The art of buying less and how that is working out for me so far. . .

When venturing to Wholefoods, I usually purchase some organic bananas, almond milk, and the occasional bag of rice. The rest gets purchased at the farmers market. I am heartbroken that avocados don't have less of a footprint.

I have been bringing food with me to work much more often, pretty much every day.

What has helped me the most in my quest to buy less was my yearly Christmas gift from my grandmother: one glass jar of bulgur wheat and one glass jar of lentils.

My grandmother is Syrian and lived with us while I was in high school. She was very sweet to always make me a lentil dish when everyone else was having lamb.

Anyway, I was thinking that if I could just grow enough lentils and black or heirloom beans, I won't need to go to the store for protein during the summer, which is usually when I run out of grandmas lentils.

I did some research and found I could in fact get some lentils started 2 weeks prior to the frost date and that they would take about 80-110 days before harvest. The articles recommend about 4-8 plants per household member. Black beans can be planted around the same time and grow to about the same height. Their seed yield is a bit higher though. Perhaps I will scale back on the enormous amounts of green beans and peas I usually grow to make room for the lentils and black beans. I still am eating frozen green beans from last year.

It looks like it would be more fruitful for me to fill up the rest of my community garden plot with vegetables than with wheat plants for bulgur wheat. This would require a bit more space to be effective I think. There are local sources of organic wheat and bread so I feel ok with that.

This weekend it is time to make another big batch of veggie burgers. We shall see how that goes.

Another objective I set was to try and study more at home more often. Today it was impossible (I blame my cute kitties and the smell of spring in the air), so I eventually went to the local organic coffee seller and planted myself on a bench. This battle will take more time to win.

A total fail depending on how you look at it is the vacation I will be taking in a week. Lauren and I will be flying to Isla Mujeres in Mexico. We struggled so much with affordability that we forgot about all of the bottled water we would be drinking. On the other hand, we will be in Mexico in the sun, which will give us both a needed rest and allow us the energy to fight more public health problems when we get back.

Lastly, Greg Gerrit is probably the epitome of a buy nothing guy. He has one pair of hiking boots that will last him practically forever and he walks all over the city of Providence with them. He does not have a car and is a champion of local environmental causes. Currently he is organizing an event for March 22 from 1PM-4PM at RISD on the subject of city-wide composting in Providence. Gregs blog is: http://prosperityforri.org/?page_id=106. He is awesome.