I’m Tricia. I write here about learning to live better with less.
I dream of living close to nature; having space to grow food; having a little ecological footprint; and being part of a community.
We recently moved from a small urban block in Newcastle to a rural Hunter Valley property.
Contact me at tricia@littleecofootprints(.)com
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They were already off...we were kilometres away...sitting in the dark munching on damper twists with golden syrup.
Sunday was filled with...the best coffee I have had in ages....
..inspection of the leech that fed on my big toe all night...
..throwing rocks in the creek...
..swimming lessons..
...and some laughs in the sun before returning home to reality.
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I’m a week late!
If I’d known about sustainable seafood day last Friday I would have celebrated it.
I have been purposely procrastinating regarding looking into sustainable seafood choices, as I didn’t want to find out that some of our favourite foods are not sustainable. We love seafood, with tinned tuna and salmon being lunch-time regulars and our Sunday night treat is typically locally farmed Rainbow Trout. To my relief, I have discovered a few resources that can help me make sustainable choices so that we can continue to enjoy seafood without the guilt.
The Marine Stewardship Council fishery certification program recognises and rewards sustainable fishing. All I have to do is keen an eye out for their blue certification label, unfortunately absent from the brands of tinned tuna and salmon I have been buying. I’ll have to switch John West tinned Alaskan Pink and Red salmon. Mmmm – Alaska isn’t very local! I’ll have to make sure we start seeing salmon as a treat. Perhaps we could replace some salmon with locally farmed smoked rainbow trout, although I will also have to look into how sustainable trout farming practices are.
Unfortunately, none of the brands of tuna available in Australia are currently MSC certified, nor am I sure how many of the certified fish species are available at my local fish co-op. Luckily there is another resource that should help me: Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide produced by the Australian Marine Conservation Society. This is the same group that is currently raising funds by auctioning off the rights to name a newly described shrimp species (the highest bid is currently at $3,000!).
I just bought the guide for only for $9.95. Looking forward to receiving it, as it apparently provides information about issues such as aquaculture, imported seafood, labeling, supermarket seafood, marine national parks and the sustainability of over 60 seafood species. Perfect! I’ll report back regarding how useful the guide is soon…
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...for going plastic bag free. I popped into one of my local Salvos stores today to buy some Winter clothes for Little Eco. I buy all her clothes second hand, or if I want something 'new' for a special occasion I buy 'new' clothing made from recycled materials (I love Vintage Vibes).
Not only is buying second hand great for the environment, but it also saves lots of money. I got this bundle of clothes for only $12! They are all winter clothes and look like they have hardly been worn. The only time I am ever tempted to buy new clothes is when I need something in a hurry (like when we had a cold day recently and NONE of Little Eco's long pants fitted her!). Buying second hand can be a little more time consuming than ducking down to your local department store, because you cannot always find what you want, when you want it. So I plan ahead - hence buying winter clothes now. You can find more hints on buying second hand clothes here...
Anyway...back to the Salvos. The store had a sign up saying "salvos stores are now plastic bag free". They have cloth bags available for sale if you need them. I wasn't planning on going shopping, so didn't have a bag on me. The sales assistant just handed my bundle of clothes over to me neatly folded. No apologies for not having a plastic bag and no trying to sell me a cloth bag. Lovely!.
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What a wonderful day! We helped clean up Australia. And boy does Australia need cleaning up! All this rubbish was sadly dumped in a valuable patch of an endangered ecological community, Kurri Sand Swamp Woodland.
Not only did we remove rubbish...
We removed some garden weeds...
...and we all got to spend time with nature and each other.
It is amazing what a few people can achieve in a few hours!
What a wonderful day!
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