sustainability Archives

Upcycle me!

Post category:Sustainable living

I have always been quite a hoarder. As a child I used to have huge bag of sweets and chocolates at the bottom of my cupboard behind my sock box. When my mom or friends gave me sweets, I would always eat one and keep the other. (and then have great bribing material for my sisters!) Even on long car journeys to our annual camping holiday to the Eastern Cape, everybody would guzzle down a packet of chips that was shared equally, but I would secretly stash every second chip into a neat toilet paper pouch carefully laid down the…

This vegetarian goes banting

Post category:Sustainable living

As a vegetarian I have always had an aversion to the Tim Noakes banting diet because it seems to imply eating loads more meat. Meat consumption is not so great for our dear planet mostly because of the large amounts of water and land used in meat farming but also because of the methane that cattle produce. My reasons for being a vegetarian has changed and transformed over the past 20 years but I’m always looking for more protein- filled recipes. And that’s why I am loving the banting recipes simply because of the increase in protein I can serve…

DIY birthday gifts for children

Post category:Sustainable living

Children have too many toys, and especially the kind of plastic toys that break within 10 minutes of receiving it. The kind of toys that are made with cheap labour in poorer countries and that are designed to be thrown away quickly so that you can buy another one. Take a look at storyofstuff.org to see how crazy the production of stuff really is and why we need to move away from our addiction to consumerism. This is a big reason why our family makes toys for birthday gifts. I know this is not everybody’s cup of tea but…