Summer Free S:w.a.p. Coming up!

{Image from the talented Heather Ellis Photography}

When I learned that we were going to be moving to Singapore, one of the first questions that came to mind was: how can I keep the free swap events going?

I asked a friend of mine if she wouldn’t mind being my local deputy.  Thank you, thank you, Kerry F., for your willingness and talents, for helping me keep one of my dreams going.  I definitely owe you one!

Below are the details.  Feel free to pass this around electronically or print out the information and post it up at work or church or where you like to shop or play.  Remember to get permission first, though.  ;)

c  o  m  m  u  n  i  t  y     f  r  e  e     s : w . a . p .

for everyone and anyone

Saturday, June 1, 2013

8:00 am to 12:00 noon

Orem City Center Park—Rotary Pavilion

North side of Center St. midway between State St. & 400 E.

It’s like a yard sale where everything is free.  Clear out clutter, pass along items you no longer need.   Item donations are welcome—from furniture to home décor to sporting equipment.  Please limit donations to items that can be carried by one or two people; nothing that needs special moving equipment—i.e. dollies for refrigerators, etc.—unless you can assume responsibility for transport to its new home.  Simply bring items to the community free s:w.a.p. and then stay and browse the rest of the selection for anything that you could use. 

Note: NO DONATION REQUIRED; feel free to take what you can use.

There will also be a collection bin for any food bank items guests wish to bring which will later be delivered to the community Food Bank in Provo.

Volunteers wanted.  Email desertgreengoddess@gmail.com.

Any other questions can be emailed to above address.

s h a r i n g  :  w e . a l l . p r o s p e r .

Meating Family Needs at the Dinner Table

{left to right: quality bacon sliced thinly, crushed dried ramen noodles, salad (bok choy, carrots, sugar snap peas, celery, lime juice, sesame seeds), caramelized shallots; not pictured, cashew nuts}

When it comes to green living, people will eventually start asking questions about meat consumption. 

The evidence overwhelmingly states that vegetarian and, further, vegan diets have significantly lighter carbon footprints than do animal-based diets.  This is not a matter of opinion, folks; it is fact.  A simple way to put it—plant some seeds, feed 100 people with the harvest.  Or plant some seeds, feed the harvest to food-animals, and then feed 30 people with the meat.  The food efficiency is dramatically decreased by that extra step.

Now.  That said.  Our family eats meat.

“Vegetables are what food eats,” is the mantra of a certain snarky member of our family.  When reminded that we’ll all be vegetarians in Heaven, he says with an impish grin “Yeah, so I’d better eat as much meat while I can.”  Truth is, this, ahem, unspecified member of our family, is usually the best in the family at eating his vegetables.  (Though my kids have turned out to be not too shabby at veggie-eating.  Not perfect, but have shown remarkable improvement.)

Switching to an exclusive vegetarian diet for the whole family is not for us right now.  Though my husband—yes, I was talking about him—has been very supportive of my “adorable” green quirks and has adopted some of those lifestyle changes even when I’m not around, he’s still his own person and, frankly, he likes meat.  He is not going to give that up.  And I am not going to ask him to.

(His top flesh choices are generally chicken, pig meat and sushi.)

For those who are unlikely to become full vegetarians/vegans right now but who want to walk in that direction, here’s my journey on reducing flesh consumption.

Years ago I used to buy a big package of frozen chicken breast halves—it cost around $16, if I recall, and probably fed just my husband and me for, let’s say, 5 meals.  One large breast half each, meat heavily anchored the meals.

Jumping ahead to the middle of our family’s green lifestyle change, I became interested in reducing our/my overall meat consumption.  I discovered already-cooked whole rotisserie chickens—one costs us $5-$10+ (depending on conventional versus organic), and now feeds our family of 5 (2 adults and three children, ages 10-3) for 2 light/moderately-meat-centric meals.  By cutting or shredding the meat into smaller pieces and mixing it throughout the dinner (or as a topping or condiment), it allows me to provide the accustomed taste of meat without the heaviness.  And I can accommodate the different diners’ needs/wants—Papa wants a papa-bear portion, but Mama is more interested in a baby-bear-sized portion.

I know that, as a culture, Americans have tried to slough of the wrenching shackles of Great Depression thrift and World Wars’ frugality—“We must offer much meat to our guests to show we are prosperous.”  It’s tough to change a philosophy that has been with the collective American culture for generations.  If you are, indeed, interested in changing your meat-lifestyle (i.e. reducing or omitting meat consumption), remember that you are not alone.  Just think, if you chalk it up to an interest in “personal health” or “planetary health,” then they can’t call you “cheap,” right? 

