I was excited to receive a review copy of Recipes and Tips for Sustainable Living by Stacy Harris. Stacy has written several cookbooks and writes the Game & Garden blog.
I am always interested in ways an apartment dweller living in the city can adapt a sustainable lifestyle so I asked the author, Stacy Harris the following question:
“First, I would like to encourage apartment dwellers to find a local source of organic vegetables. This seems obvious, but many times, it is overlooked. Once you buy an abundance of seasonal vegetables, you can preserve (canning or drying) those vegetables and fruits then store them in cabinets or even under beds to eat in the off season. If your apartment has room for an extra freezer, you can even freeze your produce after blanching it.
Even better, if you have a small balcony or fire escape, much can be grown vertically in those small spaces. I would begin by planting things that you would regularly eat, like salad ingredients and herbs. Most climates will afford lettuce, cabbage, arugula, carrots, bunch onions, beets, and radishes. In the summer, a planting of cucumbers would be beneficial for making pickles as well as adding to salads. This can be replaced in the winter with other greens such as collards. Collards can be canned for use in the summer. A container of herbs such as basil, cilantro, parsley, and rosemary would give you sufficient flavor for much of your food. Keep in mind that cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green peas, and pole beans are fantastic vine plants for planting vertically.
If your apartment has a South facing window, there are small greenhouses that herbs and lettuces can be grown in as well.
I would like to encourage people to start where they are and to enjoy the process of growing or at least preserving local harvests for health and for preparation reasons. There is really nothing better than using organic fresh produce and organic meats. The flavors of these foods cannot be matched by that of corn fed beef and genetically altered vegetable products.
I encourage using heirloom seeds if you are able to plant in that seeds can be saved in times of need. Genetically altered seeds do not always produce another plant and if they do, they only produce once or twice more and take the genes of only one parent (they do not produce a plant that looks like the previous one). Enjoy.”
The first one on the list is the recipe for Refrigerator Dill Pickles, which I will cover in another post.I highly recommend Recipes and Tips for Sustainable Living by Stacy Harris. Whether you live in a spacious homestead or a small apartment, you will find this book offers something for everyone.
For easy ways to become more prepared, read my book:
For low-cost ways to prep:
Up to this point, I have only container gardened herbs and tomatoes, but my husband just finished building me a small raised garden plot and I am excited for the possibilities that holds for me in the spring. Thanks so much for the giveaway!
Our balcony goes a long way toward increasing our sustainability while living in an apartment: have a container garden, with tomatoes, peppers, herbs, strawberries & an artichoke plant (which has yet to produce!). We also have a worm composting bin out there for our fruit & veggie scraps, and we air-dry most of our laundry on a rack, which saves us about a hundred dollars a year in quarters! Finally, we brew our own kombucha using sun tea made… You guessed it: on the balcony!
I have a large garden, and I have canned for many years. This year I got serious about using my dehydrator, and I’m loving the dehydrated tomatoes and figs especially that I put up.
What a great blog. So glad to have happened upon it. Being an apartment dweller it can be difficult to find ideas of how to live as I would like to if I had a house. Thank you for the information.
We garden and have fruit trees and bushes. We can, freeze and/or dehydrated the crop. We share with others in our sphere of contacts as well.
Currently, we save our scraps to give to my parents pigs and chickens. In exchange, we get farm fresh eggs. I save veggie bits (celery and carrot ends, onion peels, etc) and make my own veggie stock. The leftover veggies can still be fed to animals so there is 0 waste!
I’ve just moved from Alberta to British Columbua Okanagan and am overwhelmed with the produce available. I taught myself to can already and look forward to acquiring more skills for sustainability! Please enter me in the draw for tomorrow!!!!