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Eating Consciously – as we eat at home more our food scraps increase. Your scraps can help us feed our neighbors GalleryEating Consciously – as we eat at home more our food scraps increase. Your scraps can help us feed our neighbors
Composting, Eating Consciously, Growing food, Help a Neighbor, Moving to Zero-waste, Use Food Scraps
Eating Consciously – as we eat at home more our food scraps increase. Your scraps can help us feed our neighbors
For years, Moving to Conservers has worked to change what we define as waste and trash, especially when it comes to food. Reducing food waste is considered one of the number one things we can do to increase the health of our environment. Diverting food scraps to farms helps them feed our local community. For some articles on the topic and ways you can use or let others use your food scraps go here: https://movingtoconservers.com/category/composting/
ShareWaste – an app to help us put our community food scraps to use
John and I joined ShareWaste a couple of years ago but there were few if any others in the area signed up. I honestly had forgotten about it. A few weeks ago, we were contacted by someone in Mills River looking for a home for her food scraps. She had found us on ShareWaste. We met in the Walmart parking lot in Brevard and we received a 5-gallon bucket of much-needed scraps for our compost system. We never have enough scraps to produce the amount of compost we need for our garden. Now we have a new stream and are looking for more. If you have scraps you would like to put to use let us know and/or sign-up on ShareWaste and let's increase our community's ability to feed itself. You can find the website here: https://sharewaste.com/ They also have an app you can download for your phone. Happy food scraping :)
Announcing Eating Consciously!
We are excited to announce our newest project Eating Consciously. An amazing team of folks has gathered together to create this new food group (I know but I couldn't resist.) The goal of this project is to learn together the impact our food choices have on others and the environment. Are you interested in moving to a plant-based diet and need tips and techniques for cooking and shopping? Ask the group! You can find out more about them and the project by visiting our webpage Eating Consciously! Thanks to everyone who made this possible! We are excited to learn together.
Eating Consciously Podcast! Enjoy our first episode with Evan Parker
Help us celebrate as we kick off our first podcast! We have started a new project called Eating Consciously and we are kicking it off by releasing our first podcast. Our first guest is Evan Parker and he is a member of the Eating Consciously team that is helping us learn the impact our food choices have on others. We really enjoyed the conversation with Evan and look forward to many more. Thanks Evan! This Podcast, Eating Consciously was recorded July 5, 2020. Evan Parker was interviewed by Kim Coram and John Wiseman. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.
Amazing things are happening around our homemade Black Lives Matter sign
It is amazing. It was so simple and has made such a difference. After George Floyd was murdered John and I painted a sheet and hung it from our garage. We had to do something. We never expected what happened as a result of that sign. I don't know why we didn't. I always cringe when I know my black family members are coming for a visit because of the confederate flags they are going to pass to get to our home. Why had we never hung a sign of support for black lives, and our LGBTQ family and friends? I can tell you, we will always hang flags of support from now on. Our home has changed. Our world has broadened and the number of diverse faces in our yard and around our home has become visible. Almost daily, a vehicle slows, a smiling face reveals itself and a hand waves. It brings me to tears of sincere joy and gratitude. Last week a car of young [...]
Moving to a plant-based diet
In 2020, we kicked off our Moving to Zero-waste educational series. Our first conversation in January was focused on Transylvania Shares, a new mutual aid organization in our community that shares stuff. February and March focused on the benefits of a plant-based diet. Thanks to a wonderful presentation from Noel and Patrick in February and another presentation from Evan in March, we received a great education and a lot to think about. Since the stay-at-home order due to COVID 19 was issued shortly thereafter, we did not have our gathering where we had a conversation about our studies. Nonetheless, people have reached out and said they would like support to reduce the amount of meat in their diets. Fantastic. I reached out and asked Shane, a vegan and owner of GreenGo Cleaning Company, and a huge supporter of zero-waste and community if she would mind guiding us. She said she would. Thank you Shane! Look for her tips on our website and in our newsletter. We will host [...]
We have always been about equity and solidarity.
Update on June 16, 2020 I posted this several weeks ago. I continue to publish it for those who may have missed it. I also continue to post it because my granddaughter is still expressing her fear. Good for her. We are enjoying a visit with them this week while we social distance in our home and wear masks and wash our hands a lot. We have chalkboards in our home on doors and such and yesterday, my granddaughter wrote on one of them: I'm scared for my black family's life. Black Lives Matter. I shouldn't be scared because I am 10. What wisdom. What is happening now is amazing in so many ways. I feel hope. I also deeply feel the grief our family is experiencing. Best friends have left, family members don't understand and it brings others to their knees. It is a deep wound, exposed and while it helps move to healing, the grief is incapacitating at times. It is why I was unable to [...]
Compost Happens
Written by John Wiseman If you are wanting to grow wholesome food, beautiful pollinators, or trees and shrubs, they all need nourishment that in turn will nourish our bodies and souls. Lets think a bit longer term and start composting. It’s easy! We all have the ingredients around our abodes. They are: carbon, nitrogen, air, and water. Compost is a keystone building block to vital soil. Let’s just try getting the ingredients in good proportions and let the composting critters do 90% of the labor. Oh, the other 10% is up to us. The simplest composting starts with a layered pile of our ingredients. Start with a layer of cardboard, (worms love cardboard) scatter a few small diameter sticks on next, (to help with airflow) now start layering more carbon and nitrogen-rich materials to an approximate ratio of 25:1 – 30:1 carbon to nitrogen. The carbon content (other than the cardboard and sticks) are dry leaves, sawdust, or even shredded newspaper, the nitrogen content is our food scraps [...]
Honoring my Lebanese heritage: Harvesting grape leaves, remembering grandma and grandpa
My grandpa Coram was born in Lebanon. His family moved to the United States when he was an infant. Grandma’s family moved from Lebanon and settled in Jackson, Ohio, where she was born. Grandma always told people grandpa was born in Camel, West Virginia. When I asked her why she said their courthouse had burned down and all the records were lost. She feared he may be deported someday if folks knew where he was born, even though he was a legal resident. I thought she was being ridiculous. I don’t think that anymore, sadly. Anyone who knew them assumed their wedding was arranged. Grandpa was a practical joker. He lived life with joy. He was a great man. I have so much love for him I took his last name after my divorce. Grandma approached life differently. Some of my greatest life lessons came from my close relationship with her. I miss them both deeply and feel their presence at interesting times. My mother took on more [...]