Sustainable Foods & Cooking – Part One

Cooking can be one of the most rewarding tasks of all our essential daily chores. Sometimes when we cook it’s just to get nourishment into our bodies such as frying your morning egg. Other times it can be a long process…combining your favorite elements or ingredients to create a mouth savoring masterpiece.

Do you ever stop and take time to understand the food or ingredients you use to cook your meals? Are you concise about farming or production techniques used to harvest your bounty? All these questions and many more were presented to me during my tenure at ASU while studying sustainability. From class-to-class and semester-to-semester there were introductions, discussions and presentations of information on food and the concept of sustainability. It wasn’t until I took a whole course on Sustainable Food and Farms did I truly get the breadth of knowledge that I have today.

During this time, we had our first child and she was beginning into the world of food…real food! Pureeing and making her own baby food from fresh organic food that was sourced at local farmer’s market was already on the weekly agenda. We were venturing into solids and meats. Several discussions leading up to my course on Food and Farms was steering me to question where was the meat I was eating coming from? About three weeks into the semester I decided to take a 30-day challenge to eat strictly vegetarian (animal byproducts ok, just not animals). I found this a lot easier and exciting than I originally anticipated. I was excited to raise our daughter on a diet that promoted whole grains, fresh vegetables and occasionally meat alternatives. Making sure to always provide a balance of proteins, carbs and fats to my growing child.

This is not a PSA for vegetarianism…it is just a story about how I became one for 4 years…until the pregnancy of my son. He wanted meat and so for about 9 months I listened to what my body and son wanted and ventured back into eating meat occasionally. Just remembering to question and source out the highest quality meat– organic and grass fed whenever possible.  

Whether you are eating a vegetarian, paleo, or full-on T-rex diet you can stop and question the quality of your products, where they were sourced (locally or abroad), and even how they have impacted the environment. A lot of good information is out there on how eating an organic diet can not only improve your health but can also help the sustain the earth’s resources. Stay tuned for more information on these topics.

D.S.

Viable Creations

Why environmentally friendly packaging is so important to Viable Creations…

In the past I would get frustrated with all the empty space in packaging and the large amounts of packing material that would come with something that I had purchased. My frustration would grow when I went to dispose of the packaging and it couldn’t be recycled and had to go into a landfill…this would make me so sick.

When launching Viable Creations my top goals were to create products that were environmentally friendly and ensure the packaging material was as eco-friendly as possible. My intention is to supply products in a package that can be re-used. My ultimate goal is to have zero waste but have found that this will not always be possible. I’m happy to share that we came very close to the “zero waste goal” with our 5-pc Culinary Tool Set packaging. The following is a breakdown of how we achieved our goal for this product.

For starters the cardboard canister that your tool set arrives in is 100% recyclable. Better yet you can even compost the container. During the design phase of the canister we hoped many people would find it attractive enough to keep around and use it for other purposes. The canister is the perfect size for a bottle of wine, so the next time you are headed out the door to a party, you can present the host or hostess with a bottle of your favorite wine in this unique box. We do suggest you make sure the bottom is reinforced. One customer told us this is the perfect container to store their paintbrushes in. With its tall height she is able to store her various sized-dry artist brushes in a stand-up position. These are just a couple options and we are sure there are many more! Tweet us or post to our InstaGram what you have done with your canister at #viablecreations.

The next component of our packaging for the Bamboo Tool Set is the reusable cotton muslin bag. This bag not only protects your spoons during delivery but also is intended to be reused for many purposes. Its versatility makes the options seem endless of what you can do with it.  We first recommend you machine-wash your bag with your normal wash.

As posted on our FaceBook page here are a few of our favorite ideas for the reuse of your bag:

• Bulk Food Shopping – To reduce the use of plastic bags from the bulk food isle, the Viable Creations’ reusable bag is perfect for your beans, grains, nuts and dried fruits.

• Produce Shopping – The Bamboo 5-PC Culinary Tool Set reusable cotton bag is perfect for lemons, limes, apples and medium sized fruit. Remember to take your reusable bag with you next time you are shopping to replace the plastic bags.

• Vegetable Crisper – Cotton muslin bags can actually prolong the life of your produce. Dampen the Viable Creations cotton bag squeezing excess water from it, place lettuce leaves in your bag in the vegetable drawer for longer-life and crisper lettuce. In addition to lettuce you can use your bag for carrots, celery, green onions and many other vegetables!

• Not just food…the reusable cotton muslin bag is not just for food shopping and storage. This bag is very versatile and can used for many more things, including:

- Travel bag for jewelry

- Crayon sack for kids craft center

- Small toy tote for the car

- Spare changes satchel

The last component of packaging that was used in our design-in order to protect your reusable cotton bag and the canister from the natural vegetable oil your tool set was treated with-we had to place the tool set in a cellophane bag. Check your local recycling guidelines to see if you can place in your recycle bin. This will be the only component that may need to be disposed of in the trash.

We hope you have found these tips helpful and continue to enjoy your Culinary Bamboo Tool Set! We will continue to post tips-techniques and sustainable living ideas and solutions on our social media site…follow us to stay up-to-date!

-D.S.

What is Sustainable Living?

So I often hear, “what is sustainability?” or  “what does it mean to be sustainable?”…When I get questions like these, I typically explain what sustainability is to me, which is living in a way that will ensure resources for future generations. This means that I do my part to be responsible to not exhaust what we have available today so that it can last for my great grand children and beyond.  To live as sustainable as possible whenever possible I must think of things in a big picture scale. Especially when I go to purchase a new product for myself or as a gift. This thinking is referred to as “cradle-to-grave”. Meaning I must think about how it was sourced, how it will be used and how it will be disposed of and many more aspects in between. Once you start thinking "big picture" it is easy to decipher “am I living sustainably?”

Becoming a person of living a sustainable lifestyle does not happen overnight, is not black or white and is not full proof. I wouldn’t encourage you to go throw out all your non-sustainable products and replace them with new sustainable products….that would just be wasteful. Instead I would suggest as your old products run out or wear out you replace it with a more eco-friendly counter part.  The reason living sustainable is not black or white is because there is a lot of gray area or area that makes it difficult to obtain 100% sustainability. You may choose a sustainable product with minimal waste but you had to have it shipped from across the world. These are called trade-offs and are considered the gray area. Don't beat yourself up about not achieving 100% sustainability...my motto is every bit helps and counts towards sustainable living.

The first step is to learn about products that are considered sustainable. For example bamboo is very sustainable because it is the fastest growing woody plant. Compared to conventional wood forests that require the whole tree to be cut down to source the lumber and take a very long time to grow back; bamboo root systems are left intact and quickly grow back new shoots.  This makes bamboo a great wood alternative for many household products for cooking, decorating and building.  Bamboo is also crafted to make beautiful gifts so the next time you are looking for a housewarming or birthday gift you can confidently purchase a bamboo product and feel good about preserving forests for the future!

So how did I do? This is my fist blog on sustainable living and I am excited to continue to share lifestyle ideas that you can incorporate into your busy day! Until next time…

D.S.

Viable Creations