Earth Hour Meal

Last Saturday evening we celebrated Earth Hour from 8.30 - 9.30 p.m.


I decided to stick with the pea soup that I had planned.  So on Friday night I placed a cup and a half of split peas to soak in a pot overnight.

The next morning I peeled two large carrots, and a potato, and after dicing them, I added them to the pot with the rinsed soaked split peas.

Adding a couple of cups of boiling water, some crushed garlic and chopped mixed herbs I placed them on the stove to boil for 15 - 20 minutes.  Do not add any salt at this stage - otherwise your pea's will not soften.

Then I placed a lid on top and quickly popped the pot into the old toy box filled with shredded paper.  The pot was then covered with an old pillow-slip filled with more shredded paper.

They merrily cooked away until 4.30 that afternoon - a total of 9 hours in the hay box.  I returned the pot to the stove, and after boiling it again for 10 - 15 minutes I pulled out the potato masher.  Squishing and squelching, the vegetables gave in to the pressure from above. I didn't use a blender to blitz it smooth because we like quite a coarse soup - makes you feel like you actually eaten something, as opposed to just slurping down a meal.  

Taste for seasoning, add a swirl of cream and serve with a fresh roll or two - an easy, low fuel meal which is filling, satisfying and delicious :)

Hard to believe that a few years ago, whenever we felt like pea soup, I used to leave a pot simmering on the stove for hours.  What a waste of power.  It feels good that no grid power whatsoever was used in the production of this meal - erm - apart from the rolls.  And it was eaten by candlelight.


We are hoping to go to the farm tomorrow morning for the Easter weekend - we have a chimney to seal before anymore rain drips onto, and into, my Dover stove.  If you don't hear from me - that is where we are.  I'll catch up with you all again next week.


Happy Easter - if you're venturing onto the roads, drive safely, and take care :)

Saturday 31st March...

... at 8.30 p.m. is Earth Hour once again.  Earth Hour in our home means that everything connected to grid power gets turned off.   Pity it's not going to be the following weekend - we're going to spend the Easter weekend on the farm, and grid power doesn't even know we exist there LOL

So, we'll use our solar light and candles for lighting.  And RMan better hum - I can't sing for toffee!  Or perhaps we can just listen to the rain drops splashing down - very welcome rain is predicted for Friday and Saturday.  18 - 20oC temperature - so it won't be cold - that's a blessing.


And, apart from the rain, ours is a south facing town house and garden (in the Southern Hemisphere) so I am unable to use my solar oven.  I will have to scratch my head and decide what I can cook, without using any power, this year.


Last year I made RMan and RSon Moroccan Beef in my hay box.


Another fondue?  It doesn't seem right to have a fondue for two people only (RMan and I) - and Sunday is another show day for the house, so that cuts out having people round the night before - they make too much mess and will probably destroy my spring cleaning (in autumn, I hear you think - spring cleaning in autumn can therefore only be for a show day LOL) efforts, and our favourite guest generally stays until after 3.00 a.m. - we'll be knackered on Sunday if we invite him. LOL


Perhaps I should cook a wholesome soup in my hay box, and serve it with fresh rolls?  I can always heat it up in the fondue pot prior to eating...?


Yes - I reckon a good pot of pea soup - it's RMan's favourite, and it can simmer away in the haybox all day.  And, in addition it get's a hefty dose of (concealed) veggies into his meat eating body - peas, carrots and potatoes :)  Perfect - nothing nicer than delving into a steaming pot of soup when it's raining!


What are your plans for Earth Hour?

At what cost?

Forgive me - I'm going to have one of my rare soapbox moments.

NGirl sent me this link today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J6fjVHQPew

It is only a 1 minute, 12 second clip, but WOW!

And to quote from the information that accompanied the link:

"This is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights the world, condensed down to 1:11. From space we look like a bee hive of activity. What you will see, is a video showing air traffic around the world for 24 hours, taken from a satellite.

You won't believe this! The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during a 24 hour period.

Stay with the picture. You will see the light of the day moving from the east to the west, as the Earth spins on it's axis. Also you will see the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and traveling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight.

This is something that everyone should see. For us old-timers it is really fascinating. For our children/grandchildren it provides a superb learning moment and an opportunity to open up what could be a very interesting discussion. This is one of the coolest things ever seen. It surpasses the "World At Night" poster that NatGeo (I think) published about 20 years ago and my "America At Night" coffee mug. How many people do YOU think are in the sky at any given moment?

You can tell it was spring time in the north by the sun's foot print over the planet. You could see that it didn't set for long in the extreme north and it didn't quite rise in the extreme south. We are taught about the earth's tilt and how it causes summer and winter and how we had to imagine just what is going on. With this 24 hour observation of aircraft travel on the earth's surface we get to see the daylight pattern move as well. Remember watch the day to night..... Day is over in Australia when it starts."

This is truly hectic!

How many people have travelled in a plane and thought they were in one of only a couple in the air at that particular time?

Consider the carbon footprint of all those planes.  Consider what we are doing to the very air that we breathe, never mind the ozone layer, with all that jet fuel.  Consider the impact on our bodies, through being stationary in airplane seats, or through willingly embracing jet lag side effects, for extended periods of time.

Yes, I know that it is a convenient way to travel, and one which is much faster than the old sailing ships of yore, but how many of those trips are really necessary?  How many are taken, for the "sake of a holiday" or because someone has itchy feet?  How many business trips could rather be achieved through conference Skyping the customer?

How selfish has man become?

