Day 4 isn't over yet but I stopped mid-dishes to write. Yesterday I mentioned my time in an African village. One water well in the whole village. Woman and children carry jugs, buckets anything they can to the well for their daily water. While we were there, we were given a small dishpan with a couple of inches of water to bathe everyday. Hair had to be washed with the water in a water bottle. It can be done. All this made a huge impact on me and it was months after we returned before I could take more than a two minute shower. Today, I am up to 5 minutes...and that's IF I wash my hair. The conditioner needs 2 minutes.
In our country neighborhood here, we are on community water. It is very hard and full of minerals. It takes very little time for build-up to take its toll on the dishwasher heating element, so I wash dishes by hand. I do not mind it at all. Having had hand issues the last couple of years I have enjoyed the hot water soaks. I start out with only 1/2 a sink of water. Have you ever paid attention to how much water we waste while waiting for the water to heat up??!! EKK! I now save that running water in plastic bowls and use it to water my herbs! No waste there. If I heat up more water than I need for my afternoon tea, I save that water, too. You will be amazed at how much water we waste in everyday activities. With my 1/2 sink of water I let the plates and saucers soak while I do something else. Then I wash them, placing them in the other sick to rinse all at once. I put in any glass dishes left to soak while I rinse. Again, waiting for hot water, I save it in bowls and rinse the dishes in the hot water over the soapy water so all the new hot water refreshes it, rather than waste it. This is what I was doing when I stopped to run over here to share my Green cleaning tips.
I was hesitant to pour out the hot starchy water left from cooking pasta the other night, so I looked online and, lo and behold, there were ideas for recycling that! Who knew? It can go on the compost pile if nothing else, once cooled of course. I frequently steam veggies in the rice cooker while it cooks my rice. Water used to cook veggies can be saved for soup stock. Pour the cooled veggie water into an old ice cube tray and then you have stock to add to other dishes in serving sizes! One lady said she used her starch water from pasta or veggie to cook her homemade bagels, then uses the leftover water from that to mix up homemade tortillas. That's recycling, friends! You can also use the cooled veggie water for your plants. Think about the vitamins we would be passively giving our animals if we used veggie water for them!
Not only can we make an impact in water conservation but also the energy it takes to cook food by recycling the water/stock while it is still hot from the initial cooking like the pasta/bagel/tortilla lady. She knocked out a lot of things at once saving water and energy. Making double recipes at one time saves on energy, too. Plus we get the benefit of having prepared food for another meal handy. I always make a double batch of rice and can use it in a variety of ways for days. I save left over mashed potatoes for potato pancakes. Leftovers can be exciting and new simply by serving them a different way. I do not like to serve something two days in a row or serve it without making it look new and different. Recycling our food sources is just plain smart! Pleasing our family with new creative dishes is love on a plate!
Bye for now, it's tea time and then back to finish the dishes before my water cools off!! P.S. tea bags go into the compost pile, too, ya know!
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