Giving up coffee and bananas
All right, as part of my effort to reduce my emissions to 7% of the U.S. average, I am “voluntarily” giving up coffee and bananas. I put that in quotation marks because I always thought someone would have to pry my coffee cup from my cold dead hand to make me give it up. ;-) Bananas will be the easy part; they may be my second favorite fruit but I’ve all ready reduced the amount I eat significantly in my effort to reduce my footprint. Mostly, I but them when my brother is hanging out here because he loves them and they’re healthy. Being a college freshman his diet isn’t the best in the world. Pizza and Mickey D’s from what I understand. But he loves those bananas –I’ve seen him eat a whole cluster in a day. (And then wonder a loud why his stomach hurts.) So I’ve had a tendency to keep them on hand when he’s here to help him improve his diet. But I digress. The point is –there won’t be any more bananas in this house, unless I grow them myself or get them locally. Since neither is currently possible, that’s out of the question.
Now for coffee. Ouch. I love coffee. It’s one of my treats. There is nothing I love quite so much as a good cup of coffee. Especially first thing in the morning, and especially on chilly winter mornings. But no more. I’ve giving it up to help the planet. Now, before anyone warns me about going cold turkey, relax. I know better than that. Starting tomorrow I’m going down by half the amount I normally drink. I’ll do that for about two weeks, then reduce that still further to every other day. And then nothing, nada. By the second week in June I intend to be completely done with coffee. I’ll probably be grumpy over the next few weeks as I face withdrawl, but that’s nothing compared with climate change.
I hope. Wish me luck.
And don’t anyone dare tell me I should give up chocolate. Oh the horror! Chocolate is a health food, you know.
Labels: changes, climate change, eating locally, food, global warming, sustainable living, voluntary simplicity
posted by RAS at 8:30 PM
2 Comments:
You don't have to give up bananas; you can grow them with your other garden produce, though they'll need more work.
First, I'm ignorant of the weather in Alabama. Does it ever snow there? Is frost common? If you get either, then you'll have to take your banana trees in for a least a few months a year. But, that won't be so hard; there are miniature banana trees you can grow.
I'd recommend the high-color mini, and the "vanilla" banana plants. Both are fairly small trees, with the high-color mini being as small as 4 feet tall when mature (and grown in a container). They bear smaller bananas though. The "vanilla" banana tastes like its name.
Relatedly, you can also buy miniature fruit trees that don't even get 3 feet tall (again, in a container). You can get lemons, limes, oranges, pear, pomegranate, and apricot. Also, miniature almond and blueberry plants can be had. And yes, the fruits are edible.
It might even be possible to grow, roast, and grind your own coffee beans, but I'm not sure. It might be worth a try.
Just browsing through your blog for ideas. For other readers, thought I would mention that there are a lot of ways to make coffee or coffee-like substances. Chicory is a weed that grows just about anywhere, and the roots can be dug up, dried, and ground to make a pretty decent coffee.
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