(But they can call you a “crazy hippie.”)

(And they will.)

When I first started using the whole rotisserie chicken, I’d get most of the big pieces of meat (breasts, thighs, maybe the wings) then throw the carcass away.  But that pioneer heritage nagged at me and I realized that there was more meat on the bones that I could harvest, if I was just willing to roll up my sleeves and do a little extra work.

So I started storing the carcasses in the freezer until I had two or three ready for the slow cooker.  I added some water and turned it on and by the end of several hours the extra bits of meat (neck, back, nooks and crannies) were ripe for the picking. 

Yes, it’s messy.  And slippery.  And greasy.  But, in the end, stripping two carcasses yields another meal and a half.

 

And spares another chicken’s life.  Really.

[Let’s do the math.  Imagine I buy 1 chicken per week.  And I just cut off the large pieces of meat and throw away the rest.  And I do this for 1 year.  That’s 52 chickens.  But if I roll up my sleeves, 2 stripped carcasses yield meat equivalent to a whole chicken.  Then I only need to buy 2 chickens every 3 weeks.  That means that over the course of one year 17 chickens’ lives are spared.  You can look at the value in terms of saving living organisms/animal welfare or, if you see it as manufacturing a product, you can note the resources/carbon footprint saved on feeding, transporting, processing, packaging, etc.]

Here are the things that I have learned in the past several years doing this:

·         educational anatomy lesson—I find the neck bones plentiful, cumbersome, and utterly fascinating

·         appreciation for people who do this for a job—it’s definitely not glamorous

·         compassion for people in the world who would be grateful to pick chicken bones clean

and, interestingly,

·         a sense of honoring the animal by using up as much as I can, so its life would not have been taken in vain.  We hear about the traditional Native American ways of hunting only what the people could eat and then using every part of the animal—the meat, the hide and the bones—for something.  Discarding meat would somehow show dishonor for the animal.  So sometimes, as I labor over picking the bones clean, I find myself feeling a bit prayerful over the animal.  There is a sacred intimacy in holding something in my hands that once was alive whose flesh is giving my family life.

(See, like I told you.  Crazy hippie.)

By spending the time and effort, I find that I’m more likely to conserve the meat.  The ratio of effort to yield may be higher than we are used to in our culture of convenience, but it helps me appreciate the meat better and so I am less likely to waste it.  Basic economics.  Supply and demand.  If the supply is low, the relative value increases.  And so, I have found, does one’s consciousness.

Apply this principle to other meats and fish. 

The higher fat and salt content in pig meats (bacon, pork, ham) make it so that you can use even less meat to satisfy the taste buds of conventional meat-lovers.  For example, by slicing quality bacon into small bits, I can use the meat more as a condiment.  Diners know that they’re eating strong-flavored meat, but you can use far less.  From one pound of bacon, I can often get 2-3 meals for my family of five.  I use condiment-portions of pig meat in salads, in scrambled eggs/omelets, pasta dishes, and soups.  My husband can add more meat to his meal and I can add (or not add) meat according to my undulating level of vegetarianism for the day.

There are some who might fear not getting enough protein.  The truth is our bodies actually need less protein than our culture makes us think we do.  But if that is a concern, incorporate more nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains.

It’s a process.  Some tout “Meatless Mondays” as one way to ease into reduced meat consumption—one day per week.  Or pick one of your staple recipes and brainstorm one way to add more plant-based variety into the meal.  Don’t forget the value of spices and fresh herbs.  Experiment.  I have found that international cuisines offer great inspiration.

Or, if you think you’re ready for full-time vegetarianism right now, you could just go cold-turkey.

Wait, uh . . . maybe in this case, you’d go cold-tofurkey.

{What have been some of your favorite ways to cut down on meat? Or cut it out completely?}

Random Photo of Nature: Cicada

Before even opening my eyes that first morning after moving to Singapore, I could tell that we were some place foreign just by the sounds of the tropical fauna, most notably the birds and the insects.

The cicada makes a very loud, high-pitched, raspy whistling sound.  But, its signature is the count-down style of screeching.  I'll condense it here for you.

screech . . . . . . . . . . screech . . . . . . . . screech . . . . . screech . . . . screech . . screech . screech screech screechscreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The kids nicknamed it the time-bomb bug.  You know when you're playing a game and the timer beeps faster and faster and you start panicking . . . likely inspired by this little fellow.

