A website I find interesting is the NSW EPA's love food hate waste. It's an initiative run by the state Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with partners from retailers, manufacturers, local government authorities and community groups. Its a site of frightening statistics about the amount of good food we waste in this state every year and its impact on our environment. However it's not designed to give you nightmares or a guilt complex but solutions on how to get the most from the food you buy and how to waste less of it.
Its based on a campaign of the same name, developed in the UK in 2007, by the Waste and Resources Action Program. (WRAP)
Let me share some of the statistics:
This is a break-down of food we throw away and send to landfill:
Fresh Food $848 million
Leftovers $694 million
Packed and long life foods $372 million
Drinks $231 million
Frozen Food $231 million
Takeaway/Home delivered $180 million
That's 800,000 tonnes of food each year. When food is left rotting with other organics in landfill it gives off methane which is 25 times more potent than the pollution that comes from your car exhaust. These statistics are from NSW alone!! Each year NSW households throw out over $1000 worth of edible food.
Australians overall discard up to 20% of the food they purchase - that equates to 1 out of every 5 bags of food they buy.
Up to 40% of the average household bin is food.
These statistics are mind boggling. Its disgusting really.
Just think of the production costs and transport costs - the "food miles". Good grief its just madness!
However as I said, the initiative is not just about horrifying statistics - its about solutions. Finding better ways to buy, cook and save your food and in turn doing the planet and yourself (and your bank balance) a favour. Its an easily navigable site, with lots of tips, recipes, as well as how to use the leftovers,downloads for shopping and menu planning, as well as insight into the issues arising from such waste.
It's definitely worth a look.
www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.go.au
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Friday, November 14, 2014
Nundle.
About a month ago we decided to have a day trip to the small village of Nundle which is in the New England area of NSW. It's about a 3.5 hour trip from here so we set off reasonably early.
Its a town that owes its existence to the discovery of gold at Hanging Rock and Swamp Creek in 1852, though its known more these days as one of the best places for crystals in NSW. You can also fossick for sapphires and other precious stones.
It's a lovely area with reminders of the past around every corner. For such a small village it has plenty of attractions such as a Arc-en-Ciel Trout Farm at Hanging Rock, the Nundle Woollen Mill, one of the last spinning mills in Australia; Jenkins St. Antiques and Fine China; Volcania Art Glass (and art gallery) just to name a few and my favourite : Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores.
This is a home wares shop reminiscent of a 19th century local store. You can buy anything from fine loose teas, coffee, soap, enamelware, millet brooms, baskets, tea towels, aprons even flour in paper or cloth bags. It's a beautiful place to wander through; we had a lovely time. I bought an apron, some Badger Sleep Balm and a repro wind up tin motorbike toy for Mark. By the way you can shop online.
We had lunch at the Peel Inn; a hotel that was built in 1860. About 1863 it was won in a poker game by one John Schofield and it remains in the family to this day. We decided on chicken schnitzel and salad - good old standard pub nosh - and I have to say it was soooo good!! The outdoor area where we ate was beautiful, lots of shady places to sit under a magnificent 40 year old grape vine. The outdoor area is so lovely in fact just last year it was featured in the top 10 beer gardens in Australia.
So I can highly recommend a visit to Nundle. We'd definitely go back and stay a few days to have more of a look at the attractions. Well worth the trip. :)
Useful Websites.
www.nundle.com.au
www.exchangestores.com.au
www.peelinn.com.au
www.rainbowtrout.com.au
Its a town that owes its existence to the discovery of gold at Hanging Rock and Swamp Creek in 1852, though its known more these days as one of the best places for crystals in NSW. You can also fossick for sapphires and other precious stones.
It's a lovely area with reminders of the past around every corner. For such a small village it has plenty of attractions such as a Arc-en-Ciel Trout Farm at Hanging Rock, the Nundle Woollen Mill, one of the last spinning mills in Australia; Jenkins St. Antiques and Fine China; Volcania Art Glass (and art gallery) just to name a few and my favourite : Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores.
This is a home wares shop reminiscent of a 19th century local store. You can buy anything from fine loose teas, coffee, soap, enamelware, millet brooms, baskets, tea towels, aprons even flour in paper or cloth bags. It's a beautiful place to wander through; we had a lovely time. I bought an apron, some Badger Sleep Balm and a repro wind up tin motorbike toy for Mark. By the way you can shop online.
We had lunch at the Peel Inn; a hotel that was built in 1860. About 1863 it was won in a poker game by one John Schofield and it remains in the family to this day. We decided on chicken schnitzel and salad - good old standard pub nosh - and I have to say it was soooo good!! The outdoor area where we ate was beautiful, lots of shady places to sit under a magnificent 40 year old grape vine. The outdoor area is so lovely in fact just last year it was featured in the top 10 beer gardens in Australia.
So I can highly recommend a visit to Nundle. We'd definitely go back and stay a few days to have more of a look at the attractions. Well worth the trip. :)
Useful Websites.
www.nundle.com.au
www.exchangestores.com.au
www.peelinn.com.au
www.rainbowtrout.com.au
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
Katherine Elizabeth.
It's been a difficult few weeks with the death and funeral of my husband's mother, Katherine Elizabeth.
At 89 she had lived a full and busy life, quite "compos mentis" up until about five years ago. For the last almost two years she had been resident in a nursing home where sadly Altzeimers slowly eroded her mind and personality. It's a truly awful disease, isn't it?!
Her funeral was (to use a cliche) a celebration of her life. The last five years were not her sum total and we preferred to focus on her life before that. The photo slide show reminded us all that old ladies were once frivolous young things in stylish frocks and who rode pillion on motorbikes.
I hope she didn't have many regrets. I hope the few memories the disease would allow her to keep were of picnics and dances and the taste of ice cream her mother use to make. I hope she is enjoying renewing contact with family and friends that made the journey before her.
And I hope as we continue with our lives we consciously enjoy every moment we can.
"This ain't no dress rehearsal."
" A Parable of Immortality."
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, “There, she's gone.”
At 89 she had lived a full and busy life, quite "compos mentis" up until about five years ago. For the last almost two years she had been resident in a nursing home where sadly Altzeimers slowly eroded her mind and personality. It's a truly awful disease, isn't it?!
Her funeral was (to use a cliche) a celebration of her life. The last five years were not her sum total and we preferred to focus on her life before that. The photo slide show reminded us all that old ladies were once frivolous young things in stylish frocks and who rode pillion on motorbikes.
I hope she didn't have many regrets. I hope the few memories the disease would allow her to keep were of picnics and dances and the taste of ice cream her mother use to make. I hope she is enjoying renewing contact with family and friends that made the journey before her.
And I hope as we continue with our lives we consciously enjoy every moment we can.
"This ain't no dress rehearsal."
" A Parable of Immortality."
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, “There, she's gone.”
“Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is
all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my
side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her
destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment
when someone at my side says, “There, she's gone!” there are other eyes
watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad
shout, “Here she comes!”
- Henry van Dyke (1852 –
1933)
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