The perfect cup for coffee: a reuseable mug

 

Hot stuff to go

The City of Toronto is trying to deal with the 350,000,000 paper coffee cups used in Toronto each year. These cups are cause problems in the recycling stream because their lids are made of a different material. The city would like to get the paper cups into the recycling stream, but also give people incentives, such as a cash discount, when they we use our own mugs. When I was in university in the mid 90s, everyone carried and used a reuseable mug. Was I in my own little world, or what happened? 

These days I do carry a travel mug in my purse, and though occasionally I’m caught without it, I do use it a lot. A year or so ago I bought this stainless-steel mug from West Marine, a boating equipment store. I like it because it’s completely stainless, aside from the lid, so I don’t get the plasticy taste along with my cup of tea I’ve noted with cups lined with plastic. On the downside, though, it does not fit into cup holders. I tried clipping the mug to my laptop bag with a carabiner to keep it out of my purse, but I found it banged around a lot, and I thought I looked like I was trying too hard.

Here’s a tip: if you carry a reuseable mug, keep a small, absorbent cloth in your purse. That way when you’ve finished off your cup you can stuff in the cloth and toss the mug back in your purse without worrying about those last drops of tea ruining your wallet.

I’ve found a few other great mug designs, including this ceramic model and this fun take on the ubiquitous takeout coffee cup.

Have you tried carrying a reuseable travel mug? How does it work for you?

Local asparagus: a recipe for delicious!

I’ve sunk my teeth into that most anticipated event of spring: that first bunch of sautéed local asparagus. It will be official when I buy it direct from a farmers’ market, but that first clutch of asparagus stalks I bought from the grocery store did have the authentic earthy taste of home-grown goodness. My partner and I ate about half of it sauteed with a bit of butter, then the next night I tossed sections of asparagus stalks, chunks of zuchinni,grape tomatoes and mushrooms in olive oil, then threaded them onto skewers and grilled them within a couple of minutes on my super-hot ceramic grill. Perfection!

For a terrific guide to selecting and preparing asparagus, as well as some to dine for asparagus recipes, check out this article on Homemakers.com by our food editor, Andrew Chase.  

What’s your most anticipated fresh local food?

Green ideas for home decor

eBay’s design expert, Karl Lohnes, offered to share a few ideas on how to be eco-chic while saving money at the same time. Who knew reducing, reusing, and recycling could be tenets of home decor? Here are Karl’s tips for updating your space, with eBay’s help:

• Think about reusing an item for something that it wasn’t originally intended for. For example, an antique ice bucket can double as a chic counter-top compost container.
• Reduce waste by looking for ways to update or change a look rather than starting over from scratch. Adding colour to an indoor or outdoor table setting doesn’t mean that you have to throw away that plain white china. Simply look for ways to add colour with different accessories such as coloured drinking glasses or patterned cloth napkins.
• Save money and energy by purchasing lighting that requires little or no installation. Beautiful solar lanterns add light and a touch of whimsy to any patio or garden and don’t require any wiring.
• When shopping for specialty items, look for items that have multiple functions. When not serving brunch, use small egg cups to hold spreads and sides or fill them with bite-size snacks.
• Reuse unique packaging. Special-edition packaging and containers offer inexpensive and fun ways to add some unique elements to your dinner table. Visit eBay.ca to find old branded champagne buckets that can be used to hold serving utensils or even serve as a vase for a bouquet of flowers.

The key to an eco-chic makeover, according to Karl, is keeping it simple. He recommends using eBay.ca because it’s easy to find decor items that match any budget and style. Window shop by browsing through a range of categories – such Antiques and Home and Garden – or search for a specific item by keyword.

How do you refresh your decor? Is it total rehaul or gradual evolution?

Questions about growing roses?

Homemakers’ sister publication, Canadian Gardening, is hosting a live chat with rose expert Stephen Westcott-Gratton on May 26th at 1 pm EDT. To participate, click this link.

I have two rose plants in my new garden, and I’m not sure how to get them to bloom to their potential, so I’ll have to listen in on the conversation!

