And on to tea
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Little Miss Green is growing up – it’s official. This evening she started BROWNIES ladies and gentlemen. How about that?
I do have to tell a warm and fuzzy story after our ‘near miss’ with the mail this morning. I bought the uniform from a friend of mine about 6 weeks ago and this story is an example of true friendship.
The uniform arrived through the door in a paper bag, and inside was a reusable shopping bag to protect the fabrics. To be honest, I didn’t really think much of it. I was still pretty new to the whole zero waste idea, but in with the uniform was a note saying “I thought long and hard about how to send these, without adding any extra to your weigh in. Am hoping that all that’s left is the sellotape – the bag is a gift.”
I mean, talk about thoughtful and generous. Thank you! You know who you are and I hope you’re reading this 🙂
So our zero waste week of celebrations today revolves around Little Miss Green going off into the world to become a Brownie and to thoughtful and loving friends who respect, support and honour our paths through life.
Little Miss Green goes swimming on a Wednesday afternoon and now has her new Brownie routine afterwards, so she only gets an hour in between times. She was taken out for cooked lunch by Grandma Green and had a snack tea.
It was really very simple: a cheese roll, tomatoes, salad and an apple; which is the sort of thing you could put into a zero waste lunchbox. The rolls are bought loose from our butchers and he puts them into our own box or bag. One day I will get around to making my own, your Honour, but not this week……..
The cheese comes from our local shop where the owner happily cuts a portion of cheese off a large block to put into our own containers.
Tomatoes came from the garden, but if they are not available, we buy them loose from a farm shop and she had this with salad (bought in a brown paper bag from our farm shop).
The apple was bought from our local orchard. Until I buy a box of apples later in the season, the apples come in plastic bags, but they are reused either by me or by the orchard owner.
We found butter in greaseproof paper in Waitrose, rather than metallised polythene, so stocked up on a few packs of it especially for our zero waste week.
We’ve been making a smoothie each day as well. Today’s was banana, blackberry and apricot. I love experimenting with the different fruits to see what fabulous colours you can get in a glass. Unfortunately the photos don’t do it justice, but today’s was beautiful and radiant. The blackberry makes the most amazing regal purple colour – just right for a Brownie Princess.
As you might remember from this morning, Little Miss Green was out for the day with Grandma Green. Were there any surprises in store for us? Any toy with excess packaging that she fell in love with or a bar of something delicious to eat that came in a plastic wrapper which she just had to have? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out.
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Tags: zero waste week
A note on tomatoes. If you love them, you have to grow them. I can easily tell a tomato that was picked 2 minutes ago and one that is a day old. The taste changes as soon as they are off the plant. Once they are chilled they change even more. Over 2 days old and they become dull and (IMHO) lifeless. If you love that tangy, sweet, aromatic explosion of flavour, there’s nothing like a freshly picked tom, plucked from the bush on a sunny day and eaten straight away. Thing is, you can grow Tomatoes so easily, even outside on a south facing wall. You can also get trailing varieties that grow in hanging baskets. It feels almost like picking grapes. Really sumptuous and more-ish… I like Gardeners delight best, small juicy and full of sweet tangy flavour.
We are not expert gardeners, but tomatoes are a true delight and so easy to grow. The only problem is they all tend to come at once, but then if you have excess, you can bottle and pickle them for later. Give it a go.
I lost the will to garden after last years floods. I had so much that was just washed away.
I hope to get started again next year 🙂
It took me a couple sentences to understand what you were talking about – I kept picturing Little Miss Green baking brownies (as in the dessert) and I couldn’t figure out why she needed a uniform. Ha ha. I finally got it. (One would expect more from someone who went right through both brownies and girl guides back in the day).
As for tomatoes, I completely agree. We have just started harvesting ours lately. The are (as my British father-in-law and Mr Green both say) “more-ish”
What a brilliant friend you have to stop and think about what you are doing and package accordingly.
I buy tomatoes from the Styan Family stall at the Farmers Market in Cheltenham as their golden tomatoes are the best tasting I’ve had. (I’ve realised following Mr Green’s comment though that I really only sample them on the day of buying and the next day before letting the other half take them in his lunchboxes!) I’ve kept the plastic punnets that click shut that they’ve sometimes used as well, so am geared up to take those and not need any new punnet or tub.
One day… when we make the move into more growing things and actually planting up our pots I would quite like a tomato plant, my parents have enjoyed the ‘trailing tap’ of a hanging basket full this year.
Great post .. big kiss
x
Little Miss Green will love Brownies, I know I did. I learnt lots of great skills and did interesting badges like the Ramblers badge.
I agree about the tomatoes, home grown are best!
Anna-Lisa, Little Ms.G did love the Brownies and quickly discovered she knew 2 girls there. We are hoping that she might be inspired to talk about zero waste to the pack (group) as this seems like a great way to spread the word about reducing waste and honouring the Earth.