Southampton Seed Swap

Hi! I am getting very excited about this - the 4th annual seed swap to take place in Southampton!

Also getting a bit anxious!! If there is anyone reading this in the WEN group who can help me pop up posters and distribute fliers that would be grand! I don't know how to attach stuff to this blog thingummy....

Here is the website for folks to link to - that wd be grand if you could! www.octoberbooks.org/seedswap

Seed saving is integral to food biodiversity and is not difficult to do - best of all its FREE!

There are good resources on how to do this depending on how serious you want to get - i.e are you bothered about varietal purity?

Check out also Seedy Sunday Brighton's website (this is awesome - this event provided the incentive/inspiration for Southampton Seed Swap plus the organisers have been wonderful
providing lots of helpful advice and packets of seeds to get the event off the ground...

Meantime - at No 50a our house in the middle of our street - our fruit trees from Deacons have arrived!! It's very exciting - we're going to train them as espaliers on a wire and post system to minimise the risk of losing the trees should the fences fall over...
We've got two types of pear 'Beth' and 'Concorde' and 'Early transparent gage' plus a whole bunch of 'Autumn Bliss' autumn fruiting raspberry canes... mmmmm much fruit :)

BTW its not just seeds at the seed swap - there will be ample opportunity to buy spuds with odd names, rhubarb crowns, fruit bushes and other random and exciting things :)

Fair Trade Shop!!

I almost forgot to mention the Fair Trade shop as a reat place to get items that might be hard to find elsewhere. From dried fruit to spices, tea, coffee, sugar, and even pasta, they are a really good source for items. They are in Shirley right across from the Sainsburys that none of us are visiting.

Plus, we got a really nice duvet cover from them recently. Mac bought it, without my knowledge, so it didn't really break my Buy Nothing New year.

Avoiding supermarkets

Hello all.

At our second meeting we decided to have as a second challenge avoiding supermarkets to add some support to Heather's New Year's Resolution.

We didn't lay down any rules. Heather isn't counting the Coop, the one supermarket company that she is happy to shop from. I'm trying to count all supermarkets, and even avoiding chain shops if I can help it.

So, after nearly two weeks, how is everyone getting on?

Energy Challenge status report

Hello all,

How is the energy reduction challenge going?

I have been trying to keep everything turned off at the wall as much as possible, but Mac’s not always so good at remembering.

We’ve barely used the heating all month, although when we had people stay for my belated Thanksgiving we had it turned on all weekend. Unfortunately, we’ve had a LOT of damp/mould growing, so we’ve had a dehumidifier running all day most days. It says it only uses 200W/hour, but that seems awfully low—maybe I read it wrong?

Part of me wants to switch to a cord phone, because a cordless requires the base to be permanently turned on. That must be awfully wasteful.

I think my number figures are going to be a bit hard to read because a) I keep forgetting to check it on a Thursday night and b) I was away in the States for a week at Christmas.

Life in the US is INFINITELY more wasteful—I forget about all sorts of little things until I get there. My family has a dust buster. Why do you need a mini vacuum cleaner that is permanently charging on the wall when you have a vacuum cleaner, dust rags, paper towels, a broom, AND a dustpan and brush? Beats me. I guess “convenience”. My mom also uses (used? I didn’t see it while I was home) a wet swiffer. I HATED it. You had to replace these disposable cloth wipes all the time—she would go through 2-3 just to wash the kitchen floor ONCE. And it was battery powered or something. It was pretty ridiculous. The Art House uses an e-Cloth, and they get lots more foot traffic than my parents’ kitchen.

My sister (who is trying to be more environmentally friendly) uses a huge electric blanket all night (which would be more efficient than if they had the heating going at night—but the heat is still at 60F while they are all in bed) AND has a fan going all night so she has white noise. Honestly?

So I can say I’ve become much more aware. I don’t know how good the numbers will be… We have been taking laundry to the laundrette to dry, which is electricity usage that won’t show up on our meter, but I just can’t stand having clothes adding even more damp to our cold flat! I guess I have a ways to go…

Add a comment and let me know how you’re getting on. Any other challenges that you’ll be taking on in 2009?