Frugal living « Transition Brockville

Transition Brockville archive

Tag : Frugal living (127)

Cast iron cooking workshop

Brockville Museum / 31 August 2017

Join us for our first hands-on workshop as we discover the history and utility of cast iron pans.

Learn how to clean and season cast iron pans
Bake (and eat) some delicious food prepared in cast iron pans
Find out Brockville’s link to cast iron through items in our collection

This is the first in our Heritage Skills Workshop Series. Cost includes all supplies. $15 per session or $36 for the series of 3. Advance registration is required so we can gather supplies. Sign up at the museum in person (Monday-Friday, 10:00 – 5:00) or by phone (613-342-4397)

For more information email us at museum@brockville.com

Freezing vegetables: 2 great methods

Mother Earth News / Janet Chadwick
/ 20 September 2013

Freezing maintains the natural color, fresh flavor, and high nutritive value of fresh foods. The objective is to bring foods to the frozen state quickly. When properly done, fruits and vegetables are more like fresh than when preserved by any other method. Best of all, freezing vegetables and fruit is fast and easy.

I had been freezing garden vegetables for years when I began experimenting with the process. I discovered that the old standard method of washing and preparing the vegetables, then blanching, cooling, drying, packing, and freezing them was not always the fastest, easiest way to produce the best finished product. Many vegetables can be frozen without blanching (although their shelf lives in the freezer will be shorter), and greens can be stir-fried instead of blanched for a better product.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

8 huge benefits of living in a Tiny House

Mother Earth News / Jennifer Poindexter / 02 February 2017

Tiny houses are everywhere! These tiny, compact, affordable houses are the perfect addition to any family. Just look up Tiny House Hunters, Tiny House Builders, or Tiny House Nation. The blogs and TV shows show how popular the craze is right now, especially with the cost of owning a “normal house” growing out of proportion. But, besides the cost effectiveness of owning and living in a tiny house, there are tons of benefits. Ability to travel, eco-friendly living, less money decorating and cleaning, to just name a few. Together, we will go over the top 10 benefits of living in a tiny house, and hey, you might even want to start considering one.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

How to keep cool without air conditioning

Mother Earth News / Stan Cox / August/September 2015

At current usage rates, air conditioning U.S. homes, businesses, schools and vehicles releases fossil carbon and fluorocarbon refrigerants that have a total annual global-warming impact equivalent to a half-billion tons of carbon dioxide. Eliminating these emissions from air conditioning would benefit the atmosphere as much as shutting down 140 typical coal-fired power plants would.

Air conditioning also eats a sizable chunk of our budgets. In the United States, I estimate that our collective annual electric bill for cooling our homes is about $30 billion. The yearly cost per household ranges from about $200 in the Northeast to more than $450 in the sweltering South.

So, how do we wean ourselves off of this energy-intensive habit? The range of natural ways to cool your home depends on where you live: in the North or South, on a forested hillside or in an urban heat island, in an apartment or a house. But whatever your situation, you can find natural cooling methods to stay comfortable without air conditioning — starting by adjusting your internal dial.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

5 container gardening tips

Mother Earth News / Jennifer Poindexter / 28 April 2017

I look forward to spring every year. I start planning my small raised bed vegetable and herb garden about a month before I can actually put anything on the ground. I learned the hard way that I need to be patient lest I lose everything to an unexpected frost.

My yard is not very big so, I have always filled clay pots with brightly colored flowers to place around the outside of my home. Over the past couple of years, I have expanded my container gardening to include fruits, vegetables, and herbs, not just flowers. I have discovered that I can grow almost anything in a container. Here is what I have learned from my container gardening adventures.

[ FULL ARTICLE ]

Voluntary simplicity: Resources

Transition Brockville / 05 May 2017

Here are resources — websites, books and videos — mentioned by TB Steering Committee member Christine Stesky in her presentation and discussion on voluntary simplicity on Sunday, April 23.

The Simplicity Collective

Voluntary simplicity, or simple living, is a way of life that rejects the high-consumption, materialistic lifestyles of consumer cultures and affirms what is often just called ‘the simple life’ or ‘downshifting.’ The rejection of consumerism arises from the recognition that ordinary Western-style consumption habits are degrading the planet; that lives of high consumption are unethical in a world of great human need; and that the meaning of life does not and cannot consist in the consumption or accumulation of material things.

[ more… ]

«page 1 of 22