Dyes, Colours and Spring!

It's been awhile since my last post but those of you who know me know that I have not abandoned green endevours.

I recently came across this video posted by a high school friend of mine on Facebook (Thank you @Kali Carys for posting!) and I thought it would be a great way to ease back into blogging. Click here for the video: DIY dyes from your kitchen & garden: magic of living colo(u)r.




It doesn't have all the details you might need for actually dying your own fabrics but it's a great source of inspiration to get you thinking about dyes and natural colours in a different way.

This peaked my interest because I took part in organizing and chairing a panel discussion about Corporate Social Responsibility in the textile industry back in December 2011. We invited panelists from the industry, from the academic community, from the consumer association of Finland, etc. After turning over all the metaphorical rocks there were to be turned on the issue, paniking about all the environmental and human rights issues, as well as other externalities, I wonder if any of the class' participants felt that the panel had really answered their questions or calmed their fears. I, for one, felt more overwhelmed than ever, albeit grateful for the chance to learn more about the indutry and perhaps conduct some of my own research.




One of the most memorable questions I remember asking the panelists, and which was answered by the representative of the textile and fashion industry went a little something like this:
"Generally speaking, the textile industry is chemically intensive. The chemicals are used in the process of dyeing fabrics, printing and finishing the clothes, which pollutes bodies of water around the factories. The latest Greenpeace report states that as much as 70% of the rivers, lakes and reservoirs in China are affected by water pollution and hormone disrupting chemicals were found, discharged from factories and which can be hazardous at low levels. One devastating effect of these chemicals can be that they accumulate up in the food chain.



This may sound like a naïve question but is there a possibility to remove all the hazardous chemicals from the production?
Can you comment on how H&M plans to remove 80% or all of chemicals by 2020?"

Funny enough, I don't recall an answer to the question but just the beginning of the answer: "Practically speaking, the clothing industry is a chemical industry..."

Granted, I was standing on a stage trying to listen and plan how the next question would go but for me to remember exactly what was said, I would have to watch the video. Overall, and as you can probably tell by my memory, the answer was disheartening and not necessarily what I had wished to hear. That being said, and if you've already watched the video above, you might be smiling because I did eventually get an answer to the question. Yes it is possible and yes, some companies are doing it! Not just in less damaging way, by not dumping the waste straight into rivers and dying light colours first then adding darker colours to the same water but instead by just using plants and natural dyes.



In any case, I was exciting to have found such an informative and inspiring video. Not necessarily because I'm going to start dying my own clothes in the 4m2 bathroom of my apartment building (well why not!?) but because it gives you an appreciation for people who are doing it and who are sharing their passion through their own businesses. If anything, I get the feeling that if we all play a small role in conserving the world's natural resources and helping one another do it, we'd start to feel more interconnected than ever before.

For more about the label mentioned in the video, check out Adie+George.

Netcycler: a new kind of Craigslist.

One person's junk is another person's treasure.

Truer words have seldom been spoken. So in that spirit, please click here to be redicredted to the netcycler website.

The idea is:
1. You sign up.
2. You post of list of stuff you'd like to give away.
3. You make a wish-list of things you'd like to swap for.
4. You find said-stuff, or people find your stuff and you arrange to meet and trade stuff or send it by mail!

I especially loved this as a pre-/post-move project...which I may be doing myself so I'm looking forward to trying the website out. Any thoughts?

Showing you just how easy bread is to make.

I think the title of this post pretty much sums it up: bread it easy to make. I've had this bread recipe for a little while and I've been making it every now and then. I wanted to post about it previously but I hadn't figured out how to add any value to it before I made it again today.

By taking photos along every step of the way, I hope to visually convince you that making bread can be extremely easy. I'm going to go as far as set a goal for this post as well: to inspire at least one person to make this bread! (So please let me know if you do end up making it.)

As for why I want to convince people to make bread, I have a few reasons.
First off, I believe that making food from scratch is something that everyone can come to enjoy and the more you do it, the more adventurous you'll want to be with your recipes and the more you'll like cooking.
Secondly, connecting with food can help us connect with the environment and learn more about food in general, how it's made, and what you're actually paying a company to do for you (for example, is it something you can do yourself and actually enjoy?).
Thirdly, making your own bread saves you the (mandatory) plastic bag that comes with it.
And finally, it's a fun and relaxing way of doing something handy, without too much time or effort.

Get your recipe from the 101cookbooks website and follow along.


Mix yeast and warm water, add some runny honey and let it sit until some bubbles form.


In the meantime, measure out your flour and oats.



Mix your dry and wet ingredients.


Place them in your pan and let rise.




About 10 minutes before your bread is done rising, preheat your oven.


And for the end result, you can bet it looks as good as it tastes.

Big thanks to Heidi Swanson for adapting and posting this recipe. Once again her website is: www.101cookbooks.com. And clicking the link will take you straight to the recipe itself.

Quick tip: Use up your products before you throw them away.

I'm going to keep today's post short and sweet. I got home from Helsinki today to find that one of our tubes of cream had been cut down to size. Although this concept was not in the least new to me (I think it's a pretty standard tactic) I had never thought to do it myself. So a big thank you goes out to Juha (who has been reading No Impact Man) for giving me this idea!

