to the name brand detergents, why not choose them? Also, I don’t like the idea of sloshing petroleum-based suds (which is what name brands contain) on items that I use for food. My favourite eco brand is Down East, made in NS. It works well and you can buy it in four litre jugs to save on packaging and cut costs. Just check the natural foods section of the grocery store for it and other green brands.

Dish cloths are something else to consider. Since they can get grimy quickly just get in the habit of using a fresh, clean one each day. Hang the dirty cloths to dry before you wash them. Never use a sponge! Every study I found says they’re germ incubators (the “sink is dirtier than the toilet” study implicated sponges). Throwing them in the dishwasher doesn’t help since most dishwashers don’t get hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria. Instead bacteria get flung around on everything else in the dishwasher.

We have used cloths made from wood fibre that are great. They inhibit the growth of bacteria so don’t get smelly, just need a simple rinsing to clean and can be composted when they wear out.
Add these ideas to the vinegar-hydrogen peroxide spray system from my previous post and you’ll have all your kitchen cleaning needs covered with eco-friendly alternatives.

This post was previously published in KV Style (www.kvstyle.com)

Non-toxic kitchen disinfecting

A couple of months ago I was chatting with some other moms and somehow we got talking about green cleaning. They asked if it was possible to disinfect your kitchen – think chicken juice and blood from raw meat – using non-toxic cleaners.

Since we’re officially into the grilling season I think we can all use some eco-friendly tips for safely handling raw meat and fish. These tips will help you with general kitchen disinfecting and year-round food safety.

Sometimes I think that bottles of plain old white vinegar should sport brilliant red capes and a big “S” on the label because it really is a household and environmental superman. But little did I know that hydrogen peroxide is the real hero when it comes to obliterating bacteria. (Remember pouring it on cuts and watching it bubble away the germs?) When used together, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide are unstoppable (but utterly harmless to people and the environment).

Here’s why: when exposed to heat, light or organic material, hydrogen peroxide turns into pure water and oxygen. As it turns out, pure oxygen is toxic to microorganisms. I’m not into mini chemistry lessons but I want to make sure you believe me. In any case, when hydrogen peroxide teams up with vinegar it works ten times better.

What does all of this mean to you and your kitchen? It’s an easy, non-toxic way to deal with invisible bacteria that make thousands of people sick every year.

I have mentioned before that my favourite go-to book for cleaning is Organic Housekeeping buy Ellen Sandbeck. In it she recommends using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in a “dual spray” system on food, utensils, countertops, cutting surfaces. You name it. Her system is so simple that you’ll be tossing (in a safe way of course) those harsh and toxic kitchen cleaners:

1. Buy two spray bottles, one dark or at least opaque.
2. Buy a big bottle of consumer strength hydrogen peroxide (3%), and a big bottle of distilled white vinegar.
3. Fill the dark spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide (it’s degraded by light).
4. Fill the other with vinegar.
5. Spray with abandon, (first with the vinegar, then the peroxide.)

You can even spray the food directly, which is quite handy for lettuce and other foods that won’t be cooked. But don’t spray marble or limestone countertops (it my damage them).

I keep my bottles filled and under the sink. I clean up in my usual way with hot soapy water but then I give everything a final spritz. For the first time ever I’m fearless around raw chicken.

This isn’t an excuse for carelessness in the kitchen though. Be sure to keep raw meat and fish well away from other food to reduce the chance of cross contamination. Clean quickly and thoroughly and put your dishcloth right in the wash.

This blog was previously published in KV Style (www.kvstyle.com)

It's easy to avoid non-stick cookware and bakeware

Healthy pots: cast iron, stainless steel, enameled cast iron, stainless-lined copper.

Long before I ever researched non-stick coatings they made me uncomfortable. It always seemed that no mater how careful you were, that smooth black surface always ended up scratched and you know that all those black bits got scraped right into you food.

The abbreviation for the non-stick coating chemical is PTFE, and it’s found in most non-stick coated cookware and bakeware. It is also found in fast food packaging and microwave popcorn bags. As it turns out eating the stuff isn’t the only worry. Inhaling the fumes it gives off when heated too high (680 degrees F) is toxic too. Whatever your exposure, once you ingest this chemical it’s with you for life and accumulates in your body over time. The chemical has been linked to thyroid damage and an independent panel advising the US Environmental Protection Agency calls it a “likely human carcinogen.”

For me it’s easy to avoid non-stick cookware. Good old cast iron hardly needs any oil to keep things from sticking and enameled cast iron is even better. Stainless steel-lined copper and regular stainless steel pans both work beautifully.

When it comes to baking though, you need to go on a determined search to find alternatives.

In my hunt for uncoated muffin tins I came across some brands made of aluminum. But that’s not a preferred option either. Food cooked in aluminum absorbs aluminum and while some intake of the element is considered safe, we all ingest aluminum in other ways. Adding to this with the use of aluminum cookware and bakeware might put you over the safe limit.

Fortunately there is no shortage of healthy alternatives for cooking and baking:

To limit the contact your food has with non-stick coatings and aluminum (including foil) line cookie sheets and baking pans with parchment paper. It reduces the need for greasing pans and keeps things from burning. Plus cookies and scones slide off easily and cakes lift out with little effort.

The Pampered Chef sells unbleached parchment paper which is more eco-friendly than the regular bleached variety you find in the grocery store.

Choose stoneware for your baking pans. The Pampered Chef offers cookie sheets, square and rectangular pans, pizza stones, bread pans, cake and pie pans, even muffin pans. Their products aren’t cheap but they do come with a three-year guarantee.

Candy-coloured silicon bakeware is considered a safe alternative. But I will add that there seems to be little independent research available and user comments on various websites talk a lot about a nasty plastic smell coming from the oven and funny tasting muffins and cakes. I had the same experience a few years ago and never used them again. Silicone itself is inert - it’s non-reactive, and withstands very high heat. All I can say is that it appears there could be quite a range of quality among brands.

Choose cast iron bakeware (you can tone your arms while you bake) or look for stainless steel baking pans. Both options can be found online. Using cast iron cookware and bakeware is especially healthy, since it provides a source of dietary iron.

And one more thing, swap out your non-stick pans with one of the alternatives listed above.

A version of this article was previously published in KV Style (www.kvstyle.com)