I was delighted when I found this beauty at the Botanical Gardens.  I had heard the cicadas for 2 months now without having seen what they looked like.  So when I could tell they were close--really loud, high-pitched howl--I had to hunt one down for a photo.

Fascinating.

Singapore – a Perfect Destination for a Green Cruise

{Photo of me and a tired child with the Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay.  These fabricated "trees," surrounded by several different themed gardens, harvest solar energy and rainwater.  Some people see them as symbols of sustainability and some see them as a waste of time and money.  Who knows?  Maybe they are both.  I do, however, daily see Singapore's efforts to promote and invest in green projects.}

Content by Eve Pearce

Perhaps the words green and cruising might sound a surprising combination, but they are two that you will increasingly hear together. In the past cruise lines have certainly come under fire with regards to air and water pollution. These huge ocean liners need an incredible amount of energy to move let alone power all the facilities on board and unfortunately this has also meant large amounts of carbon dioxide  generated, not to mention all the grey water that is produced every day. However, with advances in technology a number of cruise operators have taken various measures to reduce their carbon emissions and the waste that enters the oceans from their vessels; improved ship design allows them to be more energy efficient and waste water is either recycled or treated to ensure it is safe enough to be released. Although there is perhaps some way to go before cruising can be considered as a completely environmentally friendly travel option, selecting operators that have green credentials offers an alternative vacation idea for those who prefer not to fly to reduce their environmental impact, but still want to feel getting away is a big event.

Green cruising in Southeast Asia

Travelling from a port closer to home is ideal for those looking for a greener vacation and with cruise routes leaving from many coastlines around the world, there shouldn’t be one too far away. For anyone who lives in Southeast Asia or Australasia, a cruise taking in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand represents an ideal choice. Not only do these magical countries offer a whole host of wonders to explore – from their wildlife to their history and culture – but visiting local communities and supporting their projects can help to preserve their way of life and protect their surroundings for generations to come. However, be sure to choose an itinerary that also includes Singapore; even if you just have a few days to spare you can choose a three day cruise that takes in Singapore and Malaysia. As we mentioned in a previous post, Singapore is full of green spaces, but this isn’t the only sense in which Singapore can be considered green. Singapore has taken various steps to ensure that its environment is protected and this makes it a very fitting destination to choose on an eco-friendly cruise.

Environmentally friendly Singapore

Whether you just stop off for the day in Singapore or take an extended stay at the start or end of your cruise, you will see exactly what we mean when we say that the island is striving to be a fine example of how development can be achieved without being detrimental to the environment. The city state aims to use fewer resources and produce less waste and pollution, while preserving all that is natural from its parks to its waterways. Stay in one of the newer hotels that have been built to incorporate the latest green technology and have as little possible impact on its surroundings. They are full of devices that save energy and water, as well as making use of renewable energy resources such as solar panels; such a great idea when we get so much sunshine here. While staying there you’ll be encouraged to recycle what you can and use resources sparingly; taking showers and not asking for your towels and bedding to be changed every day will get the thumbs up.

When it comes to the food on offer, green hotels and restaurants will serve up seasonal and local produce, shunning those that have come from far afield or use endangered species, therefore helping to reduce food miles, support the local economy and preserve those animals that are currently threatened by dwindling numbers. It’s also easy to use public transport in the city, as you never have long to wait for a bus or train, so wherever you want to get to, you’ll get there in no time. The government also has plans to set more space aside for greenery and leisure, as well as encouraging the development of rooftop gardens in more built up areas, so it’s encouraging to know that rather than seeing a decline in green spaces as is the case in many parts of the world, in Singapore they will keep on growing. 

Bread-Bag Lady

Baking your own bread, using flour ground from the vast store of wheat in your basement (thanks, Mom and Dad), is one of the things on the unofficial checklist of Complete Mormon Womanhood.  (Bottling tomatoes and entering Dutch oven cook-offs are also on that list—am I right, state of Utah?)  This heritage of self-reliance and conscious use of resources, when preparing for a future day’s need, complement the low-waste lifestyle in which I am engaged.

Back home in Utah, I often tried (please notice the italics) to have a baking day once a week.  I baked several loaves of bread, baked rolls, baked some brownies, baked dinner, and maybe baked a pumpkin to use another day.  The idea was to maximize the energy used to heat up the oven—heat it up once, cook everything, then turn it off.  It’s more fuel efficient than heating up the oven separately for each individual baked good.  (It’s more mess-efficient, too.)  The extra loaves/brownies/pumpkin puree would get stored in the freezer for use another day.