Me, me, me.  What about our planet?  Or can't we be bothered, because we won't be around when the proverbial truly hits the fan?

When are we going to spare a thought for this plant which we inhabit only briefly?  In the grand scheme of things each and every human is a really small, insignificant, fleeting inhabitant, but our negative impact is eternal.

One person at a time - and we can change the course we are currently on - just one person at a time.  Help me by spreading the word - please.

If we could try and keep all unnecessary air, or car travel, to a minimum, that is a good start.  Growing as much of your own fresh fruit and vegetables, walking or cycling to the shops, holiday-ing at home - discovering everything your area has to offer - they are all do-able.

We just have to stop being selfish and lazy.  And consider the long term ramifications of each action we take.

We can do it - we did it in times of yore. We don't have to revert to completely outdated methods of growing, harvesting, heating or lighting our homes, or clothing ourselves - we are wiser now.  But are we wise enough to effect a long lasting change of habit - not for our sakes, but for the sakes of our children, and their children, and... most importantly, for the sake of planet earth?

If we use what is freely available to all of us, for lighting, heating and cooking, we would make a significant difference to our footprint.  The sun is there for all - we just have to want to use its' bounty.

Earth hour and energy efficient cooking

On Saturday evening we switched off our power. I had signed the petition at Earth Hour a couple of months ago, and once I give my word, I can't take it back.

We had participated in Earth Hour last year, so I knew that RMan would have no objection.

But - Earth Hour has taken it one step further - they have requested that we take the hour further by commiting to action which takes us beyond the hour.  Make long lasting changes, wherever you can, to reduce your electricity usage.  I like that :-)

This past week we had a few days with overcast skies - threatening rain, but nary a drop on the side of the mountain where we live.  T'is so very dry - the pavement grass is all crispy brown, and even the bushes are all drooping.  So sad.

But, here in cape Town we have a Mediterranean climate - which means we get rain in winter, and Cape Town celebrates that with what they call the "Green Season".  Hotels, bed 'n breakfasts and guest houses offer specials, so do restaurants - all trying to attract business.  It works too - for we get many tourists during that time - well, it doesn't rain every day!  And the Western Cape in winter is stunning!  If we do get snow, then it mainly falls onto the Mountain tops - and mad Capetonians all get in their 4 X 4's and rush off to try and reach the snow so that they can have a snowball fight LOL
I love the rain, and far prefer a wet climate to the winters' which they get upcountry - freezing nights, hot-ish days - but unfortunately all the shopping centres have their warm air conditioners blasting away - so hot, in fact, that when one walks into the centre, you have to strip off your layers of clothing, for fear of fainting in the heat.  Such a waste of energy, I feel.  And up country they get the winter crispy brown grass which we experience at the end of our summer.  Such a depressing sight - especially when your (sun)light is weaker.

Winter should be winter - be that rain or snow.  Sunlight, in my book, does not make winter.

But, with the decrease in sun available to me in our south facing garden, I have had to make a plan, cooking wise.  My solar cooker goes into hibernation in winter - although on the farm I wil be able to use it all year round.

So I tend to make lots of soups and stews.

Moroccan Beef

But I don't make winter food conventionally.

For instance, for Earth Hour, I made Moroccan Beef, with baby potatoes (RMan doesn't like couscous) prunes, butternut and chickpeas.  I left the meat part of the dish to RMan and RSon, and only ate the vegetables and gravy - absolutely delicious.

RSons old toybox, converted into a
hotbox / haybox, filled with shredded paper
from the office.

The meal was as tender as butter.  And I did that with a maximum of only half an hour of cooking (simmering) on my stove top, and 6 - 7 hours of cooking in my hot box.  The hot box really does produce the most tender, tasty food you will ever eat, with a gravy which contains all the goodness of the raw food that you placed in the pot. (In conventional cooking far too much of that goodness escapes in the steam.) And this type of food preparation uses a fraction of the energy that would normally be expended by a stove top meal.  In fact, it uses even less than a slow cooker :-)

And for the bread, which RMan loves to sop up the gravy with, I made a loaf of beer bread in the barbecue...

Bread baked in the barbecue

(I'm not normally so wasterful - usually I would simultaneously do a roast chicken, or something similar, whilst I have the barbecue lit.)  The addition of the unglazed clay floor tile (from the farm) works a treat, for that disperses the heat underneath the grill, and also warms up nicely to assist in baking the base of the bread :-)

We had asked friends to join us for dinner - to share Earth Hour with us.  We had finished eating 7.30pm, so we switched everything off, pulled out the candles, and an old box of Trivial Pursuit from the '80's LOL  What a trip down memory lane!

We didn't play it conventionally, with the board.  Instead we turned it into a type of "Who wants to be a Millionaire" game - the quizmaster (we all took turns) had to pick a question, any question, from the card, and devise four answers, using the correct one as one of the options.  (That's not easy, hey - it really challenges what you think you know!!  In reality we are all the Weakest Links LOL))  Then the players had to jointly decide which was the correct answer.

It was so much fun (well, to be fair I reckon the two bottles of wine helped also) that by the time we realised that Earth Hour was over, it was 12.45 a.m.  We hadn't used any electricity for over 5 hours!

A perfect evening - and enjoyed without any modern conveniences at all!  Why do we think we are so dependent on modern conveniences?  Why do we allow ourselves to be so dependent?  Have we forgotten that sitting round a candlelit table, playing a game with the family, can be fun.

Such a simple pleasure.  And one which we can all afford - for after all, all it is costing us is our time.