Since there's not much going on outside, let's spend today in the kitchen, shall we? Self-sufficiency is about more than having a vegetable garden or a few backyard chickens. Think about the flow of energy, resources, and materials through your home. There's what comes in: energy, durable goods, disposable/consumable items, water, and the resources/energy/water required to deliver those items to your family. Then there's the outflow: garbage, recycling (in many ways just another form of garbage), runoff, human and animal waste, to name a few. Living sustainably, in my mind, means trying to minimize that flow as much as possible.
Let's take a carton of yogurt as our example. First, there are the ingredients that go into the yogurt - milk, "cultures" (bacterial organisms that make your yogurt), maybe some pectin. That's if you're buying a plain, organic yogurt without additives. You're getting a whole lot more for your buck if you consider the ingredients list on a popular brand, which comes in convenient individual pouches (look, ma! no spoon!) and marketed as "healthy": milk, milk solids non fat, sugar, strawberry juice (min. 2.5%), pear juice, thickener (1442, pectin, agar), halal gelatine, mineral calcium (341), natural colour (cochineal), natural flavour, acidity regulators (sodium citrate, malic acid), live yogurt cultures (Acidophilus and Bifidus).
In addition to ingredients, there's packaging (more for single serve than quart containers), the energy required to make the product and its packaging, transportation (of ingredients and packaging to the manufacturing facility, of the product to your grocery store - a more convoluted path than you might imagine - and of the product from store to home), and water (what goes in the food as well as what is needed to make the food and the packaging). Wait, I forgot about the production of the ingredients as well - say, the environmental impact of farming practices used to make the milk, the treatment of the animals used in production, and what happens to those animals when they reach the end of their useful life.
As you can see, even for something like yogurt it can get complicated very fast, and there are many unknowns that we could never get the answers to, even if we had the time to research every item in the pantry. There's no pat answer to eating sustainably - each individual food must be considered and the relative factors weighed - organic vs. local vs. minimal packaging. Don't be overwhelmed.. As with any change in lifestyle, minimizing your impact can, and probably should, be taken on in baby steps. Small manageable goals are less overwhelming than big ones, and they do add up.
A good place to start is to whittle away at the processed foods in your pantry and start making more things from scratch. Maybe pick one or two things. This is going to require an investment of time and money - they call them convenience foods for a reason, after all - but I am going to argue that it is time and money well spent. Of all the developed countries surveyed, Americans spend the least time per day preparing food - a mere thirty minutes(1). How much time do you spend per day watching television? How about watching cooking shows? As for money, it seems that the more hands that are involved in preparing our foods, the less they cost. How can that be? Processed foods contain a high percentage of corn in all of its forms, a commodity which is heavily subsidized by the government(2). And I am going to make an argument here that while food seems expensive these days, it really isn't breaking those of us who aren't already living in poverty or on the edge of it. Americans as a whole spend less than ten percent of total disposable income on food, compared to 25 percent or more decades ago(3). Furthermore, I am not so convinced that cheap food is such a bargain when you consider the cost in health care and loss of productivity that comes with eating too many calories and not enough nutrients. Sometimes, as in our yogurt example, the cost of the final product at the grocery store (if you are buying a comparable in quality brand) is more than what you will spend on the ingredients.
Making your own yogurt can be a fun project and will build your confidence in your ability to live sustainably. You can control what goes into it, how much sweetener to add, and where your ingredients are sourced from. Packaging is cut down by reusing a container for subsequent batches. It will also forever secure your creds as an accomplished cook with your friends and family. It sounds intimidating at first, but as long as you carefully follow safe food handling practices (remember that everything your mixture touches after scalding needs to be very clean but not necessarily sterile) you will be successful. I haven't died yet, anyway.
What you will need:
Candy thermometer
Medium saucepan
Quart mason jar, washed out quart yogurt carton, etc.
Big bowl
Yogurt incubator - the only specialized item needed. These can be bought inexpensively, or if you luck out like I did, you can get one on the cheap at a yard sale.
1/3-1/2 cup nonfat powdered milk
3 1/2 cups milk
Ice
1/4 cup yogurt with live active cultures
Up to two tablespoons of sugar, honey, or other sweetener if desired
1. Pour milk into the saucepan and whisk in 1/3 to 1/2 cup powdered nonfat milk. The more dry milk powder you use, the thicker the final product will be.
2. Place your candy thermometer in the mixture, securing to the side of the pan so that it does not touch the bottom (otherwise it will read too hot). Heat to 185 - 195 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring frequently. I used to do this part in the microwave, but the taking out, stirring and checking was too time consuming, plus I had to worry about the glass cracking when I did the next step.
2. Fill a large bowl with ice water and place your pan of milk into it (or use another bowl to cool it faster. Metal works best as it conducts heat rapidly). Stir frequently until it cools to 115F. You don't need to use the ice water bath, but it makes things proceed much more quickly.
3. Now that your milk is at the proper temperature to support life (and has been sterilized so that any pre-existing critters will not grow instead), put your yogurt into the mason jar or whatever other container you are using and add just a little of the milk. Whisk or stir well until smooth. Then add the rest of the milk and stir well. If you want to add sweetener, this is the time, but no more than 2 tablespoons.
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| Make sure you use yogurt with live, active cultures. |
4. Place your yogurt mixture into the incubator and cover. Allow to sit 6-12 hours; the longer you allow your culture to grow, the firmer and more tart your yogurt will be.
5. If you want to add more sweetener or flavoring, now is the time. Personally, I prefer it as is. Oh, and if you want to reserve some culture for the next batch, remove it and set aside in the refrigerator before adding any flavorings. You can use it for up to ten days. Theoretically, you could keep this up indefinitely, but I prefer to start with a fresh store-bought yogurt after a few generations.
And that's it! Making yogurt really isn't hard or time-consuming. The biggest challenge is timing it so that you are home when you want to finish incubating. I generally go the whole 12 hours so this is not a problem for me most of the time.
Happy culturing!