What doesn’t fit in the recycling bin

When I lived in Guelph, Ont. a few years ago, I enjoyed using a garbage system that seemed rather enlightened. They’ve since shut the system down due to the cost of operating it, I believe, but here’s how it worked. You bought two types of bags: big blue bags for “dry” garbage and small green bags for “wet” garbage. Dry was recyclables and wet was compostables. There were no black bags. The city would not take them. But they would take your wet bags and dry bags, and they provided a lot of employment for the people who, along with a bunch of machinery, would sift through the dry things, sorting recyclables and setting aside items for donation. I know that, at the end of the assembly line, there was still garbage. But it seemed like a thorough approach to waste diversion, and it was pretty easy on the citizen side of things.

Every city, town and hamlet has its own way of handling recyclables, and the rules about what can be recycled seem to change a lot. In the city of Toronto, where I live, I had the idea that we could recycle most everything. But I’m realizing that “everything” has a big asterisk next to it. The Toronto Star’s Trash Talk column sorts out recycling issues; writer Ellen Moorehouse recently reported that recyclers have trouble with containers that have a lid attached that’s made from a different material, so now I’m unscrewing metal lids from glass jars, plastic lids from juice cartons.

A few other surprises regarding what doesn’t belong in Toronto recycling bins:
- Paper bags with linings intended to keep food fresh, such as cookie bags
- Plastic plant pots. Some garden centres will take these back; according to this Star article, Loblaw even offers some financial incentives: If you bring in 25 plastic containers, you get a $5 coupon you can use toward the purchase of $50 or more in garden products.
- Plastic shopping bags can go in, as long as they don’t have drawstrings or metal handles (although you can cut these off). But milk bags, sandwich bags, bread bags, produce bags and dry cleaning bags don’t belong in your blue bin.
- Clear clamshell containers used to hold fruits and veggies. This one really surprised me because these have a recycling number on the bottom. I know some farmers will take these to put their fresh produce in, and my organic food delivery service will take these back.
- Paper coffee cups. Think of how many of these are purchased each day! I assume they can’t be recycled because of the wax lining on the inside.

Does your municipality recycle any of these items? Have you had any surprises about what you can’t recycle?

Slowing the spread of invasive species

Today is the UN’s International Day for Biological Diversity. Invasive species have hit us pretty hard in Canada, from the forest-decimating efforts of the mountain pine beetle, emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle to the the invasion of zebra mussels and the round gobi in the Great Lakes. These invaders don’t have natural predators, so they usually thrive in new locales, displacing the native population.

What can you do to help stop the spread of invasive species? Being careful of the materials you move from one area to another, particularly when on cottaging, camping and fishing trips, is key.
- Insects are easily transported on firewood, so don’t take wood from one area to another unless it has been kiln dried
- Insects and fungi can ride along with bulbs and greenery shipped overseas, so buy locally grown plants
- Pull out invasive plants, such as purple loosestrife and English Ivy, which displace native plants and disrupt entire ecosystems
- Try to grow native plants in your garden, and avoid any invasive species that tends to spread. For a directory of native and non-native plants in Canada, consult the Evergreen Native Plants database.
- Clean off the bottom of your boat before launching it a new waterway
- Gone fishing? Don’t use the round gobi as bait

For more background on invasive species, consult this guide from Hinterland Who’s Who.

Animal control: raccoons in the night

As the weather in Toronto got beautiful and warm this week, my neighbours and I all spent more time out of our houses and enjoyed backyard dining, and working in our gardens until well after dusk. As I stood washing a few dishes in my kitchen the other night, I heard crashing and banging on my roof. What the heck? Running outside with a flashlight, I confronted nature’s goon, the raccoon. A group of four, actually.

Now I’m keen to protect wildlife, but in my books raccoons don’t need a lot of help. According to Hinterland Who’s Who, their populations are thriving in urban areas. My neighbour says raccoons pulled off one of his roof vents so that they could set up house in his attic, causing water damage and who knows what else. (I don’t envy the inevitable work cleaning up raccoon feces, reapplying insulation and checking the electrical wiring for damage.) So when I saw the raccoons on my roof, I decided that I had to defend my territory! But all I could do was yell and toss a few pebbles, which seemed to amuse the coons more than anything else.

