A Greener Life

Whoopie pies! So delicious. Sorry for the crappy picture...I will take a better one next time I make these.

Earlier this week, we had a bake sale to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief. The bake sale was a huge success, raising $1100 for Partners in Health which is then going to be matched by the company I work for, the matched money going to the Red Cross.  Cool, eh?

For this bake sale, I baked vegan whoopie pies, recipe courtesy of Hannah Kaminski. Why whoopie pies? Well, why not?! I was organizing the bake sale so I knew no one else would be bringing them and hey–who doesn’t like the sound of whoopie pies. This recipe and the accompanying video were so good that my whoopie pies turned out PERFECT. I also took the time to invest in the correct tools–a cookie scoop (like a mini ice cream scooper–to get all the cookies the same size), a reusable pastry bag for the icing/filling, and an oven thermometer because our oven runs hot (by 50 degrees I now know). Anyways, the whoopie pies received really good reviews and people never suspected they were *gasp* NOT EATING SOMETHING WITH EGGS AND MILK.

As a relevant tangent, I made little table tents for the bake sale out of cardboard cereal boxes I had stacked up waiting to get taken to the recycling center and then I put paper samples I had in my stash in the middle for the actual label. Trying to liven up what probably would have just been an impersonal post-it note that, likely, would have just been thrown away in the end. We recycled all the tents, don’t worry.

I’ll have a rant about that another time, but I would just like to say that vegan food is so misunderstood.

Part I: I’ve really been struggling a lot lately with priorities. Namely, is it more important to be an environmentalist or to be a vegan? I am starting to think it’s impossible to be both without some level of give. For example, if you are a vegan, you don’t consume animal products on any level–your clothing, housewares, or food. That means you’ll likely choose an artificial material as a substitute (for let’s say, shoes or a belt) which is, most likely, derived from oil (not a renewable resource). In the couple of months that I’ve been avoiding all animal products both in food and in lifestyle, I’m having a hard time reconciling the fact that even though I didn’t kill an animal, I’m probably creating more of an environmental impact (negatively) by wearing or using this whateveritis.  From here on out–I’ll just be doing the best I can, probably buying anything leather first as a seconhand item, and then as a firsthand purchase if I am out of alternatives.

I know there are alternatives to this choice and if I just try harder, I’m sure I can make it work. But what I’m thinking is that as busy as I am and being middle class–I simply can’t afford it.  Also, I did this as an experiment because people are very sensitive about the label “vegan.” Meaning–vegan is not just the way you eat. So, I’m calling myself a vegetarian who doesn’t eat dairy/eggs. There ya go.

I’ve decided that my focus, instead of being vegan, needs to be my consumption of renewable resources.  Say what you will, but animals are technically a renewable resource, and my personal ethical beliefs are that animals are beneath humans on the food chain and that they can lead very nice lives in certain circumstances before being consumed. That doesn’t mean I’m going to start eating animals, but I’m going to be open to ethically-produced animal products, such as leather.

We are happy to serve you ceramic mug

Part II: Here’s a story I found amusing this week: a coworker was showing me her new Copco To Go Cup, which touts itself as “eco friendly” because it’s reusable and you’re not throwing away a similar-looking coffee cup every day.  Now–this cup is BPA-free but is still plastic. A better alternative might be the I Am Not a Paper Cup, the Eco Coffee Cup with double porcelain walls and a silicone exterior (serious coffee business there!), or the single-walled porcelain Eco Cup.  I’d love to test run all these since I’m a regular coffee drinker, so we’ll see what can be arranged.  But honestly–if you recycle your #5 plastic lid (Starbucks lids were #5 last I checked), your paper cup is renewable. So in certain circumstances, I think throwing away or recycling your coffee beverage is just fine. Better than throwing away a plastic cup–or even recycling it!

My point though: just consider what might be “eco-friendly.” It’s such a hot thing right now that people are calling all kinds of stuff eco-friendly.  I don’t consider something eco-friendly just because you can reuse it–we should all be reusing things as a regular habit of life. I do consider something eco-friendly if it is made of eco-friendly materials (such as porcelain which is, essentially, made from mud), can be reused, and then can be recycled after you’re done with it.

To close, I just had to share this adorable NYC-esque ceramic cup.  Want!

Like that should even be a question!

I’ve been wanting to start a compost now for a few months but have had a hard time getting started. Indoor or outdoor? Buy one or make one? Household garbage or leaves? Is there a composter for both? I’ll be documenting the composting experience here as I stumble through it, but here is an awesome article on composting from No Impact Man.