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 41 of our Green Year: Organic and Local

When we look at the high price of gas today, we can see it translated in our food. It costs more to transport the food, so we pay more for it now.
As well, the transportation of food, often at thousands of kilometers, makes up a lot of greenhouse gases, that cause global warming.

As a result, Layla and I are going to go more and more organic with our food (less pesticides), as well as more local (less traveling), with each passing day. We will be working to make our lives with meat (what we occasionally do eat) and items like egg, milk and cheese, to be more local. We already grow food in a garden, but we will also be buying at local farmer's markets to support locals.

Buying your food local helps limit the amount of fuel used to transport it, the amount of money taken away from local producers and it can be better for you when you buy food from your local area (see the 100-mile diet). One of our Green Friends offers a great service, where you can find someone who provides local and organic food, anywhere that you live. Check out Eat Well Guide at http://www.eatwellguide.org/

As for Layla and I, bring on the locally made and grown organic food!