One reason I made my own bread was to save money.  Yes, I know that you can buy bread for little money.  But, I like my bread to have some heft to it, and that generally translates to higher cost.  (We all have those things in our lives that we are willing to splurge on.  Bread is one of those for me.)  By baking my own bread, I could get the hefty loaf that I wanted—you know, with those stone-ground whole wheat berries from the food storage—without the hefty price.

Another reason was to keep some of the old ways alive.  I remember watching my mother knead the bread dough on the built-in pull-out wooden cutting board.  I always wanted to sneak some dough to eat—such hearty sweetness.  My mother might as well have been Hestia, goddess of the hearth, for all her efforts in the kitchen.  Somehow the feel of the dough, the warm smell of the kitchen, and the taste of the butter melted on that first slice of bread was a culinary security blanket; bread was peace.  I wish for my children to have such memories.  And so, I now occasionally don my Hestia apron, knead the dough, and pull off sticky pieces for my 3-year-old to eat. 

Yet another reason was to avoid the packaging associated with buying bread at the store.  Since I started monitoring our garbage/recycling output a couple of years ago, I looked for the things that I was ready to cut out of the waste cycle (that includes the recycling cycle as well). We go through a lot of bread in our house.  That translates to a lot of plastic bread bags.  Baking my own bread was one way to minimize a fair amount of waste.

Now, that said, I currently live in a place where it is hot, year-round.  The thought of turning on the oven makes me cringe.  So, I have yet to bake bread here (even though the 3-y-o has begged me to—she misses those mischievous moments of dough-sneaking).

So, if I’m not making bread, how can I continue my low-waste efforts?

I decided to try something that I hadn’t tried before (inspired by Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home).  The idea was to bring a reusable cloth bag* to one of the many local bakeries here in Singapore—the kind that display a variety of loosely-stacked loaves of artisan bread.  I would ask if they could use the bag to place—loose—my bread purchases.  What would they say?  Was it too soon in this new country for me to challenge the status quo?  Was honoring local customs stronger than any no-waste ideals I might have?

I shyly asked as I held up my bag.

The clerk stopped, looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and grabbed my bag.  As evidenced by her giggling and signaling a co-worker to see what she was doing, I gathered it was not at all common.  But, she did it.  And on my next visit, another clerk obliged my request.  And the next.  And so forth.  Over the course of its life, that cloth bag will replace hundreds of plastic bread bags.

I get fresh, local artisan bread.

And zero waste.

*Pictured above is a zippered mesh bag, originally intended to contain delicates in the washing machine.  The crusty, irregular surface of the loaves I was buying--usually 4 or 5 at a time--kept getting snagged on the mesh and made using the bag cumbersome and a little time-consuming. I have since switched to a clean canvas tote.  It works much better.  To secure the top I simply tie the handles together.

(I have been fantasizing, though, about getting a solar oven to bake things out on the balcony.  Solar ovens are not as plentiful here in Singapore as they are in Utah, where food storage and emergency supplies are birthday-, Christmas-, and wedding-gift staples.)

Muslim, Muslim, Random Mormon Lady, Muslim, Muslim . . .

{Note: Though this is not directly about the environment, it is about the global family. They are inextricably allied; they are both sacred.  So I post this here.}

Conspicuous.  No matter how much I tried to be small, quiet or an invisible observer, no matter how much I suppressed my inherited loud-American culture, there was no way an Anglo woman with long pink hair and bare shins was going to go unnoticed in a lecture hall full of astute, accomplished Muslims from around the world—from Egypt to Bangladesh to Indonesia.  Inside myself I cringed at being so jarringly different.  But, I wasn’t going to turn back now, so I swiftly found a seat, sat down and didn’t move a muscle.  {Nobody look at me.  Nobody notice the alien in your midst.  Must channel my inner stick insect—if I just freeze in place no one will see me.}

(“These are not the droids you are looking for.”  Random Star War quote seemed fitting here.)

This particular event, titled “Islam and Global Citizenship,” featured Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a well-known figure in the quest for peace within Islam and peace between Islam and the West.  As with anyone in the spotlight, he is both highly-regarded and highly controversial. 

(For those of you who do not know of him, I need only say three words: “Ground Zero Mosque.” *) 

I became aware of him through the mother of my 3-year-old’s classmate (the mother introduced herself to my other daughter as “Princess Naz”—my daughter simply loves calling her that).   She had worked closely with Imam Feisal in New York City and was set to host him and his wife during his speaking tour in Singapore.

