Friday, August 13, 2010

It all started with "poop catchers"

My husband has always wanted to have a vegetable garden. He's always been interested in eating nutritious foods and living a healthy lifestyle. He grew up snacking on fruits and veggies. I, on the other hand, have been a well-known junk food addict for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I wouldn't touch a vegetable with a 10-foot pole. My parents used to have to bribe me to taste anything that was green, leafy, or possibly nutritious. I prided myself on being a meat-eater, and was never bothered by what was actually in my food (I recall the junior high lunch table and being told precisely what was in a Twinkie, only to laugh and devour the one that was in my lunch bag). I scoffed at vegans and rolled my eyes at people who were cautious about chemicals that were in their food, cosmetics, household items, and the like. I was an ignorant American, and I liked it. The only thing I had going for me as far as "green" is concerned was that I was raised to be a penny-pincher, and therefore, not wasteful in the slightest. I think I got it from my grandma, who was known to wash and reuse styrofoam plates (ew) and hoarded paper napkins from fast food restaurants. But that really wasn't all that uncommon for the generation of Great Depresssion survivors. You didn't waste a thing because you didn't know when you would be able to afford it again. But that mentality isn't very common in today's generation. Fortunately, those values were instilled into my mom, and therefore, into me. Saving a few pennies here or there has always been rewarding to me. Finding a bargain is a thrill. Buying things used (garage sales, thrift stores, you name it) is a regular occurance. I've never spent money on name brands. I will squeeze every last drop out of a toothpaste tube before throwing it away. Until recently, this was not to be eco-friendly, it was because I was cheap. And one day, I was introduced to cloth diapering. Strangely, I reconnected with a friend from high school who had chosen this option for her son, and she explained the pros and cons of it. I had already chosen to use disposables with my first-born, so it seemed silly to invest the money and switch with the second-born, but for some reason, I was intrigued enough to try. And, just as my friend had warned, it quickly became an obsession, a snowball effect, if you will. Not only did I become obsessed with cloth diapering, but other "green" lifestlye choices began to intrigue me. Over the course of the last few months, I have gone from a typical American consumer to a recycling-obsessed, cloth-diapering, compost-making, cloth-grocery-bag-using, semi-crunchy* hippie. Now don't get me wrong. The transition from "soggy" to "crunchy" is not an overnight process. It is very gradual. There are still plenty of green things that I want to try. But doing them all at once would likely shock my system and I may die. It's not easy. I love big, fat, juicy cheeseburgers, I enjoy being lazy, I like cranking my A/C on hot summer days, and vegetables still kinda scare me. But I do feel that this beautiful earth is a worthy cause. I think that getting over my selfishness and laziness enough to step outside my comfort zone and give it a try for the sake of future generations is definitely worth it. And that is why I have chosen to write this blog. Perhaps you will find it inspiring. If I can make some of these changes, perhaps you can too. Or perhaps you will merely be entertained by my anecdotes and reading about me falling on my face and failing miserably at my attempts. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading. My husband laughs at me now. I eat vegetables daily (imagine that!). I made my own compost bin. I hang dry laundry as much as I can. I turned the first shovel to plot out our vegetable garden. He said, "And to think, this all started with poop-catchers." It had to start somewhere. *For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "crunchy," here is the definition from the online slang dictionary- Crunchy: •hippie-esque; ALL-NATURAL. Refers to the crunch of granola, which (as goes the stereotype) hippie-esque people are likely to eat.

1 comment:

  1. I think it's great that you started a garden. I like to know where my food comes from and the easiest way to do that is grow it yourself. When you get the hang of things, you can freeze or can everything you don't eat and have fresh veggies for the winter. We planted a lot of green beans this year, which we've been blanching and then freezing. Pasta sauce from a variety of heirloom tomatoes is also delicious. Pesto is great too and very easy to freeze.

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