Photo credit:
Bill in Ash Vegas, flickr
You're committed to living greener, and you've already made changes. You're taking one green step at a time, and it feels great! You know all about organic food, local produce, and you might already have started this year's garden. But ... what to do with all that luscious produce? What do you need in your kitchen to make the most of your new greener way of living? Super Eco has 20 tips for your greener kitchen:
1. Go EnergyStar if you're buying new appliances.
2. Use a microwave? Use the smallest one possible.
3. Use an electric kettle to boil water for tea.
4. Slow cookers make great food on low power.
5. Invest in a good heavy stock pot to create the basis for soups, sauces, and meals.
6. Eat a lot of rice? Get a good rice cooker to make it perfect every time.
7. You'll need plenty of canning jars, useful for lots of things!
8. Have good sharp knives and take good care of them.
9. A quality cutting board is a must, eco-friendly if you please!
10. Mix and match serving pieces from thrift stores and garage sales instead of buying new.
11. Green your lighting with CFL light bulbs.
12. Use baskets and wooden serving trays for a harmonious statement.
13. Keep chemicals out of the kitchen, especially anti-bacterial soaps.
14. Save paper towels and use reusable cloth when you can.
15. You do have a water filter to fill your reusable stainless water bottles, don't you?
16. Ditch the plastic and use glass to store leftovers.
17. You're composting, right? Make it easy on yourself.
18. Buy in bulk and save $$ and packaging. Keep grains, legumes, and spices in jars.
19. DIY as much as possible ... making your own beans, yogurt, bread etc is rewarding, delicious, easy, green and frugal.
20. You'll need some great pots and pans. Cast iron are wonderful, as are heavy non-reactive stainless ones. Cats are optional.
21. Now sit down and enjoy a cup of tea; you deserve it!
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Why an electric kettle? Is it more efficient than a regular stove kettle?
We'll be cooking on wood, maybe it's to much to light up the whole stove for just a cup of tea, but when it's on, it's OK.
Maybe use both, that makes sense. But, only warm the water you'll need.
Rogier,
An electric kettle heats super quickly and uses less energy (so they say) than does heating a stove element for the time it takes to boil a teapotful of water (or especially if just one cup).
Cooking with wood? Wow, that's an art! Certainly you'll not want to light it just for a cup of tea, then!
I wrote a piece about soot recently http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/04/29/why-you-should-ca... that blames wood stoves etc for soot-induced arctic melting, but I'm inclined to think that for personal use, a wood stove (especially if burning dead fall or some eco-friendly uber pellet ... need to research that) is a really gentle form of cooking and heating.
Thanks for your comment! Now I am curious about cooking with wood!
Well.., we're still developing our plans, nothing is set yet. Yesterday we decided that it might be a good idea to start cooking on gas, and later on (when cash is a bit more abundant) get a Rayburn (http://www.rayburn-web.co.uk/). They burn very efficiently, but it is a big investment.