After some research, it appears I can either hire a company to trap a raccoon for me for about $300, or I can just try to make my home uninteresting to raccoons. Given that removal could be costly, not to mention somewhat traumatic for me and the coons, I will focus on ensuring openings to my home are securely attached and swathed in metal. The City of Toronto suggests leaving ammonia-soaked rags in the area, because raccoons don’t like the smell. They also suggest setting up a radio in the area tuned to an all-talk station, but I’m not sure my neighbours would appreciate that.

I think I need a backup plan, however, to encourage raccoons to move along. I think I’ll shop for a “super-soaker”-type water gun!

Have you had a run-in with wildlife? What did you do about it?

Choosing paint? Go zero VOC

While painting a few of the rooms in my new home last fall, I found that I would get a bit of a headache after working for a couple of hours, even though I bought low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint. VOCs are harmful pollutants that, According to HealthLink BC, “include a variety of chemicals that can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, nausea, dizziness, and skin problems.” They say that some VOCs are even suspected carcinogens. I found out that the red paint I was using smelled (and felt) worse than the light hue because it’s the colour component of the paint that contains the VOCs.

So although many manufacturers are phasing VOCs such as formaldehyde from their products, it’s a lot safer — and better for the environment – to look for VOC-free options on products such as paint. 

I’ve noticed that a few companies have released low-VOC  paints recently. Sico has a new Design line for interior use that’s VOC free, and CIL has a three types of low-VOC exterior wood stain, including some made with water-based acrylic latex.

By using products with VOCs indoors, we pollute our indoor air, particularly in new, tightly sealed homes. I wrote a story showing how to improve indoor air quality for Homemakers recently — you can see it here on Homemakers.com.

Have you ever painted a room and felt a little dizzy afterward? Have you tried a low VOC product?

Pesticide-free lawn care

I’ve come to know my lawn quite intimately lately. This is my first summer in the house my partner and I bought in October, and by the time we moved in, it wasn’t long before our small swath of lawn was beneath the snow. The lawn lives beneath the shade of a large tree most of the day, so it’s a bit patchy. That means it doesn’t defend itself well against dandelion invasions, but the last thing I’d do is spray something nasty on them. I’m glad that many Canadian municipalities have passed pesticide bans. To me, the lawn — and the garden and yard around it — are kind of my summer habitat. So it should be a healthy space for my partner, my friends and I, not to mention a lot of birds, squirrels, neighbourhood cats and other creatures.

But not so much dandelions. That’s why I was scooping them out of the ground with my Japanese Hori Hori knife, a perfect tool for the job with its long, curved blade and sharp serrated sides. I’ve also spent quite a bit of contemplative time turning over the soil in all of the little open patches of my lawn and sprinkling in a lot of grass seed. (I chose a variety that, at least according to the bag, does well without a lot of watering.) I seeded the entire lawn, working intensively in the problem areas. Apparently a thick, healthy lawn does a good job of preventing weeds.

In some areas of my small lawn, because of all of the shade, I’m letting pretty groundcover plants take over, such as periwinkle and Forget-Me-Not. I’m thinking of encouraging thyme to grow in some of the shady spots as well.

How do you take care of your lawn? Do you handle it manually, live and let live, or do you have some lawn-care tricks up your sleeve?

To read more about easy-on-the-earth gardening and lawn care, check out this article on Homemakers.com.

Local Folk Art: The Best “R”

I love seeing Canadian artists’ work, and I’ll admit to favouring things affordable and unique, such as pottery, jewelry, clothing and great stuff for my home. One of the people I love to visit is Penny Gorman. Penny reuses architectural salvage to make folk art, giving new life to old doorknobs, pieces of tin ceiling, wood moulding and lots of other materials. She creates fun pieces for the garden, the veranda, or as centre of attention indoors. Here are a couple of garden “whimsies” — cute little houses Penny made from square nails and bits of of wood and tin.

In a way, Penny makes art in a way that I think makes sense for regular goods. Valuable materials — whether tin ceiling from a Victorian home or the stainless steel from your fridge — can be reused. And surely reusing materials, even if it means reprocessing them in the case of pieces appliances and electronics, must be more efficient and economical (and yes, better for the earth) than extracting the raw materials from the ground.

Do you have a favourite local artist? How does s/he create?