{Now a quick aside: one of my personal goals for our time in Singapore was to reach out to my brothers and sisters in other faith communities to learn from them, to welcome the added depth, dimension, and complexity that would certainly enrich my own personal faith.}

When Princess Naz invited me to a private dinner where Imam Feisal would speak, I enthusiastically accepted.  She told me, “It will be mostly Muslims there.  Are you okay with that?”  “No problem,**” I replied.  (I knew at the very least Mormons and Muslims alike could bond over their shared history as designated drivers.)  I asked if she had a copy of Imam Feisal’s most recent book, “Moving the Mountain.”  I knew I would be out of my element, so I thought at least some basic preparation was in order.

As I read, I found myself thinking, “It’s like I’m reading my own brain.”  I found so many corollaries with my own Mormon faith and some of the cultural challenges that arise from time to time.  And his personal quest to find his essential self inspires me.  Though he addresses, in the book, the hate and violence in the world (found in all religions and their countless interpretations), he spends far more time optimistically talking about the harmony of our global family.  The outpouring of interfaith support he has seen.  His faith in humanity.  His gentle nature that fosters peace and compassion.

Of the two events I attended—the dinner and the university lecture hall assembly (both with great food, by the way)—I was, as far as I could tell, *the* only non-Muslim in attendance.  (Wait, I think there was maybe one Buddhist at the dinner.)  And the only person I knew was the dinner hostess, who was far too busy seeing to the needs of 30+ people than to coddle my self-consciousness all night.

I’ve got to be honest.  It really stretched me.  It’s like middle school all over and everyone is already talking to a friend and you don’t know where to sit and eat your lunch.  The worst, though, was when people would introduce themselves to me and I proved to be incapable of remembering their non-Western names.  Fail.  Next time I’ll just be upfront with my ignorance and bring a pad of paper and a pen and kindly ask people to write down their names for me.  If I’m going to feel like a freak show, I should at least try to be a courteous freak show.  I’m very shy at networking.  So some lessons take me awhile to learn.

In the end, though, I found my way through many conversations at both events.  Now, to tell the whole truth, I was planning on leaving immediately after the second event at the lecture hall, because I was feeling shy and awkward.  But, as I started to leave, one lovely young mother (wife of one of the organizers), whom I had met the night before, engaged me in conversation and we ended up talking awhile.  She invited me to go back and have some food and kind of turned into my safety-net buddy, for which I was very grateful.  God bless her.  By staying, I met some more people and opened myself up for possible future connections.  People were friendly and welcoming.

Now, for the Small-World-Moment—there were in the dinner crowd, believe it or not, two University of Utah alumni, one of which (pictured with me above--I believe he’s from Egypt) also lived for a time in none other than . . . wait for it . . . our hometown of Orem, Utah.  Imagine that.  People connecting across time, space and culture by way of a life lived in an obscure dot on the globe.  When I really think about it, it still gives me the chills and makes me tear up a bit.

The world continues to surprise and delight me.  And I look forward to this personal journey that, I hope, will propel me further in my interfaith involvement.

{I will be writing another post about this unique moment that will focus more on the spiritual aspects of Muslim prayer and meditation—both led by Imam Feisal—as experienced by this Mormon mom, humbled and honored to witness the Sacred in all its forms.}

*This is a nickname propagated by the media.  The Islamic community center in New York City is called Park51.  The interfaith arm of the center is called Cordoba House.

** Turns out that though I do not have a problem being around Muslims, I somewhat have a problem being around my bumbling self when among bright, articulate leaders and adept networkers.

Earth Hour: Singapore

I am too spent to write about our Earth Hour outing.  I'll write a post another day.  

Meanwhile, here are a few photos.

Me (that's a flower in my hair; it's not my ear), my youngest, and the Panda up there working it on the stage.

They had set up a dance pad platform that would collect all the kinetic energy and convert it into electricity that would later power the movie they would show during the actual earth hour.  

We all wanted to dance.  (WWF, here, stands for World Wildlife Fund, *not* World Wrestling Federation, which I can't help but think of and giggle.  Every time.)

Watching "The Lorax"--powered earlier in the evening by the crowd of dancers.

For those of you in the States, Earth Hour is heading your way.  We found that our simple candlelight observation at home last year was festive enough for the kids.  

Are you planning anything?  Any pledges for "beyond the hour?"