what can we consumers do about over packaging?

The below is a sample letter I sent to a company in which i suggested that they change their packaging policy.I think it is polite even friendly,and to the point. It is my hope that if enough of this type of letter came from us to the producers it could make a difference.What do you think?


  Dear sir or Madam. 

I am the proud owner of one brand new dorma bed sheets.I am very impressed with the quality of the product,and grateful for the sense of luxury on opening the new package.

What did concern me though,and slightly detracted from the pleasure was some considerations on the plastic covering.

I do appreciate that the packaging added some sense of quality to the presentation, but surly i am not the only one who might be looking for a pure cotton product out of some consideration for the environment and the environmental cost of disposal Surly i am not the only one who realises that whether burned or buried, heavy duty plastic is a real problem? 

I am therefore asking you to consider the following ;please look into the possibility of a packaging which not only looks good but which is also benign to dispose of. (compostable).

i thank you once again for a quality product

please feel free to send this sample letter to all of your friends. And get this thing rolling.Below are two examples of excessive packaging.current practice in the uk for disposal of this material is to incinerate it. which causes massive health problems for local populations of people plants and animals. It is much better to cercumvent the problem and insist on  compostable packaging

Eddie Morgan

                What  is this beautiful old cast iron bath doing on legs?

virtual prize for the correct guess

Overcoming Addiction part 3

Dealing with the Devil

I have been doing some subjective arithmetic on the question.    What are the odds that any particular person with a severe addiction will ever recover?   personally there are two people who I know of whom I can put my hand on my heart and say they have made a recovery, one from alcohol, one from heroin . On the other hand I know of the same amount who have died of related causes and twice as many again who are in their addiction and kind of stuck.so roughly speaking 2 in 10 recovered.

In other words if you are in an addiction. looking at the bare statics the odds are stacked against you and there is a very good chance that you will die from it.

On the other hand and over and above these negative speculations the two guys I mentioned are two of the finest men I know , and have become so through their journey to recovery. Therefore ,if you do take the challenge,its going to be so worth it, not just if or when you succeed but every step of the way.

I find it interesting that what ever else they had to go through both guys did what I call a deal with the devil.

"John" decided he wasnt going rto be a hercin addict , he was going to be a weaver. He bought himself a loom ,some colored threads of linnin ,cotton and wool. where ever he moved the loom came with him and i can only immagine that he went through many a difficult time inthecompany and solace of this craft.Eventually he told everyone that he could weave buitfulfrabrics and that he was infact a weaver.

"Deric"told himself thatin giving up his alcohol addiction and all thet went with it , he would always have music to listen to, no matter what it cost.and indeed every time i visited him we eventually listened to some choice recordings.

 Both these solution, were not in  themselves with out cost..I mean how many weavers do you know?How easy can it be to have amazing music available to you when you live in a caravenon a remote hill side on scotlands west coast?

However they achived it, and it is clear that whatever it cost it was worth it. Interestinglythe weaving and the music became centeralthemes in the lives of each men "Deric for instance went on to become a music teacher. Sure enough they had their quirks they mcarried some scars, but both became exceptional people

 So in the light of these considerations lets return to the  a grim prediction speculations I started with , 10 to 2 death by addiction. Quite a grim prediction .Heres another reality. Every time you take a step to over come your addictoion , every time you take responsibility, The odds become better. Please feel free to contact me on this blogg. I would love to celebrate with you your 25/75 mark, your 50/50/, your 75/25mark your hand on your heart Ive made it moment. 

x

 

     Grow your own Fruit 

Strawberries love leaf mould

                                                                                                                                                                    Growing your own fruit and veg is easy and fun. By growing your own you get to taste sun ripened fruit, quite a different experience from their supermarket counterpart. Furthermore, you can avoid the use of toxic chemicals which are necessitated by large-scale monoculture, but not by small scale local enterprise. The strawberries in the picture are being mulched with leaf mould (rotted down autumn leaves) this is their only fertility requirement so that the mulch will not only suppress weeds but as it slowly breaks down will provide a continuous supply of nourishment.

In the back ground is a netted frame to protect our blackcurrants grapes gooseberry and goji berries from birds.

Dandelion

As a gardener I have been guilty of throwing thousands of dandelions on to the compost heap. Not any more. Since I discovered the delight of dandelion coffee, I save every one, even going so far as to replant any that are too small.

This picture shows some dandelion roots freshly washed. They can be make into a dandelion coffee at this stage. Also shown are some roots that have been cut into short lengths and dehydrated (not roasted) and stored in jars. If properly dried they will last for a very long time. I also dry and store couch grass roots in the same way and add to the blender at this stage for their health giving properties. 

To make a warm frothy healthy vegan drink, I put a small amount of roots into a blender. Dried roots can be powdered before hot water is added, while fresh roots can just be blended hot water. Allow plenty of time to pass for the roots to brew. You might want to strain out the coffee at this stage, but fresh roots work well unstrained.Then various things can be added and re-blended, I have used from the following list; coconut oil, carrob, cacco, nettle seeds, macca powder, tiny pinch of quality salt and quality honey.The trick is to be creative. I tend to add there ingredients after the brew has cooled a little as some of the ingredients are heat sensitive. Finally fast blend froths it all up. Delicious.

