100 mile diet...

[mantis]

As if being a vegan in TX isn't hard enough my wife now wants to do the "100 Mile Diet"

http://100milediet.org/

Which comes down to only being able to eat foods that are grown/produced within 100 miles of your house.

What really is going to make this difficult is that since we are so close to the Gulf of Mexico half of our 100 miles is water... that'd be cool if we ate seafood, but since we are vegan, nope.

I guess I should have seen this coming. In the last month we have converted to 100% organic gardening, started recycling everything possible, and compost whatever we can't recycle. Oh yeah, last weekend we swapped out 75 incandescent light bulbs in the house for the new curly fluorescent bulbs.

I'm guessing this will soon pass when my wife realizes that she has to grind her own flour.

[Iowaboo]

What really is going to make this difficult is that since we are so close to the Gulf of Mexico half of our 100 miles is water... that'd be cool if we ate seafood, but since we are vegan, nope.

Kelp

[Iowaboo]

Also, if someone has an organic lawn, everyone can share in the grass harvest.

I even hear people smoke grass.

[Roy]

As if being a vegan in TX isn't hard enough my wife now wants to do the "100 Mile Diet"

http://100milediet.org/

Which comes down to only being able to eat foods that are grown/produced within 100 miles of your house.

What really is going to make this difficult is that since we are so close to the Gulf of Mexico half of our 100 miles is water... that'd be cool if we ate seafood, but since we are vegan, nope.

I guess I should have seen this coming. In the last month we have converted to 100% organic gardening, started recycling everything possible, and compost whatever we can't recycle. Oh yeah, last weekend we swapped out 75 incandescent light bulbs in the house for the new curly fluorescent bulbs.

I'm guessing this will soon pass when my wife realizes that she has to grind her own flour.

Tell your wife I'm proud of her. My sister, who live in the northern suburbs of Houston, has been a vegan for about 5 years now. She has never looked better.

As far as fluorescent lighting, when I built my house 29 years ago, I had ceiling fluorescent lighting put in all the rooms. As the new fluorescent light bulbs became available for lamps, I changed all of those also.

[needmore]

I don't know if anyone else here has an electric attic fan or a hot attic but I opted for $300 solar one 2 years ago and it is amazing how much cooler the area near the attic access now stays. The electric version when considering fan, wiring, operation, would have cost the same in less than 1 year, so win, win, win...

[Iowaboo]

The problem I have with vegetables and fruits is there lack of calories. The only way I would eat mostly that stuff, is if I was into calorie restriction. So I continue with moderate amount junkfood as my body adapts to a more simple life. Right now I eat good amounts of turnips, swiss chard, apples, and tomatoes that I've raised. Swiss Chard is highly productive and my skin may be turning green.

My nephew in my signature photo is really into greens. The other day he was here and was messing around with a plant and asked if he could eat it. I said no. The plant in question was ragweed.

[mike best]

Read the package and see if it has a mercury warning. I believe the old and new type fluorescent bulbs have mercury in them, don't they? And if you drop it in say the kids room, or any in the house, then that area is contaminated for.... 1 more years if it is not cleaned good? They also get broke in the land field and pollute ground water with mercury.

[Roy]

Read the package and see if it has a mercury warning. I believe the old and new type fluorescent bulbs have mercury in them, don't they? And if you drop it in say the kids room, or any in the house, then that area is contaminated for.... 1 more years if it is not cleaned good? They also get broke in the land field and pollute ground water with mercury.

Fluorescent lamps contain mercury and cannot be put in the garbage or dumpster. They must be recycled.

I didn't realize that they had mercury in them. I've never had a long tube type to break, but I've has several of the spiral ones to crack.

When the long tube type burn out, I put them out by the street by my regular garbage and the garbage truck picks them up. I don't think they do any recycling of the bulbs. Wonder what all the businesses do with their used bulbs? Probably just like me; they go in the trash.

As a kid, we used to play with mercury and carry it around with us. It's a wonder we aren't all dead.

[magsc21]

Mantis,
If she hasn't read it yet, you should buy her the new Barbara Kingsolver book. http://animalvegetablemiracle.org/

I just finished it, and it's pretty interesting. It's a bit motivational, but it also lets you know just how much work goes into a diet like this. It's actually a real page turner, especially if you consider it's a whole book about food. I highly recommend it. It was enough to get me off my duff and haul my 2 kids to the farmer's market in the heat...

[mantis]

Tell your wife I'm proud of her. My sister, who live in the northern suburbs of Houston, has been a vegan for about 5 years now. She has never looked better.

Roy, we've both been vegan for over 15 years now, and are also raising our two boys vegan.


Yeah, the new curly bulbs have mercury in them, but I'm not planning on eating them. I will be careful when disposing them.


magsc21, thanks for the book recommendation. I'll pass it on to my wife. She already hits up a couple of the local farmer's markets... she is a stay at home mom, so they are "field trips" that her and the boys go on during the week. My 3 year old loves them. He gets to pick out all his own strawberries

[mantis]

My only real problem with the 100 mile diet? No coffee.
<img src="http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f361/ ... led222.jpg">

[foxd]

I definitely need coffee in the morning. I hadn't realized just how strong my morning coffee was at home until I was out of town and had to depend on Starbucks for strong coffee. I found that a half dozen shots of espresso was about right for the morning coffee.

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

Can anyone say cacao?

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

Mantis said:

Roy, we've both been vegan for over 15 years now, and are also raising our two boys vegan.

Suddenly, the aggression all makes sense.