Day 49 of our Green Year: Baking Bread

If you have watched the news in the past few weeks, you know that the cost of everything is going up. The main cause of this is energy. Around the world countries are investing in ethanol, which takes land away from food production and puts it to fuel production. As well, the cost of transporting food is higher because of higher gas prices, so it is a double edged sword. This means that in some parts of the world, the cost of bread has gone up as much as 60 percent, which is a huge amount for those who are struggling through each day.

Canada has so far been almost immune to the problem, but it is not going to last. As a result, for the 49th day of our Green Year, Layla and I are not only supporting local flour producers by buying local flour (by local I mean B.C. and Alberta), but we are also making our own bread so we don't contribute to the environmental cost of transporting bread.

When we are able to make things local, either vegetables, fruits, herbs, meat or even bread, we are helping to take the strain off the world by being self-sufficient. Layla and I don't have enough room to grow wheat of course, so we have to buy that, but we are buying our eggs local, and trying to buy our yeast local too.

Making bread is quite easy, and here is a simple bread recipe:
http://www.best-bread-recipes.com/white-bread-recipe.html

Do you have pics of you making some bread, or anything else green? Send it to us and we will put it on our site. As well, if you know of any media who would be interested in our story, contact us at crwbaird@gmail.com and let us know!

Day 48 of our Green Year: Clearing The Air Inside

Day 47 is here and we are going to talk about container gardening inside. One of our readers, Maggie, already has one on her deck but one of the most important things you can do for the air quality in your home is to set up some containers in your house.
So much of what we have in our house, from the curtains to the carpets, from the cleaners to even the food, has chemicals in it. The great thing about container gardening is that it works the same way that the trees do. It takes the bad chemicals out of the air and replaces it with healthy oxygen.
So, this also helps you get nice clean fresh air inside.

What Layla and I have done is that we are setting up an 'indoor garden' to go with our outdoor one. It is only a few pots right now but Layla and I are working at turning a good part of our living room into a garden, complete with soil, plastic wrapping to prevent it leaking on the floor, and about 6 inches to one foot deep, and several feet wide and long. This will not only provide us with food through the winter as we grow indoors, but it will also help us keep the air inside our home clean, and keep us from buying veggies from the store.

Do you have some tips for us and our indoor garden? Do you have an indoor garden yourself? Send us a photo to crwbaird@gmail.com and we will put it up!