THE BEAUTY OF HERITAGE VEGETABLES

                                                                   

  THE BEAUTY OF HERITAGE VEGETABLES

Leeks and lettuce in their budding stage

This page is to introduce you to the joy of working with heritage plants. One of the pleasures of this pursuit is that you get to work with every stage of your plant's life cycle. The picture above shows some heritage leeks and lettuce, which have been allowed to grow onto the budding stage. What has happened so far is that we had a mixed bed of lettuce and leek which we harvested as a food crop. However, as we were  harvesting we were careful to leave the best specimens in terms of their type to go on to the next stage. 

The picture above shows the budding stage. The next phase (flowering) is very enjoyable, as the whole bed attracted so many pollinators; bees, butterfly, hoverflies, moths and beetles.

The second picture is of the final stage of the leeks life. It had grown so tall that I had to cut the head off to get it into the picture. So what you see here is the seed head and the roots. The seed head is still a little green, but I was running into very wet and windy weather so cut them a little early. They ripened up very well in a dry shed. Only when the seed heads have gone papery dry, and turned a whitish brown can you begin to rub out the seeds. It is surprising how abundantly just a few plants will provide seeds. However when you consider that leek seeds remain viable for a number of years, it is worth growing a good supply to meet your ongoing gardening needs. Furthermore, I like to have a surplus to swap or give away to my gardening associates, and have a few more again to be able to use some as a spice, where they work as onion seeds. Moreover, you need to have a minimum number to provide a viable genetic population. We saved about fifteen plants to twenty plants, which satisfied the above requirements as well as being a visually pleasing stand. It is nice to realise we wont have to bother saving seeds from this variety for a few years so we can save another variety of leek with out risk of cross pollination .Maybe we wont save any leek seeds at all for a year or two and have time and space for other things.

Another point of interest is that this variety of leek (Blu de Sol) was very willing to produce bulblets a couple of which can be seen as white balls amongst the roots in the above picture. I collected all of these bulblets up and have planted them, that was in he beginning of October. They are already very promising young leeks in the beginning of January.

These bulblets, and the abundance and vigour of the seeds speak to me of the determination of these plants to live. It speaks to me of the partnership between plants and our gardening ancestors,year after year, generation after generation, and that is the beauty of heritage vegetables.

Overcoming addictive behaviour part 2

St. John's Wort

Following my last somewhat negative page on addictive behavior, in which I characterized it as a number of very undesirable mind sets, and pointed out its huge drain on planetary resources, here is the good news.

Addictive behaviors can be over come.In my opinion a broad range of approaches can be of use here, and I would like to suggest a selection with out going into any great detail at this stage.
 1. Work on your mind, Catch, analyse and Reject all negative, selfish and generally unhelpful thoughts and communications.
2. Selecting your company can also be very helpful here.
3. In place of negative thinking, cultivate positive thoughts. For example think of things you are grateful for,  celebrate progress you are making, be grateful  for support from your friends and allies, and encourage them in their progress. Be clean, tidy and efficient. Be optimistic.
4. Engage in a challenging but worthwhile project.
5. Get help , remember you cant do it alone ,but only you can do it. Get a support group appropriate to your stage of development, and what you are trying to do. I'm thinking initially of twelve step groups. Sometimes, you might have to form your own group. For instance recently I pulled together a seed swap group,  which I am proud of.

6.There are various herbs which can help to calm down an addiction, or an addictive restless mind. Sage, Thyme, St Johns Wort, Chamomile, Calendula, Spearmint and Centurion are common and available ones. Get professional advice,read books or do internet research.which leads on to another useful practice learn how to study give yourself time every day , or at least a couple of set timed during the week dedicated to study and learning.

Then there are the simple things of life. 

• Drink at least two liters of  clean water a day.
• look after yourself, by preparing healthy nutritious food.
• Regularly take exercise .
•  Every day practice conscious breathing. That is calmly take ten deep inhalations and exhalations this will be very useful in the inevitable crisis you will have to face in the future.
•  Avoid processed drinks and food like poison.
•  Get into a regular pattern of exercise.walking jogging swimming cycling yoga are all good,
•  Get into a lifestyle where good hard work produces good useful things. For instance take up gardening or foraging, cycle to work. Heat your home with wood you collect cut and chop, take up wood work, it depends partly what your interests are where your talents lie.

All in all its mostly about installing helpful wholesome things in your life and rejecting things that you recognise are no longer useful.there are a lot of suggestions here. there is no point trying to install them into your life all at once.Its a gradual process. As long as you are making progress that's fine.
something else that can be useful,is to get a teacher or councilor or  a life coach for instance Skip Archimedies is an amazing teacher/healer/life coach, and his services can be found at www.skiparchimedes.com/em

That's all for today . Ill just finish with this hope for you . Believe in yourself . You can Do it .

Eddie