Honestly I’m not much of a tree hugger. I try to be good to the
planet but, I use way too much toilet paper, I use paper towels a lot more than
I do hand towels, and I throw paper plates into the garbage instead of the
recycling. Don’t worry; I’m not an earth hater. I really am working on being
better to this lovely world.
Since this is a food blog and not a recycling blog, I’m going
to talk about ways to help the planet that involve food. Some great ways to do
this are growing your own garden, or composting uneaten food that would
otherwise be thrown into the garbage.
I’ve always wanted to have my own garden, and for a while my
mom, sister, and I thought about growing strawberries in the summer. This fantasy
soon became impossible because, we had so many Japanese beetles swarming around
our house, that there was no way we’d be able to raise our little plants. The stinkin’
beetles would eat every last one of them.
You probably understand that starting a garden can be a difficult
thing. You have to have the right soil, pick out the types of plants you want
to grow, and take care of your garden.
When we thought about having a garden, we didn’t want to put
it in our backyard where the dogs could get into it so, we thought about using
garden boxes. These little boxes are like tiny, little greenhouses that protect
your plants from the outside world, that is if you put the coverings on.
Otherwise you can just use them as boxes for your plants to live in. You can
also get elevated ones, which would aid in protection from your dogs.
Some great places to get seeds are Lowes, gardening stores, and
even ordering them on the internet. Growing your own garden is great because you
know that there aren’t chemicals going into your veggies and fruits, you don’t have
to go to the store to buy them, and they’re right at home, fresh and ready to
eat.
Another awesome way to help the planet is by composting left
over food, instead of throwing it in the garbage to be wasted. This is kind of
a difficult project to get into just because it’s hard to know what types of
foods can be composted. According to http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/foodscraps.html,
you can compost vegetable and fruit waste, meal leftovers, coffee grounds, tea
bags, stale bread, grains, and general refrigerator spoilage. You can compost
meat but, it is not recommended. It will probably make it stink more.
That brings me to my next point. If you want to have a food
compost bin or area, make sure you have it far enough away from your doors and
windows. I promise it will stink; I mean, it is rotting food. What would you
expect?!
At my old school they decided to do the whole “compost left
over school lunch” thing. I’m glad they were trying to save the planet and all
but, it smelled horrible! They put it in the courtyard that’s practically in
the middle of the school, so all the surrounding classrooms and hallways had a
certain smell to them. It also attracted a lot of flies. This isn’t a big deal
if you can put the compost far from your doors and windows but, if you have nearby
neighbors, you might be getting some complaints.
With Thanksgiving coming up it’s kind of cool to consider composting.
The first people here in America even used it! The Indians helped the Pilgrims
grow their crops by teaching them to put dead fish in the ground. This is probably
one of the very first ways people composted their food. So in conclusion, composting
is a great way to recycle food, and one great step toward saving the earth.
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