So today I say: Before throwing out your empties, make sure they're actually empty.




It might seem like a small difference, but every little bit helps. So if cutting open the tube gets you an extra 2 uses, and you have ie. 50 uses in total, then for every 25 tubes, you'll save one tube. Ideally, it'd be great to eliminate tubes, but if you're not there yet (and you're not alone) then might as well make the best of what you have!

Veggie recipe: Quiche aka. salty food pie.

A few months ago, my friend Mette taught me how to make a quiche, or as we refer to it "a food pie." Tonight I made the recipe again, and made the crust from scratch. If you're just starting out though and want to see how easy it is, you can also buy frozen crust, but either way, I find this quiche looks like it requires much more effort than it actually does ;)


I initially forgot to take a picture and dug right in. Sorry about that!


What you'll need:
- 1 egg
- 300g flour (you can try different combinations, I used about 100g of spelt and 200g of regular all-purpose)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons water
- basil, pepper, and whatever other spices you'd like to use
- 150g softened butter (not completely melted but very soft nonetheless)
- 75-100g of your favourite cheese (I used feta)
- A variety of veggies: onion, broccoli, leek, zucchini or any combination of them.

Preheat your oven to 180-200C.

To make the crust:
Soften/microwave the butter and stir in the flour. Mix until consistent then add a dash of salt. Stir in the 3 tablespoons of water and ta-da! Your crust is ready!
Spread it in your pan (You can use a pie pan like I did in the picture or a square 9"x9")

To make the filling:
Chop the vegetables and grate the cheese. Break your egg, beat it a little and add your spices. Add a bit of milk, stirring it in until you can lift the fork without getting that thick egg-y texture, but rather, a slightly more liquid-y feel. Fill the baking dish with veggies, top with the egg mixture and cheese.

Cook for about 40 minutes and enjoy.

New perspectives: Speak up!

Photo credit: here.

Some days I have the motivation to run a marathon (figuratively speaking), write tons of posts and talk to enough people to keep the idea going and have them inspire me in return. But since we're all human, that feeling can't always last forever without any interruptions. There are days that get you a little down and feel a little blue about the current state of things. Of course, this is a reality we deal with every day and it's ok to feel like that, so long as you don't let that feeling distract you for too long.

I'll give you an example. A few weeks ago, I ordered some stainless steel straws from www.lifewithoutplastic.com. My mom and dad brought them over from Canada because I saw them 2 weeks ago and I was really excited to receive my order of straws (along with some really great non-plastic food storage containers) as well as see my parents! I'm not proud to say, my straws are still packaged and sitting on my table...(I'll go unwrap them now!)

Turning down the heat and staying warm.

Fall is upon us!
Or at least the leaves are turning my favourite colours and it's starting to cool down here in Tampere (& Helsinki), Finland. The wind has gotten slightly more aggressive than I remember it being, and wearing multiple layers is a must for keeping warm.

As an inhabitant of the world's second coldest country after Russia (according to some sources, and 5th according to others...tomato - tomato) and a Canadian citizen, I know a thing or two about keeping warm. Though I have to admit, I'm one of those people whose hands are always cold and rarely feel warm and toasty.

Now, I wanted to blog today about the upcoming cold weather, and how we can manage to keep our impact down. In some countries, keeping the heat off is just out of the question, and that's okay, but keeping the heat a few degrees lower is quite doable.

Regardless of where you live, take a bit of time to calculate how much a few degrees less will save you on your energy bill.

Which brings me to my next point: what kind of energy is being used to heat your home?
This has been a much-debated (if you can call it that) topic in our house since I still don't know. I know we have some sort of green energy agreement with our provider, wherein the amount we used is purchased from green sources (whatever that means, it sounds better than the mainstream) but I can't even remember if this is water, electricity or heating... so I need to get my homework on. (The language barrier makes doing my own research slightly more challenging but now that I've told all of you I'm going to do it, that'll give me the push I need.)

So apart from the supply and demand side of heat, what else can you do to keep warm?

1. Throw on a sweater.
Sounds very simple... and it is. We each have our own comfy sweaters, some that we only wear at home, that give us that warm and toasty feeling. Next time you find yourself shivering, grab your sweater instead of heading for the thermostat.

2. Make yourself a pot of coffee, tea or hot chocolate.
I remember getting home on a cold winter nights (around -25C) and feeling the cold in my bones. No matter how many layers you throw on, no sweater can seem to warm you up on the inside. On those nights, a nice cup of hot tea, coffee or hot chocolate will do the trick.

Sweater - check
Tea - check

3. Cuddle.
This doesn't have to be a romantic thing, but it can be. Pinguins do it! But you can also spend more time under the covers in your bed, or reading in your favourite armchair/on your favourite couch with a warm blanket.



In addition, I stumbled across this really insirational blog post about how Japanese people deal with the cold during winter. I had no idea... the concept is really amazing. The post itself is a guest post on the No Impact Man blog, written by Colin Beavan's friend Sean Sakamoto. Click any where on this paragraph to read it.

If you have more suggestions, I'm excited to hear them so please feel free to leave a comment!